WASHINGTON–As appellate court nominees go, Susan Carney doesn’t have the typical resume. She hasn’t questioned many witnesses, tried many cases, or starred in many courtroom dramas. For more than 12 years, Carney has worked as a top lawyer for Yale University, where she is now second-in-command in the school’s general counsel’s office. “It’s a nonstandard […]

Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2nd District, said the Obama Administration’s decision not to release the photos taken of the deceased Osama bin Laden was the “right one.” He made that statement after getting a glimpse of the pictures himself. The congressman, who sits on the House Armed Services Committee, was among those invited to see the […]

Expect a lot of talk from Connecticut’s congressional delegation this coming week about Medicare. But the chatter might focus more on the House Republican plan to privatize the program, rather than the threats to Medicare’s long-term solvency. The issue takes on heightened relevance today, because the Medicare trustees issued a new report concluding that the […]

The Senate will vote next week on Susan L. Carney’s nomination to serve on the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals. Debate is set to begin at 10 Tuesday, with a vote scheduled for noon. Carney is currently deputy general counsel at Yale University. Her nomination was first submitted by the White House a year ago, […]

Washington’s 2012 budget fight moved from the realm of ideas and outlines to specifics on Wednesday night. House Republicans released their so-called “allocations,” the amount of money each Appropriations subcommittee will get to divvy up for various programs as they begin drafting the 2012 spending bills. The spending caps set out on Wednesday aim to […]

WASHINGTON–In an early skirmish in what is likely to be a tough fight for the 2012 Democratic U.S. Senate nomination, Susan Bysiewicz and Chris Murphy squared off this week over the war in Afghanistan–an issue on which their differences appear to be largely a matter of degree. Bysiewicz opened a debate on this hot-button issue–which […]

Sen. Joseph Lieberman will get a glimpse of the photos of a deceased Osama bin Laden, according to this Politico report. The Connecticut independent, who sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee, was among those invited by the Obama Administration to look at the pictures.

WASHINGTON–If Sen. Richard Blumenthal was waiting for the right moment to strut his Attorney General stuff, a pair of high-profile Judiciary Committee hearings this week gave him a tailor-made walkway. Take the first setting: a Senate hearing room jammed with high-tech lobbyists in high-priced suits, all clicking away at their BlackBerries and iPhones. The subject: […]

WASHINGTON–Leave it to Congress to churn out a back-from-the-dead thriller, with a ghostly jet engine in the lead role. The House Armed Services Committee voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to allow continued production of the alternate engine for the Joint Strike Fighter. The committee’s vote comes less than a month after Congress officially killed the engine program–and […]

Sen. Joseph Lieberman seems to revel in forging an odd-bedfellows alliances and taking stances that burnish his maverick image. So perhaps it’s no surprise that he is now teaming up with one of Congress’s biggest Tea Party stars, Marco Rubio. Lieberman, a Democrat-turned-independent, and Rubio, a Republican from Florida, will hold a joint press conference […]

Last month, Rep. Rosa DeLauro had her sights trained on a state-level proposal requiring businesses to offer paid sick days. This week, she’s making a federal push on that issue. The 3rd District Democrat plans to introduce a bill in Congress this week that would require most employers to let their workers earn paid sick […]

Connecticut would lose billions of dollars in federal health funds for the poor under the House Republican budget blueprint, according to a new analysis by the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser researchers examined the GOP plan’s impact nationally and at the state level, concluding that it would likely push millions of low-income patients off the […]

WASHINGTON–Connecticut won a small fraction of the high-speed rail funds it had sought from Washington, snagging $30 million in federal money for the New Haven-to-Springfield high-speed rail project. Gov. Dannel Malloy lauded the decision, announced Monday by Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. But the $30 million in federal aid falls far short of $227 million that […]

WASHINGTON–University of Connecticut officials are retooling their Washington lobbying strategy, drafting a new playbook that’s more defense than offense. Until recently, the university has focused on snagging earmarks, along with building support for increased research funding. But now, earmarks are banned. And other staple programs that UConn and similar educational institutions have relied on–from Pell […]

WASHINGTON–Christie Hager had a perch in the ultimate ivory tower last spring, teaching public health at Harvard University after a grueling, exciting stint at the center of Massachusetts’s health care reform debate. But one month after President Barack Obama signed the sweeping federal health reform bill, modeled in part after the Massachusetts law, Hager was […]