Sen. Richard Blumenthal has joined the ranks of self-funded candidates–those who use their own money for all or a substantial portion of their campaign treasury–albeit unintentionally, according to his latest campaign finance report. Blumenthal lent his 2010 Senate campaign slightly more than $2.5 million, of some $8 million spent. He was forced to reclassify most […]

One of the big unknowns about the federal health reform law is how much is will really do to control costs. Some Democrats say the law includes tough provisions that will “bend the cost curve,” while others say it didn’t go far enough to really tackle spiraling health care costs in the U.S. That’s the […]

WASHINGTON–With gas prices surging past $4 a gallon in Connecticut, members of Congress are in a high-speed race to address their constituents’ pain at the pump. Sen. Richard Blumenthal is calling for a wide-ranging federal investigation of the oil and gas industry, raising questions about market manipulation and price gouging. Rep. Joe Courtney is urging […]

The Obama Administration has given a 22-year-old New Britain student a temporary reprieve from his impending deportation. The Department of Homeland Security announced today that Mariano Cardoso, who is a month from finishing his degree at Capitol Community College, will be granted a temporary stay of removal. Cardoso’s parents entered the United States illegally from […]

With gas prices hitting record levels in advance of the summer vacation season, many lawmakers are ratcheting up their rhetoric on the issue. On Friday, Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2nd District, took aim at Wall Street speculators who he said have unfairly driven up prices, creating spikes that are not connected to oil supply or other […]

Pratt & Whitney officially has a monopoly on one of the largest defense contracts ever-building engines for the Joint Strike Fighter plane. The Department of Defense today officially announced that it had terminated its contract with General Electric and Rolls Royce, which had been collaborating on an alternate engine for the JSF. GE and Rolls […]

WASHINGTON–Frank A. Corvino, the CEO of Greenwich Hospital, is still reeling from the fiscal punch from Hartford, in the form of a proposed new tax on hospitals across Connecticut. Now, he’s girding for a second hit from Washington, where federal Medicare officials are fine-tuning a cut to hospital reimbursement rates. The two blows, Corvino and […]

WASHINGTON–She loaned her campaign nearly $30,000 for a poll. He raked in more than $100,000 in PAC money. She took in a $7,500 donation from a wealthy Philadelphia philanthropist. He got $1,000 from one of the Democrats vying to succeed him. And both devoted campaign cash to advertising–even though Election Day is 1 ½ years […]

For the first three months of the 112th Congress, freshman Sen. Richard Blumenthal and his staff have had to work out of a dim, no-frills temporary office in the basement of the Senate’s Dirksen Building. But today, the Democratic lawmaker moved up-literally. Blumenthal’s staff spent Wednesday moving and today settling in to spacious new digs […]

WASHINGTON–The decibel level in the debate over raising the nation’s debt limit got a lot higher this week, after Standard & Poor’s rating agency lowered America’s credit outlook and the markets rippled in reaction. Connecticut lawmakers, with one exception, say that Congress should vote to hike the debt ceiling, with no strings attached. They’re not […]

House Republicans are willing to shell out as much as $500,000 to defend the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act, a federal law that denies key benefits to same-sex couples by defining marriage as between a man and a woman. The law, known as DOMA, is being challenged by a Connecticut couple and other […]

Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2nd District, has renewed his push to fix a quirk in the Medicare rules–one that has cost elderly patients thousands of dollars, not to mention considerable stress. Courtney’s efforts began after he was approached by a constituent, Nancy Renshaw, who got stuck with a nearly $10,000 nursing home bill for her father-in-law […]