Two days after an unprecedented court hearing began what could be a years-long bankruptcy-like process for Puerto Rico, members of the Hartford region’s Puerto Rican community described their struggles and concerns to a visiting Sen. Richard Blumenthal.
Kyle Constable
Posted inPolitics
Homelessness declines in Connecticut for third year in a row
The state’s homeless population declined by 13 percent over the past year, a study released by the Connecticut Coalition to End Homelessness found. Homelessness in Connecticut now has declined for three straight years.
Posted inHealth
Access Health extends insurers’ deadline to decide on 2018
“We are hoping this extra time will allow the carriers to resolve any issues about working in our exchange,” Access Health CEO Jim Wadleigh said.
Posted inPolitics
Trump turns Coast Guard address into a rally
Updated at 3:15 p.m.
NEW LONDON — It began as a traditional commencement address, but by the end of his speech, President Donald Trump had turned it into a combination rally and commentary on his present adversity. “No politician in history – and I say this with great surety – has been treated worse or more unfairly,” Trump said.
Posted inPolitics
Lawmakers make late push for more police accountability
A handful of Democratic legislators are making a last-ditch effort to advance a bill that would expedite investigations into police misconduct and strip accused officers of pay while inquiries are underway.
Posted inEducation, Money, Politics
Malloy would cut local aid deeply to offset eroding CT tax receipts
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy has recommended more than $700 million in cuts to municipal aid to help compensate for a $1.5 billion projected decline in state income tax receipts over the next two years.
Posted inPolitics
Barrios granted two-year stay, but his case is ‘an exception’
Federal immigration officials have granted Luis Barrios, a Guatemalan native who has spent decades living in Derby, a two-year stay of his deportation, giving him ample time to formally pursue asylum in the United States. His reprieve may prove to be an outlier under new Trump administration deportation policies, however.
Posted inPolitics
Blumenthal wants Trump-Comey tapes subpoenaed, if they exist
“The irony is that presidents in the past have taped conversations – Nixon among them – and I have raised the possibility that we might have another Supreme Court case like United States vs. Nixon, which resulted in those tapes being made available and public,” Blumenthal said.
Posted inEducation
Another day, another flare-up between Ojakian, CSCU faculty
After completing a whirlwind town-hall tour of all 17 campuses in the Connecticut State Colleges and Universities system, Mark Ojakian, the system’s president, was greeted by unwelcoming faculty in Hartford Thursday when he returned to meet with his governing board.
Posted inPolitics
Trump attacks ‘Richie’ Blumenthal on Twitter over Comey
Updated at 12:29 p.m. President Trump used Twitter on Wednesday to dismiss a Democratic critic of his firing of the FBI director, resurrecting U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal’s misstatements about service in Vietnam. He called the senator ‘Richie.’
Posted inEducation
Amidst investigations, vo-tech schools chief to resign
Nivea L. Torres, superintendent of Connecticut’s vocational-technical school system, is resigning from that post on May 1 amidst at least four investigations, the state Department of Education announced Monday.
Posted inPolitics
Harris, weighing run for governor, quits as commissioner
Jonathan Harris is stepping down as commissioner of the Department of Consumer Protection “to pursue other professional opportunities,” Gov. Dannel P. Malloy announced Monday. Harris is one of the Democrats looking at a run for governor in 2018.
Posted inEducation
State auditors looking into vo-tech system contracts
Connecticut’s state auditors have joined other state and federal officials in investigating contracts between the state’s vocational-technical school system and two Rocky Hill-based marking and consulting firms.
Posted inEducation
Growing wait list for child care subsidies taking its toll
Thousands of low-income families hoping to receive child care subsidies are stuck in limbo as a wait list for the program swells. The number could grow to 5,000 families by this summer, advocates say.
Posted inEducation
State watchdog launches investigation into vo-tech contracts
The watchdog board that oversees state contracts will investigate whether Connecticut’s vocational-technical school system improperly spent millions of dollars over the past three years on marketing and consulting contracts with two Rocky Hill-based firms.
