Michael Regan

Everyone knows population–and political power–has shifted from the Northeast and Midwest to the West and South, but an interactive map by The New York Times offers a vivid visual demonstration. It’s based on Census figures from 1920 to the numbers just released Tuesday. The map details changes in Congressional apportionment, but that’s a good stand-in […]

That Connecticut’s all-Democrat Congressional delegation weathered the Republican storm in November certainly relieved the incumbents, but they’re gloating about it down in Texas. Richard Dunham of the Houston Chronicle’s Washington bureau notes that before the conservative wave, “Texas was a large state with a small footprint on Capitol Hill.” Connecticut, on the other hand, had […]

Though hardly a groundswell, the eight Republican votes for repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell in the Senate Saturday was more than even its supporters expected. At FiveThirtyEight.com, Nate Silver notes that seven of those eight represent states that Barack Obama carried in 2008. Given the widespread support for repeal, Silver says, “Republicans seemed to […]

PolitiFact, the Pulitzer Prize-winning fact-checking website, reviewed hundreds of campaign claims, negative ads, blogs, email rumors and other political statements during the 2010 election cycle, and found more falsehoods and half-truths than veracity. But the biggest lie of all, according to editors, reporters and readers of the site, was characterization of the health care reform […]

Former Rep. Rob Simmons is still smarting at what he sees as his being abandoned by the National Republican Senatorial Committee in favor of the well-heeled Linda McMahon, Jeremy Jacobs says at the National Journal. Simmons entered the 2010 U.S. Senate race early, and was highly touted as a candidate who could beat incumbent Chris […]

The taxes are too high and the temperature is too low. Sure, Connecticut “has some terrific places to live,” but not enough to keep it off a retirement website’s list of the 10 worst states in which to retire. TopRetirements.com says it weighed 13 factors, from taxes and climate to cultural activities and the likelihood […]

Do Americans support President Obama’s deal to extend the Bush tax cuts, even for the wealthiest taxpayers? The answer depends on how you ask the question, Jon Terbush says at TPM. Two polls released last week said that majorities of Americans–two-thirds in one case–support extending all the Bush tax cuts. Those polls posed the Obama […]

For a decade after the egg industry agreed to be subject to federal regulation and inspection, the government failed to implement and enforce rules–in part because of Bush Administration antipathy to government oversight of business and in part because of rivalries and dysfunction at the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration, […]

More than half of Americans think they’re worse off than they were when President Barack Obama took office, a new Bloomberg National Poll says. The survey found that that 51 percent think their situation has deteriorated, 35 percent say they’re doing better, and the rest aren’t sure. It could be worse, though, Bloomberg’s Rich Miller […]

Connecticut and the rest of the New England states rank near the top in term of the health of their residents, a new survey says. The survey by the United Health Foundation measures residents of each state on factors that can predict future health, such as smoking and exercising, as well as statistics on such […]

Now that his son is out of office, former President George H. W. Bush’s approval rating has rebounded dramatically, a new Gallup Poll says. The 41st president’s rating soared to 76 percent in 1999, but dropped by 20 percentage points in the later years of George W. Bush’s term. The elder Bush is back up […]

A new source for health news debuts today with the launch of a website by the non-profit Connecticut Health Investigative Team. Founded by two longtime Hartford Courant journalists, Lynne DeLucia and Lisa Chedekel, C-HIT says it is “dedicated to producing original, responsible, in-depth journalism on issues of health and safety, in Connecticut and the surrounding […]

With the failure of Congress to extend unemployment benefits, some 2 million jobless people are out of luck nationwide–but Connecticut will be among the least affected states, 27/7WallSt.com reports. All but a few of the state’s unemployed will be able to collect benefits for at least 20 more weeks. Among the hardest-hit states is California, […]

Sen. Joe Lieberman is being credited–or blamed–for getting Amazon to stop hosting the Wikileaks operation, including its controversial cache of diplomatic cables. After hacker attacks on its own sites earlier this week, Wikileaks moved its material to Amazon which, as TPM.com notes, does not screen or pre-approve content. Staffers from the Senate Homeland Security Committee, […]

Sen. Joe Lieberman and former Rep. Chris Shays are expected to take part in the launch next month of a new national group dedicated to restoring civility in politics, Huffington Post’s Howard Fineman reports. The message of the group, called “No Labels,” is is that the nation is facing a “crisis of governance.” “We are […]