Nearly a week after Gov. Dannel P. Malloy announced his intention to use terrorist watch lists to screen gun buyers, it remains unclear how his executive powers would allow him to unilaterally alter criteria set by state law. He has not sought an opinion from the attorney general.
Mark Pazniokas
Mark is the Capitol Bureau Chief and a co-founder of CT Mirror. He is a frequent contributor to WNPR, a former state politics writer for The Hartford Courant and Journal Inquirer, and contributor for The New York Times.
Posted inMoney, Politics
Malloy says ‘lockbox’ opponents run risk in 2016
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said Tuesday he will make a second try next year for a constitutional “lockbox” to safeguard transportation revenue and vowed to campaign against any legislator who opposes it should the measure fail.
Posted inNews
Terry Backer, legislator and Soundkeeper, dies at 61
Rep. Terry Backer, D-Stratford, a burly lobsterman who brought a crusade to improve Long Island Sound to the General Assembly and helped Robert F. Kennedy Jr. promote the national “Waterkeeper” movement, died Monday night from complications of brain cancer. He was 61.
Posted inPolitics
A defense of U.S. Muslims as victims of jihadist terror
An Asian woman talked about the imprisonment of Americans of Japanese descent for three years during World War II. Noting the last night of Hanukkah, a rabbi recalled those times and places where Jews could only light their menorahs in secret. A gay man, now proudly out, talked about the days of being bullied as “the other.” They came to support America’s newest “other,” the Muslims.
Posted inPolitics
N.J. already using U.S. watch lists to screen gun buyers
The New Jersey State Police said Friday they have used the U.S. government’s terrorist watch lists to screen gun purchasers for two years under a law signed by Gov. Chris Christie, providing a model for how Connecticut might access the same data.
Posted inPolitics
Connecticut asks for ‘no-fly’ list to screen gun buyers
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy jumped into a national debate over gun control, civil liberties and terrorism Thursday by revealing he has asked the White House for access to the U.S. government’s “no-fly” list and other terrorism watch lists to screen firearms purchases in Connecticut.
Posted inPolitics, Transportation
Malloy calls ‘lockbox’ vote a milestone, not a setback
What do you say when your pitch for a constitutional amendment protecting transportation revenue is strongly endorsed by the General Assembly, just not by the three-fourths margin necessary to place it before the voters in 2016? “This is a victory,” Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said Wednesday. “It’s not a hundred-percent victory, but it’s a victory.”
Posted inPolitics
GOP tries to force a labor reform that eluded Malloy
The legislature’s Republican minority tried and failed in special session Tuesday to make the rules change sought four years ago by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy as a way to make legislators take greater responsibility for labor contracts.
Posted inMoney, Politics, Transportation
House takes transportation ‘lockbox’ off fast track
House Republicans blocked the General Assembly on Tuesday from reaching the super majority necessary to seek a referendum vote next year on a state constitutional amendment to create a legal ‘lockbox’ to protect future transportation funding.
Posted inPolitics
Malloy steps into spotlight, and line of fire, at DGA
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, an outspoken Democrat on the hot-button issues of immigration, gun control and gay marriage, began a one-year term Monday as the voice of the Democratic Governors Association — and the target of the Republican Governors Association.
Posted inMoney
Connecticut’s courtship of GE goes beyond taxes
General Electric’s threat to leave Connecticut has morphed from a narrow complaint over taxes to a broader conversation with Gov. Dannel P. Malloy about economic stability in a state with a sputtering cash flow, high per-capita debt and worsening pension obligations.
Posted inNews
An aging Connecticut ups demand for rental housing
An annual assessment of housing affordability in Connecticut finds market forces blunting the impact of the more than 7,000 affordable apartments developed with state aid during Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s 4½ years in office.
Posted inJustice, Politics
Assistant AG: Democrats trying to ‘stonewall’
A lawyer defending the Connecticut Democratic Party against an investigative subpoena essentially told a judge Tuesday it’s nobody’s business how the party came to solicit state contractors, regulated industries and beneficiaries of state for campaign contributions in the 2014 campaign cycle.
Posted inEducation, Justice
Court affirms teacher misconduct records are public
The state Supreme Court affirmed Monday that records of alleged misconduct by teachers at public schools and universities in Connecticut are public records subject to release under the Freedom of Information Act.
Posted inPolitics
Conservatives confront Blumenthal on Syrian refugees
U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal came to Hartford to talk about labeling standards for genetically modified fish, but he left Monday with a petition opposing the resettlement of Syrian refugees in Connecticut.