New Britain – President Barack Obama told a pep-rally audience of students and politicians from across New England that his campaign for a $10.10 minimum wage was central to a broader call to address economic inequality in the U.S.
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
Obama arrives as Connecticut embraces his message, not him
President Obama’s visit here Wednesday comes a day after his job approval in the state hit an all-time low, but Connecticut still is a blue state well-primed to applaud his call for a higher minimum wage, an issue Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and other Democrats see as a boost to their re-election campaigns in 2014.
Posted inPolitics
Malloy, Foley tied in first Connecticut poll of 2014
The first public poll of 2014 is much like the last one of 2013: Gov. Dannel P. Malloy is in a dead heat with Tom Foley, the Republican he narrowly defeated in 2010, according to a survey released Tuesday by Quinnipiac University. Foley leads the five-candidate field for the GOP nomination.
Posted inNews
Connecticut’s getting a new area code: 959
With the 860 area code of northern Connecticut expected to exhaust its supply of unassigned numbers by year’s end, the state will be getting another area code this summer: 959. The 959 area code will be used in 860 area as an “overlay,” meaning that both area codes will be found in the same geographic area, the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority announced Monday.
Posted inHealth, Politics
Yale class-action lawsuit seeks redress for Vietnam vets
Conley Monk was given a choice as a 21-year-old Marine lance corporal struggling with drugs and nightmares after combat in Vietnam: Accept a less-than-honorable discharge or face an indefinite stay in a base brig on Okinawa. He took the ticket home. Now 65 and recently diagnosed with PTSD, he is lead plaintiff in a suit filed Monday on behalf of Vietnam veterans trying to upgrade their discharge status.
Posted inEnergy & Environment, Politics
Tara Cook-Littman: GMO activist becomes candidate
No one quite captured the zeitgeist at the State Capitol last year like Tara Cook-Littman. The founder of GMO Free CT used social media to rally foodies, environmentalists and consumer activists behind a successful crusade to require the labeling of genetically modified foods. Now, she wants to try public policy from the inside — as a legislator.
Posted inPolitics
Obama to promote minimum wage at CCSU
President Obama will join Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and the governors of Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Vermont at Central Connecticut State University in New Britain on Wednesday to promote raising the minimum wage. Limited tickets will be offered to the public Tuesday from 4 to 8 p.m. at the Detrick Gymnasium in Kaiser Hall at […]
Posted inPolitics
Holder-Winfield quits House, joins Senate
Sen. Gary Holder-Winfield addresses colleagues after taking the oath of office. Gary Holder-Winfield resigned Friday from the House of Representatives and immediately took his place in the Connecticut Senate. Holder-Winfield, a Democrat from New Haven, was elected Tuesday in a special election to succeed Toni Harp, who resigned her Senate seat after her election as […]
Posted inMoney, Politics
CT Lottery fights the odds, tries to save keno
In the oddly one-sided debate over whether to stop the Connecticut Lottery Corp. from launching keno, the Lottery seems to have finally found its voice, perhaps inspired by its old marketing slogan: “You can’t win, if you don’t play.”
Posted inPolitics
Duff’s quiet campaign for majority leader goes public
Sen. Bob Duff, D-Norwalk, was described Thursday by a variety of political sources as the likely successor to Sen. Martin Looney, D-New Haven, as majority leader, the result of a quiet campaign waged in preparation for the day the job became open.
Posted inPolitics
Obama to promote minimum-wage in Connecticut visit
Has Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s defense of President Obama’s minimum wage proposal played well at the White House? The apparent answer came Wednesday: Obama plans to visit Connecticut March 5 to promote a minimum-wage increase with Malloy. Video of Malloy’s jousting with Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal outside the White House has gone viral, prompting invitations […]
Posted inPolitics
Senate leader Williams not seeking re-election
Senate President Pro Tem Donald E. Williams Jr., D-Brooklyn, told Democratic senators Wednesday he will not seek re-election this fall, heralding a turnover in leadership in three of the General Assembly’s four caucuses.
Posted inPolitics
General Assembly staff exempt from disclosure rules
It was an obvious question after George Gallo abruptly resigned last week as the House Republicans’ chief of staff amid FBI inquiries into his political consulting business: Was he the only legislative aide in Hartford with a side business involving politics?
Posted inPolitics
Malloy, Williams back national popular vote
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and Senate President Pro Tem Donald E. Williams Jr., D-Brooklyn, endorsed legislation Monday that would have Connecticut join an interstate compact committing the state’s electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote. The governor’s office announced the support of Malloy and Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman as the legislature’s Government Administration […]
Posted inPolitics
Special election set for April 11 in 61st House District
A special election will be held Friday, April 11 in East Granby, Suffield and part of Windsor to choose a successor to Rep. Elaine C. O’Brien, D-Suffield, the governor’s office announced Monday. O’Brien, who was elected in 2010 and re-elected in 2012, died Friday after a struggle with cancer. She was 58. Calling hours are […]