Uma Ramiah

Bridgeport — Pam Stewart of Bridgeport’s Mount Aery Baptist Church took the stage, facing a crowd of about 1,500. “I’m going to talk to you about predatory lending,” she said, Wednesday night, leaning into the microphone. “I contacted my bank in October — just to get information about loan re-modification. By March, they had hiked […]

New Haven – Several weeks ago, a dozen or so high school students gathered at the site in the East Rock neighborhood where a 23-year-old man had been shot to death the week before. The city’s 29th homicide of the year had mobilized these young people. Armed with portable Flip video cameras, the students fanned […]

Dr. Sathe (left) with Mackinnon Dr. Vinayak Sathe peered closely at the swollen foot. “Can you move your ankle up and down? Good. And can you move it sideways? So just swelling right? And how far up does it go, like up to here?” Sateh, a foot and ankle surgeon, was working as part of […]

Funding for LIHEAP, a federal energy assistance program, is on the chopping block this year. That’s got one Connecticut nonprofit agency — that works to keep low-income people warm all winter — on edge. “There’s no way, realistically, that a privately funded operation like ours could ever make up the shortfall in LIHEAP funding,” said […]

In the wake of the child molestation scandal at Penn State, some Connecticut legislators are taking a hard look at who’s required to report sex abuse in the state — and who isn’t. Speaking at a forum on children and the 2012 legislative session Tuesday morning, state Rep. Diana Urban, D-North Stonington, announced a plan […]

NEW HAVEN — U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal Monday announced his Pathways Back to Work Act — one that seeks to address unemployment by borrowing pieces of President Obama’s larger jobs bill. “The major task ahead is making sure that we fill jobs that exist and create new ones so we can put Connecticut back to […]

NEW HAVEN–Lynn Smith showed a slide with three names: Larry King, Ulysses S. Grant, MC Hammer. “What do they have in common?” she asked a small classroom of 10 at-risk students at the New Haven Family Alliance Center. “They all went bankrupt.” What followed was an immediate burst of excitement, some giggles, a few disparaging […]

At the corner of Asylum and High streets, on the western edge of downtown Hartford, an 83-year-old building was rescued, renovated and filled with tenants. Now, some say, it represents Hartford’s most promising way forward in sustainable housing. This is the Hollander Building. Reopened in 2009 as mixed income housing, it faced being turned into […]

U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-3rd District, stopped at West Haven High School on Wednesday to publicize a piece of legislation she says would improve the quality of education — and reinforce a political message by President Obama about his latest stimulus plan. Flanked by educators and union carpenters, electricians and painters DeLauro praised a bill […]

An immigration reform bill now stalled in the U.S. Senate could prove the perfect federal complement to a law Connecticut Democrats are eager to enact next year, backers of the state measure say. “I certainly hope it will pass the Senate,” said state Sen. Martin Looney, “Because what we’re proposing dovetails really nicely with the […]

On its face, it seems like a straightforward proposition: Yale University announced last month that it will offer college scholarships to New Haven public school students who meet attendance and performance requirements. But the New Haven Promise, as is called, is being looked to as a solution to many of the city’s problems. “Our first […]

BRIDGEPORT–Almost a month past Election Day, long after Tom Foley conceded and Gov.-elect Dan Malloy began assembling his administration, volunteers gathered at long plastic tables here Monday to figure out how, exactly, the city voted. They hunched over piles of ballots, scrutinizing them one-by-one, trying to unravel an electoral mess that kept Connecticut in suspense […]

Still reeling from an Election Day marred by confusion and chaos, Bridgeport voters got their chance Tuesday night to share firsthand accounts of what went wrong Nov. 2. “I was embarrassed as an elected official,” said Bob Walsh, a Bridgeport City Council member. “I had no idea what was going on all day, because there […]

NEW HAVEN–It was a long time coming, but Gov. M. Jodi Rell took her first ride Monday on one of more than 300 new rail cars being added to the Metro North New Haven line. “I don’t know whether to laugh or cry,” she said of the five-year wait for delivery of the first of […]

At the height of the gubernatorial campaign, then-candidate Dan Malloy signed a pledge to do his best to put more women in top-level positions in government. Now that he’s won, one group intends to make sure he sees that promise through. “In Connecticut, women are 51 percent of the population and 37 percent of paid […]