Some foster children will be guaranteed weekly visits with their siblings beginning October 2014, as Gov. Dannel P. Malloy has signed into law a bill that requires the Department of Children and Families to facilitate these visits. The law follows an outcry from foster children complaining that they have lost touch with their brothers and sisters […]
Money
Stories about Connecticut’s budget, the federal budget, jobs and employment, state investments and casinos.
Posted inMoney
Roberti toughens response to Donovan campaign scandal
One of House Speaker Christopher G. Donovan’s two Democratic rivals in the party primary for the 5th Congressional District, Dan Roberti, toughened his stance Friday on the scandal plaguing the state House speaker’s campaign. One day after issuing a very cautious statement professing that “our campaign does not wish to inflame any issues surrounding the […]
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When economic news doesn’t fit the upbeat narrative
If there was any doubt that Gov. Dannel P. Malloy is a glass-is-half-full kind of guy, it would be dispelled by the statement he issued today after Pratt & Whitney Aircraft announced the layoffs of 200 salaried employees in Connecticut. Except for the last paragraph, the governor was positively upbeat. “When these announcements are viewed […]
Posted inHealth, Money
Should unused sick time = cash?
Should employees who don’t use all their sick days get paid for them when they leave a job? The board designing Connecticut’s health insurance exchange grappled with that and other employee benefits questions Thursday. The board is charged with creating and overseeing a marketplace for selling insurance to individuals and small businesses as part of […]
Posted inMoney, Politics
New racial profiling measure could clash with U.S. program
Early this year, Connecticut became one of the first states to adopt a federal program that helps law enforcement agents deport illegal immigrants more easily. But when the state legislature approved a new measure prohibiting racial profiling by police departments, that inadvertently set up a clash with the federal program. The federal measure, Secure Communities, […]
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Connecticut selling itself with a $27 million campaign
Hartford — Three years after its tourism budget was reduced to $1, Connecticut is back with a two-year, $27 million marketing campaign to promote tourism and brand the state as “still revolutionary.” The state spent $500,000 on its new logo and other creative materials, with most of the remainder of the two-year budget going to […]
Posted inHealth, Money, Politics
Senate casualty: Insurance exchange board expansion
What killed a proposal to expand the board overseeing the state’s health insurance exchange?
Posted inHealth, Money
Prescription Monitoring Program gets funding reprieve
The state program that allows doctors and pharmacists to track controlled substance prescriptions has gotten something of a reprieve, at least for now. Money for the Prescription Monitoring Program had been slated to run out later this year, but a settlement between states and the drug maker Abbott Laboratories will provide Connecticut with $150,000 to […]
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In a partisan time, a nonpartisan tradition observed
Today, a visitor to the state House of Representatives might have been surprised to see Rep. T.R. Rowe, R-Trumbull, presiding over a chamber where Democrats dominate, 99-51. But there was no coup. Rowe was in the chair thanks to one of the enduring and endearing traditions of the House: No matter how partisan or heated […]
Posted inEnergy & Environment, Money
GMO labeling: technically alive, but realistically dead
The prospect of Connecticut passing groundbreaking first-of-its-kind legislation to label genetically modified food is basically nonexistent. Late last week lawyers from the Legislative Commissioners’ Office forced sponsors to gut the bill so that even if it passes — still a long shot — it would be little more than a statement of concern about GMOs, […]
Posted inEnergy & Environment, Health, Money
Outdoor wood furnace regulation clears Senate
For the first time in three years of trying, legislation to tighten regulations on outdoor wood furnaces has passed a chamber of the legislature. The Senate passed and sent to the House an amended version of legislation that advocates of it say is even stronger than the original. The original bill sought to ban outdoor […]
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Same Day Registration Makes Sense for Nutmeg Voters
Connecticut has another opportunity to show the way forward on progressive reform. While many other states are suppressing the vote through strict new voter ID requirements, restrictions on community voter registration drives and shortened early voting periods, Gov. Dannel Malloy and Secretary of the State Denise Merrill are championing legislation to expand voter participation. A […]
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Lembo makes it official: Malloy must issue emergency budget plan
State Comptroller Kevin P. Lembo certified a $200 million deficit Tuesday afternoon for the current state budget, triggering a requirement that Gov. Dannel P. Malloy submit an emergency deficit-mitigation plan to the legislature. And given that the administration needs to finish $75 million in the black to maintain the promised conversion of state finances to […]
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Nanny state, or common sense?
On the “go list” of items cleared for action today by the state House of Representatives are things on some folks’ weekend to-do list. Are they further evidence of a “nanny state,” or overdue safety measures that you may have thought were already on the books? Been meaning to install a smoke detector or carbon […]
Posted inHealth, Money
Senate passes medical malpractice compromise
The Senate on Friday approved a compromise bill aimed at loosening the requirements for bringing a medical malpractice lawsuit, a controversial issue that has sharply divided health care providers and plaintiff attorneys. The bill, which now goes to the House, would alter a 2005 tort reform law that requires anyone who files a medical malpractice […]