Activists from across the country are inundating Kevin Lembo with taunts like “faggot” and “Satan” — but that’s not stopping him from moving to prevent state government from forwarding charitable donations to an anti-gay lobbying group.
Justice
Stories about the justice system in Connecticut: Law enforcement, courts, prisons and offenders, immigration, juvenile justice, and public corruption.
Posted inHealth, Justice
Witness at Anthem-Cigna antitrust trial says merger would hurt CT
WASHINGTON — Government witness David Dranove, a Northwestern University health care economics professor, said Tuesday the merger would result in higher prices and poorer care in many metropolitan areas and in certain states, including Connecticut, that already have few choices of health insurers.
Posted inHealth, Justice
Connecticut leads 20 states alleging price-fixing in generic drugs
Attorney General George Jepsen’s office is leading a multi-state investigation of generic drug companies that culminated Thursday in a federal price-fixing lawsuit filed in Hartford that complements an unfolding criminal antitrust investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice.
Posted inEducation, Justice
Troubled schools on trial: Will a scathing court decision lead to action?
While changing the way the state distributes school aid among towns may draw substantial support from legislators and the governor, they have shown little interest in, or have outright rejected, changing other polices a Superior Court judge found unconstitutional. Last of seven stories.
Posted inEducation, Justice
Troubled schools on trial: Special education driving costs and controversies
The rate at which students are identified for special education varies drastically across school districts, and school officials differ on whether that’s because districts are over- or under-indentifying students. But they agree the rising cost to educate these students has outpaced inflation and crowds out other supports for students. The state judge presiding over a recent school funding trial blamed the state for not enforcing clear mandates on who is entitled to special education. Sixth of seven stories.
Posted inHealth, Justice
Cigna distances itself from Anthem at key point in merger trial
WASHINGTON — Hostilities between proposed merger partners Anthem and Cigna were on full display Tuesday at a key point of a U.S. antitrust trial over the deal. Cigna attorney Rick Rule said the company did not sign a key closing document because it did not agree with Anthem’s characterizations of the testimony of certain Cigna witnesses.
Posted inEducation, Justice
Troubled schools on trial: What does a high school diploma prove?
A seeming paradox – rising graduation rates coupled with low standardized test scores and high demand for remedial courses in college – was among the reasons that a Hartford Superior Court judge ruled that the state fails to provide students with the education the state constitution says they are entitled to. Fifth of seven stories.
Posted inHealth, Justice
DOJ says Aetna left ACA marketplaces in reaction to merger suit
Updated at 6:35 p.m.
WASHINGTON — Justice Department attorneys on Monday continued to try to undercut arguments by Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini that his company’s Medicare Advantage program competes with government-run Medicare.
Posted inEducation, Justice
Troubled schools on trial: Building boom, pensions lock in big costs statewide
School construction costs, coupled with well over $1 billion the state must contribute each year toward teachers’ pensions, mean about 40 percent of the state’s annual education spending is locked in for years to come. Third of seven stories.
Posted inEducation, Justice
Troubled schools on trial: A broken formula for state aid
To fix the formula, legislators would have to decide whether there is inequity in how state aid is distributed to towns, simply a lack of money, or both. Any major change would mean huge fiscal consequences and political battles. Second of seven stories.
Posted inEducation, Justice
Troubled schools on trial: When poverty permeates the classroom
“The state of education in some towns is alarming,” wrote the judge presiding over a recent five-month trial on state funding of failing schools. Whether the state is doing enough to educate children in poverty was at the core of the case, which explored the struggles of students in the state’s lowest-performing schools. First of seven stories.
Posted inHealth, Justice
Aetna, Humana defend merger plans in court
Updated at 4:57 p.m.
WASHINGTON — Opening salvos were fired Monday in the antitrust case against the proposed merger of Aetna and Humana, with Justice Department attorneys arguing the tie-up would mean sharp price hikes for Medicare Advantage plans and a disintegration of choice for people purchasing insurance on Affordable Care Act exchanges.
Posted inJustice, Politics
Malloy tells D.C. audience bail reform on his agenda in 2017
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy told a criminal justice conference in Washington, D.C., on Thursday he intends make another attempt in 2017 at bail reform, one of his “Second Chance Society” initiatives that never came to a vote in 2016.
Posted inJustice, Politics
High court milestone in Malloy’s next round of nominees
With Justice Peter T. Zarella retiring in December and Justice Dennis G. Eveleigh reaching the mandatory retirement age of 70 next October, the Connecticut Supreme Court soon will be dominated by appointees of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy. After filling no vacancies for more than a year, Malloy is considering nominees for the trial, Appellate and Supreme courts.
Posted inJustice
A peek behind bars, and an invitation to reimagine prison
The correction commissioner picked up his plastic spork and dug into his first prison meal since his days as a warden. Up and down the row of fixed tables and stools, an economist, a banker, a teacher, a fire chief, a former city councilman, a church worker and others did the same, their introduction to how 1,400 men do time at Osborn Correctional Institution, a prison that opened 53 years ago.