The General Assembly is expected to vote before it adjourns May 4 on a plan that would cancel more than $1.1 billion in financing earmarked for an enormous array of purposes in both the public and private sectors, including renovating the leaking, flaking dome of UConn’s Gampel Pavilion.
Justice
Stories about the justice system in Connecticut: Law enforcement, courts, prisons and offenders, immigration, juvenile justice, and public corruption.
Posted inJustice, Money
Jepsen: Fantasy sports bill could jeopardize slots revenue
Attorney General George Jepsen warned legislators in a formal legal opinion Monday that passage of legislation regulating daily fantasy sports contests could jeopardize Connecticut’s revenue-sharing agreement with the tribal casinos.
Posted inJustice, Money, Politics
CT Judicial Branch will lay off 126, plans courthouse closures
Connecticut’s Judicial Branch announced this week that 126 workers would be laid off in response to anticipated budget cuts for the fiscal year beginning July 1.
Posted inJustice
Session Notes: See what Malloy saw in a German prison
CBS’s 60 Minutes takes viewers Sunday on the same tour of Germany’s prison system that inspired Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and his correction commissioner, Scott Semple, to try a different way to treat younger defendants and inmates.
Posted inJustice
Malloy hears from homeowners with crumbling basements
ENFIELD — The good news Wednesday night was that at least a dozen of the people waiting to question Gov. Dannel P. Malloy had minimal interest in Connecticut’s intractable budget problems. The bad news: They came to talk about their crumbling basements, a problem that may affect thousands.
Posted inJustice
With broad support, bail reform seems inevitable
Pushed by a coalition that stretches across the political spectrum, reform is coming to Connecticut’s bail system. The only question seems to be how far and how fast the General Assembly is prepared to go.
Posted inJustice
Child sex slavery: No pimps convicted by state in last 10 years
While more than 400 children who have been sold for sex or forced labor have been referred to Connecticut’s child welfare agency in recent years, not a single person has been convicted in state court of trafficking in the last 10 years, according to top state legislators and the Permanent Commission on the Status of Women.
Posted inJustice, Money, Politics
Hundreds of state employees demand no layoffs or concessions
Hundreds of unionized state employees rallied Tuesday morning on the north steps of the Capitol, demanding that Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and legislators abandon plans for layoffs and calls for wage and benefit concessions.
Posted inEducation, Health, Justice, Money, Politics, Transportation
A minefield of concerns complicates laying off state workers
Though all indications are that many state employees will receive pink slips soon, several factors make it difficult for Connecticut to downsize its workforce. And those same factors and others make it all-but-impossible to close the major budget deficits projected for the next few years with layoffs alone.
Posted inJustice
Pew tracks sharp rise in ‘punishment rate’ in CT
As the General Assembly considers reforms intended to divert younger defendants from prison, a national study concludes that Connecticut moved farther than nearly every state in embracing harsher punishment over a 30-year period marked by soaring U.S. incarceration rates.
Posted inJustice
It’s the FBI, but no reason to panic at legislature
The FBI director James B. Comey did his best Friday to disappear into a crowded hearing room at the Legislative Office Building, not an easy task for a man who stands six-feet, eight inches tall and travels with a pack of bodyguards. He was there to support his wife, Patrice, an advocate for foster children.
Posted inJustice, Politics
GOP legislators challenge Malloy’s domestic violence bill
Republican legislators grilled Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s top legal advisers for hours Monday during a public hearing on an administration proposal that sets the safety of domestic violence victims against the rights of gun owners.
Posted inJustice
House lawyer named as claims commissioner
Christy Scott of West Hartford, a lawyer employed by the House Democratic majority, was named Friday by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy to the $135,000-a-year post of state claims commissioner, a legal backwater that became controversial in recent months.
Posted inJustice, Politics
Schaghticoke hire Lieberman to help sue state over casino law
The Schaghicoke Tribal Nation has hired former Sen. Joe Lieberman – who once fought against the tribe’s efforts to win federal recognition — to help them sue the state over a gambling law that allows only the state’s two gaming tribes to open a new casino. In their legal challenge, the Schaghticokes’ have joined forces with MGM, which has also been blocked from building a casino in Connecticut.
Posted inJustice, Politics
NRA fighting proposed change to CT law on carrying guns
The National Rifle Association has taken aim at a proposed changes to Connecticut’s gun laws that would make it easier for law enforcement officials to ask to see the permits of those carrying guns in public.