WASHINGTON–At a Senate hearing on wartime contracting Wednesday, Sen. Joseph Lieberman and ex-Rep. Chris Shays mostly stuck to the dry subject at hand–squandered taxpayer dollars, poor government oversight, and sweeping abuses in military contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan. But beneath the staid policy discourse, they were unspooling a juicier political thread. As ex-GOP congressman Shays […]
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State physicians’ group leading the way on ‘bundled payments’
WASHINGTON–Dr. Courtland Lewis has been fielding a lot of anxiety-filled queries lately–not from his patients, but from other doctors. The Hartford-based orthopedic surgeon is suddenly one of the state’s go-to experts on federal efforts to revamp how doctors and hospitals are paid for the care they provide. That’s because Lewis and the knee-and-hip replacement surgeons […]
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Blumenthal gets another shot at Google today
As attorney general, Richard Blumenthal didn’t get the chance to put top Google executives on the witness stand when he launched a multistate investigation into Google’s collection of data from personal wireless networks. But as senator, he’s now going to have a shot at grilling Google’s Executive Chairman, Eric Schmidt, who will be sitting at […]
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CT and other House Dems join Tea Party conservatives to block spending bill
All five of Connecticut’s U.S. House members voted against a stop-gap funding bill for fiscal year 2012 on Wednesday that included billions of dollars in federal disaster aid. They were part of an odd alliance with Tea Party conservatives who helped defeat the legislation in a surprise rebuke to House GOP leaders. Rep. John Larson […]
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Gallup: Public favors Obama plan to raise taxes on wealthy, cut business loopholes
Americans generally favor raising taxes on higher-income Americans and eliminating tax deductions for some corporations as ways of paying for President Barack Obama’s proposed jobs plan, a new Gallup poll says. In terms of the impact of the bill, 65 percent say they think it will help create jobs and 60 percent believe it will […]
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Malloy, Christie at the same hedge fund conference in Greenwich
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and his favorite New Jersey governor, Chris Christie, are both keynote speakers at the annual conference of the Connecticut Hedge Fund Association, the Global Alpha Forum in Greenwich. Alas, they speaking on different days. Malloy is speaking Thursday, while Christie is coming Friday. The two governors have sparred on national television […]
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Officials say fixing CHRO case backlog requires more staff
Despite new legislation aimed at helping the state Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities streamline its operations, key officials say further action may be necessarily if the agency is to deal with a massive backlog of cases reported this month by auditors. The report from state Auditors John C. Geragosian and Robert M. Ward found […]
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Alzheimer’s Association works with police chiefs to train officers
Police officers will receive training in communicating with people with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia as part of a partnership between the Connecticut Police Chiefs Association and the Alzheimer’s Association Connecticut Chapter, the groups announced during a press conference outside the state Capitol Wednesday. There are 5.4 million people in the U.S. with Alzheimer’s, including 70,000 […]
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On the trail with McMahon: Smalltalk and a film crew
MILFORD–One of the lessons from her failed 2010 U.S. Senate campaign was put into practice on day two of the new 2012 campaign: Linda McMahon mingled Wednesday with real people on real shop floors, trailed by a six-man film crew. A day after announcing her candidacy for U.S. Senate in a factory in Southington, McMahon […]
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Malloy orders limited negotiating rights for home care aides, child care workers
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy has signed two executive orders providing a path for child care workers and home care attendants who work in state-funded programs to organize and gain collective bargaining rights. The orders enact scaled-back versions of legislative proposals that did not pass this year and, in the case of home care workers, generated […]
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Fight over disaster aid getting stormier
Rep. John Larson said he’ll cast a “no” vote today when House Republicans bring up a stop-gap funding measure to pay for disaster aid and keep the government running through the first weeks of fiscal year 2012. He and other Democrats are fuming that House Republicans have included a $1 billion cut in funding from […]
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State, advocates differ on payment plan for medical homes
As state officials prepare to expand the use of so-called “medical homes” to care for Medicaid patients, consumer advocates who have long supported the change are raising concerns about the program’s design. Medical homes are practices in which doctors and other health care providers play a more active role in monitoring patients’ health. Supporters believe […]
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Lieberman hails one gay-rights milestone, hedges on next battle
Sen. Joseph Lieberman and a half-dozen other lawmakers celebrated the official repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” today and promised to help discharged service members re-enlist if they want to. Lieberman, a Connecticut independent, said the end of DADT, which mandated the discharge of any openly homosexual member of the U.S. armed forces, was a […]
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McMahon’s new team comes via Virginia, Vermont and Florida
Linda McMahon’s 2010 campaign for U.S. Senate relied on David Cappiello, a former state senator and congressional candidate, and Ed Patru, who came to Connecticut after stints with the communication shops of national Republican congressional committees in Washington. Cappiello was Mr. Inside, the manager. Patru was Mr. Outside, the message strategist and spokesman. In the […]
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Once more, it’s McMahon for Senate
SOUTHINGTON — Linda McMahon kicked off her second try for U.S. Senate today at a small manufacturing company whose physical plant and young owners provided a backdrop for a campaign that is painting its candidate as a job creator, not a politician. “Ladies and gentlemen, I’m a proven job creator, and today I am a […]