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State Education Commissioner Mark McQuillan is expected to get a temporary extension as the state’s top education official today, but his long-term status under Gov.-elect Dan Malloy remains uncertain. Malloy said Tuesday he has heard from several prospective applicants for the job, including some with national credentials, but he was noncommittal about McQuillan’s future. “I […]

While accusing state legislators of shirking their fiscal responsibilities, outgoing Gov. M. Jodi Rell’s administration reported just three months into the fiscal year that it wouldn’t meet its commitment to sell more than $40 million in state assets to help balance the budget. Despite being charged with raising $45 million from assets sales this fiscal […]

WASHINGTON–The Obama Administration’s top health officials are preparing a dossier of documents to help Connecticut’s Gov.-elect Dan Malloy implement the federal health care reform law. And as newly-elected Republican governors are looking for ways to block or limit the federal law in their states, Malloy, a Democrat, said he will take the opposite approach. During […]

Gov. M. Jodi Rell’s administration now stands alone in projecting Connecticut’s finances to be in balance after Comptroller Nancy Wyman reported an $18 million deficit for the current year early Monday afternoon. The comptroller, who will be sworn in as lieutenant governor on Jan. 5,  certified a less severe shortfall than the $83 million deficit […]

With the failure of Congress to extend unemployment benefits, some 2 million jobless people are out of luck nationwide–but Connecticut will be among the least affected states, 27/7WallSt.com reports. All but a few of the state’s unemployed will be able to collect benefits for at least 20 more weeks. Among the hardest-hit states is California, […]

Sen. Joe Lieberman is being credited–or blamed–for getting Amazon to stop hosting the Wikileaks operation, including its controversial cache of diplomatic cables. After hacker attacks on its own sites earlier this week, Wikileaks moved its material to Amazon which, as TPM.com notes, does not screen or pre-approve content. Staffers from the Senate Homeland Security Committee, […]

Governor-elect Dan Malloy today turned to Justice Joette Katz of the Connecticut Supreme Court to lead the Department of Children and Families, a troubled agency that has been under court supervision since 1991. Katz, 57, is giving up a seat on the state’s highest court to take over an agency that has frustrated efforts by […]

WASHINGTON–In an emotional farewell speech to the Senate Tuesday, Chris Dodd made a passionate plea for restoring political civility and preserving the chamber’s traditions, as he also sought to put the finishing touches on his own career as Connecticut’s longest-serving senator. Dodd opened his final “valedictory” remarks by evoking the image of himself as a […]

Governor-elect Dan Malloy is flying back to Washington D.C. this afternoon for a meeting of the Democratic Governors Association and one social engagement — a farewell reception for U.S. Sen. Christopher J. Dodd. Malloy, who dropped a bombshell earlier in the day by naming Justice Joette Katz of the Connecticut Supreme Court as his choice […]

The Senate’s top Republican, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, had some unusually effusive praise for Sen. Chris Dodd’s farewell Senate speech on Tuesday. McConnell called Dodd’s remarks “one of the most important speeches in the history of the Senate.” He added that no one else has “so cogently” laid out why the uniqueness of the Senate, […]

Sen. Joe Lieberman and former Rep. Chris Shays are expected to take part in the launch next month of a new national group dedicated to restoring civility in politics, Huffington Post’s Howard Fineman reports. The message of the group, called “No Labels,” is is that the nation is facing a “crisis of governance.” “We are […]

Sen. Joe Lieberman won’t be hard to find on Wednesday. He’ll be on Fox News, then MSNBC, first thing in the morning. And then both again at lunch. His reason for blanketing the airwaves? Touting the newly released Pentagon report on the impact (minimal, the study says) of repealing the ban on gays serving openly in […]

Congress has voted to temporarily avert a 23 percent cut in Medicare payments to doctors that was scheduled to take effect this week, postponing the cut for another month. But that might not be enough to keep Connecticut doctors from limiting the number of Medicare patients they see, according to a new survey by the […]

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 […]