You may have heard or read about post-election recounts after the recent primary. The reports were incorrect. There were no recounts. Connecticut law calls for something else, a recanvass. The current recanvass law and procedures are inadequate to assure that the every vote is counted accurately and the correct winner certified. Experience shows that the […]

Recent actions by the Connecticut General Assembly to rescue the public financing of political campaigns shows that lawmakers can act fairly quickly when a shared cause, and their own interests, are at the center of the debate. Because so many candidates for the legislature are relying on public financing for their campaigns (rather than having […]

The first major feature of Obama Care is being launched, high-risk health insurance pools, which cover citizens previously denied insurance due to prior conditions. Congratulations, Republicans! Yes, Republicans, because expansion of high-risk health insurance pools was the central element of the GOP’s common-sense alternative to the grandiosity of Obama Care, aka the Affordable Care Act […]

As a physician over the last 20 years or so, I have become quite used to abiding by the new regulations presented by insurance companies, our national medical societies, pharmaceutical companies, and the national government. Sometimes, I’ll admit, I have felt like I had little input, that I was being controlled by forces beyond my […]

This past Tuesday we learned that Connecticut was once again shut out of the federal Race to the Top competition. While this news was disappointing, it was not wholly surprising – we were starting from way behind, and as much progress as Connecticut made with its reform legislation this year, we already knew that a […]

The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 is over 2,300 pages long. The Glass-Steagall Act, the landmark bank reform bill of 1933, was about 100 pages long. Less is more. Glass-Steagall gained strength from its simplicity. The 1933 Congress concluded that the combination of investment banking and commercial banking (and other […]

The Foley campaign is engaged in politics of the worst kind by attacking the State Elections Enforcement Commission and attempting to impugn the integrity of a nonpartisan state agency.  To charge the agency as corrupt is outrageous and irresponsible. What is most disturbing is that the Foley campaign flouts the law and then sues the […]

Is it possible to close the achievement gap without an assessment of the impact of institutional racism and structural inequities on education policy and practice? Clearly money and legislative action – whether federal, as in No Child Left Behind, or state, as in the settlement action due to Sheff v. O’Neill – alone or together […]

Connecticut’s new governor will have the opportunity to put in place an innovative, cost-saving system for delivering health care to 390,000 low-income children and parents in the HUSKY program. Under primary care case management (“PCCM” or “HUSKY Primary Care”), no insurance company is involved. The Department of Social Services (“DSS,” the state Medicaid agency), pays […]

The sudden hue and cry about a high-level personnel decision on one of four campuses of the Connecticut State University System (CSUS) seems exaggerated, shortsighted, and we think misdirected. For decades we have known David Carter, the CSUS chancellor since 2006, to be an honorable and effective champion for higher education in our state. We […]

Governor Rell has signed the highly touted ‘school reform’ bill, a bill that passed both chambers of the General Assembly overwhelmingly, garnering 31 votes in the Senate and 106 in the House. The Mirror describes the bill as the product of an “unlikely coalition” and the Governor’s press statement says “all of the interested parties […]

A new bill passed by the General Assembly and now before Gov. M. Jodi Rell for signature could offer fiscal relief as municipalities all over Connecticut stare down a current budget crisis that will become even more daunting in fiscal year 2011- 2012 and beyond. House Bill 5424 allows towns and boards of education a […]