Opinion

It appears that very few members of the military-veteran community or the general public are aware of problems still faced by veterans of the Vietnam War. Nearly half the surviving 100,000 members of the U.S. Navy and Fleet Marines who fought in Vietnam between 1962 and 1975 may be suffering disabilities from the effects of Agent Orange/dioxin. Yet, these veterans are being denied all service-connected health care and disability compensation for these diseases.

People in juvenile justice sometimes say: “If only we could get rid of poverty and racism, our work would be done.” It’s a recognition that the root causes of the horrible problems at-risk kids face are evils that have been with us for all of human history and show no sign of abating. It’s a statement of resignation. I hate resignation.

September marked 50 years since the terrorist firebombing of a Birmingham church killed four girls. Summer saw the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg and 50th anniversary of the March on Washington. November marks 75 years since Kristallnacht and 50 since President Kennedy’s assassination; December, 100 years of the Federal Reserve. Studying history, we can recognize context, sharpen thinking and learn humility. We can inspire and caution young people. History can contribute to citizenship, to reading and writing skills.

Only days before the end of the 2013 legislative session last June, someone (apparently a Fox News reporter) started a false rumor that documentary filmmaker Michael Moore was going to make a Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) request for graphic crime scene photographs of the Sandy Hook massacre and then splash those photographs all over the Internet or movie screens. Michael Moore never made any such request, and he never had any intention of making such a request.

As a graduate of a rural Windham County public school, I am dismayed by efforts to weaken or even close it – the sole school in the town. Hampton Elementary’s enrollment has shrunk, as the population edged up to about 2,000. Fewer residents have children, reflecting a demographic dip statewide. Also, more families opt for private alternatives.

The opinion piece in the Ct Mirror by Marc Brown, formerly with the Koch brothers-funded Freedom Works and now the head of an anti-clean energy group that refuses to disclose its funding sources, relies heavily on debunked fossil fuel industry propaganda in its attacks on wind energy.

It has been reported that Massachusetts’ utilities National Grid, Northeast Utilities and Unitil have negotiated power purchase agreements (PPAs) for 565 megawatts of electricity capacity from existing and proposed wind farms in New Hampshire and Maine that would provide electricity at wholesale rates of approximately 8 cents per kilowatt-hour. These agreements were lauded by the Boston Globe, going as far as claiming that “wind power is now competitive with conventional sources.” Eight cents per KWh is cheap for wind, especially when you consider that Cape Wind currently has PPAs with NStar and National Grid for 18.7 and 20.5 cents per kilowatt-hour (not including 3.5 percent annual escalators).

Shame on Connecticut for choosing to promote destruction of a region in the state of Maine for their ill-conceived, arbitrary, ideologically based RPS whim: Sept. 20 “Esty makes renewable choices: Maine wind, CT sunshine.” Destroy your own damned state with 500-foot-tall turbines on blasted away, leveled, and scalped ridges! The developer of “Number Nine Wind Farm” is EDP Renewables North America, formally Horizon Wind, which has been knocking around Aroostook County for years with no success.

Of all the last-minute pieces of legislation haggled over in secret, the move to legalize keno is among the most shortsighted. Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, State Senate President Don Williams and Speaker of the House Brendan Sharkey all agreed to tuck keno in the budget just before the legislative session ended in June to balance […]

Nowadays there seems to be no limit on what Obamacare will be blamed for.

Connecticut was among the first states to enact Labor Day legislation in 1887, a full seven years before the U.S. Congress made it a federal holiday. Labor Day was created to recognize trade unions, secure workers’ safety and generally honor the contributions of laborers everywhere. And yet, more than 100 years after its passage, how well do we, as a society, really honor our workers?

The new Netflix original series “Orange is the New Black” is capturing national media attention. The series, based on the best-selling book, is based on the experiences of its author, Piper Kerman, at Connecticut’s Danbury Federal Prison Camp.

For decades the preservation of a working boatyard and “water dependent” activities in Stamford’s harbor has been a priority of both Connecticut’s environmental protection agency and local planners.