Scott Semple, who has turned Connecticut prisons into a nationally watched laboratory of reform, and Dora B. Schriro, the state’s top public safety official, have notified Gov. Dannel P. Malloy they will leave state service ahead of his last day in office on Jan. 9.
Commissioners Semple and Schriro to leave before Malloy
Posted inPolitics
CT GOP candidates weigh Trump’s plan for immigration crackdown
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump plans to announce a sweeping border crackdown this week, days before the mid-term elections, in a “red meat” speech aimed at firing up the GOP base. While that speech may help GOP candidates in other states, a tough approach to immigration is likely to provide less of a boost to Republican candidates in Connecticut, although some embrace the plan.
Posted inPolitics
Democrats: Does Connecticut want an NRA-endorsed governor?
A weekend of grieving the shooting deaths of 11 worshipers at a Pittsburgh synagogue gave way Monday to a hard push by Democrats to highlight Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob Stefanowski’s support from the NRA and the state’s largest gun-owners’ group, the Connecticut Citizens Defense League. “A governor with an A rating from the NRA elected in Connecticut? That’s the national headline,” said U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Parents, your kids are failing math, reading, and writing!
Parents, you need to wake up and get in the game. Your child’s future is at stake. Or, your child will become one of the negative statistics. In some cases it is appropriate to blame the education leadership — especially the commissioner, superintendents, principals, and collective bargaining units — for the ineffective system. However, the love of learning must start at home with parents. It is the parent’s responsibility to make education their priority over all other activities. It is the parent’s responsibility to set high expectations for their child’s behavior and learning and it is the parent’s responsibility to be a positive role model for the child in helping to shape the child’s opinions and attitudes about learning.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Support for the autism community must be bipartisan
From the late 1980s and early 1990s, awareness about autism increased because of the hard work by families, professionals, and self-advocates. As a result, the community became powerful enough to influence the U.S. Congress. Since those eras, more methods like Affinity Therapy and Lego Therapy has been accepted and old methods like Applied Behavior Analysis improved to help future generations. As someone who is majoring as a disability specialist, I am excited to work for the autism community. Despite this excitement, I have a fear in the back of my mind. It involves the current political climate of the country and the possibility of autism policies becoming more partisan, instead of something legislators in both parties generally support.
Posted inPolitics
Aside from UTC gossip, business plays coy in race for governor
Over dinner at the Belle Haven Club in Greenwich, a member of United Technologies Corporation’s board of directors, Harold “Terry” McGraw, was talking about gubernatorial politics when, according to a fellow diner, the director asserted that UTC would would exit Connecticut if Democrat Ned Lamont is elected governor. The comment, which McGraw declined to confirm or deny, would be a striking departure for a corporate Connecticut that has strained for neutrality in this volatile race.
Posted inPolitics
An ‘army of young people’ propels and inspires Jahana Hayes
It was a wave of young voters that propelled Democrat Jahana Hayes into the Fifth Congressional District candidacy, and Sunday she told a crowd of young voters that they continue to be her inspiration as she attempts to become the district’s first black female representative.
Posted inPolitics
Aspects of a dangerous political season: toxic rhetoric and violence
The hyper-partisanship of current American politics found its most extreme expression last week when more than a dozen prominent Democrats, including two former presidents, were the targets of explosive devices apparently mailed to them by a fanatical supporter of President Donald Trump.
Posted inHealth
Booming economy helps flatten Medicaid enrollment and limit costs
Medicaid enrollment fell by 0.6 percent in 2018 — its first drop since 2007 — due to the strong economy and increased efforts in some states to verify eligibility, a new report finds. But costs continue to go up.
Posted inPolitics
Stefanowski releases tax returns for 2 years: Average AGI of $8M
Bob Stefanowski, the Republican gubernatorial candidate, and his wife, Amy, released joint tax documents Saturday showing adjusted gross incomes of $6.9 million in 2016 and $9.7 million in 2017, the candidate’s last year as chief executive officer of DFC Global.
Posted inPolitics
Joe Biden in Hartford: ‘This country has got to come together’
Former Vice President Joe Biden, a target of the pipe bombs mailed to critics of President Donald J. Trump, called on both parties Friday to lower the temperature of political discourse in America while heading a Democratic rally in Hartford framing the 2018 election in urgent and even apocalyptic terms.
Posted inPolitics
Talk of Trump dominates lone U.S. Senate debate between Murphy and Corey
U.S. Senate candidates Chris Murphy and Matthew Corey clashed Friday over taxes, immigration, foreign affairs, and the fate of the Supreme court in their only televised debate.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Overcoming Citizens’ United will require a bipartisan solution
Thirty-nine Connecticut General Assembly candidates, have pledged to vote in 2019 legislative session for the Free and Fair Elections Resolution, which would make Connecticut the sixth state to call for a national convention for the exclusive purpose of proposing a commonsense, nonpartisan U.S. Constitutional amendment on federal campaign finance reform.
Posted inTransportation
Voters to decide if state should create ‘legal lockbox’ for transportation costs
Connecticut voters will decide the fate of two proposed constitutional amendments, including a legal “lockbox” designed to ensure transportation-related revenues can’t be diverted for other purposes.
Posted inEducation
Five things to know about Stefanowski’s plans for public schools, if elected governor
The Republican candidate for governor spoke with the CT Mirror recently to talk about education. Bob Stefanowski shared where he stands on school funding, the teaching profession, desegregating schools, and how he would shore up the state’s troubled teachers’ pension fund.