In the last minutes of the 2018 legislative session, we got a state budget. Legislators showed commitment and determination in reaching a bi-partisan agreement. The dust hasn’t cleared yet — there is still a lot of uncertainty regarding what got funded and what didn’t. It is all too evident, however, that even dust-settling won’t clear away a fundamental reality. Children have fallen through system cracks due to a failure to plan and budget appropriately to meet the behavioral health needs of children in and at risk for being in the juvenile justice system.
Kids in the juvenile justice system have fallen through budget cracks
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Let’s make Connecticut’s attorney general part of the solution
Connecticut’s Office of Attorney General should model integrity, fairness, and inspire respect for the law. Our courts, the judicial process, and law enforcement officials are vital. They need a strong advocate. Incredibly, a Republican has not won the Office of Attorney General in Connecticut since 1954! But this year, change is critical to restore our state’s economic competitiveness. And that requires a new brand of leadership from the attorney general.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Resolved: That the CSCU system needs a better plan
In its April 24, 2018 decision letter, the New England Association of Colleges and Schools, Commission on Institutions of Higher Education (hereinafter Commission), noted that it was not persuaded that the planning for the new Community College of Connecticut, as advanced by the Students First plan, was realistic. We acknowledge President Mark Ojakian for continually asserting the need to institute system-wide changes for the betterment of the student body. Yet, faculty has been intentionally excluded from meaningful participation and genuine involvement and engagement. Moreover, we agree with the Commission and believe the accelerated process for planning/implementation was insufficient and will cause disruption to our students.
Posted inNews
Glassman running on experience for Esty’s seat
Mary Glassman, a Democrat running for Rep. Elizabeth Esty’s seat in the 5th Congressional District, hopes to fend off primary challenger and political neophyte Jahana Hayes with stories of her political experience, her own hardscrabble upbringing and an intense focus on local issues.
Posted inPolitics
Stefanowski gets closer on less-traveled path to GOP primary
Bob Stefanowski has campaigned for governor of Connecticut in something of an alternate universe, a place where there was no Republican state convention, no delegates deciding who gets access to the primary ballot. Instead, Stefanowski’s path to the primary brought him, his volunteers and paid staff to the homes of more than 12,000 Republican voters.
Posted inHousing
HUD’s Carson commits to helping residents with crumbling foundations
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson Monday got a close-up look at the damage to one of thousands of Connecticut homes built with contaminated concrete. He said rescuing the homeowners from financial ruin will take a comprehensive, multi-government approach.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
What the Regents know that just ain’t so
“It’s not what you don’t know that gets you in trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.” — Mark Twain
Recent coverage of the Board of Regents’ latest scheme to reorganize higher education in Connecticut by removing leadership, many programs and services, and potentially accreditation from the local campuses can all be summed up in the famous quote cited above from a neighbor of the Regents’ Hartford offices.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
The mind-body connection, loneliness and overall health
Achieving good health isn’t just about managing your blood pressure, controlling your weight or staying away from tobacco – although all of these are important. Good health is actually much more complex and includes social and emotional dimensions in addition to the physical. For example, where you live matters. The safety of your neighborhood, the quality of your schools, your access to transportation and other “social determinants” can all affect your health.
Posted inPolitics
With no one on his right, Herbst takes aim at Boughton
Timothy Herbst is in a good mood. At the Cromwell Diner, where he just chatted with the mayor and former police chief over a breakfast of coffee, eggs and politics, he says he can see a path through a crowded field to the Republican nomination for governor — even if it means stealing a page from the GOP’s bête noire, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy.
Posted inEducation
Her life as a foster child leads to DCF board game
NEW HAVEN — As a foster child, Tyla Narcisse wanted the world to understand what she goes through — so she made a board game about it. Narcisse, 15, has been jumping from home to home since the age of 4. She decided to tackle the larger issues facing foster children like herself and study the system as part of a social justice project at High School in The Community.
Posted inNews
Racial politics, a veto and ban on bump stocks
Owing partly to a holiday, it was a relatively quiet week in Connecticut – nowhere near as fraught as ABC’s abrupt cancellation of “Roseanne.” The role of race in Connecticut’s politics was a topic of concern, but it wasn’t until Gov. Dannel Malloy’s veto Friday that the knives came out.
Posted inPolitics
Malloy vetoes ECS bill, declines to sign health measure
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy on Friday vetoed a bill that would have prohibited him or future governors from cutting education-cost sharing grants to cities and towns as a means of addressing a budget shortfall that develops during the fiscal year. He also allowed a bill to become law without his signature, a first for the governor.
Posted inNews
Connecticut legislators balk at on-line betting on sports
The Connecticut General Assembly is unlikely take up on-line gambling when it returns in special session to consider legalizing sports betting — viewing betting by smartphone as a concept that needs deeper study and public input, legislative leaders said Friday.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
UConn Health must correct ‘blatant misuse of taxpayer dollars’
Over the past few months, multiple situations have come to light unveiling a pattern of failures at UConn Health that have severely damaged the public’s trust in your institution. We have seen blatant misuse of taxpayer dollars, failure to implement basic oversight, and apparent disregard for your core responsibilities to the state and people of Connecticut. I am writing today to ask UConn Health to commit to rebuilding public trust.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Former Speaker: Megan’s law good policy, but sometimes misused
I want to commend Tom Condon for his May 21 piece (Sex offender registry: More harm than good?) chronicling Connecticut’s sex offender registry, and for raising some provocative issues around the registry’s evolution and consequences. As chief sponsor of Connecticut’s original Megan’s Law, let me say first — unequivocally — that I believe the state’s sex offender registry is good public policy, constitutionally sound, and has done far more good than harm.