Researchers earlier this month released their third annual statewide report analyzing traffic-stop data in an effort to find signs of potential racial profiling by police. Understanding the report isn’t a simple thumbs up or thumbs down, judging whether it’s right or wrong. “It’s not as easy as saying it’s valid or it’s not; there’s lots of stuff in there,” said Michael Smith, one of the peer reviewers.
Does peer review cast doubt on traffic-stop analysis?
Posted inHealth
Medicaid chief: Feds are willing to approve work requirements
The Trump administration has signaled its willingness to allow states to impose work requirements on some adult Medicaid enrollees, a long-sought goal for conservatives that is strongly opposed by Democrats and advocates for the poor.
Posted inNews
Rancor on top of rancor with some extra rancor
It was a week of particularly rancorous politics in a month of rancorous politics in a year of rancorous politics. It began with uproar over the past behavior of Republican candidate for U.S. Senate Roy Moore of Alabama, accused of predatory sexual conduct toward women half his age; then swept up Democratic Sen. Al Franken of Minnesota.
Posted inEducation
Trump education nominee pleads ignorance on voucher studies
At his U.S. Senate confirmation hearing, Mick Zais, the nominee to be second-in-command at the Department of Education, said that he was not aware of high-profile studies showing that school vouchers can hurt student achievement.
Posted inHealth
Anthem, Hartford HealthCare agree on new, retroactive contract
Hartford HealthCare and Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield said early Saturday they had reached agreement on a new, retroactive contract, ending a stalemate that had left Hartford HealthCare providers out of the Anthem insurance network since Oct. 1.
Posted inEducation
Municipal aid: How does your town fare after the mid-year cut?
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy Friday doubled cuts in state aid to cities and towns to help achieve big, unassigned savings ordered by the General Assembly in the recently passed bipartisan budget.
Posted inPolitics
CT senators say they will give Franken donations to charity
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Capitol was gripped this week by allegations of sexual wrongdoing against GOP Senate candidate Roy Moore and Minnesota Democratic Sen. Al Franken, leading many lawmakers, including Connecticut’s senators to distance themselves from those accused of misconduct. While GOP senators said Moore should quit the Senate race, Democrats, including Chris Murphy and Richard Blumenthal, said they would give political cash received from Franken to charity.
Posted inHealth, Money, Politics
Malloy dishes out legislature’s big mandated cuts
Connecticut got a clearer picture of the painful cuts in the new state budget Friday when Gov. Dannel P. Malloy imposed more than $880 million in spending cuts mandated by the General Assembly.
Posted inMoney, Politics
State, Foxwoods scuffle over tax status of new gaming machines
The unheralded arrival of 100 electronic bingo games at the Foxwoods Resort Casino is raising concerns at the State Capitol that the casino’s owner, the Mashantucket Pequot tribe, is testing the market for gambling machines that appear to fall outside the tribe’s longstanding revenue-sharing deal with the state of Connecticut.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
What do rich people want?
The Republican Party is trying madly to lower taxes for its base. For coal miners and factory workers and for you and me, you’re guessing.
“Don’t be silly,” as my grandmother used to say. No, they are scrambling to slash taxes on the already too richly redundantly rich for words.
Sure, you and I might get a pittance — that is, if they don’t snatch away federal tax deductions for our mortgage interest, sky-high medical bills, student loan interest, state and local taxes, our personal exemption; or if they don’t lower our 401K contribution limits and eviscerate the Affordable Care Act.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Child Welfare in Connecticut: The DCF revenge machine
The abuse, starvation and near-death of a year-old baby while under the state’s protection put the Connecticut Department of Children and Families under intense scrutiny by the state’s child advocate and others a year ago — scrutiny that continues today. The following text is the introduction to a longer and more detailed analysis of the so-called “Baby Dylan” case by Richard Wexler, Executive Director of the National Coalition for Child Protection Reform in Alexandria, Va.
Posted inHealth
A hospital-insurance fight, and ‘a dead zone’ of care
Consumer advocates said Thursday the impact of a prolonged contract dispute between a major insurer and healthcare provider, Anthem Blue Cross & Blue Shield and Hartford HealthCare, has been exacerbated by the rapid consolidation of hospitals, physician groups and clinics in Connecticut. In eastern Connecticut, they said, there is a “dead zone” of coverage.
Posted inMoney, Politics
GOP approves tax bill over opposition of CT lawmakers
WASHINGTON – The U.S. House on Thursday approved a wide-ranging overhaul of the federal tax code that will lower taxes for many in Connecticut, while hiking them for some, especially in middle-class tax brackets. The Institute for Taxation and Economic Policy said 305,000 Connecticut households earning less than $197,000 would see a tax increase under the bill.
Posted inJustice, Politics
Murphy, Blumenthal team up with GOP leader on new gun bill
Updated qt 5:20 p.m.
Sen. Chris Murphy teamed up with a Republican colleague who is usually on the opposite side of the gun control debate, Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, to introduce a bill Thursday that would improve federal background checks of prospective gun buyers.
Posted inPolitics
Nancy Wyman says she won’t run for governor in 2018
Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman said Thursday she will not run for governor in 2018, ending months of personal contemplation and political calculation. Her decision deprives the Democratic Party of its highest-profile contender, while sparing it from a campaign that could have struggled to emerge from the shadow of an unpopular incumbent, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy.