The Department of Immigration & Customs Enforcement is taking new steps in its plans for monitoring the social media accounts of applicants and holders of U.S. visas.
Extreme digital vetting moves forward under new name
Posted inJustice, Partner Content
Facebook (still) letting housing advertisers exclude users by race
In February, Facebook said it would step up enforcement of its prohibition against discrimination in advertising for housing, employment or credit. But tests by ProPublica showed a significant lapse in the company’s monitoring of the rental market.
Posted inPolitics
Special election in January to fill Bloomfield-Windsor House seat
The special election to fill the vacancy resulting from the recent election of Rep. David Baram, D-Bloomfield, as a probate judge will be held Jan. 9, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said Friday. Baram won a special election for the court post.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
An impossible situation: Managing Connecticut Valley Hospital
At the November 13 public hearing on the issue of patient abuse at Whiting Forensic Institute, I sat and listened with great interest, and sadness, to the questions that the Public Health Committee posed to the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services and the department’s responses. As the Public Health Committee continues the process of reviewing the events that occurred at Whiting, it must expand its focus on what the committee and the General Assembly will do to drive the type of change necessary to restore the public’s confidence in Connecticut Valley Hospital and Whiting Forensic Institute.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Making America great again, and again, and again, and again, and…
Our Bill of Rights is one of the greatest documents ever written. We have the finished document, but we know so little about the wise discussion that occurred among the founding fathers that led to the final product. Until now! Here is the actual transcript, just discovered during some housecleaning and renovation of Founder’s Hall at the College of William and Mary. It is dated January 15, 1790, a few months after James Madison wrote the first draft of these first ten amendments.
Posted inPolitics
The political temptations of an ambitious mayor, Luke Bronin
The great political seducers, ambition and opportunity, are double-teaming Hartford’s first-term mayor, Luke Bronin, tempting him with a weak field in an open race for governor. But do they speak louder than the promise he made two years ago to serve a full term if voters entrusted him with the job of stabilizing Connecticut’s struggling capital?
Posted inHealth
Massachusetts grabs spotlight by proposing new twist on Medicaid drug coverage
In the absence of new federal policies to tame break-the-bank drug prices, Massachusetts’ state Medicaid program hopes to road-test an idea both radical and market-driven. It wants the power to negotiate discounts for the drugs it purchases and to exclude drugs with limited treatment value. Connecticut is watching.
Posted inPolitics
A governor’s Thanksgiving message in an unsettled time
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy delivered an unusual Thanksgiving message Wednesday that reflected the tumult, turmoil and tragedy of a year which the U.S. has reeled from two mass shootings, devastating hurricanes, culture-changing disclosures of sexual harassment and predation, and a general coarsening of public discourse.
Posted inPolitics
Larson, Courtney win tax break for homeowners with crumbling foundations
WASHINGTON – U.S. Reps. John Larson and Joe Courtney had good news Wednesday for Connecticut homeowners with crumbling foundations – the Internal Revenue Service will allow them to take a deduction for a casualty loss for money spent to fix crumbling foundations. But that tax relief may be short lived if Republicans in Congress succeed in overhauling the tax code.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
The dangers and potential of ‘natural’ opioid kratom
Given the opioid addiction crisis, it would seem preposterous that an opioid is legal for use in the United States and can be purchased at tea stores, convenience stores, over the internet and, yes, even from vending machines. However, kratom is not your average opioid. The Drug Enforcement Agency found this out when it tried to ban the herb in 2016.
Posted inMoney, Politics
A fight to frame ’18: Trump & taxes vs. Malloy & budget
State Senate Democrats introduced President Trump and federal tax policy as issues in the 2018 race for control of the General Assembly on Tuesday with a withering dissection of how tax plans crafted by the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress would hit middle-class taxpayers in the Northeast. A Republican leader countered that the legislature has bigger issues closer to home.
Posted inMoney
Malloy signs budget bill, but there’s this one other thing…
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy signed a bill Tuesday that makes technical budget revisions he forced through a line-item veto, but he also raised a new complaint: The legislature improperly transferred a $2.9 million children’s health program to an account funded by assessments on the insurance industry.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Puerto Rico: Helping part of the USA, and part of Connecticut’s family
Connecticut is home to the largest proportion of Puerto Ricans in the continental United States, so it is expected that we will see one of the largest influxes of U.S. citizens coming from Puerto Rico to the mainland. Although it’s difficult to estimate the exact number of new arrivals, the state has received over 700 calls from people displaced from the Island and who need help.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
It’s time for truth to challenge power and privilege
Recently my daughter said to me, “Me too,” echoing the apparently rampant sexual harassment in our country, now and in the past. Most of us men do not see this, and some, unfortunately, practice it, especially men with power and position over women.
My daughter was speaking “truth to power.” She is a veteran teacher in New York City and an active member of an offshoot of Black Lives Matter. She and I agreed that the racial climate in the U.S. also requires a large dose of truth to power, challenging male privilege overlapping white privilege.
Posted inEconomic Development
CT allocates $13.6 million for cleaning up brownfields
Connecticut will spend $13.6 million to assess or redevelop brownfield sites in 14 municipalities, marking Connecticut officials’ latest effort to clean up polluted properties and spur economic development, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy announced Monday.