WASHINGTON — Foreshadowing the partisan fight that will break out during Judge Neil Gorsuch’s impending Supreme Court confirmation hearing, Sen. Richard Blumenthal on Thursday asked the George W. Bush presidential library for any emails between the nominee and private email addresses of White House officials.
Blumenthal wants Gorsuch emails to private address used by former WH official
Posted inEducation
Trump’s education budget: 4 things to know for CT schools
President Donald Trump unveiled a budget outline Thursday that slashes federal funding for education by 14 percent – cuts that would cripple programs that thousands of Connecticut children participate in each year. Here is what you should know about what was and wasn’t cut.
Posted inEducation, Health, Money, Politics, Transportation
Trump budget would end CT heating aid, housing, after-school programs
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump’s first budget proposal would strip Connecticut of tens of millions of dollars in federal grants, eliminating programs that subsidize heating bills for nearly 110,000 Connecticut households and provide housing for the homeless and after-school care. But the budget would boosting the state’s defense industry and fund a border wall.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Justifiable anger over gun permit fee hike — unjustifiable reasoning
Connecticut handgun owners are peeved, and even opponents of handgun ownership can understand why. Gov. Dannel Malloy wants to raise the price of pistol permits from $75 to $300. It’s a universal law that people don’t want to pay more than they believe they should. Paying more feels bad. All of us can sympathize. But that’s where the sympathy should end. Raising the cost of pistol permits is not backdoor gun control.
Posted inPolitics
Syrian refugee talks about the impact of Trump travel ban
WASHINGTON – Fadi Kassar of Milford, 40, traveled a long, hard road through several countries before arriving in Connecticut and being granted asylum in 2015. He spoke to the Mirror about the human cost of the Donald Trump’s travel ban – and how it is changing the perception of the United States in the Muslim world.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Connecticut schools must illuminate history’s ‘big story’
Since 2013 the C3 Common Core has changed the way social studies is taught in our public schools. This has done irreparable harm to students understanding history’s “Big Story.” Fortunately, the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) and authors of the C3 have done a complete reversal of their earlier position regarding national standards. […]
Posted inPolitics
Murphy: Campaign donations proof of ‘fledgling progressive resistance movement’
WASHINTON – Sen. Chris Murphy said in a fundraising appeal Wednesday that said he has had a “staggering number of individual contributions” since the beginning of the year. He called it evidence a “fledgling progressive resistance movement” against the Trump administration and the GOP-led Congress “is only getting larger.”
Posted inPolitics
Committee approves, yet doesn’t endorse, casino expansion bills
Proposals to expand casino gambling in Connecticut cleared the Public Safety and Security Committee on Wednesday in votes signifying a consensus that the bills were too big to die in committee, not a measure of the support for opening the state to commercial casinos off tribal tribal lands.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
‘TrumpCare’ breaks fundamental promises to Trump’s own supporters
“We’re going to have insurance for everybody.” That’s what President Trump promised less than two months ago. Unfortunately, with the release of the long-awaited TrumpCare plan, it has become clear that the president lied to us. Worse, this proposal will hurt most the millions of our fellow Americans who made clear by supporting Trump’s campaign that they felt left behind.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Connecticut’s independent living centers save money
Thousands of individuals across Connecticut turn to the state’s Independent Living Centers each year for services that provide living skills and support their access to housing, employment, health insurance and medical care. We urge the General Assembly to renew its support for independent living centers, because providing services that help individuals with disabilities live their lives and be contributing members of our society is good for those individuals and good for our community.
Posted inHealth
In appeal, feds argue merger with Anthem would hurt Cigna’s ‘value-based’ care
WASHINGTON – In its showdown next week with Anthem over a planned merger with Cigna, the Justice Department will make the Bloomfield-based insurer’s unique business model a key part of its argument aimed at swaying an appellate court to reject the $54 billion deal.
Posted inJustice
Young inmates tell Malloy about a new way in an old prison
CHESHIRE — Isschar Howard was 20 the night he shot and killed two young men who challenged his right to sell drugs on a corner in New Haven. He’s a 37-year-old lifer now, recently trained as a mentor to young inmates. The governor of Connecticut dropped by his cell Monday, shook his hand and thanked him for his work.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
A better way to keep young professionals here
We commend policymakers who are seeking to keep young, talented, well-educated professionals in Connecticut by giving them a tax credit if they stay. But there is a less expensive, more effective way to accomplish that goal: lower the cost of housing.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Sen. Blumenthal’s hypocrisy is stunning
Sen. Richard Blumenthal’s call for a special prosecutor to investigate connections between President Donald Trump and the Russian government is a wonderful display of how two-faced and highly partisan our elected senator really is.
Posted inHealth, Politics
CT Dems say CBO report shows GOP health plan should be scrapped
WASHINGTON — As soon as the Congressional Budget Office released its long-awaited report Monday afternoon on the impact of the GOP’s American Health Care Act, Connecticut Democrats joined party colleagues in saying the analysis proved the health plan should be scrapped. The CBO estimated the American Health Care Act would result in 24 million Americans losing their health insurance.