While no one can argue with the need to reign in healthcare spending, doing so by trying to tamper with the free marketplace could be harmful to Connecticut’s economy. Efforts to force the pharmaceutical industry through unprecedented, egregious regulations will do nothing to help patient’s pocketbooks and more to harm the industry as a whole, an industry that employs thousands of high paying jobs in our state.
Legislators, leave the pharmaceutical industry alone
Posted inEducation, Money
Key question for legislators: How to count high-need students?
The governor’s proposed shakeup of state school aid – and how much extra money districts should receive for impoverished students – is facing complications as the legislature debates how to move forward.
Posted inHealth, Politics
A bipartisan push to ban anti-gay conversion therapy
They were surrounded by Democratic allies, but gay activists tried to avoid partisan politics Monday as they called for passage of a state law banning conversion therapy, the discredited practice of using psychological aversion techniques such as electric shock to change a young person’s sexual orientation. The LGBT community sees potential in Connecticut for a bipartisan victory.
Posted inPolitics
CT lawmakers reject Trump’s new travel ban
Updated at 7:50 p.m.
WASHINGTON – Connecticut’s federal lawmakers – all Democrats – unanimously rejected President Donald Trump’s revised travel ban, which his administration hopes will survive any challenge in court. The new executive order, signed by the president Monday, targets travelers from six majority-Muslim countries and no longer restricts travel from Iraq, one of seven listed in the original order.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
President Trump is taking witchcraft threats seriously
Liberals wake up every day with a recurring nightmare: Donald Trump is President of the United States. But then they turn on the television, look on their computer or pick up a newspaper and see that it’s true! Then they go to bed, hoping the bad dream won’t recur. But when they wake up; there he is again. What to do?
Posted inCT Viewpoints
At a time of budget crisis, funding for child care must be a priority
On February 21, parents and advocates gathered at the capitol to testify to the legislature on the importance of Care4Kids, Connecticut’s child care subsidy program, which provides critical assistance to help low-income working parents pay for child care. Since August, new parents can no longer qualify for support, unless they receive TANF dollars; under Gov. Dannel Malloy’s proposed budget, Care4Kids would remain closed for the next two years, cutting off access to child care for thousands of Connecticut families. This would damage our state’s economy and cost far more than it would save.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
The harm cigarettes cause, not the state’s tax, is what’s regressive
Recently, you ran a story about the state’s proposed cigarette tax hike (Cigarette tax hike: Promoting health or penalizing the poor?) The article featured opponents of the tax claiming the cigarette tax is regressive and will hurt low-income people most. That’s faulty logic.
Posted inHealth, Politics
Defunding Planned Parenthood? Not so easy
WASHINGTON — Cutting off funding for Planned Parenthood is a priority for many congressional Republicans, but that effort is likely to stumble because other GOP lawmakers are hesitant to take aim at health clinics that are popular with their constituents. Nevertheless, the GOP is moving forward on a promise it has made to defund Planned Parenthood.
Posted inJustice
‘To focus on young adults who are in prison is very cutting edge’
Our Q&A with Alexandra Frank of the Vera Institute of Justice about her organization’s partnership with the Connecticut Department of Corrections to reimagine prison. Her project is the new special unit at Cheshire Correctional to deal with the most disruptive demographic in prisons: young adults ages 18 to 25.
Posted inPolitics
Connecticut before, during and after Trump’s big address
In Connecticut last week there was life before, during and after President Donald Trump’s first speech to Congress. And while it left an impression on everyone, it brought little change.
Posted inPolitics
5 Trump cabinet members who’ve made false statements to Congress
As most of the world knows by now, Attorney General Jeff Sessions did not tell the truth when he was asked during his confirmation hearings about contacts with Russian officials. But Sessions isn’t the only one.
Posted inPolitics
Ex-mayor: ICE raids in immigrant-friendly New Haven likely again
The federal government has staged immigration raids in New Haven before, and they probably will be back again, former Mayor John DeStefano predicts.
Posted inCT Viewpoints, Talking Transportation
Solving the rail station parking mess
If we want to get cars off of the highways, we need to turn drivers into rail commuters. But even the most motivated would-be rail rider faces an immediate problem: the lack of rail station parking.
Posted inEducation, Money
State asks Supreme Court to speed up school funding arguments
Connecticut’s attorney general wants arguments in eight weeks in an appeal of a lower-court’s controversial ruling that the state’s way of distributing school aid is irrational and unconstitutional.
Posted inEducation, Money
House Dems pitch tax credit for college grads
Graduates who remain in state could qualify for an average credit of $1,000 to $1,200, though the actual amount would be based on income. The goal, said House Democrats, is to “keep our best and brightest here.”