WASHINGTON – White House press secretary Sean Spicer took aim at Gov. Dannel P. Malloy Thursday, saying the governor “chooses not to follow the duly-passed laws of this nation” in telling the state’s police forces they don’t have to cooperate with the Trump administration’s new push to increase deportations of undocumented immigrants. Malloy’s spokeperson shot back that, “‘Mr. Spicer and the administration would benefit from a Civics 101 refresher.”
Spicer: Malloy ignores the law with his immigration policy
Posted inJustice
Malloy’s bail reform push makes for strange bedfellows
EAST LYME — Gov. Dannel P. Malloy stepped to a microphone in a prison waiting room to talk about bail reform Thursday. He glanced to at two unlikely allies, David McGuire of the American Civil Liberties Union and Suzanne Bates of the Yankee Institute for Public Policy, a conservative think tank.
Posted inHealth, Politics
Murphy presses for federal probe of ‘sober homes’ after overdose deaths
WASHINGTON — A rash of overdoses in “sober homes” in Connecticut and other states has prompted Sen. Chris Murphy and a bipartisan group of his colleagues to ask federal investigators to determine if additional oversight is needed of these residences for people recovering from substance abuse.
Posted inJustice
Malloy rebukes Trump on rollback of transgender protections
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy signed an executive order Thursday reassuring transgender students of the protections afforded them under state law, his second action in as many days to limit the reach in Connecticut of policies enacted by the administration of President Trump. The action comes as Malloy departs for meetings in Washington, including a social for governors with the president and first lady.
Posted inCities & Towns, Money, Politics
Tribes renew pitch for third casino, say they’ll name site in days
Updated at 2:45 p.m.
The tribes running the state’s two casinos will announce within days where in north-central Connecticut they want to build a satellite gaming facility, casino leaders announced Thursday.
Posted inMoney
Norwegian discount airline to fly from Bradley to Edinburgh
Norwegian, a discount airline, announced Thursday it is establishing limited transatlantic service from Bradley International Airport to Scotland as it expands in the Northeast, basing aircraft and crews at T.F. Green Airport in Providence and Stewart International Airport in New York’s Hudson Valley.
Posted inPolitics
Q poll: Trump approval ‘sinking like a rock’ to 38 percent
WASHINGTON — A Quinnipiac poll gave President Donald Trump the lowest approval ratings since he assumed office about a month ago, only 38 percent, but showed Americans still have confidence in his handling of the economy.
Posted inEducation, Money
Teacher pensions: How Connecticut compares
Connecticut’s public school teachers have to wait longer than educators in nearly every other state to qualify for life-long pension payments and are in the middle of the pack for the amount of their salaries they must contribute for the future benefit, according to a recent survey.
Posted inPolitics
Malloy, advocates react to Trump immigrant crackdown
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration’s crackdown on undocumented immigrants has ratcheted up fear in that community and prompted Gov. Dannel Malloy to issue guidance to the state’s schools and law enforcement agencies on how to handle the new directives from Washington. “We’ve gotten a ton of calls from worried clients,” said Aleksandr Troyb, the chairman of the Connecticut chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association.
Posted inHealth
School-level immunization data could be released under proposal
Wondering how many children at your kid’s school aren’t vaccinated? If you live in Connecticut, there’s no way to find out. But that could change under a legislative proposal favored by the state Department of Public Health, which is currently prohibited from releasing data on immunization rates by school.
Posted inJustice
In Connecticut, a formula helps make bail decisions
With proposals for bail reform again on the table at the legislature, it’s important to understand how the present system assesses the risk posed by each defendant. It turns out, there’s a formula to help with that.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Fixes for the ACA from someone who actually works with it
With Congress beginning the process of repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act, I am hearing a lot of questions about what comes next. People have suggested that Republicans have no ideas as to how to improve the situation, and many are worried we will go from the frying pan into the fire, so to speak. So as a proud Republican, who also happens to be an insurance agent having to deal with this law on a daily basis, I offer the following as ideas for a better way forward.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
The unthinkable is happening. What now?
The United States is poised to round up and deport as many as 11 million hard-working, tax-paying, property-owning, and child-rearing immigrants who happen to be undocumented. Before the election, I was told I was fear-mongering. Candidate Donald Trump would never do such a thing. He was just campaigning, not governing. The Republicans would never allow it. They would lose their foothold on Hispanic voters. Agribusiness would object. Who’d to pick the crops? Rural towns would resist. Deportation would decimate their tax bases. Well, it is happening.
Posted inPolitics
Push is on for more F-35s, Sikorsky helicopters and work for EB
Defense hawks are hoping the Trump administration will agree to a supplemental defense bill, and an increase in defense spending in the next annual budget. President Donald Trump has vowed to rebuild the military — and “to load it up” with “beautiful new equipment.”
Posted inJustice
ACLU praises CT prison reforms on solitary confinement
The national movement to limit the use of solitary confinement has come to Connecticut, where civil libertarians say they are on friendlier terrain than in many other states: Here they seek legislation that codifies in law reforms already adopted by the Department of Correction.