Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said Friday that a $250 million plan to overhaul the aging XL Center in downtown Hartford is a blueprint to modernize an arena that has reached the end of its useful life, not a long-shot bid to bring NHL hockey back to Connecticut -– even if a would-be NHL ownership group is looking at Hartford.
Malloy: Choice is modernize or close aging XL Center
Posted inCT Viewpoints
The DNC needs an Organizer in Chief, not a Fund-raiser in Chief
As chairperson of the Democratic National Committee, Keith Ellison will bring the reformational change to the DNC and ultimately to the Democratic Party that our party’s members demand and our nation’s voters deserve. With Ellison as chairperson of the DNC, the position will no longer serve as the failed model of Fundraiser in Chief, but instead, as Organizer in Chief harnessing the grassroots zeal which is now in full bloom across our country.
Posted inEducation, Money
Education funding reform: More for the cities — or maybe less
As proposed, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s state budget would be a financial boon for Connecticut’s cities, but nothing in it ensures that any additional money headed their way will go to their troubled schools. Here are the major elements of the educational funding plan that state and municipal leaders must address in the weeks ahead.
Posted inHealth, Politics
GOP gives House members proposal to repeal, replace the ACA
WASHINGTON — The proposal, which will be considered later this month in a series of hearings, includes replacement of the law’s subsidies that help people buy insurance with tax credits based on a person’s age, not income, and elimination of federally mandated basic benefits in an insurance plan.
Posted inPolitics
Progressives struggle to regain momentum on labor bills
The Democratic leader of the evenly divided state Senate led the kickoff Thursday of an uphill campaign to raise the $10.10 minimum wage to $15 on Jan. 1, 2022, and also make Connecticut the fifth state in the U.S. to enact a worker-funded insurance program of paid medical leave.
Posted inHealth
CT Obamacare exchange at a ‘critical crossroads,’ leader says
Jim Wadleigh cited a new IRS policy that could affect the individual mandate, a proposed federal rule aimed at stabilizing insurance markets, and the ongoing uncertainty about the Affordable Care Act’s future. The exchange also has a budget crunch to fix.
Posted inHealth, Money
CT hospitals launch TV ad to protest new tax proposal
Connecticut’s hospital industry launched a new television ad Thursday to protest Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s proposal to end nonprofit hospitals’ exemption from local property taxation.
Posted inMoney
S&P worried about proposed cost shift onto CT towns
S&P Global Ratings warned Thursday that Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s proposals to shift one-third of the cost of the teachers’ pension program onto cities and towns, and to realign other grants, “creates budgetary uncertainty for local governments.”
Posted inHealth, Justice, Money, Politics
Budget cuts cost CT medical examiner’s office full accreditation
The Connecticut Office of the Chief Medical Examiner has lost its full accreditation and was downgraded to provisional status because of staffing and facility shortcomings driven largely by budget cuts.
Posted inHealth
Here’s what we know about CT’s Obamacare insurance customers
Nearly one in three are 55 and older. Those who pay full price are younger, on average. And many live in Fairfield County.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Reducing illiteracy will help close Connecticut’s achievement gap
One in four children in our country grows up functionally illiterate, according to the National Assessment of Adult Literacy. Did you know we spend $2 billion nationally every year on students repeating a grade because they face challenges reading? The state of Connecticut currently sees the second largest wealth inequality in the United States. While the state ranks as the fourth richest in the United States, children are still in need. On Feb. 25, Pi Beta Phi will donate 20,000 brand new books to Hartford groups serving low-income families at a book distribution through Pi Beta Phi’s partnership with First Book®.
Posted inHealth
CT uninsured rate among lowest in the country, report says
Connecticut’s uninsured rate was among the lowest in the country in 2016, but the report’s authors warned that the exact figure was potentially unreliable.
Posted inPolitics
‘Spy ship’ off Groton fuels Democratic calls for probe of Trump Moscow ties
WASHINGTON — As news of the Russian “spy ship” loitering 30 miles from Groton made the rounds of the U.S. Capitol Wednesday, Democrats wove the incident into their demands for investigations of President Trump’s relationship with Russia.
Posted inEducation
College leaders warn proposed cuts would have big consequences
The president of the state’s largest public college system offered a particularly dismal outlook, warning the cuts could lead his system to declare its equivalent of bankruptcy.
Posted inHealth, Justice, Politics
Anthem sues to stop Cigna from ending merger attempt
WASHINGTON — The messy divorce between Anthem and Cigna took another turn Wednesday in a Delaware court that will be the scene of further expensive legal battling over the insurers’ merger attempt.