R. Nelson “Oz” Griebel, longtime chief executive officer of the MetroHartford Alliance, has been active in state, regional and city public policy for nearly two decades. He chaired the state Transportation Strategy Board and ran, unsuccessfully, for governor in 2010. Now, as the governor and General Assembly resume debate on the state budget and massively under-funded retirement benefit programs that threaten Connecticut’s fiscal future, Griebel sat down to talk with The Mirror.
Griebel on the business climate: ‘Confidence must be restored’
Posted inEducation, Politics
Betsy DeVos’s first week at the U.S. Department of Education
After a bruising confirmation fight, Betsy DeVos has taken the helm at the U.S. Department of Education. Here’s what you should know about the protests, gaffes, and policy shifts that have marked her first few days on the job.
Posted inJustice
In Connecticut, calling for help carries risks for domestic violence victims
Sanna Dilawar is one of hundreds of Connecticut women arrested each year along with the men who assault them under a procedure known as “dual arrests.” In Connecticut, data for the years 2011 through 2015 shows that dual arrests have taken place, on average, in 18 percent of all episodes of such violence that result in an arrest.
Posted inHealth
Treatment gaps persist between low- and high-income workers
Low-wage workers with job-based health insurance were significantly more likely than their higher-income colleagues to wind up in the emergency department or be admitted to the hospital, in particular for conditions that with good primary care shouldn’t result in hospitalization, a new study found.
Posted inHealth, Politics
At Berlin forum, residents tell Larson to repair ACA, fight repeal
The forum was part of a national effort by congressional Democrats to hold town hall-style meetings in an attempt to showcase the importance of the Affordable Care Act and demonstrate significant opposition to repealing it.
Posted inHealth
In legal soap opera, Cigna and Anthem trade charges of sabotage
WASHINGTON – In a vicious legal battle laid out in court papers unsealed Friday, Cigna accuses Anthem of undermining its business by stealing confidential information and soliciting its customers. Anthem counters in a rival filing that Cigna worked to sabotage the companies’ proposed merger after its executives were not promised the positions they wanted in the merged company.
Posted inMoney, Politics
Malloy: Choice is modernize or close aging XL Center
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.
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.