WASHINGTON — The Navy on Friday sharply increased its projections for how many Virginia-class attack submarines it needs from 48 to 66 – opening the door to boosting production to three subs a year. “It’s the first time the Navy has taken a new look at submarines since 2004, and it’s long overdue,” said Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2nd District.
Navy boosts projections for Virginia-class submarines
Posted inPolitics, Transportation
Fed plan for Northeast Corridor rail includes new shoreline route
Updated at 5:20 p.m.
WASHINGTON — The Federal Railroad Administration on Friday released its ambitious vision for an overhaul of Northeast Corridor railroads, a plan that would create a new route through Old Lyme and other shoreline towns and upgrade the rail line from New Haven to Hartford and Springfield, Mass. Connecticut officials immediately vowed to fight realignment of the shoreline route.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
A practical solution to funding special ed in Connecticut
Every student who walks through the doors each morning at one of Connecticut’s more than 1,300 public schools has their own unique skills and abilities, as well as their own needs and challenges. But despite their differences, each of these students has something in common: the right to a quality, equitably funded education. For Connecticut’s more than 74,500 students who need some type of special education service, this right is particularly important.
Posted inEnergy & Environment
CT works on a new energy strategy as old one misses the mark
The three-year update to Connecticut’s Comprehensive Energy Strategy, underway now, faces dramatically changed energy, environmental and political landscapes that raise questions about whether the first strategy, with its focus on natural gas, may have partially wasted the last three years.
Posted inPolitics
Blumenthal says Senate may reject some Trump cabinet picks
WASHINGTON – Some of President-elect Donald Trump’s nominees for cabinet positions may not be able to win Senate approval, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said Thursday.
Posted inPolitics
Newtown activists come to an election-changed Washington
WASHINGTON — On their first pilgrimage here since the election, relatives of victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting and other incidents of gun violence and their allies asked President-elect Donald Trump to abandon his hard-line stance against gun control. But chances of that are slim.
Posted inMoney
Wall Street agency gives CT pension deal a ‘credit positive’
Moody’s Investors Service, one of the four major credit rating agencies, labeled the proposal negotiated by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s administration and state union leaders as a “credit positive” for Connecticut in the agency’s weekly credit outlook statement.
Posted inMoney, Politics
Nappier: CT legislature must vote for pension deal to work
While offering tempered praise this week for a plan to stretch out Connecticut’s spiking pension costs, state Treasurer Denise L. Nappier also said legislators must cast at least one vote related to the deal.
Posted inNews
Feds have concerns with judge’s special education ruling
The U.S. Department of Education wrote the state’s education commissioner this week to share concerns about a state judge’s order telling Connecticut lawmakers to reassess what level of services students with significant disabilities are entitled to.
Posted inHealth
CT Obamacare sign-up deadline extended to Saturday
Updated 1:35 p.m.
Thursday had been the deadline for people to sign up for private insurance plans that would begin covering them Jan. 1. The exchange is extending that deadline to Dec. 17 at midnight.
Posted inMoney
CT unemployment rate falls to 4.7 percent in November
Connecticut’s unemployment rate fell to 4.7 percent in November as it added 2,100 jobs, the state Department of Labor reported Thursday.
Posted inHealth, Justice
Connecticut leads 20 states alleging price-fixing in generic drugs
Attorney General George Jepsen’s office is leading a multi-state investigation of generic drug companies that culminated Thursday in a federal price-fixing lawsuit filed in Hartford that complements an unfolding criminal antitrust investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Join Connecticut’s effort to end homelessness
On Jan. 24, 2017, the Connecticut Coalition to End Homelessness (CCEH) seeks volunteers to join us in this year’s national census of homelessness, the Point-in-Time (PIT) count. The PIT Count is an important annual exercise to count the total number of homeless on a given night across Connecticut and the country.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Amid national election concerns, Connecticut goes the wrong way
About half the states, including Connecticut, have both paper ballots and post-election audits. Because our audits were transparent and publicly verifiable, Connecticut Citizen Election Audit observers have been able to reveal multiple flaws in the process and in the official reporting of audit results. Earlier this year, however, the General Assembly unanimously cut Connecticut’s the audits from 10 percent of districts to 5 percent. Now there is more bad news: our already inadequate audits have been partially replaced by electronic “audits” which are not transparent and not publicly verifiable.
Posted inEducation, Justice
Troubled schools on trial: Will a scathing court decision lead to action?
While changing the way the state distributes school aid among towns may draw substantial support from legislators and the governor, they have shown little interest in, or have outright rejected, changing other polices a Superior Court judge found unconstitutional. Last of seven stories.