WASHINGTON — Sen. Richard Blumenthal said Thursday that he will oppose the confirmation of fellow Sen. Jeff Sessions as U.S. attorney general because his colleague from Alabama has a record that “reflects a hostility and antipathy and downright opposition to civil rights.”
Blumenthal calls Sessions hostile to civil rights, will oppose confirmation
Posted inPolitics
Dan Drew nudges Malloy with exploratory committee for 2018
Middletown Mayor Dan Drew became the first Democrat to take a formal step toward running for governor in 2018 by opening an exploratory committee Thursday, a sign not all Democrats will indefinitely wait for their party’s titular leader, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, to say if he is seeking a third term.
Posted inPolitics
CT lawmakers vote against waiver for defense secretary nominee Mattis
WASHINGTON — Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal on Thursday voted against granting retired Marine Gen. James Mattis a waiver that would allow him to serve as President-elect Donald Trump’s secretary of defense. Blumenthal was only one of three members of the Senate Armed Services Committee to vote against a waiver.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
New legislative balance brings hope for Connecticut businesses
This recession also dampened the normally optimistic view of the future for many of the state’s residents, evident in the polling and focus groups CBIA conducted throughout the 2016 election season. But because of the resiliency of Connecticut businesses and their workforces, our companies are competing and winning every day.Employers are heartened by the hope that the new balance in the state legislature will lead to more bipartisanship, and therefore better policy choices, as they are by Gov. Dannel Malloy’s emphasis on a more predictable and stable fiscal environment for businesses in his Opening Day address to the General Assembly.
Posted inEducation
Legislators question shielding DCF from budget squeeze
Legislators are growing increasingly concerned with Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s push to lock in an $800 million budget for the state agency responsible for the care of thousands of abused and neglected children – while he promises to slash spending elsewhere.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Mark Twain on Teddy Roosevelt and Guess Who
What, one wonders, would Mark Twain make of Donald Trump? Twain was not known for political punditry, but late in his life he acquired a visceral aversion to President Theodore Roosevelt, who was the showy egoist of his era. Indeed, the novelist labeled the Rough Rider “far and away the worst President we have ever had” and “the most formidable disaster that has befallen the country since the Civil War.”
Posted inPolitics
Murphy questions Tillerson on Russian dossier, says nomination in trouble
WASHINGTON – Sen. Chris Murphy, who says the nomination is in trouble, on Wednesday questioned Rex Tillerson, Donald Trump’s pick to head the State Department, about a dossier of unverified allegations that Russian operatives have been helping the president-elect for years and have compromising information about him. “The report is as earth-shattering as it is thinly sourced,” Murphy said. “We all pray it is untrue.”
Posted inPolitics
Trump takes another shot at F-35 program
WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump took another swipe at the F-35 program Wednesday during his first press conference since November’s election. “It’s way behind schedule and billions of dollars over budget,” Trump said. “I don’t like that.”
Posted inEducation, Money, Politics
Malloy won’t reassure CT towns they are safe from the budget axe
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy offered worried municipal leaders Wednesday no assurances they would be spared from cuts to local aid as he and the General Assembly grapple with another major deficit in the next state budget.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Why I march
Since the Women’s March on Washington began, perhaps the biggest question has been: Why March? We are a large group of women throughout the state of Connecticut who woke up on November 9 with the realization that something unique had occurred. We each woke up the day after the election feeling like strangers in an alien land. A call to move from despondency to recovery and resistance, created a need to reach out and join forces that ultimately coalesced in the March on Washington on January 21. While, as individuals, we may have joined this effort for different reasons, we have organized around three principles: We march to support each other and remind ourselves that we are not alone. We march to send a clear message that the new administration has no mandate. We march to organize for a better future.
Posted inHealth
How can states tackle rising medication prices?
There’s a bully pulpit approach – think President-elect Donald J. Trump, who blasted pharmaceutical companies Wednesday – or the more industry-friendly concept of tying payments to whether the drugs deliver value, like fewer hospitalizations. There’s proposing legislation to increase transparency in drug pricing, or treating certain medications as critical goods that should be regulated like water and electricity.
Posted inPolitics
McCain blasts DOD, Lockheed Martin for new F-35 delays
WASHINGTON — Sen. John McCain on Tuesday blasted the Pentagon and Lockheed Martin for a seven-month delay in the F-35 program that will cost the Pentagon an additional $500 million.
Posted inJustice, Politics
Blumenthal presses Sessions on his links to controversial groups
WASHINGTON – Sen. Richard Blumenthal provoked one of the liveliest exchanges in the day-long confirmation hearing of Sen. Jeff Sessions, President-elect Donald Trump’s choice for attorney general, by pressing him on his links to controversial groups who have given him awards.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Two critical education issues for the Connecticut legislature
From my perspective we have two critical points in the current Connecticut education crisis that must be dealt with first during the General Assembly’s 2017 session: One, the Common Core State Standards — developmentally inappropriate for many of our children, especially those in the elementary years. And Two: Measuring our children using the new state mastery test, which lacks psychometric test validation and reliability.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
‘Pension spiking’ bleeding Connecticut’s budget — bigtime
“Pension Spiking” is the term used to describe the common practice whereby state and government employees contrive to boost their pensions in the last years of their employment. Pension spiking has been going on for years throughout the country, but it has been raised to a new level in Connecticut during Gov. Dannel Malloy’s two terms. By appointing a number of loyal Democrat legislators to judgeships or other high ranking positions in his administration, he has “spiked” their retirement benefits.