Congressman John Larson’s proposal to build massive highway tunnels under Hartford is breathtaking in scope. It has stirred the blood of some public officials and business leaders. But the concept is so vast, complex and potentially expensive that many doubt it can be realized.
Larson’s tunnels: Big plan, even bigger challenge
Posted inPolitics
At White House, Malloy joins Michelle Obama in pitch to Trump
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy made a post-election visit to the White House on Monday for a summit on veterans’ homelessness that ended with a wistful plea by First Lady Michelle Obama for the administration of President-elect Donald J. Trump to continue a successful local, state and federal partnership to address homelessness.
Posted inNews
Blumenthal: Lame duck need not be lame
WASHINGTON — Congress returns to work this week for a lame-duck session aimed at trying to set aside partisan differences long enough to keep the government from closing. Connecticut’s two Democratic senators also hope some of the state’s priorities will survive in the next six weeks.
Posted inPolitics
CT senators decry Trump’s appointment of Stephen Bannon
WASHINGTON — Sen. Richard Blumenthal said he is “deeply troubled” by the appointment of someone associated with a web site that is “antisemitic, racist and homophobic.”
Posted inNews
About 50 towns flipped in 2016 presidential vote
Nine towns flipped from supporting Mitt Romney in 2012 to Clinton this year— most notably in the southwest part of the state that has tended to lean Republican in previous elections. Donald Trump, on the other hand, won over about 40 towns in the middle of the state.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
The Electoral College is unconstitutional
If voting is a “right” after a citizen turns 18 years old, then counting a citizen’s vote as null because of the state in which they reside is the equivalent of no vote at all, and a direct infringement on the “right to vote.” For a single vote towards a person of their choice should count as one, not as none.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
For supporting background checks, TRO bill, Klarides should step down
An open letter to Connecticut House Minority Leader Themis Klarides:
I am not one of your constituents, but felt compelled to compose this letter because I am deeply concerned and troubled at the path that we, as a state, are following. I am a life long resident of Connecticut, even electing to stay instate when I went away to college. I have seen it transform from a great place to live, put down roots and raise a family to a place I am now looking forward to leaving — all this in the span of just one generation.
Posted inEducation, Politics
CT joins lobbying fray over new federal education rule
WASHINGTON – Connecticut has joined a lobbying effort to change how federal money for schools with large populations of poor or disadvantaged students is distributed. The new regulation would bar school districts from “supplanting” the money they give to schools with poor students with federal money aimed at “supplementing” local funding.
Posted inPolitics
CT immigrants fear Trump-led backlash
WASHINGTON — Donald Trump’s policies on immigration are roiling the immigrant community in Connecticut, as they are across the nation. “Right now people don’t know what to expect,” said Carolina Bortolleto, an immigrant activist. “Everybody in the [immigrant] community feels things are dangerous and are scared.”
Posted inHealth
Concerned about your ACA plan? Repeal may take awhile
While it’s impossible to know exactly what changes are coming to the individual market and how soon they’ll arrive, one thing is virtually certain: Nothing will happen immediately. Here are answers to questions you may have.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Struggling families need expanded natural gas infrastructure
Connecticut, like many other states across the region, faces a real energy challenge in the coming years — one with very few good solutions. While the rest of the continental United States is enjoying the benefits of very low natural gas prices — and low electricity prices that are increasingly coupled to natural gas — New England is an outlier.
Posted inCT Viewpoints, Talking Transportation
Staying safe on the train
“I’m afraid to get back on the train,” said the trembling woman, obviously shaken and possibly injured in the Hoboken terminal train crash of a NJ Transit train in September. The shock of what she had seen was slowly sinking in and she was wondering how she was going to resume her life and its daily train commute after this horrific experience.
Posted inPolitics
CT Senate leaders blame Democratic losses on PACs, not policies
Senate President Pro Tem Martin M. Looney, D-New Haven, blames the rare loss of Democratic legislative seats in a presidential year on the targeted spending by business groups, not voter dissatisfaction with Hartford after two decades of Democratic control of the Connecticut General Assembly. His GOP counterpart’s view: “Hogwash.”
Posted inPolitics
CT lawmakers returning to D.C. with Dem Party in disarray
WASHINGTON — Connecticut’s members of the U.S. House, all Democrats who were re-elected by healthy margins in a bad year for their party, will return to work next week amid a new political reality and with a Democratic Party in disarray.
Posted inPolitics
House Democrats endorse new leaders, pledge bipartisanship
The new leadership of the Connecticut House of Representatives pledged a stronger working relationship with minority Republicans on Thursday, a reflection of the difficulty they face in conducting business with fewer Democrats and more challenges.