In a recent wide-ranging interview over lunch, The Connecticut Mirror pressed outgoing Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus, the longest serving naval chief in 100 years, about the future of submarine warfare, delays in the F-35 joint strike fighter program and why the Pentagon wants another round of base closings.
Q&A: Outgoing Navy chief talks submarines, F-35s and his legacy
Posted inNews
Senate leader Martin Looney needs a kidney transplant
A Roman Catholic church has made a public appeal on Facebook for a kidney donor for Senate President Pro Tem Martin M. Looney, whose only kidney is failing.
Posted inHealth, Politics
Aetna’s withdrawal from exchanges is fodder in White House race
WASHINGTON — Aetna’s decision to withdraw from most Affordable Care Act health insurance exchanges became the latest debating point in the race for the White House Tuesday.
Posted inMoney
Fasano seeks AG’s opinion on cuts to watchdogs’ budget
Senate Minority Leader Len Fasano, R-North Haven, requested a legal opinion from the attorney general Tuesday on the legality of the Malloy administration’s plan to cut the budgets of autonomous watchdog agencies.
Posted inHealth, Money
DDS layoffs to reach 605 as state moves to privatize services
Updated at 4:35 p.m.
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s administration unveiled plans Tuesday that would privatize 40 state-run group homes and a host of services for the intellectually disabled and eliminate the need for 605 state jobs, saving Connecticut almost $70 million annually by next fiscal year.
Posted inCT Viewpoints, Talking Transportation
Connecticut’s rail history offers summer day-trip fun
If you’re looking for family fun this summer, consider visiting one of Connecticut’s many living museums celebrating our rail heritage… All of these museums are run by volunteers who will appreciate your patronage and support. They love working on the railroad and will tell you why if you express even the slightest interest in their passion.
Posted inNews
After two decades, it’s New Haven’s SoHo
Conceived in the 1980s and completed in the mid-1990s, there were no more daring or comprehensive preservation projects in Connecticut than Ninth Square in New Haven. Now, two decades after its completion, Ninth Square is a vibrant urban neighborhood, a place for art, food, tech start-ups and street fun.
Posted inPolitics
The Republicans’ favorite issue in Connecticut is Malloy
From Donald J. Trump to Republican candidates for the General Assembly, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy is repeatedly reminded that the GOP sees him as a potent campaign issue in 2016, even if the two-term Democratic governor is not on the ballot this fall and probably won’t ever seek elective office again.
Posted inEducation, Justice
DCF offers few details on closing controversial jail for juveniles
The report may be titled “Plan for the Closure of the Connecticut Juvenile Training School,” but the state’s child welfare agency provides few details on how the controversial jail for young offenders will be shut down, and even allows for the possibility that it never does.
Posted inPolitics
Control of the CT Senate at stake in battleground districts
If the GOP can gain four seats, it will turn a 21-15 Democratic advantage into a 19-17 Republican majority, giving them control of the chamber for the first time in 20 years.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Connecticut whittles away at its watchdog agencies
In her op-ed in The Connecticut Mirror, State Rep. Mary Mushinsky (D-Wallingford) writes about an unanticipated, end-of-the-legislative-session, 50 percent cut to the personnel budget of the General Assembly’s Office of Program Review and Investigations. She reasonably asks, “How does silencing the state’s efficiency experts help the state adjust to less revenues and a leaner government? And why is this cut far more extensive than other line-item reductions?”
Posted inPolitics
Despite sweltering heat, Trump draws thousands, blasts Malloy
FAIRFIELD – Republican presidential nominee Donald J. Trump brushed aside skepticism about his decision to campaign in a deep-blue state and drew about 5,000 people to a rally here Saturday on the hottest day of the year. Trump tailored his message to include heavy criticism of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, a litany of statistics about the state’s sluggish economy, and the pointed question, “How did you lose General Electric?”
Posted inTransportation
Opponents organizing to derail new route for high-speed trains
OLD LYME — As federal officials near a decision on a railroad proposal residents are calling destructive and wasteful, about 70 people from across the southeastern Connecticut’s shoreline gathered Friday with local, state and federal lawmakers at a forum at Old Lyme Town Hall to find out how they could help stop it “dead in its tracks.”
Posted inEducation, Politics
Early Childhood Commissioner Myra Jones-Taylor to step down
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy announced Friday that Myra Jones-Taylor, commissioner of the state Office of Early Childhood, will step down from her position effective Sept. 1. She is leaving to pursue “new professional opportunities,” the governor’s office said.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Education funding equity must start at the early grades
As Connecticut awaits the decision by Superior Court Judge Thomas Moukawsher on the educational equity funding lawsuit, let’s not forget that many of the children in Connecticut’s low-income school districts are starting school (that is, kindergarten) way behind in terms of the knowledge, skills and behaviors needed for elementary school and later academic success. Many are also behind in third grade reading and eighth grade math. And too many do not graduate. We have known that for years. If the goal is high school graduation and readiness for work and citizenship, trying to remediate students or the schools in our low-income districts at the end of this trajectory is way too late.