ENFIELD — The good news Wednesday night was that at least a dozen of the people waiting to question Gov. Dannel P. Malloy had minimal interest in Connecticut’s intractable budget problems. The bad news: They came to talk about their crumbling basements, a problem that may affect thousands.
Malloy hears from homeowners with crumbling basements
Posted inJustice
With broad support, bail reform seems inevitable
Pushed by a coalition that stretches across the political spectrum, reform is coming to Connecticut’s bail system. The only question seems to be how far and how fast the General Assembly is prepared to go.
Posted inEducation
Michelle Rhee group merges with education advocates with CT roots
Updated at 7 p.m.
The national 50CAN education reform group – whose founding was inspired by the Connecticut-based advocacy group ConnCAN – is merging with StudentsFirst, a national group that was started by the controversial past chancellor of Washington, D.C., schools, Michelle Rhee.
Posted inMoney, Politics
Malloy: State workers to get layoff notices in about two weeks
The major round of state employee layoffs that Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s administration has been hinting at since February is about two weeks away, the governor said Wednesday.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Connecticut should fix its unfair ballot-position picking system
I suppose that congratulations are in order to fringe candidate Roque “Rocky” de la Fuente on ‘winning’ a random drawing for the top ballot position in the Democratic primary for president taking place on April 26. It is a stroke of luck which will perhaps net the California businessman a few hundred additional votes due to a phenomenon social scientists refer to as the “primacy effect” or “serial position effect.” Rocky has met all the statutory requirements for appearing on the ballot and seems like a decent person, but he does not deserve this unearned advantage. Neither does Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders or any other candidate.
Posted inHealth
Tiny opioid patients need help easing into life
Swaddled in soft hospital blankets, Lexi is two weeks old and weighs six pounds. She’s been at Women and Infants Hospital in Providence, Rhode Island, since she was born, and is experiencing symptoms of opioid withdrawal. Her mother took methadone to wean herself from heroin when she got pregnant, just as doctors advised. But now the hospital team has to wean newborn Lexi from the methadone.
Posted inEducation, Health, Money, Politics
Legislature adopts bipartisan plan to close this year’s modest deficit
The General Assembly overwhelmingly adopted a bipartisan plan Tuesday afternoon to close most or all of the current budget deficit, immediately shifting the legislature’s focus to a far larger projected shortfall for the fiscal year beginning July 1.
Posted inJustice
Child sex slavery: No pimps convicted by state in last 10 years
While more than 400 children who have been sold for sex or forced labor have been referred to Connecticut’s child welfare agency in recent years, not a single person has been convicted in state court of trafficking in the last 10 years, according to top state legislators and the Permanent Commission on the Status of Women.
Posted inJustice, Money, Politics
Hundreds of state employees demand no layoffs or concessions
Hundreds of unionized state employees rallied Tuesday morning on the north steps of the Capitol, demanding that Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and legislators abandon plans for layoffs and calls for wage and benefit concessions.
Posted inEducation
Board of Regents gives final okay to tuition hikes
The Board of Regents for Higher Education approved 3.5 to 5 percent tuition hikes for the 17 schools in the Connecticut State Colleges and Universities system with only one dissenting vote.
Posted inEducation
Malloy rejects bill to tax Yale endowment earnings
Updated at 1:55 p.m.
A tax proposed by top legislators on the earnings of Yale’s sizable endowment was shot down Tuesday by the administration of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Connecticut civil engineers to BOR — delay eliminating tech program
Three Rivers Community College consulted with the wrong constituents for terminating its Civil Engineering Tech program. Architects and construction managers (wrong industry) were consulted to terminate CET, not civil engineers and surveyors (correct industry).
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Why is Hartford broke?
Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin recently said that Hartford is “in a state of fiscal emergency,” with projected budget deficits of 30 percent this year and into the future. Why is this happening? The short answer is that the City of Hartford can’t raise enough revenue to cover its costs. But this can’t be explained as solely a short-run or managerial problem.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Regents, keep the Three Rivers civil engineering tech program
I am one of 80 students in the Three Rivers Community College’s civil engineering and environmental engineering technology programs who are urging the Board of Regents to save the civil engineering technology program. We want the Board of Regents to immediately delay its decision, now set for today, on terminating the program until the end of this summer to allow for a “cool down” period.
Posted inMoney
Is wealth leaving the state?
The claim that wealth is leaving the state is often discussed, but does the data back it up? We analyzed two decades of IRS statistics on income among people moving from state to state to see if we could answer that question.