WASHINGTON – A transportation builders’ association says 357 bridges in Connecticut are “structurally deficient,” meaning one or more key elements, such as the deck or substructure, is considered to be in “poor” condition – or worse.
Report: More than 350 CT bridges ‘structurally deficient’
Posted inEducation, Justice, Money, Politics
Judiciary says proposed cuts ‘compromise access to justice’
Cutting $64 million from the previously approved funding for the Judicial Branch next fiscal year would result in hundreds of layoffs and force closure of multiple courthouses and a juvenile detention facility, Judge Patrick L. Carroll III, chief court administrator, told the legislature’s Appropriations Committee.
Posted inJustice
Claims commissioner resigns amid controversy
J. Paul Vance Jr., the claims commissioner under fire for awarding $16.8 million to compensate four member members of a New Haven gang whose murder convictions were set aside, submitted a resignation letter last week, the governor’s office said Friday.
Posted inPolitics
Malloy’s agenda at winter NGA meeting
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy will be in Washington D.C. through Monday for the winter meeting of the National Governors Association, a security briefing by the FBI and meetings at the White House with President Obama.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Legislature must restore the confidence of business leaders
The most critical thing the Connecticut legislature can do to improve our economy is to restore confidence in business leaders that the state can manage, and sustain, its fiscal operations for the foreseeable future. In a recent CBIA survey, 88 percent of business executive respondents indicated state tax policy impacts decisions they make on investment and location decisions.
Posted inCT Viewpoints, Talking Transportation
Secrets for successfully riding Metro-North
Each week, dozens of people ride Metro-North for the first time. This week’s column is to let both new and veteran commuters in on the secrets of a successful rail commute.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Will Hartford prosper with peanuts and popcorn?
I have lived in Hartford for all my 38 years. I am proud to be raising my four kids here. But I’m getting angry — angry that the city’s new Dunkin Donuts stadium won’t agree to be covered by the city’s Living Wage.
Posted inPolitics
Connecticut hits milestone on fighting homelessness
As Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and the General Assembly debate what government’s core responsibilities are in an era of dwindling revenues, the federal government has certified Connecticut as the second state to effectively end homelessness among veterans. One federal official said, “This is Neil Armstrong walking on the moon kind of stuff.”
Posted inMoney
CT businesses offer first of six blueprints to cut state spending
Connecticut’s businesses delivered the first of a promised series of blueprints Wednesday to cut state spending over the long haul. The Connecticut Regional Institute for the 21st Century estimated the state could save $657 million annually on long-term care costs by 2025.
Posted inNews
CT community colleges shrink, squeezing budgets
Connecticut’s community colleges continue to shrink. With 2,393 fewer students than last fall – a 4.6 percent drop – members of the school system’s governing board were told Thursday the schools’ budgets would have to shrink as well.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
CT uses ‘blunt tools’ for evaluating teachers, gets predictable result
Connecticut’s Performance Evaluation Advisory Council (PEAC) met last week to discuss a response to data that show teacher evaluation systems have identified very few people to dismiss, and assign high ratings to most teachers — a pattern which has been reported in many states across the country over the last five years. This shouldn’t be a surprise, because many states are using similar tools for teacher evaluation: a state-specific version of Danielson’s Framework for Teaching (here dubbed the Common Core of Teaching, CCT), or other generic teaching rubric applied to teachers regardless of grade or subject area. When we use the same, blunt tools, we can expect the same, nonspecific results.
Posted inEducation, Money
Clues to where Malloy’s commissioners might cut, if given the authority
Asked by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy to give state agency leaders the authority to cut $360.8 million, state legislators are struggling to get a sense of which programs and services gubernatorial appointees would deem “pet projects” and target for reductions or elimination. “What I am trying to figure out when someone from a domestic violence shelter […]
Posted inPolitics
Even without challengers, CT lawmakers spend lots of campaign cash
WASHINGTON — They may not have well-funded challengers, or any political rivals at all, but the members of Connecticut’s delegation to the U.S. House of Representatives continued to raise campaign money and spend a lot of it, on everything from consultants to tickets for sporting events.
Posted inHealth, Politics
Malloy seeks to cut legislative authority over Medicaid changes
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s administration is seeking to eliminate legislators’ authority over certain attempts to make changes to Medicaid and other federally funded assistance programs – an authority legislators recently used to block a controversial administration proposal.
Posted inJustice
A new approach to prepping women to leave prison
EAST LYME — Until three weeks ago, 90 percent of Amy Gully’s daily routine in York Correctional, the state’s only prison for women, was staying in a cell, marking days off a 30-month sentence for embezzlement and waiting her turn to make a phone call home. She told Gov. Dannel P. Malloy that her new routine is dawn-to-dusk activity aimed at preparing her to go home.