A harder test comes Thursday night in Stamford when Gov. Dannel P. Malloy faces an unfiltered audience at the first of his town hall meetings. But even in a small invitation-only event Tuesday, he heard concerns about the depth of his spending cuts.
Malloy finds even polite questions have no easy answers
Posted inTransportation
Duff reintroduces legislation to allow direct sale of electric cars
After the Senate failed to consider House-backed legislation last session, Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff, D-Norwalk, has introduced a bill to allow electric car manufacturers to sell vehicles directly to consumers in Connecticut. The bill has been opposed by car dealers in the state.
Posted inMoney, Politics
Business leaders push to intensify control of state spending
Connecticut’s business leaders had high praise Tuesday for the deep spending cuts and absence of tax hikes in Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s new budget. But they also warned that without an even harder, bipartisan push to control spending, businesses will remain reluctant to grow — or to support the tolls and gasoline tax hikes recommended to finance transportation improvements.
Posted inPolitics
Malloy: Speed DMV lines by shedding ‘collection agency’ role
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy wants to help the beleaguered Department of Motor Vehicles by getting the agency out of the municipal debt collection business and by expanding transactions that can be done at private businesses like AAA offices.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Malloy, Obama visit mosques, and you’re invited to do the same
Just last November, hundreds of our esteemed compatriots including Gov.Dannel Malloy, U.S. Rep. Elizabeth Esty, and Mayor Kevin Scarpati of Meriden visited our Baitul Aman “House of Peace” Mosque in Meriden. Together we demonstrated how through solidarity and by supporting peace-loving communities and their rightful freedoms we can build bridges and establish fruitful connections. You are invited to do the same.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
GE aftermath: Have the governor and Dems learned their lesson?
Missing from Gov. Dannel Malloy’s budget address on this year’s opening day of the legislative session was any mention of GE’s departure from the state. Of course, a leader must focus on the future and direct attention away from the negative. But why ignore reality? The only thing I can say for his speech is that at least pointing out the few companies that are investing in our state was more convincing than again spouting the “need for transportation and a high-tech atmosphere” as the reason for GE’s relocation.
Posted inMoney, Politics
Malloy’s vision for Connecticut shifts dramatically in new budget
Had state government slashed its way out of a deficit five years ago, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy often has said, Connecticut’s quality of life would be unrecognizable. But the Democratic governor now is urging spending cuts over the next two years that key Democratic lawmakers argue could have an impact similar to cuts Republicans sought – and Malloy decried – in 2011.
Posted inJustice
State to pay innocent man $6M for 20 years in prison
Miguel Roman, who served 20 years, six months and 10 days in prison for a murder the state concedes he did not commit, was awarded $6 million Monday by the state claims commissioner. DNA evidence exonerated him in 2008 and convicted another man in 2011.
Posted inPolitics
Merrill pitches making voter registration ‘automatic’
With about 30 percent of eligible voters unregistered, Secretary of the State Denise Merrill is asking the General Assembly to enable people to automatically register as Connecticut voters when they do business with the Department of Motor Vehicles. Residents who didn’t opt out would be automatically be registered.
Posted inHealth, Justice
Malloy, state health officials sued over Ebola quarantine policy
People quarantined in Connecticut during the height of the 2014 ebola crisis sued Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and state health officials on Monday, saying the quarantine policy the governor imposed is unconstitutional.
Posted inHealth
116,019 CT residents signed up for Obamacare plans
Updated at 6:50 p.m.
In all, 116,019 Connecticut residents signed up for private insurance through the state’s health insurance exchange, Access Health CT, during the open enrollment period that ended last week, officials said Monday.
Posted inMoney
Ayers tapped to head CT’s nonpartisan budget office
A 20-year veteran of the legislature’s Office of Fiscal Analysis, Neil A. Ayers of Simsbury, was tapped Monday to head the nonpartisan agency, the Office of Legislative Management announced.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
The SAT: Should Connecticut students opt out, or not?
Last year, hundreds of 11th-grade students across Connecticut refused to take the mandated SBAC test. Knowing that they had no control over independent-minded 11th-graders, the governor and State Department of Education sought a waiver from Washington, D.C., for permission to offer what they hoped would be a more palatable test: the SAT. It is a test […]
Posted inPolitics
3 GOP challengers looking to oust Esty
WASHINGTON– Rep. Elizabeth Esty’s latest Republican challengers may not have Andrew Roraback’s name recognition or Mark Greenberg’s wealth, but they are all determined to win the right to represent the 5th District in Congress and change the composition of Connecticut’s all-Democratic congressional delegation. They are Matt Maxwell of Sandy Hook, Clay Cope of Sherman and John Pistone of Brookfield.
Posted inHealth
Trying for a breath of fresh air in treating asthma
Asthma affects Connecticut residents at higher rates than the nation’s population as a whole, and it’s on the rise. Several local efforts are trying to make headway in changing the course of the disease, using approaches some say could serve as a model for addressing other chronic illnesses that are more heavily influenced by what happens in a patient’s daily life than treatment in the medical system.