Connecticut’s prison system unnecessarily locks up too many people for too long and costs its taxpayers billions of dollars that could be saved or better spent on education, housing, medical care and other social programs. It is time for reform.
Op-Ed: Connecticut’s prison system wasteful of both human and monetary resources
Posted inHealth
Access Health says it has 11,604 new Medicaid and insurance customers
In the first week of open enrollment, 2,659 new customers signed up for private insurance plans and 8,945 people signed up for Medicaid through Access Health CT, the state’s health insurance exchange.
Posted inEducation
Faculty and university president call a truce
Faculty and union leaders said Friday they have reached a temporary truce with the president of the state’s largest public college system. Angst among professors at the Connecticut State Colleges & Universities system had grown in recent weeks after President Gregory W. Gray released “roadmaps” for changes he was considering making at the schools.
Posted inPolitics
Administration removes Yelmini as labor-relations chief
The administration of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy abruptly notified Linda J. Yelmini, the state’s longtime director of labor relations, that she is being laid off, leaving surprised union leaders to wonder what the move signals in Malloy’s approach to labor.
Posted inEducation, Health, Money, Politics
Legislators delve into deficit, including its sudden appearance
The legislature’s two budget-writing panels grilled Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s fiscal staff Friday about the new state deficit – and the administration’s latest cuts to reduce it. Republican legislators focused, as expected, on why the $99 million shortfall Malloy reported last week wasn’t acknowledged before Election Day.
Posted inMoney
Republican legislative leaders call for special session on deficit
The top Republican legislators in the General Assembly called Friday for a special session to balance the budget, charging Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s office with disclosing only half of the true deficit facing the state.
Posted inEducation
Newtown shooter: Report finds failure to address ‘a cascade’ of problems
There were many red flags in Adam Lanza’s life in the years before he killed 20 elementary students in Sandy Hook, according to a report released Friday by Connecticut’s child advocate. Here are four things the state watchdog agency says should be learned from an examination of Lanza’s life.
Posted inEducation
School funding case may be delayed
The trial that will determine whether the state is spending enough money to provide all public school children in Connecticut with an adequate education will probably be delayed. It had been set to begin on Jan. 6.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Students need more options, including charters
It’s time to stop the ideological wars and collaborate to give the 40,000 kids currently trapped in chronically failing traditional schools another option.
Posted inNews
Op-Ed: Students need more options, including charters
It’s time to stop the ideological wars and collaborate to give the 40,000 kids currently trapped in chronically failing traditional schools another option.
Posted inPolitics
Obama actions to help only some Connecticut immigrants stay
WASHINGTON – President Obama’s controversial move to stop the deportation of millions of immigrants will help thousands of undocumented people living and working in Connecticut, but bypasses thousands of others.
Posted inMoney, Politics
Malloy celebrates job gains on day marked by fiscal setbacks
The election is over, but Gov. Dannel P. Malloy did a little campaigning Thursday to promote another positive monthly jobs report that he says keeps Connecticut on track to complete its post-recession job recovery next year.
Posted inPolitics
Despite GOP opposition, Senate confirms Bolden to federal bench
WASHINGTON – New Haven Corporation Counsel Victor Allen Bolden was confirmed by the U.S. Senate Thursday to a federal judgeship in Connecticut on a narrow 49-46 vote. All Senate Republicans opposed the nomination of Bolden, 49, who has served as an attorney for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and as a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union.
Posted inEducation, Health, Money
Malloy’s emergency budget cuts fall on social services, education
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy ordered nearly $48 million in emergency budget cuts Thursday, imposing the deepest cuts on social services, education and culture and tourism promotion. The cuts, which do not require legislative approval, whittle the nearly $100 million deficit Malloy projected last week down to $45 million.
Posted inPolitics
Blumenthal, other senators blast defective airbag maker Takata
WASHINGTON – Are drivers in Connecticut safe from the chance the airbags in their cars may kill or maim them? That was one question raised during a heated Senate hearing Thursday on the safety of airbags installed in more than 30 million vehicles made by Honda, Chrysler, BMW and eight other automakers. All were made by the Japanese company Takata.