In theory, everyone in the state has the opportunity to tell lawmakers what they think. But in practice, getting to speak at a public hearing at the state Capitol complex, or even reaching a legislator by email or telephone, can be a challenge. Public hearings often draw dozens of lobbyists and members of the public, […]

Harold Schwartz, a Hartford psychiatrist and member of the governor’s Sandy Hook Advisory Commission, is unimpressed with the Danbury State’s Attorney Stephen Sedensky’s report on the Newtown school massacre.  In a piece published by the Huffington Post, Schwartz pushes back at those who say the answer to Newtown, if there is one, rests with the […]

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., expressed some misgivings Tuesday about AT&T’s decision to sell its Connecticut operations to Frontier Communications, which is based in Stamford. “While this deal may be good for AT&T and Frontier, I want to make sure it is right for consumers,” said Blumenthal, a former and longtime Connecticut attorney general. “I look […]

“Crazy, nuts, psycho, schizo, insane”– these are the derogatory terms often used to describe the mentally ill. Mental illness has long been the red-headed stepchild in comparison with other types of illnesses known to man. Mental illness has been overshadowed by stigma, misconceptions and fear, which is driven by a lack of knowledge.  For this […]

The state’s tax department will give income tax filers the choice of receiving refunds by paper check next year in response to a computer data breach of its debit card system. The Department of Revenue Services also announced it would issue refunds by paper checks to “several thousand” filers still needing to resolve their 2013 […]

Elsa M. Núñez, the president of Eastern Connecticut State University, has won a lifetime achievement award from the New England Board of Higher Education. During her seven years at the public liberal arts college in Willimantic, Núñez has launched a program that allows the university to predict the academic success of its students and target support programs […]

The Newtown effect This week, in a half-dozen stories, a video and one particularly striking graphic, we tried to assess how Connecticut has absorbed and responded to the terrible event of a year ago. We talked with mental health experts to see if we’re changing how we approach mental illness. We spoke with school personnel to determine if […]

We are approaching the very sad one-year anniversary of the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School. The victims’ families and the people of Newtown have asked us all to pay tribute to their loved ones by respecting the town’s privacy on this day and by performing “random acts of kindness” as part of our everyday […]

For the last several years our government has tried to decrease the charitable tax deduction for generous Americans. If you missed the latest attempt at trying to fix what’s not broken, here’s what’s not broken. The Charitable Tax Deduction provides people with an income tax deduction when they make charitable donations to registered 501(c) (3) […]