The Senate voted this week on a water resources bill Connecticut lawmakers hope will clear the way to fund dozens of projects in Connecticut, including the dredging of New Haven Harbor, 18 beach erosion projects along the coastline and hurricane barriers in Stamford, New London and Pawcatuck. In a rare display of bipartisanship, the Water […]
Water bill could help Connecticut in navigation, flood protection
Posted inMoney, Politics
Town leaders treated to partisan spat at Capitol
Leaders of small towns may have headed to the state Capitol this week to lobby legislators not to cut their state funding, but what they got instead was a front-row view of legislative leaders bickering over the state’s budget crisis.
Posted inHealth
State getting more mental health first aid trainers
Thirty people will receive training next week to become instructors in mental health first aid, a program that helps participants learn to recognize signs of mental disorders and help others get professional help. Those instructors will then offer mental health first aid training in communities across the state to people who have regular contact with […]
Posted inNews
Symposium explores techno approach to medical patient care
Imagine a world where you could text a medical update to your doctor instead of coming in for a follow up. Or where your doctor could teleconference with several medical specialists at once to discuss your treatment, saving you a trip. This patient-centered, technological approach was the focus of a symposium on expanding access to […]
Posted inPolitics
Feds secretly videotaped House leaders Donovan and Cafero
New Haven – In a secretly videotaped encounter in 2012, then-House Speaker Christopher G. Donovan, D-Meriden, seemed to cheerfully take credit for killing a tobacco tax bill, then recoiled from the idea seconds later. “I took care of ya, didn’t I?” a smiling Donovan told Harry Raymond Soucy, a union friend acting on behalf of […]
Posted inNews
Connecticut lawmakers seek federal funds to rebuild Sandy Hook Elementary school
Washington –- Saying children should not have to walk down the halls where their classmates were slaughtered, Connecticut lawmakers introduced bills in Congress Thursday that would secure federal funds to build a new Sandy Hook Elementary School Last week, town leaders in Newtown voted to tear down the existing facility and build a new one […]
Posted inNews
McCarthy nomination approved by Senate panel
Washington –- A key Senate panel Thursday approved the nomination of Gina McCarthy for the top job at the Environmental Protection Agency on a strictly partisan vote. All 10 Democratic members of the Environment and Public Works Committee voted for the nominee, including an ailing New Jersey Sen. Frank Lautenberg who has hardly been on […]
Posted inNews
New college president is no stranger to crisis management
Gregory Gray is familiar with crisis management. Ten minutes on the job of leading a three-campus community college system just outside Los Angeles, his phone rang with an emergency message from the vice chancellor. “We have to cut $16.5 million from our budget this week,” Gray recalled of the conversation. He was told he would […]
Posted inNews
From ctlatinonews.com: Connecticut’s expanding array of Latino faces
This op-ed piece, by Orlando Rodriguez, originally appeared in www.ctlatinonews.com. Yolanda Negrόn knows Willimantic well after graduating from Eastern Connecticut State University and serving on the Windham Board of Selectmen. She says she is seeing “many new faces” in the local Latino community, and these new faces are not Puerto Ricans. Willimantic provides a window […]
Posted inNews
Compromise reached to provide oversight to university spending
Democratic Senators have decided they do want to hold hearings after all to vet the budgets of the state’s public colleges and universities — kind of. Last week, a Republican proposal that would require officials from the University of Connecticut and the Board of Regents to come before lawmakers to explain their proposed budget before it […]
Posted inNews
Big health care savings help counter shrinking state budget revenues
State officials trying to close a last-minute hole in the next budget got some good news Wednesday in the form of major savings in health care costs for retired state employees. The Legislature’s nonpartisan Office of Fiscal Analysis issued a memo indicating it has reduced its projected cost of providing health care to retired state […]
Posted inNews
Democrats hope to move McCarthy nomination
Washington – With the help of New Jersey Democrat Frank Lautenberg, Gina McCarthy’s stalled nomination to head the Environmental Protection Agency is set to clear a key Senate panel Thursday. The nomination of McCarthy, who once headed Connecticut’s environmental protection agency, will be considered by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, composed of 10 […]
Posted inNews
A fixer’s tale of attempted bribes
New Haven – His name was Harry Raymond Soucy, a brash and egotistical union leader and correction officer who portrayed himself in the backroom of a Waterbury smoke shop as a political fixer able to get things done at the Connecticut State Capitol. His solution: Bribes disguised as contributions to the top Democrat and Republican […]
Posted inNews
Anti-smoking forces push higher cigarette tax to solve state’s budget woes
With shrinking revenues complicating state budget talks, anti-smoking advocates pitched a nearly 30 percent hike in the cigarette tax Wednesday as an increase most voters would welcome. Key state officials responded warily to the 95-cents-per-pack hike proposal, and Connecticut’s grocery stores argued it would harm retail sales in a vulnerable economy. “The answers are loud […]
Posted inNews
Free dental clinic organizers looking to reach smaller cities
The dentists who run the annual Connecticut Mission of Mercy try to give each part of the state a chance to host the massive free dental clinic. There’s need, after all, in every town. This year’s clinic, which will be held June 7 and 8 in Bridgeport, is expected to draw thousands of people. At […]