When Maureen Gard goes running, the flashbacks come: riding in her Marine platoon leader’s car, the jokes about her bra size, the fondling, and the pinning her down. She was 18 at the time and considered her platoon leader a friend when she went for a ride with him to a mall near their base in Virginia. They were classmates training to be Marine musicians. He drove fast, her cell phone fell between her legs, he reached down to get it, she said.
The deep cultural roots of military sex abuse
Posted inNews
Scott Walker offers CT GOP a conservative prescription
Stamford – Raucous union demonstrators outside a Connecticut Republicans’ fundraiser Monday showed that Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin remains a lightning rod for curtailing the collective-bargaining rights of public employees. But does Walker’s battles with labor in the Midwest make him a role model for GOP candidates considering a challenge next year to this state’s […]
Posted inNews
Metro-North tracks were inspected two days before crash
This story was revised May 22 to include additional information on the timing of track inspections. Washington — The Metropolitan Transportation Authority inspected the tracks involved in Friday’s derailment two days before the collision that left dozens injured, the Federal Railroad Administration said Monday. But a more rigorous federal inspection of the track had not been […]
Posted inNews
Rail chief says service to resume Wednesday
First the good news, and then the good news: Not only was the Monday commute in lower Fairfield County reasonable, but the president of Metro-North said full train service will return Wednesday morning. “We are confident that the reconstruction work, inspection and testing will be completed in time for a normal rush hour on Wednesday,” […]
Posted inNews
Proposal seeks to lay groundwork for better children’s mental health
In an effort that grew out of personal experience, advice from experts and the stories parents told in the wake of the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School, the head of the legislature’s Committee on Children Monday unveiled a proposal aimed at making it easier for families to access mental health services for children. The […]
Posted inNews
State’s child advocate resigns
Jamey Bell has resigned as the state’s child advocate, she confirmed Monday. Her decision to leave comes seven months after becoming head of the watchdog agency overseeing state departments responsible for abused and neglected children. “I am leaving to lead the organization I spent most of my career at,” Bell said during an interview. Bell awaits board […]
Posted inNews
Defense rests without offering evidence in political corruption case
New Haven — The defense rested Monday without offering testimony in the conspiracy trial of Robert Braddock Jr., the campaign aide whose arrest a year ago opened a scandal that mortally wounded the congressional candidacy of Christopher G. Donovan. The jury in U.S. District Court will get the case Tuesday after closing arguments in a […]
Posted inNews
Laptop? Starbucks? Excedrin? Train commuters: Get ready for Monday
Updated: Sunday, 10 p.m. Bridgeport — Commuters in southwestern Connecticut should brace for a headache of a commute Monday. And Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday ….. Metro-North will provide bus service to commuters who normally travel on the tracks between Bridgeport and South Norwalk starting Monday morning. But officials say there are not nearly enough buses to […]
Posted inNews
Paul Stern: No more ‘Corrupticut,’ but less interest in opening government
About a year ago, The Center for Public Integrity in Washington enlisted 50 journalists, including me, in a massive project measuring the degree to which state governments were accountable, open to public scrutiny and susceptible to corruption. To my surprise, Connecticut ranked second, next to New Jersey, as the most transparent of all 50 states. […]
Posted inNews
Blumenthal will help push to reduce sexual assault in the military
Reacting to a week of shockingly bad news about sexual assault in the military, Sen. Richard Blumenthal announced Friday that he is pushing to reform the military judicial process and provide more support for victims. “This crime is underreported and under-prosecuted in the military and I am going to be proposing reforms along with colleagues […]
Posted inNews
Census Bureau under fire from the right
Washington -– As the U.S. Census Bureau collects information about housing from Connecticut residents in the next few months, the agency faces trouble in Washington. The sequester, or across-the-board federal spending cuts, are digging deep into the agency’s budget and conservative Republicans want to gut or eliminate many of its programs. That’s making a broad […]
Posted inNews
Fed economist says state can shave big dollars off towns’ spending
Connecticut can reduce the cost of municipal government dramatically over time, but it won’t happen unless state leaders pave the way, a top economist with the Federal Reserve Bank said Friday. Yolanda Kodrzycki, vice president and director of the reserve’s New England Public Policy Center in Boston, also said other states particularly have cut costs […]
Posted inNews
Hundreds of kindergarten students suspended from school
It started with a report to the state’s Office of the Child Advocate that a child had been expelled from preschool. Jamey Bell, the child advocate, saw no reason why a child that young should be suspended, and wanted to know how widespread the problem was. She also had learned that a 7-year-old had been arrested […]
Posted inNews
Testimony: Donovan’s biggest money men had stake in legislation
New Haven – The two biggest fundraisers for then-House Speaker Christopher G. Donovan’s 2012 congressional campaign were Harry Raymond Soucy and Mark Masselli, men with significant financial interests before the General Assembly, a campaign official testified Friday. Soucy, according to previous witnesses, was responsible for delivering checks totaling $27,500 from donors trying to ensure that […]
Posted inNews
Water bill could help Connecticut in navigation, flood protection
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 […]