The state’s health care exchange has awarded a $15 million contract to a Virginia company with a mixed track record in Connecticut. Through a competitive process, the exchange, called Access Health CT, selected Maximus Inc. of Reston, Va., to run its call center operation. Maximus will handle phone calls and guide consumers through buying and […]
Company with checkered record to handle health exchange
Posted inNews
The mental health system changed, and so did his life
Years of therapy convinced Paul Acker that he was broken, and his life seemed to bear it out. He couldn’t hold a job for more than a few months before his major depression and paranoia would take over, causing him to lose the job, his friends and wherever he was living. Suicide attempts landed him […]
Posted inNews
Snow Plower Intentionally Buries Cars, Gets Fired
This is as funny as it is infuriating. A screenshot from a video taken by a snow plow driver while gleefully burying cars after Nemo. (Courtesy kfor.com) During Nemo 2013, this snow plow driver, calling himself “Black Dogg,” posted a YouTube video of himself driving the streets of Boston burying cars under snow. It’s complete […]
Posted inPolitics
Malloy, McKinney doing (separate) road shows
The announcements came out today within 15 minutes of each other: Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and Senate Minority Leader John McKinney, R-Fairfield, are going out on the road for listening tours. No, they are not car pooling. Malloy, a Democrat expected to seek re-election next year, is kicking off a series of community forums at […]
Posted inEducation
Troops stationed overseas to dip below 100 soldiers by December
There are currently 650 Connecticut soldiers stationed overseas. By December that number will dip below 100 soldiers, Gen. Thad Martin of the Connecticut Millitary Department told legislators last week on the Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee. The number of Connecticut National Guard soldiers has steadily declined since the drawback in Iraq and Afghanistan. Two years […]
Posted inMoney
Small town leaders join chorus against governor’s budget
Small town leaders Monday came out against Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s proposed budget that would eliminate their ability to tax motor vehicles. “We are very concerned,” Richard Smith, the first selectman of Deep River and president of the Council of Small Towns, said during a press conference at the state Capitol complex Monday. Mayors from […]
Posted inEnergy & Environment, Politics
It’s official – McCarthy nominated to run EPA
It’s official. As has been widely reported (including here) for weeks, President Obama is nominating Connecticut’s former top environmental official – Gina McCarthy – to run the Environmental Protection Agency.
Posted inNews
Feds reject Medicaid cuts, but more could be coming
The federal government has rejected the state’s controversial request to tighten Medicaid eligibility, a change that had been expected to leave more than 13,000 poor adults without health care coverage. “The [proposal] would eliminate coverage for as many as 13,381 very low-income individuals for an approximate one year period, which is not consistent with the […]
Posted inNews
Lawyer in ‘pyramid scheme’ endorsed for bench
A divided Judiciary Committee endorsed the judicial nomination Friday of Shelley A. Marcus after she defended her role as a legal adviser to women in Branford who ran a pyramid investment scheme, saying her “vehement” advice to them was to cease and desist. Marcus, 61, the daughter of former Democratic State Chairman Ed Marcus, was […]
Posted inNews
Connecticut to lose $56M in sequestration, with education, social services to be hit hardest
At midnight, Connecticut’s public and private sectors face a combined loss of $56 million, with deep cuts to education, social services and housing as the federal game of budget brinksmanship runs out of time. The state legislature’s nonpartisan Office of Fiscal Analysis on Friday released its latest projections of the impact cuts tied to federal […]
Posted inNews
Hospitals warn budget cuts will cut jobs and services — maybe close doors
For Connecticut hospitals, the good news is their patient caseloads have grown dramatically since 2009. The bad news is those are Medicaid patients, and government payments don’t cover the full cost of treatment. And then there’s really bad news: Gov. Dannel P. Malloy would cut their state funding by one-fifth over the next two years. […]
Posted inPolitics
Hewett contrite on Thursday, not so much on Friday
Rep. Ernest Hewett, D-New London, was contrite and accepted responsibility Thursday for a remark to a teenage girl at a public hearing that carried a sexual double-entendre, whether intended or not. But on Friday, Hewett, 56, was suggesting that House Speaker J. Brendan Sharkey, D-Hamden, acted rashly in stripping him of his title as deputy […]
Posted inPolitics
With open letter on guns, Senate Dems suggest foot dragging by others
In an open letter released late Friday afternoon, the state Senate’s Democratic leaders called for a vote no later than March 13 on gun control legislation in response to the mass shootings in Newtown. The letter by Senate President Pro Tem Donald E. Williams Jr. of Brooklyn and Senate Majority Leader Martin M. Looney of […]
Posted inNews
Sequester now certain, but impact unknown
Washington — In largely symbolic moves Thursday, the Senate made one last-ditch effort to avoid sequestration, or automatic spending cuts that will affect most government agencies and many federal programs and services. Now the sequester will take effect Friday. But its full impact is under debate — and could determine which party has an edge […]
Posted inNews
Newtown father reaches out to reluctant senators
Washington –– The day after giving emotional testimony in support of an assault weapons ban, Neil Heslin, who lost his 6-year-old son Jesse in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, continued to reach out to lawmakers on gun control. As senators filed into the Senate chambers to vote on budget legislation, Heslin dodged lobbyists and […]