The hurricane and blizzard conditions that hit the state in recent weeks are not enough to persuade Gov. Dannel P. Malloy to give districts the ability to shorten their school year. State law requires schools to be open for 180 days each year, and many school districts have already exceeded the snow days built into […]
What hurricane and blizzard? Malloy nixes efforts to shorten 180-day school year
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Finding a leader for state’s college system could be a challenge
As the deadline approaches to apply to become the next president of the state’s largest public college system, officials are concerned they may have a hard time attracting top-tier candidates. Because state law restricts the Board of Regents for Higher Education from entering into a contract that guarantees the future president will keep his or her […]
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Can we predict school violence?
Following the mass shooting at Columbine, the Secret Service and the U.S. Department of Education tried to determine if they could predict such future attacks. They examined 37 school-targeted attacks, committed by 41 individuals over the span of 25 years from 1974 to 2000. The final result of the study was the Safe School Initiative. […]
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Putting climate change in the transportation budget
Last week, the Malloy administration’s budget proposal came under fire from transportation advocates for proposing to raise bus fares, cut portions of the rail budget, put more expenses on the state’s credit card and raid $75 million from the Special Transportation Fund to plug the state’s budget hole. That was before the blizzard. Now, as […]
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Supervision, planning, training are keys to school security
The NRA has suggested armed guards as the best way to protect America’s schoolchildren. Others say metal detectors, video cameras and sophisticated alarm devices would help defend and protect against mass shootings like the one at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown. School safety experts Gregory Thomas and Michael Dorn think differently. They think student […]
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Cheers, jeers and tears as 5,500 rally for gun control
Exactly two months after 26 children and educators were shot to death in Newtown, a crowd police estimated at 5,500 assembled outside the State Capitol on Thursday, climbing snow banks to wave signs demanding new restrictions on the sale of firearms. They cheered a Democratic governor who endorses a ban on high-capacity magazines. They shouted […]
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Malloy chooses former Darien official to oversee state’s affordable housing efforts
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy today nominated the former first selectman of one of the nation’s wealthiest communities to oversee a new state agency dedicated to increasing Connecticut’s stock of affordable housing. Evonne M. Klein, the governor’s nominee to lead the new Department of Housing Evonne M. Klein, who was the Darien’s Democratic first selectman from […]
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Connecticut’s defense industry braces for ‘unthinkable’ Pentagon cuts
Washington — Once unthinkable, dramatic cuts to the Pentagon’s budget that would hurt Connecticut’s defense industry are now looking more and more real. The so-called sequestration could cost the state as many as 42,000 jobs, one study estimates. Congress has a deadline of March 1 to find billions of dollars in cuts to the federal […]
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The Specifics: MTA and Nemo
By: Georgia Lobb Here’s a recap of exactly how different MTA stations dealt with Nemo-related issues caused by snow, as documented by the MTA’s Flickr. New Haven: This is a photo chat shows a switch heater at work, which is an apparatus that ensures that trains can move easily and smooth from one track to […]
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Murphy appointed chairman of foreign relations subcommittee
Although he’s a freshman senator, Chris Murphy, D-Conn., has been given the chairmanship of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in charge of European affairs. That means Murphy can hold hearings on anything that concerns U.S. allies in Europe. He replaces Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., who headed the panel in the last Congress. “The United States […]
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Himes snags seat on intelligence panel
Rep. Jim Himes, D-4th District, has won a seat on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, which has authority over the budgets for the CIA and 16 other U.S. intelligence agencies and investigates problems at those agencies. “I am excited and proud to have been appointed to the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence at […]
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Yankee Institute poll rates Malloy well, budget poorly
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy gets his highest approval rating in the fourth in a series of polls sponsored by the Yankee Institute: 54 percent say they approve of the Democrat and 45 percent disapprove. But the poll, which was conducted by Pulse Opinion Research for the conservative think tank, also found a tighter margin when […]
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Blizzard delivers crushing blow to Connecticut agriculture
Patti Popp of Sport Hill Farm in Easton was at least managing to laugh a bit as she described the collapsed hoop house. “It’s mess,” she said. “I went inside praying it didn’t fall on me.” The hoop house at Sport Hill Farm collapsed under the weight of snow. Popp is among Connecticut farmers who […]
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A Recap: Nemo’s Impact on Connecticut and the Northeast
Photo Courtesy of International Business Times By: Georgia Lobb I was surprised to find my roommate home early from her internship in NYC when I got home last night, so I asked her why she got off early. “The train times are still funky cause of all this Nemo stuff!” She said. “They let me […]
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With no GOP consensus on gun control, Cafero bows out of rally
House Minority Leader Lawrence F. Cafero Jr., R-Norwalk, is listed as among those scheduled to address a gun control rally outside the State Capitol on Thursday, but a spokesman says he has withdrawn. Cafero’s caucus is still working on reaching a consensus on what it measures it can support in response to the shooting deaths […]