This season’s flu outbreak has swamped Connecticut emergency rooms and walk-in clinics and forced some hospitals to add extra beds and temporary staff to keep up with the onslaught. “I haven’t seen a flu outbreak this bad in the seven years I’ve been at St. Francis,” Rolf Knoll, chief medical officer at St. Francis Hospital […]
State’s hospitals scramble as flu cases mount
Posted inNews
Connecticut gun sales increasing every year
The shooting deaths of 20 schoolchildren and six of their faculty at Sandy Hook Elementary School have prompted the governor and Connecticut legislature to seek ways to reduce gun violence. This is one of an ongoing series to inform that effort. Connecticut’s people have a lot of guns… …And are acquiring more at an ever-increasing […]
Posted inNews
State reversing mental health cuts — for this year, at least
State officials have reversed plans to cut more than $7 million in funding from mental health and addiction programs this fiscal year. The cuts, made late last year in response to a budget shortfall, had led the nonprofit mental health and addiction service providers that contract with the state to make plans that included layoffs […]
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Blumenthal in dogfight over status of retired military pooches
Washington — To some advocates, Sen. Richard Blumenthal’s amendment concerning the military’s canine workforce is part victory and part doggone shame. “It’s not exactly what we wanted, but we’re thrilled we got our foot in the door,” said Lisa Phillips, a former Army veterinary technician from East Hartford who is an advocate for military working […]
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New tax credit for working poor faces test in next budget battle
Neva Caldwell’s family was one of nearly 182,000 households that claimed the state’s new income tax credit last spring for working poor families. For Caldwell, a single mother of three, the roughly $750 credit she received helped cover basic household bills — rent, utilities, groceries — and kept her car running. “It makes a big […]
Posted inPolitics
Brady group puts assault weapons ban at bottom of agenda
An assault weapons ban is the last of a series of recommendation the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence gave to the White House Friday. Congressional approval of such a ban is expected to be difficult to obtain, and the anti-gun group declined to expand on its recommendations. Its list to the White House panel […]
Posted inEducation
Education Week gives Connecticut a C+
The chances of Connecticut students succeeding when they leave high school are among the best in the nation, and the state spends more for each student than almost every other state after factoring in the region’s higher cost of living, according to a national report card released this week by Education Week. The state also […]
Posted inEducation
Schools line up for state intervention
Seven school district leaders have informed the Connecticut Department of Education that they are interested in having the state intervene in one of their low performing schools next school year. The state intervened this school year in a school in Bridgeport, Hartford, New Haven and Norwich. However, the $7.5 million appropriated to pay for reforms such […]
Posted inNews
One less thing to worry about
This dispatch is from our AG and consumer protection commissioner: Viral emails warning that cell phone numbers will soon be made public, that telemarketing companies will begin placing sales calls to cell phones and that customers will be charged for these calls are not true, Attorney General George Jepsen and Department of Consumer Protection Commissioner […]
Posted inNews
Thirty years later, is Connecticut ready to reinstate tolls?
It’s been almost exactly 30 years since a tractor-trailer plowed into cars waiting at a Stratford toll barrier, triggering an explosion that killed seven people. The January 1983 crash prompted Connecticut legislators to begin phasing out tolls in the state — and they’ve been banned ever since. But if some lawmakers have their way, that […]
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With increasing cries for gun control, Newtown’s legacy takes shape
Washington — Memories of a national tragedy usually dim quickly. But the deaths of 20 first-graders and six teachers in Newtown appear to be doing what other mass shootings have been unable to do — provoke action against gun violence, perhaps in Washington, but more certainly in state capitals across the country. In creating a Cabinet-level panel […]
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Gun control put on fast track in D.C., Connecticut
As the Obama administration hurries to develop new federal gun restrictions, the Connecticut General Assembly is placing gun legislation on a fast track in the wake of the Newtown school shootings, creating a special committee with an eye toward passage of some legislation in February. House Speaker J. Brendan Sharkey, D-Hamden, said the committee, whose […]
Posted inEducation, Health, Money
CBIA says a stable state budget could be the best economic development tool
Getting its fiscal house in order might be state government’s best form of economic stimulus, topping any tax credit or grant program, Connecticut’s chief business lobby argued Thursday. The Connecticut Business & Industry Association unveiled a 2013 legislative agenda based upon three principles: a more sustainable state government, more competitive business costs and a greater […]
Posted inHealth
Feds approve three new health-care coordination groups
Three Connecticut health care groups are among 106 that received federal approval to operate networks of health care providers that coordinate to improve the quality of care for Medicare patients. The networks are known as accountable care organizations and are a key initiative of the federal health reform law. The goal is to get doctors, […]
Posted inEducation
UConn spends more on administration than its peers
The University of Connecticut spends more on administration than the 71 other public research universities nationwide, a review of U.S. Department of Education data by the Wall Street Journal has found. Of the $49,739 UConn spent on each student during the 2010-11 school year, $8,493 went to pay for non-classroom administrative costs. These costs make […]