Washington — The House plans to vote late Tuesday on a deal  that would avoid a sharp tax hike on most Americans. The Senate, with the help of  Connecticut’s two senators, voted before dawn Tuesday,  89-8,  on a proposal that would raise about $600 billion over 10 years, far less than President Obama and congressional […]

Officials of the for-profit Sawyer School have given its estimated 1,200 students, and the state, just a few days’ notice that they are closing their post-secondary programs in Bridgeport, Hartford and Hamden. “I regret to inform you that the School’s board has directed that the Sawyer Schools and Butler Business School suspend operations. Classes scheduled […]

Washington — The deal being hammered out in the Senate Monday to avoid the fiscal cliff may be tough for some liberals, including those in the Connecticut delegation, to swallow. The proposal would raise about $600 billion over 10 years, far less than President Obama and congressional Democrats had wanted, by allowing taxes to rise […]

Washington — When Rep.-elect Elizabeth Esty, one of dozens of newly elected members of Congress attending a Harvard policy seminar, was pulled out of class by news of the Newtown shootings, her days as an ordinary House freshman were over. Unlike the rest of the 67-member House freshman class, Esty, a 53-year-old Democrat, won’t be […]

The House Democratic majority announced nine new committee co-chairs Friday night as J. Brendan Sharkey of Hamden prepares to succeed Chris Donovan as speaker of the House next month. Four of the joint House-Senate committees — Energy and Technology, Government Administration and Elections, Human Services and Labor — will have two new House and Senate […]

State lawmakers have stripped state judges of the authority to send children who break the law to out-of-state facilities for treatment. Instead, the decision will be left to the Department of Children and Families, a state agency that has been monitored by the federal courts for decades for failing too many children in its care. […]

Washington – A $60 billion emergency spending bill to pay for the damage caused by Hurricane Sandy was approved by the Senate Friday, but the final fate of the bill is very much in doubt. Before voting 61-33 for the bill, the  Senate  considered more than 20 amendments that would have either stripped or added […]

By Jack Dougherty, Associate Professor of Educational Studies, Trinity College When State Commissioner of Education Stephen Pryor unveiled Connecticut’s “School Performance Index” (SPI) website earlier this year, the initial story grabbed front-page headlines, but the substance was underwhelming. Both the Connecticut Mirror’s Jacqueline Rabe Thomas and the Hartford Courant’s Kathy Meganreported that the SPI site revealed few surprises. […]

Norwich – It was only for a few hours during Tropical Storm Irene, but the William W. Backus Hospital here still got a hard lesson on what losing power in the heat of summer meant. While the hospital has emergency generators, “they’re not large enough to power everything,” said Keith Fontaine, vice president and chief […]

Connecticut’s top tax official is optimistic that a new initiative designed to target identity theft will better protect Connecticut residents and businesses from security breaches and will recoup millions of dollars in income tax fraud for the state’s coffers. But Department of Revenue Services Commissioner Kevin B. Sullivan was more skeptical about a controversial initiative […]

The state Department of Public Health issued licenses to day-care facilities without the needed criminal background checks on employees, failed to take action against a dentist despite four complaints, and paid more than $25,000 to volunteer stem cell grant reviewers that it might not have had the authority to spend, according to a state audit […]

Washington — Eventually, nearly every American will feel the economic pain brought on by going over the so-called fiscal cliff, but more than 43,000 unemployed Connecticut workers would be among the first. That’s because those long-time unemployed workers will stop receiving benefits next week unless Congress acts in the next few days. “Both houses of […]

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, who took office two years ago pledging to make the courts as diverse as Connecticut’s society, today nominated Andrew J. McDonald as the first openly gay justice of the state Supreme Court. McDonald, 46, was an influential legal voice as co-chairman of the General Assembly’s Judiciary Committee before he left the […]