Connecticut’s education commissioner will announce as early as next week which low-performing schools the state will likely intervene in during the 2012-2013 school year. As many as nine superintendents have offered up their schools for state intervention. “We are considering how severe the problem is at the given school when making these decisions,” Stefan Pryor […]

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy vetoed a controversial campaign finance disclosure bill Friday, saying it would have a “chilling effect on issue advocacy.” The veto provoked disappointment by legislative leaders and a stinging denunciation of Malloy’s commitment to reform by Common Cause. The bill pitted Common Cause and other campaign reform advocates against the ACLU, newspapers […]

Stamford — For most businesses, saving energy is far down a list of other priorities. But at a two-day energy efficiency summit in Stamford this week, the sustainability director for one of the country’s largest financial services institutions told the audience that energy efficiency should be at the top. Speaking to a diverse group of […]

Connecticut’s unemployment rate inched higher last month, climbing by one-tenth of 1 percent to 7.8 percent, the state Department of Labor reported Thursday. But while the rate climbed marginally, state officials said that with an extra 5,270 residents seeking work last month, the expanding labor force could be a positive sign. “Given the fact that […]

Washington — If Linda McMahon is elected to the Senate, she could become the wealthiest member of an already very wealthy club. According to her financial disclosure report for 2011, McMahon and her husband Vince had $90 million to $350 million worth of assets. Assets and income are reported in ranges, making it difficult to […]

Storrs — Trailing in the polls, Chris Shays was the aggressor Thursday in a televised debate with Linda McMahon, assailing her Republican credentials, political acumen and association with World Wrestling Entertainment. McMahon was a disciplined, stoic presence during the one-hour meeting of the two GOP candidates for Joseph I. Lieberman’s open U.S. Senate seat, turning […]

Washington — While Connecticut’s congressional delegation says another round of base closings is dead on arrival, supporters of the Navy’s submarine base in the Groton area already on the defensive. “We’re preparing like crazy as if it were happening tomorrow,” New London Mayor Daryl Justin Finizio said of another Base Closing and Realignment Commission, or […]

A construction union protested today outside WTIC radio in Farmington beginning at 2 p.m., an hour before former Gov. John G. Rowland goes on the air. The Laborers say they also will organize a boycott and petition the FCC over the show’s “trash talk and biased information.” A staple of Rowland’s drive-time radio show is criticism […]

Students and their parents will soon begin taking surveys in several districts across the state to evaluate their teachers. These surveys — which can account for up to 15 percent of a teacher’s grade in the state’s new evaluation system — has drawn the ire of teachers and their unions and the praise of other […]

A state arbitrator has reinstated 40 of the 103 state employees who resigned, retired or were fired after being implicated in the improper receipt of disaster relief after Tropical Storm Irene. The reinstated employees must make restitution and serve suspensions ranging from 15 to 60 days, according to an announcement Wednesday by AFSCME Council 4. […]

Washington — If you are price shopping for a college education, you may want to avoid certain schools in Connecticut, the Obama administration says. In the 2010-2011 academic year, Connecticut College in New London was most expensive college in the country and Quinnipiac University in Hamden one of the highest-cost schools after grants and scholarships […]

Unless they are called back to override a gubernatorial veto, the tenures of 21 House members and three senators likely ended early Wednesday with the close of the one-day special session. Fifteen Democrats and six Republicans are not seeking re-election to the House this fall, an unusually high number that guarantees a 14 percent turnover […]

Shortly after being tapped as commissioner of the Department of Revenue Services, Kevin Sullivan insisted he was not Connecticut’s latest “tax man,” calling it a misnomer that represented only half of his job. Now one of the leaders of a new policy group expected to issue its first progress report next month, Sullivan will have […]