New Haven — As he faces mounting skepticism about his plan to reshape the state’s public schools, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy is trying out a new sales pitch: Everyone else is doing it. “We do nothing in this package that has not been done in other states,” Malloy told a packed audience at a Waterbury […]
All aboard! Connecticut school reforms follow other states
Posted inNews
Malloy’s reform: allow public financing, corporate cash
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy is the poster child for the public financing of campaigns. Abiding the spending limits that come with public dollars, Malloy defeated wealthy, self-funding opponents in a Democratic primary and general election in 2010. But looking ahead to re-election in 2014, Malloy wants to turn the state’s “clean election program” on its […]
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Free dental clinic draws overnight lines, hundreds of regulars
Danbury — The prospect of dental work, much less waiting outside overnight for it, doesn’t tend to put people in a good mood. Then there’s Eileen Pedevillano. “I’m so appreciative that they’re doing this,” she said Friday morning outside the fifth annual Connecticut Mission of Mercy, a free dental clinic. “I could never complain.” Eileen […]
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State wins key court battle to collect sales taxes
State government’s recent victory in its long-running battle to collect sales taxes from a global publisher of children’s educational materials could bode well for its larger battle to collect taxes from online retailing giants. Though the case against a subsidiary of New York City-based Scholastic Inc. well pre-dates the statute enacted last year to force […]
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Nurturing children by nurturing their families
New Haven — When Imari Troche’s son Nathan was born three years ago, she knew how to change his diaper and feed him. But much beyond that was a struggle. Shortly after Nathan’s birth, Marta Santana began visiting Troche and Nathan in their home nearly every week. Those visits have changed everything in the young […]
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Slow, but steady, victories for state tenants rights group
They had decided to change their organization’s name. So Dennis Cahill stood up in front of the group, about 50 strong, and led them in a chant. “Be aware: we’re no longer the Public Housing Resident Network!” he announced, suited and bespectacled, arms in the air. “We’re now the Publicly-ASSISTED Housing Resident Network. Say it […]
Posted inEducation
GOP: We’re shut out of education negotiations by co-chairs, not Malloy
The Republican minority leaders complained Friday their party is shut out of the education-reform negotiations being conducted by the legislature’s Education Committee, which is hoping to report the bill out of committee Monday. Rep. Lawrence F. Cafero Jr. of Norwalk and Sen. John McKinney of Fairfield put the blame on the Democratic co-chairs, Rep. Andrew […]
Posted inEnergy & Environment, Money
What’s in a name? Plenty says CEFIA
No secret the Clean Energy Finance and Investment Authority — the renamed and re-purposed Connecticut Clean Energy Fund — has been none too thrilled with the name it was given in last year’s energy legislation. How much doesn’t CEFIA like its new name? So much, that as of right now, there are at least two […]
Posted inHealth
DCF: 1 in 4 children now placed with relatives
What a difference a year can make for the abused and neglected children that the Department of Children and Families removes from their homes. When Joette Katz became the commissioner of DCF just over a year ago, one in seven children in state custody were being placed with other family members — one of the […]
Posted inEducation
Why Senate Bill 24 is Good for Connecticut Schools
It’s been 29 years since the federal government released the landmark “Nation at Risk” report that said, “If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational performance that exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war.” Three decades later, we are still a nation at […]
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Poll shows Shays competitive in Senate race
The Senate campaign of former U.S. Rep. Chris Shays got a boost Thursday in a Quinnipiac University poll that shows him pulling to within 9 percentage points of former wrestling executive Linda McMahon among Republicans and running even with leading Democrats in general-election matchups. The results feed into Shays’ two main talking points: He is competitive […]
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Key senator says ‘no’ to BRAC, but Courtney remains vigilant.
Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2nd District, said Thursday he’s relieved that a key Democrat on the Senate Armed Forces Committee, Claire McCaskill of Missouri, told Pentagon brass this week that she would not consider a base closing bill in her subcommittee this year. The Pentagon wants two new rounds of base closings, one in 2013 and […]
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Wilson-Foley dings Roraback — for taking her advice
After airing a radio commericial urging state Sen. Andrew Roraback, R-Goshen, to vote against repeal of the death penalty, Lisa Wilson-Foley is now criticizing him for taking her advice. The two Republican candidates for the 5th Congressional District nomination have been scrapping for weeks over Roraback’s historic opposition to capital punishment, which took an unexpected […]
Posted inEducation
Hogan, former UConn president, resigns from University of Illinois
It turned out to be a short stay in Illinois for Michael Hogan, the former UConn president.
Posted inHealth, Politics
Critics filing legal challenges to Malloy executive orders
Opponents of two executive orders allowing home care workers and daycare providers to unionize are filing lawsuits this week alleging that the orders violate state and federal law. Gov. Dannel P. Malloy issued the orders in September, following a legislative session in which lawmakers considered but did not pass proposals to give collective bargaining rights […]