After recent retirements, the state Department of Social Services is relying on retirees hired back through a vendor for information technology work — so much so that the commissioner has warned that a potential ethics opinion discouraging the practice could lead to “a threat to public health, safety and welfare.” Social Services Commissioner Roderick L. […]

Unfazed by a looming state Supreme Court decision that could say the state overstepped when replacing Bridgeport’s school board, the governor wants the state to intervene in up to 25 of the state’s lowest-performing schools to turn them around. “We will not tolerate year after year the same schools being on the bottom of the pile,” […]

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy is proposing a 30 percent increase per student in charter school funding and the opening of five new charter schools. That 30 percent increase — to $12,000 per student — includes a new requirement that each local school district pay $1,000 per student to the charter school that enrolls that student. […]

Whatever new initiatives Gov. Dannel P. Malloy unveils Wednesday in his revised budget for the next fiscal year, he likely won’t be asking for much extra staffing to carry them out. Forced to rely more heavily than expected on retirements and other vacancies to control labor costs in his first year, the governor currently oversees […]

Republicans made a final pitch today for a congressional district map more favorable to the GOP, asking the Connecticut Supreme Court to reject districts drawn by a special master who closely followed the court’s own guidelines. Ross H. Garber, an attorney for Republicans on the legislature’s Reapportionment Commission, acknowledged that Special Master Nathaniel Persily’s map […]

Municipal leaders rarely miss a chance these days to thank the governor and the legislature for sparing the entire $2.8 billion town aid package from the budget axe last spring. But in between accolades, town leaders also will point out that, with few exceptions, education aid has been flat for the past three years, and […]

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy insists he won’t seek more taxes this session after raising more than $1.5 billion last spring. But with a sluggish recovery and an expensive pension fix turning Malloy’s future budget surpluses into a potential deficit by July 2013, Republicans already are questioning whether more tax talk is dead — or simply […]

There’s no shortage of children affected by trauma — whether it’s trauma linked to domestic violence, sexual abuse or other events. But until relatively recently, there has been accompanying lack of strategy on the part of national and state child welfare officials to try to prevent trauma from impacting the child’s life forever. Karrie McAvoy, […]

Under Connecticut law, a home health aide can spend all day caring for you, but if you need help taking your pills, you’ll need a nurse to come give them to you. Gov. Dannel P. Malloy next week will recommend changing that, a move his administration says could save the state more than $28 million […]

Washington — In the political money chase in the race to fill retiring Sen. Joe Lieberman’s seat, deep-pocketed Linda McMahon began the year with the least amount of money. But given that she spent $50 million of her own money on her failed 2008 Senate bid, McMahon should be able to manage a slight cash […]