In an era when jobs haven’t exactly been growing on trees — Connecticut is betting that they just might. And on bushes. And even indoors. Some half-dozen years after the Rowland administration tried to all but eliminate the state’s Department of Agriculture, the Malloy administration is embracing the state’s $3.5 billion, 20,000-job agriculture industry as […]

Peter C. Dorsey, who died Friday at age 80, was one of the joys of covering the federal courts in Connecticut. He had an impish sense of humor, a love of banter on and off the bench, and an endless capacity for exasperating federal prosecutors and agents, who found him too willing to cut criminal […]

The state’s budget isn’t drowning, but its fiscal nose is above water by such a small fraction — 1/134th of 1 percent — it’s almost impossible to see. The latest monthly report from Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s administration, released late Friday afternoon, projects a $1.4 million surplus, with the $88 million cushion originally built into […]

Chris Shays will formally launch his U.S. Senate race Wednesday under a cloud of his own making: the former Republican congressman only raised $422,145 in the last quarter of 2011, far short of his publicly stated $1 million goal. “I am thrilled with $400,000,” Shays said Friday, saying he had no organization or fundraising capacity […]

One of the leading Wall Street credit rating agencies downgraded Connecticut’s rating Friday, citing a heavily loaded state credit card, huge debts in pension and retiree health care programs, and a depleted emergency reserve. The decision by Moody’s Investors Service to lower state government’s bond rating from Aa3 to Aa2, opens the door for Connecticut […]

Washington — With federal money drying up, Connecticut’s colleges are rethinking the value of a Washington lobbyist. The Connecticut State University system hired the Washington lobbying firm McAllister & Quinn, paying it more than $100,000 last year to seek federal funding for a robotics project at Central Connecticut State University. The university also wanted the […]

Connecticut state university officials hope to lure college-bound students from New York state this fall by offering them in-state tuition rates if they enroll in one of five graduate programs. Most of these programs have experienced dramatic declines in enrollment in recent years because of a drop in New York students willing to cross the […]

Washington — After a firestorm of opposition, congressional leaders decided Friday to scrap action on legislation aimed at fighting on the Internet that had divided the Connecticut delegation. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said he was putting off a vote on a Senate anti-piracy bill he had scheduled for next week “in light of recent […]