Gov. Dannel P. Malloy unveiled plans Monday to reverse nearly two decades of budget gimmicks that leave the state facing huge payments over the next two decades to sustain Connecticut’s grossly underfunded state employee pension fund. But while Malloy touted potential long-range savings, they come with a high price that must be paid up front: […]

The after-effects of the 2011 Penn State child abuse scandal continue here, with both the University of Connecticut and state legislators examining possible policy changes regarding who must report such incidents. UConn’s Board of Trustees plans to meet Wednesday to vote on changes to the policy. Penn State’s assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky was recently charged […]

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 […]