In a parting shot from the last recession, the state budget spending cap will clamp down tighter over the next few years than at any other time in its history, state fiscal analysts are warning. But the cap no longer is the fiscal bogeyman it was when it was enacted two decades ago. And Gov. […]

Every community in Connecticut would have a select region safeguarded against power outages and containing shelters, public safety, groceries and other crucial services under a strategy outlined Wednesday by the state’s top environmental official. In his first testimony on the recent storms that caused record-setting outages, Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Commissioner Daniel C. […]

The administration of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy gave state agency heads Wednesday the names of 15 state employees suspected of obtaining Irene disaster aid through “outright fraud,” including lying about assets and claiming a dead relative as a household member. “Based on my administration’s investigation, it appears clear that the abuses of public trust involved […]

Officials at the Department of Children and Families suspect the state is unjustifiably picking up the tab to provide mental and developmental health services for hundreds of children that should be covered by their health insurance or their higher-income parents. Currently, DCF doesn’t consider the income of a child’s guardians or if the child seeking […]

You’re in the market for arthroscopic knee surgery. Like most patients, you might decide where to get it done based on word of mouth, or a hospital preference. If you live in Maine, you can use another tool: Price. With an Internet connection and few clicks of a mouse, you can find out how much […]

Patients are being readmitted within 30 days to four hospitals in Connecticut at higher than national rates after they have suffered from pneumonia, heart failure and heart attacks. As a result, those hospitals are facing Medicare penalties in 2012. A report by the Connecticut Health Investigative Team (C-HIT.org) http://www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/health/entry/hospitals_to_face_penalties_for_high_readmissions/ reveals that two of those hospitals, […]

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and House Speaker Christopher Donovan encountered each other today for the first time since an installment of the three-week, behind-the-scenes look at the Malloy Administration included some less-than-flattering views of Donovan by the Malloyalists. “Hey, how are you?” Malloy said, when he noticed Donovan approach him today at a reception for […]

Legislators seem to always need a hard deadline for anything important, and now they have one: the Connecticut Supreme Court today set a final deadline of noon on Dec. 21 for the legislature’s redistricting commission to produce a map of new congressional districts. The legislature got the census data necessary to draw the maps in […]

Occupy Hartford becomes the latest of the Occupy movements to face eviction, following Mayor Pedro Segarra’s memo this morning asking the small group, which has been camping at “Turning Point Park” since early October, to leave. The fewer than 20 members who were living at the site at the corner of Broad Street and Asylum […]

Charlie Yarish knows exactly what it will take to get the technique he developed to clean the waters of Long Island Sound up and running. “Additional funds,” he said. “That’s the bottom line.” But as Yarish, an ecology and marine sciences professor at the University of Connecticut, is learning, money in this time of tight […]

Thanks to our friends at the Office of Legislative Research for spotting this one: Forbes has compiled three top ten lists of the worst tax states for the rich, as measured by annual incomes of $250,000, $500,000 and $1 million. Connecticut’s not on any of the lists. The chart done by OLR shows the effective […]

The first two parts of Ted Mann’s three-week, behind-the-scenes look at Gov. Dannel Malloy’s first year were a nicely written setup of what’s to come. He gave an overview and an introduction to Malloy’s staff, the characters of the piece. But let’s be honest, they lacked what the Capitol insiders were waiting for: gossip-worthy tidbits […]