A Washington, D.C.-based economic think tank released a report Monday saying the Hartford metropolitan area has the second highest rate of Hispanic unemployment in the country, behind Providence, R.I. The non-partisan Economic Policy Institute reported Hartford’s Hispanic unemployment rate at 23.5 percent in 2010, topped only by Providence at 25.2 percent. The rest of the […]
Hartford has 2nd highest Hispanic unemployment rate in the country
Emergency department directors: VIPs get care faster
Many emergency department directors at Connecticut hospitals say their departments expedite care for very important persons and see doing so as “vaguely unethical but necessary,” according to a letter written by Hartford Hospital emergency medicine director Dr. A.J. Smally and published this month in the journal Annals of Emergency Medicine. Smally and four colleagues wrote […]
Union pushes for power to set teacher standards
The state’s largest teachers union is urging state legislators to remove the authority to set certification and ethical standards for teachers from the State Department of Education and have an autonomous panel led by educators determine those requirements for themselves. “You’ll find teachers are harder on other teachers than anyone else will ever be because […]
Unions chastise Malloy for allowing October longevity pay for managers
Bargaining units representing more than 6,400 unionized state employees chastised Gov. Dannel P. Malloy this afternoon for allowing non-union managers and executives to receive longevity bonuses in October under a new capping system while unionized staff will forfeit some or all of theirs. CSEA-SEIU Local 2001, called for Malloy to apply the same standard to […]
A big investment and a little luck bring a $1.1 billion genetics lab
A leading genetics laboratory based in Maine committed today to establishing a $1.1 billion research institute at the UConn Health Center, a deal that provides an unexpectedly rapid return on Connecticut’s new bioscience initiative — and on a state official’s subscription to a Downeast weekly paper. The lure for Jackson Laboratory of Bar Harbor, Maine […]
On the fuzzy front lines, what is ‘business friendly?’
It’s been a fuzzy concept, this promise by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy to create a business-friendly government. Daniel C. Esty, the commissioner of energy and environmental protection, is about to give it some definition with a shot at settling a long-running pollution case. In a case involving groundwater pollution around the site in Milford where […]
Markley calls for investigation into DSS post-Irene benefits
Sen. Joe Markley, the ranking Republican on the Human Services Committee, has asked state auditors to investigate claims of fraud involving benefits distributed by the state Department of Social Services this month to make up for losses incurred in Tropical Storm Irene. In a letter to the auditors, Markley questioned how eligibility for the benefits […]
Elections watchdog loses its director to retirement
The executive director of the State Elections Enforcement Commission for the past two years, Albert P. Lenge, retired Friday. Lenge, who is part of a wave of retirements across state government sparked by imminent changes in benefits ordered through the union concession agreement, had served in state government for 28 years. “Al Lenge has done […]
Perry is cliché king in GOP presidential field
Rick Perry and Mitt Romney may be close in polls when it comes to the Republican presidential nomination for 2012, but the Texas governor has no challenger when it comes to trotting out clichés in debates, Eric Ostermeier says at Smart Politics. In three September primaries–one in California and two in Florida–Perry racked up 33 […]
House GOP boosts federal heating fund
WASHINGTON–House Republicans released a spending proposal Thursday that would provide about $3.4 billion for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program–a significant cut from the current funding level, but probably enough to cover the Connecticut heat aid program approved by three legislative committees this week. The House GOP plan, which has yet to win committee […]
Audit: DSS gave benefits to dead people
The state Department of Social Services continued to pay cash benefits to clients after they died and failed to adequately review client eligibility for another cash assistance program, according to a report by state auditors released Thursday. The audit covered the 2008 and 2009 fiscal years and included 21 recommendations, 12 of which were made […]
Thousands of non-union workers to receive longevity bonuses
While most veteran unionized employees are forfeiting their longevity pay as part of the labor concession deal, thousands of non-union workers, including several top officials in Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s administration, will share millions of dollars in seniority bonuses next month. The Department of Administrative Services declined Thursday to release a preliminary list of staff […]
Congress averts another crisis, and lurches toward the next
WASHINGTON–Lawmakers will limp back to Washington next week, bruised by another barely-averted government shutdown crisis and battered by sinking public approval ratings. But while many lawmakers agree that the latest fiscal fight was “embarrassing,” as one senator put it, it’s not clear this Congress can find any other way of doing business. The most recent […]
Malloy approval ratings remain low
Only 36 percent of state voters approve of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s job performance, a new poll says, and 52 percent would vote for his 2010 Republican rival, Tom Foley, if they had it to do over again. The Malloy approval ratings reported by Public Policy Polling, a Democratic company, were even lower than the […]
Malloy to announce major collaboration with genetics firm Friday
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and officials from the genetics research firm Jackson Laboratory will announce a “major collaboration” in bioscience Friday morning, according to Malloy’s office. On Wednesday, former UConn President Philip E. Austin, who serves as the university’s interim vice president for health affairs, said that a “major scientific group” will be relocating to […]

