Connecticut farmers who suffered crop damage from tropical storm Irene may be one step clpser to potentially getting federal assistance to help cover their losses. Gov. Dannel P. Malloy Thursday sent documentation of crop damage to U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack along with a letter requesting a secretarial designation. Such a designation would release […]

At the urging of their “intimidating and vindictive” principal, teachers at a Waterbury elementary school coached students to change incorrect answers on the Connecticut Mastery Test last spring, a state investigation of alleged cheating has found. The investigation also concluded that educators at the Hopeville School violated test security procedures, received unauthorized copies of test […]

Forecasting a drop of more than $68 million in federal funds to help low-income residents heat their homes, the Malloy administration has proposed limiting assistance to people who buy fuel from dealers, leaving more than 80,000 households with electric or gas heat without the aid. The administration’s plan notes that state law protects low-income residents […]

The head of the state’s largest teachers’ union issued a call Wednesday to “upgrade the status” of Connecticut educators and address slipping wages and benefits–a call greeted with some skepticism by state and municipal leaders grappling with long-term budget problems. After acknowledging some of the problems facing the state education system–including a wide achievement gap […]

Attorney General George Jepsen Wednesday announced the creation of a task force to investigate Internet privacy and data breaches while educating the public and businesses about data protection, an issue he said his office deals with on a monthly basis. “If you asked me a year ago where Internet privacy considerations rank in my office […]

Connecticut could reverse most of its small business losses from the decade just prior to the last recession by easing the burdens that make it one of the most regulated states in the nation, according to the University of Connecticut’s new latest quarterly economic journal released today. The fall issue of The Connecticut Economy, released […]

WASHINGTON–While many Connecticut farmers are scrambling to salvage their crops and repair the damage wrought by Tropical Storm Irene, one segment of the state’s agriculture community is still at a standstill: shellfish farmers. And even if state officials succeed in getting a federal disaster declaration to help other Connecticut farmers recover, the U.S. Department of […]

As Congress continues to bicker over funding for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the nation is on track for a record year for major disaster declarations. And counting all forms of emergency aid, only two states have not had a declaration of some kind in 2011, Mark Memmott notes at NPR. FEMA lists three types […]

The legislature’s bipartisan Reapportionment Committee formally acknowledged today what was made clear last week: its deadline of Sept. 15 will come and go without any new maps for legislative or congressional districts. As a result, they need to find a ninth member acceptable to Democrats and Republicans. Under the law, the bipartisan committee of eight […]

The head of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, the nation’s first carbon emissions trading and reduction program, has been named to a key position in the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. Jonathan Schrag will become deputy commissioner in charge of DEEP’s energy division, a key component of the newly-constituted agency and one with […]

Although Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s administration is counting on a continuing decline in the state’s prison population–having closed two institutions in the past four months, laid off 21 front-line correction supervisors, and planning to close another facility soon–one group of inmates is bucking the trend. Numbers of accused but unsentenced inmates have risen each of […]

Shelly Oechsler managed a touch of humor offering a photo of fields on her family’s 400-acre Botticello Farms two days after tropical storm Irene struck. “What you are looking at is some of our peppers,” she said in an email. “If you were a scuba diver, that is.” Just about all 400 acres, most of […]