Though many middle-class Connecticut households will lose $200 next spring when a popular credit on their state income tax return shrinks, there is a silver lining: Those same filers will get nearly one-third of that cut back from the federal government. And the head of an economic think-tank at the University of Connecticut says that […]

Connecticut’s new GOP state chairman, Jerry Labriola Jr., is urging Republicans here to man the phone banks for Bob Turner in tomorrow’s special election to succeed disgraced U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner in a solidly Democratic district that is tilting Republican, if recent polling is to be believed. No travel is required. “With your help, we […]

The expectation that children will be better-off than their parents is a central tenet of the American Dream, Gregory Acs writes in a new study, but 30 percent of children raised in middle-class households fall out of the middle as adults. The report–Downward Mobility from the Middle Class: Waking Up from the American Dream–says marital […]

Treasurer Denise L. Nappier issued a statement today taking offense at a Hartford police union official’s claim to WNPR’s Jeff Cohen that the parking lot where she was stopped was known to be a market for illegal drugs. “Those innuendoes are offensive and insulting – most importantly to the people of that community, as well […]

Taken less than a week after Tropical Storm Irene drenched New England, this Sept. 2 satellite photo shows a miles-long plume of sediment spewing into Long Island from the mouth of the Connecticut River (view larger image at  NASA Earth Observatory).

The legislature’s Reapportionment Committee acknowledged Friday it will be unable to devise new legislative maps by its deadline of Sept. 15, requiring the eight-member, bipartisan panel to now find a ninth neutral member to join them. The four Democratic and four Republican legislators on the committee are not deadlocked over new districts; they still are […]

More than 1,150 people dropped out of the Charter Oak Health Plan when premiums rose this month, largely because of legislation curtailing state subsidies for the program, and participation could fall even further in the coming months. After lawmakers raised concerns about the declining enrollment Friday, a top official at the state Department of Social […]

Publicly, consumer and patient advocates continue to cheer wildly for last year’s health care law. Behind the scenes, however, some worry that they are losing a few key battles to the insurance and business communities. They point to a long-sought provision in the law that entitles patients to an external review if an insurer won’t pay […]

EAST HAVEN–Nearly two weeks after Tropical Storm Irene sent two feet of water through the first floor, Rick and Karen Ruggiero’s home on Cosey Beach sits locked up, an official sign stuck in the siding declaring it “unsafe for human occupancy.” Their terrace, just feet from a tattered seawall and, beyond it, the water of […]

The longstanding claim that tax hikes will drive people out of Connecticut was quick to resurface earlier this year as politicians and special interest groups reacted to more than $1.6 billion in state and municipal increases ordered by the legislature and Gov. Dannel P. Malloy. But a new study by a Washington, D.C.-based fiscal policy […]

While many environmental advocates favor shifting energy-generation plants from coal to natural gas to combat global warming, a new study says that may not help–and could hurt in the long run, according to the National Center for Atmospheric Research. Ironically, that’s because coal emits more environmentally-hazardous particles. The study by Tom Wigley, a senior research […]