Tropical Storm Irene left many Connecticut farmers cleaning up and waiting anxiously for the Connecticut River to crest Tuesday, but many also said they feel optimistic about the upcoming fall season despite losses to their harvests. Gresczyk Farm in New Hartford was spared serious damage from Tropical Storm Irene “We were very, very lucky,” said […]

FAIRFIELD–His shattered rental home was condemned and teetering precariously over Pine Creek, but Andreas Fuchs only smiled when Gov. Dannel P. Malloy stopped to greet him Tuesday with the risky question, “How are you doing?” Fuchs told the governor he was grateful. Andreas Fuchs talks to a television news crew outside his home in Fairfield […]

As students head back to school after summer vacation, educators, free-speech advocates and anti-bullying activists are gearing up for implementation of the state’s new “cyberbullying” law that will make on-line statements subject to academic disciplinary proceedings. The new law puts school officials in the position of having to pass judgement on off-campus speech with little […]

After the decriminalization of marijuana this summer, students at the state’s four-year colleges face more lenient sanctions under the law if caught with a small amount pot, but they can expect unchanging disciplinary standards on campus. The University of Connecticut and the Connecticut State University System will not change their judicial proceedings or possible sanctions […]

Although beset by some of the same problems that afflict the media generally, Spanish-language media tended to fare better overall than their mainstream English-language counterparts last year, a new report by the Pew Research Center says. Hispanic newspapers saw a small decline in circulation in 2010, reported Emily Guskin and Amy Mitchell of Pew’s Project […]

As municipal leaders across Connecticut complained Monday afternoon that utility restoration work from Tropical Storm Irene is proceeding  too slowly, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy pressed federal authorities to help direct more out-of-state repair crews here. Representatives of both major utility companies insisted they have mobilized as much out-of-state assistance as possible to date, though more […]

Preparation for and cleanup after Tropical Storm Irene is likely to drive up state employee overtime pay–particularly in transportation, emergency management and public safety agencies–but Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s budget director said Monday that the goal of spending less than last year’s $300 million overtime allocation across all state government is still achievable. “I’m sure […]

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy inspected flooded river valleys and hard-hit coastal areas by helicopter today, an early step toward seeking federal disaster relief from a tropical storm that destroyed dozens of homes and left a record 916,000 customers without power. “Clearly, this could have been worse, but it was pretty bad out there,” Malloy said […]

With the concession deal ratified by unionized workers and roughly 2,800 layoff notices now revoked, the ugliest elements of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s budget-balancing alternative to givebacks have been put away. But even though most of Malloy’s $1.6 billion concession plan has been approved, that doesn’t mean every  option raised last month when concessions still […]

Julie Michaelson has spent five years working on her hospital’s information technology system, but she says it would be a misconception to think she’s computer savvy. Mary McAward worked for years in data processing before being laid off, and is hoping the coming wave of health information technology will mean a new career path for […]

Six years after Hurricane Katrina provide a lesson in how not to prepare for and react to a natural disaster, elected officials from President Obama to governors and mayors made sure they were seen as engaged in planning for the arrival of Hurricane Irene, Carol Lee says at the Wall Street Journal. As the first […]