Sometimes, it’s the small milestones that can be most significant and symbolic. For most Connecticut Latinos recently, it was having Gov. Dannel Malloy and key legislative leaders stand with us at the Capitol at the Latino Advocacy Day and acknowledge the role of state’s rapidly growing Latino community. Their presence, and most importantly their words, […]

Top state lawmakers in Connecticut are pushing ahead with plans to legalize marijuana for medicinal use, despite recent warnings to officials in other states of possible federal prosecution. “States have a right to decide this for themselves,” said Michael P. Lawlor, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s senior criminal justice adviser. Malloy and Democratic leaders are proposing […]

Jessie Stratton, a long-time legislator turned environmental advocate has been named to help formulate policy as the state merges environmental and energy regulation under one department. Monday was Stratton’s first day as director of policy development for the DEP – a job she will continue with the new Department of Energy and Environment, once legislation […]

The Senate voted 19 to 17 shortly after 3 a.m. today to pass and send to the House a $40.1 billion biennial budget loaded with a broad array of tax and fee increases that Gov. Dannel P. Malloy says are necessary to stabilize Connecticut’s rocky finances. Debate began at 4:18 p.m. Monday on a budget […]

Growing numbers of people are failing to pay back their federally-guaranteed student loans, and more of them are being referred to the Justice Department for possible legal action, Marty Roney says at USA Today. The US Department of Education reported making 5,293 referrals to Justice last year, nearly six times the number in 2006.  An […]

A proposal allowing towns to install red-light cameras has hit a roadblock, with leaders of the Judiciary Committee deciding they will not bring the bill up for a vote. “We decided this wasn’t the time,”  said Rep. Gerald Fox, D-Stamford and co-chairman of the committee. “The Democratic [legislators] position was diverse enough to not bring […]

Hartford school officials refused Monday to end an advertising campaign that has spurred protests from civil rights groups who contend it undermines a key strategy for desegregating the city’s schools. A coalition of groups supporting a court order in the Sheff vs. O’Neill desegregation case asked the school system to cease a campaign that discourages […]

Maria Madera doesn’t know what she’s going to do on July 16 when her weekly unemployment checks stop. “They’re done,” said the single mother who was laid off from an insurance company almost two years ago. Madera is studying for an associate’s degree in social services at Capital Community College; she’ll have another semester to […]

The first time Mike Walsh, East Hartford’s director of finance, heard the words “performance contract,” his response was, “What’s that?” He certainly found out. “They are a pain in the butt,” he said. And he loves them. “Simply put,” Walsh said “you take money otherwise put into energy use and put it into upgrading.” But […]

WASHINGTON–Christie Hager had a perch in the ultimate ivory tower last spring, teaching public health at Harvard University after a grueling, exciting stint at the center of Massachusetts’s health care reform debate. But one month after President Barack Obama signed the sweeping federal health reform bill, modeled in part after the Massachusetts law, Hager was […]

A wristwatch in Connecticut is considered clothing, not jewelry, in the budget bill being debated in the Senate. Why does it matter? By calling a watch clothing, the 7 percent luxury tax kicks in at $1,000 — not the $5,000 threshold for jewelry. The luxury tax is applied at clothing that costs more than $1,000, […]