When Sabra Mayo heard a knock on her door last summer, the last person she was expecting to be there was the grandson she’d seen just a handful of times since the state Department of Children and Families took him from his mother seven years before. “They just dropped him off on my doorstep,” she […]

Embroiled in two wars, battered in the polls and battling Republicans on every front, President Barrack Obama has at least one consolation at the end of the day: his own home-brewed beer. Not brewed by Obama himself, of course, the blog Obama Foodorama reports–he’s way too busy. But the president and Michelle Obama did use […]

As any good Irish pol would want to do, Gov. Dannel Malloy had been set to serve as the Grand Marshal of New London St. Patrick’s Day parade. But now he’s handing over those duties to Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman so he can go back to Washington for another round of lobbying White House officials. […]

The state Department of Social Services has received approval to hire 26 retired workers on a temporary basis to process food stamp applications. The food stamp program has come under fire after federal officials warned that the state could face financial sanctions if it does not improve its performance significantly. Connecticut has one of the […]

James Redeker, a former New Jersey transit official who has been with the state Department of Transportation, has been named interim commissioner of the DOT. “Jim Redeker is a talented, dedicated transportation professional with recognized expertise in the realm of public transportation, which is right where our focus needs to be right now,” Malloy said. […]

The campaign treasurer for Sen. John Fonfara, D-Hartford, was charged today in connection with the embezzlement of $2,300 form Fonfara’s campaign in 2006 and 2007. David Larkin, 43 of Rocky Hill, was charged with third-degree larceny by the Office of the Chief State’s Attorney, which acted on a complaint from the State Elections Enforcement Commission. […]

Rep. Chris Murphy wrote a letter to the CEOs of five major oil companies Friday, asking them to chip in for the heating bills of Connecticut’s low-income residents. Murphy’s gambit comes amid news that Operation Fuel, a Bloomfield-based nonprofit charity, has run out of money for its heating assistance program and stopped accepting applications from […]

President Barack Obama officially said Connecticut’s winter storms were terrible–a disaster in fact. In signing an official “disaster declaration” for the state, the president cleared the way for the state to get federal funds to defray the costs of local and state recovery efforts. Here’s a snippet from Thursday’s White House release: “The President today […]

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s new budget doesn’t go far enough to accelerate Connecticut’s economic recovery and create better-paying jobs, according to the latest report from the University of Connecticut’s Center for Economic Analysis. State government needs to invest more heavily in high-technology, cutting-edge projects particularly by overhauling “moribund” research and development tax credits to underwrite […]

A proposal to raise the minimum age for children to start kindergarten–a move that would have delayed the start of public school for almost 10,000 students–has failed to win approval from the legislature’s Education Committee. “We would have been shutting thousands of children out of school, and that’s not acceptable for me,” said Rep. Andy […]

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy today named a top insurance executive, Catherine H. Smith of ING, to oversee economic development, a recruiting coup and a sign of his desire to grow one of the state’s best-known industries. Catherine Smith Smith, 58, the chief executive of ING U.S. Retirement Services and a former high-ranking executive at Aetna […]

WASHINGTON–The state of Connecticut has had a lobbyist in Washington for years. But she hasn’t exactly had a high-profile on Capitol Hill. “I very briefly met a woman who was [former Gov. Jodi] Rell’s person, but I never got to know her at all,” said Rep. Jim Himes, D-4th District. “There was very little interaction […]

NEW LONDON–A predominantly blue-collar audience urged Gov. Dannel P. Malloy Wednesday night to spare them from his proposed tax hikes–among the largest in state history–and pressed the governor instead to seek more revenue from the rich and major concessions from state employees. The crowd of more than 300 that packed the Jennings Middle School gymnasium […]

Legislation requiring most Connecticut employers to provide paid sick leave narrowly cleared its first hurdle Thursday when the Labor and Public Employees approved it by a 6-5 vote. The Democrat-controlled panel adopted the bill over Republican objections in a vote largely along party lines. The only defection involved Rep. Ernest Hewett, D-New London, who backed […]

Pollsters and commentators often use the terms “global warming” and “climate change” interchangeably, but which words are used can make a real difference in discussions of the issue, Tom Jacobs reports at Miller-McCune. Citing research published in Public Opinion Quarterly (subscription required), Jacobs said Republicans especially seem influenced by the choice of one phrase or […]