In a season when the “outsider” label is in vogue, Dannel P. Malloy touted his love of government and experience as mayor of Stamford on Wednesday in announcing his candidacy for governor. Malloy filed campaign papers in a state office across from the State Capitol, then told a waiting crowd of more than 100 supporters […]

Gov. M. Jodi Rell took a hit from within her party today when a leading Republican lawmaker accused her of going easy on unionized state employees in her latest plan to eliminate this year’s budget deficit. Rep. Craig A. Miner of Litchfield, ranking House Republican on the Appropriations Committee, told Rell’s budget director during a […]

So many Medicaid patients at Leeway nursing home in New Haven fail to pay their bills that the facility has a hard time operating, executive director Martha Dale told legislators Tuesday. She wants to be able to evict them after 60 days. “We don’t have money to spare,” she said. “They have income but somehow […]

FARMINGTON – An upbeat Gov. M. Jodi Rell framed a $352 million plan to improve the University of Connecticut Health Center as transforming the delivery of health care for “generations to come.” But the proposal rolled out Tuesday to a standing ovation by UConn staff and students relies on the influence of two lame ducks: […]

An appeal from moderate Democrats for decisive leadership to close the state budget deficit left some lawmakers questioning Tuesday whether a rift has opened within the General Assembly’s majority party. A coalition of four senators and 11 representatives sent a letter to party leadership urging immediate action to close the $518.4 million deficit for 2009-10 […]

When Walter Harrison became president of the University of Hartford, he was astonished that a state regulatory process was holding up a proposed new academic program to train cantors, the officials who sing or chant prayers in synagogues. The campus already had well-known programs in music and Jewish studies, and Harrison didn’t understand why a […]

With nearly 170,000 Connecticut residents struggling to find employment, a state legislative panel has endorsed new restrictions on when businesses can research individuals’ credit and criminal backgrounds. “Nearly half of the employers in this country go into workers’ credit history during the hiring process,” said Rep. Matthew Lesser, D-Middletown, co-sponsor of the bill restricting credit background checks. […]

The General Assembly’s labor committee today narrowly approved legislation that would require businesses with more than 50 employees to offer up to five paid sick days. The committee voted 6-4 for a bill praised by the Working Families Party as a matter of social justice and detested by the Connecticut Business and Industry Association as […]

A coalition of 15 moderate Democratic state legislators sent a letter to their leadership urging immediate action to close the $518.4 million deficit for the current fiscal year without borrowing. The letter, signed by four senators and 11 representatives, also expressed concerns about more than $4.6 billion worth of deficits projected in total for the […]

FARMINGTON — Gov. M. Jodi Rell and a coalition of regional hospitals announced today they are backing a $236 million investment in a new hospital at the financially troubled University of Connecticut Health Center in Farmington. Key to the plan is a new healthcare network involving former critics of efforts to rebuild the state’s flagship […]

Democrat Dannel P. Malloy said today he will formally become a candidate for governor at noon on Wednesday, while Republican Larry DeNardis is making it official Thursday. Malloy is keeping things informal, holding a press conference outside the State Elections Enforcement Commission after he files his paperwork. DeNardis is announcing at 10:30 a.m Thursday at […]

The familiar battle-lines were drawn Monday: Package store owners from border towns complained they lose money because they can’t open on Sundays, while a broader-based liquor retailers’ association said ending Connecticut’s Sunday sales ban would drive mom-and-pop shops out of business. Still, about 100 people filled the Program Review and Investigations Committee hearing room for […]

NEW HAVEN – Here in the city’s Adult Education Center, alongside former dropouts in their 20s and 30s or older, hundreds of teenagers such as Leandrae Doward also are signing up for a second chance at a diploma. “I had an attendance problem,” said Doward, a 16-year-old who dropped out of Hillhouse High School as […]

A fresh idea is catching on at the State Capitol: budget transparency. A searchable database of the state’s checkbook. Available online for free. Kind of like the one set up a month ago by a conservative think tank. The new website created by the Yankee Institute for Public Policy showing all state expenditures, including payroll, […]

Greenwich businessman Steven J. Simmons will head a new state commission to tackle the problem of poor academic performance among low-income and minority children, Gov. M. Jodi Rell announced today. The Commission on Educational Achievement, consisting of 11 business leaders and other professionals, will conduct hearings, visit public schools and review research to address the […]