One of the incumbents’ perks in a legislative election year, bragging on state funds won for pet projects in the district, is getting turned on its head this year. Gov. M. Jodi Rell is asking legislators not only to hold off on new earmarks, but also to cancel projects that they have touted–but not yet […]

A legislative committee is scheduled to hear testimony today on the latest in a long series of so-far unsuccessful proposals to require seat belts in school buses–but the death of Rocky Hill student Vikas Parikh in a crash last month is giving new impetus to the idea. “From everything I have been told and have […]

The state’s top education official said Tuesday he opposes the creation of more magnet schools as a means of meeting a court order to desegregate Hartford’s predominantly black and Hispanic public schools. Instead, Education Commissioner Mark McQuillan urged legislators to expand a longstanding school choice program that allows Hartford parents to enroll their children in […]

With a nod to his insurgent 2006 U.S. Senate campaign, Ned Lamont kicked off his race for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination today by pitching himself as an outsider, but one focused on creating jobs in Connecticut and not ending a war in Iraq. “We stood up to the political establishment,” Lamont said of his challenge […]

Even relaxed, Chris Healy is never at rest. The Republican state chairman fidgets at his desk as he talks about the importance of intensity and intangibles in 2010. He polishes his glasses, neatens his desk, dusts a lampshade and peels a label off a knick-knack. Only as he glances at a bulletin on his BlackBerry […]

The latest explanation from the state Department of Social Services for its failure to apply for millions of dollars in federal health care reimbursement has hospital officials and a key state legislator fuming. “The state should be aggressively moving forward” to collect the federal money, said Stephen Frayne, Connecticut Hospital Association’s senior vice president of […]

As a civil rights lawyer, he sued the U.S. Navy over a bombing range in Puerto Rico. As a foundation president, he influenced the passage of a health-care reform law last year. Juan A. Figueroa is a singular candidate for governor in several respects, including being the only Latino in a crowded field. Juan Figueroa […]

House Majority Leader Denise W. Merrill, D-Mansfield, formally began her campaign for secretary of the state today in Mansfield. “There are few duties more important than ensuring that our Democracy is working, that every citizen’s rights and privileges are protected, and every vote is counted appropriately,” Merrill said. She is seeking to succeed Susan Bysiewicz, […]

With steep increases in college tuition and ominous predictions for the state’s economy, it is time to rethink strategies for paying for Connecticut’s public colleges, says state Higher Education Commissioner Michael Meotti. Meotti echoed the warnings in a new national study showing that many states, including Connecticut, have slipped in their support for higher education […]

As a civil rights lawyer, he sued the U.S. Navy over a bombing range in Puerto Rico. As a foundation president, he influenced the passage of a health-care reform law last year. Juan A. Figueroa is a singular candidate for governor in several respects, including being the only Latino in a crowded field. But the […]

Attorney General Richard Blumenthal was grilled on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” today about whether he has higher standards of integrity than the man he hopes to replace in the U.S. Senate, fellow Democrat Christopher Dodd. The cross-examination by the show’s host, former Republican Congressman Joe Scarborough, may have been an attempt to be even-handed, following Democratic […]

U.S. Senate candidate Linda McMahon kept smiling, but her appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” turned tense this morning as analyst Lawrence O’Donnell accused her wrestling company, the WWE, of exploiting its performers. “You make money off the blood of people who destroyed themselves for a living for you, and you did nothing as far as […]

Parents would have the authority to shake up or even close failing public schools in Connecticut under a proposal outlined by members of the legislature’s Black and Puerto Rican Caucus Thursday. That idea and others, including income tax breaks for teachers who work longer hours in troubled schools, are intended to take on the chronic […]

The Connecticut Supreme Court heard arguments Thursday in a protracted and politically charged labor case that pits Gov. M. Jodi Rell against high-ranking state police officers. At issue is whether the Rell administration must recognize a union formed by state police captains and lieutenants in 2006, as ordered by the State Board of Labor Relations […]

Other candidates get to run for governor. Lt. Gov. Michael C. Fedele must walk a tightrope. Like the rest of the pack, he distances himself from the $18.9 billion budget that Gov. M. Jodi Rell proposed last week, but he does so politely, almost apologetically. “In the new budget, I probably would have gone more […]