WASHINGTON–Parents and teachers don’t like it. For many students, it has failed to produce the promised benefits. And experts agree it urgently needs to be fixed. But that doesn’t mean Congress is ready to revamp No Child Left Behind, the education reform law pushed by President George W. Bush with bipartisan Congressional support in 2001. As […]

A court challenge by Michael Jarjura will tie up Kevin Lembo’s public financing for least another day in the race for the Democratic nomination for comptroller. Superior Court Judge James T. Graham adjourned at 6 p.m. today without concluding a hearing into Jarjura’s complaint that the State Elections Enforcement Commission improperly granted Lembo $375,000 in […]

At the request of Gov. M. Jodi Rell, Connecticut State University System trustees Monday reduced the size of raises granted this month to Chancellor David G. Carter and the presidents of CSU’s four campuses. The officials were allowed to keep 5 percent cost-of-living increases, but the Board of Trustees Executive Committee rescinded an additional raise […]

In a WNPR radio debate of the two Democratic candidates for lieutenant governor today, the first question posed by a listener: Does Connecticut really need a governor in waiting? For the record, Nancy Wyman and Mary Glassman believe the job they are seeking is necessary, though each conceded that lieutenant governors often have had little […]

Fifteen days before the primaries, temperatures are rising in the races for the Democratic and Republican gubernatorial nominations, with the front-runners in both contests accusing their opponents of negative tactics. The friction started Friday, when Republican Michael C. Fedele and Democrat Dan Malloy launched oddly parallel commercials intended to undermine the business resumes of the […]

Just five weeks after petitioning his way onto the Republican U.S. Senate primary ballot, Peter Schiff says he is unlikely to continue propping up his struggling campaign with his own money. His last gasp as a U.S. Senate candidate likely will come this week with an online plea for money to air commercials. “If I […]

Throughout its history, public education in Connecticut has enjoyed a flattering – though often misleading – reputation among citizens who wanted excellent schools but were reluctant to pay for them. That blunt assessment comes from a new book by one of the state’s most noted authorities on education, former state historian Christopher Collier. The ongoing […]

Nearly one month into the new fiscal year, the legislative panel charged with identifying $50 million in cost-saving ideas still hasn’t completed its work, Gov. M. Jodi Rell’s administration wrote in a rebuke to the group’s leaders. The head of the Office of Policy and Management, the governor’s budget agency, also reminded the Commission on […]

Trailing in the polls, Dan Malloy aired a television commercial Friday afternoon that tweaks Ned Lamont for his refusal to debate in the closing weeks of their campaign for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination. As attack ads go, it is a relatively gentle spot. Malloy appears on the camera for the entire commercial, contrasting his record […]

Gov. M. Jodi Rell asked Connecticut State University officials Friday to reduce pay raises granted this month to top managers, calling the raises “excessive” and “intolerable” in light of the state’s fiscal crisis. She also said she will order a study of the possible elimination of the central office of the 36,500-student system. The governor […]

Republican gubernatorial candidate Michael Fedele today began airing a commercial that criticizes the GOP front runner, Tom Foley, for making $20 million as his Georgia textile manufacturer, the Bibb Company, slid into bankruptcy. The ad is a frontal assault on the cornerstone of Foley’s campaign: his acumen as a businessman who became rich acquiring the […]

Linda McMahon did her best Thursday to ignore Rob Simmons’ re-emergence as an active candidate, but others tried to assess if there now is a real fight for the GOP U.S. Senate nomination. “I thought the primary was over, so I’m watching and waiting to see what happens,” said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, the chairman […]

The panel created by Gov. M. Jodi Rell to propose solutions to the huge funding gaps facing state retirement benefit programs fractured Thursday over the question of whether to recommend reductions to the current benefit system. Veteran state union leader Salvatore Luciano and Christine Shaw, director of government relations for state Treasurer Denise L. Nappier, both argued […]

Ned Lamont rolled out a new television ad today in which he is endorsed by Ted Kennedy Jr. The son of the late U.S. senator, Kennedy is a long-time Connecticut resident who has been mentioned as a potential candidate for public office. His father endorsed Lamont in his 2006 race for U.S. Senate. In the […]

Apart from the big-money races for governor and U.S. Senate, nearly a dozen major party candidates are vying for statewide office on the underticket, and in these contests, most Democrats are operating with far larger bank accounts than their Republican opponents. Their advantage is attributable to two factors; More Democrats are running their campaigns under […]