Connecticut’s bid for federal transportation grants rejected

Connecticut will not receive a single dime from the $1.5 billion federal stimulus money available for transportation projects, which has a Transportation Committee member angry. “I’m dumbfounded. I can’t believe we didn’t receive even one of the awards.” said Rep. David McCluskey, D-West Hartford. The Connecticut Department of Transportation applied for $329 million for 13 separate projects […]

Can a coalition of bikers, Chris Dodd haters, gun owners, Ron Paul lovers, tax protesters, Libertarians and a preacher or two find happiness under the umbrella of constitutional fundamentalism? Connecticut is about to find out. Elements of the Tea Party, the ultimate outsiders group, are moving toward the mainstream, trying to channel an edgy energy […]

Despite the fiscal crisis confronting the state, a legislative committee has decided to hold a public hearing on a bill that would share the state’s sales tax with municipalities that participate in regional cooperation. “The state right now does not give towns many options for revenue and this is something they have been asking for […]

Just 16, and off to college? That could become an option for high school sophomores in Connecticut, one of eight states named Wednesday to pilot test a rigorous new system, including board examinations, that would mark a dramatic shift in the traditional notion of high school education. By fall of 2011, those states will begin […]

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 […]

Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz intends to ask a court to clarify if she meets the minimum qualifications to run for attorney general, answering a question that threatens to derail her candidacy. Bysiewicz will explain her plans at a press conference Thursday with Democratic State Chairwoman Nancy DiNardo and Wesley Horton, a lawyer who […]

Family and friends of the student from Rocky Hill killed in a school bus crash told a crowded room at the state Capitol today that a seat belt would have saved Vikas Parikh’s life, and called on the state lawmakers to require school buses have seat belts. “We fully believe our son would have been […]

Connecticut is among eight states that will pilot test a rigorous examination that could dramatically alter the notion of traditional high school education and allow students to graduate after their sophomore year, officials announced today. Each state will select 10 to 20 schools by fall of 2011 to begin testing a system of coursework and […]

The battle for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination was joined Tuesday, with Ned Lamont and Dan Malloy casting themselves as the outsider and the insider. As Malloy rolled out endorsements, the fruits of retail politics that has taken him to more than 100 Democratic town committees over the past year, Lamont reprised a theme from his […]

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 […]