Last week Connecticut’s total prison and jail population dropped below 13,000 for the first time in 25 years.  A brief history lesson will be helpful to appreciate the significance of this milestone.

Insurance is a hot topic in Hartford. That’s nothing new. After all, Connecticut is the “Insurance Capital of the World.” But today, legislators are the ones doing the talking about insurance. I commend them for addressing the high cost of insurance for employers and individuals in our state but a public option is not the answer.

Roughly a year and a half ago, the Connecticut General Assembly passed a bipartisan state budget that contained a new Education Cost Sharing formula to distribute approximately $2 billion annually in state education funding to local public school districts. The passage of a new ECS formula not only ended the years-long trend of allocating state education aid to local districts via block grants driven by political power and historical precedent, it ushered in a more equitable, logical, and transparent way of funding our state’s local public schools.

Did you know that the number of high school students in Connecticut that currently use tobacco products is climbing for the first time in years?  From combustible cigarettes to e-cigarettes, more of our kids are becoming hooked on products that will cause lifelong health issues and potentially even death.

The benefits of the proposed Killingly Energy Center are extensive and significant. They begin with local jobs and extend much further, providing not only the cleaner, more reliable and more affordable source of energy that Connecticut and the New England region so urgently needs, but reaching out across the community in a host of valuable ways.