By Elliot Joseph HHC Chief Executive Officer The history of healthcare in Connecticut begins with hospitals created to serve their communities – sometimes filling an urgent need. Hartford Hospital was established in response to an 1854 industrial accident that left nine dead and dozens wounded – some critically. There was no place to care for […]
Solid as Brownstone: Our Community Commitment
Posted inEducation
Education Committee approves Lamont’s watered-down regionalization bill
Gov. Ned Lamont’s two key education bills — including one intended to push school districts toward regionalization — were approved by a legislative committee Friday.
Posted inMoney
Bill to limit eminent domain advances — for now
For the first time in more than a decade, a bill to restrict public taking of private land for economic development purposes has made it out of committee. But the bill faces an uncertain future.
Posted inHealth
Bill banning deceptive practices at faith-based pregnancy centers advances
The legislature’s Public Health Committee green-lighted a measure Friday that would ban deceptive practices by the state’s so-called crisis pregnancy centers.
Posted inPolitics
McMahon resigns from Trump administration
While Linda McMahon will quit the Trump administration, she is expected to help raise funds for the president’s reelection.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Connecticut youth deserve a clean slate
Youth who are arrested often find themselves on a path of family separation, educational disruption, and trauma. When they exit the juvenile justice system, youth are anxious to put the experience behind them. Yet, records of court involvement have the potential to stymie their future efforts to grow into productive citizens.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Bill would bring chemotherapy treatment equity
Even if you’ve never been diagnosed with cancer, you probably have an image of what treatment looks like. A patient hooked up to an IV, maybe having lost some of their hair. They’re tired and nauseous, and struggle to hold on to their sense of who they were before cancer. Until recently, this was the only way to fight the disease. Today, many cancers can be treated differently, in a way that is less invasive, less time-consuming, more convenient. And for some patients, oral chemotherapy –cancer treatment in pill form– is the only treatment option. What most people don’t know, however, is that insurance covers these two kinds of chemotherapy very differently.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Cheating to enter elite schools is about social status
My best friend from high school and I were both accepted to Ivy League schools. We declined. We both received substantial scholarships, so it wasn’t the money. But we felt more comfortable attending schools close to our rural Pennsylvania homes with both family and friends nearby. But more important, we did not feel that attending an Ivy League school would make any difference in our lives. And we were right. Both us did fine in our respective careers. But 45 years later, America has changed and getting into an elite school has become an obsession for America’s wealthy and upper middle class.
Posted inJustice
A tenant blacklist, compiled by algorithm
A federal judge in Connecticut is allowing a challenge of a practice on the cutting edge of housing discrimination: The outsourcing of tenant screening to companies that effectively blacklist rental applicants using computerized assessments of criminal records.
Posted inHealth
How a repeal of the Affordable Care Act could affect Connecticut
Lawmakers in Connecticut called the possibility of an ACA repeal “stunningly irresponsible” on Thursday.
Posted inPolitics
Lamont seeks help with tolls, other priorities, in D.C.
Tolls and transportation, alternative energy, and minority teacher recruitment were all on the governor’s plate during a visit this week to Washington.
Posted inPolitics
GOP defends plan to avoid tolls as Lamont administration calls for compromise
The gulf between Gov. Ned Lamont and GOP lawmakers on tolls grew even wider Thursday as Republicans called any long-term funding plan that includes the “toll monster” a non-starter.
Posted inNews
Regents raise tuition 5% at four regional universities
Even with the 5 percent increase in tuition, the state’s four universities face a $20 million shortfall.
Posted inEducation
Herbst, other UConn officials, racked up $214,000 of unused vacation time above policy limit
Herbst says she will forfeit the 54 days she accrued above the 60-day limit, but she is still eligible to receive $156,279 for the rest of the unused vacation time when she leaves state service.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Connecticut needs aid-in-dying laws
This month, I joined my fellow Connecticut residents testifying in support of the state’s proposed medical aid-in-dying legislation now being considered by the General Assembly. The bill would allow terminally ill people with a prognosis of six months or less to live, the option to take medication to die peacefully in their sleep. My message to the committee was simple. This issue is about giving peoplethe ability to make decisions about how they will face the final days. Across the country, states are passing similar laws.