The Democratic leaders of the Connecticut Senate responded Wednesday to the Anthem data breach by proposing that insurers selling health plans in the state be required to encrypt Social Security numbers and other client information.
Martin Looney
Posted inPolitics
Can Connecticut’s campaign finance reforms be saved?
Reform it. Leave it alone. Blow it up. Prescriptions for fixing Connecticut’s system of publicly financing campaigns vary wildly. Its tight limits on contributions and spending turned porous in 2014, tarnishing what had been a shiny instrument of campaign finance reform.
Posted inPolitics
Looney promises to look out for Maynard’s towns
Senate President Pro Tem Martin Looney met Monday in Groton with municipal officials from the 18th Senate District, promising to represent them while their senator, Andrew Maynard, continues to recover from a traumatic brain injury.
Posted inMoney, Politics
Malloy outlines transit goals, puts off cost for another day
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy opened his second term Wednesday with a warning of a sclerotic Connecticut whose economy and quality of life are threatened by crumbling and clogged highways and inadequate and underfunded mass transit. The solution will be expensive, but how expensive was a topic for another day.
Posted inPolitics
Maynard’s unexpected return upstages an inauguration
The General Assembly opened its 2015 session Wednesday on an emotional note as the Senate welcomed the surprise return of Sen. Andrew M. Maynard, D-Stonington, who was re-elected without campaigning after sustaining a traumatic brain injury last summer.
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Looney makes wholesale changes in Senate committee co-chairs
With the departure of five senators, Senate Majority Leader Martin Looney, D-New Haven, took the opportunity Tuesday to change the leadership of more than a dozen committees, effective next month on the opening day of the 2015 session.
Posted inEducation
Senate Democrats duck sentencing reforms for juveniles
Senate Democrats Thursday defended their failure for the second consecutive year to heed the warnings of the U.S Supreme Court to provide a chance of parole to juveniles sentenced to life sentences — or risk intervention by the courts.
Posted inMoney, Politics
House aims for Saturday vote on a budget without keno
The prospect of keno being introduced into hundreds of bars and restaurants shortly before the fall elections was enough to encourage legislators and the administration of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy to delete keno revenue from a budget now likely to come to a vote Saturday. Legislators say the final call was the administration’s.
Posted inPolitics
CT considering state retirement program for private sector
With the support of the state treasurer and AARP, the Senate and House majority leaders are pushing legislation that would create a state-run retirement program for private-sector employees over the opposition of insurers and private investment advisors.
Posted inPolitics
Duff’s quiet campaign for majority leader goes public
Sen. Bob Duff, D-Norwalk, was described Thursday by a variety of political sources as the likely successor to Sen. Martin Looney, D-New Haven, as majority leader, the result of a quiet campaign waged in preparation for the day the job became open.
Posted inPolitics
Senate leader Williams not seeking re-election
Senate President Pro Tem Donald E. Williams Jr., D-Brooklyn, told Democratic senators Wednesday he will not seek re-election this fall, heralding a turnover in leadership in three of the General Assembly’s four caucuses.
Posted inPolitics
General Assembly staff exempt from disclosure rules
It was an obvious question after George Gallo abruptly resigned last week as the House Republicans’ chief of staff amid FBI inquiries into his political consulting business: Was he the only legislative aide in Hartford with a side business involving politics?
Posted inMoney, Politics
Malloy, legislators begin sprint to November as 2014 session opens
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and state legislators begin writing the narrative for their campaigns today as the governor delivers his budget address on the first full day of the General Assembly’s three-month election-year session.