Delta COVID Strain Could Impact Future Guidelines
State officials are tracking the presence of the more-transmissible Delta strain of the COVID-19 virus, but could not say Friday how its presence here might impact schools when they reopen later this year. During a Friday morning press conference at Bradley International Airport, Acting Public Health Commissioner Dr. Deidre Gifford said that testing in Connecticut…
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CT Readies For Free Phone Calls From Behind Bars
With the stroke of Gov. Ned Lamont’s pen Wednesday, Connecticut was on its way to becoming the first state in the nation to provide free phone calls to incarcerated people and their loved ones. The passage ends a three-year battle where advocates, including Rep. Josh Elliott, D-Hamden, repeatedly pointed out that families of incarcerated loved…
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Data Privacy Change Noted As Senate Approves Budget Bill – Again
The Senate gave final passage Thursday to a more than 800-page budget implementer bill despite complaints from leading Democrats over language eliminated by the House to limit the collection of some user data by digital companies. Lawmakers approved the enormous bill, primarily designed to implement the two-year, $46 billion state budget on a 20 to…
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Murphy Launches Bill To Fund School Support Staff, Not Police
Connecticut U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy and other Democratic lawmakers are reintroducing legislation to fund school social workers, nurses and psychologists while barring states and cities from using that federal money to pay for school resource officers. The “Counseling Not Criminalization In Schools Act” is an attempt to address students’ needs by targeting more money to…
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Lamont Promises to Sign Cannabis Bill Following Senate Passage
With “serendipitous” timing, the Senate gave final passage Thursday to a bill legalizing recreational cannabis on the 50th anniversary of former President Richard Nixon’s 1971 speech credited with kicking off the ill-fated war on drugs. The Senate voted 16 to 11 to send the bill to Gov. Ned Lamont, who released a statement promising to…
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House Gives Senate Second Chance At Budget Implementer
It’s more than 800 pages of language to implement the state budget and there were sections that the House just couldn’t stomach so they amended it Thursday morning and sent it back to the Senate. The House sent the bill back to the Senate with an 89-50 vote after several hours of debate. Two Democrats…
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House Narrowly Votes To Legalize Cannabis
On a narrow vote Wednesday, the House passed a bill legalizing recreational cannabis but not before changing its language to avoid a veto from the governor, forcing the bill back to the state Senate for a third debate.
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House To Change Cannabis Legalization and Force Third Senate Vote
House leaders plan to run a version of the recreational cannabis legalization bill Wednesday, undoing part of an amendment adopted Tuesday night by the Senate in an effort to avoid the veto threatened by Gov. Ned Lamont. House Democrats spent the morning meeting behind closed doors, trying to navigate an increasingly convoluted path to legalizing…
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Take Two: Inspector General Position Posted
After a failed attempt at an appointment last fall, the state Criminal Justice Commission is again accepting applications for the first Inspector General to investigate deadly use of force incidents by police and in-custody deaths. Attorneys with at least three years of experience practicing law and extensive experience in conducting investigations and providing leadership must…
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Senate Sends Budget Implementer To House
It’s 837 pages and 24,800 lines of public policy, some of which lawmakers were just reading for the first time Tuesday. It’s supposed to be language to implement the budget but there was much more to the so-called implementer bill.
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Moments Before Senate Passes It, Lamont Says He Will Veto Cannabis Legalization
For the second time in eight days, the state Senate passed a bill legalizing recreational cannabis Tuesday but even before the votes were cast, Gov. Ned Lamont’s office threatened to veto the legislation.
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Towns With Native American Mascots Set to Lose Funding Under Budget Bill
Towns with team names or mascots depicting images associated with Native Americans could lose funding under a provision of the 800-plus page budget implementer expected to be passed by the legislature during special sessions this week.
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DOC Workers Call For Hazard Pay For Pandemic Hours
Ginny Ligi believes she contracted COVID-19 in her job as a correction officer at Cheshire Correctional Institution. “I was bedridden for over a month,” said Ligi, who is the secretary of AFSCME Local 387 representing state Department of Correction employees. She lived “behind a closed door” so she didn’t pass the disease on to her…
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Mental Health, Substance Use Treatment Funding In Jeopardy
Mental health has been front and center throughout the pandemic. And with the demand for services increasing, nonprofits that treat people with mental health and addiction issues were hoping to see a funding increase in the state budget. That didn’t happen. Read Christine Stuart’s full report at NBC Connecticut
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UConn Lands Largest Research Grant In School’s History At $40M
With $40 million from the National Science Foundation, the University of Connecticut School of Medicine will be the hub for a centralized scientific research network aimed at innovation that will stimulate the nation’s bio-economy, officials announced Wednesday.
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OP-ED | Controversial New Alzheimer’s Drug Could Break the Bank
Setting aside its questionable effectiveness, the price tag for the new Alzheimer’s drug is simply unaffordable.
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ANALYSIS | COVID-19 Cases Drop Past Last Year’s Lows
New cases of COVID-19 fell past the lows recorded last August as the pandemic continues its rapid retreat in Connecticut. The end, at last, appears to be in sight.
Continue readingUConn Foundation Awarded Funding for Health Equity Research
The Hartford Foundation for Public Giving and the Connecticut Health Foundation have awarded $40,000 in grants to the UConn Foundation to support continued efforts to address health equity among boys and men of color.
Continue readingMed Board Fines Two Doctors, Orders Newington Woman To Stop Practicing Medicine Without A License
The state Medical Examining Board voted Tuesday to discipline two physicians with fines and ordered a Newington woman to stop providing injections for a fee without a medical license.
Continue readingLitchfield on Smithsonian Magazine’s 2021 List of 15 Best Small Towns
Historic buildings, dining spots, and beautiful fall foliage are some of the reasons the Smithsonian Magazine included Litchfield, Connecticut as one of the country’s “Best Small Towns to Visit” in 2021.
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OP-ED | Patients’ Rights And Privacy Are First Priority of CT’s New Health Information Exchange
It was every adult child’s worst nightmare – a frantic drive to the Emergency Department with mom getting worse by the minute. For Brenda Shipley, the stress was just beginning.
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Making Connecticut More Competitive From The Classroom: Alissa DeJonge
As an economist and former vice president of AdvanceCT, Alissa DeJonge is no stranger to data. At the former Connecticut Economic Resource Council, DeJonge had been doing economic and public policy research to help the economy and make the state more competitive.
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Capitol Will Remain Closed For Special Session
Lawmakers will be returning to the Capitol this week for a special session, but the doors will still remain closed to the public. “Legislators aren’t told in their personal lives to quarantine. They have exposure…
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ARTC Praises Income Tax Exclusion, Announces New Executive Director and Scholarship Winners
The Association of Retired Teachers of Connecticut says the inclusion of a 50% break on state income taxes for retired teachers in the state budget is a smart way to keep retirees in CT. Read more at the 210 Capitol Ave blog
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OP-ED | Connecticut’s Recreational Marijuana Goes Up In Smoke
Jonathan L. Wharton calls out lawmakers’ failure to pass cannabis legalization as a textbook example of problematic public policymaking.
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OP-ED | Thank You, High School Graduates, for the Lessons You Taught Us
Our resident veteran educator pens his salute to the Class of ’21.
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ANALYSIS | COVID-19 Numbers Still Dropping, But More Slowly
COVID-19 cases fell again this week to one of the lowest weekly case counts of the pandemic, exceeded only by two weeks in July 2020, and one in August 2020. The rate of descent, while still rapid, has slowed somewhat in the past two weeks.
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OP-ED | A Reporter’s Work On COVID-19 Has Saved Lives. She’s Getting Death Threats.
Liz Essley Whyte’s reporting for Public Integrity on who is behind the conspiracy theories and misinformation about the COVID-19 vaccines has led to a coordinated campaign of harassment and threats against her.
Continue readingState Exports Take a Hit in 2020; COVID Drives 15% Drop
“Consumer demand sharply increased for particular goods, while others experienced dramatic drops,” in 2020, largely attributable to COVID-19, according to an analysis of state exports highlighted in the June issue of the Connecticut Economic Digest.…
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Cannabis Question Mark Lingers
The last day of the legislative session is always full of unknowns, but in the House it looks like lawmakers are headed for a showdown over legalized cannabis. Unable to resolve their differences, Republicans are…
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OP-ED | General Assembly: Act Now to Close The Housing Gap
I often hear from residents, “It means a lot for me to live in Connecticut, but I know I have to leave.” Read more from Shenae Draughn
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OP-ED | The Most Important Piece of Legislation You Have Never Heard Of
The global transition to EV is happening faster than anyone expected. Trillions of dollars will flow into everything from vehicles, to battery technology, the electrical grid, IoT, cellular, autonomous vehicles, and infrastructure. And there is a race by each state to attract the companies and the millions of jobs that will be created in this new economy.
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