Fight Over School Spending Begins With Lengthy Public Hearing
Nearly 200 residents signed up during a Friday public hearing to speak largely in favor of legislation to boost state support for Connecticut’s lower-income school districts in the wake of expiring federal COVID relief funding.
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Analysis Identifies Connecticut’s Most Dangerous Areas for Pedestrians
The numbers have been on the rise here and across the country in recent years, and Connecticut data – newly compiled by a law firm – points to “the most dangerous areas” where pedestrians may be at higher risk of being struck.
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Digging Into AI and Algorithmic Bias In State Government
When artificial intelligence is making decisions for state agencies, the public should know. That’s what the Connecticut Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights declared Thursday in a memorandum.
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Podcast | Griswold’s New Senior Center
The Connecticut East Podcast visits the new senior center in the town of Griswold. The facility came in around $1.5 million over budget, but the voters continued with the project. Brian Scott-Smith takes a look at out how it turned out and what it will offer the local community.
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Looney Looks to Send Message on Organ Donation and Unhelmeted Motorcyclists
Motorcyclists killed in crashes while riding without a helmet would be presumed to be organ donors under a bill proposed by Senate President Martin Looney, who said Thursday the legislation was intended to make a statement rather than change the law.
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Podcast: Americans Are Lonely. That Has Political Consequences
Americans are spending more and more time alone, and more than a third reported experiencing “serious loneliness” in 2021. The director of the Harvard Study of Adult Development – the longest study of human life ever conducted – concluded in a new book that close personal relationships are the “one crucial factor [that] stands out for the consistency and power of its ties to physical…
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Committee Pops Cork On Sale of Wine in Grocery Stores
Connecticut grocery store operators clashed Thursday with the state’s package store owners during an expected all-day public hearing on legislation that would change a longstanding law preventing the sale of wine at grocery stores.
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Big Oil Rakes In Record Profits
Editorial cartoon by Tom Janssen of the Netherlands. The Grid reports that record profits in 2022 show us that the oil and gas industry remains strong as climate change worsens, and meeting climate targets would mean a rapidly shrinking oil and gas sector, but companies are raking in money and expanding aggressively.
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Lawmakers Debut Debate Over Human Composting As Burial Option
Since 2015, cremation has become the most popular method of burial, but lawmakers at the state Capitol are exploring whether terramation, or human composting, would be a more environmentally friendly method. Rep. Amy Morrin-Bello, D-Wethersfield, who proposed the legislation said that it takes three hours to cremate a body and it releases almost 500 pounds…
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Lamont Considering Program to Erase Medical Debt As Part of Budget Proposal
Gov. Ned Lamont wants to use $20 million in federal COVID-19 recovery funding to contract with a company that buys medical debt.
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Lawmakers Debate Banning Flavored Vapes
Connecticut lawmakers heard testimony Wednesday on legislation that would ban the sale of flavored tobacco and vape products as well as prohibit the use of vapes while in a vehicle with a child.
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OP-ED | Connecticut Is Continuing To Set The Standard For Reproductive Rights
Opinion writer Susan Campbell says you may believe state governments should have a larger say over their residents’ lives – as was the case in the overturning of Roe v. Wade by the US Supreme Court – but you must then acknowledge that other states are free to do the same thing.
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Lawmakers to Revisit School Resource Officers
Connecticut lawmakers will consider setting some statewide ground rules for the use of school resource officers in response to statistics finding that students are arrested more often in schools with SROs than in those without them.
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Groundhog Day!
Editorial cartoons by John Darkow, Jeff Koterba, and Rivers. Chuckles XI, the groundhog at the Lutz Museum in Manchester, Connecticut, predicted an early spring today, while Punxsutawney Phil in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania predicted another six weeks of winter.
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Civil Rights Advocates Push for a Connecticut Voting Rights Act
Lawmakers and civil rights advocates called Tuesday for the passage of a Connecticut Voting Rights Act designed to remove barriers to voting in Black and brown communities or for those who do not speak English as a first language. The bill, which will be heard in the Government Administration and Elections Committee, aims to codify…
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OP-ED | State Police Contracts, Taking Out The Trash, And Other Thoughts
Opinion writer Terry Cowgill highlights the state’s difficulty in hiring State Troopers, and what’s being done about it, along with Connecticut’s trash conundrum.
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School Construction Audit Takes Center Stage At Nomination Hearing
During her nomination hearing Tuesday, lawmakers questioned Acting Department of Administrative Services Commissioner Michelle Gilman about what they largely felt was a lackluster audit of the school construction program.
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Labor Advocates Say It’s Time to Tip The Scales and Pay Minimum Wage to All Workers
Connecticut lawmakers will consider this session whether to eliminate a “subminimum wage” for tipped workers like servers and require all employers to pay their staff at least minimum wage, a co-chair of the legislature’s Labor and Public Employees Committee said Tuesday.
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OP-ED | Will Lamont’s Gun Control Proposals Accomplish Anything?
Opinion writer Susan Bigelow highlights Gov. Ned Lamont’s plans for new measures aimed at curbing gun violence in the state with what may seem like an obvious question: Despite all the spilled blood and endless murders and mass shootings, what good will any of this do?
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Lamont Proposes Tax Cut For Working Poor
Gov. Ned Lamont is not fond of making the child tax credit permanent, but he’s in favor of cutting state income taxes for an estimated 211,000 working poor families.
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Tragedy In Memphis
Editorial cartoons by Jeff Koterba and Bob Englehart. The AP reported Friday that authorities released video footage showing Tyre Nichols being beaten by five Memphis police officers who held the Black motorist down and repeatedly struck him with their fists, boots, and batons as he screamed for his mother.
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Teachers Call For Improvements to HVAC Systems
Connecticut’s largest teacher union isn’t taking anything for granted. A new survey found that voters overwhelmingly support improving air ventilation in schools.
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OP-ED | Rent Stability Is Past Due In Connecticut
Guest opinion writer Jessica Stamp of the Blake Street Tenants Union in New Haven says SB 138, which would cap rent increases at 2.5% to ensure that rent keeps pace with wages, is long overdue in Connecticut where she says the housing crisis feels hopeless right now.
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Providers and Public Officials Back Proposals to Shore Up Connecticut’s EMS System
Dozens of emergency medical providers gathered in Hartford Monday with state and town officials to warn of worrying shortfalls in Connecticut’s EMS system driven by a number of factors including short staffing and inadequate reimbursement rates.
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OP-ED | Vision Zero Bill Would Address Causes of Pedestrian Crashes
Opinion writer Kerri Ana Provost has taken a look at the data from last year’s pedestrian fatalities in Connecticut. She found that there are patterns, distracted walking is not the cause, and victim blaming is not the answer.
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Transportation Committee Hears Testimony on Vision Zero Traffic Safety Proposals
The legislature’s Transportation Committee heard testimony Monday on a package of traffic safety proposals including broader use of enforcement cameras in the wake of one of the deadliest years on record for Connecticut roadways.
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