Refugee Family Nurtures Culture In Hartford Community Garden
On a September weekday morning, Maaye May removes the lock and chain from one of two gates and enters the Niles Street Community Garden in Hartford. A 6-foot high, black-metal fence encloses the garden, which measures half the size of a football field. Within the gated oasis, the city surroundings slip away as bees, birds,…
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CCDL Files Challenge To Connecticut’s Post-Sandy Hook Gun Laws
Connecticut’s assault weapons ban received a new constitutional challenge Thursday in a lawsuit by the Connecticut Citizens Defense League that marks the second effort to overturn the law since the Supreme Court struck down a New York firearm policy in June.
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Trailing, Stefanowski Stays The Course
Bob Stefanowski has a strategy for turning around the momentum in the home stretch of the governor’s race: keep talking about parent’s rights and crime and inflation. The Republican candidate has been hammering those themes as the race for governor enters its final six weeks. Meanwhile, gas prices have dropped to their lowest point in 18 months.…
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Stefanowski Proposes to Roll Back Police Accountability Law
HARTFORD, CT — Bob Stefanowski shrugged off recently released statistics showing a decline in Connecticut crime rates and announced a plan Thursday to combat a problem he said many residents felt was out-of-control.
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ANALYSIS | Will Invoking Virginia Strategy Work In Connecticut?
Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob Stefanowski seemed to be taking a page from Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s playbook last month when he unveiled his “parental bill of rights,” which included a ban against transgender female athletes competing in high school sports.
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Connecticut Energy Assistance Program May Receive an Extra $20 Million
A federal heating assistance program appeared likely to get a funding boost from Congress this week after it was included in a stopgap budget bill, potentially providing more support for low-income Connecticut households during the coming winter. Funding for the state’s Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program dropped to roughly $79 million this year after having…
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Teachers Say ‘No’ To Remote Learning For Sick Students
Connecticut’s two teacher unions said Wednesday that the state Education Department’s guidance on remote instruction “is inequitable, and jeopardizes the education of our most vulnerable students.” They said not only does it harm education, but that it violates a law passed in the 2022 session prohibiting dual teaching – the practice of having one educator…
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Women Give Blumenthal The Edge Over Levy
U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal held a 13 point lead over Republican Leora Levy in a poll released Wednesday morning by CT Insider and Channel 3 Eyewitness News, which found the incumbent Democrat with a 30 point advantage among women.
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New Criminal Justice Policies Go Into Effect on Saturday
A batch of new Connecticut laws will take effect on Saturday including changes to how minors are handled by the criminal justice system and a requirement that police quickly notify the family of a deceased person.
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Stefanowski, Lamont Clash Over Abortion Rights During First Debate
WEST HARTFORD, CT — About 20 minutes into their first televised debate of the election, Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob Stefanowski accused Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont of lying to Connecticut voters on his stance regarding abortion rights.
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Lamont Ahead By 15 Points in CT Insider / Channel 3 News Poll
A poll released Tuesday by CT Insider and Channel 3 Eyewitness News found Gov. Ned Lamont with a 15 point advantage over Republican Bob Stefanowski with just under six weeks left in the race.
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Study: Despite Efforts, Diversity Gap Widens
While state leaders have prioritized teacher diversity in public schools, the gap between the number of diverse teachers has not kept up with the number of diverse students in the districts they serve, according to a study released by Education Reform Now (ERN), a nonpartisan and nonprofit education advocacy group. The issue is one that needs…
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Social Equity Council Votes To Give Some Cannabis Companies A Second Shot
A Connecticut panel charged with ensuring the equitable issuance of cannabis business licenses reversed course Monday and voted to reconsider the applications of a handful of companies it had previously denied as failing to meet its criteria. The state Social Equity Council clarified its requirements for the level of ownership and control an applicant from…
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Preliminary 2021 Data Shows Overall Crime Is Down But Rape and Murder Are Up
While overall crime and violent crime declined in Connecticut during 2021, statistics released Monday by public safety officials found a 23% increase in the number of rapes and a 2% increase in instances of murder and negligent manslaughter last year.
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OP-ED | Where Are The Indigenous History Markers And Statues?
Throughout my bicycle travels of the Northeast and Midwest I have stopped to read many historical markers. I like to see what happened there, learn the history of buildings, and better understand the arc of human civilization and society in each place along the way. From a train crash to early resident life to highlights of historical industries, the signs give me a slice of life and a sense of place. There are markers for…
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PURA Wants The Public To Get Involved
One thing consumers should imagine when thinking about what exactly Connecticut’s Public Utilities Regulation Authority (PURA) does, is to think along the lines of Law and Order or Perry Mason, according to PURA Chairman Marissa…
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Rates of Women Voter Registrations Are Surging — Particularly Where Reproductive Rights Are Threatened
The Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade in June confirmed what many Americans already knew—that the highly polarizing issue of abortion would continue to divide people personally and politically. But the decision also had…
Continue readingCSMS Inaugurates Its 184th President
One of the nation’s oldest medical societies has just inaugurated its 184th president. The Connecticut State Medical Society has inaugurated Dr. David Hass, a gastroenterologist, to succeed outgoing President Dr. Ron Adelman.
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OP-ED | An Empire Built On Lies, Survival Equipment, and Snake Oil
My goodness, but conspiracy theorist Alex Jones is spending quality time with lawyers these days. While he fumes, let’s take a moment to see how we arrived at an epoch where someone with no discernible…
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Advocates Say Domestic Violence Is The Second Pandemic
According to advocates for the victims of domestic violence, over the last two years the number of people seeking their agencies’ services has spiked, and they are using the month of October – which is…
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On Surplus, Dems, GOP Switch Sides
New Haven and Hamden Democratic state lawmakers threw their support behind fiscal “discipline” and recession preparedness when faced with a question that will likely dominate this year’s legislative session. Read more from the New Haven Independent.
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OP-ED | Often Overlooked, Affordable Housing Becomes A Campaign Issue
Here’s a very quick straw poll of everyone in the room. Anyone who thinks affordable housing isn’t a problem in Connecticut, speak now or forever hold your peace. The directive is followed by a deafening…
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Food Insecurity Doubles For Families With Children
The U.S. Census Bureau announced last week that the federal child tax credit contributed to a decline in child poverty and a new survey from DataHaven and Siena College Research Institute found that since its…
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OP-ED | The Pandemic Isn’t Over, So Why Are We Acting Like It Is?
Earlier this month, President Biden offhandedly commented on “60 Minutes” that the pandemic was “over.” “We still have a problem with COVID,” he said, “We’re still doing a lot of work on it. But the…
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OP-ED | Can Connecticut Preserve America’s Largest Wildlife Refuge?
Rarely, we have the remote chance of seeing the Northern Lights if there is a geomagnetic storm when there are no clouds and we are in a part of the state that is free of…
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OP-ED | Invest In The Future, Not A Dirty Deal
There has been a lot in the news lately about the “Dirty Deal” struck in Congress by legislators working to get the Inflation Reduction Act passed. The follow on bill was negotiated by Democratic Senator…
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More Lottery Winners For Cannabis Businesses Announced
The state announced the first eight winners of the general lottery to grow and sell cannabis for recreational use in Connecticut. This is the second round of announcements. The first round went to social equity…
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OP-ED | Context And COVID – Not The Candidates – Will Decide CT’s Governor’s Race
We often think of political candidates as being the “heroes” of their campaigns. Winning and losing are attributed to the candidates’ shrewd moves or fumbled opportunities — as if their actions and decisions are the…
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OP-ED | The Topsy-turvy Politics Of An Election Year
While oil and natural gas prices have come down significantly since they peaked, the cost of both are still much higher than they were at this time last year thanks to the impact on energy…
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Advocates Celebrate 10 Years of Domestic Violence Screening Tool
Law enforcement officials in Connecticut screened more than 23,000 domestic violence survivors for their risk of experiencing fatal violence during 2020 and 2021, according to a Tuesday report from the Connecticut Coalition Against Domestic Violence. …
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OP-ED | The Fightin’ Fifth: The Least Democratic Congressional District In Connecticut
Despite what we hear from malcontents, there are hundreds of thousands of people who are thrilled to live in Connecticut. I’m not one of them, though I do like it, even if, as a retiree,…
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West Hartford Town Clerk: Some Campaigns Mailing Absentee Ballot Applications to Voters
West Hartford Town Clerk Essie Labrot said her office has received a significant number of requests for absentee ballot applications from representatives of candidate campaigns, and she wants to ensure that voters are not confused,…
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ANALYSIS | How Much Should We Trust the Polls?
Last week Emerson College released their second poll of Connecticut’s 2022 gubernatorial and senate races, and found both Ned Lamont and Richard Blumenthal with comfortable leads. The results weren’t too different from their first poll,…
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