Reacting to a week of shockingly bad news about sexual assault in the military, Sen. Richard Blumenthal announced Friday that he is pushing to reform the military judicial process and provide more support for victims.
“This crime is underreported and under-prosecuted in the military and I am going to be proposing reforms along with colleagues that will … encourage more women to come forward and allow enable perpetrators to be prosecuted successfully,” Blumenthal said during a press conference at the state Capitol.
Connecticut can reduce the cost of municipal government dramatically over time, but it won’t happen unless state leaders pave the way, a top economist with the Federal Reserve Bank said Friday.
Yolanda Kodrzycki, vice president and director of the reserve’s New England Public Policy Center in Boston, also said other states particularly have cut costs in health care services, technology, capital programs and administration of retirement benefits.
Washington –- Saying children should not have to walk down the halls where their classmates were slaughtered, Connecticut lawmakers introduced bills in Congress Thursday that would secure federal funds to build a new Sandy Hook Elementary School
Last week, town leaders in Newtown voted to tear down the existing facility and build a new one in its place. The cost, they said, could reach $60 million.
Democratic senators have reconsidered their rejection of a Republican proposal to require officials from the University of Connecticut and the Board of Regents to come before lawmakers to explain their proposed budget.
A compromise was reached that would require college officials to come before legislators to talk about their budgets sometime before Valentines Day next year, but not necessarily before their budget is adopted. The budget hearing would also be required in 2015.
State officials trying to close a last-minute hole in the next budget got some good news Wednesday in the form of major savings in health care costs for retired state employees.
Budget analysts now expect the cost of providing health care to the retirees to drop by $307 million in the next two fiscal years.
For the next few weeks, each of 22 Democrats in the state Senate is a king or a queen -- at least when it comes to the budget.
And as Gov. Dannel P. Malloy seeks lawmakers’ approval to rewrite the rules of constitutional spending cap, it’s becoming clear that no two senators’ fiscal wish lists are identical.
For some, extending an expiring tax on power plants is an obstacle. For others, any type of tax increase is a problem.
Several urban senators are more concerned about whether Connecticut is spending enough, particularly on its social services.
This is the final installment of a three-part series examining areas on Connecticut’s coast that are vulnerable to flooding. The first two stories focused on residential areas. Now, we visit a beach that suffered severe damage – which has also exposed critical infrastructure right behind it.
Every month, thousands of state residents go without health care coverage while waiting for the Department of Social Services to process their Medicaid applications.
The numbers tell the whole story, attorney Sheldon Toubman said at the start of a trial on DSS' handling of Medicaid applications. But a lawyer for DSS said it's not that simple.
Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy, a junior member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said he is disappointed by the type of lawmakers who are now attracted to the panel.
“This used to be the home of [moderate Indiana Republican Sen. ] Dick Lugar; now it’s the place for Rand Paul,” he said.
Washington -– When he walks the halls of Congress, U.S. Rep. Jim Himes is likely welcomed by many fellow Democrats and avoided by others.
That’s because of his new job as the head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s finance team.
This is the second in a three-part series focusing on areas of Connecticut’s coastline that are vulnerable to flooding. In the first installment, we visited Morris Cove, one of New Haven’s most desirable neighborhoods. Now we head to a public housing complex for the elderly and disabled that is on the waterfront in Stamford.
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The CT Mirror’s investigative series last fall on improprieties by the leaders of the new Connecticut State University system has won a first prize in another national journalism contest.
In 'Connecticut's budget deficit, and why you should be worried,' Mirror budget reporter Keith Phaneuf explores in three parts how Gov. Dannel Malloy has grappled with state finances and a sluggish economy; the fiscal and political gambles that are contributing to a lingering deficit; and an ongoing effort to postpone resolution of this crisis until after the 2014 gubernatorial election.
Info-graphics by Michael S. Gambina
Part One: "Promises, gimmicks and a historic shortfall"
Part Two: "Major concessions deal undermined by bad guesses, secrecy
Part Three: Serious deficit awaits Malloy -- or his successor -- after 2014
Read how Gov. Malloy reacted to our series.
Listen to budget reporter Keith Phaneuf talk about the budget in this special podcast.
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