by | Jun 13, 2018 2:28 pm | Comments (0)
Contributed Photo
State Rep. Sean Scanlon, who championed the bill, at the Capitol with Herb Kolodny and Brenda Novak.
Brenda Novak looked at the clock. In four hours, the state legislature would adjourn for the year.
Continue reading ‘How To Make Friends & Influence Government’
by | Jun 5, 2018 7:57 pm | Comments (1)
Markeshia Ricks Photo
Maria evacuee Ferdinando Voltaggio with State Rep. Candelaria.
Ferdinando Voltaggio said he probably wouldn’t be alive if he had not left Puerto Rico when he did.
by | May 21, 2018 4:56 pm | Comments (5)
Christopher Peak Photo
State Rep. Pat Dillon.
State Rep. Pat Dillon recently wrote the following message to her constituents to explain why she deemed possibly “controversial” no votes on two environmental bills that passed in the recently concluded legislative session. (Click here and here to read news stories about those two bills, House Bill 5360 and Senate Bill 9.)
by | May 11, 2018 1:35 pm | Comments (11)
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Rep. Toni Walker huddles with colleagues on session’s final night …
… while Sen. Martin Looney listens to floor debate.
Hartford —Dreamers got financial aid. Women got a shot at pay equity. Westville homeowners will get sinking-home money.
A bottle deposit on nips? Tweed-New Haven’s runway? Bitcoin regulation? Didn’t quite make it. But they got on the agenda and will return next year.
by | May 9, 2018 2:50 pm | Comments (34)
Hartford—A last-minute effort to show support for a bill allowing paving another 1,000 feet of Tweed New Haven Airport’s runway wasn’t enough to cross the goal line this legislative session.
by | May 8, 2018 8:37 am | Comments (25)
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Morris Cove Alder Sal DeCola, who spoke against the Tweed expansion resolution.
With just 48 hours left to get a bill that would expand Tweed-New Haven’s runway out of this year’s state legislative session, alders threw a Hail Mary, passing a resolution in support of the airport’s future growth.
by | May 7, 2018 4:20 pm | Comments (21)
Thomas Breen photo
Aaron Goode outside 200 Orange polls: Legislators eventually agreed to join national compact.
Aaron Goode traveled to the state Capitol five times and sent hundreds of emails to try to convince legislators to have Connecticut join a national movement to bypass the electoral college in choosing a president. Those years of lobbying by him and other New Haven pro-democracy activists have now borne results.
Continue reading ‘Elm City Shoe Leather Pays Off At Capitol’
by | May 3, 2018 7:44 am | Comments (4)
Christine Stuart photo
The General Assembly’s legit electronic billboard shows the House vote on the billboard bill.
Richard Furlow photo
The new Whalley billboard.
Spurred by public opposition to a blinding blinking billboard on New Haven’s Whalley Avenue, state legislators voted overwhelmingly in favor of a bill that would allow cities and towns to regulate the illumination of public advertisements, so long as those signs have the technological ability to calibrate their own brightness.
by | Apr 26, 2018 8:04 am | Comments (76)
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Larson describes neighborhood concessions.
One argument: Start-ups and out of town developers who see a potential for profit shouldn’t dictate the fate of a neighborhood.
A counter-argument: Neighbors who knowingly move near airport shouldn’t be allowed to hold the city and the state economically hostage.
by | Apr 24, 2018 1:42 pm | Comments (9)
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Ward 1 Alder Catalbasoglu at Monday night’s meeting.
Advocates for the legalization and regulation of cannabis in Connecticut are pushing for the Board of Alders to move faster than the stereotypical stoner on a resolution in support of such efforts in the state.
by | Apr 18, 2018 3:21 pm | Comments (1)
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Mayor Harp: New Haven is important to the health of the state.
Andy Wolf helps show off the state’s cultural capital at the State Capitol.
Hartford—New Haven invited state lawmakers and others at the state Capitol Wednesday to have a slice of apizza pie — and learn why the Elm City is one of the most important slices of Connecticut.
Continue reading ‘New Haven Day At the Capitol: A Slice Of The Pie’
by | Apr 16, 2018 8:01 am | Comments (2)
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State Rep. Dillon inspects a crack in Cheryl Jackson’s house.
The State Bond Commission has approved Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s recommendation to release $1 million to provide grants to homeowners in Westville and Woodbridge to fix their sinking homes.
by | Apr 4, 2018 3:03 pm | Comments (16)
Ghostguns.com
Ghost gun available on the Internet.
Markeshia Ricks Photo
Winfield: Open carry in state parks doesn’t make me feel safe.
(Corrected) — While another active shooter drama unfolded on the West Coast Tuesday, Connecticut legislators debated whether to respond to the epidemic by restricting certain types of guns and accessories — or by allowing people to carry guns openly in state parks.
by | Apr 3, 2018 8:24 am | Comments (11)
Richard Furlow Photo
The billboard at night: It’s lit.
Hartford—New Haven State Rep. Pat Dillon said she received some criticism from colleagues when she introduced a bill that would reinforce cities’ authority to regulate the brightness of digital billboards. Weren’t there more important things for her to draft legislation about?
Then a new sign at Whalley Avenue and Emerson Street was powered on.
by | Mar 28, 2018 1:09 pm | Comments (15)
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Committee Co-Chair Lemar.
A bill that would allow the expansion of Tweed-New Haven Airport’s runway is headed to the House of Representatives for full consideration.
by | Mar 26, 2018 7:55 am | Comments (1)
Paul Bass Photo
Brenda Novak and Herb Kolody at WNHH FM.
A bill that would require that full coverage insurance plans in Connecticut adopt prosthetic coverage is headed to the floor of the State Senate.
by | Mar 22, 2018 12:50 pm | Comments (0)
Aliyya Swaby Photo
New Haven city officials, with the help of Yale Law students, are seeking to leverage the buying power of major nonprofits to boost business and job creation. But first, they say, the state’s law on worker cooperatives has to change.
by | Mar 20, 2018 8:10 am | Comments (1)
Markeshia Ricks Photo
Furlow testifies at the Capitol Monday..
The fate of a digital billboard erected on Whalley Avenue is clear. It’s not going anywhere.
But west-side neighbors and elected officials said the city should have more explicit power to regulate such future billboards, though outdoor advertising advocates say it already has such powers.
Continue reading ‘Electronic Billboard Quest Comes To Capitol’
by | Mar 20, 2018 8:07 am | Comments (3)
More than 13 percent of the people in Connecticut used marijuana in 2015, most of them buying it illegally.
by | Mar 19, 2018 4:39 pm | Comments (59)
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Nemerson testifying: Techies will drive 15 minutes to an airport.
Hartford — New Haven officials urged lawmakers here to pass a bill that will allow a 1,000-foot extension of Tweed-New Haven Airport’s runway — and, the officials claimed, help the region and the state compete for high-tech jobs.
by | Mar 19, 2018 3:16 pm | Comments (0)
(Full official title: An Act Concerning The Legalization, Taxation and Regulation of the Retail Sale and Recreational Use of Marijuana and Concerning the Production and Regulation of Hemp.)
Sponsored by:Judiciary Committee
by | Mar 15, 2018 5:41 pm | Comments (7)
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Ganim, Walker and Harp pitch for Bridgeport and New Haven (top); Davis and Maynard pitch for tribal casino underway in East Windsor.
Hartford — Mayor Toni Harp and Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim joined forces here to urge lawmakers to pave the way for a new casino for a region suffering staggering unemployment. They made a simple pitch: We need jobs.
Advocates of a tribal casino planned for East Windsor sought to complicate that narrative.
by | Mar 15, 2018 8:32 am | Comments (17)
NHPD
Still from body camera video released since law passed. Below, Gary Winfield, Kevin Kane square off at Wednesday’s hearing.
Markeshia Ricks Photos
Hartford — New Haven State Sen. Gary Winfield had some clean-up business to attend to in a law he authored enabling cops to wear body cameras. The state’s top prosecutor balked — and the two ended up sparring about whether cops deserve special rights to check their story before offering sworn statements.
by | Mar 14, 2018 4:55 pm | Comments (0)
Sponsored by:Judiciary Committee
by | Mar 14, 2018 3:47 pm | Comments (2)
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Clergy lead a prayer circle on the first floor of the Legislative Office Building Wednesday.
Hartford—“Dreamers” —children born to adults living in the U.S. without legal permission — gathered with clergy at the state Capitol Wednesday to call on the legislature to pass a bill that would open a pool of student-generated financial aid to the undocumented students that help pay for it.
Continue reading ‘Dreamers, Clergy Press Forward On Student Aid’