Tong Seeks Trump-Fighting Budget Boost
by | Feb 6, 2025 4:41 pm | Comments (16)
Tom Breen File Photo
AG Tong: "We need big-brain constitutional knife fighters."
Connecticut’s “people’s lawyer” is putting out a call for reinforcements.
State
Guv To Pharma: Drop Drug Prices, Please
by | Jan 27, 2025 3:11 pm | Comments (6)
Zachary Groz Photo
200 execs at 100 College, for "legislative breakfast."
Bracing for a federal funding drought and higher state costs for Medicare and Medicaid, Gov. Ned Lamont urged pharma executives to work with Hartford on cutting the cost of prescription drugs Monday morning at a gathering held by the life sciences lobbying group BioCT.
Tenants, Reunite! For Anti-Eviction Bill
by | Jan 23, 2025 5:31 pm | Comments (9)
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CTTU Vice President Luke Melonakos-Harrison at the mic, fighting for "for housing stability, for dignity and respect."
(Hartford) New Haven’s tenants union leaders are back at the state Capitol for the second straight year to push for limits on landlords’ ability to evict tenants — and they’re hoping this session goes better than the last.
Teachers Union Prez Teams Up
by | Jan 17, 2025 11:23 am | Comments (5)
Leslie Blatteau at WNHH FM: “If our students have stable housing, our job is going to be less hard in the classroom.”
Leslie Blatteau noticed that 70 percent of New Haven’s teachers live in the suburbs — and saw an opportunity to boost state-level support for New Haven’s schools.
State $25M Sweetens Supply Chain
by | Jan 16, 2025 1:16 pm | Comments (8)
Thomas Breen photos
Thursday's presser at DISTRICT.
Bracing for Trump II tariffs and protectionism, the Lamont administration has launched a $25 million effort to try to build out “strategic supply chains” closer to home — in an effort to get ahead of potentially higher prices for imported goods.
2 Years In, Canna-preneur Battles Bummers
by | Jan 15, 2025 10:30 am | Comments (5)
Affinity's Rino Ferrarese at WNHH FM; some of his company's strains (top).
Rino Ferrarese noticed that the people who help him grow cannabis to sell in Connecticut end up buying their own stash elsewhere.
Therein lies a challenge for Connecticut’s fledgling industry.
Continue reading ‘2 Years In, Canna-preneur Battles Bummers’
Big City Mayors Make Big $chools Push
by | Jan 14, 2025 9:30 am | Comments (14)
Facebook photo
Mayor Elicker (at the mic) in Hartford on Monday.
(Hartford) Mayor Justin Elicker and Supt. Madeline Negrón made the trip to the state’s capital Monday — to stand alongside mayors and superintendents from Bridgeport, Stamford, Waterbury, and Hartford and deliver a collective call for state government to up its public education funding by $545 million.
GOP Focuses On Guarding Fiscal "Guardrails"
by | Jan 9, 2025 4:55 pm | Comments (7)
Top state Republican Proto at New Haven City Hall: "I’m not sure how loosening the guardrails reduces $6-a-dozen eggs or $4.50 milk."
Republicans are ready to argue during the upcoming state legislative session for preserving Connecticut’s “fiscal guardrails” and cutting energy costs.
So said GOP State Chair Ben Proto in a conversation Wednesday at New Haven City Hall, where he was attending the swearing-in of local Republican Registrar of Voters Lisa Milone.
Continue reading ‘GOP Focuses On Guarding Fiscal "Guardrails"’
After Chair Change, Lemar Targets Towing
by | Jan 8, 2025 4:06 pm | Comments (13)
Hugh McQuaid/CTNJ file photo
General Law Chair Lemar: “Have you seen those towing articles?”
(Hartford) Connecticut’s towing industry better watch out. There’s a new sheriff in town — and he’s got his sights set on scrapping storage fees, eliminating “patrol towing,” requiring companies to take credit cards, and otherwise protecting consumers.
Rideshare Drivers, Unite! Again
by | Jan 8, 2025 2:59 pm | Comments (3)
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Jesenia Rodriguez and Frank Douglass: Too many rides, not enough pay.
The riders: five stars. The gig: not so much.
(Hartford) Dwight Alder Frank Douglass and a dozen fellow rideshare drivers from across Connecticut got behind the wheel Wednesday morning — to drive up to the state Capitol and push for higher pay and greater protections from what they say are exploitative practices by Uber and Lyft.
Rookie Reps Target Evictions
by | Dec 18, 2024 3:03 pm | Comments (30)
Paul Bass Photo
Time for state to step in for tenants: State Reps.-Elect Laurie Sweet and Steve Winter at WNHH FM.
Laurie Sweet is headed back to the state Capitol to push a tenants’ rights bill — this time to help pass the law rather than push someone else to.
Traffic Camera Plan Heads To State For Review
by | Dec 10, 2024 4:29 pm | Comments (12)
19 locations for red light and speed cameras.
After more than six months of compiling data on speeding, red light running, and local “roadway geometry,” the Elicker administration has submitted a 365-page report to the state’s transportation department — and hopes to install automated traffic-safety cameras by next spring.
Continue reading ‘Traffic Camera Plan Heads To State For Review’
2nd Arts High School Comes Into Focus
by | Dec 5, 2024 9:26 am | Comments (4)
Maya McFadden File Photo
At Betsy Ross's Winter Fest: High school performers, coming soon.
Betsy Ross Arts Magnet School (BRAMS) will have an inaugural ninth grade class next year — as the district works to transition the 5 – 8th grade middle school to a 7 – 12th grade high school in order to better accommodate students’ high demand for arts instruction.
DOT Chief Races To Meet Fed $ Deadlines
by | Nov 26, 2024 3:37 pm | Comments (12)
Thomas Breen photo
Transportation Commissioner Garrett Eucalitto at the announcement of $25 million in "Move New Haven" Biden Bucks.
Connecticut’s transportation chief is stepping on the gas — to get public-transit paperwork in to Washington before a new presidential administration takes over.
State $$ Sought To Support Disconnected Youth
by | Nov 22, 2024 12:29 pm | Comments (15)
Jabez Choi photo
Rosales: "It feels like a family" at Hillhouse.
Jaqualine Rosales is no stranger to moving. After leaving her family in El Salvador, she lived for a time in Texas, and then in South Carolina. Now in New Haven, the 18-year-old Hillhouse High School student lives by herself. She doesn’t feel alone, though.
“I’ve been to a lot of schools and I’ve seen a lot of education [in] different ways,” Rosales said on Thursday at a press conference calling for deeper state investments to help young people who might otherwise fall through the cracks. “But New Haven has something special because this school feels like [a] second home to me…it feels like family.”
Continue reading ‘State $$ Sought To Support Disconnected Youth’
Traffic Violence Victims Remembered
by | Nov 18, 2024 10:44 am | Comments (13)
Jabez Choi photos
Sherry Chapman: “The trauma to families is immeasurable and life lasting."
342 flags marking each life lost on CT's roads since last November.
Carri Roux had expected to find her son, Luke, back at the house after she finished walking the dog. But he was missing.
He never made it home.
Two years later, at a locally hosted memorial for lives lost on Connecticut’s roads, Roux described how scenes from that horrible day remain “etched” in her memory — and how a serious statewide focus on traffic safety could prevent future tragedies.
Winfield & Cabrera: Don’t Bend To Trump Blackmail
by | Nov 15, 2024 10:00 am | Comments (18)
Paul Bass Photo
Cabrera and Winfield at WNHH: Where would it end?
Gary Winfield and Jorge Cabrera are determined not to blink.
Continue reading ‘Winfield & Cabrera: Don’t Bend To Trump Blackmail’
103 Drop By DMV At The Library
by | Nov 14, 2024 11:40 am | Comments (2)
Jabez Choi photo
Lala McClain (right), with Will Tuttle: "This is a beacon of hope for me today."
Kevin DeSilva seemed to experience the impossible — he was in and out of the DMV in under an hour, and he didn’t even have to leave New Haven’s city limits.
Looney Wins Another Term As Senate President Pro Tem
by | Nov 11, 2024 4:19 pm | Comments (9)
Paul Bass Photo
Looney: POTSS again.
New Haven’s Marty Looney unanimously won a sixth two-year term presiding over a State Senate with a souped-up supermajority.
Continue reading ‘Looney Wins Another Term As Senate President Pro Tem’
Marriage Stampede Prompts Calls For Action
by | Nov 8, 2024 3:42 pm | Comments (12)
An Independent story about factory-line marriages involving out-of-state couples including Indian immigrants has sparked calls for investigation and reexamination of how municipalities process licenses.
Continue reading ‘Marriage Stampede Prompts Calls For Action’
Dems Sweep City's State Legislative Races
by and | Nov 5, 2024 11:02 pm | Comments (7)
ARTHUR DELOT-VILAIN PHOTO
Headed back to Hartford: Reelected State Rep. Al Paolillo Jr. (at right) with Sara Amata at Portofino's after the polls closed.
The biggest not-surprise Tuesday night: Democrats captured all New Haven’s state legislative seats in the election. As they have for decades.
Continue reading ‘Dems Sweep City's State Legislative Races’
State Rep Hopeful Focuses On 2nd Chances
by | Oct 29, 2024 5:11 pm | Comments (8)
Paul Bass photo
Acri at WNHH FM: Voters deserve "a choice."
Anthony Acri knows what it’s like to rebuild a life after a setback. He wants voters to send him to Hartford to put that experience to work for other people seeking to rebuild theirs.
911 Now Back Online
by | Oct 22, 2024 1:39 pm | Comments (1)
(Updated) The 911 emergency phone line is back up and working — an hour and a half after a partial statewide outage.
Elliott Eyes "Equitable Taxation" Guv Run
by | Oct 14, 2024 12:05 pm | Comments (18)
State Rep. Elliott: Tax burden is backwards.
Josh Elliott is ready to run for governor to challenge the current governor’s take on taxing the rich — but only if the current governor isn’t on the ballot.
Continue reading ‘Elliott Eyes "Equitable Taxation" Guv Run’
Ballot Q: "No Excuses" = More Democracy?
by | Oct 11, 2024 9:23 am | Comments (23)
Help more people vote: Joshua Elliott and Karimah Mickens at WNHH FM.
If you no longer have to lie about needing to vote absentee — would that cut down on fraud?