CHRIS POWELL Both political parties in Congress want to sustain the immigration controversy for partisan purposes more than they want a compromise that could resolve the controversy's two major components -- securing the borders while providing a path to…
Posted: 16 May 2022 [02:16 PM] 
Herald reporter looks back at an unforgettable experience being honored as part of Gallery 66's Women's History Month exhibit Posted: 06 May 2022 [03:02 PM] NEW BRITAIN – As Gallery 66’s Women’s History Month Exhibit, with myself as one of those honored, comes to an end…
HEALTHY LIVING: Jill Bertolini Symposium helps breast cancer patients Posted: 06 May 2022 [01:11 PM] The statistic is startling – according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), breast cancer is the most…
HASTINGS: Happy Mother's Day to all the best worst moms out there Posted: 06 May 2022 [12:23 PM] Thank you very much. I can't believe I'm standing up here at this podium at the Worst Mom Ever awards!…
FRIDAY FICKS: The gift of perspective Posted: 06 May 2022 [11:36 AM] Friday Ficks Column The Facebook post sounded pretty urgent. It read, in part, that “I have an immediate need.” Immediate is usually…
ERIN STEWART: New Britain Charter revision process explained Posted: 04 May 2022 [10:27 AM] New Britain Mayor Over the past couple of months I have publicly mentioned that the city is in the process of considering multiple…
Posted: 26 April 2022 [03:10 PM] Berlin Democratic Town Committee April 25, 2022 – Members of the Berlin Democratic Town Committee are urging all Berlin residents to cast a “Yes” vote in the…
Posted: 26 April 2022 [10:03 AM] Joanie Wedler, Chuck Lewis and Franck Facchini Local public access TV, or public, educational and government access (“PEG”), has been in Connecticut for more than 40 years providing residents, municipalities, schools and community organizations with hyper-local programming…
Posted: 25 April 2022 [01:44 PM] YOUR VIEW: From John Kisluk I am asking and urging all Plainville tax payers to come out on April 26 between the hours of 6 a.m. and 8 p.m. at the Plainville Firehouse and vote no…
MAZADOORIAN: Commemorating the Armenian Genocide of 1915: Sainthood for the victims Posted: 18 April 2022 [10:32 AM] On April 24, the world will recognize and commemorate the tragedy of the Armenian Genocide of 1915, when more than 1.5 million Armenian men…
Posted: 15 April 2022 [07:53 PM] Someday, if the governor and state legislators ever tire of coddling the state employee unions and if the president and Congress ever tire of coddling investment banks and military contractors, maybe they should note what happened recently at Silver Lane…
FRIDAY FICKS: Don't transmogrify the low hanging fruit Posted: 15 April 2022 [11:25 AM] Friday Ficks "Attorney Ficks has transmogrified the facts," said my adversary in his closing argument. "He did what?" replied the arbitrator. "He…
Posted: 08 April 2022 [09:06 PM] Legislators of both parties in the General Assembly are congratulating themselves on the bipartisan juvenile justice bill that has come out of the Judiciary Committee, and well they should. For the legislation will do no more than provide the illusion…
Posted: 04 April 2022 [08:45 PM] By CHRIS POWELL Connecticut may be paying the Sikorsky helicopter division of military contractor Lockheed Martin as much as $250 million to keep its facilities in the state for the next 20 years -- an average of…
ERIN STEWART: New Britain's financial journey reaches stability Posted: 04 April 2022 [12:35 PM] NEW BRITAIN MAYOR It’s hard to believe, but later this month I will present my ninth budget to the Common Council since being…
Posted: 01 April 2022 [09:19 PM] Everybody in state government seems to love this tax-cutting stuff -- first the temporary suspension of Connecticut's 25-cents-per-gallon gasoline tax, and then a week of lifting the sales tax on most clothing purchases. The public will love it too. But…
FRIDAY FICKS: Hope is the best of things Posted: 01 April 2022 [09:23 AM] Friday Ficks I have a dirty four letter word that I want you to use right now. It is not a four…
Posted: 25 March 2022 [01:16 PM] By Jodie Maro Bristol To the Editor: Bristol, Plainville and Southington, you need to use your voices. FACT: Many residents have signed the petition against the burning of medical waste at the Bristol incinerator. The City of Bristol…
FRIDAY FICKS: How to avoid the tree trifecta Posted: 18 March 2022 [10:32 AM] Friday Ficks Tree. Swerve. Tree. Swerve again. A third tree. Swerve again. Oh shoot...too late. This was not a trifecta at the horse track, or…
Posted: 14 March 2022 [08:49 PM] To the Editor: Congratulations! to Mayor Erin Stewart of New Britain on her 9th annual inspiring State of the Union message to our citizens. Mayor Stewart, with your dynamic leadership and the cooperation of the Common Council, you…
Posted: 14 March 2022 [08:41 PM] As a constituent of the 77th district I am disgusted by the actions of our former State Representative Cara Pavalock-D’Amato [“Address in question,” The Bristol Press/New Britain Herald, March 11]. I use the term “former” because in my…
Posted: 14 March 2022 [08:27 PM] To the Editor: Re: Opinion by Jennifer Rubin. She is wrong on all points. From Day One of the Biden administration when the Keystone and oil exploration was killed. Soon afterwards gas prices began to rise and rise.…
Posted: 14 March 2022 [01:22 PM] Baseball at last. And please Mr. Commissioner, don’t bother apologizing to us fans. We want to watch ballgames, not union and management spokesmen explaining the still-unresolved international draft rules. To think that the owners actually threatened to…
Posted: 11 March 2022 [04:23 PM] To the Editor: In light of the recent developments that have exacerbated stability, peace and sovereignty in Ukraine, I decided to express my views through the language of poetry and to share this sentiment with others in our community. These…
Posted: 11 March 2022 [04:08 PM] Journal Inquirer Announcing goodies for various municipalities and organizations lately, Governor Lamont has been using government money to win support for his re-election campaign, as any incumbent would. But all the goodies awarded so far don't come close to…
STEWART: The state of the city is stronger than it has ever been Posted: 11 March 2022 [01:38 PM] Mayor of New Britain I recently stood before members of the Common Council, elected officials, department leaders, city employees, and my…
Posted: 10 March 2022 [02:11 PM] D-Newington To the Editor: The children’s mental health system in Connecticut needs additional support, resources and structural changes as a rise in depression, anxiety, self-harm and other forms of distress evident before the pandemic have been exacerbated during…
Posted: 09 March 2022 [08:30 PM] Liberal Democratic members of the General Assembly again are pursuing what they call fairness in taxation, their euphemism for state government's raising and spending a lot more money. Governor Lamont, a Democrat, opposes increasing taxes while state government has a…
CHRIS POWELL: Putting a cap on car taxes won't really save any money Posted: 07 March 2022 [09:13 PM] Most people seem to like Governor Lamont's proposal to reduce from 45 to 29 mills the state's limit on municipal property taxes…
CHRIS POWELL: Oil, not vodka, pays for war; and Sen. Cassano gets relevant Posted: 04 March 2022 [02:37 PM] Russia's brutal invasion of Ukraine has rocketed the United States into a whirlwind of pious but ineffectual posturing. In his State of…
FRIDAY FICKS: Don't be remembered as a tip miser Posted: 04 March 2022 [11:08 AM] Friday Ficks I called them tip misers (and probably other things too, but this is a G-Rated column). The tip misers on my…
CHRIS POWELL: Blumenthal plans his escape as inflation threatens Dems Posted: 02 March 2022 [08:55 PM] Are things getting so bad for the Democrats that even Connecticut's senior U.S. senator, Richard Blumenthal, is worried about winning re-election this…
CHRIS POWELL: Stand with Ukraine'? Funny! and Lamont's befuddlement Posted: 28 February 2022 [09:15 PM] From Connecticut's congressional delegation last week the watchwords of pious posturing were: "Stand with Ukraine." Of course no one was proposing to…
CHRIS POWELL: Boost political competition: Dissolve congressional districts Posted: 25 February 2022 [08:58 PM] BOOST POLITICAL COMPETITION: DISSOLVE CONGRESS DISTRICTS By CHRIS POWELL While the redrawing of congressional districts in other states has become…
CHRIS POWELL: Newtown dumps democracy, and Lamont worsens scandal Posted: 23 February 2022 [09:36 PM] Whatever one thinks about guns, this month's $73 million lawsuit settlement paid by the insurers of the former Remington gun manufacturing company…
Posted: 22 February 2022 [04:15 PM] Republican state legislators around the country are proposing to require public schools to post all curriculum materials on the internet as an accountability measure, and the other day they got powerful if inadvertent support from Enfield’s school system. Enfield’s school…
Posted: 21 February 2022 [08:10 PM] To the Editor: I am writing about the need for funding of mental health services at our state community colleges. Mental health issues are on the rise among youth, particularly in the wake of the pandemic. Many of our community…
Posted: 18 February 2022 [09:19 PM] Nobody needs the federal investigation that is under way to grasp the basics of the racket that was being run from the state budget office – the Office of Policy and Management – by its deputy secretary, Konstantinos Diamantis, who…
FRIDAY FICKS: May you fly like an eagle Posted: 18 February 2022 [10:15 AM] It materialized out of nowhere, moving just above the Farmington River, right alongside me. And I knew what it…
Posted: 16 February 2022 [08:58 PM] To the Editor: The NAACP New Britain Branch would like to lend our support for the proposed resolution under consideration by the Common Council to bring back remote public speaking in Council public hearings and in Council public participation sessions.…
CHRIS POWELL: Governor needn't raise taxes since inflation did it for him Posted: 16 February 2022 [08:55 PM] Addressing the General Assembly last week, Governor Lamont touted state government's comfortable financial position, a reversal of the position he inherited when…
CHRIS POWELL: State won't suppress crime without restoring deterrence Posted: 15 February 2022 [08:50 PM] Connecticut lately has generated more than its share of silly paradoxes. Having given up on the futility of criminalizing marijuana, state government…
Posted: 12 February 2022 [12:05 PM] She's My Valentine. To the Editor: She's a very special lady And she's one of a kind And she's always on my mind And she's in my heart and She's in my soul And she's truly one of a…
CHRIS POWELL: Teenager's missing teeth indict neglect by parents and state Posted: 12 February 2022 [12:03 PM] How, in a wealthy and highly taxed state with scores of social programs and constant prattling about unmet human needs, does a…
CHRIS POWELL: Population gains don't help if housing doesn't keep up Posted: 09 February 2022 [09:20 PM] Maybe all those people who in the last year or so have given up on New York City and its inner suburbs…
CHRIS POWELL: Wooden, Hayes and Colangelo provide a seminar on 'ethics' Posted: 07 February 2022 [09:24 PM] Connecticut's best investigative journalism so far this year was probably the Jan. 2 report by the Connecticut Mirror's Andrew Brown and Kasturi…
CHRIS POWELL: Democrats replace Republicans as the party of repression Posted: 04 February 2022 [09:12 PM] For most of the last 70 years in the United States, ever since the Red Scare of the 1950s, the Republican Party…
CHRIS POWELL: We won't fight for Ukraine; so might as well make a deal Posted: 02 February 2022 [09:12 PM] Shall I join with other nations in alliance? If allies are weak, am I not best alone? If allies are strong with…
Posted: 01 February 2022 [09:05 PM] To the Editor: Without even saying goodbye or thank you for 45 years of service to the children of Berlin, Bill Petit was removed from his position of president of the Berlin Little League. Coach, Manager, Umpire, President, Bill was…
STEWART: City's new Plan of Conservation and Development maps out bright future for all of New Britain Posted: 01 February 2022 [09:04 PM] New Britain Mayor You have heard me talk time and time again about the development projects happening throughout New Britain and with a…
