In 1988, teachers union leader Albert Shanker had an idea: What if teachers were allowed to create a school within a school, where they could develop innovative ways to teach dropouts and unmotivated students? The teachers would get the permission…
Posted: 24 June 2018 [08:54 PM] Posted: 24 June 2018 [08:53 PM] Journal Inquirer President Richard Nixon was not as dishonest about the Watergate burglary and coverup as President Trump has been in recent days about the separation of children from the adults bringing them into the country illegally. This practice was…
Posted: 24 June 2018 [08:51 PM] One November night in 1988, I crossed the Soviet border with my family, leaving behind friends, relatives, property and life as we knew it - forever. I was 8, traveling with my parents and 4-year-old brother. Between the four of…
Posted: 24 June 2018 [08:50 PM] Bloomberg View Walter Mondale has some advice for his fellow Democrats: Focus all your energy on this fall’s congressional contests, not the 2020 presidential race, because if you don’t retake the House of Representatives first, you’ll probably be dead two…
Posted: 22 June 2018 [08:30 PM] Editor’s note: This column was originally distributed by Cagle Cartoons in 2013. Things are mighty heated these days. Tempers are flaring and minds are closed. Here’s the solution: the wit and wisdom of Will Rogers. “The short memory of…
Posted: 22 June 2018 [08:30 PM] WASHINGTON - “Moderate Republicans are the people who are there when you don’t need them.” It was one of former Rep. Barney Frank’s many devastating zingers, and it certainly applies to the fiasco unfolding in the House of Representatives on…
Posted: 22 June 2018 [08:30 PM] In a New York Times column this week, Democratic pollster Stanley Greenberg wrote that President Donald Trump’s policies are pushing “ideologically moderate” Republicans away from the GOP. According to Greenberg, “The harder the president bangs these drums, the more Democrats…
Posted: 22 June 2018 [08:30 PM] The performance of the United Nations’ Human Rights Council is quite mixed. It has proved a useful platform to air the plight of the injured and dispossessed, but it has also been vulnerable to manipulation by the oppressors. That said,…
Posted: 21 June 2018 [09:32 PM] Let’s leave the Nazi comparisons where they belong - to history. In an example of historical ignorance or political lunacy, Michael Hayden recently fired off a tweet blasting the Trump administration for removing the children of illegal immigrants from their…
Posted: 21 June 2018 [09:30 PM] Within living memory there was frequent passenger railroad service north and south out of Hartford, and the railroad company, the New York, New Haven, and Hartford, known simply as the New Haven, was as famous as any. Thanks to Hartford-born…
Posted: 21 June 2018 [09:28 PM] The Washington Post It is fitting that President Donald Trump has been forced into retreat by babies. Cruelty should never be mistaken for strength. Trump’s own confusion on that point was evident on Wednesday, as he announced that he would…
Posted: 21 June 2018 [09:27 PM] The Washington Post The controversy over race and admissions at elite educational institutions is heating up. Harvard University is under pressure to stop discriminating against Asian-Americans, who make up a smaller percentage of its student body (22.2 percent) than their…
Posted: 20 June 2018 [07:06 PM] They say no good deed goes unpunished. But what if the deeds weren’t good at all? The New York attorney general’s office is no stranger to going after charities that have behaved badly. But current Attorney General Barbara Underwood’s extensive,…
Posted: 20 June 2018 [07:03 PM] At this time of the year, drivers are accustomed to hearing the plea “drive safely and defensively.” Of course, that reminder is appropriate every day of the year. But information contained in a June 1 Wall Street Journal article adds…
Posted: 20 June 2018 [07:02 PM] I recently noticed a string of interesting news stories, all with the same theme. Domino’s Pizza is donating money to 20 U.S. cities, to be used for fixing potholes and cracked roads. Salesforce has donated $1.5 million to reduce homelessness…
Posted: 20 June 2018 [07:00 PM] The Washington Post The latest policy proclamation from President Donald Trump: “We are going to have the Air Force and we are going to have the ‘Space Force’ - separate but equal, it is going to be something so important.”…
Posted: 19 June 2018 [06:53 PM] By: William Wixon, Kensington To The Editor: Everyone knows and realizes that our state government is in a downward spiral of financial disaster. Why is this happening? In simple terms, spend more than you receive. The submissive…
Posted: 19 June 2018 [06:51 PM] By: The Washington Post President Donald Trump’s policies at America’s southern border are cruel and unnecessary. This is widely recognized: Many Republicans are now among those objecting to the measures. For once, the president needs to heed…
Posted: 18 June 2018 [07:00 PM] By: The Washington Post Like all drug scourges, the fentanyl epidemic that claims so many lives on a daily basis is a matter of supply and demand. The demand, alas, is made in America. The supply, by…
Posted: 17 June 2018 [09:15 PM] The horrific scenes from a South Florida nursing home, where 12 residents perished in the sweltering heat after Hurricane Irma knocked out power to the facility, will haunt Floridians for a long time to come. But the broad, sweeping rules…
Posted: 15 June 2018 [08:21 PM] By: Sean Sullivan, Berlin To The Editor: The pressing issue of gun violence in schools and on campuses around the country is currently being addressed by United States legislators, and with the community’s support, can get…
Posted: 15 June 2018 [08:18 PM] By: Marie Gigliotti, New Britain To The Editor: Our representatives have done much to improve foreign aid, including supporting acts that treat preventable diseases in other countries, as well as other legislations of that kind.…
Posted: 15 June 2018 [08:13 PM] By: The Washington Post Over the past couple of days, President Donald Trump has made a number of false statements regarding North Korea and his summit meeting with its leader, Kim Jong Un. Some of these may…
Posted: 14 June 2018 [07:03 PM] By: The Washington Post The seizure of phone and email records from a reporter for the New York Times, Ali Watkins, raises serious questions. In the previous administration, Justice Department guidelines were published to guard against overreach…
Posted: 13 June 2018 [07:47 PM] The world has heard it again and again - heartfelt, ringing pledges by Pope Francis and his predecessors that the Vatican, at long last, has gotten the message on the global epidemic of clerical sex abuse. These often have been…
Posted: 13 June 2018 [07:46 PM] All four of the candidates for the Republican nomination for governor who participated the other night at a forum in New Haven struck satisfactory poses against raising taxes and imposing tolls. The four -- Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton,…
Posted: 12 June 2018 [09:33 PM] To The Editor: While Chris Powell’s columns usually contain some good insights into state government, his column of Monday May 14 missed the mark by a wide margin. In that column he callously equates requiring genocide studies in public schools…
Posted: 12 June 2018 [07:31 PM] “There’s A special place in hell” for leaders such as Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, White House trade adviser Peter Navarro said on “Fox News Sunday.” This, as President Donald Trump was about to sit down with the…
Posted: 12 June 2018 [07:29 PM] Maine’s soaring rate of chronic absenteeism points to the need for early and individualized intervention. Butch Pratt, longtime truancy officer for the Lewiston school district, writes down his number and a note to leave on the door of…
Posted: 11 June 2018 [09:27 PM] Days after the suicide of renowned fashion designer Kate Spade, chef and world-traveling TV storyteller Anthony Bourdain was found dead in a hotel room in France, another apparent suicide. Spade was 55, Bourdain was 61, and the tragedy of their…
Posted: 10 June 2018 [09:08 PM] “An interesting concept.” That was the wry observation by Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., to the disclosure that the federal commission on school safety established in response to the Parkland, Florida, high school massacre will study gun violence without actually looking…
Posted: 10 June 2018 [09:07 PM] All the sugar that is ever going to be in maple syrup - real maple syrup - is there when the sap runs off the tree on a warm spring day. So why would it ever need a label saying…
Posted: 10 June 2018 [09:05 PM] When I watched Bill Clinton’s appearance on the “Today” a promotional stop that turned into an unexpected reckoning with #MeToo, one thing leaped out at me: The former president wouldn’t say Monica Lewinsky’s name. It didn’t seem possible. I watched…
Posted: 10 June 2018 [09:04 PM] In my experience, the study’s findings are true. According to The Washington Post, the Vancouver School of Economics and McGill University have determined that people who live in rural areas and small towns are happier than those who live in…
Posted: 08 June 2018 [09:05 PM] America’s economy is in robust condition, as new Labor Department data showing unemployment at 3.8 percent confirms. America’s long-term finances, however, are not in such good shape, as another federal report, this one out Tuesday from the trustees…
Posted: 08 June 2018 [09:04 PM] ABC made the right decision when it the sitcom “Roseanne” last week after the show’s eponymous star posted racist and other offensive tweets. Her hateful language has no place in our society. Yet the show’s removal is part of a…
Posted: 08 June 2018 [09:04 PM] WASHINGTON - The struggle over what the dominant storyline in the news should be has always been political. Good reporters and editors labor mightily to be fair-minded in their reporting of episodes and events, and I’ll defend them to my…
Posted: 08 June 2018 [09:04 PM] I fear the relationship between President Donald Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions is at a breaking point. As we process the president’s latest Twitter blast toward his attorney general, it is worth remembering exactly how we got here. First,…
Posted: 07 June 2018 [09:01 PM] In August 2012, Dinesh D’Souza, a conservative author and polemicist, persuaded two people to make illegal campaign contributions to the U.S. Senate bid of New York Republican Wendy Long. This was no nickel-and-dime operation: D’Souza reimbursed two “straw donors” $10,000…
Posted: 06 June 2018 [06:53 PM] In May, President Trump stood before the American people, ostensibly to make good on a campaign promise that he would dramatically improve the lot of average, ordinary people by actively working to curb runaway prescription drug prices. The president, who…
Posted: 05 June 2018 [09:05 PM] Using candy flavorings to entice young people to start vaping is a bad idea. So is putting menthol in ordinary cigarettes (it makes them more addictive). Yet in the name of preserving “adult choices,” San Francisco voters are being asked…
Posted: 05 June 2018 [09:01 PM] The Supreme Court temporized on Monday on a major question of LGBT civil rights - specifically, whether a state can require a wedding-cake baker to sell his products to same-sex couples as he does to heterosexual couples. Avoiding a sweeping…
Posted: 05 June 2018 [09:00 PM] The Washington Post It was just a few weeks ago that the White House press corps raked White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders over the coals for her previous assurance that President Donald Trump knew nothing about a payment…
Posted: 05 June 2018 [09:00 PM] The Congressional Budget Office, Congress’ official scorekeeper, released last month a bevy of new projections about health-care coverage in the United States. The upshot is that the nation still faces huge cost and coverage challenges, and Republicans are making some…
Posted: 05 June 2018 [08:58 PM] The Washington Post It was just a few weeks ago that the White House press corps raked White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders over the coals for her previous assurance that President Donald Trump knew nothing about a payment…
Posted: 04 June 2018 [08:47 PM] Tim Cook, the chief executive of Apple, has become something of an apostle for privacy and data encryption. Apple’s iMessage system is encrypted end to end, meaning only the sender and user can access the information, which prevents a prying…
Posted: 03 June 2018 [09:25 PM] Now that President Donald Trump has signed his long-sought “right to try” law, Americans have a dubious new freedom to bypass the drug quality-control system and experiment with medicines of questionable safety that may or may not work. This solves…
Posted: 03 June 2018 [09:23 PM] The Washington Post President Donald Trump once exulted in the success of “Roseanne.” “Look at her ratings! Look at her ratings!” he raved at a rally on March 29 after calling to congratulate the star. “And it was about us!”…
Posted: 03 June 2018 [09:22 PM] Words matter. What we say to each other, how we treat each other matters. There are basic norms of civilized behavior, outside the realm of politics, beyond the reach of cable network news, that we should all be able to…
Posted: 03 June 2018 [09:20 PM] President Donald Trump’s escalating attacks on special counsel Robert Mueller are replete with distortions and lies reflecting real fear -- he’s in the legal crosshairs. The president’s response, which may be working, is to muddy the waters. Not too long…
