As the federal government shutdown drags on, the impact of the faceoff between President Donald Trump and Congress on funding for Trump’s border wall is starting to hit home in Connecticut. About 800,000 federal workers across the nation such as…
Posted: 15 January 2019 [06:39 PM] Posted: 15 January 2019 [06:38 PM] We still don’t know how much taxpayer money Gov. Paul LePage spent at the Trump International Hotel during his frequent trips to the nation’s capital, but we have learned something that could be much more important. By now we should…
Posted: 15 January 2019 [06:36 PM] The Washington Post recently reported on the lengths to which President Donald Trump has gone to conceal details about his private conversations with Russian President Vladimir Putin. In one instance, Trump reportedly took the notes from his State Department interpreter…
Posted: 15 January 2019 [06:34 PM] Recent news reports on Trump’s Syria pullout make one thing crystal clear: Someone inside the administration is leaking against national security adviser John Bolton. Determining who and why is important going forward, especially for conservatives concerned about President Trump ceding…
Posted: 14 January 2019 [08:07 PM] If for some strange reason you didn’t already know how much the liberal media hates President Trump, you found out this week. The Trump Hate Machine got revved up even before the president gave his national prime-time address Tuesday night…
Posted: 14 January 2019 [08:06 PM] To The Editor: On January 1, 2019 an article entitled “A Year of Hope to Come” made the front page headline. As the School Readiness Grant manager for the City of Bristol, I focused on the “hope … that we…
Posted: 14 January 2019 [08:05 PM] To The Editor: During the month of March 2017, I was a patient at the Hospital of Central Connecticut, 100 Grand St., New Britain, during which time I happened to read an issue of the New Britain Herald newspaper, which…
Posted: 14 January 2019 [08:03 PM] Each year, tens of thousands of low-income high school and community college students with strong academic credentials do not apply to institutions where they could earn the bachelor’s degree that is a ticket to better careers and higher earnings. Not…
Posted: 13 January 2019 [08:49 PM] Forty years ago, military veterans made up roughly three-quarters of Congress. By 2017, the proportion had dwindled to fewer than one in five. The number of veterans on Capitol Hill will dip slightly again next year, because of retirements -…
Posted: 13 January 2019 [08:47 PM] If you passed Max Acuna on the street or on your way to work, or any one of those hundreds of places where people cross paths every day, you wouldn’t give the smartly dressed 30-year-old a second look. The married…
Posted: 13 January 2019 [08:46 PM] The Washington Post President Donald Trump has always been able to bully, boast, deflect, pay off and lie to get his way. (It also helped to have a ton of his father’s money and ways to avoid paying taxes.) Now…
Posted: 13 January 2019 [08:44 PM] The Washington Post Kim Jong Un’s visit to Beijing this week was brief. After a 20-hour journey to the Chinese capital aboard his armored green train, the young North Korean leader spent barely a day at his destination. But it…
Posted: 11 January 2019 [08:47 PM] An investigation by Vice’s Motherboard finds that top telecommunications companies are selling access to customers’ location data to aggregators, who in turn are selling it to other actors - each more unsavory than the last. Eventually, some of the information…
Posted: 11 January 2019 [08:39 PM] The Oneida Indian Nation on Wednesday said that it is teaming up with Caesars Entertainment to offer sports betting at its Oneida County properties just as soon as it is able. The del Lago casino in Seneca County announced a…
Posted: 11 January 2019 [08:38 PM] President Donald Trump tried to claim Tuesday night that shutting down the federal government over his demand for a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border is a compassionate action - that he is taking a stand on behalf of the American…
Posted: 11 January 2019 [08:38 PM] We find it hard to believe President Donald Trump’s Tuesday night speech is going to convert any skeptics to his wall-building cause. Much has been made - under the “nothing else matters” rubric - of Trump followers’ willingness to disbelieve…
Posted: 10 January 2019 [06:18 PM] Writing in The Washington Post on Saturday, columnist Dana Milbank made the point: “It’s time for Democrats to be the grownups.” But on matters large and small, it appears that they cannot escape their own shallowness and they are stuck…
Posted: 10 January 2019 [06:17 PM] We interrupt the breathless coverage of President Donald Trump’s deceptive and unconvincing Oval Office address on the border wall to bring you some genuinely big news: The collusion case against the president’s campaign, already strong, is getting even stronger. Attorneys…
Posted: 10 January 2019 [06:16 PM] Who could disagree with Sen. Richard Blumenthal’s planned bill that would require Coast Guard personnel to receive pay for their work? How ridiculous is the situation the nation finds itself in that Congress would even have to consider such a…
Posted: 10 January 2019 [06:15 PM] To The Editor: I am disappointed with the lack of service from the New Britain Post Office. My father has been missing mail inconsistently from his PO box due to some getting returned to sender because the “box is closed”.…
Posted: 10 January 2019 [06:15 PM] Democrat Ned Lamont was sworn into office on Wednesday making him the 89th governor of the state. In his State of the State address following the ceremony, Lamont offered several topics he plans to focus on during his first…
Posted: 09 January 2019 [05:17 PM] Editorial Tuesday night’s presidential address and the response from the Democratic Party’s leaders in Congress offered little prospect that the stand-off over President Donald Trump’s wall will be quickly resolved. As yet, neither side looks ready to back down or…
Posted: 08 January 2019 [05:58 PM] Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., has caused an uproar by proposing a 70 percent marginal tax rate on earnings above $10 million, the “tippy-top” of the income scale, as she puts it. Conservatives are crying confiscatory taxation, and progressives are rushing…
Posted: 08 January 2019 [05:57 PM] Governor Dear Connecticut residents: This week, I’ll leave office after eight years serving as your governor. It’s been the best, hardest, most rewarding job I will ever have, and I am deeply thankful to you for allowing me to serve.…
Posted: 08 January 2019 [05:56 PM] Back in September Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ned Lamont broadcast a TV commercial proclaiming, “We’ve been failed by a generation of politicians. ... Change starts now.” But this week the new governor confirmed that he is incorporating most of the administration…
Posted: 08 January 2019 [05:55 PM] According to the Washington Post, “police shot and killed nearly 1,000 people” nationwide in 2017. Zoe Dowdell was one of those people. In December 2017, New Britain police shot and killed the robbery suspect and wounded the two men…
Posted: 07 January 2019 [04:43 PM] Opinion We’ve seen the video, we’ve read the report, we have talked with officials and heard from the families of the men who were shot. And, we still have questions. We are referring to the fatal police-related shooting of Zoe…
Posted: 06 January 2019 [06:34 PM] Following their thumping in November’s midterm elections, President Donald Trump pretended he had actually won, far-right members of Congress pressed for a government shutdown over border-wall funding, and outgoing Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker signed bills meant to cripple the Democrats…
Posted: 04 January 2019 [08:56 PM] New Year’s Day has come and gone, with agencies encompassing 25 percent of the federal government - from the National Park Service to the Justice Department - still shut down because of a budget impasse soon now entering its 13th…
Posted: 04 January 2019 [08:56 PM] Anyone who closely monitors police news from around Connecticut for a few days can easily discern the fraud behind the Malloy administration’s constantly congratulating itself for reducing the state’s prison population. For example, the East Hartford man charged in the…
Posted: 04 January 2019 [08:55 PM] WASHINGTON - Incoming speaker Nancy Pelosi wants to be clear about what the new Democratic House majority will not be: They will not, she insists, act like the Republicans. “We believe that we will not become them,” she said in…
Posted: 03 January 2019 [09:11 PM] A hallmark of President Donald Trump’s administration so far has been to put certain regulatory agencies under the control of their longtime critics. Scott Pruitt got (and later resigned from) the top job at the Environmental Protection Agency; Mick Mulvaney…
Posted: 03 January 2019 [09:11 PM] The Trump White House isn’t big on sharing information or answering questions asked on behalf of the public. The so-called daily briefings are not even monthly. The “communications” office specializes in stonewalling, often not even deigning to issue a “no…
Posted: 03 January 2019 [09:11 PM] The New Year is here. What a great opportunity to start fresh and resolve to do great things in 2019. How about I share some resolutions I hope our political leaders will keep. Here’s one: Federal government, please stop spending…
Posted: 03 January 2019 [09:10 PM] The country took great strides last this year away from its decades-long anti-crime crackdown. Congress passed a major criminal justice reform bill, and by year’s end it became clear the nation would once again hit near-historic low numbers…
Posted: 02 January 2019 [09:08 PM] The glittering orb that is the focus of New York City’s New Year’s Eve celebration was not the only thing that took a sharp drop that night. We are stunned to see how far we have fallen when it…
Posted: 02 January 2019 [09:06 PM] In the name of securing the border and keeping out illegal immigrants, President Donald Trump has opted for a partial government shutdown. Irony of ironies, that shutdown has paralyzed the nation’s immigration courts, shuttering many of them and allowing several…
Posted: 02 January 2019 [09:02 PM] The Trump presidency made a deep descent in December. The departures of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, the appointment of senior persons of lesser experience, the abandonment of allies who fight beside us,…
Posted: 02 January 2019 [08:59 PM] We’ve gotten used to a certain style of presidential primary campaign. A leader or “favorite” stakes out an apparent advantage and then one challenger (e.g. Sen. Bernie Sanders in 2016) or a series of them (e.g. Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum,…
Posted: 31 December 2018 [06:55 PM] Just in time for the New Year and all the celebrating that will usher in 2019; one state is leading the nation when it comes to cracking down on drunken driving. According to the Associated Press, Utah lowered its DUI…
Posted: 30 December 2018 [07:14 PM] Editorial As China, Russia and the U.S. ramp up their naval deployments, there’s no shortage of conflicts waiting to happen in the world’s oceans. Yet the most immediate cause for concern is something more mundane than great-power rivalries. Pay closer…
Posted: 28 December 2018 [06:41 PM] Maryland education officials recently unveiled a new system for tracking the performance of schools in the state. They are on the right track in trying to provide as much information as possible in the most user-friendly way, and the new…
Posted: 27 December 2018 [09:08 PM] In American politics, it is axiomatic that presidents get (and take) the credit for economic prosperity and the blame for downturns. The reality is that the state of the U.S. economy at any given time results from factors that the…
Posted: 27 December 2018 [09:07 PM] Bloomberg Opinion As the effects of climate change unfold, its impact on business will grow more severe: altered rain patterns will affect agriculture, floods will disrupt supply lines, heat waves will prevent employees from working. If markets are to work…
Posted: 27 December 2018 [09:05 PM] The Washington Post President Donald Trump has an uncanny knack for making a mess of simple, traditional functions every other president has managed to carry out with ease. Talk to a child about Christmas? Yikes - a “marginal” disaster. Go…
Posted: 27 December 2018 [09:03 PM] Public outrage over corruption helped put Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador into office, but his campaign to clean up the country’s government hasn’t started well. If he means to keep his promise to voters, he needs to change his…
Posted: 26 December 2018 [08:47 PM] We have heard it before and we will hear it again: Christmas is too commercial. The holiday, originally founded to celebrate the birth of Jesus, has become so much more than a Christian festival. It was at the end of…
Posted: 26 December 2018 [08:46 PM] Great artists (Aretha Franklin), scientists (Stephen Hawkings), authors (Tom Wolfe), business leaders (Paull Allen) and sports icons (Roger Bannister) passed away this year. There were the awful suicides of Kate Spade and Anthony Boudin. But for me, the passing…
Posted: 26 December 2018 [08:43 PM] WASHINGTON - Progressives have some intellectual and moral work to do. What are cast as political challenges to liberals and the left are also philosophical problems. Resolving them is essential to sorting out the tensions among the movement’s goals and…
Posted: 26 December 2018 [08:42 PM] By the time the character of Marty Ginsburg donned his second apron in the new Ruth Bader Ginsburg biopic, the audience imperative became clear, at least to me: Sure, take your daughters to see “On the Basis of Sex,” which…
