Connecticut constantly hears clamor for more "fairness" in its various forms of taxation, but exactly what does this mean? Of course the…
Posted: 29 November 2021 [08:51 PM] Columns
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Posted: 29 November 2021 [08:51 PM] Recent Headlines
Wednesday 11/24/2021
CHRIS POWELL: Car thefts are the least part of scandal in juvenile justice Posted: 24 November 2021 [07:07 PM] Democrats in Connecticut insist that there is no crime wave in the state and that concerns about crime are Republican contrivances. But…
Monday 11/22/2021
CHRIS POWELL: Don't unionize the Guard; and bust the racism racket Posted: 22 November 2021 [09:05 PM] Apparently it's not enough for the political left in Connecticut that nearly all state and municipal government employees are officially organized by…
Friday 11/19/2021
Posted: 19 November 2021 [09:10 PM] Vernon School Superintendent Joseph Macary may mean well, but then so did the guy who closed the barn door after the horses got out. The other day Macary urged Vernon's Planning and Zoning Commission to reject a zoning regulation that…
ERIN STEWART: Bright future lies ahead for the City of New Britain Posted: 19 November 2021 [01:43 PM] New Britain Mayor The excitement of the election is now behind us, my sleeves are rolled up, and my team is already…
Wednesday 11/17/2021
CHRIS POWELL: Killingly generator is needed, Ganim's self-importance isn't Posted: 17 November 2021 [08:55 PM] Energy prices are exploding and it seems that the Biden administration wants them to as the administration impairs U.S. energy production and…
Monday 11/15/2021
CHRIS POWELL: What property tax relief? And gasoline overtakes TCI Posted: 15 November 2021 [07:45 PM] Governor Lamont remarked last week that he is thinking about property tax relief, apparently in the context of his campaign for re-election…
Friday 11/12/2021
CHRIS POWELL: Out-of-state marching band plays a dirge for Connecticut Posted: 12 November 2021 [09:19 PM] West Haven may be providing the perfect metaphor for government and politics in Connecticut. The small city has been suffering from financial…
Wednesday 11/10/2021
CHRIS POWELL: Governor is better on taxes but not as good as he claims Posted: 10 November 2021 [08:55 PM] Construing the results of the Virginia and New Jersey gubernatorial elections as rebukes for his party that justify his politically moderate stance,…
Monday 11/08/2021
CHRIS POWELL: Tell the cities to 'think big'? They did and only got poorer Posted: 08 November 2021 [07:02 PM] What do you do when state government policy doesn't work? In Connecticut the answer is simple: You do more of it. So…
Friday 11/05/2021
CHRIS POWELL: State's Republicans cheer but wait 'til Trump returns Posted: 05 November 2021 [09:06 PM] Republicans did fairly well in Connecticut's municipal elections this week, picking up many suburbs and smaller towns, holding the mayoralties in some…
Wednesday 11/03/2021
CHRIS POWELL: Juvenile crime wave compels Lamont to strike a pose Posted: 03 November 2021 [09:21 PM] Even as his party's leaders in the state Senate kept insisting that Connecticut has no serious crime problem and that the crime…
Monday 11/01/2021
CHRIS POWELL: State Democrats' 'push poll' hints at Republican chances Posted: 01 November 2021 [08:56 PM] Governor Lamont is in a "strong position" for re-election a year from now, according to the results of a statewide opinion poll…
Friday 10/29/2021
CHRIS POWELL: Injection of race in schools deserves to be challenged Posted: 29 October 2021 [09:02 PM] As a practical matter "critical race theory" may be little more than the assertion that nearly everybody and everything is racist and…
Wednesday 10/27/2021
CHRIS POWELL: Corruption in Connecticut changes party allegiance Posted: 27 October 2021 [09:11 PM] Two decades ago government corruption in Connecticut was a spectacularly Republican phenomenon. First state Treasurer Paul Silvester, appointed by Gov. John G.…
Monday 10/25/2021
CHRIS POWELL: Imposing hardship is point of another hidden gas tax Posted: 25 October 2021 [08:48 PM] Writing last week in Connecticut's Hearst newspapers, state Rep. Christine Palm, D-Chester, argued that raising gasoline prices by what she estimates as…
Friday 10/22/2021
CHRIS POWELL: So why did no one outbid Alden for Tribune papers? Posted: 22 October 2021 [09:46 PM] More complaining about Alden Global Capital's dismemberment of the storied newspapers it recently acquired from the Tribune chain appeared this month in…
Wednesday 10/20/2021
CHRIS POWELL: Republican senators leave juvenile court unaccountable Posted: 20 October 2021 [08:54 PM] Success in politics is often believed to require making a lot of noise purporting to address issues without really doing anything about…
Monday 10/18/2021
CHRIS POWELL: Despite Connecticut's news, people do better married Posted: 18 October 2021 [08:51 PM] You’d never know it from the constant clamor by Connecticut’s news organizations and politicians about “domestic violence,” but the wisdom of the…
Friday 10/15/2021
CHRIS POWELL: Intemperate Facebook post dispels state's real problems Posted: 15 October 2021 [10:10 PM] Connecticut was pretty normal this week. The cities again were full of shootings and other mayhem. Group home workers went on strike…
Wednesday 10/13/2021
CHRIS POWELL: Slogans supplant arguments at rallies for abortion rights Posted: 13 October 2021 [08:27 PM] Rallies around the country and Connecticut this month supporting abortion rights and opposing the new anti-abortion law in Texas were full of…
Monday 10/11/2021
CHRIS POWELL: Blumenthal discovers a cure for teen bulimia: censorship Posted: 11 October 2021 [09:20 PM] Nearly everyone on Planet Earth with internet access seems to use the social-media platform Facebook and its subsidiary Instagram even as last…
Friday 10/08/2021
Posted: 08 October 2021 [10:17 PM] To the Editor: New Britain voters should re-elect Mayor Erin Stewart for the fourth term - Our “Queen Buzzin Bee” at City Hall Beehive. Her performance over the past years is remarkable. She has rejuvenated New Britain drastically. During her…
CHRIS POWELL: 'Two Connecticuts' lament misdiagnoses the problem Posted: 08 October 2021 [10:15 PM] For decades the state's intelligentsia has lamented that there are "two Connecticuts," a prosperous one in the suburbs and a poor one…
Thursday 10/07/2021
CHRIS POWELL: Governor is wrongly accused by Republican speech police Posted: 07 October 2021 [01:40 AM] By CHRIS POWELL Look who has just signed up for the politically correct speech police in Connecticut – not, as usual, more…
Monday 10/04/2021
CHRIS POWELL: Our Columbus Day holiday may survive all emergencies Posted: 04 October 2021 [09:07 PM] Governor Lamont is ready to use the Connecticut National Guard to compensate for any crucial labor shortages this week as his requirement…
ERIN STEWART: New Britain closes out fiscal year 2021 in the black Posted: 04 October 2021 [01:10 PM] New Britain Mayor One of my most important duties as your mayor is to oversee the city’s budget and work diligently to…
Friday 10/01/2021
CHRIS POWELL: Under Biden, open borders come ahead of public health Posted: 01 October 2021 [09:45 PM] While President Biden, Governor Lamont, and their administrations cajole and coerce people to get vaccinated against the virus epidemic despite fears that…
Wednesday 09/29/2021
CHRIS POWELL: Do colleges in Connecticut make students totalitarians? Posted: 29 September 2021 [09:06 PM] Higher education prattles about academic freedom but a recent poll of college students across the country supports the suspicion that higher education…
Friday 09/24/2021
CHRIS POWELL: Trouble with schools, kids hints at Connecticut's future Posted: 24 September 2021 [09:01 PM] Frogs have gotten a bad reputation from the story about their supposed failure to jump out of a pot of water if…
Wednesday 09/22/2021
CHRIS POWELL: 'Rescue' money isn't raining on special education kids Posted: 22 September 2021 [11:52 PM] While billions in federal "rescue" money are raining down on state government and municipal governments and Connecticut's members of Congress bestow new…
Monday 09/20/2021
CHRIS POWELL: Democracy won a world war; it can handle state's epidemic Posted: 20 September 2021 [09:13 PM] By CHRIS POWELL An argument being made for extending Governor Lamont's emergency powers to deal with the virus epidemic is that this would…
Friday 09/17/2021
CHRIS POWELL: Groucho knew how to solve UConn's football problem Posted: 17 September 2021 [08:56 PM] Having just been appointed president of Huxley College in the Marx Brothers' 1932 movie "Horse Feathers," Groucho's Professor Quincy Adams Wagstaff quickly…
Wednesday 09/15/2021
CHRIS POWELL: Lamont's appeal on abortion won't lure Texas businesses Posted: 15 September 2021 [08:33 PM] While he tries to be a moderate Democratic governor and indeed is more moderate than his predecessor, Ned Lamont still feels obliged…
Monday 09/13/2021
CHRIS POWELL: Since epidemic is permanent, emergency powers should end Posted: 13 September 2021 [09:09 PM] Governor Lamont seems inclined to ask the General Assembly to extend his emergency powers again to deal with the virus epidemic when…
Friday 09/10/2021
CHRIS POWELL: Not all constitutional rights are secure in Connecticut Posted: 10 September 2021 [09:17 PM] By CHRIS POWELL Responding to the new law in Texas sharply restricting abortion, Connecticut Democratic State Chair Nancy DiNardo last week tried…
Thursday 09/09/2021
CHRIS POWELL: Managing UConn in secret; and race-baiting young kids Posted: 09 September 2021 [09:20 PM] Technically the University of Connecticut is a public institution, but as the Connecticut Mirror noted last week, you wouldn’t know it from…
Wednesday 09/08/2021
CHRIS POWELL: Minister's rebuke to blacks applies to all of Connecticut Posted: 08 September 2021 [09:25 PM] Who will be the first to call the Rev. Boise Kimber a racist? Kimber, head of the Greater New Haven Clergy Association,…
Tuesday 09/07/2021
ERIN STEWART: POCD plan provides blueprint for city's future development Posted: 07 September 2021 [11:59 AM] Mayor of New Britain I have lived in New Britain my entire life, and it is both my professional and personal goal…
Sunday 09/05/2021
CHRIS POWELL: Connecticut needs no bears; and who's paying the rent? Posted: 05 September 2021 [09:52 PM] When state legislators next put a survey in their "constituent service" mailings, it should include the question: How many bears will you…
Friday 09/03/2021
CHRIS POWELL: Hiring cops is getting harder but it's partly their own fault Posted: 03 September 2021 [09:02 PM] Police departments in Connecticut and throughout the country – especially in cities, like Bridgeport, but also in some suburbs, like Enfield –…
Wednesday 09/01/2021
CHRIS POWELL: Connecticut needs to learn from murdered teen's life Posted: 01 September 2021 [08:57 PM] By CHRIS POWELL When 14-year-old Tyshaun Hargrove was shot to death last week in New Haven, Acting Police Chief Renee Dominguez called…
Monday 08/30/2021
Posted: 30 August 2021 [08:52 PM] As was demonstrated by the crude and disgraceful disruption of last week's back-to-school forum in Cheshire, many people in Connecticut are sick and tired of the virus epidemic and government's steps against it, however necessary they may have seemed. Consumed…
Friday 08/27/2021
CHRIS POWELL: 'Trust the science'? But whose? And Afghans fail to mobilize Posted: 27 August 2021 [10:08 PM] Science is wonderful. But it is not always settled. Sometimes the prevailing view in science is wrong, especially in medicine. For 2,000…
Wednesday 08/25/2021
CHRIS POWELL: Eversource repays hysteria; and the spirit of liberty fades Posted: 25 August 2021 [11:51 PM] Congratulations to Eversource Energy for scaring the daylights out of Connecticut residents upon the approach of Tropical Storm Henri, warning that two-thirds…
Monday 08/23/2021
CHRIS POWELL: A small win for Republicans; and no accountability for war Posted: 23 August 2021 [08:44 PM] Connecticut's Republicans have been down so long that they're entitled to construe almost anything as up. But they're making too much of…
Friday 08/20/2021
CHRIS POWELL: Who covered for Cuomo? And is choice no good now? Posted: 20 August 2021 [09:13 PM] Good for New York that it's getting a new governor as Andrew Cuomo resigns amid a sexual harassment scandal and is succeeded…
Wednesday 08/18/2021
CHRIS POWELL: Census shows racism fades; and few Afghans ever cared Posted: 18 August 2021 [09:04 PM] How strange that Connecticut and the country are being condemned as "structurally" and "systemically" racist even as the latest U.S. census finds…
Monday 08/16/2021
CHRIS POWELL: Inflation shows new goodies for Connecticut aren't free Posted: 16 August 2021 [08:58 PM] Nearly every day a member of Connecticut's congressional delegation announces some major federal grant for a local capital project or civic organization,…
Monday 08/09/2021
ERIN STEWART: Mayor's golf tournament helps Christmas come early for community organizations Posted: 09 August 2021 [11:57 AM] There are countless reasons why those who are born and raised here love the City of New Britain, but one…