Your Government

A major state employee union is using last spring's unsuccessful bid to cancel longevity bonuses for senior, non-union state employees to rally support for its long-running battle to allow managers to bargain collectively.

An affiliate of the Connecticut State Employees Association/Service Employees International Union sent out letters last week to about 2,500 non-union managers reminding them of a March 11 proposal from the House Republican Caucus to cancel about $4.7 million in bonus payments due in April. Read more

WASHINGTON--Rep. John Larson, D-1st, was at the center of a political firestorm last week, although you might not have known it from reading the headlines or tuning into latest cable TV news flash.

Larson, chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, started the week collecting a torrent of complaints from his fellow House Democrats about a remark by President Barack Obama's top spokesman on a Sunday talk show, that Democrats could lose their House majority in the upcoming election. One Democrat told Larson the comment would further undermine lawmakers already facing an angry electorate. Another griped that it seemed like the White House was trying to distance the president from the possibility of sweeping losses come November. Read more

Gov. M. Jodi Rell announced Monday that the state will move forward to set up its own insurance plan for people with serious health problems, instead of letting the federal government run the program.

The decision clears the way for people with pre-existing conditions to begin applying for health insurance--but it comes after a last-minute reassessment that put Connecticut a month behind many other state in offering the coverage. Read more

WASHINGTON-Many of Connecticut's Republican congressional candidates will have relatively thin pocketbooks heading into the Aug. 10 primary, according to the latest campaign finance reports.

And even as Democrats nationally are wringing their hands over a toxic election climate and struggling to keep up with their GOP counterparts, Connecticut's Democratic incumbents don't seem to be feeling that pain, raising tidy sums of campaign cash in preparation for November. Read more

Michael C. Fedele has no problem drawing a line in the fiscal sand.

For the Republican gubernatorial contender, the line is no higher taxes, no higher fees, and no additional borrowing. There are no loopholes.

Facing the budget: Last in a series.

But as certain as Fedele is in ruling things out, he isn't as decisive about how he would eliminate the $3.37 billion budget gap that will confront the next governor. Read more

WASHINGTON-Republican Linda McMahon put another $7.5 million of her personal fortune into her U.S. Senate campaign over the last three months, helping to ensure the Connecticut contest will be among the most expensive in the nation.

McMahon's loans to her campaign in the 2nd quarter of this year brings her total investment in the race so far to $21.5 million, according to campaign finance reports due today that cover activity from May through June, along with an earlier report showing her April campaign finances. McMahon ended the reporting period with more than $3.2 million cash on hand. Read more

WASHINGTON-Two of Connecticut's corporate giants-Pratt & Whitney and General Electric Co.-have long been at loggerheads over a multi-million dollar spending item in the federal budget: $485 million to fund an alternate engine for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.

But this year, their perennial fight has become a pitched battle, with the two companies together enlisting more than a dozen new lobbyists over the last year in an all-out campaign over whether to put in, or strip out, that one item in the $708 billion proposed military spending plan. Read more

WASHINGTON--Congress faces a pile-up of contentious issues as lawmakers return from a week-long 4th of July recess today. And Connecticut lawmakers are set to play leading roles in high-stakes votes over everything from Wall Street reform and climate change to emergency health care funding for states and assistance to the unemployed.

The state's delegation also has a bevy of pet and parochial issues they are hoping to push through this month. But whether they can navigate through the gridlock and produce concrete results as lawmakers hurtle toward the November elections is an open question. Read more

GROTON -- At Grossman's Seafood Market, they were selling a tale of tough times for Connecticut's dwindling lobster fishery, which is facing a five-year moratorium by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission.

U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2nd District, hosted an informational meeting Thursday that drew two lobstermen and seven news organizations on a sweltering summer day. Congress has no say on the moratorium, which will be the call of the commission's American Lobster Management Board. Read more