Tuesday, June 18, 2013
 

Politics

Money from D.C. to build new Sandy Hook school a long shot

Exterior of Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown (Photo courtesy of The Newtown Bee)

Lieberman defends NSA phone, Internet data collection

To Joseph Lieberman, the former independent Connecticut senator and former chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, outrage over the recent disclosures of secret government data gathering is overblown. The National Security Agency is simply collecting “metadata,” phone numbers and “connections between phone numbers.”

“I think people will feel better about these programs if they know more about them,” Lieberman said.

 

 

Former Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman

New Regents president pledges openness, trust, integrity

As the new president of the Board of Regents for Higher Education, Gregory W. Gray pledged to ensure openness, transparency, trust and integrity in the state public-college system when he met Friday with legislators, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and other state officials.

The Board of Regents administration committee also approved changes to controversial policies that plagued the Board of Regents for Higher Education system in 2012 and led to the resignations of two top officials.  

Incoming Board of Regents President Gregory W. Gray talks with state Rep. Gail Lavielle, R-Wilton, during a reception Friday at the state Capitol.
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New Haven -- It was only a phone call. But by dialing a politically connected union buddy on Nov. 2, 2011, David Moffa initiated a conspiracy that would derail a congressional campaign, taint reputations at the State Capitol and produce eight convictions.

Moffa learned Wednesday the steep price of that call: a $5,000 fine and two-year prison sentence.

Connecticut motorists might think they have it bad on July 1 when state fuel taxes jump nearly 4 cents per gallon.

But the state’s trucking industry is bracing for a fuel tax hike of that size – for the third year in a row.

Republican Sam Belsito of Tolland, a town council member and clothing-store owner, won a special election Tuesday night to fill the vacancy in the 53rd House District of Ashford, Tolland and Willington.

The win over Democrat Anthony J. Horn of Ashford in the 53rd House District gives the GOP minority its 53rd seat, the most since it had 56 in 2004.

Washington –- A wide-ranging and ambitious immigration bill that would provide 11 million undocumented people with legal status easily overcame its first hurdle Tuesday.

The Senate voted 82-15 to begin debate on the bill. Connecticut's two senators, Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy, both Democrats, were in the majority that voted to move the bill forward.

Tuesday’s overwhelming, bipartisan vote belies the problems the bill faces, both in escaping major revisions on the Senate floor and rejection by the GOP-led House.

John W. Olsen, the tough-talking plumber from upscale Greenwich who became the face and voice of organized labor in Connecticut, is retiring in September after a quarter-century as president of the state AFL-CIO.

Olsen is leaving the labor federation as it downsizes, retrenches and focuses on year-round lobbying at the State Capitol and political outreach, echoing a new mission pushed by the AFL-CIO’s national leadership.

Washington –- With members of Congress worried that states have been lax in reporting and addressing the problem of children being sold for sex, Connecticut was pointed to at a Senate hearing Tuesday as a potential model.

“You all in Connecticut seem to have figured out how to put together a comprehensive strategy,” Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said to Joette Katz, the head of Connecticut’s Department of Children and Families.

Katz responded that “shining a light” on the issue is the best thing you can do to combat child sex trafficking.

Washington -- Having brushed aside efforts to strengthen the nation’s gun laws, Congress has turned its attention toward other issues, including immigration reform and alleged abuses by the IRS and National Security Administration.

But for the families affected by the Dec. 14 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School and their neighbors, there is no moving on.

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy vetoed a bill Monday that would have required the state to establish standards for the spray polyurethane foam insulation industry. It is the governor’s first veto of 2013.

“I am quite shocked that he vetoed this,” said Richard Beyer of East Lyme, a homeowner whose complaints about the industry led to the bill.  “That’s very disappointing. The public needed something like this.”