Politics

Lieberman defends NSA phone, Internet data collection

Monday, June 17, 2013

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.”

Former Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman

Scott Walker offers CT GOP a conservative prescription

By Mark Pazniokas Monday, May 20, 2013

Stamford – Raucous union demonstrators outside a Connecticut Republicans’ fundraiser Monday showed that Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin remains a lightning rod for curtailing the collective-bargaining rights of public employees.

But does Walker’s battles with labor in the Midwest make him a role model for GOP candidates considering a challenge next year to this state’s Democratic governor, Dannel P. Malloy?

Defense rests without offering evidence in political corruption case

By Mark Pazniokas Monday, May 20, 2013

New Haven -- The defense rested Monday without offering testimony in the conspiracy trial of Robert Braddock Jr., the campaign aide whose arrest a year ago opened a scandal that mortally wounded the congressional candidacy of Christopher G. Donovan.

The jury in U.S. District Court will get the case Tuesday after closing arguments in a trial that focused on what the government says was an attempt by the owners of roll-your-own cigarette stores to bribe Donovan, a Democrat who was then the speaker of the state House of Representatives.

Town leaders treated to partisan spat at Capitol

By Jacqueline Rabe Thomas Friday, May 17, 2013

Leaders of small towns may have headed to the state Capitol this week to lobby legislators not to cut their state funding, but what they got instead was a front-row view of legislative leaders bickering over the state's budget crisis.

At issue is the fact that Democratic leadership and the governor are not allowing Republican minority leaders in the room as they finalize the state's two-year budget that is expected to be voted on in the coming weeks.

Testimony: Donovan's biggest money men had stake in legislation

By Mark Pazniokas Friday, May 17, 2013

New Haven – The two biggest fundraisers for then-House Speaker Christopher G. Donovan’s 2012 congressional campaign were Harry Raymond Soucy and Mark Masselli, men with significant financial interests before the General Assembly, a campaign official testified Friday.

Soucy, according to previous witnesses, was responsible for delivering checks totaling $27,500 from donors trying to ensure that their roll-your-own cigarette business remained free of Connecticut’s steep tax on manufactured cigarettes.

Feds secretly videotaped House leaders Donovan and Cafero

By Mark Pazniokas Thursday, May 16, 2013

New Haven – In a secretly videotaped encounter in 2012, then-House Speaker Christopher G. Donovan, D-Meriden, seemed to cheerfully take credit for killing a tobacco tax bill, then recoiled from the idea seconds later.

“I took care of ya, didn’t I?” a smiling Donovan told Harry Raymond Soucy, a union friend acting on behalf of smoke-shop owners trying to keep their roll-your-own cigarette business free of state tobacco taxes.

Democrats hope to move McCarthy nomination

By Ana Radelat Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Washington – With the help of New Jersey Democrat Frank Lautenberg, Gina McCarthy’s stalled nomination to head the Environmental Protection Agency is set to clear a key Senate panel Thursday.

The nomination of McCarthy, who once headed Connecticut’s environmental protection agency, will be considered by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, composed of 10 Democrats and eight Republicans.

A fixer's tale of attempted bribes

By Mark Pazniokas Wednesday, May 15, 2013

New Haven – His name was Harry Raymond Soucy, a brash and egotistical union leader and correction officer who portrayed himself in the backroom of a Waterbury smoke shop as a political fixer able to get things done at the Connecticut State Capitol.

His solution: Bribes disguised as contributions to the top Democrat and Republican in the state House of Representatives in 2011 and 2012, including $5,000 cash he says he left in one legislator’s refrigerator at the Legislative Office Building in Hartford.

Blumenthal hoping to make his mark in immigration debate

By Ana Radelat Monday, May 13, 2013

Washington -- U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal is leveraging his seat on the Senate Judiciary Committee to plunge headlong into the fractious debate in Congress on immigration.

Blumenthal, a Democrat, said he’s motivated to become a player in Congress’ attempt to overhaul the nation’s immigration laws because “the current system is, in fact, badly broken.”

Don't Miss This

Connecticut's gasoline tax explained

On July 1 motorists will experience one of the largest gasoline tax increases in Connecticut history.

Prices are estimated to rise nearly 4 cents per gallon.

Listen to a special CTMirror podcast.

State aid: How did your city or town make out?

Hartford will receive the most state aid next fiscal year -- some $257 million -- and Lyme the least, a little more than $300,000.

How did your city or town make out in aid to education and other grants? Was it one of the nine municipalities that will be flat-funded for the next two years?

Find out here

Special series on the Connecticut budget