ThinkProgress Home
ThinkProgress
ThinkProgress Logo

Stories tagged with “Connecticut”

NEWS FLASH

Days After ‘Taco’ Blunder, East Haven Mayor Asks If Latino Appointee Is ‘Not Dark Enough For You’ | The mayor of East Haven, Connecticut Joseph Maturo Jr. landed in hot water last week when he suggested he’d “have tacos when I go home” as a Latino outreach tactic. Just days after apologizing for the remark, Maturo served up yet another questionable remark regarding his recent appointment of a Puerto Rican to an advisory board. When asked why he selected a man “of Puerto Rican descent as opposed to one from the dominant group of Ecuadorians,” Maturo replied, “I picked a Latino. Did it have to come from a certain section of the country?” He then added, “Is he not dark enough for you? Light enough for you?” Reacting to the latest comments, Governor Dan Malloy (D-CT) told PIX 11 News, “It’s ridiculous quite frankly. He should be embarrassed by a lot of things that he has said and done since he was reelected.”

By Tanya Somanader on Feb 1, 2012 at 11:00 am

NEWS FLASH

Connecticut Legislators To Push For Public Option | The Connecticut Mirror reports that state legislators will introduce a state-run insurance option, similar to one proposed by Democrats in the Affordable Care Act. The plan, proposed by a working group on small business health care, contains many of the same ideas as a previous proposal, SustiNet, which was introduced last year but faced opposition from business groups and insurers. Under this plan, small businesses could purchase insurance through the government. The working group also recommended changing how some small group insurance rates are set, and adding a basic health care program for low-income residents who make too much to qualify for Medicaid, among other suggestions. Last year, a report from a state board to the General Assembly found that a public option could save Connecticut taxpayers up to $355 million.

– Zachary Bernstein

By Guest Blogger on Jan 31, 2012 at 12:10 pm

Security

Muslim College Student Reports Sexual Harassment, Gets Reported To FBI For Terrorism And Expelled

By Tanya Somanader on Jan 18, 2012 at 1:15 pm

In 2008, African-American Muslim student Balayla Ahmad enrolled in Connecticut’s University of Bridgeport with hopes of becoming a chiropractor. Instead, she became of a victim of sexual harassment. Distressed by the repeated sexual advances and “graphic offensive comments” of a male student, Ahmad reported the harassment and “fears for her safety” to multiple teachers, who urged her to say nothing, and finally the university’s president and dean. The dean told Ahmad, “My hands are tied. What do you suggest I do?”

Rather than having her claims addressed, Ahmad received allegations of her own. Learning of her report, Ahmad’s harasser decided to falsely accuse her of terrorism to the FBI. And rather than fully investigate what was happening, the University of Bridgeport just expelled Ahmad altogether:

After reporting the sexual harassment in April 2009, Ahmad said she was approached by two university security directors who told her someone had made allegations against her and they threatened to call the FBI and have her arrested.

Later, two FBI agents knocked on Ahmad’s apartment door, questioned her and left a business card, according to the lawsuit. She said she learned that her harasser or his associates had fabricated a story falsely accusing her of being a terrorist in apparent retaliation for having made a sexual harassment complaint against him.

“Ahmad was racially profiled and discriminated against because of her race, color and ethnic identity as an African American Muslim and labeled a terrorist based on false accusations provided by the harasser and adopted without adequate investigation by the university,” the lawsuit states.

Ahmad asked that the university provide her with an off-site proctor for her exams, but she said the university told her in April 2009 that her sexual harassment complaint had been closed and that she was being referred to a disciplinary committee. In June, she said the university dismissed her.

Ahmad filed a lawsuit against the university last week for failing to investigate her claims, instead showing “deliberate indifference” to her plight. The lawsuit claims that the college even “recklessly disseminated false accusations by the harasser that they had good reason to believe were unreliable and threatened her with arrest by the FBI.”

Ahmad’s lawyer, Bradford Conover noted that because Ahmad regularly wears the hijab, she was easily targeted for her religion. “[B]ecause of that, she ended up getting targeted based on some reckless accusations against her,” Conover said. “They never investigated it. Had they done so, they would have discovered the accusations against her were false and she had been subject to sexual harassment.”

Green

Connecticut Climate Denier Chris Coutu Threatens Storm Readiness

By Brad Johnson on Jan 12, 2012 at 5:03 pm

Climate zombie Chris Coutu (R-CT)

A climate denier running for Congress in Connecticut has attacked a non-partisan panel tasked to prepare Connecticut in the wake of record damage from extreme storms in 2011 for recognizing the growing threat of global warming. State Rep. Chris Coutu, who denies not only man-made global warming but even the fact of the warming itself, rejects the recommendations of the Two Storm Panel because it dared to mention the “pseudo-science” of climate change:

Chris Coutu, who is running for Congress in the 2nd District, said the Two Storm Panel strayed “far from its non-political mission and into the political minefield of global warming.” “The “Two Storm Panel” had a simple, non-political task: determining how Connecticut can better prepare for and respond to major storms. Instead of simply focusing on solutions, the panel veered into politics with its recommendations for global warming,” Coutu said in a press release issued a few hours after the panel released its report.

“I don’t believe global warming’s occurring,” Coutu told the Hartford Courant. “There’s climate changes every year, there’s weather changes.”

Of course, it’s radical anti-science ideologues like Coutu who have made the scientific fact of global warming into a political issue, putting the residents of his state, our nation, and the entire planet at deadly risk. This panel is taking long-delayed action to protect Americans from the impacts of global warming caused by political inability to stop the fossil fuel pollution driving it.

“It’s global warming,” Sue Gress of New Canaan, Connecticut, told the New York Times in November. “No one wants to believe it, but things are changing. There’s much more violent weather, and we’re not prepared to deal with it.”

The Two Storm Panel’s report states that rising sea levels brought on by a warming planet “raises serious concerns about the need to protect critical infrastructure along the coast and adjacent to rivers.” Experts told the group that sea levels are expected to rise about 1.5 feet by the middle of the century and from 3 to 5 feet by the century’s end. The panel recommended new engineering standards to “better protect the built environment from the effects of extreme weather.”

“There is a reality that comes with the trend in climate change that we have to be better prepared for the future,” Gov. Dannel Malloy said. “We’re in a warming cycle,” James Skiff, the retired U.S. Air Force Major General who co-chairs the panel, told the Courant. “Sea levels are going to rise, that creates a higher storm surge.”

Justice

DOJ: Connecticut Police Intentionally Target Latino Drivers, Businesses For Traffic Stops, Immigration Investigations

By Tanya Somanader on Dec 21, 2011 at 9:50 am

After conducting a two-year investigation, the Department of Justice released a report slamming the East Haven Police Department (EHPD) in Connecticut for pervasive discrimination against Latinos in violation of the Constitution and federal law. In a letter to East Haven Mayor Joseph Maturo Jr. (R), DOJ Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez noted that not only did the EHPD consistently engage in discriminatory traffic enforcement, “treating Latino drivers more harshly than non-Latino drivers after a traffic stop,” but that it conducted “unauthorized immigration investigations” of Latinos, reflecting a discrimination that is “deeply rooted in the Department’s culture”:

The letter described the discrimination as “deeply rooted in the Department’s culture,” and cited a statistical analysis showing how Latinos were “intentionally targeted” for traffic stops. It provided the example of a particular officer’s stops — 40.5% of which were of Latino drivers.

Overall, the investigation found that 19.9% of traffic stops made by the EHPD were of Latino drivers, concluding it “shows pervasive discrimination against Latinos on every level of EHPD traffic enforcement activity.” The report also said officers were able to target Latinos by focusing on customers leaving Latino businesses.

In addition to the high rate of traffic stops, the report accused some EHPD officers of conducting unauthorized immigration investigations. The report mentioned “numerous incident reports” where EHPD officers contacted Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to check on the status or seek an immigration detention of a Latino person. Investigators said the tactic was “used to harass and intimidate Latinos rather than pursue legitimate law enforcement objectives.”

East Haven is 88.5 percent white, and only 10.3 percent Hispanic or Latino, so Latino drivers are twice as likely to be pulled over than their share of the population would suggest.

The report also accused the EHPD leadership of obstructing the investigation by “creating a hostile and intimidating environment” for those willing to cooperate. The EHPD did not comment on the report. The DOJ intends to meet with community leaders but said it “may suspend or terminate federal funding if the town fails to address the civil rights violations.”

Special Topic

UConn Tries To Censor Hip-Hop Artist From Singing About 99 Percent At ‘Political Awareness Rally’

By Zaid Jilani on Nov 8, 2011 at 1:35 pm

Last Friday, the University of Connecticut undergrad student government held a “Political Awareness Rally” to give students a space to express their political beliefs and to get young people involved in politics. Present at the event were groups as wide ranging as the right-wing Young Americans for Liberty and the left-wing Youth for Socialist Action.

Rapper Jasiri X was slated to appear, and was even going to be paid by the university for his appearance. Yet at the last minute, the rapper was told by the student government that he would only be able to attend if he didn’t perform songs like “Occupy — We Are The 99,” because these songs contain “obvious political statements.”

So the rapper at first agreed to not sing any political songs — at the political awareness rally. But when he arrived at the university, he changed his mind, and later wrote that he at that moment he decided he wanted to sing the 99 Percent-related song “even if it meant I would not get paid.” Here’s video of Jasiri X responding to the student government’s policy while appearing on campus:

Health

Connecticut Governor: Block Granting Medicaid Will Lead To ‘A Race To The Bottom’

By Igor Volsky on Oct 24, 2011 at 4:47 pm

Connecticut Gov. Dan Malloy (D) criticized governors who call for block granting the Medicaid program during an event about extending sick pay at the Center for American Progress on Friday. Malloy described the reform — which House Republicans have included in their budget and several Republican presidential candidates have endorsed — as “nothing more than a race to the bottom”:

MALLOY: We have a bunch of politicians, including many many governors who are calling for block granting Medicaid, which is nothing more than a sponsored race to the bottom, particularly in states where there is less of a population that’s going to be supportive of maintaining the benefits. And in essence, what some of these governors are trying to do, is to create economic incentive to move jobs to their state by winning the race to the bottom when it comes to Medicaid reimbursement.

Watch it:

The proposal would essentially convert the existing matching rate formula that the government uses to reimburse states into a block grant would give states less money than they would have otherwise received and force local governments to cut eligibility to the program. The federal government’s contribution “would be capped by a pre-set formula that does not adjust for variations in actual costs” influenced by economic recessions or unpredictable epidemics and as a result at risk populations may not be guaranteed access to needed benefits. A recent Kaiser Family Foundation report estimated that an estimated 31 to 44 million Americans could lose their health insurance coverage as a result of the change in funding.

Climate Progress

Connecticut Passes America’s First Full ‘Green Bank,’ Proving Clean Energy is a Bipartisan Issue

By Stephen Lacey on Jun 9, 2011 at 10:02 am

Clean energy advocates have been pushing the U.S. Congress to pass the Clean Energy Development Administration (CEDA).  CEDA would act as a “green bank” to help provide financing for clean energy companies that may face barriers in funding innovative technologies or first-of-a-kind projects. This program would be instrumental in helping drive down the cost of technologies and the cost of financing — all while driving up the value for American consumers and businesses.

CAP’s Bracken Hendricks and Lisbeth Kaufman report on Connecticut’s effort to lead the way on clean energy financing.

This week, Connecticut Governor Dan Malloy signed into law the nation's largest "Green Bank" program. (AP Photo/Fred Beckham)

While Gov. Christie works to dismantle clean energy in New Jersey, his neighbor, Connecticut Gov. Malloy just signed a major energy law comprising a broad-based clean energy and economic development program.  The Law, SB1243, passed unanimously with bi-partisan support, will reform Connecticut’s energy system to cut costs for consumers and transition to cleaner energy.  With a 36-0 vote in the Senate and a 139-8 vote in the House, Gov. Malloy and the Connecticut Legislators demonstrated that clean energy can gain solid bi-partisan support:

House Minority Leader Lawrence F. Cafero Jr., R-Norwalk, said in a partisan year, the energy bill “was a refreshing respite. It was a classic example of what you can do when you sit down with people on all sides of an issue.”

The law will combine the former Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) with the former Public Utility Control to create a Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) that will oversee the energy system reform.  DEEP will be run by the current DEP commissioner, Dan Esty, who is also an environmental Professor, Lawyer and Policy maker from Yale, and author of the prize-winning book “Green to Gold:  How Smart Companies Use Environmental Strategy to Innovate, Create Value, and Build Competitive Advantage. ” Esty, who spoke about the need for comprehensive energy policy at a CAP-hosted conference in November, was a major architect of the bill. Read more

Yglesias

Is It a Problem If Rich People Move To Florida?

By Matthew Yglesias on Jun 8, 2011 at 7:30 pm

Progressive income taxation is apparently provoking some controversy in the state of Connecticut:

“Their solution is to tax the wealthy in Fairfield County, redistribute income and hope people in Greenwich and Darien don’t move to Florida,” said Christopher Healy, the state Republican Party chairman.

Empirical studies I’m familiar with suggest that this tends not to happen. But what if it did? Connecticut is the third-richest state in the United States and the fourth most densely populated. On a per square foot basis, its housing is the fourth most expensive in the country, some 40-50 percent above the national average. This has all added up to some sluggish economic growth in the face of evident economic opportunity. If some quantity of rich people leave Connecticut, the result will be to make it more affordable for other people to move there. Connecticut will still have more tax revenue than it did pre-hike, and now more people will be able to take advantage of the economic opportunities that the state affords.

Meanwhile, Florida was already a poorer-than-average state before being unusually hard-hit by the current recession. Redistributing some rich people from Connecticut to Florida could be a win-win. And that’s especially true if the mechanism to produce the redistribution also allows for the financing of valuable public services. I can’t speak to the question of what Connecticut spends its money on, but as usual this is the right question to be asking — what are we spending it on and is it useful? The evils of taxes, as such, are vastly exaggerated.

Older

Switch to Mobile