Proposing to consolidate suburban and rural school districts with urban ones — by financial incentive if possible, by state mandate if necessary — Gov. Ned Lamont and Democratic leaders in the General Assembly are threatening to overthrow Connecticut’s social contract.
Citizens challenging the towering threat of climate crisis should never underestimate the consequences of our dependence on fossil fuel corporations. Real engagement with the worsening climate disruption means spending more of our leisure hours on civic action. The fate of future generations…
The public does not need more secrecy from police. If anything, there should be less.
Raccoons have great looks — masks, bright eyes, striped Davy Crockett tails.
The phone rang at three in the morning. My sister Kathleen, like a banshee, come to proclaim the dead.
I would not have sought out this phenomenon from Japan since I don’t watch either reality TV or Netflix but recently, several friends mentioned how fabulous she was, so I had to check it out. Marie Kondo’s method of organizing is known as the KonMari method. It consists of gathering together…
The most commonly heard counter to a call for diversity in hiring is to say that, instead of bringing in people from a variety of backgrounds, the only choice is to hire the best person for the job. No other criteria should matter.
Many readers object to illegible print in contemporary print newspapers and magazines. In today’s print news, legible print is on a collision course with flights of fancy by graphic artists.
More than a hundred Connecticut teachers told a hearing of the General Assembly’s Education Committee the other day that they are being assaulted or threatened in school by disturbed students as young as 5 years old. Describing an epidemic of crazed behavior by students, the testimony should…
Growing up in the rural countryside on a subsistence Connecticut farm, I had a brother just a year older than me and four boy cousins just down the road. I was destined to begin childhood as a tomboy. I skated in my brother’s old cast-off hockey skates, just as I rode his hand-me-down bike a…
Connecticut has long been known as having some of the best public schools in the nation, and it’s a legitimate point of pride. People who live in and move to this state know they’ll have a chance to see their children well-prepared for life after graduation, whether in college or in the work…
What exposed the Tobacco industry’s carcinogenic cover-up? The lethal asbestos industry cover-up? The General Motors’ deadly ignition switch defect cover-up? The Catholic Church’s pedophile scandal? All kinds of toxic waste poisonings?
Campaigning last year Gov. Lamont promised “structural change” in state government, but the budget he proposed last week fulfills that promise only in taxing, not spending.
Maybe the journey isn't so much about becoming anything. Maybe it's about unbecoming everything that isn't really you so you can be who you were meant to be in the first place. — Michelle Phenix
Recently an elderly gentleman asked me about my opinion on NPR and PBS, knowing of my vigorous support in the nineteen sixties for these alternatives to commercial radio and television stations.
School suspensions and expulsions have long held a place in the essential toolkit for educators struggling to maintain control over their classrooms. Since all it took was a single disruptive student to undermine a safe, supportive learning environment, relocating problem behavior made sense.
Just days after two Democratic state legislators — state Rep. Jillian Gilchrest of West Hartford and state Sen. Will Haskell of Westport — proposed, as a public health measure, taxing ammunition at 50 percent of its price, gun violence exploded again last week in New Haven and Bridgeport.
To the Editor,
When I lived in North Miami Beach in a 1930s-era house, I decorated with Art Deco furnishings, or at least the contemporary equivalent since I didn’t appreciate vintage furniture at the time. One of those contemporary equivalents was a large radius-edge cocktail table covered in mauve Formic…
One way or another, the prospects for a casino on the Bridgeport waterfront should become clearer in the next few months.
Two contemporary stories about U.S. Sen. Rand Paul (R- KY) illustrate the disconnect between one’s ideology and personal experiences. Imagine a fierce opponent of regulation being saved in a crash by government-mandated seat belts and air bags and the ensuing cognitive dissonance.
Maybe Thomas C. Katsouleas will make a great president of the University of Connecticut. His appointment this week was announced with all the hyperbole the university and Governor Lamont could muster.
In what will be one of the first major decisions under Gov. Ned Lamont’s new administration, the University of Connecticut is narrowing its choices as it seeks a president to succeed Susan Herbst.
Many of the Connecticut problems are intractable. On the other hand, we can always make up new names.
When I begin a story, I rarely know what direction it will take. Whether it’s a column, which is basically just me living my life, paying attention and writing about it, which should be pretty simple and straightforward but rarely is, or a feature article for the newspaper, which also has wh…
Should mayors be allowed to select their cities’ Board of Education chairs?
Sometimes trial balloons are meant to be shot down, which seems to be the case with the report that Gov. Ned Lamont is considering repeal of the state sales tax exemptions for groceries and medicine, necessities of life.
Recently, I wrote a column listing 12 major redirections or reforms that most people want for our country. All of which require action by Congress — the gate keeper. Now Congress must hold informative and investigative public hearings to inform the media and to alert and empower the people.
Don’t force regionalization
When a friend brought me a tiny bundle of blonde fur, the intention was to have a companion for my husband, who was recovering from a recent stroke. The kitten had been named Cinnamon and she had a twin brother named Fluffy. I re-christened her Darlin’ because she was such a sweet little thi…
In my freshman year of college, there was a guy across the hall who was head of the Florida Young Republicans for Nixon. Often, on my way back from lunch, I would whip an apple core at his door.
This must be the year that Connecticut takes the next logical steps in protecting children and each other.
Themis Klarides, the leader of a much reduced Republican contingent in the Connecticut House of Representatives, is fair-minded, but not the sort of woman who will suffer fools — and, more importantly, political frauds — gladly. She may allow two strikes, but three strikes and you’re out.
At the admirable direction of Archbishop Leonard Blair, the Catholic Archdiocese of Hartford this week more or less came clean about the sexual abuse perpetrated by its priests during the last six decades.
The accolades were uniformly respectful for the honest, innovative, and unyielding defender of shareholder/investor rights — the late John C. Bogle — the founder of the now giant Vanguard Group of mutual funds. Writers took note of his pioneering low-cost, low-fee investing and mutual funds …
To the Editor,
In the past six years, police in Connecticut have killed 24 people.
There’s a convoluted history to John Lennon’s most intriguing and fantastical song, “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.” Lennon admitted he was influenced by an LSD experience, plus Lewis Carroll’s “Alice in Wonderland,” but claimed it was not intended as a “drug song.” Allegedly, John Lennon’s …
Mark Twain famously said a “classic” is a book everybody praises but nobody reads. That may help explain the recent fiery demise of the American Shakespeare Theater in Stratford.
Many Senate Democrats are throwing in the towel on the nomination of William Barr for Trump’s Attorney General (a prospect assured by Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer, declaring his personal vote against Barr). Let’s ask why?
According to a story in a Hartford paper, the city’s mayor, Luke Bronin, a rising star in state politics, “declined to comment on the dispute” between Hartford teachers and their nominal patron, the Hartford Board of Education. The dispute is about contracts and the inability of the people o…
No list of epic construction fails would be complete without the Russky Bridge. The world’s longest cable stay bridge, built to carry four lanes of traffic 230 feet above the Eastern Bosphorus Strait, was completed in 2012, connecting the city of Vladivostok with the Island of Russky. Intend…
Democrats were entitled to celebrate on Inauguration Day in Hartford. Going into the recent election their record of eight years in control of state government was so much against them that no one of any standing in the party thought its nomination for governor was worth the trouble. So the …
“CTMirror” notes in a recent story that minority leader in the state House of Representations Themis Klarides has voiced her concern often enough that “when Democrats expanded their lead in the House and regained control of the Senate — that the majority is gearing up to spend recklessly… ‘A…
Congress is the Constitutionally delegated repository of the sovereign authority of the people (the Constitution which starts with “We the People,” not “We the Congress!”). Most of the changes, reforms, and improvements desired by a majority of people have to go through Congress. Incentives …
I go through this every year. I just need three clementines to put in Christmas stockings and every December, I’m faced with just one choice: buying five pounds of these delicious small oranges. We don’t eat that much citrus so this year, in desperation and attempted humor, I asked all my fr…
New leadership will take over the helm of the state of Connecticut on Wednesday. They face the sober task of steering the ship clear from the shoals of economic ruin and charting a realistic path to prosperity not for the few, but for the many who chose to live here.
Anyone who closely monitors police news from around Connecticut for a few days can easily discern the fraud behind Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s administration’s constantly congratulating itself for reducing the state’s prison population.
During his coming first term in office, Gov. Ned Lamont need have no fear of the Republican Party, which was thoroughly thrashed by Democrats in the recently concluded elections.
This is a tale from several years back, but I saw a field mouse running across the road when I picked up the morning paper and for inexplicable reasons, I now think of it as a happy memory.
From the many valedictory interviews he gave to journalists last week, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy seems to be departing as bitter as Connecticut is about his eight years in office.
