Author Archives: cxpowell

By Chris Powell Everybody seems to be investigating the traffic ticket scandal in the Connecticut state police, exposed by an audit a month ago. It contended that about 25,000 tickets state troopers wrote over several years were phony — reported only to a state police database, not to the Judicial Department, which would have triggeredContinue reading “Connecticut’s racial problems go far beyond fake tickets”

By Chris Powell Strengthening the Social Security system has been Connecticut U.S. Rep. John B. Larson’s main objective in his last several terms.  Larson, D-1st District, keeps introducing legislation that would bring more revenue into the system, covering the costs of the worsening ratio between retirees and workers; increasing benefits, especially for the working poorContinue reading “Enact Larson’s pension bill and worry about the cost later”

By Chris Powell Prevailing opinion is that a third-party “fusion” presidential ticket like that being contemplated by former Connecticut U.S. Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman’s “No Labels” group will draw more votes away from next year’s presumptive Democratic nominee, doddering Joe Biden, than from the presumptive Republican nominee, loony Donald Trump. That’s why leading Democrats areContinue reading “Democrats unfairly fault No Labels; and try bottom-up integration”

By Chris Powell With Governor Lamont’s signature on legislation last week, Connecticut will be doing more pretending about education. The new law will require high schools to offer and students to take a course on personal financial management. The course will be a prerequisite for graduation.  Of course young people should have some familiarity withContinue reading “Mandatory high school course is just a pretense of education”

By Chris Powell With Connecticut and the country falling apart, with the federal government spending billions of dollars to wage a proxy war in Ukraine and Russia, and with the next president likely to be a senile grifter or an insane one, U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal is worried … about golf. That is, the senatorContinue reading “Blumenthal worries about golf while the country falls apart”

By Chris Powell Despite the hysteria about the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision prohibiting racial preferences in college admissions — a policy long euphemized as “affirmative action” — as a practical matter the country no longer needs the practice if it ever did. For government agencies and larger businesses long have been striving to hire andContinue reading “‘Affirmative action’ didn’t fix Connecticut’s racial problem”

By Chris Powell Visiting Bridgeport last week, Governor Lamont celebrated newly enacted legislation he supported to require schools to provide translation services to parents who don’t speak English and to qualify more illegal immigrant children for state medical insurance, extending their eligibility age from 12 to 15. Bridgeport is a center of illegal immigration, andContinue reading “Can Lamont distinguish between legal and illegal immigration?”

By Chris Powell Schools purport to encourage the involvement of parents. But lately a big exception is being made around the country and in Connecticut. That is, schools increasingly want to conceal from parents the gender dysphoria of students who don’t want their parents to know about it, and last week with a friend-of-the-court brief Connecticut AttorneyContinue reading “Should schools deceive parents about child’s gender dysphoria?”

By Chris Powell Connecticut is missing the most important point about the recent assault of state Rep. Maryam Khan as she departed a Muslim religious service at the XL Center in downtown Hartford. Khan contends that the big issues here are whether the Hartford police and emergency responders treated her sensitively enough and whether thereContinue reading “Legislator who was assaulted could do something about it”

By Chris Powell Student performance continues to crash in schools in Connecticut and throughout the country. The results of the latest National Assessment of Educational Progress tests showed steep declines in the reading and math proficiency of 13-year-olds. Students are doing worse than a decade ago. But as usual there is much clamor to increaseContinue reading “Only insufferable students justify teacher raises now”