Author Archives: cxpowell

By Chris Powell Whatever one thinks about guns, this month’s $73 million lawsuit settlement paid by the insurers of the former Remington gun manufacturing company to the families of victims of the 2012 school massacre in Newtown is based on a false premise pursuing an unconstitutional objective. Federal law exempts firearms manufacturers from liability forContinue reading “Newtown dumps democracy; and Lamont worsens scandal”

By Chris Powell Republican state legislators around the country are proposing to require public schools to post all curriculum materials on the internet as an accountability measure, and the other day they got powerful if inadvertent support from Enfield’s school system. Enfield’s school administration acknowledged that an eighth-grade class had been given an assignment inContinue reading “Enfield’s lesson in pizza sex shows schools lack scrutiny”

By Chris Powell From Connecticut’s congressional delegation last week the watchwords of pious posturing were: “Stand with Ukraine.” Of course no one was proposing to stand with Ukraine enough to join the overmatched Ukrainian army in fighting the Russian invaders. The congressmen meant: Stand with Ukraine at a safe distance. Indeed, while President Biden stroveContinue reading “‘Stand with Ukraine’? That’s funny! And Lamont’s befuddlement”

By Chris Powell Nobody needs the federal investigation that is under way to grasp the basics of the racket that was being run from the state budget office — the Office of Policy and Management — by its deputy secretary, Konstantinos Diamantis, who a few weeks ago was fired by Governor Lamont, not by OPMContinue reading “State budget office scandal isn’t racism but corruption”

By Chris Powell Addressing the General Assembly last week, Governor Lamont touted state government’s comfortable financial position, a reversal of the position he inherited when he took office three years ago. As this is an election year, he proposed to spend a lot more money without raising taxes. Some of the extra spending may makeContinue reading “Governor needn’t raise taxes since inflation did it for him”

By Chris Powell Connecticut lately has generated more than its share of silly paradoxes. Having given up on the futility of criminalizing marijuana, state government is rushing into the marijuana retailing business with overregulation and overtaxation. This will make the drug even more available to minors while ensuring the black market’s continued profitability. Meanwhile theContinue reading “Connecticut won’t suppress crime without restoring deterrence”

By Chris Powell How, in a wealthy and highly taxed state with scores of social programs and constant prattling about unmet human needs, does a 17-year-old girl approach adulthood missing six teeth and able to eat only soft food? This month a report by Theresa Sullivan Barger of the Connecticut Health I-Team blamed the stateContinue reading “Teenage girl’s missing teeth indict neglect by parents and state”

By Chris Powell Maybe all those people who in the last year or so have given up on New York City and its inner suburbs and moved to Connecticut are not so good for the state after all. While they have offset the decline in population that Connecticut long has been suffering relative to theContinue reading “Population gains don’t help if housing doesn’t keep up”

By Chris Powell Connecticut’s best investigative journalism so far this year was probably the Jan. 2 report by the Connecticut Mirror’s Andrew Brown and Kasturi Pananjady about the lovely little racket state government has been running with its unclaimed property program. The program, the Mirror reported, collected $2.3 billion in the public’s lost assets overContinue reading “Wooden, Hayes, and Colangelo teach a seminar on ethics”

By Chris Powell For most of the last 70 years in the United States, ever since the Red Scare of the 1950s, the Republican Party has been the party of repression — more intolerant of political dissent, more inclined to censor, and more eager to use government to ruin livelihoods. Of course the Democratic PartyContinue reading “Democrats replace Republicans as the party of repression”