Author Archives: cxpowell

By Chris Powell Connecticut, the state’s Hearst newspapers found this month in a series of investigative reports, has not made much progress solving its domestic violence problem. Of course studies of the state’s other major problems might reach a similar conclusion, but one has to start somewhere. Connecticut’s main response to domestic violence is theContinue reading “Why Connecticut won’t ever diminish domestic violence”

By Chris Powell Last week New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker got a slap in the face from the city council, the Board of Alders, which rejected his nomination of Acting Police Chief Rene Dominguez to become permanent chief, despite her creditable 20 years with the city’s police department. The board’s complaints against Dominguez were thatContinue reading “Most murders in New Haven are unsolved but who cares?”

By Chris Powell For decades Connecticut’s elected officials have not been very good at solving the state’s major problems, which remain much the same as they long have been. But as shown by the latest report from the Yankee Institute, written by Ken Girardin, assisted by the Reason Institute’s Marc Joffe — “Warning Signs: 2021Continue reading “Connecticut’s pension debts aren’t even close to covered”

By Chris Powell Maybe it won’t be enough if the statue of Major John Mason is removed from its niche above the north steps of Connecticut’s Capitol building. For the other day the Connecticut Post’s Ken Dixon provided a wonderful compendium of the political and moral defects of the other state heroes memorialized with statuesContinue reading “Connecticut may never find perfect heroes for state Capitol”

By Chris Powell Bob Stefanowski last week clinched next year’s Republican nomination for governor for a rematch against Ned Lamont. Stefanowski did it by jumping on news coverage of the connections between the governor’s wife, Ann, an investment banker, and two companies that have gotten patronage from the Lamont administration — one a lucrative emergencyContinue reading “Lamont anoints Stefanowski and a more competitive race”

By Chris Powell Do state judges in Connecticut have unlimited sick and vacation time? That is the implication of the case of Superior Court Judge Alice Bruno, who, Hartford Courant columnist Kevin Rennie revealed three weeks ago, has not shown up for work for two years but nevertheless has been paid her full salary, totalingContinue reading “Why 2 years of concealment and expensive inaction on judge?”

By Chris Powell Woody Allen movie fans might appreciate the joke Danbury’s Zoning Commission is playing on homeless people in the city and, really, on the whole state. In Allen’s spoof of Russian novels, “Love and Death,” the comic hero at last wins the woman he adores and on their wedding night puts his armContinue reading “A joke on Danbury’s homeless; and another felonious lawyer”

By Chris Powell Maybe it’s just a coincidence, but with his re-election campaign coming up, Governor Lamont says Connecticut may be able to afford some tax cuts, or at least a revival of a property tax credit against state income tax obligations. Some fellow Democrats in the General Assembly are receptive to the idea. ButContinue reading “Can state afford to cut taxes? And higher ed is propaganda”

By Chris Powell With proto-Nazis and proto-Commies brawling in the streets across Weimar America, it may be more important than ever to recall Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter’s wry observation that “the safeguards of liberty have been forged in controversies involving not very nice people.” At best Kyle Rittenhouse is a stupid and reckless kidContinue reading “Kenosha and Manchester provide scenes from Weimar America”

By Chris Powell Democrats in Connecticut insist that there is no crime wave in the state and that concerns about crime are Republican contrivances. But it’s nice that the state’s minority party is pressing any issues at all, and Connecticut lately has had some criminal atrocities that really should be learned from, especially some involvingContinue reading “Car thefts are the least part of scandal in juvenile justice”