Author Archives: cxpowell

By Chris Powell Nearly everyone in public life in Connecticut has seemed to feel compelled to kowtow to and marvel at the verdict in the case of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin as if his conviction was a triumph of justice against the odds. In fact Chauvin’s killing of George Floyd may have beenContinue reading “Why marvel at a verdict that was hardly in doubt?”

By Chris Powell State Treasurer Shawn Wooden has brought to Connecticut a proposal that has been floating around the country for a few years now. Wooden would have state government endow “baby bonds” for poor children, opening $5,000 savings accounts for them at birth with the proceeds made available to them at age 18 forContinue reading “Treasurer Wooden’s ‘baby bonds’ won’t provide the crucial human capital”

By Chris Powell Legislators from Hartford, New Haven, and Bridgeport last week gathered at the state Capitol to offer their solution to the horrifying explosion of violence in Connecticut’s cities. They would throw money at it with “violence-prevention programs.” For centuries parents were pretty good “violence-prevention programs,” but few young people in the cities haveContinue reading “Horrifying violence in cities evokes only empty responses”

By Chris Powell Until a few days ago television stations in Connecticut were broadcasting a commercial showing a Black woman who says she is a doctor and wants to persuade “people who look like me” that COVID-19 vaccine is safe, adding emphatically, “because it is.” Or does the woman just play a doctor on TV?Continue reading “TV commercial’s dishonesty sabotages vaccine campaign in Connecticut”

By Chris Powell For the sake of democracy, comity, equality of opportunity, and prosperity, Connecticut, like the rest of the country, needs integration — racial, economic class, and ethnic. Exclusive zoning in the suburbs long has hampered that, and it’s getting worse as housing prices are soaring. But advocates of the anti-zoning legislation in theContinue reading “Violence and depravity in cities sustain exclusive zoning”

By Chris Powell Nearly everyone except government employees has suffered financial losses during the virus epidemic, and since those losses were caused more by government’s closure of much of the economy than by the epidemic itself, everyone wants reimbursement from the government. There’s some justice in this, especially in the requests from businesses in ConnecticutContinue reading “Eventually we’ll all be paying; and young car thieves just laugh”

By Chris Powell Connecticut’s Constitution, in its Declaration of Rights, commands: “All courts shall be open.” So what has happened to the case of Hector R. Cruz? Cruz was 16 when, according to the charge against him — first-degree sexual assault, a felony — he raped a child in Glastonbury in December 2019. The chargeContinue reading “Where did that rape case go? And propagandizing vaccines”

By Chris Powell Many liberal Democratic officials around the country and especially in the Northeast, including Governor Lamont, are looking hypocritical for urging President Biden to help repeal the federal government’s limit on the deductibility of state and local taxes — the “SALT” tax deduction cap. Liberal Democrats usually advocate more progressive taxation — thatContinue reading “Lamont probably won’t mind denunciation as a moderate on taxes”

By Chris Powell Despite the criminal prosecution underway in Minneapolis for the wrongful death of George Floyd, police officers are far more sinned against than sinning and are crucial to decent society. So claims that a flag displayed to support them is racist are ridiculous. The flag in question, the “thin blue line” flag, isContinue reading “Show support for the police without ‘thin blue line’ flag”

By Chris Powell While Governor Lamont’s office has conscientiously produced detailed virus-epidemic data every weekday for a year now — a triumph of organization and persistence — his administration and news organizations have made too much of it and the governor himself is gently backing away from it. The daily data has included three mainContinue reading “Government and journalism made virus epidemic scarier”