Category Archives: Uncategorized

By Chris Powell Long having been shameless because the governor and General Assembly never call it to account, the University of Connecticut probably won’t show any embarrassment over last week’s abrupt resignation of its president, Thomas C. Katsouleas, who was not even two years into the job. But Connecticut might be mortified. Of course noContinue reading “UConn president’s resignation is a spectacular embarrassment”

Mister Bluster Saves the World Weicker’s Memoir is Breathtaking for Self-Contradiction and Omission By Chris PowellJournal InquirerSaturday-Sunday, July 15-16, 1995 Legend has it that the ancient Athenian statesman Aristides was stopped in the street by an uneducated man who didn’t recognize him and who asked for help in writing Aristides’ own name on a ballotContinue reading “Mister Bluster saves the world”

By Chris Powell Nursing home workers in Connecticut long have been essentially state government employees because most patients are technically indigent and their care is financed by state government’s Medicaid program — for nearly $1.2 billion per year, half reimbursed by the federal government. The euphemism for this is “estate planning.” When people who haveContinue reading “Should government take over the nursing home business?”

By Chris Powell After government employee union members, Connecticut’s Democratic state legislators seem most compelled to pander to abortion fanatics. It’s not enough for them that abortion is legal in the state at any stage of pregnancy, including long after a fetus becomes viable, and that minors can get abortions without the approval of theirContinue reading “Democratic state legislators pander to abortion fanatics”

By Chris Powell Democrats in the General Assembly are busy with big plans for transforming Connecticut. Though state government is rolling in federal cash, the Democrats want to tax business and the wealthy a lot more. They want to overthrow suburban zoning. They want state government to start selling medical insurance to small businesses. TheyContinue reading “Big dreams distract Democratic state legislators; and soon we all could be ‘doctors’”

By Chris Powell Amid dissension and turnover at Hartford’s Wadsworth Atheneum, an art museum of international standing, Hartford Business Journal editor Greg Bordonaro wrote the other day that the city has an “image problem,” especially when compared to West Hartford, about which The New York Times recently published a report lauding, among other things, theContinue reading “Changing Hartford’s sad image requires changing its reality”

By Chris Powell Anyone watching television news in Connecticut last week might have gotten the impression that the state was being invaded by Nazi stormtroopers and the Ku Klux Klan. Prompting the hysteria on the airwaves was, first, the arrest of a student at the University of Connecticut at Storrs for spray-painting a swastika onContinue reading “Bloviating about trivia fails to remedy Connecticut’s racial problems”

By Chris Powell Recent leftist street theater in Connecticut raised issues that deserve more analysis than street theater can provide. First, unionized members of the faculty of the four regional state universities brought their 14–foot inflatable skunk to Southern Connecticut State University for a rally protesting “stinky” contract proposals by the Board of Regents. UnionContinue reading “Leftist street theater clouds Connecticut’s college and insurance disputes”

By Chris Powell After raising taxes, concealing public records and the whitewashing of history seem like the highest objectives of the Democratic majorities in the General Assembly. The Democrats would erase a range of misdemeanor and felony convictions a few years after such convictions are entered. The Democrats see this as a civil rights measure,Continue reading “Democratic legislators strive to keep Connecticut ignorant”

By Chris Powell While there is a compelling reason to raise taxes on the rich, it’s not the reason motivating many Democrats in the General Assembly, who would increase both state income and capital gains taxes on the rich and impose a special state property tax on their expensive homes. These Democratic legislators want mainlyContinue reading “The one good reason to tax the rich more isn’t Connecticut’s”