Connecticut legislature

Utility regulators say independent electric suppliers in the state should be required to give consumers a clear disclosure about how much they're paying for power.

How do you tell the difference between someone who needs to be taken to jail and someone who needs to be taken to the hospital? That’s a big concern in Connecticut, where the intersection of law enforcement and mental health has been a huge issue since the Newtown shootings of 2012. 

WNPR spent time with police officers to learn about their training in mental health.

A bill that would allow schools in Connecticut to stock emergency medication for severe allergic reactions has been referred to the Appropriations Committee. 

A bill that would ban the storage or disposal of waste from fracking in Connecticut is moving through the General Assembly. 

Democrats hold the majority in the General Assembly so it’s rare when a bill endorsed by Democrats in one chamber gets defeated in the other. But that's exactly what happened this week. 

Appearing camera ready and primed, Ted Kennedy Jr. – son of the late U.S. Senator of the same name, and nephew of President John F. Kennedy – announced on Tuesday night that he’s entering politics.  

Two members of Connecticut's congressional delegation have launched a bill that would ban companies from marketing e-cigarettes to children.

But they ran into some vocal opposition during a press conference to launch the legislation.

Are all horses naturally vicious? The State Supreme Court didn't answer that question in its recent ruling about a horse named Scuppy who bit a toddler in 2006.

However, a majority of justices agreed that all horses are inclined to bite. This presumption has upset horse owners and equine business owners in Connecticut, who say a lot is now riding on legislation that would reduce their liability to personal injury lawsuits.

A new analysis says large companies that allow their workers to rely on state assistance could be heavily penalized by a law currently being considered by the state legislature.

Some municipal and state leaders would like to see non-profit colleges and hospitals pay taxes to the towns where they reside. One higher education official said the particular idea currently being floated is unfair. 

A legislative committee is not allowing a Connecticut woman disfigured in a 2009 chimpanzee attack to sue the state and seek financial damages. 

Three quarters of Americans nearing retirement have saved less than $30,000 for their retirement years, according to data from the New School for Social Research. Decades of stagnant incomes, an inability to save, and disappearing pensions are part of the reason.

One third of Connecticut residents are baby boomers, and state legislators are proposing a program to help them do a better job preparing for retirement.

Charla Charla Nash was attacked by a 200-pound chimpanzee in February of 2009, while helping her employer, Sandra Herold, get her pet, Travis, back in his cage.

Nash says she was unaware of the danger that lurked.

She doesn't remember anything about the attack, just waking up in the hospital. Travis broke most of the bones in her face, he ripped off her lips, nose, eyelids, and her hands, leaving Nash in a coma for four months. Today, she's blind and lives in a rehabilitation facility at a cost $16,000 per month, an expense she'll have for the rest of her life.

The state's daily newspapers, and its towns and cities, remain divided over how to change the state’s laws on printed legal notices.

Patients at Connecticut hospitals in 2012 contracted infections during treatment at rates “significantly” higher than the national rate. According to a report released this week by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, Connecticut patients contracted infections during or after colon surgery at a rate 27 percent higher than the national average. 

President Obama has congratulated Connecticut for becoming the first state to officially endorse his goal for the minimum wage. The General Assembly on Wednesday night passed a bill that will raise the wage to $10.10 an hour by 2017.

The Connecticut General Assembly passed a bill that would raise Connecticut's minimum wage to $10.10 an hour by 2017. The legislation makes the state the first in the nation to endorse President Barack Obama's goal for the national minimum wage.

Republican senators offered a variety of amendments to the bill, but all were been defeated.  

There's growing tension in Connecticut between parents and guardian ad litem lawyers or GALs, who are appointed to represent minor children in child custody cases.

Key deadlines are coming up for some proposed legislation at the state capitol and some have already passed. On our weekly news roundtable The Wheelhouse, we talk about what bills may or may not make it out of committee.

We also discuss the role of money in this year’s statewide elections. Common Core remains in the national headlines, with Indiana actually dropping the standards.

A new analysis from UConn claims that Connecticut may suffer some real economic pain from the minimum wage increase that went into effect this year.

Governor Dannel Malloy has submitted a bill that would eliminate about a thousand pages of regulation that's currently on the state's books. 

The regulations dealt with in the bill are pretty obscure. Malloy's office has dubbed them obsolete, duplicative or excessively burdensome. 

Earlier this month, The Connecticut Law Tribune reported that a number of the state’s guardian ad litem lawyers had withdrawn from their child custody cases. Their actions came in response to growing tension within the family courts, where parents and advocates have criticized the system -- and the lawyers in it -- for high fees and lack of oversight.

Today, conversations with Connecticut’s top two lawmakers - Senate President Don Williams and House Speaker Brendan Sharkey - about two big issues: Freedom of Information and taxes.

Williams has announced his retirement after 20 years in the legislature after this session ends. We talk about his tenure, which included the aftermath of the scandal that sent Governor John Rowland to jail. And about his testimony over proposed legislation that would limit access to public records.

Municipal leaders from across the state came to the capitol Wednesday to speak to legislators about their budget concerns. 

A recent Gallup poll found that, when it comes to climate change, Americans just aren't that worried. Less than 36% of those surveyed recognized global warming as an immediate threat, while most placed economic, federal spending, and healthcare issues above the need for environmental action. 

The Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection hasn't done a statewide estimate for about five years, but at last count, there were around 120,000 deer in Connecticut, with the largest concentrations in Fairfield County.

DEEP officials said the numbers are getting out of control, and voiced their support for a legislative proposal that would expand deer hunting in Connecticut. 

The legislature's Public Health Committee heard testimony on a bill which would allow physicians to help terminally ill patients end their lives.  It's supported by an advocacy group called Compassion and Choices, which has spent thousands lobbying for the bill---while the Catholic Church, along with the Family Institute of Connecticut, have voiced strong opposition.

A legislative hearing was held Monday on a bill that would allow doctors to prescribe life-ending drugs to the terminally ill.  The session brought emotional testimony from those both in favor and opposed. 

The legislature's Public Health Committee is slated to hear testimony Monday on a bill which would allow physicians to help terminally ill patients to end their lives.

The so called aid-in-dying legislation is likely to draw impassioned advocates on both sides.