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Rumored future Republican candidate takes state cash
Fifth Street Financial Corp. will relocate to Greenwich thanks to a $5 million enticement from Connecticut taxpayers. Fifth Street Financial is a business development company, essentially a publicly-traded private equity firm. It buys, loans money to and invests in...
Hartford gets $47 million for students who left its schools
Connecticut is spending millions on so-called “phantom students” because it pays for some students twice – a practice that would end if the state instead “followed the child” with its education dollars. School districts are paid based on the number of school-aged...
Deputy commissioner takes business-class flight to China, stays in luxury hotels
A Connecticut economic development official flew business class to China and stayed in three luxury hotels while on a trade mission. Ronald Angelo Jr., deputy commissioner of the Department of Economic and Community Development, spent about $7,500 of taxpayer money on...
Troubled health center gets millions in state, federal aid
Recent problems at Charter Oak Health Center, a nonprofit Hartford clinic that largely treats the uninsured, raise questions about the more than $6 million in government funding it receives each year. Charter Oak typically gets about $2 million a year from various...
Hartford health clinic slow to improve after scandals
Although a Hartford health center has been making improvements since the state Department of Public Health started monitoring it last year, changes have been a long time coming. Charter Oak Health Center was placed on probation as part of a consent order after state...
Doctor arrested for sexual assault no longer employed by health center
A Glastonbury doctor arrested in connection with alleged sexual assault was quietly released from employment at a Hartford health center in September 2012. Charter Oak Health Center terminated Dr. Tory Westbrook on Sept. 27, 2012, according to Charter Oak...
Change in standardized tests may reveal weakness of current standards
The Connecticut State Board of Education will decide Monday whether to apply for a waiver allowing local school districts to decide between two standardized tests to give next year, instead of forcing kids to slog through both. The testing overlap comes as Connecticut...
Connecticut teacher education programs don’t make the grade
A national teacher-effectiveness organization rated all but one of Connecticut’s university-level education programs poorly in its first review of more than 1,000 programs across the country. The one standout program, earning three stars from the National Council on...
Hartford moves ahead on $100 million renovation of half-empty school
State officials recently approved borrowing $80 million to renovate Weaver High School, with Hartford picking up the tab for another $20 million, even though three-quarters of its desks are empty. The current 370,000 square-foot school building, which sits on a 29...
Lawsuit Takes Aim At Legislative Secrecy
Living up to their sport, the National Shooting Sports Foundation, Inc. has taken aim at some very high level targets. In a lawsuit launched Monday attacking Senate Bill 1160, which issued in sweeping gun reform legislation in Connecticut, the NSSF named as defendants...