Pill Sharpens Abortion Division
Monday, March 13, 2006 WILLIAM HATHAWAY and HILARY WALDMAN - - Hartford Courant
| Connecticut last week witnessed the birth of a classic wedge issue - emergency contraception.
The debate over whether Catholic hospitals must give rape victims emergency contraception shares key ingredients with other recent hot-button social issues, such as the controversies over continued life support for Terry Schiavo, gay marriage and partial-birth abortion: They all have emotional and symbolic power that far outweighs their impact on people's lives.
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What Is Real Price Of Paid Travel?
Saturday, March 11, 2006 DAVID LIGHTMAN - - Hartford Courant
| Rep. Rob Simmons spent a few days in late November at a seminar in south Florida, the guest of the American Shipbuilding Association. Rep. Christopher Shays spent a week in Africa in January, courtesy of Planned Parenthood, and Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman went to Colorado twice last summer and fall for privately funded trips.
Such trips raise hard-to-answer questions Congress has been debating this month: Should members be allowed to travel at the expense of interests that have business before lawmakers? And if so, should such trips be subject to tough scrutiny by an independent office?
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State In Line For More Energy Assistance
Thursday, March 9, 2006 DAVID LIGHTMAN - - Hartford Courant
| Connecticut will gain an additional $6.9 million this winter to help lower-income households pay their utility bills, and it could get a lot more under legislation passed by the Senate and headed for likely approval in the House.
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Johnson Aspires To Lofty Position
Tuesday, March 7, 2006 DAVID LIGHTMAN - - Hartford Courant
| U.S. Rep. Nancy L. Johnson said Monday that she will vie for the chairmanship of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee - a bid that, if successful, would make her the first woman to hold the job, one of Congress' most influential.
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Lawmakers Go After Process That Led To Port Takeovers
Monday, March 6, 2006 DAVID LIGHTMAN - - Hartford Courant
| Washington lawmakers from both political parties, unconvinced by Bush administration efforts to reassure them about Dubai-based companies' takeovers of American ports and manufacturing plants, vowed Sunday to take strong action this week to stop - or at least delay - the plans.
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Angry Questions On Dubai Business Deals
Friday, March 3, 2006 DAVID LIGHTMAN - - Hartford Courant
| Lawmakers already outraged over a pending sale of port operations to a Dubai-owned firm erupted with fresh fury Thursday over the news that another company in the United Arab Emirates is poised to run plants in Connecticut and other states that make sensitive military equipment.
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Teen Urges Boost In School Funding
Friday, March 3, 2006 DAVID LIGHTMAN - - Hartford Courant
| Joshua Tagore sat at the witness table Wednesday before the U.S. senators and spoke of brain functions and Advanced Placement biology and the need for more federal education support.
It was an unusual appearance, because Tagore is a 16-year-old Simsbury resident and student at Hartford's University High School of Science & Engineering. He testified before the Senate subcommittee on education and early childhood development as part of a morning program that included a Bush administration education official, two former governors and a group of leading education experts.
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Shays Spills GOP Secret
Wednesday, March 1, 2006 MARK PAZNIOKAS - - Hartford Courant
| It's been the subject of whispered conversations among top Republican officials for the past month. Now, U.S. Rep. Chris Shays, R-4th District, has let slip the secret: GOP officials have discussed cross-endorsing Democratic Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman this fall.
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Governors Defend Their National Guards
Wednesday, March 1, 2006 DAVID LIGHTMAN and JESSE HAMILTON - - Hartford Courant
| With National Guard units around the country already stretched thin, fighting abroad and trying to keep order during crises at home, the nation's governors declared war this week on proposed changes and cuts in the Guard's manpower, money and mission.
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Fast-Food Lover Clinton Now Fitness Advocate
Wednesday, March 1, 2006 DAVID LIGHTMAN - - Hartford Courant
| Bill Clinton didn't like gym classes as a kid.
"It showed how uncool we were," he said.
He would rather be at McDonald's eating french fries - "which I have enjoyed ad nauseam."
But Tuesday he was leading the charge for fitness at a meeting of the nation's governors.
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Block Grant Cuts Feared
Tuesday, February 28, 2006 DAVID LIGHTMAN - - Hartford Courant
| Losing federal money? Send in the cows.
That's what the McSweeney Regional Senior Center is going to do in May. It hopes to sell 1,000 tickets at $10 apiece to people willing to guess precisely where on a local farm a local cow will, ahem, do its business.
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GOP Center Shying Away From Bush
Saturday, February 25, 2006 DAVID LIGHTMAN - - Hartford Courant
| When Sarah Chamberlain Resnick asked moderate House Republicans recently if they wanted Arizona Sen. John McCain to campaign for them, every hand went up.
She didn't even ask if anyone wanted President Bush's help.
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THINGS THAT MAKE YOU GO, HMM, WHAT'S THE DEAL HERE?
Wednesday, February 22, 2006 Jim Shea - - Hartford Courant
| After hearing Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff talk about his agency's response to Hurricane Katrina, doesn't it seem pretty clear now that former FEMA head Michael "Heck of a Job Brownie" Brown was the brains of the operation?
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Energy Bill Vote Left Out In Cold
Tuesday, February 21, 2006 DAVID LIGHTMAN - - Hartford Courant
| Neither a snowstorm, nor bitter cold, nor even a promise from the U.S. Senate majority leader could get Congress to approve extra money to help people with low incomes pay their energy bills this winter.
Members of Congress, in the middle of a "Presidents' Day recess" this week and not due back until Feb. 27, left town without acting on a proposal to add $1 billion to the low-income energy assistance program.
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Republicans Act Out Their Own 'Survivor'
Saturday, February 18, 2006 DAVID LIGHTMAN - - Hartford Courant
| Chertoff's in, but barely. Cheney survives, for now. But Brown is down and Blunt is sort of out, but also sort of in.
That's the scorecard so far this month as Washington Republicans play their own round of "Survivor." And as in the television show, the players' fate often depends on an ever-shifting mix of friendships, personal needs and methods of playing the game.
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Senators Frustrated With Chertoff's Responses On Katrina
Thursday, February 16, 2006 DAVID LIGHTMAN - - Hartford Courant
| Senators struggled for hours Wednesday trying to get Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff to explain why he was unaware of Hurricane Katrina's fury in the crucial hours after the storm hit - but the lawmakers came away disappointed and annoyed.
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Katrina Records Contain A Gap
Wednesday, February 15, 2006 DAVID LIGHTMAN - - Hartford Courant
| The Department of Homeland Security has not been able to find any recording of a crucial conference call five hours after Hurricane Katrina made landfall - though it has transcripts of other key discussions recorded in the days before and after the storm struck.
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White House Rebuts Critics
Tuesday, February 14, 2006 DAVID LIGHTMAN - - Hartford Courant
| The embattled Bush administration Monday lashed back at critics of its response to Hurricane Katrina, insisting that the president was fully involved in the planning, and proposing a detailed series of steps to streamline and improve government actions in future disasters.
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Bush Budget Could Be Painful
Wednesday, February 8, 2006 DAVID LIGHTMAN - - Hartford Courant
| Connecticut faces a huge cut in federal homeland security money in President Bush's 2007 budget because state grant funds are being reduced - and because Washington officials have signaled that they do not consider the state unusually vulnerable to terrorist threats.
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Federal Funding At Risk
Tuesday, February 7, 2006 DAVID LIGHTMAN - - Hartford Courant
| Connecticut faces sharp reductions, or at best small increases, in key school, health, energy and social service programs from President Bush's $2.77 trillion fiscal 2007 budget.
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Bush Plans Deficit Cuts
Monday, February 6, 2006 DAVID LIGHTMAN - - Hartford Courant
| President Bush today is expected to detail a budget plan aimed at sharply cutting the federal deficit, which threatens to strangle the economy.
But few analysts believe Congress or the White House will follow up with much serious deficit-cutting this year, and there appears to be little clamor from constituents to do so.
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Boehner Elected Majority Leader
Friday, February 3, 2006 DAVID LIGHTMAN - - Hartford Courant
| Republican House members, stung and embarrassed by scandals involving lobbyists and top GOP officials, Thursday rejected Tom DeLay's anointed successor and gave the majority leader's post to John A. Boehner instead.
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Larson Climbs House Ladder
Thursday, February 2, 2006 DAVID LIGHTMAN - - Hartford Courant
| Rep. John B. Larson's quiet effort to promote himself as the man to unify the fractured Democratic House caucus paid off Wednesday as party members voted the Hartford area congressman into a coveted leadership spot.
Larson, D-1st District, topped two challengers to become the fourth-ranking House Democrat, putting the 57-year-old lawmaker in a prime position to ascend to the top job if he holds his seat for 10 to 15 years.
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President: 'We Are Winning'
Wednesday, February 1, 2006 DAVID LIGHTMAN - - Hartford Courant
| President Bush Tuesday gave a workmanlike and occasionally defiant State of the Union address, methodically explaining how he plans to better manage the nation's affairs before a Congress that is clearly, even bitterly, split along partisan lines.
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GOP Facing Battles In Blues
Sunday, January 29, 2006 DAVID LIGHTMAN - - Hartford Courant
| On paper, Republican election prospects in the Northeast this fall look bleak.
President Bush's popularity has sagged throughout the region. Issues that motivate social conservatives are "deadly" up north, as Rep. Christopher Shays, R-4th District, puts it. And any candidate who voices strong support for the war in Iraq is almost instantly an underdog.
| Discuss
Limits On Gifts Hard To Establish
Thursday, January 26, 2006 DAVID LIGHTMAN - - Hartford Courant
| When is a gift a genuinely well-meant token of someone's appreciation? When is it simply a present from an old friend who happens to be a Washington big shot? And when does a gift cross the line between being a nice gesture and being an object designed to win influence?
No one has an easy answer, but in the current frenzy to reform lobbyist and ethics rules, nearly everyone is looking hard for one.
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Charge: Katrina Probe Stifled
Wednesday, January 25, 2006 DAVID LIGHTMAN - - Hartford Courant
| The White House has tried for months to stifle Congress' efforts to investigate the Bush administration's response to Hurricane Katrina, Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman said Tuesday - a charge that Republicans were quick to dispute.
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FEMA Sent Storm Alerts
Tuesday, January 24, 2006 DAVID LIGHTMAN - - Hartford Courant
| The White House received detailed, advance warnings from federal emergency management officials about the potentially deadly impact of Hurricane Katrina, according to documents released Monday.
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Ethics Reform Lacks Spark
Sunday, January 22, 2006 DAVID LIGHTMAN - - Hartford Courant
| Democrats figured they had planned the perfect kickoff for the election year - a rally in the historic Great Hall of the Library of Congress featuring about 100 members of Congress, standing together to show their support for tough new ethics laws.
| Discuss
Stem Cell Funds: Who Gets What?
Tuesday, January 17, 2006 WILLIAM HATHAWAY - - Hartford Courant
| Connecticut scientists have plenty of ideas about how to unlock the medical potential of stem cells. But those scientists, as well as academic and state officials, are struggling to figure out the best way to divvy up state money earmarked for stem cell research.
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Blunt: Another DeLay?
Monday, January 16, 2006 DAVID LIGHTMAN - - Hartford Courant
| Connecticut Reps. Christopher Shays and Nancy L. Johnson are early, enthusiastic backers of Roy Blunt - Tom DeLay's hand-picked deputy - to succeed the embattled DeLay as House majority leader.
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Confirmation Process Questioned
Friday, January 13, 2006 DAVID LIGHTMAN - - Hartford Courant
| Supreme Court nominee Samuel A. Alito Jr. ended 18 hours of Senate Judiciary Committee grilling Thursday as a more familiar figure to the American public - but, said critics, hardly familiar enough.
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Lieberman Slipping Among Democrats
Thursday, January 12, 2006 MARK PAZNIOKAS - - Hartford Courant
| A new poll shows that U.S. Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman's support among fellow Democrats fell significantly in the past six months as he has become increasingly associated with an unpopular war in Iraq.
| Discuss
50 Winks, Plus Nine
Thursday, January 12, 2006 WILLIAM WEIR - - Hartford Courant
| When the first alarm clock with a snooze button made its debut in 1956, General Electric-Telechron introduced it as "the world's most humane alarm clock."
Is it really? Or is it a siren call that preys upon our most vulnerable, sleepy selves?
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Cheney Hospitalized, Then Released
Monday, January 9, 2006
AP's NEDRA PICKLER - - Hartford Courant
| Vice President Dick Cheney was taken to George Washington Hospital early Monday experiencing shortness of breath, a spokeswoman said. He was released four and a half hours later.
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Early Line On Fall Vote: Unpredictable
Tuesday, January 3, 2006 DAVID LIGHTMAN - - Hartford Courant
| Keep an eye on gasoline prices, President Bush's popularity and progress in Iraq.
Each could jolt this fall's congressional contests in what looks like one of the most unpredictable nonpresidential elections in a long time.
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Lawmakers Go To The 'Pulpit' For Pet Issues
Tuesday, December 27, 2005 DAVID LIGHTMAN - - Hartford Courant
| As the Christmas shopping season entered its final days, a group of U.S. senators, surrounded by a noted physician, concerned parents and posters of violent scenes from video games, stood before a few dozen reporters and TV cameras.
Their concern: "Violent video games are stealing the innocence of children," said Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y.
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Extra Heat Aid Is Gone
Friday, December 23, 2005 DAVID LIGHTMAN - - Hartford Courant
| Senators angry about losing the fight over Alaska oil drilling punished Northeastern colleagues by knocking out $2 billion that would have helped low-income families pay their winter heating bills.
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Loophole Slipped Into Measure
Wednesday, December 21, 2005 DAVID LIGHTMAN - - Hartford Courant
| Republican leaders quietly included in a sweeping defense spending bill a paragraph designed to pre-empt state and local anti-discrimination laws - a change that could make it easier for youth groups, notably the Boy Scouts, to bar gays and others from their functions.
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'Clean Coal' Facility Possible
Monday, December 19, 2005 PETER F. SLEIGHT - - Hartford Courant
| A key producer of electricity in Connecticut has proposed spending $1 billion to create a new type of coal-powered generation plant the company says will operate cleaner and at a lower cost than facilities that burn natural gas.
| Discuss
President Tries To Win Back Spotlight For Progress In Iraq
Monday, December 19, 2005 DAVID LIGHTMAN - - Hartford Courant
| President Bush's Sunday night address to the nation was supposed to be the gentle coda to a turbulent year, a message of hope before the country pauses for the Christmas season.
Instead, to many in Washington, the speech had the look of a last-ditch effort by an embattled president eager to reverse his political fortunes, as Congress continued to fight bitterly over the budget, Alaskan oil drilling, the Patriot Act and, most of all, domestic spying.
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Partisan Rhetoric Down, President's Poll Numbers Up
Thursday, December 15, 2005 DAVID LIGHTMAN - - Hartford Courant
| As Iraqis go to the polls today, President Bush and his policies are enjoying a mild resurgence of popularity in this country.
The president's poll numbers are up slightly, Washington's partisan rhetoric has cooled a bit, and the Capitol debate has centered on specifics more than partisan accusations.
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Tussle Over Taxes
Monday, December 12, 2005 DAVID LIGHTMAN - - Hartford Courant
| Connecticut Democrats are adamant: cutting investment taxes will not only help the rich at the expense of everyone else, but will force cuts in crucial programs that help the needy with child care, heat, food and other lifelines.
| Discuss
'He Never Came Home'
Tuesday, December 13, 2005 LYNNE TUOHY - - Hartford Courant
| The phone call just after sunrise July 5 shattered their world. Their son, George A. Smith IV, had vanished from his honeymoon cruise in the Aegean Sea. Bloodstains were discovered in his cabin and on the rail of his stateroom's balcony.
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For Democrats, No Rallying Point
Thursday, December 8, 2005 DAVID LIGHTMAN - - Hartford Courant
| Democrats are badly split over Iraq, an increasingly divisive debate that in many ways has been tearing the party apart since the Vietnam War - and that could cost the party at the polls again next year.
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'War Cabinet' Proposal Assailed
Wednesday, December 7, 2005 DAVID LIGHTMAN - - Hartford Courant
| Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, increasingly isolated in the Democratic Party because of his strong support for the Iraq war, Tuesday launched an effort to cool the partisan rhetoric by suggesting that Washington officials set up a special "war cabinet."
But on the day before President Bush was due to give another major speech outlining his Iraq strategy, the Connecticut senator's plea quickly drowned in a fresh barrage of partisan sniping - and a rejection of the idea by the Senate Democratic leader.
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Assessing A Lethal Landmark In U.S.
Sunday, December 4, 2005 LYNNE TUOHY - - Hartford Courant
| Kenneth Lee Boyd would have died an obscure killer on a gurney in a Raleigh, N.C., prison but for the dubious distinction of being the 1,000th convict executed since the U.S. Supreme Court in 1976 gave the green light for states to resume executions.
And he died regretting his newfound notoriety.
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Lieberman In Step With GOP On How To Run War
Thursday, December 1, 2005 DAVID LIGHTMAN - - Hartford Courant
| Joe Lieberman stood virtually alone among Democrats Wednesday, his unyielding support for the administration's conduct of the Iraq war drawing warm praise from President Bush but no support from his own party.
In Bush's address on the progress of the war, the president described those who have called for withdrawal timetables - including 38 of the Senate's 44 Democrats - as "sincerely wrong."
Then he cited Lieberman.
| Discuss
Bush Maps Out Iraq War Strategy
Thursday, December 1, 2005
AP's DEB RIECHMANN - - Hartford Courant
| ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- President Bush gave an unflinching defense of his war strategy on Wednesday, refusing to set a timetable for U.S. troop withdrawals and asserting that once-shaky Iraqi troops are proving increasingly capable. Democrats dismissed his words as a stay-the-course speech with no real strategy for success.
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War Stance Isolates Lieberman
Wednesday, November 23, 2005 DAVID LIGHTMAN - - Hartford Courant
| Joe Lieberman's view of the United States' mission in Iraq has not wavered for nearly 15 years: He sees the American involvement as part of this country's historic, moral obligation to spread freedom and democracy.
Today, as he did during and after the 1991 Gulf War, the Connecticut Democrat is urging the United States to stay the course. Lieberman, who is visiting Iraq this week, is wholly behind the White House goals - and three days ago won praise from Bush for his views.
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Anger Shifts Debate On War
Sunday, November 20, 2005 DAVID LIGHTMAN - - Hartford Courant
| The bitter war of words that erupted in Washington last week reflects the increasingly potent anti-war feeling in the American public - and may represent a tipping point in how Congress deals with war policy.
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Revolutionary To The End
Sunday, November 20, 2005 EDMUND H. MAHONY - - Hartford Courant
| Filiberto Ojeda Rios led a long and bloody struggle for Puerto Rican independence before disappearing 15 years ago. His re-emergence and death last September were equally bloody. Now, while federal authorities say they simply brought a terrorist to justice, some on the island fear Ojeda Rios has become a martyr for Los Macheteros.
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Moving Appeal To End War
Friday, November 18, 2005 DAVID LIGHTMAN - - Hartford Courant
| A tearful John P. Murtha, the burly ex-Marine who is considered the Democrats' leading House voice on defense issues, opened fire at the Iraq war and the Bush administration Thursday, and said U.S. troops should pull out immediately.
| Discuss
Iraq Debate Embroils Senate
Wednesday, November 16, 2005 DAVID LIGHTMAN - - Hartford Courant
| The country's growing anxiety over how to proceed in Iraq sparked an intense debate on the U.S. Senate floor Tuesday, and when the accusations and criticisms were over, senators sent a strong message to Iraqis - and President Bush - telling them to take steps to end U.S. involvement.
| Discuss
GOP Centrists In Cuts Crossfire
Tuesday, November 15, 2005 DAVID LIGHTMAN - - Hartford Courant
| Republican House moderates are expected to spend the week dodging bullets from almost every political corner as they fight GOP efforts to sharply cut food stamps, low-income energy aid, Medicaid and other programs that provide a safety net for the needy.
Connecticut's three Republicans insist they oppose the big cuts in social programs and will vote against the package, which is scheduled for a vote Thursday.
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Bush Woes Put GOP Incumbents At Risk
Monday, November 14, 2005 DAVID LIGHTMAN - - Hartford Courant
| Rob Simmons, like many of his vulnerable GOP congressional colleagues, is likely to spend the next year trying to make voters forget he's a Republican.
"If voters make a partisan choice," he said, "I lose."
The 2nd District U.S. representative is one of the national Democratic Party's top 2006 targets, along with about two dozen other GOP House members.
| Discuss
What Leaner Means
Friday, November 11, 2005 JESSE HAMILTON - - Hartford Courant
| As the Pentagon transforms the nation's military into a leaner, more modern force, Connecticut follows the lead - even while continuing to supply troops and equipment to conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
One state official said it's like "trying to change the oil while the car is still moving."
| Discuss
Congress Takes Aim At Steroids
Thursday, November 10, 2005 DAVID LIGHTMAN - - Hartford Courant
| Congress is close to enacting legislation that would impose tough new penalties for steroid users in professional sports - and send a clear, strong message that even a single offense will mean suspension for a half-season.
| Discuss
Alito Reassures Moderates
Wednesday, November 9, 2005 DAVID LIGHTMAN - - Hartford Courant
| Supreme Court nominee Samuel A. Alito Jr. told key Senate moderates Tuesday that he greatly respects the precedent established by the Supreme Court's Roe vs. Wade decision, a reassuring note to senators who could cast pivotal votes on his confirmation.
| Discuss
Lower Gas, Oil Prices Expected
Tuesday, November 8, 2005 RITU KALRA - - Hartford Courant
| Gas and home heating oil prices, which already have retreated from their frenzied, hurricane-induced highs, are poised to drop further, energy analysts say.
With Gulf Coast refineries slowly coming back on line and mild autumn weather sapping demand for heating fuels, inventories are beginning to build back up. By next week, prices for heating oil could slide 10 cents or more per gallon - and the market could drive prices at the pump down a few pennies as well.
| Discuss
Drilling Plan Puts Budget In Jeopardy
Tuesday, November 8, 2005 DAVID LIGHTMAN - - Hartford Courant
| Connecticut's three Republican House members have drawn a line in the tundra: Unless drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is stripped from budget legislation, they will oppose the entire package.
If enough other GOP lawmakers join them - a scenario that's increasingly likely - the entire $59.3 billion deficit-reduction plan could be in jeopardy.
| Discuss
Poison In A Package
Sunday, November 6, 2005 JOSH KOVNER - - Hartford Courant
| Dangerous. That was the first word out of the scientist's mouth after seeing test results on three batches of anabolic steroids The Courant bought from black market websites in Poland, Spain and Moldova.
Reckless was another description. Poison, a third.
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Journey To The Underworld
Sunday, November 6, 2005 PAUL DOYLE - - Hartford Courant
| When is a computer part not a computer part? When it’s used to conceal $370 worth of steroids ordered from an underground website in Spain.
| Discuss
Wrestling The Octopus
Monday, November 7, 2005 JOSH KOVNER and PAUL DOYLE - - Hartford Courant
| Ever hear of Ben Gottlieb? Allow us to introduce him. He played college football at Central. Ordered big quantities of steroids online. From China. Get to know him. His case is emblematic of a growing problem that brings together two worlds.
The hard-to-control Internet. And the rogue operator in a foreign country that is all too happy to provide illegal steroids. To anyone. Of any age. No questions asked. It's anonymous. It's easy. It's fast. And there's not much U.S. law enforcement can do to stop it.
| Discuss
Senate Moderates Meet On Alito
Friday, November 4, 2005 DAVID LIGHTMAN - - Hartford Courant
| After three days of sharp partisan rhetoric about Supreme Court nominee Samuel A. Alito Jr., the Senate's centrists rose again to make it clear they are positioned to play a pivotal role in whether he is confirmed.
| Discuss
Report: Steroids Sold On Internet
Friday, November 4, 2005 DAVID LIGHTMAN - - Hartford Courant
| Federal investigators Thursday found hundreds of websites "openly and boldly" selling illegal anabolic steroids through the Internet, with distributors difficult to find and punish.
| Discuss
Senators Seek Evidence Of Progress In Iraq
Thursday, November 3, 2005 DAVID LIGHTMAN - - Hartford Courant
| Senators from both parties met privately with the U.S. ambassador to Iraq Wednesday and indicated that unless this country sees more evidence of progress, the Capitol Hill clamor for a policy change will grow.
| Discuss
Bill Attacks Seizing Of Land
Wednesday, November 2, 2005 DAVID LIGHTMAN - - Hartford Courant
| At a time when Republicans and Democrats have trouble agreeing on anything, the House is poised for overwhelming approval of landmark legislation to curb government's power to take private property for economic development.
| Discuss
A Flaw In The Flu Battle
Wednesday, November 2, 2005 WILLIAM HATHAWAY - - Hartford Courant
| One of the keys to the president's $7.1 billion influenza pandemic preparedness plan announced Tuesday is the creation of a new generation of vaccines that are cultured in cells and can be made rapidly to combat dangerous new strains such as the avian flu.
But so far the government has not backed development of three cell-based vaccines that have received or are close to receiving regulatory approval in the United States and Europe - including one developed by a Meriden biotechnology company.
| Discuss
Alito Headed For A Fight
Tuesday, November 1, 2005 DAVID LIGHTMAN - - Hartford Courant
| President Bush's nomination Monday of Samuel A. Alito Jr. to the U.S. Supreme Court instantly triggered what promises to be the Senate's nastiest confirmation fight since the battle over Clarence Thomas in 1991.
| Discuss
Political Fallout
Saturday, October 29, 2005 DAVID LIGHTMAN - - Hartford Courant
| As the news about the special counsel's indictment filtered through the capital Friday, Rep. Rahm Emanuel, a skilled political bomb-thrower, calmly explained why he had nothing to say.
| Discuss
Leak Probe Hobbling Bush Team
Wednesday, October 26, 2005 DAVID LIGHTMAN - - Hartford Courant
| The legal uncertainties that face top White House officials are clearly hampering the administration's efforts to push major Capitol Hill initiatives, Republican senators said Tuesday.
| Discuss
Sullivan Living In Political Siberia
Monday, October 24, 2005 CHRISTOPHER KEATING - - Hartford Courant
| Kevin Sullivan felt slighted once again.
It was the day of a special session at the state Capitol on the controversial issue of campaign finance reform. The top legislative leaders had gathered in Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell's office for a meeting, but Sullivan, the Democratic lieutenant governor and presiding officer of the Senate, had not been invited. The meeting had already started by the time Sullivan's office was finally notified at 9:15 a.m.
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Salmon Tell The Story
Monday, October 24, 2005 STEVE GRANT - - Hartford Courant
| Alaska is a much warmer place than it used to be, even if warm in winter means 30 below zero and not 60 below zero, and that change in weather is affecting everything from Alaskan vegetation to the health of the salmon.
| Discuss
Dodd Family Travel Covered
Saturday, October 22, 2005 DAVID LIGHTMAN - - Hartford Courant
| Sen. Christopher J. Dodd has found a new way to promote family values - use campaign money to pay for his wife's and children's transportation when they go along on his official trips.
| Discuss
At Core Of Debate, A Lack Of Energy In New England
Sunday, October 16, 2005 JAN ELLEN SPIEGEL - - Hartford Courant
| Three dates serve as the rallying cry for energy officials, whose voices are largely lost in the water-borne core of the debate over Broadwater Energy's proposal for an LNG terminal in Long Island Sound.
Jan. 14, 15 and 16, 2004, were cold. Extremely cold. So cold that the gas pipelines in New England were pretty much at capacity trying to keep the heat on and juice flowing from the region's gas-fired power plants.
| Discuss
Rove Visit No. 4 Spurs Speculation About Boss
Sunday, October 16, 2005 DAVID LIGHTMAN - - Hartford Courant
| Karl Rove's fourth visit to a grand jury Friday detonated a fresh round of insider speculation on whether the Valerie Plame case will be the political bullet that wounds the already-staggering Bush administration beyond repair.
But Rove's testimony could trigger a more politically dangerous development for the White House: The public could start paying more attention.
| Discuss
Views Differ After Iraq Road Trip
Saturday, October 15, 2005 DAVID LIGHTMAN - - Hartford Courant
| Rep. Christopher Shays and Sen. Christopher J. Dodd were both in Iraq in recent days, got the same kind of official briefings and asked similar questions - but came home with different assessments of how things were going.
| Discuss
Johnson's Trip To Ecuador Raises Eyebrows
Wednesday, October 12, 2005 DAVID LIGHTMAN and MARK SPENCER - - Hartford Courant
| The Nature Conservancy, which gets millions of dollars in federal money to help fund its conservation projects, spent $17,900 to send Rep. Nancy L. Johnson and her husband to Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands to observe its work.
| Discuss
Anti- Terror Funds At Risk
Saturday, October 8, 2005 DAVID LIGHTMAN - - Hartford Courant
| Connecticut's federal homeland security funding, already cut severely this year, could suffer even deeper cuts in 2006 under legislation passed by Congress Friday.
| Discuss
Pay Raise Dispute Flares
Monday, October 3, 2005 DAVID LIGHTMAN - - Hartford Courant
| Congress, many members say, needs a way to show constituents that in this time of war, hurricanes, energy price spikes and other ills it is listening and it cares.
So in the midst of trying to figure out how to pay for wars, hurricanes and energy, lawmakers are also tussling over symbolism: whether to forgo a 1.9 percent cost-of-living increase that members are due to receive next year.
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Pentagon Reimbursement Delays Decried
Friday, September 30, 2005 DAVID LIGHTMAN - - Hartford Courant
| Sgt. Todd Bowers held up the gun scope - a heavy, black 8-inch cylinder - and pointed to the bullet hole.
A bullet that a sniper fired a year ago, still lodged in the narrow metal scope, would have shattered the Iraq war veteran's face and probably killed him if it had not been stopped.
| Discuss
A Civil Day For Gays
Sunday, October 2, 2005 DANIELA ALTIMARI - - Hartford Courant
| From Hartford, where carnations and applause greeted newly joined couples, to tiny Washington, where two women who have been together for 38 years celebrated with cake and champagne, gays and lesbians ushered in Connecticut's landmark civil union law on Saturday.
| Discuss
Grievance Blocks After-School Snacks
Wednesday, September 28, 2005 RACHEL GOTTLIEB - - Hartford Courant
| The Hartford school system has stopped providing snacks to hundreds of children in after-school programs because of a union grievance by food service workers who are demanding they be paid to distribute them.
While union officials say they are simply asking the district to honor their contract, school officials say they cannot afford the additional labor costs and have stopped providing snacks to about 1,000 children in a variety of after-school programs.
| Discuss
Testy Dispute Over Blame
Wednesday, September 28, 2005 DAVID LIGHTMAN - - Hartford Courant
| Michael D. Brown, the former federal emergency director, told a skeptical, often irritated congressional panel Tuesday that state and local officials - not the federal government - were largely to blame for the bungled Hurricane Katrina relief effort.
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Dodd, Lieberman Back Roberts
Wednesday, September 28, 2005 DAVID LIGHTMAN - - Hartford Courant
| Connecticut Sens. Christopher J. Dodd and Joseph I. Lieberman said Tuesday they would vote to confirm John G. Roberts Jr. as chief justice of the United States, joining about two dozen other Democrats who are expected to back the president's choice.
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