Posts published in “Guest”

Nobody needs the federal investigation that is under way to grasp the basics of the racket that was being run from the state budget office -- the Office of Policy and Management -- by its deputy secretary, Konstantinos Diamantis, who a few weeks ago was fired by Governor Lamont, not by OPM Secretary Melissa McCaw.

Diamantis, who was in charge of state government's financing of municipal school construction projects, steered no-bid contracts to a construction management company that employed his daughter, Anastasia. Diamantis also facilitated Anastasia's hiring as the $99,000-a-year assistant to the chief state's attorney, Richard Colangelo Jr., while Colangelo was seeking the budget office's approval for raises for prosecutors.

Did McCaw know what her deputy was doing, fixing the job for his daughter in the chief state's attorney's office and steering the school construction contracts to her other employer?

McCaw, who is Black, has insinuated racism, which may be construed as a cheap distraction and evasion of responsibility for the corruption that has exploded right under her nose.

● Read in Journal Inquirer

● Read and comment here on The Red Line

After leaving his victims with shattered dreams and millions in collective financial losses, the legendary con artist Charles Ponzi observed with casual cruelty, “Even if they never got anything for it, it was cheap at that price.”

There is something of that same unrepentant sentiment in the unwillingness of woke corporate boards and national media pundits to demand accountability and transparency of Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, a $90 million organization that publicly promised social justice to its millions of small donors and corporate benefactors.

On January 5, Washington State Attorney General Robert Ferguson issued a “Closure Notice” demanding that BLM “immediately cease” all fundraising activities, because it had failed to file its annual financial disclosure report for tax year 2020, due last November. California Attorney General Rob Bonta followed suit a few weeks later. Despite these clear directives, BLMGNF continued fundraising until reports last week exposed their flagrant violations.

According to those reports, the group’s charity registration is also out of compliance in Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina and Virginia.

● Read in Real Clear Politics

● Read on and comment here on The Red Line

Connecticut’s Partnership 2.0 healthcare plan, the basis for a proposed state-run healthcare plan called the Public Option, has been hiding cost overruns through some creative accounting, according to a new study released by Yankee Institute.

The Partnership Plan 2.0 allows local governments to purchase healthcare insurance through the state employee plan. The Public Option legislation pushed by former Comptroller Kevin Lembo would have allowed small businesses, unions and possibly individuals to join the program, as well.

● Read at Yankee Institute

● Read and comment here on The Red Line

Connecticut is about to undergo a turnover in state employees unprecedented in its history. This presents a challenge in assuring that services are adequately maintained.

But it also presents opportunities — to find savings, to make government more efficient, and to diversify the state workforce so that it better reflects the populace.

Ideally, strategies to manage the anticipated turnover in workers would come in coordination with state employee unions. But realistically, that will be difficult.

Related Content: Gov. Lamont Is in Public (Union) Service

What cannot happen is for this or future administrations to allow the unions to dictate how this plays out. Gov. Lamont and any future governor must push back against attempts to institutionalize inefficiencies through labor contracts.

● Read in The Day

● Read and comment here on The Red Line

Could this winter’s energy crisis be shocking Europe into climate realism?

Believe it or not, the European Union is set to include nuclear and natural gas on the list of industries eligible for “green” investments.

Related Content: Plotting an American-Style Fracking Revolution in Britain

The draft list released late on New Year’s Eve deems investment in nuclear power sustainable as long as the investment is made before 2045 and a plan is in place to dispose of the waste. The draft also includes natural-gas power plants built by 2030, subject to emissions limits and as long as they replace heavier-emitting plants.

● Read in Wall Street Journal