Public employee unions in Connecticut are insisting their members continue to have the option to work full time from home, citing environmental and legal concerns. Democratic governor Ned Lamont allowed government employees to work exclusively from home during the pandemic and is now resuming pre-pandemic guidelines that allow government employees to work from home part-time with their boss' approval. The unions are refusing to comply with the reopening plans and are demanding a new telework agreement with the government.
Posts tagged as “Column of the Day”
A majority of American fourth- and eighth-graders can’t read or do math at grade level, according to the Education Department. And that assessment is from 2019, before the learning losses from pandemic school closures.
Whenever someone asks me about critical race theory, that statistic comes to mind. What’s the priority, teaching math and reading, or turning elementary schools into social-justice boot camps?
Recently, the National Education Association pledged to “fight back against anti-CRT rhetoric” and issue a study that “critiques empire, white supremacy, anti-Blackness, anti-Indigeneity, racism, patriarchy, cisheteropatriarchy, capitalism, ableism, anthropocentrism, and other forms of power and oppression at the intersections of our society.” There was no proposal vowing to improve math and reading test scores, alas.
Way back in March 2020, Gov. Ned Lamont asked for, and received, unprecedented emergency powers to keep residents safe from a deadly pandemic.
Remarkably, 16 months later, Democratic leaders are expected to ask for another six-month extension of the governor’s emergency authority.
There is a public-safety crisis plaguing many communities across our state, and not enough is being done to stop it. Shootings, car thefts and other neighborhood violence are on the rise, and yet the governor has failed to use his executive authority to address them.
There is a time and a place for governors to utilize their executive authority. Keeping communities, businesses and families safe from a wave of violence that is spiraling out of control should certainly be one of them.
When folks in our town and in our state look for help and advice regarding public service and philanthropic leadership, two words are regularly spoken: “Call Leora.”
Time and time again, Leora has been there to say “yes” to many worthy causes. Now, when our state needs to recover from a devastating pandemic, correct its direction under one-party rule, and fill a vacancy in the 36th State Senate district, Leora has stepped up again to offer her blood, sweat and tears to be our party’s candidate for State Senator.
As a delegate to the district convention on July 10th and as a State Central Committee member, I am honored to whole-heartedly support Leora Levy, who is a pillar of our community and a standard-bearer for our party. No potential state senate candidate of either party has Leora Levy’s distinguished track record of accomplishment as a leader who gets things done.
It may not exactly be breaking news, but it turns out that people would rather have a job than votE for tax hikes on other people.
It also turns out that even limousine liberals — not all of them, mind you, but most of them — prefer a growing economy to redistributing income.
This information comes from a great new poll by “Techno-Metrica Market Intelligence,” which has been a top three accurate pollster for the last five presidential elections.
In the four months before Biden took office, illegal crossings averaged only 70,000 a month. Now, they have reached a 20-year high: 97,640 in February, the first full month of Biden’s presidency; 169,204 in March; 173,686 in April; and 172,011 in May.
A Harvard CAPS/Harris poll that was taken between June 15-17, 2021, found that 74 percent of the registered voters polled think the surge in illegal border crossings is a crisis that must be addressed immediately.
245 years ago this July 4th, a ragtag movement of British subjects separated from a monarchy so that every man could be a king. They were 3 million people dwelling in some backwoods, on a few dollars a day in today’s terms, lucky if they lived into their 30s. Yet they blazed a trail for the current 320 million Americans who now represent every color and are descended from every corner of the earth. The richest, freest nation in the history of the world has liberated two continents from fascism, protected the world from communism, and saved tens of millions of lives in the process.
Imperfect? Well, certainly. Like people from every culture across history, Americans have committed horrible sins. Chief among ours are slavery and segregation. But our nation’s founding also sowed the seeds of the destruction of those evil institutions.
But for some reason, fewer Americans than ever report being “extremely proud” of their country: 47 percent in 2018 compared to 58 percent in 2013, according to Gallup. It appears most of the diminished pride in our country comes from younger Americans, falling from 55 percent in 2013 to 33 percent in 2018 among those 18-29.
If you have a moment take a look at The Wall Street Journal 's recent editorial: “It’s the Entitlements, Stupid.” Then if you have a moment more, read the op-ed by John Cogan entitled “Biden’s plan for an entitlement society.”
Some 57% of all married couple children would receive these benefits and more than 80% of single parent households would be on the entitlement rolls. This is not a safety net for poor people. This is middle class dependency. The range of eligible incomes would be as high as $200,000 dollars, running against the grain of American work ethic and what should be our opportunity society.
The number of unemployment-benefit recipients is falling at a faster rate in 22 states canceling enhanced and extended payments this month, suggesting that ending the aid could push more people to take jobs.
Federal pandemic aid bills boosted unemployment payments by $300 a person each week and extended those payments through early September, but states can opt out before then.
Four states cut off payments as of June 12. Seven states followed with an end on June 19, and this weekend, benefits are expiring in 10 more states. Four more states will curtail benefits by July 10.
The number of workers paid benefits through regular state programs fell 13.8% by the week ended June 12 from mid-May—when many governors announced changes—in states saying that benefits would end in June, according to Jefferies LLC economists. That compares with a 5.7% decrease in states ending benefits in September.
Can progressives win broad numbers of the Black and brown voters they say their policies will benefit most?
That provocative question is one that a lot of Democrats find themselves asking after seeing the early results from New York City’s mayoral primary this past week.
In a contest that centered on crime and public safety, Eric Adams, who emerged as the leading Democrat, focused much of his message on denouncing progressive slogans and policies that he said threatened the lives of “Black and brown babies” and were being pushed by “a lot of young, white, affluent people.” A retired police captain and Brooklyn’s borough president, he rejected calls to defund the Police Department and pledged to expand its reach in the city.
Black and brown voters in Brooklyn and the Bronx flocked to his candidacy, awarding Mr. Adams with sizable leading margins in neighborhoods from Eastchester to East New York.