Some Connecticut lawmakers are responding to a documentary video that interviews members of the Connecticut Kia Boyz – a group of youth in Bridgeport who record themselves stealing Kia and Hyundai vehicles for Instagram – that has garnered over 3.8 million views on YouTube since it was released on April 20, fueling Republican criticism over crime in Connecticut and the juvenile justice system. The roughly 45-minute documentary by Channel 5 with Andrew Callaghan – who has done numerous similar videos documenting everything from the January 6th attack on the Capitol to the sale of xyl ..read more

Theresa Codding has been looking for answers from the Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities (CHRO), which lost evidence she sent as part of a complaint, since September 2023. At that time, an investigator from the agency confirmed to Codding that he was unable to locate the files she had sent. Lost evidence is not the only issue Codding, who first filed a complaint in November 2021, has had with the agency. She has also experienced long wait times between communications with CHRO employees about her case and turnover in staff assigned to investigate the complaint. Codding’s case has be ..read more

Lawmakers on the Appropriations Committee revised a bill pushed by Gov. Ned Lamont’s administration to require the Office of Policy and Management (OPM) to study state contracting, requiring an outside consultant to be hired at a cost of $950,000. The provision was among several changes made to a bill OPM sought to combine the Connecticut Port Authority with the Connecticut Airport Authority (CAA) – a bill the CAA was particularly keen on, but would have possibly brought the Port Authority, which has faced a slew of issues related to its redevelopment of the State Pier, into the fol ..read more

Kevin Harris committed a crime in Connecticut. He was convicted in Connecticut and spent more than two decades serving his sentence in a Connecticut correctional facility. But he’s currently imprisoned in Arizona and may serve the remainder of his sentence there. Arizona is far away from Harris’ support system, chiefly his family. At the moment, Alex Taubes, Harris’s lawyer, says Harris is not even able to speak to his legal team or family about a recent health diagnosis because he’s on a mental health watch. And the Connecticut Department of Corrections (DOC), which is responsible for transf ..read more

Yesterday, the House passed a law that would allow the state to share juvenile records with federal databases in an effort to prevent juveniles with criminal records from purchasing guns out of state. Republican lawmakers introduced an amendment attempting to expand the bill in an effort to curb juvenile crime, reigniting debate surrounding the state’s approach to juvenile crime. “The bill before us is a very limited one, which seeks to deal with a conflict between our state law and federal law under the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act which passed a couple of years ago,” said Rep. Steven St ..read more

In response to difficulty accessing information via Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, activists in the town of Westport have begun hosting educational events to encourage the public to get involved. On April 15th, Representative Town Meeting (RTM) members, organized by Sal Liccione, hosted a presentation at the Westport Library led by Russell Blair, Director of Education and Communications for the Freedom of Information Commission (FOIC), to teach the community how to file FOIA requests and register complaints. Organizers say they are responding to the claims of transparenc ..read more

Lawmakers in the State’s House of Representatives passed a bill today that would create a working group to study the impacts of energy drinks on children, a public information campaign regarding energy drinks risks to children, and require store owners selling energy drinks to post written signage denoting the potential risks of energy drink consumption for children. The bill originally called for banning the sale of all energy drinks to children under the age of 16, but Rep. Liz Linehan (D-Cheshire), Co-Chair of the Committee on Children, introduced an amendment today, which was passed by ve ..read more

House Republican leaders today unveiled a budget plan that contains an 8.2 percent increase, or nearly $300 million year-over-year, in education spending. According to House Minority Leader Vincent Candelora, R-North Branford, the caucus is the only one honoring Gov. Ned Lamont’s request for an adjusted budget, which they accomplished by making changes to the governor’s existing budget proposal rather than by creating a new budget. The proposal utilizes existing education funding proposed in the governor’s budget, as well as roughly $60 million in new proposed spending for special education ..read more

The town of Weston’s Board of Selectmen (BOS) inappropriately entered into executive session to discuss the vacant Board of Ethics (BOE) on two separate occasions. The Freedom of Information Commission (FOIC) recently ruled the town had violated the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) by doing so in two separate complaints brought by James Maggio. In the first case, the BOS held a special meeting on May 3, 2023, and entered into executive session to discuss “pending litigation regarding the dog park and Board of Ethics,” according to the meeting agenda. Maggio’s complaint alleged the special me ..read more

The House of Representatives and the Senate approved wage increases for state employees amounting to roughly 4.5 percent, part of a wage re-opener included in a contract passed in 2022 as part of a $1.9 billion deal between Gov. Ned Lamont and the State Employees Bargaining Agent Coalition (SEBAC). According to the Office of Fiscal Analysis, the 2.5 percent general wage increase, and 2 percent step increase for roughly 46,000 state workers will amount to increased costs across all appropriated funds of $153.9 million in 2025 and $183 million in 2026. The wage increases are ..read more