From the grumbling I’m hearing in Fairfield County, you’d think a proposal to form a regional council of governments was a back-door attempt to re-establish county government in Connecticut. Ever since the General Assembly abolished county government in 1960, Connecticut has essentially left its 169 municipalities on their own. Of course, towns and cities have… Read More
Category Archives: Law
Let Capital Punishment Die
I’m saddened that it takes a death sentence to make us think about government-sponsored dying. But, as you might expect, the recent sentencing to death of the Cheshire home-invasion monster Joshua Komisarjevsky has prompted a spate of well-deserved hand-wringing over the paradox of a blue state engaging in culturally conservative behavior. I was born and… Read More
Esty Death Watch III
The Courant’s Jon Lender keeps hammering away. Now we learn that executives from Northeast Utilities have given a total of $2,000 to the congressional campaign of Esty’s wife, Elizabeth. If you ever wondered how the $205,000 in consulting fees he collected from a company that falls under his agency’s regulation might benefit the DEEP commissioner… Read More
Jobs, Jobs, But Only If They’re Union
Great column today in the NYT by Joe Nocera. I sometimes disagree with Nocera, as when he famously called Tea Partiers who objected to raising the debt ceiling “terrorists” (yet later apologized for it). But I loved his piece two years ago on the utter absurdity that is the U.S. Postal Service. Now he has drawn… Read More
The Enemies of Openness
Click here for my latest at CTNewsJunkie.com. Connecticut has great freedom of information laws. But some people don’t like that. What on earth are they afraid of?… Read More
Laboring To Defend The Indefensible
In my days a commentator, I’ve written a lot about overreaching government. But right now I’m hard pressed to think of any recent example of government tyranny that exceeds what the National Labor Relations Board is doing to Boeing. The NLRB has filed a complaint against Boeing alleging the company has engaged in illegal retaliation… Read More
They Have Done The Deed
Osama bin Laden is gone. Ding dong, the wicked terrorist kingpin is dead. I give President Obama credit where it’s due. Despite campaign promises to get out of the Afghanistan region with all due speed, he quickly realized how important it was to hold firm in the face of a severe threat. Now you would… Read More
Don’t Trust The Cops To Police Themselves
My latest for CTNewsJunkie.com. Who investigates the police when officers are suspected of wrongdoing? The police, that’s who. Am I alone, or is something wrong with this picture? Recent developments in Connecticut have served to drive home the point that it’s not fair to citizens (or, for that matter, to the police themselves) to have… Read More
Of Bloggers And Puritans
Thanks to Tom Dudchik for the Capitol Report link to the news that Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal is likely to sign a bill allowing for Sunday alcohol sales. That will leave only Connecticut and Indiana clinging to the Puritan-era ban on Sunday sales. According to the AP article, most of the objections in Georgia are… Read More
Please, Please Pass This Bill!
My latest for CTNJ. This column deals with a bill before the Connecticut General Assembly that would require law enforcement to record the interrogations of suspects in most felony cases. For obvious reasons, the police object. They don’t want you to know what goes on in those rooms. I do and so should you. Disagree… Read More