A quick look around at stuff worth reading, below the fold.
If this isn’t the most right-wing editorial board in the northeast, I’d be interested to know whose is. Seriously, link to the publication in the comments. You can check it out here. Excerpt:
“Worth Reading” is the blog of the Republican-American newspaper editorial board. Updated frequently, the blog supplements the conservative commentary of the daily editorial pages (www.rep-am.com/opinion). Visitors’ comments are encouraged, so join the debate.
[Cue berserkers of both left and right.]
Elsewhere, Ken Dixon blogs that Connecticut DEP Commissioner Gina McCarthy is joining the Obama Administration as assistant administrator for Air and Radiation at the Environmental Protection Agency.
Martin Cassidy reports that a number of advocacy groups, notably including the League of Women voters, are pushing for congestion pricing on Connecticut’s highways. Excerpt:
Overcoming public resistance will require a system that is convenient and equitable, utilizes high-speed electronic equipment and includes a mechanism to provide reduced rates to daily commuters, [ Jara Burnett, executive director for the League of Women Voters of Connecticut] said.
“There is a huge need for additional funds because gasoline taxes are not generating enough revenue because people are driving much less,” Burnett said. “There is a lot of through traffic in Connecticut and trucks that use and damage our roads without paying for their upkeep.”
On Thursday, the Tri-State Transportation Campaign and other advocacy groups, including the Connecticut Citizens Transportation Lobby, the Connecticut Livable Streets Campaign, the Metro Hartford Alliance and the Regional Plan Association, called for Gov. M. Jodi Rell and legislators to back legislation calling for congestion pricing.
Republican lawmakers representing lower Fairfield County are expressing skepticism.
Brian Lockhart posted Hedge fund regulations pass legislature’s Banks Committee, an important story that didn’t turn out limo-loads of propeller heads and masters of the universe to testify, but has national news potential.
And in the vein of stuff that is dramatic but not in the sense of entertaining, Ted Mann is keeping an eye on “the most boring drama of the early spring season.” Excerpt:
But there’s no reason, if you ignored the partisan chin-flapping for the past month or so, to feel you’ve missed anything. There are — still — monumental decisions to make. And no one who’s holding the reins is making them yet.
Angela Falcone mentions another major piece of Legislation and Meriden’s most influential elected official, Speaker Chris Donovan, in her post Healthcare pooling is back at Political Potpourri.
The Register-Citizen’s Walt Gogolya is covering a freshman legislator’s support for the push in Hartford to protect Connecticut’s dairy farms, which account for about 70% of the farms in the state.
The dairy farmers are looking for about $14 to $16 million in subsidies from the state. There are two proposals being considered, one would give farmers a tax credit and one would increase the licensing fee on retailers that sell milk. Putting a tax on soda and the creation of a special lottery ticket whose profits would go directly to farmers are other options being discussed, [Representative John Rigby, R-63] said.
Losing farms would not only affect farming communities, Rigby said.
“4,000 state jobs would be affected,” he said. “The farms pump over a billion dollars into the state economy.”
Steve Collins says “Things are definitely looking up” at the Bristol Press.
Noted: The Danbury News-Times has no political columnist or blogger, as far as I can tell.
Open thread. Continue reading →