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For Three Governors, Civility And Brutal Competition
June 17, 2013
Three governors crisscrossed the state Monday, all looking to bolster their business strength, and no, there won't be a punch line here — other than the knockout that Texas Gov. Rick Perry and South Dakota Gov. Dennis Daugaard are trying to inflict on our own Gov. Dannel P. Malloy.
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A Law And A Cause Hit The Airwaves As Obamacare Marketing Begins
June 17, 2013
Nearly 10 percent of the state's residents have no health insurance, and Kevin Counihan and Jason Madrak have a good picture of who they are and even where they live.
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Connecticut Gunmakers Will Host Two Governors Next Week, Not Just One
June 14, 2013
Connecticut gun manufacturers will welcome not one red-state governor early next week, but two — as Texas Gov. Rick Perry's tour Monday is followed by a visit from South Dakota Gov. Dennis Daugaard later Monday and Tuesday.
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For Farmington Bank Directors, An Eye-Opening Payoff For Converting To Stock Ownership
June 12, 2013
One shareholder at the annual meeting of the holding company for Farmington Bank asked about the price of safe deposit boxes. Another wondered why the board of directors is all male. The issue of pay for the directors of this 20-branch bank didn't come up at all this spring and has not, apparently, created any waves.
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As Texas Plans A Connecticut Raid, Smugness Won't Work For Rick Perry
June 10, 2013
Governors visit businesses in other states all the time, usually in low-key meetings that aren't publicized. But that's not how they roll in Texas, and Gov. Rick Perry is letting everyone know he's on his way to New York and Connecticut next week to raid companies — complete with a $1 million TV ad campaign.
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Assessing Lawmakers' Wisdom As Connecticut Faces Economic Shock
June 7, 2013
State Sen. Tony Guglielmo, arguably the most liberal Republican lawmaker in Connecticut, often supports raises in the minimum wage but voted against the hike this year. It just didn't seem like the right time, he said, echoing most of the GOP.
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A Year Later, Progress And Hope At Bevin Bell
May 26, 2013
Ask Matt Bevin how the year has gone since a fire destroyed his 180-year-old family business and he'll do something he has mostly avoided — look back instead of ahead.
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Stamford Overtakes Hartford After Years Of Population Gains
May 22, 2013
In the mind of most any longtime Connecticut resident, Stamford is not one of the Big Three. Hartford, New Haven and Bridgeport, the old-line, core New England cities, all are anchors for suburban towns that grew up in the post-World War II era, and all struggle with a legacy of poverty.
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2-Month Wait Too Long For Gun-Ban Rules
April 29, 2013
So much has happened since April 4 that it seems like more than four weeks since Gov. Dannel P. Malloy signed the strict gun-control bill into law. We had the showdown on background checks in the U.S. Senate, and of course, the Boston Marathon bombings.
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Fashion, Function Spell Success For Cancer Survivor
April 26, 2013
A glance at Susan Callison's outfit shows nothing out of the ordinary other than black sleeves that could easily be her style statement, and a sort of half-glove that wraps around her right thumb.
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Urban Surveillance Raises Civil Liberties Concerns In Wake Of Boston Bombings
April 24, 2013
It's clear that cities are moving headlong into not just widespread video surveillance, but also some very sophisticated forms of monitoring and artificial intelligence to manage all those images, as I wrote in a column Monday. The Boston Marathon bombings highlighted some of that, and will certainly accelerate it.
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Boston Bombing Focuses Public On Surveillance
April 22, 2013
Video played a strong role in finding the suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing, but it was mostly old-style detecting that appeared to do the trick as the FBI and police pored through hours of clips collected on bystanders' phones, then put it out for crowd-sourcing help.
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Boston Bombing Focuses Public On Surveillance
April 22, 2013
Although video played a strong role in finding the suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing, it was mostly old-style detecting that the public saw: the FBI and police sorting through hours of clips collected on bystanders' phones, then putting it out for crowd-sourcing help.
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State Retiree Health Benefits Under Attack in Long Look At Fiscal Crisis
April 18, 2013
Connecticut must cap state employee retiree health benefits and sharply raise fees for all sorts of state services in order to halt a long-term fiscal slide that is, in some ways, the worst in the nation.
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CEO Pay For 2012 In State, Country Part Of Broken System
April 15, 2013
The AFL-CIO launched its annual database of CEO pay Monday, showing the average 2012 pay of CEOs at companies on the Standard & Poor's 500 index was $12.3-million, or 354 times more than the average American worker earned.
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Yankee Ingenuity Vs. Gun Ban: Effort To Redesign AR-15 Underway
April 12, 2013
When Stag Arms president Mark Malkowski held a black rifle in his office last week and showed the sawed-off pistol grip, it seemed as much a protest against the state's new gun ban as an effort to redesign a military-style firearm that's legal for sale in Connecticut.
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PTR In Bristol Is First Firearms Maker To Declare It's Exiting Connecticut
April 10, 2013
During the three-month debate over gun control in Connecticut, the name PTR Industries Inc. barely came up, but the Bristol manufacturer with 50 employees has become the first maker of military-style rifles to announce its exit from Connecticut since the state adopted a strict ban on sales last week.
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StubHub In East Granby: Adding Staff, Space, And A Higher Profile
April 8, 2013
StubHub has pulled off a feat over the past eight years in Connecticut that might have seemed impossible.
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Gun Industry Dilemma: Should I Stay Or Should I Go Now?
April 6, 2013
At the moment when Gov. Dannel P. Malloy signed into law what might be the nation's strictest gun controls, Jonathan Scalise was on the phone with his accountant.
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At Firearms Firms, A Last-Minute Rush To Fill Orders Amid Confusion
April 4, 2013
Workers at Stag Arms in New Britain have been in a rush to finish orders and ship to Connecticut stores for customers to buy before Gov. Dannel P. Malloy signs the historic gun control law at noon.
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A 21st Century Way Of Collecting Sales Taxes
April 3, 2013
If the state could add $200 million a year to its coffers without raising tax rates, giving handouts to corporations, borrowing on Wall Street or begging the Feds for more cash, most people would say, "Do it!"
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Concord Music Acquisition Boosts Star Power For New Haven Firm
March 28, 2013
For Brett D. Hellerman, CEO of Wood Creek Capital Management LLC in New Haven, buying one of the most prominent independent record companies is a coup for several reasons, not least a partnership with a revered Hollywood legend.
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The 21-Page Health Exchange Application Form: Not A Burden
March 26, 2013
Back when I was in high school, I was sprung free for three months to work full-time at the county court house, where the boss gave me a thigh-high stack of forms people had to fill out. Cut this down to a few pages, he said. It's too much red tape.
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Connecticut's Hotel and Convention Industry Unites At A New York Landmark
March 22, 2013
NEW YORK — In a dimly lit room inside Grand Central Station, with a high, ornate, painted wood ceiling and a stone fireplace with a carved, winged lion insignia, a piece of the Connecticut economy came to life.
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Region's Firearm Factories Invested Heavily To Build AR-15
March 11, 2013
It doesn't take long to see the effects of massive investment at the Connecticut factories that make the AR-15 military-style rifle.
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America's Rifle: Rise Of The AR-15
March 9, 2013
When his son turned 14 a year ago, Jonathan Hardy bought the teen a gift that was both a coming-of-age badge and a hot item: an AR-15 rifle.
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What In Dow's Name Is Going On Here?
March 5, 2013
Just about any big run-up of the stock markets is irrational at some point, but Tuesday's record celebration has to be the biggest head-scratcher since the bull market of 2000, for anyone not schooled in the weird ways of Wall Street.
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Seeing The Forest, And The Vanishing Foresters
February 28, 2013
Rachel Holmes was an urban forester for the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection for exactly two years until Thursday, and she didn't go out quietly.
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Malloy's Gun-Ban Logic Flawed
February 21, 2013
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy is pushing a plan to ban military-style rifles outright. Connecticut's firearms industry executives will say it jeopardizes thousands of jobs and does nothing to improve safety.
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Malloy's High-Stakes Bet On Borrowing
February 6, 2013
— One of the many parlor games at the Capitol Wednesday was arguing over whether the governor's budget contains more tricks or fewer tricks than spending plans of years gone by.
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Gun Makers Walk Fine Line At Hartford Hearing
January 28, 2013
They have been largely silent these past six weeks as the debate over gun control has grown nastier. But they are the elephant in the firearms room, and Monday they came together publicly for the first time anywhere since the Newtown tragedy.
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A New Look At CT Poverty
January 25, 2013
If someone told you the total number of Connecticut residents living under the poverty line rose by 21 percent between 1990 and 2010, and that Hartford was by far the poorest city in the state, you'd figure the capital city led the way in the growth of poverty.
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State Offer Of $4 Million For Electric Grid Operator's Expansion Could Be Unwise
January 15, 2013
ISO New England, the nonprofit business that runs the region's electricity grid, is in line for $4 million in state assistance for a $39 million back-up control center under construction in Windsor.
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To Fill Budget Gap, Malloy Might Need To Resort To Borrowing
January 9, 2013
No one expected Gov. Dannel P. Malloy to offer solutions to the state's $1.1 billion budget shortfall for the coming year on Wednesday, and he didn't do so. We'll hear the unpalatable options soon enough.
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As Another Base-Closing Threat Looms, Groton is Ready
January 8, 2013
The Pentagon is likely to seek another round of base closings in Obama's upcoming budget proposal and this time, unlike last year, it won't go away easily.
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Levy and Droney: Changed Landscape, Perfect Fit Led Them To Close High-Profile Law firm
January 5, 2013
After a quarter-century with their names on one of the region's prominent law firms, two war horses with still-formidable power — Coleman B. Levy and John F. Droney — sat in a Hinckley Allen & Snyder conference room in downtown Hartford on the first business of the year, looking right at home at their new offices.
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Defense Worries A Microcosm Of CT Economy
January 4, 2013
There's good news and bad news for Connecticut in the Pentagon's spending strategy for the next several years, and that reflects what's happening in the state's economy overall.
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The Top 10 Connecticut Business Stories of 2012
December 31, 2012
In some ways, 2012 was a carryover year from news of 2011, as the governor continued his aggressive economic development spending, United Technologies Corp. consummated a deal it announced in 2011, and the year's nastiest labor strike grew out of a 2011 lockout. But in the big picture of the state's economy, Connecticut got worse, not better, compared with the nation. That became the state's top business story of 2012 and will shape the scene in 2013.
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Funeral Home Director In Newtown Looks Back On A Week of Crisis and Support
December 22, 2012
After Dan Honan finally finished the unspeakable task of laying to rest 11 first-graders in five days, he sat and tried to put it in perspective at the same hardwood table where those children's families had made plans no one should ever make.
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The Healing Power Of Pie
December 21, 2012
Among the countless contrasting scenes of hope amid despair in Newtown this week, Thursday in the middle of town was as stark as it gets: Hundreds of mourners lined up at the Honan Funeral Home, a doleful black line in the waning light of the seventh day. A few doors down across the street, Beth Howard handed out slices of apple pie to anyone, an energetic spirit in a red wool coat, spreading healing cheer one paper plate at a time.
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At Florists And Nurseries, Hearts and Workloads Are Heavy
December 20, 2012
NEWTOWN — Flowers and wreaths. They are the living, fragrant markers that hold together a community in mourning, in public and sacred spaces, at funerals, in houses all over Newtown and beyond. Wherever there is grieving, there are carefully arranged flowers and wreaths.
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As Weapons Ban Movement Grows, Some Perspective Is In Order
December 18, 2012
If the reactions of the past three days hold up, we're likely to see some kind of ban on assault weapons or on the ammo magazines of the sort used by the Newtown shooter.
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On Wall Street and In Connecticut, SolarCity Advances
December 14, 2012
Lyndon Rive, founder and CEO of SolarCity Corp., was at the company's brand new Rocky Hill office just after 4 p.m. Thursday when Ed Steins, his Northeast regional vice president, read aloud the closing price of the company's shares on its first day of trading.
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Right-to-Work Battle Inches Toward Connecticut
December 12, 2012
Connecticut in some ways resembles Michigan, a high-wage industrial state with about the same proportion of union membership as of 2011 -- 17.7 percent here, 18.3 percent there, compared with 11.8 percent for the nation.
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Word Games Obscure Real State Tax Debate
December 10, 2012
With lawmakers set to trudge into Hartford next week for a holiday special session to plug this year's state budget hole, it's a safe bet that Gov. Dannel P. Malloy wishes he hadn't said two weeks ago that he would avoid raising taxes to solve the crisis.
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Why Connecticut's Jobs Machine Is Sputtering
December 7, 2012
As the year draws to a close, Connecticut, more than most states, remains hostage to the fiscal cliff talks in Washington D.C. But even without that bit of Yuletide feuding, the jobs picture here is grimmer than just about anyplace as the nation as a whole marches ahead.
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As Private Financing Emerges For Social Services, The State Is In Talks For A Deal
December 4, 2012
Sometime in 2013 if all goes well, the governor's policy and budget office will sign a deal with a Boston-based nonprofit agency that will make sure some of Connecticut's ex-prisoners receive the services they need to land back in the workforce.
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Protein Sciences Will Make Vaccine In NY, Still Talking To Malloy
December 3, 2012
Protein Sciences Corp., the Meriden-based drug research and development firm with a long and colorful history in Connecticut, is investing millions of dollars in a new manufacturing facility for its flu vaccine — in Rockland County, N.Y.
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In An Era of Fiscal Crisis, Malloy Has Few Places To Run
December 2, 2012
Connecticut's latest fiscal crisis roared to the forefront this week with patterns that say a lot about what we can expect to see not just this month or even in the coming year, but for the rest of Dannel P. Malloy's term as governor.
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State Budget Czar: Near-Billion-Dollar Deficits Through 2016
November 27, 2012
Ben Barnes, the state budget czar, brought a pile of ugly numbers to a packed room full of lawmakers Tuesday with a broad message and a statement -- "not a pledge" -- that Malloy won't seek more tax hikes.
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Striving For Mass Appeal, Small Business Saturday Touts Community
November 23, 2012
If the wretched excess of Black Friday has any benefit beyond the ritual of communal consumption, it is as a launching pad for days that are Not Black Friday.
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At Rebuilt Bevin Bros. Factory, Memories, Magic And Hard Work
November 22, 2012
— The pace is faster than fast as Joanne Fiondella bags and packs Salvation Army bells by the hundreds. She and the rest of the crew at the Bevin bell factory know these bells are needed this year, this week, now.
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An Industry Is Born: Closeup Of 5 Years of Film Tax Credits
November 17, 2012
David Duchovny, Timothy Hutton and Hope Davis have been filming a movie for the past month in Greenwich, the real-life story of a family that built a children's hospital after their daughter died of rabies.
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Report: In Three Decades, CT Moved From Top To Bottom In Income Equality
November 15, 2012
When Greenwich billionaire Edward Lampert moved to Florida earlier this year, did you feel better off?
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CL&P's Scorecard: Better, Not Perfect
November 10, 2012
On the Saturday before Sandy hit, there was some confusion about whether Connecticut Light & Power could dedicate a line crew and a tree crew to every town from the start.
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Sandy's Punch: Much Destruction, Not Much Economic Harm
November 9, 2012
By any measure, hurricane or not, Sandy packed a costly punch. Conservative estimates place the damage at $50 billion from property destruction and lost business — and only about $20 billion of that is covered by insurance.
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Dan Haar: The Real Challenge In Friday's Jobs Report
November 2, 2012
UPDATE AT 8:50 a.m. FRIDAY:
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WWE, Seeking Significant State Aid, Already Received $37 Million In Film Tax Credits
October 19, 2012
WWE has received nearly $37 million in state tax credits for TV production, digital media and infrastructure since 2007, according to the company and the state Department of Economic and Community Development.
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Hartford Denim Trio Make The Journey, And the Leap, To Big Apple For Launch Of Timberland Collaboration
October 18, 2012
Marshall Deming, Dave Marcoux and Luke Davis spend their days toiling at sewing machines in a fourth-floor Hartford factory, so an evening of eating hors d'oeuvres and mixing with downtown New York fashionistas to the sound of house music took some adjustment.
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Study: Medicare Costs Rise For Nearly Everyone In Connecticut In Voucher System
October 16, 2012
What would a Romney Medicare plan look like and how would it shake down in Connecticut?
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Connecticut Gets Millions In Uncollected Tax
October 11, 2012
A U.S. Supreme Court non-decision this week will mean more than $10 million for Connecticut's coffers right away, and beyond that could embolden the state to go after a class of taxes that has been fuzzy but is growing clearer.
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Restaurants Love Promotion Weeks, But Are These Events Too Numerous?
October 7, 2012
The timing of Connecticut Restaurant Week couldn't be better for Stephen Rosini, owner of the Black Rose Tavern in Newington.
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Jack Welch Tweet Attacking Jobs Numbers Roils the Economic And Political World
October 5, 2012
It's the tweet that launched 1,000 right-wing conspiracy claims, as if we didn't already have more than we could use.
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A Look At Debate Fact-Checkers -- And Two Unchecked Claims By Romney And Obama
October 4, 2012
By 1:30 a.m. Thursday, three hours after the presidential debate ended, the cottage industry of fact-checking was on all-hands overtime.
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Colebrook Wind Farm Opponents Lose, In a Flawed System
October 3, 2012
Opponents of the planned wind farms in Colebrook have lost their case in state Superior Court, as a judge said their claims that the six turbines, as tall as a 40-story building, would not unduly hurt the environment or harm the neighbors.
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Union Workers Will Reject CL&P Offer, But No Strike ... Yet
October 3, 2012
On Thursday and Friday, nearly 1,200 members of two unions for CL&P are set to vote on the company's latest offer, and it's nearly certain the workers will reject the pact.
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UConn/Courant Poll: The Rising Virtue Of Careful Grocery Shopping
September 27, 2012
Rick Sharr was visiting the home of a friend — a well-off friend — when he noticed lots of bulk items such as paper goods bought from super-discount stores.
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New Capital Region Development Authority Chief: 'A Trench Guy' Who Will Need Broad Vision
September 25, 2012
Suzanne Hopgood was walking through the Connecticut Convention Center with Michael Freimuth, explaining to me why Freimuth was picked from 350 applicants to run the new Capital Region Development Authority.
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UnitedHealth Group Joins Dow Jones Index, Giving Hartford A Lift
September 24, 2012
There's been speculation for years that a health insurer would join the Dow Jones Industrial Average, and UnitedHealth Group has beaten Aetna to the punch.
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Film Tax Credits Offer Hope For Fame And Fortune
September 19, 2012
Across the state, well more than 1,000 people are vying for the chance to appear as extras in Cuba Gooding Jr.'s latest project, a film set in 1850 about the Underground Railroad — shooting soon in Connecticut.
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ESPN, StubHub Launch a Hall of Fame For Top Fans
September 19, 2012
BRISTOL — Captain Dee-Fense, the purple-clad, iron-willed fan of the Baltimore Ravens football team, was swapping stories with a hard-core fan of another team. He was surprised to hear that the other fan was proud of being in a picture with a hall-of-famer on the Brooklyn Bridge.
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Union Chiefs Spurn CL&P Offer In Standoff That Needs Mediation, And Needs It Now
September 14, 2012
Connecticut Light & Power Co. has made its last, best offer to its unions for a four-year contract — including a promise to hire 30 more line workers and pay raises averaging 2.7 percent — but the deal is likely to go down in a 'no' vote on Oct. 3.
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High-Speed Enforcement: SEC Hits New York Stock Exchange With Fine
September 14, 2012
The morning release from the Securities and Exchange Commission caused me, and a lot of other folks, a double-take as we saw our inbox message fields: "SEC CHARGES NEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE FOR"
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Malloy Brings Energy — And Energy Policy — To China
September 12, 2012
Did anyone think the governor would land in China, shake some hands, talk up Connecticut's nice products, exchange gifts and come home?
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Cutting-Edge Cookies At Pepperidge Farm in Norwalk
September 12, 2012
We think about innovation centers in jet engine development, software and pharmaceuticals. But cookies?
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As Layoffs Occur At NU, Anxiety Builds Over Final Numbers
September 10, 2012
Northeast Utilities has begun post-merger layoffs in earnest, five months after NU and NSTAR combined forces to form New England's dominant electric company.
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As Malloy Heads To China, A World Of Change Since The Last Governor's Mission
September 8, 2012
Exactly 25 years ago, the last time a sitting Connecticut governor visited China, Anne Evans was on the trip trying to sell recycled tires through her new Hebron firm, EER Ltd.
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Organic Reaction: Farmers Annoyed, Not Threatened By Stanford Report
September 7, 2012
Consumers who spend up to twice as much on organic foods naturally want to know what they're getting for their money, and on first glance, a report this week by Stanford University health researchers seems to say, not much.
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The Hartford's Retirement Business Sale: Bad News For Jobs?
September 5, 2012
The Hartford is selling its retirement plans business to MassMutual for $400 million, and that is not good news for jobs in the region.
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State Budget For 2011-12: Give Malloy A B-Plus
September 4, 2012
How do you raise taxes by $1.5 billion, cut state employee costs, and still end up with a state budget deficit of more than $100 million during an economic recovery?
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State Tax Collections Up $1.9B In FY 2012
August 31, 2012
The final report from the state Department of Revenue Services is in, and collections in the fiscal year that ended June 30 were up by $1.9 billion from the year before -- a 14.9 percent hike.
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Connecticut's Rise in Inequality, and What It Means
August 30, 2012
Income inequality, like its cousin, corporate greenmail, can be bad or not-so-bad. If it means the richest people are making huge gobs of money while the rest of us are getting ahead nicely, that's not so terrible.
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Grimmer View Of Recession Leads To Glum UConn Forecast
August 29, 2012
It's tough to get a break on economic progress in a state where every piece of good news is matched by reports of layoffs and sluggish job gains.
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A Bakery's Journey From Darkness To Light
November 5, 2011
It was lunchtime at Nardi Breads Inc., but no one was thinking about eating in the dark, cold cavernous commercial bakery — not on the seventh day without power, the seventh day of wondering how the 103-year old business would survive.
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Sham Death Penalty Is A Costly Luxury For State
November 29, 2010
Three years after his heinous crime, Steven Hayes received the death penalty sentence.
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Pratt Union Faces Tougher Fight
September 23, 2009
Ten years ago exactly, Philip Root was fixing jet engines in East Hartford, with 25 years on the job, when word came down that his unit was shutting down.
