April 24, 2012
From The Federation of Connecticut
Taxpayer Organizations, Inc.
Contact Susan Kniep, President
Website: http://ctact.org/
Email: fctopresident@aol.com
Telephone: 860-841-8032
Faltering income tax widens deficit, threatens Malloy's
budget for Coming Year By Keith M. Phaneuf April 20, 2012 CTmirror.org
Faltering state income tax revenues left Gov. Dannel
P. Malloy reporting his largest budget deficit to date on Friday. And unless
tax receipts reported this week by nonpartisan legislative analysts improve,
Malloy's budget plan for next year -- including a state employee pension fund
fix and increased education aid to towns -- could be out of balance now and
headed for more than $500 million in red ink by 2013-14. The governor's budget
agency, the Office of Policy and Management, reported that the general fund in
this year's $20.14 billion budget is $66.9 million in deficit. Malloy needs to finish $75 million in surplus
this year to maintain the ongoing conversion of state finances to Generally
Accepted Accounting Principles, and the administration now faces a $142 million
hole. Continued at ….. http://www.ctmirror.org/story/16084/house-takes-controversial-collective-bargaining-proposal
Feds Raid Anti-Poverty Agency Offices
For 2nd Straight Day ...
Education Grants
and Municipal Grants, Check Out Your Town
Join Dan Lavallo for
Dinner
Dinner With
Dan set for May 7 Click here for details
Make Your Reservation for the
Yankee Institute Brunch, Saturday, May 5, 2012 10:30
AM 700 East Main Street, Stamford, CT,Guest Speaker MSNBC's Joe Scarborough Have Brunch with
Morning Joe! lease reserve your seat today if you have
not done so already! ickets are $40 per person and
include free parking.Want a picture with Joe? Come at
10 a.m. for a photo op! Tickets are $250 and include one photo for an
individual or couple as well as brunch and free parking. Proceeds will benefit
the Yankee Institute. All questions
should be directed to Jessica at (860) 282-0722 or jessica@yankeeinstitute.org.
As Use Of License Plate Scanners Spreads, Privacy Concerns
Deepen Jon Lender April 21, 2012 The
issue of who's watching ordinary citizens is becoming as omnipresent in the
2012 Connecticut legislature as the eye of the surveillance camera in so many
parking lots, stores and other buildings…"The thing that we are trying to
safeguard against is a massive buildup of data, [which] creates an instant
dossier" on citizens, ACLU staff attorney David J. McGuire said Friday. Legislative
leaders have been reluctant to grapple this year with the license-plate
scanners issue, but the ACLU now has managed to get a couple of lawmakers to
insert substitute language into the empty shell of a bill that was headed
nowhere — in effect, creating a new measure that would require police within 14
days to dump any license-plate data they've scanned, unless they're relevant to
an investigation or prosecution. Continued at ….. http://www.courant.com/news/politics/hc-lender-column-plate-scanners-0422-20120421,0,7896326.column
Social Security heading for insolvency even faster
April 23, 2012 WASHINGTON (AP) - Social
Security is rushing even faster toward insolvency, driven by retiring baby
boomers, a weak economy and politicians' reluctance to take painful action to
fix the huge retirement and disability program. The trust funds that support
Social Security will run dry in 2033 - three years earlier than previously
projected - the government said Monday. http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_SOCIAL_SECURITY_MEDICARE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-04-23-19-19-24
Edwards and Rowland and Wilson-Foley by Kevin Rennie The Register Citizen
marks the opening of the John Edwards campaign contribution-private gift nexus
trial with a revelation on the relationship between felonious former Governor
John G. Rowland and nursing home magnate Brian Foley and his wife, Republican
congressional hopeful Lisa Wilson-Foley. The newspaper reports that Rowland and
the nursing home had some sort of business deal. Campaign spokesman and
one-time Rowland critic Chris Healy provided a muted response to inquiries from
the Register Citizen’s Jordan Fenster. Healy did not
know when the dough stopped flowing from the Foleys to Rowland, but he could
not be sure it did not overlap with Wilson-Foley’s campaign. There’s probably
an easy way to find out–ask. Even better, release the
consulting agreement. It will have dates, amounts, duties and
obligations in it. Continued at ….. http://www.dailyructions.com/edwards-and-rowland-and-wilson-foley/
More details in Secret Service scandal
State of Connecticut Single Audit Report
For Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 2011
March
30, 2012
State of Connecticut Office of
Legislative Research
DEATH
ROW INMATES
CHARACTERISTICS
OF CHARTER AND PUBLIC SCHOOL STUDENTS
Check out
Additional Reports by the
State of Connecticut Office of
Legislative Research http://www.cga.ct.gov/olr/rptsbytopic.asp?olrYear=2012&olrTopic=ALL
An Attorney Advocates For School Vouchers CTNewsjunkie.com by
Michael Lee-Murphy | Apr 23, 2012 7:09am American society generally views
education as enough of a public good to completely fund it and make it free for
all.That standard, according to Richard Komer, an attorney with the Institute for Justice, is “from an economic point
of view, nonsense.”Komer spoke at the Legislative
Office Building as part of a panel on school choice, hosted by the Federalist
Society, a self identified conservative-libertarian law society.The
Federalist Society, said Connecticut chapter president Peter Bowman, does not
take positions on specific issues like Gov. Dannel P.
Malloy’s education bill, but rather functions as something of a debate society.Komer, who has argued several school choice cases
before the Supreme Court, said that school choice would open up the system to
market forces.Public education, Komer
said, cannot be reformed from within. Continued at …… http://www.ctnewsjunkie.com/ctnj.php/archives/entry/an_attorney_advocates_for_school_vouchers/
Investigation: Two Years
After the BP Spill, a Hidden Health Crisis Festers On March 3
Nicole Maurer learned of the proposed settlement between BP and hundreds of
thousands of Gulf Coast businesses and residents harmed by its 2010 oil spill,
the largest in US history.Antonia Juhasz
April 18, 2012 |
This article appeared in the May 7, 2012 edition of The
Nation. On February 27, US
District Court Judge Carl Barbier was to hear opening
arguments against BP, Transocean, Halliburton and all
the companies involved in the disaster. The case consolidates virtually every
civil charge brought against the companies by individuals, business and
property owners, and the federal and state governments. It is the most complex
and significant environmental litigation in history. As this article goes to
press it seems unlikely that the plaintiffs will ever get their day in court.
Read complete article at …..
http://www.thenation.com/article/167461/investigation-two-years-after-bp-spill-hidden-health-crisis-festers
FedStats, Federal statistical
information resource
PAC
Track
What and Where are the Super PACs Spending?
Mitt Romney Budget Promises Leave Tough
Cuts To Social ... Programs, Domestic Agencies By
ANDREW TAYLOR 04/23/12 04:12 AM ET AP
WASHINGTON — Reducing government deficits Mitt Romney's way would mean
less money for health care for the poor and disabled and big cuts to
nuts-and-bolts functions such as food inspection, border security and
education. Romney also promises budget increases for the Pentagon, above those
sought by some GOP defense hawks, meaning that the rest of the government would
have to shrink even more. Nonmilitary programs would incur still larger cuts
than those called for in the tightfisted GOP budget that the House passed last
month. Continued at ……
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/23/mitt-romney-budget-promises_n_1445368.html
Facing bankruptcy,
Detroit's mayor spends $330K on Washington lobbyists
Romney backs student loan proposal Obama
supports
Weighing the Legal Ramifications of the
Wal-Mart Bribery Case
By PETER J.
HENNING Henry Romero/Reuters A
Wal-Mart store in Mexico City.
The New York Times reported that a vast bribery case in Mexico was hushed up by the company
after a top-level struggle. The United
States government puts a premium on
corporate cooperation in foreign bribery cases, relying on companies to conduct
thorough internal investigations and voluntarily disclose any wrongdoing.
Indications that Wal-Mart Stores may have taken steps to keep an internal
investigation from digging deeper into $24 million in questionable payments —
and later promoting an executive who may have been implicated in them — may
affect how the government decides to proceed against the giant retailer.
Wal-Mart first disclosed in December
that it had started “a voluntary internal review of its policies, procedures
and internal controls pertaining to its global anticorruption compliance
program.” That review was the result of reporting by The New York Times
about bribery by Wal-Mart de México to secure permits and approvals to build
new stores. Read complete article at http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/04/23/weighing-the-legal-ramifications-of-the-wal-mart-bribery-case/
Wal-Mart Hushed Up a Vast Mexican
Bribery Case - The New York ...
Confronted with evidence of widespread corruption in Mexico,
top Wal-Mart executives focused more on damage control than on rooting out
wrongdoing, an examination by The New York Times found. By DAVID
BARSTOW
Published: April 21, 2012 MEXICO CITY — In September 2005, a senior Wal-Mart lawyer received an alarming e-mail from
a former executive at the company’s largest foreign subsidiary, Wal-Mart de
Mexico. In the e-mail and follow-up conversations, the former executive
described how Wal-Mart de Mexico had orchestrated a campaign of bribery to win
market dominance. In its rush to build stores, he said, the company had paid
bribes to obtain permits in virtually every corner of the country. Read complete article at …. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/22/business/at-wal-mart-in-mexico-a-bribe-inquiry-silenced.html?_r=1
Citizens United
Constitutional Amendment Backed By Vermont
Legislature Resolutions have been
introduced in 20 other states and have been approved in at least one
legislative chamber in Alaska, California and Iowa. April 19, 2012 WASHINGTON -- Vermont has become the third
U.S. state to pass a resolution calling on Congress to amend the Constitution
to get money out of politics and reverse the Supreme Court's Citizens United
ruling that allows unlimited corporate money in politics The resolution passed
the Vermont House 92-40 on Thursday, one week after the state Senate approved
it 26-3. Aquene Freechild,
the senior organizer in Vermont for Public Citizen's Democracy Is For People campaign, called the passage of the resolution
"absolutely amazing."….. Activists involved with Vermonters Say
Corporations Are Not People got at least 65 towns to pass statements supporting
a state resolution. Continued at
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/19/citizens-united-constitutional-amendment-vermont_n_1439002.html
High court to hear Arizona immigration
case this week
McClatchy Newspapers April 22, 2012 WASHINGTON —
Immigration politics will hit the Supreme Court this week as justices consider
how much border-control clout the states can deploy.The
court must decide whether Arizona went too far with a crackdown that includes
ordering police to routinely check the legal residency status of people they
stop. The court's ruling answer this election year could ignite Capitol Hill,
other states and, especially, Hispanic voters."This
is a huge case, of great importance," said Andrew I. Schoenholtz,
a visiting professor of law at the Georgetown University Law Center.Arizona v. United States, the case being heard
Wednesday, carries well-beyond the notoriously porous Southwest border. South
Carolina, Idaho, Florida and 13 other states have allied themselves with
Arizona, arguing for the power to impose certain immigration measures if they
choose. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and 16 other House Democrats from California take the
opposite position. On both sides, dozens of friend-of-the-court briefs press
different points. Read complete article
at …..
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/765570744/High-court-to-hear-Arizona-immigration-case-this-week.html
Student Loan Borrowers Dazed
and Confused by Servicer Shuffle
by Marian Wang ProPublica,
April 23, 2012, The Department of Education has been transferring large batches
of federal student loans to new loan-servicing companies
[1] — leaving in the lurch some borrowers who are suddenly encountering
problems with their loans, such as payments that are mysteriously adjusted up [2] or down [3]. The switch, which has been going on for
months and will ultimately include millions of loans, is mandated by a
little-known provision tucked into the 2010 healthcare overhaul. Pushed by a
consortium of nonprofit student loan companies, the provision forces the DOE to
use nonprofit loan servicers. But at least in the
short run, the switch has caused problems. Read complete article at ….. http://www.propublica.org/article/student-loan-borrowers-dazed-and-confused-by-servicer-shuffle#id=I1_1335226673187&parent=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.propublica.org&rpctoken=793888295&_methods=onPlusOne%2C_ready%2C_close%2C_open%2C_resizeMe%2C_renderstart
Dozens Killed In Wave Of Attacks Across Iraq - Sky News
Read the Tax Returns From Karl Rove’s ‘Dark Money’ Group (Donors Still a Mystery)
by Kim Barker ProPublica,
April 18, 2012 The returns for nonprofit Crossroads GPS are the first glimpse
of how much the group, which has spent millions on political ads, raised in
2010 and 2011. One of the most talked-about "dark money" groups of
the election released its tax returns yesterday, showing it raised almost $77 million [1] from fewer
than 100 donors over 19 months. Most of the money spent in its first year went
directly to political ads or grants to other groups. (Here are the full
returns, for both 2010 [2] and 2011 [3]. We've marked
interesting bits. If you spot something we haven't, let us know
[4].)
By choosing to include the number of donors and the amounts
of some of its larger donations, including one of $10.1 million in the first
year and another of $10.1 million in the last seven months of 2011, the group
was somewhat more transparent than the IRS requires. Still, Crossroads
GPS [5], also known as Crossroads Grassroots Policy Strategies,
retained plenty of mystery — namely, their donors' identities. There are no
donor names, no clues as to whether they are individuals, companies or trade
groups, and no hint as to whether there are repeated donors from year to year. Read
complete article at ….. http://www.propublica.org/article/read-the-tax-returns-from-karl-roves-dark-money-group-donors-still-a-myster
Meet the Media Companies Lobbying
Against Transparency
by Justin Elliott | @elliottjustin
ProPublica April 20, 2012, News organizations cultivate a
reputation for demanding transparency, whether by suing for access to
government documents, dispatching camera crews to the doorsteps of recalcitrant
politicians, or editorializing in favor of open government. But now many of the
country’s biggest media companies, which own dozens of newspapers and TV news
operations, are flexing their muscle in Washington
in a fight against a government initiative to increase transparency of
political spending. The corporate owners or sister companies of some of the
biggest names in journalism — NBC News, ABC News, Fox News, The Washington
Post, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Politico, The Atlanta
Journal-Constitution and dozens of local TV news outlets — are lobbying against
a Federal Communications Commission measure that would require broadcasters to
post political ad data on the Internet. As we have recently detailed [1], political ad data is public by law but not easy to get
because it is kept only in paper files at each station. The FCC has proposed
fixing that by requiring broadcasters to post online the details of political
ad purchases, including the identity of the buyer and the price. Continued at ......
http://www.propublica.org/article/meet-the-media-companies-lobbying-against-transparency
More coverage: If TV Stations Won't Post Their Data on
Political Ads, We Will
Citi
shareholders say 'no' to bloated executive pay
12th military member tied to prostitution scandal
Malloy makes budget predictions Mark Davis Monday, 23 Apr 2012, 6:08 PM EDT HARTFORD,
Conn. (WTNH) -- Despite numbers that
seem to indicate his budget is in trouble, Governor Malloy continues to predict
that the state will end the budget year in the black. However, republicans are
already predicting the General Assembly will need a Special Session to deal
with the growing deficit.
The Governor correctly notes that the red ink is very small
compared to the $3.5 billion deficit he faced when he came to office, but it's
still a hole and not one he seems willing to acknowledge. Continued at ….. http://www.wtnh.com/dpp/news/politics/malloy-makes-budget-predictions
25 Percent Of
Americans Uninsured
Scandals Spur Action on Pension Forfeitures - Governing Magazine….
Connecticut lawmakers scrambled to find a way to prevent former Gov. John
Rowland, convicted in 2004 of selling access to his office for personal gain,
from receiving the $50,000 annual pension to which he was entitled when he turned
55, the Hartford Courant reported in April 2008. A new
law was adopted in October 2008, requiring the state attorney general to
request a court order to have the pension rescinded. However, it was too late
to revoke Rowland's pension; Constitutional law is routinely interpreted to
prohibit laws being applied retroactively, NCSL's
Snell said. Continued at …. http://www.governing.com/blogs/view/gov-scandals-spur-action-on-pension-forfeitures.html