Rich
senator, poor senator
By: Ana Radelat | May 16,
2014 CTMirror.org
Financial disclosure reports for 71 senators
were released on Friday
Blumenthal is the 4th richest member of Congress
Also See What You Pay his Staff
WASHINGTON -- According to the latest financial disclosures
filed in the U.S. Senate, Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., continues to be one of
the poorest members in that chamber -- although he has a lot of cash in the
bank….. Blumenthal did not file his financial disclosure form by a May 15 deadline,
preferring instead to ask for an extension. An analysis of 2012 financial
disclosure forms by the newspaper Roll Call, placed
Blumenthal as the 4th richest member of the Congress, with a net worth of about
$53 million. Continue reading at …. http://ctmirror.org/rich-senator-poor-senator/
May 20, 2014
From: The Federation of
Connecticut Taxpayer Organizations
Contact: Susan Kniep, President
Website: http://ctact.org/
Email: fctopresident@aol.com
Telephone: 860-841-8032
CTMirror.org May 19, 2014
Explore how much each congressional staffer earned working for Connecticut's
delegation. Filter by legislator or role to see who and what kind of jobs pay
best — and worst.
Example: Richard Blumenthal Highest Earning Staffers
Laurie Rubiner
Chief of Staff, Blumenthal
$169,459
Richard F. Kehoe (Rich)
State Director, Blumenthal
$154,512
Elizabeth L. Kelley Kanick (Liz)
Deputy Chief of Staff, Blumenthal
$148,108
Gabriel Adler
Legislative Director, Blumenthal
$131,092
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Appreciation is Extended to State Comptroller Kevin Lembo
who is Providing Connecticut
Taxpayers with Greater Transparency!
COMPTROLLER LEMBO LAUNCHES "OPEN CONNECTICUT 2.0"
WITH REAL-TIME STATE SPENDING AND REVENUE
The new enhanced section of the site can be accessed through Open Connecticut’s
main web address noted above – but also independently at http://opencheckbook.ct.gov.
See more at: http://www.osc.ct.gov/public/news/releases/20140513.html#sthash.X7csSayn.dpuf
Contact: Tara Downes
(860.702.3308 | Tara Downes@ct.gov)
Comptroller Kevin Lembo today
launched “Open Connecticut 2.0” – a significant update to the online hub of
state financial information that he first launched early last year in an
ongoing effort to simplify and centralize public access to important
information about state revenue and spending.
Open Connecticut
– located at http://www.osc.ct.gov/openct/
-- has now been improved to include an
“Open Checkbook” section with far greater detail and nightly updates to the
underlying data. These nightly updates mean that Open Connecticut now reflects state spending and
revenue activities more accurately and timely than ever before.
The improved site allows users to search real-time revenue
flow by source, which was previously not available online. Real-time
expenditure details can be viewed by fiscal year, fund, government function,
agency, department, line item and account. Users can also now browse the
various categories and then export datasets of their choice using various
filter options. - See more at: http://www.osc.ct.gov/public/news/releases/20140513.html#sthash.5uAxemof.dpuf
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Americans Spent Three Decades Paying For Federal Project That
Doesn't Exist
More
than $43 billion was collected for nuclear waste dump that never came to be.
Posted by Patch National Desk , May 17, 2014
For 31 years Americans have been paying a fee for a nuclear
waste site that doesn't exist, CNBC reported.
The fee on electric bills was supposed to fund a nuclear waste disposal site in
Yucca Mountain, Nevada. The plan had been for the site to
open in 1998, but it never did and the project has since been killed amidst
political opposition.
But, the fee has continued to be collected and the fund for the nuclear waste site now
is more than $30 billion. The fee costs people about $2 a year
and it was established in 1983. http://darien.patch.com/groups/trending-in-america/p/federal-government-collected-fee-for-dead-project-for-decades13707357
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From the Yankee
Institute: A minimum wage is the problem
The Hartford
Courant recently invited the Yankee Institute's Zachary Janowski
to join its editorial board as a visiting member for six months. His first
op-ed takes on the minimum wage by pointing out its victims:
the unskilled and the unemployed.
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CBS NEWS REPORT
Feds say Credit Suisse helped Americans dodge taxes
The U.S. Justice Department on Monday filed
criminal charges against Credit Suisse, alleging the Swiss financial giant
helped Americans open offshore accounts in order to dodge taxes. Credit Suisse
is pleading guilty to the charges and will pay a total of $2.6 billion to
settle the federal lawsuit. Continue reading at ….
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/feds-say-credit-suisse-helped-americans-dodge-taxes/
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60 Minutes Reports: The real scandal in Washington isn’t what’s illegal, it’s what’s
legal.
The news
segment notes: There seems to be a permanent majority in
Congress that’s completely satisfied with the current state of campaign
financing and congressional ethics and members of both parties have
institutionalized ways to skirt the rules and maintain the lifestyles that many
of them have grown accustomed to.
As we
learned when we first reported this story last October, most Americans believe
it’s against the law for congressmen and senators to profit personally from
their political office. But it’s an open secret in Washington that that’s not the case. As the
saying goes the real scandal in Washington
isn’t what’s illegal, it’s what’s legal. [CBS News]
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Message from the Connecticut Policy Institute: Home
Thursday, May 22, the
Connecticut Policy Institute will be co-sponsoring and participating in an
education policy summit in Bridgeport:
"New Strategies for Changing Communities: Moving Beyond the Soundbite." The summit will take place from
3:30-8:30 PM at St. Paul's Missionary
Baptist Church
in Bridgeport.
Additional details are in the below flyer, and you can register for the
free event at this link.
The CPI is co-sponsoring this summit as part of our recently
launched urban policy project, and
over the coming months the Institute will be organizing and participating in
additional community outreach events and policy forums in urban areas across
the state.