“Unfortunately, all of us have been standing here before.” That was Harford County (Maryland) Sheriff Jeffrey Gahler talking about the mass shooting Thursday morning at a warehouse in Aberdeen and the fact that the county had previously experienced other horrific…
Posted: 24 September 2018 [07:39 PM] Posted: 23 September 2018 [08:43 PM] President Donald Trump’s decision to cut the number of refugees admitted to the U.S. hardly comes as a surprise. Even by this administration’s standards, however, the policy just announced is impressive in its heartlessness, cynicism and dishonesty. The current cap…
Posted: 23 September 2018 [08:41 PM] Bloomberg Opinion The response to Jeff Bezos’s announcement of a $2 billion fund to create preschools and help homeless families has been muted if not skeptical. Some critics say that Bezos should give raises to Amazon workers first. Others argue…
Posted: 23 September 2018 [08:40 PM] The Awshington Post PAWLEYS ISLAND, S.C. -- From dark and stormy to clear and breezy, the coastline that a million or so of us evacuated two weeks ago now looks like any other perfect day at the beach. The only…
Posted: 23 September 2018 [08:38 PM] The biggest political story of this year’s elections may end up being that we all underestimated just how deeply alienated the female electorate might grow from President Donald Trump - and, possibly, the Republican Party as well. Friday, Trump finally…
Posted: 21 September 2018 [09:43 PM] President Donald Trump’s planned nomination of Nellie Liang to the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors, which oversees everything from interest-rate policy to financial stability, is a little surprising. She’s admirably well-qualified and in every way a good choice. Trump hasn’t…
Posted: 21 September 2018 [09:42 PM] At their two debates the candidates for governor offered nothing to homeowners in the northeastern part of the state whose home foundations are disintegrating because of faulty concrete. The candidates would like insurance companies, mortgage-holding banks, and the federal government…
Posted: 21 September 2018 [09:41 PM] WASHINGTON - For those insisting that Republican senators take Christine Blasey Ford’s allegations against Judge Brett Kavanaugh seriously, one aspect of the conversation is particularly infuriating: the notion that the timeline established by the GOP for completing this process is…
Posted: 21 September 2018 [09:40 PM] The Trump administration is publicly calling out China for attempting to influence U.S. politics ahead of the midterm elections. Privately, the U.S. government is looking past November as Beijing expands its already significant capability to interfere in American democracy over…
Posted: 20 September 2018 [09:10 PM] The National Park Service has floated the idea of whether it should charge fees to groups that hold protests on the National Mall. The reason cited by officials for this possible change is the cost to the federal government of…
Posted: 20 September 2018 [09:05 PM] Polish President Andrzej Duda’s offer to call a military base “Fort Trump” if the U.S. agrees to set one up in his country was, of course, a joke - but not entirely. For Poland, President Donald Trump’s transactional approach to…
Posted: 20 September 2018 [09:04 PM] It’s hard to publicly allege misconduct by a powerful man. No woman wants to be known primarily as a victim of harassment or, worse, assault. It’s humiliating. We - women who have gone public - are so much more than…
Posted: 20 September 2018 [09:02 PM] Following through on previous threats, President Donald Trump announced on Monday new tariffs on $200 billion worth of imports from China, in addition to levies previously imposed on $50 billion worth of goods. The taxes, which go into effect…
Posted: 19 September 2018 [08:51 PM] President Donald Trump has demanded the immediate declassification of portions of an order allowing the surveillance of former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page, text-message records from several of Trump’s chief whipping boys at the FBI and interview records with Bruce…
Posted: 19 September 2018 [08:49 PM] Almost any accusation against a 17-year-old boy may be plausible. But plausibility is not fairness, even if fairness long ago lost any standing in this country’s politics, and there are big questions of fairness in the accusation by the college…
Posted: 19 September 2018 [08:45 PM] The stories of chaos, craziness and betrayal going on inside the Trump White House are nothing to worry much about. White House staffers attempting to influence, question or thwart a president’s ideas or goals are as old as George Washington,…
Posted: 19 September 2018 [08:43 PM] President Donald Trump’s defenders responded to the news of Paul Manafort’s plea deal on Friday with the usual refrain: His case has nothing to do with the Trump campaign or allegations that it colluded with Russia in 2016. They’re wrong.…
Posted: 17 September 2018 [08:38 PM] The Justice Department wants states to go after technology giants for antitrust violations. Or does it want states to go after companies for stifling free speech? It’s hard to tell from the department’s statement announcing it will convene a meeting…
Posted: 16 September 2018 [07:41 PM] President Donald Trump signed an executive order Wednesday promising to punish anyone attempting to meddle in U.S. elections, including with “measures that could be capable of devastating an interfering country’s economy,” according to an administration description. For a presidency marked…
Posted: 16 September 2018 [07:41 PM] The New York Times took the unusual step of publishing an anonymous OpEd, from a senior Trump administration official, which both painted a horrifying portrait of an impulsive, amoral president who “continues to act in a manner that is detrimental…
Posted: 16 September 2018 [07:41 PM] Illustrating the truism that once you’ve lost credibility it’s hard to get it back, Republicans joined with Democrats in dismissing President Donald Trump’s executive order on Russia as too little, too late. The Post reported: “The order would allow Trump…
Posted: 16 September 2018 [07:41 PM] The most significant part of the Affordable Care Act, itself the most significant piece of social legislation passed in decades, was its expansion of Medicaid. The idea was that no one should go without health insurance because they can’t…
Posted: 14 September 2018 [07:29 PM] Perhaps you’ve heard: Nike and Colin Kaepernick have teamed up to create a potent advertising campaign, a defiant political statement applauding the former NFL quarterback for kneeling during the national anthem to protest police killings of unarmed black men. You…
Posted: 14 September 2018 [07:29 PM] Bad news has been piling up quickly in state government this month. Among the examples: A department head at the University of Connecticut at Storrs resigned after getting caught approving more than $100,000 in travel expenses and paid time off…
Posted: 14 September 2018 [06:53 PM] PORTLAND, Maine - Exceptional dangers require exceptional and sometimes unusual responses. This was the spirit animating the volunteers at a phone bank Tuesday night in Portland. They were asking citizens to urge their state’s popular Republican senator, Susan Collins, to…
Posted: 14 September 2018 [06:53 PM] Here’s the thing about campaigning as an outsider, as Donald Trump did in 2016: If you win the election, you are the person in charge. You are expected to accomplish what you said you would do, or make a darn…
Posted: 13 September 2018 [08:19 PM] Among the most troubling of the many untruths advanced by President Donald Trump is his repeated insistence that the federal government did a good - indeed, a “tremendous” - job responding to Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico. A recent study…
Posted: 12 September 2018 [07:35 PM] Should children be allowed to play tackle football? With scientific studies showing a link between the sport and traumatic brain injuries that lead to lasting health problems, that question is being asked with more frequency and urgency across the country.…
Posted: 11 September 2018 [09:14 PM] Colleges that have banned hard alcohol say the step has helped combat some of the most pernicious effects of campus drinking. They report less consumption, fewer alcohol-induced medical transports, hospitalizations and arrests, as well as a decrease in binge drinking…
Posted: 11 September 2018 [09:06 PM] If you, like me, streamed 22 hours straight of Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearing, you might have noticed something: It was often presented not so much as a fight between liberalism and conservatism, or even constitutional originalism vs. activism, but as…
Posted: 11 September 2018 [09:04 PM] The antithesis of Donald Trump and his administration can be studied, at least for those willing to drive 150 miles south from Atlanta, among magnolias, towering pines and seemingly endless fields of cotton, peanuts - and dreams. Jimmy and…
Posted: 09 September 2018 [09:07 PM] The two candidates running for the Democratic Party nomination for governor - incumbent Andrew Cuomo and challenger Cynthia Nixon - staged their one and only debate at Hofstra University on Long Island. They did Upstate New York voters a…
Posted: 07 September 2018 [07:18 PM] Bob Woodward’s new book, “Fear,” does not paint a different picture of the early Trump White House than the one that has already emerged from credible news organizations in daily reporting on President Donald Trump. Rather, the book fills in…
Posted: 06 September 2018 [08:03 PM] The search for the so-called Golden State Killer - who allegedly raped dozens of women and killed at least 12 people in the 1970s and 1980s - had hit a dead end when investigators decided to test DNA evidence from…
Posted: 05 September 2018 [05:53 PM] Three Russian journalists landed one day in late July in the Central African Republic, a former French colony, on the trail of a story. Kirill Radchenko, Alexander Rastorguyev and Orkhan Dzhemal were investigating the activities of a shadowy Russian private…
Posted: 04 September 2018 [06:49 PM] Dear Granddaddy, how do you feel about the changes in the New Britain School District, which you work in? Sam B- Teacher. Well, Sam, I can tell you that change is never easy, especially if some passing-through school…
Posted: 04 September 2018 [06:48 PM] The debate over NFL athletes protesting racism may have entered a new chapter over the weekend: Just days before the season kicks off, Nike, one of the most culturally influential brands in sports, made Colin Kaepernick one of the faces…
Posted: 03 September 2018 [07:49 PM] As society has evolved with defined gender roles becoming a thing of the past, the use of language in all areas of American life is slowly catching up with the fact that gender-specific language is no longer fashionable. So instead…
Posted: 02 September 2018 [08:15 PM] Vladimir Putin faces an enormous challenge. He wants to deliver prosperity to Russians before 2024, when the constitution says his presidency must end, but the economy is no longer cooperating. For this unhelpful economic outlook, Russia’s president has only himself…
Posted: 02 September 2018 [08:14 PM] Like many kids, I had a dalliance with washable temporary tattoos. As a teen, I tried (unsuccessfully) to market a comic strip about a tattoo artist named Tat McGrat. But, as I entered adulthood, some combination of nature and nurture…
Posted: 02 September 2018 [08:12 PM] Last week the news broke that a new study has found that there were nearly 3,000 excess deaths in Puerto Rico in the six months after Hurricane Maria, a number far higher than previously estimated. Though the study claimed not…
Posted: 02 September 2018 [08:11 PM] President Donald Trump’s chief economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, announced that the administration is “taking a look” at regulating Google’s conduct, given Trump’s complaints earlier in the day that the company’s search results suppress conservative views. Kudlow’s statement raises First Amendment…
Posted: 31 August 2018 [08:05 PM] It’s back-to-school week for millions of American children, which means it’s time to debate the federal government’s role in deciding what our kids should eat for lunch. To understand how the federal government got into the nutrition business, a little…
Posted: 31 August 2018 [08:05 PM] CHICAGO - “Get the thing straight once and for all: The policeman isn’t there to create disorder,” said the late Mayor Richard J. Daley in explaining the riots in the streets of his city in the summer 1968. “The policeman…
Posted: 31 August 2018 [08:05 PM] U.S. Trade Rep Robert Lighthizer says President Trump wants to “modernize” America’s trade deals, but this week the Agriculture Department is dusting off an ancient New Deal program to assist farm casualties of his trade policy. USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue…
Posted: 30 August 2018 [06:46 PM] To The Editor: Social isolation is the overwhelming feeling of being left out, lonely or treated like you are invisible. Young people who are isolated can become victims of bullying, violence and depression. As a result, many further pull away…
Posted: 30 August 2018 [06:45 PM] To The Editor: I take in Chris Powell’s forays onto the New Britain Herald’s editorial page more out of morbid curiosity than in the hope of obtaining an informed opinion. owell is journalism’s crotchety, old man, furiously rocking on his…
Posted: 30 August 2018 [06:44 PM] Several cities and towns in Central Connecticut hosted back-to-school events the last few days before the official start of classes this week. We think these types of celebrations are a good way to welcome children back for a new school…
Posted: 29 August 2018 [08:03 PM] Compared to what Congress should be doing in the face of multiple foreign threats to the integrity of U.S. elections, the Secure Elections Act is just a first step. Yet the Senate is having trouble taking even this initial move.…
Posted: 28 August 2018 [07:09 PM] By: The New Britain Herald It was not all that many years ago when everyone had a traditional landline telephone in their home. Remember the old rotary dial telephones? Then technology brought us the push-button telephone. We marveled at…
