Word: connecticut
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — Into purgatorial fire, the United States District Court of Connecticut must cast one of two souls, the state government or the Catholic Church. The Office of State Ethics accuses the Church of breaking Connecticut’s lobbying rules last spring when the Diocese of Bridgeport protested liberal legislation. Distraught, the diocese seeks clemency and asks the court to prohibit OSE from applying these rules to the Church. To quench this inferno, the state legislature should exempt churches from its lobbying rules—because churchgoers aren’t powerbrokers...
Technically, OSE is right. Connecticut law defines lobbying as “communicating directly or soliciting others to communicate with any official…for the purpose of influencing any legislative [action].” A person who spends over $2,000 on “lobbying” per year must register with OSE before he squawks. He also must file financial reports regularly and submit to random audits by OSE. That miscreant who fails to register faces fines worth up to $10,000. In this case, that miscreant was the Church...
...Since November's elections, Republican state legislative candidates have won 10 special elections - besting Democrats in Connecticut, Delaware, Louisiana, Maine, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Virginia, South Carolina and Texas. It should be noted that the seat won in Delaware represents parts of Vice President Joe Biden's hometown. While others may be waiting for the Virginia and New Jersey 2009 gubernatorial elections as bellwethers for 2010, we have been focusing on rebuilding the party from the grass roots up - through recruiting, training and supporting down-ballot candidates for state office. The party has a bright future. It is being built...
...world of performing arts, the news has been just as bleak. All around the country, orchestras, opera houses, theater troupes and dance companies are cutting salaries, jobs and programs. A few have simply collapsed. The Hartford-based Connecticut Opera closed this year after 67 seasons. So did the 58-year-old Baltimore Opera Company. "Most organizations have been hurt," says Robert Lynch, president of the advocacy group Americans for the Arts. "But arts organizations aren't driven by profit. They're driven by mission. And they'll do anything to survive...
...couples will face nasty tangles of rules and regulations if they move, separate or remarry. The 18,000 California couples who wed before Proposition 8 was passed remain legally married, but no one really knows the status of gay spouses who have moved to California from elsewhere (Iowa, Connecticut, Maine or Massachusetts, not to mention all of Canada). At least that will be true until the issue reaches a place that even California's ballot-crazy voters can't touch: the U.S. Supreme Court. But as with desegregation and abortion, a court ruling won't change attitudes overnight...