Scully Communications

The Cape Wind Farm project in Nantucket Sound that received approval by US Interior Secretary Kenneth Salazar this week is seen by supporters and most environmentalists as a huge step forward in technology to wean the country off foreign oil. It’s also a project on which Connecticut should go to school and put a major effort into researching whether it could work here.

The developer of the project, Cape Wind Associates, says it plans to start construction of the 130 wind turbines (high-tech windmills) 5 miles off the coast of Cape Cod, by the end of the year. Opponents vow to go to court to try to stop the $1 billion project. The opponents of the project range from the very serious—Indian tribes on Martha’s Vineyard who don’t want ancestral ocean beds or sun greeting rituals disturbed, to the hypocritical—the late Sen. Edward Kennedy, et al, who decry reliance on foreign oil but don’t want their precious views of the sound disturbed. As a Massachusetts native and one who views Martha’s Vineyard as a magical jewel of an island, The Shad supports the project that will result in 1,000 jobs and clean energy.

Connecticut energy officials should start investigating whether a wind farm could work in this state; not necessarily offshore, but possibly in the Berkshire Hills of Litchfield County where wind is plentiful as is the land. Opposition will be strong but those concerns should be trumped by the need for clean, renewable energy.

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Are the rank and file members of state employee labor unions pressuring their own leadership to accept the early retirement incentive program (ERIP) proposed by the Rell administration? Like most issues in union negotiations, it depends on who you ask.

Talks on the ERIP broke down this week with each side blaming the other for the stalemate. There is real question as to whether the administration even needs the unions’ approval for the ERIP, with some leaders, including House Minority Leader Larry Cafero, claiming it’s not a concession and therefore can be done arbitrarily.

The union leadership admits some of its members would certainly take advantage of the ERIP but they want to know the fiscal and workforce impact it would have and claims the administration will not provide that information.

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Forbes magazine is out with a list of the top ten most beloved sports mascots and no surprise—the San Diego Chicken is on top. He is followed by the Phillie Phanatic, Mr.Met (?), The Racing Sausages (Milwaukee Brewers) and the Gorilla (Phoenix Suns). Read about the full list here: http://sports.yahoo.com/top/news?slug=ys-forbesmascots042910

The travesty is that the Red Sox’ Wally the Green Monster is only 7th. Of course, when Wally debuted in 1997, he was booed off the field by purist Sox fans and the Boston Globe ran a hilarious parody story about how on that debut day, Wally was later found drowning his sorrows at a local Beantown watering hole. He has since found a place in the heart of Red Sox nation and is loved by the kids (although he is not much of a role model against childhood obesity. He seems to get bigger around the middle every year; quite likely the result of those luxury off-season spots he enjoys).

The Milwaukee Brewers’ Racing Sausages got the sympathy vote. In 2007, Pittsburgh Pirates first baseman Randall Simon playfully hit the Italian Sausage with a bat as they passed the visitors’ dugout. She (yes, it was a she as it turns out) fell, knocking over the sausage next to her. Simon was subsequently interviewed by the county sheriff’s office but no arrest was made. See the still-side-splitting local news report here:

And finally, sadly for Yankee fans, the Yanks’ mascot—the fat, drunken, beer-spilling, expletive-spewing “Bronx Guy”—did not make the list.

Only kidding, my people.

Earlier this week during the legislature’s Judiciary committee hearings on Gov. Rell’s judicial nominees, some committee members—particularly members of the Black and Hispanic Caucus—expressed concern about the lack of diversity in the group of would-be Superior Court judges (they are all white).

In curious if not outright insensitive remarks, Ranking Member Sen. John Kissel (R-Enfield) said, in essence, that he knew what it was like to be a “minority” because he is a Republican (in a General Assembly with strong Democratic majorities).

Kissel, not known as a bomb-thrower and in fact gets plenty of political cover from his caucus in election years, stuck his foot in his mouth big time. The Shad is not usually super-sensitive to these types of things. But such a comparison he made about an issue as important as diversity is out of line. Kissel and his party can do something about it if they don’t like being “minorities”—win some more elections. And it’s highly doubtful Republicans have had to deal with issues similar to those of true minorities in the state. Kissel owes minorities in Connecticut an apology.

The remarks can be seen via CT-N’s “On Demand” at: http://www.ctn.state.ct.us/ondemand.asp

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Efforts to address the state’s budget deficit have hit a major snag. And not surprisingly, the hang-up is between the Rell administration and the state employee unions. Just what happened is in serious dispute but it centers around Rell’s proposed early retirement incentive program (ERIP).

Union leaders say they simply asked for some fiscal analysis of this new ERIP to see how the workforce would be affected and how much money would be saved. They claim the administration couldn’t or wouldn’t provide the information and that Rell’s representatives stormed out of the meeting. The administration claims the unions made it clear they were not interested in the new ERIP.

Whatever happened does not bode well for the process although it should be noted that it would be completely out of character for Rell budget chief Bob Genuario to “storm out of” anything.

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Legislative leaders from both sides of the aisle are still reviewing Gov. Rell’s rather novel plan to address the rest of the budget deficit. The state is in the red to the tune of more than $700 million in 2011 and $3 billion in 2012.

The governor’s plan would allow the state to reject securitization—the selling off of revenue streams for an up-front payment. Rell wants to create a quasi-public agency to oversee Bradley International Airport. That would generate an additional $25 million per year for the state. Bradley would essentially be run like a port authority.

Rell is also calling for borrowing money at 3 percent, rather than 4 percent. In addition, the borrowed money would be repaid in 7 years instead of 10 years, saving the state money.

Money is also coming from a charge on electric bills, the Energy Conservation and Load Management Fund, and the Renewable Energy Investment Fund all of which has clean energy advocates very unhappy.

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Former Congressman Sam Gejdenson has endorsed Ned Lamont for governor. And no one cares.

In all seriousness, is there any Democrat in the state who will vote for Lamont because Gejdenson is backing him? Of course not. And that’s true of most endorsements and this one in particular because Gejdenson has an ax to grind with top-tier candidate Dan Malloy. See: http://blogs.courant.com/capitol_watch/2010/04/former-us-rep-sam-gejdenson.html

An eye-opening new study says nearly 1 in 10 Connecticut adults suffers from the breath-stealing disease of asthma. And worse yet, the study says in the vast majority of cases, the affliction is poorly managed medically.

The Asthma Regional Council of New England, an independent agency supported by different foundations and the federal government, says that its study, released this week, finds that two-thirds of New England’s (including Connecticut’s) 1.3 million people wind up in emergency rooms or using inhalers too frequently. New England has the highest rate of asthma in the country. It remains unclear to medical experts why.

The study says many people with asthma don’t manage it properly because they can’t afford the co-pays for doctors visits or have no medical insurance at all.

More on the study is here: http://asthmaregionalcouncil.org/uploads/Surveillance/BRFSS%20-%20Living%20with%20Asthma%20in%20New%20England%20February%202010.pdf

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Gov. Rell is expected to unveil today a new securitization plan to help eliminate the state’s huge budget deficit ($700 million in 2011 and $3 billion in 2012). Lawmakers are hesitant to use securitization—selling off revenue streams for upfront payments—because the state would probably get pennies on the dollar.

The governor has been all over the map on securitization. Her own administration proposed using it on a charge on utility bills and then when a legislative committee voted to do just that, she said she would veto the bill. No telling what she will propose, or whether she’ll stick with it through the process.

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A week remains in the legislative session and several high-profile bills hang in the balance. They include domestic violence bills passed by the House and championed through the impressive work of state Rep. Mae Flexer and the return of the issue allowing alcohol to be sold on Sundays (yet another source of revenue to which the legislature has turned a blind eye).

Of course no bill may get a vote if a deal on judicial nominees isn’t reached. All nine of Gov. Rell’s nominees were approved by the Judiciary committee after she promised to nominate a person of color next time around.

In one of the most nonsensical flip-flops of this session, Democrats are now satisfied because the governor agreed to more diversity. This after they argued all along that the original nine weren’t needed and there was no money to pay for them.

Between now and a week from midnight tonight, you’ll see more drama in the legislature than Broadway. The Shad was in the room for five years worth of session deadlines and knows the important things will likely get done but not before a lot of finger-pointing, accusations of varying sorts and hand-ringing.

Senate President Don Williams has said he wants the judicial nominees and the funding for the entire Judicial branch to be part of the whole state budget. He’s right. It’s a bad precedent to be voting on funding for the three different branches of government piecemeal. That doesn’t mean other bills can’t be acted on.

That last fact is lost on House Minority Leader Larry Cafero, a bloviator of the worst kind (he can make a political junkie like The Shad turn off the great CT-N when he is “speaking”). Cafero is threatening to hold up any bill with a fiscal note, meaning any bill that costs some money, until the judges are approved. He can do that with endless amendments and lengthy speeches from the floor—a type of filibuster. Taxpayers and voters should take note of that kind of obstructionism.

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The Shad is depressed over a new study that says chocolate can cause depression. Researchers at the University of California-San Diego and UC-Davis are out with a new study that says a sweet tooth and the consumption of sweets can be a contributing factor for depression. Pretty scary. The Shad gets depressed when someone eats the last of the Funny Bones.

The Shad knows this will shock all Connecticut residents, but the state legislature is in gridlock; locked down by a dispute over the budget. The difference between this year and other “deadlocked” years is that accomplished, reputable and in some cases, brilliant judicial nominees are caught in the cross fire—in limbo until other issues not in their control, get settled.

The Judiciary committee’s review of the nine people Gov. Rell has nominated for judgeships is a story in and of itself. No votes were taken on the would-be judges, a group that includes Public Safety Commissioner John Danaher, III who’s resume is impressive by any measure as well as Rell budget director and former state senator Bob Genuario. These are people who don’t deserve to have their futures in limbo. Yet it appears to be no way out until the dispute over funding for the judicial branch and the budget in general, is settled.

Also coming out of yesterday’s hearing was a troubling display of what can be considered reverse age discrimination. 39-year old Laura Flynn Baldini, a Yale-educated Republican, was grilled over what committee members said was her experience. It was a thin-veiled criticism of her age. Some committee members were concerned that Baldini has been a lawyer for only 12 years and has quickly risen to be a couple of votes away from being a judge. One would think a nominee for any post is either qualified or not—his or her age should not matter.

Members of the Black and Hispanic caucus expressed concerned there were no people of color among the nine nominees—they are all white. The concern is valid. Diversity is important and it defies belief that there isn’t a black or Hispanic person in the entire state qualified to be a judge.

In any event, some of Connecticut’s best and brightest will have to grab some pine and wait it out while the legislature works out its problems.

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Yet another vote for passenger rail development in the state. U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood yesterday said the state has a strong chance of landing some of the of $2.5 billion in high-speed rail grants this year.

LaHood said the state has a realistic plan and could be one of the first in the nation to begin running new, 110-mph passenger trains under the federal government’s ambitious rail initiative.

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“This becomes an economic engine,” LaHood said after riding an Amtrak train from New Haven to Hartford. “You create opportunities for affordable housing, opportunities for business to take over abandoned warehouses and create jobs.”

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A note of thanks to other members of the media who have recognized The Hanging Shad either for its content:

http://blogs.courant.com/capitol_watch/2010/04/hanging-shad-says-ditch-the-ne.html

Or its design:

http://blogs.courant.com/rick_green/2010/04/scullys-hanging-shad-gets-a-ne.html

The design is not of the author’s doing (no chance). That credit belongs to Milford’s Scott Barnett, website designer extraordinaire, who update our templates to something a bit more appealing.