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Catholic birthmothers to legislators: Help us heal Members of Catholic Mothers for Truth & Transparency meeting together on zoom to listen, support, and elevate each other's voices. After living for many years alone in pain and secrecy and shame, this is one way they find the healing they need to live a more peaceful life. We applaud the House of Representatives for passing House Bill 6105 earlier this month. The bill removes a date-based restriction and restores the right of every single Connecticut adult adoptee to obtain their original birth certificate. This is the state of the law as we ...

The state legislature must end solitary confinement I oversaw a long-term solitary confinement unit in Connecticut. Isolated confinement harms us all. When I think about the solitary confinement unit that I oversaw, the first thing I remember is the sound. Constant banging on cell doors, jangling keys, and most of all, people yelling from their single cells. Whenever I toured the unit, people would shout to me: “Warden! Warden! I need to talk to you!” I always stopped to listen. But moments of compassion can only do so much in an environment where people are locked up 23 hours per day. I ...

Connecticut should accelerate energy storage deployment to benefit consumers and the environment Key Capture Energy NY 1 Project, 20 MW, Saratoga County, NY. Photo courtesy of Key Capture Energy. The Connecticut General Assembly is considering legislation – Senate Bill 952 – to ensure deployment of 1,000 megawatts of energy storage capacity by the end of 2030 – enough to power about 1 million homes. To capture the benefits of energy storage and ensure Connecticut stays on track to meet its 2040 clean energy goals, we believe the pending bill should be modified to accelerate the deployme...

Minors are legally abused in a system supposedly based on principles of fairness and equality because they are unaware of their rights. Innocent young people are exposed to traumatic experiences that not only harm their development but haunt them for life. The United States incarcerates young people at a rate higher than any other country with about 44,000 youths locked up behind bars. In Connecticut alone, 747 youths are detained awaiting trial, a majority of them minorities. Minors need their own lawyers in this system. For juveniles, lawyers are not only necessary in the courtroom. Lawyers...

Air quality better than last year, but Connecticut suit of midwestern states should continue Last month the CT Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) released its report on the state of Connecticut’s environment. The report tracked the number of unhealthy air days there were in Connecticut last year. There were 17 bad air days, meaning that for over two weeks during the hot summer months Connecticut’s air was burdened with ground level ozone. As bad as 17 days of unhealthy are, last year the air in Connecticut was better than most years because the pandemic caused traffic and businesses t...