Power & Politics: The debate over changes to Connecticut’s abortion regulations

Sen. Blumenthal calls for more gun control measures in the wake of the Georgia school shooting

Latest school shooting highlights Connecticut’s gun storage law

Heated debate over proposed changes to Connecticut’s abortion regulations

Sen. Blumenthal urging lawmakers to investigate USDA following Boar’s Head listeria outbreak

Newtown hosts annual Labor Day Parade

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News 12 Staff

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I'm Eric L Runner and welcome back to Connecticut Power and Politics. Again, we are joined this week by Governor Ned Lamont, uh, governor. Thank you so much again for being here. Listen, uh, another major story this week, uh, the swearing in of your new emergency services and public safety commissioner, Renell Higgins, uh, taking the reins at what's really a crucial time right now when the state police have, have, have been under the microscope because of that fake ticket scandal first. Uh, talk about Renell Higgins and then, and then I wanna get into the, into the scandal. Renell Higgins is, um, our new commissioner of public safety. He's gonna do an extraordinary job. He's been in charge of public safety at Yale, uh, managing a significant police force. By the way, his dad is a cop. His wife is a cop. It's, uh, in the genes, so to speak. He's gonna broaden the lens a little bit, uh, you know, beyond just what the state police are doing also with the extra focus on terrorism and cyber security and all the other threats that are confronting us. He brings that bread to the table really happy. To have him on the team. Listen this week, he said that the falsification of tickets and the traffic stop data might not be as far reaching as perhaps was feared. Is there any extra insight that you could share as to where that investigation stands right now? Yes, they've been um going over each and every one of those that um seem to have had a duplicate or extra um infractions inserted. How many of them were by mistake, how many of them were technical difficulties and how many of them were purposeful and on purpose. It looks to be the small group that really we gotta hold, hold accountable for what they're doing. It puts a cloud over our state police. We have the best state police in the country. I assume that one of the things that, uh, Commissioner Higgins is going to be, I don't know, charged with keeping an eye on is, is the uptick in bias crimes and uh hate incidents in the state as you know, that we, we, we living in a time right now where there are numerous communities on edge, uh because of the rise of anti Semitism, Islamophobia, uh governor, you're joining us at a time when, when really the Jewish community is worried about its safety. There's been as you know, a huge surge in anti Semitic incidents including this one in Stanford. Why are you tearing those down the Jews? Excuse me? I'm calling the police. So governor, I'm sure you saw that one. This was somebody who was tearing down one of the hostage posters or several of the hostage posters in, uh in Stanford. And when asked, when, why he was doing this? He said it's because of the Jews, this happened on Summer and Bridge Streets. The organization stop anti-semitism. Actually made us aware of this. II, I mean, listen, this is not, this is not something that's only happening in Stanford, this is happening everywhere. And I, I mean, II, I just wanna get your take on what's been playing out in our communities. It's shocking. It's outrageous. Not in Connecticut, not in America. This is not who we are. So we are talking about Renell Higgins before uh he and I got together with all the public safety uh leaders from our university system on Thursday. First of all, uh tracking the hate speech, hate speech often, uh follows by hate crimes. We're not gonna let that happen. We're tracking this online. We're getting there ahead of things and I urge each and every one of you when you see something, say something, you hear something anti Semitic or goes after somebody because of their identity or their group. Um say something. Don't let that happen. Governor of the Wall Street Journal this week, uh published a series of letters on the culture of anti Semitism that's being allowed at Yale. And that said there, there is a broad coalition of more than 100 institutions of higher education right now that have signed on to a statement what they called moral clarity, declaring Hamas a terrorist organization and that the Palestinian people are not represented by Hamas. In fact, they're being harmed by Hamas CS cu has signed on to this. Do you encourage Yale to do so as well? Uh, I think so. I don't know as much about it but I can tell you, um, don't paint with a broad bush, don't go after Muslims, don't go after Palestinians. Hamas is a terrorist organization. They perpetrated one of the most sadistic horrific crimes. Hold Hamas accountable governor at a time when there's so much anger and grief and raw emotion when there are anti Israel protests, turning violent in some cities. And at a time when people from the Jewish community in this state traveled by bus to DC to rally against anti Semitism and for Israel, what can you as governor do to, to foster a sense of, at the very least a mutual understanding here in order for people of this state to feel safe in their respective communities. Well, two things, Eric, I mean, I personally have been uh reaching out to rabbis and imams religious leaders, um, trying to get their sense of what we could do. How do we lower that temperature? We're providing extra uh policing in and around synagogues and mosques. I told you what we've been doing in our university. Campuses, which is such diverse and so many groups and so many different backgrounds, including, you know, Muslim and Jewish. We're trying to make that a template of how we should do it. Not the other way around you, you know, you mentioned hate speech and then there's always the argument of, well, freedom of speech and then it crosses over into hate speech. I mean, how, how do you convince, how do you convince somebody that what they're saying is hateful if they're viewing it as free speech? I think there is hate speech. Look, you can say, um, I don't like the bombing in Gaza. And, uh, that doesn't make you anti Semitic. You can say, I am shocked and outraged by hamas' attacks and that doesn't make you, um, you know, um, Islamic. But, um, what you gotta do is treat people as people, not as groups. Don't identify them as a broader group, don't attack them for the group they're part of and you could always challenge the policy. That's ok. Don't challenge the group now. Governor Ned Lamont. Uh, listen, we, we covered a wide range of topics today and I thank you for your patience as always as we, uh, we go through all of them. But again, thank you for your time. Appreciate you being on the show again. Nice to see Eric. All right, good to see you governor and keep it right here on Connecticut power and politics. We got much more coming up for you right after the break.

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Welcome back to Connecticut Power and Politics. We finally have a winner in a hotly contested election in Fairfield after a recount Democrat, Bill Gerber held on to his narrow win defeating Republican incumbent Brenda Kupchak by just 37 votes razor thin margin. There. New task force wants to get rid of Connecticut's car tax but scrapping it could cost you in other ways. Well, this week, cities and towns suggested ways to get rid of the car tax without shifting the burden to homeowners task force members say the car tax is unfair. A 2020 Honda Accord would be $300 in Greenwich. It'd be $600 in the in, in Harford. And that is unfair some ideas to replace the car tax, creating a local sales tax, higher hotel taxes and higher fees on car sales. Also eliminating some of Connecticut's dozens of property tax exemptions. Well, this week, Republicans protested a proposal to make all new car sales electric by the year 2035. Instead, GOP leaders want to offer deeper tax credits for fuel efficient vehicles and expand public transportation. We're here for the single mother that's raising a family in the city wondering how she's gonna get a charging station hooked up on the street when she's forced to buy an electric vehicle from the state of Connecticut. A bipartisan legislative committee will decide on the ev sales proposal. November 28th. It would impact new cars, not used vehicles. Samantha Nestor sworn in as Weston's first selectman this week, she won re election against Republican Stefan Grossinger and Lieutenant Governor Susan Beitz administered the oath of office to Nestor and other newly elected town officials. It is a great honor to be here to be able to swear in uh all of our newly minted elected officials. Um And I, what I love about all of the people who will be sworn in is how they come from different parts of the community biow. It also said how impressed she was by a voter turnout this year. Uh Big cuts are coming to Connecticut State Universities and college uh community colleges. College presidents announced the cuts Wednesday and most campuses students will see fewer professors and staff as well as fewer course offerings at West Con in Danbury. Some students think schools should partner with the private sector. I don't know, maybe hold some sponsors or probably like do partnerships with other certain companies. This year. Tuition at Connecticut's four state universities went up 3%. Community colleges jumped 5% starting January 1st. Businesses will get a 10% decrease in workers comp insurance rates. Officials say that. This is the 10th consecutive year. The Connecticut Insurance Department has approved lower rates. The governor says that they'll help businesses across the state save money. He also says that the decrease is a reflection of employees filing fewer claims, which means the workplace is getting safer and that's all the time that we have for you this week on Connecticut Power and Politics. As always, we thank you for watching. We'll see you again next time, I'm Eric Landstrom.

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Gov. Ned Lamont joins Eric Landskroner to discuss a wide range of topics, including Election Day results, the future of electric cars in Connecticut and the Israel-Hamas war. 

Power & Politics: A conversation with Gov. Ned Lamont

Gov. Ned Lamont joins Eric Landskroner to discuss a wide range of topics, including Election Day results, the future of electric cars in Connecticut and the Israel-Hamas war.

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