Thumbs up, thumbs down

Thumbs up to a ruling that public campaign finance funds in Connecticut can be used to pay for child care. Caitlin Clarkson Pereira, a 2018 candidate for state representative, had been turned down in her attempt to use public election grants, which can be used to pay for travel and other expenses produced by a campaign, to cover child care. She then filed a court complaint that a judge finally ruled on last week, with the ruling stating that child care was, in fact, a necessary campaign expense. That should have been the call from the beginning, but it’s an important step moving forward and could help more people decide to run for public office.

Thumbs down to the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference continuing to march down the field on plans to play football this fall. We believe the coaches who are expressing their commitment to keep the players safe during the pandemic, but the only way to truly do that is to cancel the season. This is not the same as returning to classrooms. The coaches and league have a lot of good ideas for helping players maintain some distance during practice and sterilizing equipment, but the risks remain much too high.

Thumbs up to comedian John Oliver for his latest retort in his ongoing feud with the City of Danbury. In Sunday night’s “Last Week Tonight,” Oliver pledged to donate $55,000 to Danbury-area charities ($25,000 to the Connecticut Food Bank, $25,000 to a Donors Choose fund for Danbury teachers and $5,000 to ALS Connecticut) on the condition that Mayor Mark Boughton deliver on his promise to rename the city sewer plant after Oliver. “I want this. I need this,” Oliver said.

Thumbs down to Eversource customers paying $124 million more than utility officials had projected for electricity generated by the Millstone nuclear power plant this year. This means that although there was a drop in the electric load for New England this summer, customers did not receive a drop in their energy bills. Just the opposite — the utility tried to raise rates. The admission came last week as the state’s Public Utilities Regulatory Authority questioned officials and the General Assembly’s Energy and Technology Committee examined the power company’s response to Tropical Storm Isaias on Aug. 4, which left thousands without power, some as much as a week.