Thumbs up, thumbs down
Thumbs up to longtime Greenwich resident Albert Primo for a career that earned him a recent Emmy Award for lifetime achievement in television news. In honor of the 50th anniversary of “Eyewitness News,” a format Primo helped pioneer, he and colleagues from WABC-TV were presented with the Governor’s Award.
Thumbs up
to Greenwich Board of Education Chairman Peter Bernstein raising his voice about the Board of Finance’s practice of shuffling funding around school departments. While it’s understandable that different needs will arise during a school year — much as they do in any household — Bernstein and board member Peter Sherr are right to lobby for access to more information on budget transfers.
Thumbs up
to Stamford’s Downtown Special Services District experimenting with a pop-up retail initiative to fill addresses that are often dark. The concept could potentially invite some retailers to experiment and eventually sign longer leases, and should lure shoppers looking for something new. Thumbs down to another month of disappointing job gains in Connecticut. The state gained 300 jobs in April as its unemployment rate dropped by one-tenth of a percentage point to 3.8 percent, the state Department of Labor reported Thursday. That drop in unemployment, though, is likely because more people are dropping out of the workforce, analysts say. Connecticut has been in a jobs drought for so long it’s getting hard to remember what a bustling economy with robust job growth looked like here.
Thumbs up
to a bill to allow public businesses or places to stock epinephrine auto injectors — EpiPens — in case of an allergic reaction. State Sen. Matt Lesser, D-Middletown, has been pushing the bill since his own reaction to food that contained peanuts last year in Hartford. It was so severe he had to be taken to the hospital, and it could have been avoided with medication quickly available. With the incidence of allergies on the rise and more people in need, having help on hand in public places makes good sense. Thumbs down to new confusion over plans to build a casino in Bridgeport. The longstanding proposal by MGM Resorts to build a waterfront casino, with a job-training center slated for New Haven, has faced many obstacles, not least being the compact between the state and Indian tribes that prevent other casino operators. It was pushed into further confusion with news that Gov. Ned Lamont may want to see the tribes themselves build in Bridgeport. Whatever the merits of the project, there are so many moving parts that it is difficult for observers to know where the idea stands, and little indication the picture will be cleared up any time soon.
Thumbs up to a proposal to ban the sale of dogs, cats and rabbits from facilities established for the breeding of dogs in conditions that are regarded as inhumane, otherwise known as puppy mills, outside Connecticut. While there are some unanswered questions and some advocates would like to see the proposal go further, it’s a welcome step. And for people looking for a pet, there has never been a shortage of cats and dogs — or whatever animal someone is looking for — in need of a home of their own.