Thumbs up, thumbs down

Thumbs up to the end of the strike at

Stop & Shop. Workers were back on the job Monday after an 11-day work stoppage, one of the longest in Connecticut in years. While specific contract details have not been released, union officials declared a “powerful victory” over the grocery giant. While shoppers had to scramble in some cases to prepare their holiday meals, it’s back to business as usual with the two sides agreeing to a tentative deal.

Thumbs down to new concerns about the state’s economy after a reported 1,300 jobs lost in March. Even with an upgrade to February’s numbers, the state is now at a net loss over the past three months. Continuing a long-term trend, private-sector jobs are up somewhat in the past year, while the public sector continues to shrink. The expectation in some quarters might have been that shrinking government would somehow prime the economic pump in the state, but Connecticut is seeing the worst of both worlds — declining public sector jobs and middling private sector growth.

Thumbs up to the state House of Representatives for passing a bill to protect people with preexisting medical conditions who are on shortterm health insurance policies. Protection for pre-existing conditions should be a baseline for any coverage, but it’s only since the passage of the Affordable Care Act that millions of people have seen a modicum of security, and threats to that federal law leave all of them at risk of losing coverage. A bill to protect people on temporary plans should be passed as a step toward more comprehensive health care changes. Thumbs down to new measles outbreaks that are pushing the number of cases to levels not seen in decades. Health officials say 71 more cases were reported last week, with 68 of them from New York. That brings this year's total to 626. That compares to 667 reported in all of 2014, and 963 cases in 1994. As always, the importance of vaccinations cannot be overstated. Measles is preventable, and there is no reason there should be any cases.

Thumbs up to a reduction in hit-andrun crashes over the past three years in Connecticut, with some safety experts attributing the change to the state’s policy of allowing undocumented immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses. Immigrants say that with the new licenses, they are less worried that a traffic stop might lead them into the hands of federal immigration authorities. Statewide, hitand-run crashes dropped by 9 percent between 2016 and 2018.

Thumbs down to a rise in gas prices, with some stations reporting prices up almost 24 cents over last month, though still down from the same point last year. Though Connecticut has some of the most expensive gas around, drivers can take some solace in knowing it’s worse in California. That state’s average has surpassed $4 a gallon, according to AAA, the most expensive pump price seen in the state since 2014.

Thumbs down to a new survey that showed natural gas pipelines in Connecticut cities are leaking methane into the air, with at least a potential for the type of disastrous explosions that have rocked communities across the nation. The study, conducted for the Connecticut Chapter of the Sierra Club, found an average of 3.6 leaks per mile of underground gas lines in Danbury; Hartford results showed an average of 4.3 leaks per mile and 2.6 leaks per mile in New London.