Capitol Watch

Tolls or no tolls: it's the seemingly endless Connecticut argument, right up there leaving or staying in the state.

Well, some sort of end is coming: the 2020 legislative session convenes on Feb. 5. If left unsettled, the toll debate risks being lost in the white-out of sports betting, vaping, recreational marijuana, the budget and other likely issues up for discussion.

Capitol bureau chief Christopher Keating talks about transportation's last gasp on the latest podcast.

Michael Vigeant (GreatBlue Research) and Lesley DeNardis, Ph.D. (Sacred Heart University) discuss a new Hartford Courant/Sacred Heart University poll.

You might have parked in a metered parking space to pick up your dry cleaning (you want to look good when you meet your new interior designer).

Hopefully, you also just snagged some new safety goggles, for when all that dust is flying around your house.

Time to peek at your bank account: yikes.

On Jan. 1, a new wave of taxes, fees and laws took effect in Connecticut. We're not talking break-the-bank amounts, but for many Connecticut residents, every dollar matters.

Content editor Russell Blair talks new Jan. 1 taxes and fees on the latest podcast.

We covered a lot of ground in 2019.

The government shutdown. The seemingly endless toll debate. The Stop and Shop strike, opioid epidemic, the hottest month in Connecticut history, PFAS chemical spills ... on and on.

Along the way, we set up microphones in bars, restaurants, breweries and markets, places like Tangiers International Market, Story and Soil Coffee, Spectra Wired, the Bushnell Park Beer Garden, Know Good Market, Hanging Hill Brewing Company and the short-lived Royal nightclub, and interviewed as many people as we could find.

For the final podcast of the year, we put together clips featuring some of the folks we interviewed. Thanks for listening to Capitol Watch.

Connecticut’s defense industry will likely receive a sizable chunk of the $738 billion defense spending bill winding its way through Congress, and that means high-paying jobs.

Reporter Stephen Singer talks helicopters, jet engines and submarines on the latest Capitol Watch podcast.

Highway tolls, restaurant workers’ wages and more could be voted on in a special session between now and the end of December, if Gov. Ned Lamont gets his way.

Lamont wants to convene a special legislative session on four contentious issues, and he believes he can go four for four. Capitol bureau chief Christopher Keating weighs in on the latest podcast.

Should I leave Connecticut? Should I stay in Connecticut? It's the conversation that never quits.

Arianna Basche wrote her own take on it for the Courant's opinion pages a few weeks ago. On this week's Capitol Watch podcast, Basche and opinion editor Leslie Cory dive deeper into Basche's decision to stay put (for now) and what that means for her life and career going forward.

October was anti-bullying month, but there's really no bad time to talk about the dangers of bullying.

Stamford teacher Danielle Waring's life was forever changed by it. And when one of her tormentors later tried to apologize, Waring found it hard to forgive and forget.

How would you respond?

On the latest Capitol Watch podcast, opinion editor Leslie Cory explores that topic in a conversation with Waring, who reads an essay published in the Courant back in October.

The Mixmaster in Waterbury. The Hartford viaduct. I-95 in Stamford. Anyone who frequently drives on Connecticut highways knows these spots as the stuff of traffic nightmares.

A 2019 study by the American Transportation Research Institute shows six Connecticut “chokepoints” ranking among the 100 worst in the entire country. How does Gov. Ned Lamont plan to address them?

Courant Capitol bureau chief (and resident traffic expert) Chris Keating talks bottlenecks and chokepoints on the latest Capitol Watch podcast.

Imagine, late in your career, creating a LinkedIn profile, chopping your extensive resume down to two pages, and peppering your cover letter with algorithm-friendly keywords.

After months of trying, you finally land the elusive phone or in-person interview with a hiring manager. And then: crickets.

Computer programmer Mark Kirschblum has been looking for work since December 2018.

"It's more of a science, almost an art," Kirschblum says. "I'm somewhat introverted, so to do the networking gets me out of my comfort zone. But you do what you have to do."

Kirschblum met former Manchester Historical Society executive director Eileen Jacobs Sweeney and Michael Renaud, a personalized marketing solutions expert, at Pathways to Employment, a five-week job-search training program.

"To be part of the program with other people who are in the same general age category," Renaud says, "we can all say, 'You know what? We're not the only ones.'"

All three job seekers, along with Courant reporter Stephen Singer, discuss what it's like to be older and unemployed in Connecticut on the latest Capitol Watch podcast.