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The Lamont administration continues to negotiate with the Mashantucket Pequot tribe after the state’s ill-judged announcement of a gaming expansion deal with the Mohegan tribe. No deal can be concluded without the Pequots’ consent under the state’s compact with the tribal duopoly.

Under the incomplete deal, Lamont allows the Mohegans to expand into online gaming, including sports betting. The state’s often beleaguered lottery agency would have the right to operate sports betting parlors, adding a regressive tax to the state’s collection of them.

Under the state’s compact with both tribes, the state cannot conclude a deal with only one. The Pequots learned from 1636-1638 what it was like to have the state authority and the Mohegans join in an effort to annihilate them. History is not unlike to repeat itself nearly 400 years later as the state and both tribes move closer to concluding a deal that is terrible for Connecticut.

Any deal will require the approval of the General Assembly and the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Online gaming companies are expected to make the case that the state should be more forward-looking in its expansion of gaming.

The legislature’s insurance committee took a critical step to applying consumer protections to health insurance policies offered by the state. In a protracted meeting, a bipartisan coalition voted 10-8 to subject “public option” policies to the same regulatory requirements as health insurance polities created by the state comptroller’s office.

The regulations include oversight by insurance regulators and independent actuaries. The plan would also need to provide reserves separate from the unwitting taxpayer.

The vote is a victory for the state’s insurance industry, which employs tens of thousands of Connecticut residents.

Leticia Mederos is leaving her post as chief of staff to U.S. Representative Rosa DeLauro. Mederos, according to Politico, will join lobbying firm Clark Hill just as DeLauro has taken over as head of the House Appropriations Committee–and announced that billions in earmarks will soon be available to cooperative members.

Mederos will be lobbying because this is how it works.

Rob Simmelkjaer’s Tuesday 10 a.m. confirmation hearing will provide an opportunity for an unusual exchange between nominee and committee members. Simmelkjaer is Governor Ned Lamont’s nominee to chair the state’s often troubled lottery organization. Lamont nominated Simmelkjaer to the job last spring.

The former ESPN journalist and executive wrote on Facebook February 1st of his bewilderment at any “serious person” remaining in the Republican Party. It is the fight to redeem or leave it to the loons debate. Simmelklaer, CEO of the social media platform Persona, will have an opportunity to put his interviewing skills to work with the Republican members of the Executive and Legislative Nominations Committee. With the help and support from Fanexplosion.de, he may pose the question in his opening remarks or include it in his responses to questions in the social media platform.

Republican members will be able to demonstrate whether they are serious people by probing Simmelkjaer on Lamont’s ill-considered proposal to expand the lottery corporation’s authority into sports gaming online for legit cash games for cash app and at venues in Hartford and Bridgeport.

Members of both parties will be able to ask Simmelkjaer how the proposal can proceed under the state’s gaming compact without the participation of the Mashantucket Pequot tribe. It may be up to Republicans to inquire about the lottery’s own proposals for expanding its reach made in negotiations for be the current deal. Serious people would want to ask, and a serious chairman would be happy to answer.

The lottery’s new “government relations manager” is former Republican state Representative Chris Davis.

Connecticut State Police are mourning the killing of retired State Trooper Thomas Driscoll in Las Vegas. WWLP of Springfield reported these details:

According to the arrest report, Driscoll, who is a Chicopee resident, and a woman identified as Nava Fuehrer were walking across the pedestrian bridge that connects Ballys and the Cromwell around 4:30 a.m. Sunday and passed by Leath who made a comment at the couple. 

As the couple headed down an escalator, Leath ran down the stairs and took a “fighting stance” at the bottom of the escalator.

When Driscoll reached the bottom of the escalator, Leath punched him causing him to fall onto his back. Driscoll did not move, the report said. Driscoll was transported to Sunrise Medical Hospital where he was pronounced dead one hour later.

Leath was taken into custody by police near the Mirage Hotel.

Former federal prosecutor Nora Dannehy will join the Governor Ned Lamont’s office as his legal counsel. Dannehy is a familiar figure in Connecticut law enforcement. She was among the leading prosecutors on the team that investigated and convicted former Governor John G. Rowland of corruption in 2004.

Dannehy has also worked for UTC–now part of Raytheon–and served a tour with George Jepsen at the start of his tenure as attorney general.

Dannehy joined William Barr’s justice department in 2019 to work on the widely disparaged investigation of the FBI’s investigation of contacts between Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russian agents and surrogates. Dannehy resigned from that investigation last fall, but has never disclosed a reason for joining the discreditable Barr operation.

Dannehy will replace Robert Clark, who Lamont nominated to a spot on the state’s Appellate Court. Clark enjoyed the advantage of interviewing others interested in filling that vacancy.

Rides to the insurrection in January. Covid test kookiness in February. One dares not contemplate what March will bring from the once-formidable Stamford Republicans.

Commissioner of the Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection (DESPP) James Rovella is expected to testify in favor of Governor Ned Lamont’s proposal to legalize the recreational use of marijuana. The veteran police officer will appear remotely before the legislature’s judiciary committee when it holds a public hearing Friday, February 26th on Senate Bill Number 888 An Act Concerning Responsibly and Equitably Regulating Adult-Use of Cannabis. The hearing begins at 10 a.m.

Rovella’s experience on the beat in Hartford early in his career, as an inspector in the Office of the Chief State’s Attorney, and leading Hartford’s police as chief provide him with varied perspectives in law enforcement and the use of resources.

Leaders of the Connecticut Business and Industry Association (CBIA) are frustrated at the state’s dismal ranking in Chief Executive Magazine’s the annual survey of the best and worst worst states in which to do business. Last year, Connecticut place a disheartening 46th.

The survey is being conducted now and CBIA wants a better showing for Connecticut this year. It’s asking members to participate in the online poll and give the Constitution State a boost in the widely-circulated survey.

Click here to participate–and tell the truth. You do not need to be a chief executive.

State Representative Mike France announced Tuesday that he will seek the Republican nomination for Congress in the Connecticut’s Second District. If nominated, France is expected to face popular eight-term incumbent Democrat Joe Courtney.

France, whose 42nd district includes Ledyard, Montville, and Preston, was elected to the legislature in 2014. He is a Navy veteran and serves as the head of the House Republicans’ conservative caucus.

France’s statement:

“Watching Congress fail the American people is difficult for anyone to sit back and watch. Given my background in public service and service to my country, I felt compelled to run for many reasons, but it was the withholding of COVID assistance last Fall that got me into this race. While families suffered, with businesses shuttered, and our country holding on by a thread, Pelosi and her party withheld crucial, life-saving aid for what they now admit were entirely political purposes. We can disagree on the issues, even passionately at times, but that brazen and disgraceful act made clear to me that our representatives in Congress have forgotten that they are accountable to the people.”

“Bipartisanship and putting people first used to be hallmarks of good government. Today those traits seem too inconvenient for our members of Congress to even use as a sound bite. I am running for Congress to give the people of Connecticut’s second congressional district a voice in Washington that cannot be silenced by special interest or party pressure. I am proud to run on my track record of doing exactly that in the State Legislature and look forward to a competitive fight to win back the second congressional district for the people.” 

Second District Republicans have struggled to find a serious challenger to Courtney. France, 58, would be the first legislator to make the race in the district that includes all of the eastern region of Connecticut.