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Governor Ned Lamont clipped the wings of municipal leaders Friday. The governor’s Executive Order 7H prohibits municipal chief executives from issuing orders that conflicts with any order issued by Lamont.

The sweeping limitation serves sharp notice to Hartford’s mayor, Luke Bronin, that there is room for only one Greenwich Democrat to set policy in this urgent hour and it is the governor, not the attention-seeking mayor whose 2018 campaign for the Democratic nomination for governor fell flat. The tone of a Bronin-initiated call with other mayors early this week caused alarm among some participants and was quickly shared with Lamont’s office. The governor’s rebuke today reminds the relentlessly ambitious that pandemic is not a campaign planning event for a 2022 campaign.

This is important. If you or someone you know does not have health insurance, you can take advantage of the emergency enrollment period that began on Thursday, March 19th and concludes on Thursday, April 2nd.

You must call Access Health CT to enroll. It has been unable to accommodate this crucial change on its website. Call 1-855-909-2428 to enroll. You will be able to access any plan on the exchange, which are offered by Anthem and ConnectiCare.

This opportunity has received little attention in this fraught time. Legislators and others should use all available means to share this vital information with the public.

House of Representative leaders have infuriated members, staffers, lobbyists and others with their an announcement that a state representative has tested positive for COVID-19. The late Thursday afternoon message stated an unidentified member—belIeved to be a Democrat from northern Connecticut—became sick on Sunday and tested positive today, “which according to public health officials is outside the window of which we should be concerned….”

People who have been around the Legislative Office Building would like to rely on their own healthcare professionals, not a message extending hearts, prayers and good wishes and signed “Best, Joe, Matt, Themis.”

This is not transparency by any definition.

The Connecticut Food Association is asking towns to increase local police presence in their members’ grocery stores. Citing “altercations in store parking lots and unruly behavior in a handful of our stores” the association requests that municipal police chiefs “encourage police officers to come into stores and meet with local local owners and store managers who are on the front lines of seeing Connecticut” fed in these unsettling times.

Police in store parking lots would also help, according to the association. Or people could be polite in and out of grocery stores. We must not descend into a state of nature over pasta, ground beef, and toilet paper.

Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton continues his competent and calm leadership of the western Connecticut city. Boughton, who won a 10th two-year term in November, has directed that the city reserve 20 hotel rooms for police and firefighters to use if they become exposed to the coronavirus as they carry on their frontline duties. They first responders do not want to risk exposing family members by bringing the virus home.

Moore is a surprise. Stewart is not.

State Representative Themis Klarides (R-Florida) often complains about state spending. Anyone who has listened to her rhetoric through the years knows she hits the same notes in a narrow range. Klarides’s vote last week opposing Governor Ned Lamont‘s bloated bond package. Lamont abandoned his pledge to put the state on a “debt diet” that Klarides would support.

On the first—and normally the only—roll call vote on the proposal, Klarides was one of 21 votes against the bill. An hour later, the House voted again. One vote changed: Klarides’s. The 11 term incumbent Derby and Madison switched her vote from “no” to “yes” with no explanation. Klarides, at this hour of maximum danger for Connecticut is reported to have retreated to a warm climate for reflection or other pursuits.

The expanding threat of the coronavirus has caused the governors of Massachusetts and Rhode Island to close their state licensed casinos in the interest of the public safety. Connecticut’s two tribal casinos remain open and, it appears, defiant of state action.

Chuck Bunnell, chief of staff for the Mohegans, told the CTMirror.org that the tribe, which with the Mashantucket Pequots, enjoys a monopoly on casino gaming in Connecticut, is not “obligated” by Governor Ned Lamont’s emergency declaration banning events that cause more than 250 people to gather. “We’d certainly take that under consideration, but we’re not obligated by it,” Bunnell said, according to the Mirror’s Mark Pazniokas. “The state does not have jurisdiction here, but we work very closely together and have an agreement on communication.”

Bunnell’s you-have-no-power-here pronouncement to Lamont in this hour of collective risk does not apply, however, to the public roads into the casinos.

A short video criticizing Connecticut State Police has caused dismay in all ranks. The misogynist video screed bemoans allegedly declining standards which the filmmaker suggests includes the rise of women within the agency.

An internal investigation into the origins of the video has begun, Daily Ructions understands.

UPDATE: Brian Foley, executive assistant to James Rovella, Commissioner of the Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection (DESPP), tells Daily Ructions that troopers began receiving the video on Saturday. They reported it to commanders and others in the chain of command. Swift action followed. An internal affairs investigation confirmed that the video was sent by state trooper William Veras, a member from the force’s tactical team. Veras has been suspended for five days, removed from the tactical team, and transferred to Troop B in Canaan.