Christine Stuart over at CTNewsjunkie proves why she needs to keep on hammering away at her reporting (and why we need to support her financially wherever possible).

 

Yesterday, she and Colin Poitras of the Hartford Courant attended the same Judiciary Committee hearing of the CT State Legislature. She had the bill about me. He didn't.

 

Together, they covered the hearing from top to bottom, and that is the role of a free press. This is a valuable lesson as to why we need more than one main newsgathering organization, because one reporter will never create the whole picture.

 

Christine reported this:

The Judiciary Committee voted 32 to 9 in favor of a bill that would give a legislative committee oversight of law enforcement activities and lists like the one Ken Krayeske showed up on before his arrest at Gov. M. Jodi Rell’s inaugural parade.

Judiciary Committee Co-Chairman Michael Lawlor, D-East Haven, said law enforcement must articulate why they think a person is going to commit a crime. In Krayeske’s situation one of the criteria state police used for considering him a threat to the governor was the fact that he was “campaign manager for the Green Party,” Lawlor said quoting the two-page color brochure state police distributed to local police.

The legislation that will now go onto the House is a combination of HB 7390 and HB 6249.

And she quoted a bunch of legislators explaining why they voted for or against the bill. Poitras, in his roundup called "Judiciary Panel Cleans Its Legislative Plate," reported this:

An bill [sic] that would have allowed adults who were adopted as children to obtain a copy of their birth certificate upon reaching the age of 21 failed to pass muster with a key legislative committee Friday.

The adoption rights bill was one of more than a dozen important pieces of legislation the General Assembly's judiciary committee processed in the past two days in a rush to finish business before its 5 p.m. deadline for moving proposals to the House and Senate for a vote.

Further on down, he summarized other bills the Committee dealt with:

Allow local police departments to issue protective orders in domestic violence cases when courts are closed during the week and on weekends.

Increase fines for illegally parking in spaces for the disabled from $85 to $150 for first offenders.

Bar convicted sex offenders from living within 1,000 feet of a school or day-care center.

Bills that failed to get committee support included:

Extending the statute of limitations in child molestation cases from 30 to 40 years.

Prohibiting motorists from smoking while driving with young children in the car.

Creating a new "right of privacy" to protect the words and images of Connecticut celebrities like Paul Newman from being used without their permission.

Colin has a history of excellent reporting on DCF, CJTS and juvenile matters. So I can't understand his ommission. I guess I just have to come to terms with the fact that I'm not the flavor of the month anymore.