Jon Lender
Hartford Courant
Hartford, CT, United States
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Past articles by Jon:
Impending layoff draws ire from retirement authority’s $175K director — who says: ‘You got to be kidding me’
The financially troubled Connecticut Retirement Security Authority’s board of directors voted Monday to approve a severance package to offer its executive director, Mary Fay, including four weeks’ pay beyond the salary she’ll receive through her last day of work, Jan. 16. She wasn’t happy about it. → Read More
Jon Lender: From auditors’ criticism to a $45,000 fine for election law violations, Dillon project keeps spawning problems
The hits keep coming on the reconstruction of Hartford’s Dillon Stadium in Colt Park. On Wednesday, Bruce Mandell, CEO of the stadium’s new tenant, Hartford Sports Group, was fined $45,000 by the State Elections Enforcement Commission for making illegal campaign contributions in 2018, many of them in the names of his wife and college-age daughter, to Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob… → Read More
Jon Lender: New state ethics director chosen for shrinking watchdog agency
Scientists say the universe is expanding, but not the part of it that includes Connecticut’s watchdog agencies whose job is to uphold government ethics, freedom of information and election laws. This glaring reality glares brighter with the hiring of a new executive director at the Office of State Ethics to replace Carol Carson, who is retiring next week. The office had 21 employees when Carson… → Read More
Jon Lender: State-subsidized firm bounces 97 checks — as it’s supposed to be recovering from bankruptcy
A Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition in January 2018 was supposed to be a momentary “bump in the road” on a quick return-trip to profitability for Windsor Marketing Group (WMG) of Suffield, the recipient of $3.5 million in state taxpayer-funded economic development loans since 2009. Company owner Kevin Armata predicted a short-term cash-crunch would soon end, and WMG would reorganize and refinance… → Read More
Doctor sentenced to 3 months in compounded medicine case that defrauded Connecticut taxpayers for $877,882
A physician was sentenced to three months in prison Wednesday in U.S. District Court in New Haven for her part in a scheme with her husband to defraud Connecticut’s state-employee prescription benefit plan out of $877,882, by submitting tainted prescriptions in 2014 and 2015 for expensive “compound medications” produced by a Mississippi-based pharmacy. → Read More
Jon Lender: State law lets towns, agencies charge you $20 to use your smartphone to snap a photo of a document
Gannon Long, a Hartford political activist and onetime legislative candidate, started using her iPhone to snap pictures of a few pages of public records she had asked to see in the corporation counsel's office of Hartford City Hall about a week ago, but then was interrupted by a member of the legal staff. "Oh, you're taking pictures? I'm sorry, but you have to pay a $20 if you want to do that,"… → Read More
Jon Lender: Bills may reopen highway rest area buildings 24/7 and get rid of portable toilets
For a while, it seemed that they might need to change Connecticut’s tourism slogan from “Still Revolutionary” to “Simply Revolting,” and replace the “trio of grape vines” on the official state seal with three overflowing portable toilets.This was in late 2016, when state spending constraints prompted shutdown of rest room buildings for 17 out of 24 hours each day in seven pull-off areas along… → Read More
Jon Lender: Bills would stop legislators from charging taxpayers for mileage when they’re passengers, not drivers
Several bills have been introduced in Connecticut that would get rid of state legislators' controversial perk of hitting up taxpayers for mileage payments even when they're not driving their cars — and of including those payments in the calculation of their pensions. → Read More
Ex-Farmington councilman Jon Landry has case surrounding extramarital relationship with teen continued
Ex-Farmington councilman Jon Landry made a brief appearance in Superior Court Friday in the criminal case surrounding his years-long extramarital relationship with a young Newington woman starting when she was a teenager. → Read More
Jon Lender: Campaign contributions investigation lingers over Dillon Stadium soccer promoter
A state investigation of tens of thousands of dollars in potentially illegal campaign contributions continues to hang over the mostly state-funded project to rebuild and revive Hartford’s long moribund Dillon Stadium in Colt Park as the home of a new United Soccer League expansion team, Hartford Athletic, that is being assembled by the local Hartford Sports Group (HSG) partnership. → Read More
Jon Lender: DMV faulted for lax background checks on instructors of young drivers
The state Department of Motor Vehicles has slipped up during recent years on assuring that criminal background checks were performed on teachers at commercial driving schools who take teenagers out on the road for behind-the-wheel instruction, according to a report by state auditors. → Read More
Jon Lender: Scandal fallout includes plan to school education officials on proper state contracting
The aftershocks keep coming from a 2017 scandal that led to the resignation of Nivea Torres as superintendent of the Connecticut Technical High School System, after her agency paid millions of taxpayer dollars to a local marketing firm in a three-year spending spree later branded as illegal. → Read More
Lamont Leads Stefanowski In Connecticut Governor's Race With All But New Haven Counted
Connecticut voters went to the polls Tuesday to elect the state's next governor. → Read More
Jon Lender: Will Malloy Appointees Land In Political Lifeboats — Or Cash In — As He Leaves?
Political appointees in the administration of Democratic Gov. Dannel P. Malloy are finding civil-service jobs that will let them remain on the state payroll and receive lifetime retirement benefits. → Read More
DMV, In Campaign Crosshairs, Announces Changes Aimed At Cutting Wait Times For Licensing
The state Department of Motor Vehicles Friday announced plans to expand its "DMV Express" license-renewal program with three new locations aimed at cutting customer wait-times, which have stubbornly persisted and drawn heavy criticism from both the Republican and Democratic candidates for governor. → Read More
Wife Of Ex-Farmington Council Member Jon Landry Files For Divorce
The wife of former Farmington town council member Jon Landry, who faces charges of harassing a teenage girl with whom he allegedly had an extramarital affair, has filed for divorce → Read More
Jon Lender: Taxpayers Hit With $879K Cost Of Latest Legislators' Mailings That Critics Call Political
Democrat Lawrence Jaggon felt he was leading Rep. Brandon McGee, D-Hartford, in the 5th House District race for the Aug. 14 primary, but then came a wave of taxpayer-funded "informational" pamphlets that incumbent legislators get to send constituents in July. "That mailer hurt me a lot," he said. → Read More
Jon Lender: Legislative Caucus PACs Turn Up Heat For Checks From Lobbyists And Their Clients
It never ends, ever. Votes in Tuesday’s primaries had barely been counted when the state House Democrats sent a mass email Wednesday to Capitol lobbyists and individual donors, soliciting their contributions at eight fundraising events from Aug. 27 to Sept. 27 for three of the Democrats' PACs. → Read More
'Funneling Funds', 'Living In Glass Houses': A Senate Primary Campaign Ends In Sharp Words
Questions about campaign tactics — whether they're alleged to be illegal, or even just unseemly — have risen in the summer heat leading up to Tuesday's primary elections. A case in point is the contest between Democratic state Reps. Antonio Guerrera and Matt Lesser in the 9th state Senate District. → Read More
Ganim Cries Foul, Saying Top Democrats Secretly Aided Lamont's Canvassing Efforts
Democratic gubernatorial challenger Joe Ganim said Friday that an internal legislative campaign document shows that high-level state Democrats have secretly — and possibly illegally — assisted party-endorsed Ned Lamont in voter-canvassing efforts toward Tuesday’s primary. → Read More