EAST HARTFORD — Daniel Russo is an accomplished professional with several graduate degrees, but at age 57, after losing his job, he fears he will soon have to decide between paying the mortgage or his costly health insurance.

The Middletown resident was one of a dozen people who testified Wednesday at a listening tour sponsored by U.S. Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., who took testimony to bring back to Washington as the Obama administration works toward health care reform.

EAST HARTFORD — Blaming the failure to win universal health care in 1993 on a failure to listen to taxpayers, state officials led by U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., are touring the state to hear what people have to say.

Around 700 people came Friday to Goodwin College’s Riverside Campus hoping to get the inside story on a universal health care proposal from Dodd, one of the most senior members of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions.

It had been a week of winning - something Middletown resident Ethel Peltz said she has rarely done in her 80-something years - win things.

First she attended a December luncheon with Brad Davis and won a door prize - a nice bottle of white wine in a pretty cobalt blue bottle that everyone told her was just as nice as its contents.

WASHINGTON -- Three Wilton women urged President-elect Barack Obama and Congress Tuesday to enact legislation to protect disabled children from abusive seclusion and restraint practices in public schools.

Connecticut approved such protections in 2007, but a report released Tuesday by the National Disability Rights Network shows that about 40 percent of the states in the nation have no laws, policies or guidelines concerning restraint or seclusion use in schools.

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Chris Dodd hopes to bring the nation's next health care czar to Connecticut later this month as Democrats look to improve access and affordability to a system they have long sought to reform.

Dodd said Wednesday that former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle has agreed, if scheduling permits, to join him on a "listening tour" in Connecticut to hear what the state's insurance, businesses and health care leaders as well as ordinary citizens may recommend.

Groton - Politicians praised the Navy's decision to award Electric Boat a $14 billion contract to build the next eight Virginia-class submarines Tuesday, calling it an economic stimulus that will help Connecticut, Rhode Island, Virginia and states across the country that build submarine parts.

Electric Boat, with facilities in Groton and North Kingstown, R.I., and the Northrop Grumman Newport News shipyard in Virginia will jointly build one ship per year in 2009 and 2010, and two ships per year from 2011 through 2013 - a production increase that starts a year earlier than the Navy had originally planned.

A new $14 billion contract with General Dynamics Corp.'s Electric Boat unit and Northrop Grumman Corp. will double submarine production to two annually and save and create thousands of jobs amid the recession, officials said Tuesday.

Representatives of the U.S. Navy and the two companies, along with labor union leaders and members of Connecticut and Rhode Island's congressional delegations, hailed the contract at Electric Boat's shipyard in Groton. They called it critical to the region's economy and for national security as China and other countries build submarines..

NEW YORK (AP) — In some ways, conditions couldn't be better for those seeking to make family leave and paid sick days available to more American workers. In some ways, conditions could scarcely be worse.

The work/family cause now has ardent champions in President-elect Barack Obama and self-described mom-in-chief Michelle Obama, who says it will be among her top priorities. The strengthened Democratic majority in Congress is certain to lend a hand.

FARMINGTON — U.S. Sen. Christopher J. Dodd warned Saturday that the failure to develop comprehensive after-school programs places not just children, but the nation as a whole at risk.

Speaking before nearly 300 delegates of the Connecticut After School Network symposium, Dodd hailed their efforts and told the delegates he uses Connecticut’s programs “as a model for national after-school programs.”

WASHINGTON -- Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd said Thursday he would pursue legislation as early as next week to allow homeowners facing foreclosure to seek protection in bankruptcy court.

A similar effort failed earlier in the year, but Dodd, D-Conn., said he believes the political landscape has changed, given the growing number of foreclosures across the country.