Corruption news for Connecticut, from the Hartford Courant:

Critics have focused on news disclosures this year that some state "hazardous duty" employees — such as troopers, correction officers and prison nurses — inflate their salaries with overtime pay during the three years on which their pensions are calculated.

The state Senate Republican leader, John McKinney (pictured, right), in August called it an "abuse of Connecticut's public pension system." But newly obtained records show that, in effect, it's almost an essential part of that system — at least where hazardous-duty retirements are concerned. It's so widespread that at least four correctional workers have retired since Sept. 1 with overtime-pumped annual pensions that exceed their final year's base pay, public records show.

Read the rest of the story at the Hartford Courant.