Connecticut

President and Publisher of Random House Children's Books, Barbara Marcus, has announced the acquisition of the Now I'm Reading product line of books from innovativeKids, a Connecticut based toy and education company.

First launched in 2001, Now I'm Reading! is a step-by-step series that guides beginning readers from their first read-along book through the self-confidence of independent reading. Since it launched, it has taught more than three million kids how to read and is said to be among the premier learn-to-read programs available today.

Don't look now, but textbook publishers are trying to become software companies. And tech startups are trying to outmaneuver these giants to win the future of educational content and tools. It's one of the big trends in edtech and digital media.

Indeed, digital publishing has "fundamentally changed every aspect of what we are doing with our content," says Michael Hansen, the CEO of Cengage Learning, an education publisher that recently moved headquarters from Connecticut to Boston, while also opening a new office in techie-rich San Francisco.

After complaints from patrons about the lack of access to ebooks in libraries across the state, Connecticut lawmakers have passed a bill giving the state library's board of trustees authority to create a state-wide ebook collection, accessible by anyone with a Connecticut library card.

Along with the authority to create a system for ensuring all Connecticut library card holders can access a collection of downloadable ebooks, state legislators have also made the resources to do so available, earmarking $2.2 million in the state budget

A U.S. federal judge denied a bid by Apple Inc on Wednesday to hold off a trial in a case brought by state attorneys general accusing the company of conspiring with five major publishers to fix e-book prices.

U.S. District Judge Denise Cote in a brief order said the July 14 trial had already been postponed once and should go forward, paving the way for more than two dozen states to pursue hundreds of millions of dollars in damages.

I saw and heard something remarkable just a few hours ago, something I'm not likely to forget until all the mechanisms of remembering are shot and I’m tucked away for good. Philip Roth celebrated his eightieth birthday in the Billy Johnson Auditorium of the Newark Museum last night with the most astonishing literary performance I’ve ever witnessed. On his birthday night, he put on a farewell performance, a great burst of writing and sly self-display—a triumphal lope around the bases, like Ted Williams did on his last day…