Free Republic

Frustrated Democrats have been asking the same question for months: When are the rich going to pay their fair share? State employee unions are also asking — broadcasting television commercials depicting wealthy fat-cats smoking cigars and brandishing brandy snifters as Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell has avoided tax increases on the rich and corporations. The unions have spent about $400,000 since February on radio, television and cable advertisements in their campaign for tax fairness. But Sen. L. Scott Frantz, R-Greenwich, says the rich are already paying their fair share. In fact, Greenwich paid more than 14 percent of the state's...

Milk—it does a body bad? Some Connecticut lawmakers seem to think so. The state legislature is considering a bill that would ban day care centers from serving whole milk or 2 percent milk to children. The move, according to the bill’s sponsors, is aimed at curbing childhood obesity—but opponents say the information is outdated. While the American Academy of Pediatrics put out a 2008 recommendation that children switch to low-fat milk after the age of 2 because they don’t need the fat content, others argue that the fat isn’t the dietary demon some claim. …

Paul Guaschino was driving Friday when a fellow motorist spotted an “Impeach Obama” bumper sticker on the 62-year-old Connecticut resident’s vehicle. According to cops, the other driver apparently did not appreciate the bumper sticker and “displayed his dislike by showing his middle finger.”

A professor at Eastern Connecticut State University (ECSU) was caught on audio telling his creative writing class that Republicans will close colleges if they prevail in 2014 and that “racist, misogynist, money-grubbing people” want to suppress the liberal vote. In a four-minute recording of a classroom lecture obtained by Campus Reform, Professor Brent Terry is heard strongly suggesting that conservatives are greedy racists who want to suppress the vote of anyone who might vote liberal. “It's absolutely possible that the Republicans will take over the Senate as well as the House. And we will live in a very, very, very...

Necessity has become the mother of invention for certain birds of prey looking for a place to lay their eggs and raise their young as their natural habitats are lost to development. Local ospreys, for instance, are getting creative about selecting nesting sites in the wild ... or not-so-wild sites in the area. Pairs of ospreys, one of North America's largest birds of prey with a wing span of up to six feet, are currently building nests in densely developed sites in the region. One of the couples is weaving branches together atop a utility pole along busy Post Road...

Yale’s Agony Over Social Justice The unsettling pro-life witness by Matthew Gerken 4 . 17 . 14 Last night Yale’s campus pro-life group—after a year in which they participated in meetings and even helped raise money for the organization—became the first group in living memory to be denied membership in the Social Justice Network of Dwight Hall. Billing itself as an “independent” and “non-sectarian” center for public service and social justice, Dwight Hall at Yale is a group that seeks “to foster civic-minded student leaders and to promote service and activism in New Haven and around the world.” Though legally...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ircHCzcg3WY

A Milford man appears to be the first person charged after failing to comply with Connecticut’s law requiring the registration of certain firearms and standard capacity magazines: A 65-year-old man faces an array of charges after he allegedly shot a squirrel in his yard Monday morning. James Toigo, 258 Housatonic Dr., was charged with unlawful discharge of a firearm, cruelty to an animal, first-degree reckless endangerment, second-degree breach of peace, failure to register an assault rifle and three counts of possessing large-capacity magazines, according to a police press release. Police were directing traffic in the area of Housatonic Drive when...

At The Hobby Center in Danbury, Karl LaLonde, the store's owner, holds the Proto X in the palm of his hand. It's the size of a fairly healthy tarantula. LaLonde has decorated it with an orange piece of plastic shaped like a bird's beak. Switched on, its four tiny propellers spin. Under LaLonde's control via a joystick, it lifts off the counter and scoots around the store's airspace. The Proto X costs $50. "You can get a camera to fit it," LaLonde said. It's the smallest of the many UAVs -- unmanned aerial vehicles -- LaLonde sells. Business is good....

What steps will our federal and state governments take to reassert their dictatorial authority over a people who have become far too confident in an ability to defy their superiors? Will Barack Obama quietly authorize assault and battery, even the murder of a few unimportant Americans in order to intimidate an annoying, freedom seeking public back into line? According to the terms of New York’s Safe Act, April 15th was the final day by which “Assault Weapons” were to be registered with the state. But of an estimated 1-2 million rifles which have made paper felons of Empire State owners,...

A plan, now stealthily making its way through state legislatures with astonishing speed, would junk the Electoral College and award the presidency to the winner of the popular vote. The plan involves an Interstate Compact where states would commit to select electors pledged to vote for the national popular vote winner regardless of how their own state voted. When enough states pass this law, sufficient to cast 270 votes which is the majority of the Electoral College, it will take effect. So far, nine states and the District of Columbia, casting 136 electoral votes, have joined. This is halfway to...

<p>A Connecticut community college suspended a student veteran for his aggressive questioning of Democratic Gov. Dannel Malloy during a public forum, prompting a First Amendment advocacy group to condemn the college for its flagrant disrespect for free speech and due process.</p>

Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy (D) signed what the Hartford Courant called “the toughest assault weapons legislation in the nation” last year. It required owners of semi-automatic firearms to register all firearms designated as “assault weapons” with the state government, along with any “high capacity” magazines they may own, by December 31, 2013. The Malloy regime expected Connecticut residents to register somewhere between 372,000-400,000 firearms, and roughly 2 million firearm magazines that held more than 10 rounds before January 1. What they got instead was defiance.

Republicans, to be seen as a young and dynamic political party, must present a positive agenda that restores opportunity for social mobility and reforms the nation's immigration policies, former Florida governor and possible 2016 presidential candidate Jeb Bush said Thursday. Bush, appearing at a major fundraiser named after his late grandfather U.S. Sen. Prescott Bush, received loud applause from the crowd of nearly 800 Connecticut Republicans for his immigration reform stance.

STORRS, Conn. (AP) - University of Connecticut officials have suspended a sorority as they investigate allegations that its members forced men to drink booze, eat dog treats, paint their bodies, wear women's underwear and take alcohol shots off each other's bodies.

A natural gas pipeline stretching 435 miles across Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula is just one piece of General Electric’s multibillion-dollar bid to shore up energy infrastructure in North America, where an oil and gas boom has drawn a wave of investments to new pipelines. GE’s energy investing arm has more than $3 billion tied up in 43,500 miles of pipeline, the largest U.S. liquefied natural gas export facility and other energy transportation and storage ventures. But it has started to shift its attention to early-stage ventures as U.S. and Canadian pipeline operators collect billions for new projects that link remote shale...

Health Plan Premiums Are Skyrocketing According To New Survey Of 148 Insurance Brokers, With Delaware Up 100%, California 53%, Florida 37%, Pennsylvania 28%13 Health insurance premiums are showing the sharpest increases perhaps ever according to a survey of brokers who sell coverage in the individual and small group market. Morgan Stanley’s healthcare analysts conducted the proprietary survey of 148 brokers. The April survey shows the largest acceleration in small and individual group rates in any of the 12 prior quarterly periods when it has been conducted. The average increases are in excess of 11% in the small group market and...

BRANFORD -- There's a new keeper of the Kennedy flame. Ted Kennedy Jr. -- cloaking himself in the legacy of his father and uncles, from their familiar cadence to their crusade for social justice to their wavy hair -- finally acquiesced Tuesday to the overtures of Democrats who have long tried to lure the advocate for the disabled into running for office. The 52-year-old lawyer from Branford launched his candidacy for state Senate during a rally in his hometown, where retiring incumbent Edward Meyer introduced Kennedy as his heir apparent in what could become the most-watched race ever for the...

Mosin Nagant 91/30 (We don't need any stinkin' smart guns!)

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Ted Kennedy Jr. is planning to run for the state Senate in Connecticut. Two people briefed on the decision say the son of the late U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts will announce Tuesday that he intends to seek the Democratic nomination for the state's 12th District. They spoke on condition of anonymity because Kennedy wants to make the announcement. Kennedy is a 52-year-old health care lawyer who lives in Branford, a coastal town outside New Haven, and has been mentioned as a possible political candidate for years. He had said last month he was considering...