Free Republic

The holidays will be a little merrier for about 200 appointees of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and other constitutional officers: They are getting raises ranging from three percent to 12 percent at an annual cost of $1.4 million. The raises were announced by Ben Barnes, who oversees the budget as the secretary of policy and management. His salary jumps by 12 percent, from $186,999 to $209,439. All the raises take effect on Dec. 26. For Barnes and most of the other top officials, including the governor's chief of staff, Mark Ojakian, the raises are the first since joining the Malloy...

Startling evidence suggests that the Gun Control Act of 1968 was lifted, almost in its entirety, from Nazi legislation. snip... We are not the first to have seen this hearing record. But we appear to be the first to have recognized its importance. This hearing record suggests strongly that the late Senator Thomas J. Dodd (D-CT) himself implanted the Nazi Weapons Law into American law, or, at very least, helped others to do so. snip... This original article appeared in Guns and Ammo Magazine May 1993

(VIDEO-AT-LINK) Peg Brokaw, 95, had missed the early Saturday morning Mass at St. Rose of Lima, on Church Hill Road in Newtown, but said she would go inside and say a prayer, anyway. She has lived in this town a long time, and tells you her son is a retired policeman here, one who still directs traffic in front of the church occasionally. And because this was another December in Newtown, two years now since 20 children and six adults were shot dead inside Sandy Hook Elementary, because Peg Brokaw stood outside what became the church of small coffins in...

MILFORD, Conn. (Reuters) - Connecticut said on Wednesday that it will provide special driver's licenses for illegal immigrants starting next week to help stop them from driving the state's roads unregistered and uninsured. The move comes days after President Barack Obama issued an executive order protecting millions of undocumented immigrants across the country from deportation, which state officials said could boost participation in their drivers' license program. "There are many undocumented immigrants driving without a driver's license who aren’t insured or registered, and we believe making that possible is very important," said Mike Lawlor, Connecticut's undersecretary for criminal justice policy...

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) has a person in mind to replace outgoing Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel: Joe Lieberman. Cruz floated the former Connecticut independent senator as a “strong” option to succeed Hagel, who announced his resignation earlier Monday. President Barack Obama has not yet named a proposed replacement. “One strong option would be former Sen. Joe Lieberman, a member of the president’s own party with deep experience and unshakable commitment to the security of the United States,” Cruz said. “I urge the president to give him full and fair consideration for this critical position.”(continued)

A popular bike path became the scene of a gruesome murder late Thursday when a life insurance executive was killed while running near her Connecticut home. Melissa Millan, 54, a triathlete and mother of two, was found stabbed at about 8 p.m. in the Hartford suburb of Simsbury, Conn. Police have stepped up patrols of the bike path and scoured the area on Saturday, but no suspect has been named and the murder weapon has not been recovered, WFSB reported. Millan, a senior vice president who had been with MassMutual Financial Group since 2001, was transported to an area hospital,...

A university of Connecticut investigation into a confrontation between white fraternity students and women belonging to a black sorority is regaining momentum after new allegations about the incidents were raised at a recent student community meeting. The September incident involving a rock-painting dispute has already resulted in a one-month suspension and continuing probation for the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity for "intimidation and bullying," according to UConn officials. But at a Nov. 10 meeting at the university's African-American Cultural Center, the adviser to the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority made new allegations that fraternity members used racial and sexist slurs during the...

Republican lawmakers are already denouncing President Barack Obama's planned executive action on immigration and the idea of another government shutdown has been floated. But Connecticut Representative Rosa DeLauro says the gridlock is a product of her chamber in Washington. "The House has been recalcitrant. [It] refuses to do it because I believe [that] they believe that it is better to deal with gridlock, and not to move in any direction that the Senate has," said DeLauro. She complimented the Senate's ability to compromise on an immigration bill they eventually passed. When asked if Obama's executive action could result in more...

When it came time for the US Senate to vote on the Keystone XL Pipeline, Sen. Mary Landrieu’s (D-LA) “clout” did not have much of an impact on fellow Democrat senators. In fact, 35 of the senators who voted against the project were given campaign cash by Landrieu since the 2008 election cycle. Take a look here at the list of senators who don’t seem to acknowledge Landrieu’s “clout.” Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) $10,000 Sen. Richard Blumenthal (R-CT) $5,000 Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) $10,000 Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) $7,000 Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) $10,000 Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD) $3,500 Sen....

GROTON, Conn. — Authorities say two Navy civilian police officers have been wounded while confronting a knife-wielding man at a Connecticut base. Navy officials say an officer guarding the submarine base in Groton Thursday night fired shots at the man who allegedly had tried to enter through a pedestrian gate. Authorities say one officer was injured by the ricochet of bullets. The second officer suffered a minor stab wound to the leg. Both have been treated and released from a local hospital.

A teacher in Southington, Connecticut was pulled out of class after arriving drunk, wetting himself, then attacking a student. The police, however, were never called and no incident report has been filed. The teacher has not been fired, and at the moment, the school only confirms that he will be “investigated.” The school, Southington High School, sent out a letter to parents sugarcoating what happened. The document explained that the teacher, who has not been named, “Behaved in an unprofessional manner… and was removed immediately from the classroom.” Someone with knowledge of the incident in the school, however, says that...

This happened last Thursday in Connecticut. There is very little information released. Last week, a Spanish Teacher arrived in class (tardy), and was very obviously intoxicated. After entering the classroom of high school students, this teacher proceeded to (inadventantly) urinate in his clothing, and subsequently, onto the chair and classroom floor. The students were, of course filming this as it occurred, some laughing, some scowling in disgust. One student went up to the teacher to voice his opinion of what had just transpired. The 'teacher' showed neither contrition or discretion. The teacher got angry and confrontational, grabbing the student by...

The battleground was different in 2010, when Dannel P. Malloy and Tom Foley first fought to become governor. Linda McMahon and Richard Blumenthal were slugging it out in a high-finance senate race that drew a lot of attention. The economy was sputtering badly. Tom Foley's running mate was popular Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton. Sandy Hook -- and the gun control legislation that came out of it -- was more than two years away.

Poll monitors in Haddam, CT attempt to turn away Andrew Krzeminski and his brother on 11/4/2014 while attempting to vote with a CCDL shirt on. State police officer is called. Camera protects the voter's rights.

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi says she want to remain the top Democrat in the House, announcing she will run again for her leadership position.Her take on the massive pro-life election victory on Tuesday night is that Republicans won a victory because of “voter suppression.” The Washington Times has more: House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi asked her fellow Democrats to keep her on as their leader in the new Congress next year, saying she still has unfinished goals she wants to accomplish. She said the chief message she took from Tuesday’s election, which saw Democrats eviscerated at all levels, is...

Another underreported fact from Tuesday's election is the extraordinary night Republicans had in winning state legislative seats. The GOP now controls two thirds of state legislative houses – 66 of 99 (Nebraska's legislature is unicameral).  They upped the number of states where they control both house and senate to 24 – one more than they had before the election.  And according to this article in Vox, they cut the number of Democratic-held legislatures from 14 to 7. Republicans made historic gains in state legislatures in 2010. They held on in many states in 2012, or made up for losses...

NOTE: THIS ARTICLE WAS WRITTEN A FEW DAYS BEFORE THE NOV. 4, 2014 MIDTERM ELECTIONS.... ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ If you do not currently live in a red state, you probably will soon. Either you will (1) flee your blue state to a red one, or (2) you and your fellow blue-state citizens will get so fed up with the high taxes and fiscal irresponsibility that you will vote out the blue-state politicians and replace them with red-staters. U.S. Census data confirms that voters are leaving blue states for red ones. The top 10 destinations are North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Texas, Oklahoma,...

The office of Georgia's Secretary of State confirmed Tuesday that its website has been experiencing intermittent problems on Election Day. A website that provides poll location information was showing an error message earlier Tuesday. "We are experiencing difficulties with [our website]. Our IT folks are working on it. We're throwing resources at it to solve the problem," Jared Thomas, chief of staff and press secretary for the office, told CNN.

Connecticut conservative gubernatorial candidate Joe Visconti is dropping out of the race. Visconti, who was on the ballot as an Independent, is endorsing Republican challenger Tom Foley for governor. Visconti said he was exiting the race because he didn’t want to see Malloy re-elected. “If I can’t be governor, I want to help Tom be governor,” he said. Visconti, a big advocate of gun rights, had been urged by grassroots Tea Party activists who had been his supporters, as well as state Republican leaders, to get out of the race. He said he made his decision when he observed the...

By Rebecca Kaplan/CBS News/November 2, 2014, 5:01 PM Obama heckled at Connecticut rally A rally in Connecticut on Sunday proved that dragging down Democrats with his unpopularity isn't the only danger the campaign trail holds for President Obama: there are plenty of hecklers awaiting him too. The president repeatedly lost control of the rally as "Dreamers" -- young Hispanic activists -- interrupted his speech protesting lack of immigration reform legislation and the administration's high rate of deportations. His response: You're at the wrong rally.