Free Republic

Pretty former "Late Show" staffer Stephanie Birkitt revealed in her diary that she continued having sex with boss David Letterman even after moving in with her CBS-producer boyfriend, who later allegedly tried to extort him over the affair, sources told The Post yesterday. Letterman and Birkitt enjoyed romantic hikes last fall at his sprawling ranch in eastern Montana -- where he was married in March -- while her boyfriend, "48 Hours Mystery" producer Robert "Joe" Halderman, stayed home in Connecticut, the sources said. Late Show with David Letterman staffer Stephanie Birkitt. At the time, Birkitt, 34, insisted to Halderman that...

HARTFORD -- Five Republicans are running for U.S. Senate, but all are acting as though they have only one opponent -- Democratic incumbent Christopher J. Dodd. The GOP hopefuls have had little to say publicly about each other at this early stage of a long, expensive primary campaign. State Sen. Sam S.F. Caligiuri, R-Waterbury, even welcomed wrestling promoter Linda McMahon and financial adviser Peter Schiff into the race last month. Thomas Foley, a former U.S. ambassador to Ireland, also cheered McMahon's announcement. "When I got in, I knew it would be a fight, but I didn't know I'd need to...

Attorney General Richard Blumenthal and Healthcare Advocate Kevin P. Lembo asked Aetna Inc., ConnectiCare Inc., Anthem Health Plans of Connecticut, HealthNet of Connecticut and UnitedHealth Group for information the companies may have sent regarding the impact of proposed legislation on Medicare Advantage and prescription drug programs.

From Ken Vogel's report on the filmmaker's wide-ranging press conference today: Moore also called out Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), who supports the public option, but whose role in financial regulation as chairman of the Senate banking committee comes in for criticism in “Capitalism.” Speaking to Public Citizen, Moore said, “we’re going to lose this seat unless we run another Democrat” and said he’d “already received a phone call from a well known Democrat to tell me to back off Sen. Dodd.”

<p>Waterbury (AP) - Police in Connecticut say a Waterbury officer's .40-caliber pistol somehow ended up in the hands of criminals and has been linked to five shootings in the New Haven area.</p> <p>The Republican-American of Waterbury reports that arrest warrants have been issued for Sgt. David Setzer, who is expected to turn himself in at the New Haven police department Wednesday.</p>

Video Presentation Use the comment section on each of the videos if you have an opinion. THE SECOND - The Legislation. Under STORIES. Propaganda piece for the Brady bunch and CCAGV. Note reference to upcoming legislation. On the DATA page you may have to Right Click to open.

Economically beleaguered Michigan faces a possible government shutdown - shuttering highway rest areas, state parks, construction projects and the state lottery - if lawmakers fail to reach a budget deal in the next few days. The state with the nation's highest unemployment rate has a nearly $3 billion shortfall. Federal recovery act money will fill more than half the gap, but the spending cuts or tax increases needed to fill the rest have caused bitter infighting at the state Capitol. Michigan is one of just two states whose budget year starts Oct. 1. The other, Alabama, already has a spending...

On Facebook last week, an enraged "friend" who shall remain nameless lashed out wildly in her status report against Raymond Clark III, the man accused of murdering Yale University student Annie Le earlier this month. My pal evidently wanted all of her Facebook friends to know that she wanted Clark executed now, right away, for the heinous crime for which he has been charged. Never mind that Clark hasn’t yet been tried, much less convicted; never mind that he’s not yet been convicted, never mind sentenced. Never mind that my “friend” lives 3,000 miles away from Connecticut and wouldn’t know...

Talk about a hit song. Six Connecticut women are facing assault charges for attacking a Westchester County woman for her amateurish karaoke performance at a bar, police said Friday. Leidy Alcantara, 25, was singing "A Dios Le Pido" by Colombian superstar Juanes on Wednesday night when suspect Kiana Strickland, 20, began heckling her, cops said. "I was singing the song in Spanish, and some girl said I was very annoying," Alcantara told the Daily News. "I didn't know she was talking to me, and I said, 'Excuse me, are you talking to me?'" "'Yeah, you're very annoying,'" Alcantara quoted Strickland...

NEW LONDON — Weeds, glass, bricks, pieces of pipe and shingle splinters have replaced the knot of aging homes at the site of the nation’s most notorious eminent domain project. But what of the promised residential housing, office buildings, shops and hotel/conference center facility that were supposed to come wrapped and ribboned with up to 3,169 new jobs and $1.2 million a year in tax revenues? Proponents of the ambitious plan blame the sour economy. Opponents call it “poetic justice.” “They are getting what they deserve. They are going to get nothing,” said Susette Kelo, the lead plaintiff in the...

NEW BRITAIN — - State utility regulators on Thursday, stepping deep into the operations of private business, forbade two natural gas companies from laying off 67 Connecticut workers as they decide whether the job cuts would jeopardize customer service or public safety. The Department of Public Utility Control issued a temporary order preventing the layoffs at Connecticut Natural Gas and Southern Connecticut Gas — and asked the companies to provide detailed answers about the job cuts' consequences. It was unclear Thursday whether a state agency has ever before prohibited a private firm from executing layoffs. Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, who...

Connecticut's junior senator, Joe Lieberman, is gearing up for the 2012 reelection campaign but how the now-independent runs is anyone's guess. The senator told Politico that he might run as a Democrat, or an independent, then again --“Or a Republican,” Lieberman added, jokingly. “I have all sorts of options.” Lieberman's been left, right and center. When he was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1988, he was a Democrat and ascended to the party's number two slot as a vice presidential candidate in 2000. But then, that party train derailed when Ned Lamont beat Lieberman in the 2006 Democratic primary....

Westchester homeowners are shelling out more in property taxes than residents of any other county in the nation, according to a study of new census data released yesterday. The median tax bill in the suburban county hit $8,890 last year -- more than four times the national figure, according to a study by Tax Foundation senior economist Gerald Prante, based on the federal data. The average homeowner in Westchester makes $110,520 per year, and gives a full 8 percent of that to the government for property taxes. But Westchester residents aren't the only New York-area homeowners forking over huge amounts...

Just about everyone in Connecticut wishes Pratt & Whitney would keep its Cheshire and East Hartford plants open, with their 1,000 good-paying jobs, 3,000 to 6,000 jobs indirectly related to Pratt's operations, lavish tax payments to local and state government, and all of the other benefits such employers bestow on their communities. But do Connecticut residents really believe it's acceptable and appropriate to chain Pratt to the state? Is this the impression they want to give present and future businesses— once you're in our clutches, you have to stay here or we'll tie you up in federal court? Worse still,...

Jet engine maker Pratt & Whitney says it will eliminate 1,000 jobs in Connecticut by 2011 as it transfers work to Georgia and Asia.

'A throwback to Hitlerian racism." A recent description of public debate in the eighth circle of polemic hell? No, that was the Rev. Jesse Jackson hurling an accusation at Democratic presidential aspirant Jimmy Carter 33 years ago. Vitriol wasn't invented this summer. Carter incensed Jackson during his 1976 presidential campaign when the former Georgia governor declared "there's nothing wrong with ethnic purity being maintained" in a neighborhood. It was as jarring a phrase then as it is now, but Carter was in search of votes among the white ethnic urban Democratic primary voters hostile to government housing programs that brought...

The Yankee Republican became an endangered species in Washington, D.C., last fall with the defeat of U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays, the lone survivor of the breed in Connecticut's congressional delegation. Although the state still had a popular Republican governor, the party's national aspirations seemed to have taken flight for more hospitable territory. A scant 10 months later, the GOP in Connecticut is back with what promises to be a raucous and costly fight to unseat a politically vulnerable U.S. Sen. Christopher Dodd. The party, which hasn't mounted a credible challenge to the Democratic incumbent in years, now has a field...

Two high-profile entrenched New England Democrats -- Senator Christopher Dodd of Connecticut and Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts -- have new challengers. Republican Peter Schiff, a broker, financial pundit, and supporter for Ron Paul, is in an increasingly crowded Republican primary for Dodd's seat. "He inherited the seat," Schiff said of Dodd today on Fox Business Network. It's like he's living in the House of Lords." (snip) Meanwhile, Republican Keith Messina, a mechanical engineer, announced today he's running against Frank in the Fourth Congressional District of Massachusetts. In a statement, Messina promised a "fresh perspective," pledged to focus on jobs,...

New Details Emerge About Clark's PersonalityRaymond Clark is spending his first full day in a high-security prison, refusing to talk to cops about the crime for which he stands accused: the killing of Yale grad student Annie Le. But a picture of Clark is emerging as an overbearing "control freak" who was upset with Le's handling of the mice in the lab where they both worked. Clark's co-workers at a Yale University laboratory told police that Clark would have confrontations with scientists and viewed the lab as his territory, a source told The Associated Press, leading police to question if...

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) - As police charged a Yale animal lab technician with murdering a graduate student who worked in his building, a portrait began to emerge Thursday of an unpleasant stickler for the rules who often clashed with researchers and considered the mice cages his personal fiefdom.

Lab Tech's DNA Matched Evidence In Annie Le Slaying, Source Says Raymond Clark III, whose DNA matched evidence at the Yale crime scene, tried to cover his tracks, a source says. By Alaine Griffin, Dave Altimari and David Owens September 18, 2009 Reporting from New Haven, Conn. - As FBI agents and Yale University police combed the basement of a laboratory building for missing bride-to-be Annie Le, the man accused of killing her moved among them in an apparent effort to cover his tracks, a law enforcement official familiar with the investigation said. That behavior aroused suspicions about Raymond Clark...

A middle path of muddling through is the real recipe for quagmire and loss of public support. BY LINDSEY GRAHAM, JOSEPH I. LIEBERMAN, & JOHN MCCAIN Growing numbers of Americans are starting to doubt whether we should have troops in Afghanistan and whether the war there is even winnable. We are confident that not only is it winnable, but that we have no choice. We must prevail in Afghanistan. We went to war there because the 9/11 attacks were a direct consequence of the safe haven given to al Qaeda in that country under the Taliban. We remain at war...

Yale grad student Annie Le's accused killer has been tossed into solitary confinement in a Connecticut jail, where he has been somber and silent, an official told the Daily News Thursday. Raymond Clark 3rd is being held in the private unit at the New Haven Community Correctional Center for his own protection. "He is in solitary confinement for his own safety because of the nature of his crime," Lt. John Bernard told the News. "We don't know who is out there maybe waiting to take action against him." In his first few hours behind bars, the 24-year-old Clark has looked...

Peter Schiff, a Waterbury money manager, author and financial pundit, today used "Morning Joe" as the platform from which to launch his much-anticipated bid to challenge Sen. Christopher Dodd. The announcement came as no great surprise. There have been multiple reports, it was teased on a twitter feed and a grassroots group of California liberatarians have been pushing for Schiff to run for months. "Smashed your TV? Fix it and tune into Morning Joe at 8:15 tomorrow morning!," Schiff tweeted yesterday afternoon. A Web site for Schiff's campaign is already up and running.

"As for Linda McMahon, conservatives may find her political donation record more than troubling. She donated an astounding $15,000 to the Democratic National Campaign Committee between the years of 2006-2007. She also has donated $7,800 to Rahm Emanuel, the same Emanuel who is President Obama’s chief of staff and leading the charge on the Obama administration’s liberal agenda. It may only be a matter of time before McMahon is labeled a political opportunist."

Senate Smackdown: McMahon Running Against Dodd Chief executive officer of World Wrestling Entertainment Inc. says she's seeking the Republican nomination to run against Dodd. AP Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal is asking a federal judge in New York to amend a proposed $125 million settlement that would allow Google Inc. to create a huge online library of millions of books, claiming the agreement clashes with state laws

Laboratory Technician Murdered Yale Student, Police Believe Police suspect a laboratory technician murdered Annie Le, a Yale University postgraduate student whose body was hidden inside the wall of a campus building, investigators have claimed. By Tom Leonard in New York 15 Sep 2009 The technician, who reportedly worked in the same molecular biology laboratory building as Miss Le, had failed a polygraph test this week and had wounds on his chest suggesting a violent struggle, police sources told various news organisations. The body of Miss Le, 24, was discovered on Sunday – the day on which she was supposed to...

World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) CEO Linda McMahon appears primed to run for Senate in Connecticut and should make an announcement very soon, according to sources with knowledge of her deliberations. “A decision is imminent, and she will likely make a decision over the next couple of days,” said a Republican strategist. “It will be made sooner rather than later.” One well-placed source said McMahon is “99 percent” in. Another said the announcement could come as early as Wednesday. The second source noted that she has done polling on the race and hired consultants Mike Slanker and Patrick Sullivan. She has...

Thursday, September 10, 2009 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- HOMELAND INSECURITY WorldNetDaily Exclusive Synagogue holding services with Muslims Interaction comes after canceling seminar on dangers of radical Islam -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted: September 10, 2009 8:53 pm Eastern -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WorldNetDaily Beth El Synagogue in New London A group that presents seminars on the threat of radical Islam is raising alarm that a synagogue that previously canceled one of its programs, Congregation Beth El in New London, Conn., now plans to celebrate Ramadan with local Islamic leaders tied to extremist groups. "In 2008, I found it appalling that Jewish organizations including the [Jewish Federal of Eastern Connecticut]...

World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) CEO Linda McMahon appears primed to run for Senate in Connecticut and should make an announcement very soon, according to sources with knowledge of her deliberations. “A decision is imminent, and she will likely make a decision over the next couple of days,” said a Republican strategist. “It will be made sooner rather than later.” One well-placed source said McMahon is “99 percent” in. Another said the announcement could come as early as Wednesday.

World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) CEO Linda McMahon appears primed to run for Senate in Connecticut and should make an announcement very soon, according to sources with knowledge of her deliberations. “A decision is imminent, and she will likely make a decision over the next couple of days,” said a Republican strategist. “It will be made sooner rather than later.” One well-placed source said McMahon is “99 percent” in. Another said the announcement could come as early as Wednesday. The second source noted that she has done polling on the race and hired consultants Mike Slanker and Patrick Sullivan. She has...

<p>New Haven (WTNH/AP) - The medical examiner has positively identified a Yale graduate student whose body was found stuffed behind a wall in a high-security laboratory building at Yale University.</p> <p>Dr. Wayne Carver says 24-year-old Annie Le's death is a homicide. He says he's temporarily withholding the cause of death "in order to facilitate the investigation."</p>

NEW HAVEN, Conn. - Police have identified a suspect in the killing of a person whose body was found stuffed behind a wall in a high-security laboratory building at Yale University, law enforcement sources told NBC News on Monday. The suspect, a student, has defensive wounds, and failed a polygraph test, the sources said. The body found Sunday in the Yale Medical School building is believed to be that of Annie Le, a 24-year-old native of Placerville, Calif. She was last seen in the building on Tuesday and Sunday was to have been her wedding day. An autopsy was being...

The 2008 presidential campaign may be over, but the "revolution" spawned by Rep. Ron Paul's candidacy continues to echo through the political world. Paul (R-Tex.), capitalizing on a healthy distrust of government and his strident opposition to the war in Iraq, became an Internet phenomenon -- using the Web to raise an astounding $35 million for his long-shot candidacy. The financial network Paul built during his campaign has, amazingly, continued to reap dividends for two men seeking to be the congressman's political heirs in the 2010 elections. Rand Paul, who is running for the Senate in Kentucky and is the...

WATERBURY — Arthur Caisse Jr. of Wolcott has been attending tea parties since the middle of April, and on Sunday afternoon he paced the down­town Green holding a hand­made sign at yet another one. “Throw the tax bums out” it read on one side, and “Dump Dodd” on the other. His small white dog, Fonzy, carried his own sign on his back. “It’s a dog gone shame,” the sign read. Arthur Caisse Sr., Caisse’s father, held a sign that said, “Enough is Enough.” About 200 people attended the tea party, organized by the Rat Pack Motorcycle Club. It was the...

The Bridgeport Tea Party was an awesome success!! It was amazing to see so many people gathered, despite the pouring rain, to speak out for what they believe!! People young and old came bearing signs that said things like: "Don't Bankrupt My Kids," "Freedom Not Socialism" and "T.E.A. Taxed Enough Already!" Ann Coulter headlined the event (video below) and gave a great speech taking on Obama's plan for socializing healthcare.... For the rest of the story and the video click here: http://www.examiner.com/x-11692-New-Haven-County-Independent-Examiner Video is under the headline: "Bridgeport Tea Party Speaks Truth to Power"

Police in Connecticut on Sunday said they found what they believe is the body of a Yale University graduate student and bride-to-be hidden inside the wall of a university building where she was last seen five days before. ... State police found the body at around 5 p.m. Sunday in an area of the building that houses utility cables that run between floors.

No more details FBI says they believe they have found remains of Annie Le between the walls of a Yale University building

New Haven police just held a news conference. Saw on Fox News. They found the young woman's body at the Hartford Incinerator.

Gee! Guess where a reporter is coming from if he uses the vulgar and childish term "tea-bagger" when referring to tea party protestors?Anderson Cooper was among the first "journalists" who used the "tea bagging" term back in April. Despite his initial glee over injecting "tea bagging" as often as possible into his comments on the tea party protests, Cooper was eventually forced to apologize for his highly unprofessional use of that term. Although the use of "tea bagger" has now become generally recognized as the mark of liberal unprofessionalism it does keep creeping back into stories such as a few...

Callers yesterday put the number at anywhere from 1000 to 2000 and the Courant is reporting 1500 (more on that article in another post). Amazing considering the rain and the time of day. You make a little mobster proud. RVO Chatter Darlene (and now official Tea Party reporter) sent me these pics (via her Facebook page) from yesterday’s Tea party in Hartford. You can see more there. Sorry I could not be there but … well … I was working. But it looks like “a good time was had all all.” Rain was not about to stop New England patriots...

The H/T goes to Sound off Connecticut regular Jim Geraghty over at National Review, but the credit all goes to the Senior Senator. Rasmassusen reports he still trails Rob Simmons badly. Heck, he trails everyone badly. Quote of the day."Typically, when an incumbent polls below 50%, they are considered potentially vulnerable. Dodd certainly falls into that category."

Extreme, fringe, and tea-baggers … this is what your Senator thinks of all of you. And the very fact that he has had to resort to using fowl sexual language to describe his constituents gives you a good indication of the state of his campaign. Chris Dodd won’t improve his chances of re-election with talk like this. In one easy to read statement, Dodd’s campaign manager called hard working constituents Extreme, fringe, and tea-baggers. High School!

Bloody clothes found at student’s lab, police say Missing Yale graduate student was set to get married Sunday in N.Y. Sept . 12, 2009 NEW HAVEN, Conn. - Investigators discovered bloody clothes at a Yale University laboratory building where a 24-year-old graduate student went missing just days before her wedding, NBC News confirmed. Items were found in a ceiling inside the building, New Haven police told the Yale Daily News, the university newspaper. Authorities planned to release more details during a press conference Saturday. Police poured over blueprints and surveillance video footage that show Annie Le had swiped her identification...

Enclosed are some pics of members of the Connecticut Tea Party who attended a private lunch with Ann Coulter on 9/11 in Hartford, along with Freepers JimRob and Synchro

've decided to move out of the Sunshine State. It's a bit more chilly here than I had expected. Some may say good riddance, but I'm no longer willing to live in a place where I can't get married, can't adopt children and where there are no state laws to protect me from being fired because I'm gay. And so my partner Keith and I have decided to sell the house, load up the dogs and head north, toward a decidedly warmer climate. To those who visit here, Florida must seem somewhat schizophrenic. We sell ourselves as a great place...

The latest Rasmussen Reports statewide telephone poll finds that Republican challenger Rob Simmons leads Dodd 49% to 39% in an early look at next year’s potential match-up. Five percent (5%) say they’d prefer some other candidate, and six percent (6%) are not sure. While Simmons, a former congressman, is the strongest early challenger to the Democratic incumbent, there are several other Republicans in the running. Dodd finds himself essentially even with state Senator Sam Caligiuri, former U.S. Ambassador to Ireland Tom Foley and Peter Schiff, the high-profile president of Euro Pacific Capital. In each of those match-ups, Dodd earns between...

1,500 Turn Out For Conn. Tax Protest, Cheer Wilson Friday, September 11, 2009 Hartford, Conn. (AP) -- About 1,500 protesters rallied outside the state Capitol on Friday, denouncing President Barack Obama's health care reform plan and cheering the congressman who called him a liar during a nationally televised speech. The Tea Party Patriots rally was part of a national tour that began in California and will end in Washington, D.C. The group brings together conservatives upset over issues such as taxes, spending and the prospect of public health care. Organizer Mark Williams elicited cheers from the crowd when he referred...

Listen Live: Sound Off Connecticut with Jim Vicevich 9 a.m. to noon ET (Daily Thread)Sound Off Connecticut is a popular conservative/libertarian call in talk show hosted by Jim Vicevich weekday mornings from 9 a.m. to noon ET. Although based in Connecticut, the show welcomes callers from all over the United States! This is your chance to sound off America! Call into the show toll free (800) 966-9842! Listen to the LIVE AUDIO STREAM at http://wtic.com - it's free and NO registration is required! If you're in southern New England listen over the air to WTIC 1080 AM, the 50,000...