Free Republic

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid addressed a development, first reported by TPMDC, that Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) will filibuster a health care bill if it includes a public option. "Joe Lieberman is the least of Harry Reid's problems," Reid told reporters at his weekly press conference. During a Q&A session with reporters, Reid offered a fairly spirited defense of Lieberman, signaling perhaps that he doesn't believe Lieberman will ultimately be an obstacle--or at least that he doesn't want to tip his hat: "I don't have anyone that I've worked harder with, have more respect for, in the Senate than Joe...

An attorney for a Bloomfield man said Tuesday that his client has been charged with murder in connection with the death of UConn football player Jasper Howard. Attorney Deron Freeman said his client, John William Lomax, was charged Tuesday morning with murder in connection with Howard's death. Freeman maintained his client's innocence in Howard's death.

NEW HAVEN — Bringing an African-American-run bank to the city is part of the next frontier for the Greater New Haven branch of the NAACP in its efforts to bring economic stability and prosperity to the urban community, said branch president James E. Rawlings. “Most banks here are national banks with no local flavor,” Rawlings said. “We need a bank more in line with the needs of urban America.” Rawlings cemented the goal following an NAACP economic summit Oct. 17 and has a bank in mind: Carver Federal Savings Bank, now with several branches in New York City. Among the...

Money talks. Wasn’t there, don’t know, didn’t have the grand to buy my way in. But that’s what is being reported today. At a $1000 a plate they were hoping to raise a cool mil from, ummm, uhhh, bankers and hedge fund managers. “We came very close to a Great Depression,” he said, adding that the United States must never again be so close to disaster because of the action of reckless investors. “Join us, don’t fight us,” said Obama, singling out the financial executives in the room. “Join us in passing what are necessary reforms. It is important for...

University of Connecticut police say witnesses to the killing of football player Jasper Howard are being threatened with violence if they come forward with evidence. Maj. Ronald Blicher tells the student newspaper, The Daily Campus, that the threats are being made in Internet postings and police are looking into them. He says authorities are still urging people to submit videos, photos or other information. Howard, a Miami native and starting cornerback for the Huskies, was stabbed outside a university-sanctioned dance early Sunday, hours after helping his team to a homecoming game win over Louisville. A 21-year-old Hartford man, Johnny Hood,...

Do you put up a holiday tree or a Christmas tree?

Are we seeing the begining of the food police? Please. Stop. Just stop it. I’m not stupid. I know me Lucky Charms are not magic. I know Frosted Flakes are not …”Greaaaat” for you. I know Count Chocula isn’t a real monster and Tricks aren’t just for kids. Stop it pleaseeeeee. The federal government is wading into the supermarket aisle, making its first effort to provide better nutritional information on food products since it developed the black-and-white Nutrition Facts label 15 years ago.

House Democrats Lock GOP Out of Committee Room A bitter divide over Countrywide mortgage scandal. By JAMES FREEMAN Democratic staff for the House oversight committee informed their GOP counterparts today that the majority has changed the locks on the committee's hearing room. While Republicans previously enjoyed their own key to the room, they will now have to request access from Democrats. This followed a bitter partisan argument in which Republicans refused to take down a video from their website that contradicted Dem explanations about a closed-door meeting on the Countrywide VIP loan scandal. As we reported last week, the committee...

WATERBURY — Money manager Peter Schiff got a pass Tuesday from state Sen. Sam S.F. Caligiuri, R-Waterbury, only because nothing blameworthy came immediately to Caligiuri's mind. Caligiuri slammed every other rival for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate — as well as Democratic incumbent Christopher J. Dodd — during a morning news conference at Waterbury City Hall. "Peter Schiff, I don't know what he is doing in this race, and it remains to be seen what he is going to do and what he is going to be focusing on," Caligiuri said. He had plenty to say about the rest...

What the President Obama "stimulus" money created in the way of jobs in just one state, CT, as an example. Honestly I am not kidding … 20 jobs. Just to review: * $780 billion dollars in stimulus money, approved by Congress in February * Connecticut is awarded $47 million (hey we’re small state) * Connecticut has received through September $1 million * Total jobs created … 20. Yup, 20. But please, don’t take my word for it … straight from Recovery.gov . Click to enlarge......

STORRS, Conn. - A University of Connecticut football player has died following an on-campus stabbing, hours after the team’s victory over Louisville. Twenty-year-old Jasper Howard of Miami, a junior and starting cornerback, was stabbed during a fight early Sunday. His death was confirmed to The Associated Press by an administration official who requested anonymity because of the police investigation.

UConn Football Player Killed After On-Campus Stabbing Sunday, October 18, 2009 Jasper Howard The starting cornerback for the University of Connecticut football team died on Sunday after an on-campus stabbing just hours after the team's victory over Louisville, FOX61 reported. Jasper Howard The starting cornerback for the University of Connecticut football team died on Sunday after an on-campus stabbing just hours after the team's victory over Louisville, FOX61 reported. Jasper Howard, 20, was airlifted to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead, FOX61 reported. Howard was reportedly stabbed near the university’s student union at the center of campus at...

If you think moderate Democrats are afraid of voting for ObamaCare, you should see how they react to a potential vote on the Countrywide Financial loan scandal. The House oversight committee was scheduled to meet on Thursday afternoon to mark up several minor pieces of legislation. Days before the meeting, California Republican Darrell Issa notified committee Chairman Edolphus Towns that Mr. Issa would call for a vote to subpoena Countrywide documents from Bank of America, which bought the failed subprime lender last year. Recall that, under the "Friends of Angelo" program, named for former Countrywide CEO Angelo Mozilo, Democratic Senators...

New Haven (WTNH) - An African American New Haven firefighter has filed a federal lawsuit against the city over a promotion test. It's the first such suit following last summer's Supreme Court ruling which said city leaders were wrong to scrap the 2,000 test results because too few minorities would have been promoted. They're called the "New Haven 20" -- mostly white firefighters who sued for discrimination after the city threw out the results of a 2003 promotion exam. A landmark Supreme Court decision in June ruled in the firefighters favor. Now, an African-American firefighter, Michael Briscoe, is taking his...

Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) said Tuesday he will not support the healthcare bill set for a vote today in the Senate Finance Committee. Though Lieberman is not a member of the 23-member committee that is set to approve the preliminary legislation crafted by Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.), the Connecticut independent is one of a handful of key Senate centrists who are shaping the fate of health reform this year. "No, not the way it is now," Lieberman said during an appearance on "Imus in the Morning" on the Fox Business Network this morning when asked if he could support the...

Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) said Tuesday he will not support the healthcare bill set for a vote today in the Senate Finance Committee. Though Lieberman is not a member of the 23-member committee that is set to approve the preliminary legislation crafted by Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.), the Connecticut independent is one of a handful of key Senate centrists who are shaping the fate of health reform this year. "No, not the way it is now," Lieberman said during an appearance on "Imus in the Morning" on the Fox Business Network this morning when asked if he could support the...

ERNON - A man dressed as a ninja waving nunchucks on a street corner this morning was arrested and charged with breach of peace, police said. Police said they received numerous emergency calls about the man, who was standing on the corner of Route 83 and Regan Road at about 11 a.m. Police said Garland Eastman, 30, of 335 Center Road, was yelling about wanting to beat up U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman, among other diatribes, but he became polite and cooperative after officers started pulling out their bean bags and taser guns. He was released to Rockville General Hospital for...

Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) is ready to re-start a debate over domestic benefits to gay federal employees and their spouses. Lieberman told The Hill he hopes to push a bill onto the Senate floor by the end of the year that would grant the same benefits to gay federal employees and their spouses as given any married federal employee and their spouse. Benefits include federal health insurance, enhanced dental and vision care, retirement and disability provisions and life insurance and benefits in cases of death or disability. Members of the military would be excluded. Lieberman said he expects to hold...

(snip) "Every idea is on the table," said Foreign Relations Chairman John Kerry (D-Mass.), the lead sponsor of Senate climate legislation. "We're going to work in a bona fide way with everybody to see how to bridge a gap here. We've got to get a 60-vote margin. That means you've got to legislate, which means you have to compromise." Several moderate Senate Republicans, including John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, said they are in talks with Kerry and Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) on the nuclear language, as well as other key issues."A guy like Senator Kerry...

 Free-market Peter Schiff, who runs Euro Pacific Capital. He is now a potential Republican challenger to Sen. Chris Dodd in 2010.“I'm interrupting my career. It's not like I want my new career in politics. But I'm willing to interrupt it the same way that somebody interrupted their career and joined World War II and went off to fight the Nazis. I don't think that I'm that heroic, and I don't think I'm risking as much as a soldier. But it's the same principle,” Schiff said  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkBRmty7fKc 

SNIPPET: "NEW HAVEN — A 38-year-old man arrested after police discovered a pipe bomb, shotguns, gas masks and other items inside his Mercedes late Tuesday was arrested earlier this year on bombmaking charges in East Haven. John Iannucci was held at New Haven police headquarters for most of the day on a host of weapons and explosives charges. The arrest could likely complicate the situation on his current court case. He is due to appear in court on Oct. 22 on the East Haven charges of illegal possession of explosives and illegal bomb manufacturing. He was free on $25,000 bail...

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Police stopped a motorist driving a car full of explosives in Connecticut late Tuesday, FOX 61 reported. Police said the car was carrying pipe bombs, rifles and a propane tank when they found it in New Haven at 11:30 p.m.

Peter Schiff's day job is running Euro Pacific Capital, a Connecticut-based investment fund. But he's better known as the guy who called the housing collapse and recession back in 2006. Schiff, a hard-core free-marketeer and an adviser to Rep. Ron Paul (R-Tex.) during his 2008 presidential run, now moonlights as a cable news analyst and has become a YouTube fixture, thanks to the "Peter Schiff Was Right" mashups of his predictions. His latest job: seeking the Republican nomination to run against Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), chairman of the banking committee. Washington Post business reporter Frank Ahrens spoke with Schiff about...

The latest Quinnipiac Poll is out and it’s more bad news for Sen. Chris Dodd. Despite a public relations blitz that had him returning to Connecticut for what seems like the first time in years, and a statewide email and choreographed “shout out” from President Obama in the Rose Garden, (Rob Simmons) is still leading Dodd 45%-39%.

Send Correction Plainfield — An animal control officer was injured late Tuesday night when a pit bull lunged at her and knocked her to the ground. Animal Control Officer Theresa Foss, a 17-year veteran, responded to the call at the Roberts' residence at 270 Green Hollow Road about 10:48 p.m. after it was reported the dog would not let a resident exit the house. The dog alternated from the front and rear doors of the house, police said. The dog does not belong to the Roberts. The dog is described as a pit bull, white in color with some brown...

Do you support sending more U.S. troops to Afghanistan?

FAIRFIELD — - Standing in a commuter parking lot just off the Merritt Parkway Monday, Vice President Joe Biden spoke of the impact that stimulus spending is having on communities across the state. It wasn't a partisan rally — campaign signs were strictly forbidden, and since the subject was policy, not politics, Biden's appearance wasn't funded by the candidates — but the vice president nevertheless found a few moments to praise two of of the state's Democrats in Washington.

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...