Free Republic

HARTFORD - A broad coalition of environmental, economic, regional and construction groups urged Connecticut's gubernatorial candidates Tuesday to conduct a debate focused on transportation issues, and to consider higher taxes and tolls to pay for the state's dire transportation needs. The activists put out a four-point program they said the state's next governor must consider, and expressed concern about the possibility that massive federal funding for highways and mass transit might dry up in the next few years. The coalition's key issues are: •Making certain that state revenue that is supposed to be devoted to transportation - such as gas...

A pair of congressional Democrats pressed the White House Friday to move forcefully on regulations requiring calorie counts on restaurant menus. The Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) proposed rule mandates labels on restaurants, “similar retail food establishments” and vending machines to combat obesity by helping consumers make healthier choices. The regulations, a requirement of the Affordable Care Act, were first proposed in 2011 and drew hundreds of public comments. The proposal remains under review at the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Meanwhile, dozens of lawmakers have argued that the FDA’s proposed rule goes beyond congressional intent, warning...

Mashantucket — Acknowledging its failure to meet the terms of a loan agreement reached in July 2013, the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe, owner of Foxwoods Resort Casino, announced Thursday it’s exploring its options with senior lenders. In a news release issued shortly after 4 p.m., the tribe said it had entered into discussions “as a result of its failure to comply with certain financial covenants in the Credit Facility,” a reference to the agreement between the tribe and Bank of America, N.A. Scott Butera, Foxwoods’ president and chief executive officer, indicated he could not comment on the talks. Earlier in the...

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 watt...

The U.S. Navy’s shipbuilding crisis is demonstrating far-reaching effects on the nation’s economy and foreign policy goals. Take, for example, Ingalls’ recently closed composite-construction yard in Gulfport. First, the Coast Guard passed on composite deckhouses for its new class of fast-response cutters, going to a different design. When the Navy decided to transition from a composite deckhouse like on the first two Zumwalt-class destroyers to a steel one constructed at Bath Iron Works, that proved the knockout blow. The yard closed in July, putting 400 shipbuilders out of work, according to local TV station WLOX. The decision was announced last...

BRIDGEPORT -- Tom Foley, the Greenwich millionaire who is reprising his 2010 bid for governor, thinks the state spends too much on mass transit. He's critical of the 2013 firearms reforms following the Newtown school massacre. Red tape and regulations, he says, are stifling the business community; and Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's "corporate welfare" is rewarding successful companies that don't need the help. But the Republican frontrunner, who faces a primary Tuesday against state Senate Minority Leader John McKinney for the gubernatorial nomination, offered few details in a meeting Wednesday with the editorial boards of Hearst Connecticut Media, including the...

(CNSNews.com) - When asked if marijuana-infused food products should require federal labeling, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said consumers want accurate information “to make smart choices”. Currently, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) doesn’t enforce federal food safety standards on marijuana-infused food products that are available in the few states where marijuana has been legalized.During a conference call with lawmakers on FDA food labeling on Tuesday, CNSNews.com asked: “Given that the FDA currently doesn’t enforce any federal food safety standards on marijuana-infused foods and with a lot of states obviously changing their marijuana laws  -do you think they should require nutritional...

On a recent afternoon at his office in Hartford, Conn., Dr. Doug Gerard examines a patient complaining of joint pain. Gerard, an internist, checks her out, asks her a few questions about her symptoms and then orders a few tests before sending her on her way. For a typical quick visit like this, Gerard could get reimbursed $100 or more from a private insurer. For the same visit, Medicare pays less — about $80. And now, with the new private plans under the Affordable Care Act, Gerard says he would get something in between, but closer to the lower Medicare...

A former Hartford police detective was sentenced to six months of home confinement Monday after admitting that he stole $30,000 in pistol permit fees from the department. Federal prosecutors wanted Tishay Johnson, who was once shot while working undercover on a drug sting, to serve six months to a year in prison because they said he abused a position of public trust. "Here, Mr. Johnson corrupted his office and betrayed the trust placed in him by the people of the City of Hartford," federal prosecutors said in written arguments. "He used his position to enrich himself at the expense of...

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 watt Connecticut powerhouse! Are you outside of Connecticut? Start your day off listening to Jim...

NEW HAVEN -- Wendy Paz Barrios spent her Friday evening in a kitchen making sandwiches for her journey to Washington, D.C. The 17-year-old from Guatemala doesn’t live with family, but with friends here. She rarely speaks to her parents, instead choosing to call only her siblings. But in a way, her sense of family was in that kitchen Friday among several other immigrants who, like her, are making preparations to fight for what they believe in — to stop deportation. Come 4 a.m. Saturday, Barrios and 69 others will be on a bus heading to Washington, D.C., to convince President...

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 watt...

NEW BRITAIN — More than 20 people showed up Saturday as Maidan United, a nonprofit solidarity organization between Polish and Ukrainian friends, held a fundraiser in Falcon Field Saturday to benefit victims of violence in Ukraine. The event, which featured an appearance by Yulia Marushevska, a young Ukrainian woman who created the viral YouTube video “I am a Ukrainian” in which she spoke her support of the protestors in the 2014 Ukrainian revolution. There was also Polish and Ukrainian beer and food, cotton candy, face painting, a bouncy house, and a dunk tank with one of the group’s members wearing...

Police say a resident of a New London home, armed with a handgun, stopped an early-morning attack on his roommate. A 15-year-old, whose name has not been released, was charged with breaking into the home on Crystal Avenue just before 3 a.m. on Wednesday. Police say the teen, who was armed with a knife and gun, assaulted a resident in a first-floor bedroom. They say that attack awakened the upstairs roommate, who came downstairs armed with a handgun and confronted the teen. Police say the attacker complied with an order to remain still until officers arrived. He faces charges including...

More than 320 of the thousands of immigrant children who have streamed across the U.S. border from Central American countries have been placed with relatives living in Connecticut, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said. Some activists in New Haven have pressed the administration to make the former Gateway Community College property available to house the children. In a statement released Tuesday night, Malloy said officials are exploring the possibility of using the property, which is owned and controlled by the Board of Regents.

Immigration is a complex problem. So is the long-term question of how the United States should handle the influx of tens of thousands of children from Central America. Beyond the legal mandates, we owe them basic human decency. On the other hand, to say that they should all simply stay here for good begs big questions about encouraging more children to make this journey, and the rights of all the people abroad who are waiting their turn in line. Unless you believe in open borders, it’s all thorny. What seems right for an individual child can seem wrong systemwide. But...

In a stunning security breach, the giant American flags at the top of both sides of the Brooklyn Bridge were replaced by white flags overnight, cops said. The two new flags appear to be American flags that were painted over white — the traditional symbol for “surrender” — and were flying Tuesday morning from both towers. ... The NYPD’s Emergency Service Unit will is replacing the white flags with American flags as they set up a crime scene

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 watt Connecticut powerhouse! Are you outside of Connecticut? Start your day off listening to Jim...

A Stamford High School teacher accused of threatening to fail an 18-year-old student if he did not have sex with her and providing him and a friend with marijuana, turned herself over to police early Thursday. Danielle Watkins, 32, of Fort Point St., Norwalk, was charged with two counts of sexual assault, two counts of sale of marijuana and one count of risk of injury to a minor ... A day after the student reported the allegations, police executed a search warrant of Watkins's car during a motor vehicle stop in Norwalk. During the stop, police said Watkins tried to...

n 1980, under the first administration of Governor Jerry Brown, California decided it wasn’t going to build any more power plants but would follow Amory Lovins’ “soft path,” opting instead for conservation and renewable energy. By 2000, with the new digital economy sucking up electricity, a drought in the Pacific Northwest cut hydropower output and the state found itself facing the Great California Electrical Shortage. You know what happened next. For weeks the Golden State struggled to find enough electricity to power its traffic lights. Brownouts and blackouts cascaded across the state while businesses fired up smoke-belching diesel generators to...