Free Republic

The Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University put out this press release on a paper by Rudolph, Stuart, Vernick, and Webster: "A 1995 Connecticut law requiring a permit or license – contingent on passing a background check – in order to purchase a handgun was associated with a 40 percent reduction in the state’s firearm-related homicide rate, new research suggests. "Researchers from the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research, part of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, compared Connecticut’s homicide rates during the 10 years following the law’s implementation to the rates that...

At a Hartford, Connecticut rally supposedly called to protest five homicides of young people in the city over the past two weeks – four of them shootings – Rev. Al Sharpton was challenged Saturday by a black pastor for asking every preacher present to donate $100 to Sharpton’s civil rights organization, National Action Network (NAN). Pastor Marcus Mosiah Jarvis of Christ the Cornerstone Praise and Western Tabernacle, however, shouted at Sharpton as he strode down the center aisle of the crowded church, “How dare you ask the people of Hartford to give you their money! You’re nothing but a pimp!”

HARTFORD — Police arrested 17 protesters who blocked Central Row during rush hour Monday afternoon as part of a Moral Monday demonstration. The protest began at 4 p.m. as protesters locked arms and stood in the street. Many held signs saying "Black Lives Matter."

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...

Well, that didn’t take long. The same week Connecticut governor Dan Malloy pushed through a $1.1 billion in tax increases in the already heavily taxed state, the iconic firm General Electric appears to be considering fleeing the Constitution State, and moving its headquarters to more business-friendly climes. In an e-mail to company employees obtained by National Review, GE chairman and CEO Jeff Immelt wrote that the “passing of this law, despite the concerns we raised, has serious implications for GE, other businesses and for the business climate in Connecticut.” “As a result of this law passing, I have assembled an...

So now several of the largest corporations in the state, including Yankee mainstays such as insurance giants Aetna and Travelers, as well as General Electric, are threatening to leave and get out of this abusive relationship. GE's CEO Jeff Immelt told his thousands of Connecticut-based employees that he has put together a team to evaluate a move to another state with "a more pro-business environment." He says the company's state taxes have increased five times since 2011 and the new hike would impose "significant and retroactive tax increases for businesses." Aetna complained that it already pays $65 million a year...

General Electric is exploring a move from its Connecticut headquarters after it objected to tax aspects of the state's recently passed budget. The Connecticut legislature on Wednesday approved a $40 billion budget that would increase some business taxes. In a Thursday email provided by GE, CEO Jeff Immelt told Connecticut-based employees that he has put together a team to evaluate a move to another state with "a more pro-business environment." Immelt claims the company's state taxes have increased five times since 2011 and the new budget would impose "significant and retroactive tax increases for businesses." GE—which employs more than 5,700...

Connecticut’s Democratic leaders were willing Thursday to make minor changes to the business taxes that prompted some major employers to threaten to leave the state, but said they won’t roll the taxes back and expressed doubt that any of the firms would move. […] The plan includes numerous business tax changes, including higher taxes on computer and data processing services, limits on tax credits, limits on when losses can be reported, and how business income is reported. Meanwhile, Jeffrey Immelt, CEO of General Electric Co., sent an email to employees Thursday, saying he has assembled an “exploratory team” to review...

HARTFORD – As Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said Thursday he was open to tweaking the tax side of a budget that has alarmed several large Connecticut employers, General Electric told employees it has assembled an exploratory team to look for "another state with a more pro-business environment."

DISPATCHES FROM THE AMERICAN FRONT George Bush, Real ManBy James Benton You could see it in his eyes, hear it in his tone Tuesday night in the second half of his State of the Union speech: this was a man not to be trifled with, a man who would see a difficult, dirty business through to the end, and God help anyone who stood against him as he does battle against the foes of America and her ideals. If anyone had doubts about Bush's commitment to victory in the War on Terrorism, they were laid to rest Tuesday night. Rarely...

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...

Archaeologists explore ocean floor for clues to early coastal settlement by Cindy Weiss - April 23, 2007 Anthropologists in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences are identifying new sites to study archaeology that are fathoms, not feet, under the surface. Anthropology professor Kevin McBride and doctoral candidate David Robinson are scoping out early coastal human settlement sites, now under water, that could reveal clues to how the Americas were settled. McBride says early submerged sites may yield evidence of how the earliest coastal residents lived and how they got here. McBride, who is also director of research at the...

Mashantuckets, Ballard To Explore Ancient Coastline They are questions that have intrigued scientists, archaeologists and historians for centuries: When did Native Americans first arrive on the North American continent, and where did they settle? Now, Robert Ballard, president of the Institute for Exploration at Mystic Aquarium, and Kevin McBride, research director of the Mashantucket Pequot Museum, and other researchers hope to answer that question. On Wednesday, Ballard, McBride and Dwight Coleman, the IFE's research director, outlined plans for a multiyear expedition to chart the location of ancient coastlines now underwater, identify sites of Native American settlements and find artifacts to...

HARTFORD — City police said Tuesday they are investigating the possibility that the shooting of a pastor outside his church on Sunday was a hate crime. "The church is very accepting of and open to the LGBT community," Deputy Chief Brian Foley said. He said the attack on the minister is "obviously troubling to the police department and the city."

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...

Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) called for a national ban on the use of tanning devices, which she described as “essentially carcinogen delivery systems,” by those under 18, on Wednesday at the U.S. Capitol.

ormer U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman, in an interview with JTA, surmised that the next U.S. administration would be friendlier with Israel than the current one. The onetime vice presidential candidate also expressed concern over America’s nuclear negotiations with Iran, saying they are “going in a bad direction,” and urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to embrace the long-shelved Arab Peace Initiative. Lieberman predicted that if the 2016 presidential election were held today, a higher percentage of Jewish-Americans would vote Republican than in past races. But he noted that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the party’s front-runner for the Democratic...

NEW LONDON, Conn. (Reuters) - Rising seas and thawing permafrost caused by warmer global temperatures threaten U.S. military bases and will change the way the U.S. armed services defend the country, President Barack Obama said on Wednesday. In a commencement address at the United States Coast Guard Academy, Obama underscored the risks to national security posed by climate change, one of his top priorities for action in his remaining 19 months in office. "The threat of a changing climate cuts to the very core of your service," Obama told the 224 graduating cadets, who studied the impacts of global warming...

When a Republican lawmaker in 2011 asked an Obama administration Office of Management and Budget official to name regulations where costs were not justified by benefits, the official had a ready answer. "There is only one big one that comes to mind," said Cass Sunstein, then administrator of the White House OMB's Office of Information & Regulatory Affairs. "It is called Positive Train Control.''

RTFORD — The Senate on Tuesday approved a bill that would allow the children of undocumented immigrants to apply for college tuition assistance, even though they lack a Social Security card and other documents required to fill out financial aid forms. "I'm ecstatic,'' said Alison Martinez-Carrasco, a 21-year-old junior at UConn who came to Hartford from Ecuador with her parents at age 4. "This bill directly affects me. ... I now have something to help me with tuition."