Free Republic

Virtual learning could be a reality again for some college students in the state. Connecticut College in New London is dealing with a COVID outbreak and revised how it is operating. As of Thursday afternoon, Connecticut College reported 107 students and one staff member who tested positive for COVID-19. ... “We are aware that the recent cases are connected through friend groups. And some are also linked by two events; at a local bar and a social gathering," said Mary Day, of the Ledge Light Health District. Many students said they hoped remote learning was in the past. However, it’s...

Today’s post is in honor of Marine LCpl. Michael T. Badsing who was killed on this date in 1965 by enemy small-arms fire in South Vietnam. The 20-year-old Chicago native served with C Company, 1st Battalion, 9th Marines, 3rd Marine Division. 1781: Hoping to divert Gen. George Washington from marching against Lord Cornwallis’ forces now trapped in Virginia, two battalions of British soldiers — including American Loyalist forces under the command of Brig. Gen. Benedict Arnold — assault New London, Conn.. The redcoats easily capture Fort Trumbull, but across the Thames River, the heavily outnumbered defenders of Fort Griswold fiercely...

Melissa Rodriguez, 35, a former teacher at Bennie Dover Jackson Middle School who has a federal criminal record, was charged Tuesday with failure to report abuse, neglect or injury to a child or imminent risk of serious harm to a child by a mandated reporter. Details of her alleged crime and what she failed to report were not immediately available. The arrest warrant affidavit in the case is sealed. Rodriguez and fellow teacher Laquana Sheppard were both placed on paid administrative leave by Superintendent Cynthia Ritchie on May 3, “pending the outcome of an internal investigation.” They were told not...

NEW LONDON, CT (WFSB) -- Another arrest was made amid the ongoing investigation involving New London Public School employees. On Tuesday, police arrested 35-year-old Melissa Rodriguez, of Griswold. She's being charged with failure to report as a mandated reporter. Police said she was a teacher at Bennie Dover Jackson Middle School. The investigation began with the arrest of Corriche Gaskin, 35, who is accused of having a sexual relationship with a 16-year-old student over the course of several years. He was listed as a school 'climate specialist' at the Bennie Dover Jackson Middle School, however he was terminated from his...

The New London police department has expanded its investigation into misconduct in the school district, even as the district moves to suspend more employees. The district already had confirmed the suspension of four people directly related to an ongoing investigation into Corriche Gaskin, the 35-year-old former behavioral specialist accused of sexually assaulting an underage teen and using a cellphone to record his sexual encounters with fellow teachers inside Bennie Dover Jackson Middle School in the 2016-17 school year. There are five additional employees out on paid administrative leave based on allegations not directly related to Gaskin’s criminal case. Three of...

Donald Trump’s high standing in the polls is attributable entirely to the fact that he’s not a Washington insider, not part of the racket, and despite his wealth really might actually give a damn about the Little Guy. So why is he saying things like this? Donald Trump on Wednesday defended government property seizures as a “necessary thing,” even when it means involuntarily taking property from a private owner to transfer it to another business. Trump was speaking to reporters outside the capital statehouse moments before formally filing his candidacy for the February primary, and the Washington Examiner pressed him...

Scalia ranked Kelo among the top cases in which the court made a mistake of political judgment, according to the Sun-Times account. The others were the Dred Scott v. Sanford decision in favor of a slave owner and the Roe v. Wade decision finding a constitutional right to abortion. “My court has, by my lights, made many mistakes of law during its distinguished two centuries of existence,” Scalia said. “But it has made very few mistakes of political judgment, of estimating how far … it could stretch beyond the text of the Constitution without provoking overwhelming public criticism and resistance....

A critic of the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling that governments may seize private property for economic development is suggesting the process be used to replace Justice David Souter's New Hampshire home with a hotel. "The justification for such an eminent domain action is that our hotel will better serve the public interest as it will bring in economic development and higher tax revenue to Weare," Logan Darrow Clements wrote in a fax to town officials in Weare Tuesday. [. . .] Clements is CEO of Los Angeles-based Freestar Media, which fights "abusive" government. "This is not a prank," he said...

Supreme Court's Kelo Decision Trashes Taxpayer Rights as Well as Property Rights, Citizen Group Says 6/23/2005 1:13:00 PM To: National Desk Contact: Pete Sepp or Annie Patnaude, 703-683-5700, both of the National Taxpayers Union ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 23 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The U.S. Supreme Court's narrow 5-4 ruling in the Kelo v. City of New London case today has wide implications for taxpayers, not just property owners, according to the 350,000-member National Taxpayers Union (NTU), a non-partisan citizen group that filed a "friend of the court" brief in the case on behalf of the homeowners. John Berthoud, President of NTU,...

If a state Supreme Court judge approaches a journalist at a private dinner and says something newsworthy about an important decision, is the journalist free to publish the statement? I faced that situation at a dinner honoring the Connecticut Supreme Court at the New Haven Lawn Club on May 11, 2010. That night I had delivered the keynote address on the U.S. Supreme Court's infamous 5-4 decision in Kelo v. New London. Susette Kelo was in the audience and I used the occasion to tell her personal story, as documented in my book "Little Pink House."

Harold Ford Jr., a Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate from Tennessee, has endorsed the Supreme Court's decision in Kelo v. New London, allowing local governments to seize provate property and give it to another private owner for purposes of econonmic development and to increase the government's tax revenue. Blogging for Bryant has Ford's quote: "I've always believed individual rights are a big thing..... but, I find value in the court's decision. As long as people are compensated fairly, I can appreciate the decision. Certain areas in our state are crying for development, if this decision helps - it's a...

In a recent speech in Hawaii, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia made some interesting predictions about two of the Supreme Court’s most notorious decisions: Kelo v. City of New London, which ruled that government can condemn private property and give it to other private owners to promote “economic development,” and Korematsu v. United States, which upheld the internment of over 100,000 Japanese-Americans in concentration camps during World War II. On Kelo, Scalia reiterated his 2011 prediction that the decision will eventually be overruled, stating that it “will not survive.” Kelo was a closely divided 5-4 decision (Scalia voted with the...

Should it be any surprise that six years after the horrible landmark Supreme Court's 2005 case Kelo v. City of New London, which brought about the decision that governments could seize private property for the sole reason of "economic development," the Fort Trumbull site in question is today a total dump, where "economic development" by the local government has ceased to ever happen? The Eminent Domain blog, Gideon's Trumpet, points out that the site has sat there for years following the court's decision and has become overgrown with weeds and other vegetation. It is a far cry from the well...

THIS LAND WAS YOUR LAND Warning: Kelo puts church property at risk Policy organization alerts Christians about effects of court decision © 2005 WorldNetDaily.com A prominent Christian lobbying organization is warning its supporters a recent landmark Supreme Court decision puts churches at particular risk for seizure since they do not generate tax revenue for government. "Churches occupy prime city properties all across America, but what will happen if local governments seeking more revenue set their sights on them?" asked Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, in an e-mail. The June 23 Supreme Court ruling in Kelo v. City...

CRITICISM of the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Kelo vs. New London, which permitted the Connecticut city to seize several homes to clear the way for a proposed economic revitalization plan, has become personal. According to an Associated Press article published last week and an article in the July 16 edition of the Union Leader, “people from across the country are joining a campaign to seize Supreme Court Justice David H. Souter’s farmhouse to build a luxury hotel.” Justice Souter did not write the decision in Kelo, but he joined Justice Stevens’ majority opinion. The campaign to seize his property...

Supporters of the residents of New London, Conn., whose homes are in dangers in the wake of last week's Supreme Court landmark eminent-domain decision will hold a rally at the town's City Hall on Tuesday. According to a statement from the Institute for Justice, which has defended the New London residents, two of the plaintiffs, Susette Kelo, for whom the case is named, and Michael Cristofaro will participate in the rally set for 6 p.m. before the City Council meeting. Said the statement: "This will be the first City Council meeting after the decision, and the protesters hope to send...

One Giant Leap Toward Fascist America, Edward Hudgins, Executive Director, The Objectivist Center, ehudgins@objectivistcenter.org The U.S. Supreme Court is allowing a local government to kick out of the house in which she was born 87 year old Wilhelmina Dery and her husband who has lived there with her for 60 years. Why? Because the government wants to seize their property, bulldoze theirs and many other houses and to sell the land to other businesses and developers for private uses. While one must take great care in choosing words in political discussions, one must not mince them either. This decision in...

The Supreme Court's 2005 decision in Kelo v. City of New London stands as one of the worst in recent years, handing local governments carte blanche to seize private property in the name of economic development. Now, four years after that decision gave Susette Kelo's land to private developers for a project including a hotel and offices intended to enhance Pfizer Inc.'s nearby corporate facility, the pharmaceutical giant has announced it will close its research and development headquarters in New London, Connecticut. The aftermath of Kelo is the latest example of the futility of using eminent domain as corporate welfare....

Eminent domain protesters picket Sunday in front of the home of David Goebel, chief operating officer of the New London Development Corporation. By PATRICIA DADDONA Day Staff Writer, Waterford Published on 7/25/2005 New London — Eminent domain activists picketed Sunday evening in front of the home of Fort Trumbull redevelopment leader David M. Goebel as he hosted a dinner party in his back yard. The hourlong march, marked by chants that began, “We won't go,” and ended with “How low can you go?” was the first of many that Coalition to Save Fort Trumbull members and supporters say they intend...

Reason Magazine featured a great article that chronicles a new twist in the famous Kelo vs. New London case. This landmark case radically increased the size of government under the eminent domain clause by forcing Susette Kelo to leave her house so that the City of New London could use the land for “economic development” in 2005. The new twist comes from a story recounted by a journalist and author Jeff Benedict. Benedict recounts a recent book reading of The Little Pink House (written on the Kelo case) in which Justice Richard N. Palmer, one of the 4 judges who...