Free Republic

HARTFORD -- It was dark. A gang of men, dressed like thugs, carrying guns, were inside. John Bell, a 55-year-old truck driver from Stratford, thought Buzz's Mobil Station on Bridgeport's East Main Street, where he worked a second job, was being robbed. So he pulled his gun. More than 17 shots were fired. And Bell, who was shot twice, was convicted last summer by a federal court jury of attempting to kill Trumbull Police Detective Scott Murray, a member of the FBI Safe Streets Task Force, when he fired on Murray, missing both his shots. All that was too much...

White House Loses Appeal on Base ClosingFriday September 9, 2005 12:31 AMBy GINA HOLLAND Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - The base closing commission hit a snag Thursday over the deadline for its recommendations to the White House, as the administration lost a last-minute bid to get the Supreme Court to intervene and protect the panel's plan. What was to be a routine paperwork delivery of those proposals to President Bush was threatened by a cross-country legal fight. Judges in Connecticut and Tennessee blocked the panel from recommending changes at local Air National Guard bases. The Tennessee decision was overruled...

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) - Two state workers were fired Monday over a 2001 anthrax hoax that forced the evacuation of more than 800 employees from an office building. Joseph Faryniarz and David Sattler were dismissed by Connecticut's Department of Environmental Protection for engaging in an activity which is "detrimental to the best interests of the agency or the state," said commissioner Arthur Rocque. Faryniarz was convicted last December of lying to federal agents about the source of a white powder found on his desk next to a piece of paper marked with the misspelled word "anthax" on Oct. 11, 2001....

HARTFORD, Conn. -- A federal judge on Wednesday granted the state's request to block the federal base commission's recommendation to realign the Bradley Air National Guard Base. U.S. District Judge Alfred V. Covello granted a temporary injunction to prevent the commission from including the Bradley realignment in its recommendation to President George W. Bush. "The court is of the opinion that the governor of Connecticut would suffer significant hardship if consideration were to be withheld, as once the recommendation is submitted to the president, the governor's claim that her authority has been abrogated ... is not subject to judicial review,"...

New Haven, Conn. (AP) -- A federal judge rejected a former sailor's claim Thursday that the government illegally intercepted phone calls and obtained e-mails it is using against him in a terrorism-support case. Hassan Abu-Jihaad's attorneys had claimed elements of the USA Patriot Act used to obtain the evidence were unconstitutional, and cited a ruling by a federal judge in Oregon striking down key portions of the law. U.S. District Court Judge Mark Kravitz, however, said he disagreed with that ruling, and noted that other courts have found that the law does not infringe on constitutional rights. Authorities allege that...

<p>A federal judge on Thursday upheld Connecticut's tough gun control law that was passed in the wake of the deadly 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School.</p> <p>The stringent law is constitutional, said the ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Alfred Covello, denying a legal challenge by a group of gun owners.</p>

HARTFORD — Gun control advocates were buoyed Thursday by a federal court decision in Hartford that upholds Connecticut's toughest-in-the-nation assault weapons ban, calling it a constitutionally valid means of balancing gun rights and the government's interest in reducing gun violence."The court concludes that the legislation is constitutional," senior U.S. District Judge Alfred V. Covello wrote in a decision published late Thursday. "While the act burdens the plaintiffs' Second Amendment rights, it is substantially related to the important governmental interest of public safety and crime control."The legislature enacted comprehensive restrictions on ownership of semiautomatic weapons and ammunition early last year in...