Free Republic

U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., Tuesday spoke on the Senate floor of the shooting death of Erika Robinson, calling again for Congress to pass laws that would prevent “such violence.”

The Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command and Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory have identified the remains of an airman who went missing during the Vietnam War. Air Force Col. Francis McGouldrick Jr., of New Haven, Conn., is to be buried Friday with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery on the 45th anniversary of his loss, according to a Pentagon statement Monday.

Colleges in New Haven are warning students to be careful while walking on city streets after innocent people are getting hurt because of a brutal trend. It's called the Knockout Game, where unsuspecting people are attacked for no apparent reason. Police said that the suspects are not robbing the victims, with the most common being the elderly and women. "What the press has labeled a knockout game is anything but," Officer David Hartman, of the New Haven Police Department said. "These are violent crimes perpetrated against innocent and unsuspecting victims." A man was walking to the park and ride bus...

Police are investigating three possibly related attacks on people by teens on bikes in and around Edgewood Park. The Independent reported Thursday on one such incident, which occurred around 5: 30 p.m. on Friday July 26 along the asphalt road that connects the park’s duck pond to the skateboard rink. A 63-year-old jogger was partway along that road when, he said, four teens on bikes rode passed. One turned around, rolled a bike at him to knock him over, then knocked him down again when he got up. The teens proceeded to punch and kick him, breaking an arm and...

Community activists hoping to convince Toad’s Place president and owner Brian Phelps to cancel the Ted Nugent concert scheduled for Tuesday stopped by the York Street rock club Wednesday night with petitions signed by 2,500 like-minded people. They can keep hoping — but on Wednesday, all they encountered was a locked door. .. Fair also said that if there is no dialogue and the show is not cancelled, peaceful protesters will turn out the evening of the show. “We’re making every effort at dialogue first,” said Williams. “I want to sit down and actually have a decent conversation with...

A New Haven, Connecticut businessman was savagely beaten so bad by a gang of black teens that he doesn’t even remember the incident.

NEW HAVEN >> Activists are brainstorming on the next step in response to rocker Ted Nugent’s scheduled appearance in the city next month. “We’re a city in mourning right now,” longtime activist Barbara Fair said recently. Nugent, after a Florida jury found George Zimmerman trial not guilty in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, was widely quoted as saying the slain youth was a “dope-smoking, racist gangsta wannabe.” Activists are working to “make it clear” Nugent is not welcome in the city, Greta Boudreau said recently. “All of us who see Trayvon as our son and brother, when (Nugent) comes...

Two dozen Connecticut Tea Party Patriots assembled at the Robert N. Giaimo Federal Building in downtown New Haven at noon on Tuesday, May 21, to protest the perceived criminal activities attributed to the Internal Revenue Service. Recent revelations about IRS targeting conservative and patriot groups validated years of concerns that the Obama Administration was making war against its political opponents. Many of the Tea Party folk were attending their first rally. At the same time an equal number of protesters were rallying at the Federal Building in Hartford. Connecticut is on the front lines in the battle to preserve the...

A $100 million legal claim filed against the state of Connecticut in the wake of the deadly Newtown elementary school shooting has been withdrawn for now, local media reported Tuesday. New Haven, Connecticut-based attorney Irving Pinsky said he dropped the claim because he was evaluating new evidence, according to a report on CTPost.com. Pinsky said he did not rule out further legal action, the report said. He did not respond immediately to Reuters requests to comment on the report.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and Gov. Dannel P. Malloy gave a high-profile roll out Tuesday to an anti-gun violence strategy that targets hundreds of young minority men deemed most likely to kill or be killed in Bridgeport, Hartford and New Haven. In an era of tight resources and a political unwillingness to squeeze the supply of guns, "Project Longevity" is an ambitious, if politically easy new take on an old strategy: Focus existing social-services and law-enforcement resources on those most at risk. The basics are simple: identify a pool of young men involved in gangs and street violence, then...

State and federal officials are set to announce $121 million in federal funding for a high-speed rail project between New Haven and Springfield, Mass. In addition to Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, who will announce the funding, Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick and Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin support the 62-mile project. It calls for service every 30 minutes during peak periods and every 60 minutes at other times. Speeds would reach up to 110 miles an hour. Malloy's office projects 1.26 million riders annually by 2030. The state says it expects to finish design work next year and launch service in...

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (WTNH) -- A New Haven convenience store owner fought back against a man trying to rob him and won Tuesday night. The owner fired off two shots in his store which was enough to scare him off. It was the third time he's faced a gun in an attempted robbery. Seventy-year-old Edilberto Fontanez has owned Eddie's Market on Sylvan Avenue in New Haven for 40 years. [Snip] Tuesday evening he took matters into his own hands when a convicted felon tried to take away his money. 24-year-old Brandon Mills, of New Haven, allegedly came into Fontanez's business,...

A New Haven man was arrested Saturday night after police said he broke into a home and stole the stove from the kitchen. Police said when were called to 48 Platt St. just before 9:30 p.m. after getting word of a burglary. Police said as they were arriving at the scene, they found a man wheeling a stove down the street on a handtruck. Police stopped the man, identified as Brian Howard, 45, and asked him where he got the stove. He told them he found it in the back yard of a home on Platt Street. New Haven police...

The New Haven People’s Center serves as the headquarters of the Connecticut Communist Party USA and several of its fronts including the Greater New Haven Peace Council and a city funded City of New Haven Peace Commission. It is lead by well known Communist Party leaders Art Perlo, Al Marder and Joelle Fishman – head of the Communist Party Commission, which is charged with working with the Democratic Party.

As part of our Citizens' Agenda project, we are asking voters which issues matter the most to you in Election 2012. Reporters will be assigned to the top issues you help identify in the survey below. ... The New Haven Board of Aldermen's Human Services Committee in May voted in favor of a resolution calling on Congress and the Connecticut General Assembly to support repeal of the Supreme Court's ruling in Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission. The full board votes at 7 tonight at City Hall, 165 Church St.

Opposition from state veterans groups prompted Gov. Dannel P. Malloy to reverse his support Monday for using state funds to repair a New Haven community center that houses a Communist newspaper. Malloy, whose administration has gone back and forth on whether to finance $300,000 in renovations for the New Haven People's Center, issued a brief statement during the State Bond Commission meeting before moving on to the next agenda item without discussion. And one of the two Republican legislators who spearheaded opposition to the funding, Rep. Sean J. Williams of Watertown, said after he would ask the Democratic governor's administration...

Police in New Haven are investigating the city's sixth homicide this year, and its third in a week. Police said 23-year-old Shane Deran Barrett was shot several times at the corner of Gibbs Street and Dixwell Avenue Tuesday afternoon. Police said someone posted pictures of Barrett online and fled the scene before police arrived. Police are still searching for a suspect.

New Haven police said they were responding to reports of a shooting and stabbing Friday afternoon. Several people called 911 just before 1 p.m. after shots rang out on Hamilton Street and reported a person had been shot outside the Farnam Court Housing Complex. Within minutes, emergency crews arrived at the scene and found Quintin McIntyre, 41, of New Haven suffering from a gunshot wound. Emergency officials said it appeared as though he had been shot in the back of the head or neck, with the bullet exiting through his face. McIntyre was conscious and alert when he was taken...

The man accused of kidnapping a 26-year-old Wallingford woman in New Haven on Saturday has 55 convictions, including 15 for felonies, court officials said Monday. Albert Leclaire, 43, of Massachusetts Avenue in East Haven, is wanted for a similar incident that took place earlier in the week and involved a Yale student, officials said. He was held with bail set at $1 million. Leclaire was arrested on Saturday, after a girlfriend's desperate text messages to her boyfriend, indicating she had been kidnapped led cops to rescue her in New Haven. Leclaire was naked from the waist down when he was...

A New Haven pizza parlor won't deliver in certain neighborhoods after two men pulled a gun on its driver outside a Willis Street home. Depending on where you live in New Haven, you may have to pick up your order from Pizza Heaven II. Steve Shain has expanded his no-delivery-after-dark area map after one of his drivers was nearly robbed over weekend. Pizza Heaven II used to make regular deliveries in the Willis Street area, but now the residents will have to come get their wings, salads or pasta themselves. "You can walk out there, and someone can shoot you,"...