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Lawsuits on guns and claims of selectman self porn

 May 17, 2013; Updated: 12:08 am

Some lawyers have all the fun.

Look at Scott Camassar of North Stonington, for instance.

One of his clients is the woman who is suing the first selectman of Stonington, claiming he sent her a picture of his genitals.

Her lawsuit...

Will tribal police arresting non-Indians be immune to non-tribal lawsuits?

 May 15, 2013; Updated: 11:55 pm

From the beginning, I've thought Gov. Dannel Malloy's plan to allow tribal police to take over much of the casino policing from Connecticut State Police was a terrible idea.

It is puzzling why the governor would go so far out of his way to...

A few driving pet peeves

 May 12, 2013; Updated: 11:29 pm

I have another critical campaign platform suggestion for Connecticut's next candidates for governor, in addition to a promise to improve the state's grocery store choices.

I think voters would respond really well to a pledge to raise the...

Amistad still sails some troubled waters

 May 10, 2013; Updated: 11:55 pm

Where in the world is the Amistad?
It turns out it's at a dock in Charleston, S.C., at the moment. But it took me the better part of two days to figure that out. I also learned that the future for the...

Bridge tenders: TV helps ward off tedium

 May 8, 2013; Updated: 11:42 pm

I heard from a reader not long ago who wrote to complain about a DirecTV dish installed on top of the control tower of the highway bridge over the Niantic River.

Wasn't this a good example, the reader suggested, of the sloth of state...

Taylor Swift is buying into a rich Watch Hill tradition

 May 5, 2013; Updated: 11:03 pm

It is interesting that a celebrated young entertainer like Taylor Swift, reportedly in contract to pay $17 million for an oceanfront mansion in Watch Hill, would settle on a house once owned by an eccentric heiress known for her patronage of the...

Misquamicut is ready to reopen after Sandy

 May 3, 2013; Updated: 12:01 am

After the official warnings for Hurricane Sandy unfolded last fall, the staff at the oceanfront Paddy's Beach Club in Misquamicut did all the usual preparations, just like the year before, with warnings for Hurricane Irene.

Merrick Alpert was hired in 2010 to help move gun maker Colt out of state

 May 1, 2013; Updated: 11:29 pm

What a difference three years can make, in the world of Connecticut guns.

In the spring of 2010, Merrick Alpert, a political nobody from Mystic, was challenging then Attorney General Richard Blumenthal for the Democratic nomination to run...

NLDC President Michael Joplin should resign

 April 28, 2013; Updated: 11:17 pm

In opening the annual meeting of the New London Development Corp. Thursday evening, agency President Michael Joplin made what seemed intended as a joke, saying people might have seen him earlier down on his knees in front of the mayor.

"I...

Eagle settles into a new downtown nest

 April 26, 2013; Updated: 11:37 pm

It was appropriate that New London Main Street's Big Picture this week, an annual downtown gathering of city faces for a group photo, included in the background the unmistakable outline of the masts of the Coast Guard's barque...

Free city land? Show us the money to build

 April 24, 2013; Updated: 11:42 pm

There are two possible scenarios for what's going on with the prime city land the New London Development Corp. is planning to give away before the middle of next month, and both are vexing.

Scenario One is that the chosen developer is...

Groton paid public relations consultants $63,000

 April 21, 2013; Updated: 11:16 pm

You can see why Groton officials got worried when it came time last year to finally go public with the news that the city had gone some $27 million into debt because of its failing cable television business, a money-losing company it was planning...

Trader Joe's is coming! (just kidding)

 April 19, 2013; Updated: 11:55 pm

There are suddenly so many large development parcels reported to be in play around here, you might think the Eighties were back.\n

Apartment project at Fort Trumbull: Will it happen?

 April 17, 2013; Updated: 11:16 pm

Careful readers might remember Mayor Finizio's apology for the eminent domain sins of the New London Development Corp., which he issued in February 2012, back when he announced a name change and new management for the agency he had promised on...

Why doesn't Andrew Maynard just become a Republican?

 April 14, 2013; Updated: 11:03 pm

Most Connecticut Democrats had reason to be proud of their new senator last week, as Chris Murphy took to the floor of the U.S. Senate to attack the bullying tactics of the National Rifle Association and its call for more guns in schools, not...

Tea Party alert: Feds to flush $1.4 million into the Thames

 April 12, 2013; Updated: 11:55 pm

There are times, not many, when I can sympathize with the anti-government rants of the Tea Party.

And nothing raises any taxpayer's ire more than government waste.

This week, we saw an especially good example of it in New London,...

The Coast Guard began here

 April 10, 2013; Updated: 12:45 am

Why build a Coast Guard museum in New London?
Adm. Robert J. Papp Jr., the locally raised Coast Guard commandant, posed that question and then answered it Friday, at the announcement of plans for a...

Mayor Finizio eyes a second term on the horizon

 April 6, 2013; Updated: 11:44 am

It was hard to duck all the seagoing analogies at Friday's big Coast Guard Museum announcement.
It is, after all, a project that has been tossed about on stormy seas for years, waiting for an...

A handful of crack put her in prison for almost ten years

 April 5, 2013; Updated: 12:21 am

Denise Dallaire of Groton was 26 years old when she was arrested in Westerly for possession of crack cocaine, so small an amount she said it fit neatly in the palm of her hand.

Dallaire is a graduate of Central Connecticut State University,...

Pay Connecticut lawmakers more, but cut the pensions

 April 3, 2013; Updated: 11:55 pm

You have to wonder what's going on when a Republican candidate for governor in Connecticut is advocating raising the pay for lawmakers in a General Assembly dominated by Democrats.
But that's what we...

Criminals do the dumbest things

 March 31, 2013; Updated: 10:51 pm

They're at it again, proving not only that crime doesn't pay, but that criminals aren't very smart.

Lest you doubt this, here are some fresh examples from police reports from just the last month.

• An East Lyme man is charged...

Take Pfizer's Groton property by eminent domain?

 March 29, 2013; Updated: 12:03 am

My first reaction in reading about the latest evidence of Pfizer greed was to suggest a boycott of the company.

I know. I know. Even if everyone in eastern Connecticut were to stop using Viagra, Advil, Robitussin and Chapstick, the drug...

Foley vs. Malloy: Round Two

 March 27, 2013; Updated: 11:16 pm

That loud ding you heard this week from Hartford was the official opening of Round Two of the Dannel Malloy-Tom Foley gubernatorial campaign.

Of course we all know how the last one turned out.

But don't forget that the win by Democrat...

Can a St. Patrick's parade drive the snakes from New London?

 March 15, 2013; Updated: 11:42 pm

Usually, people think of St. Patrick's Day parades as jolly events, an occasion to celebrate.

In New London, of course, the parade is also politically fraught.

The group that successfully sponsored the first official New London...

Is casino crime spiking?

 March 13, 2013; Updated: 11:29 pm

When the hotel staff at the Grand Pequot Towers at Foxwoods Resort Casino found a 36-year-old woman unresponsive in her room March 2, they sounded an alarm.

The woman was subsequently taken by ambulance to The William W. Backus Hospital,...

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