Free Republic

MADISON, Wis. -- Wisconsin's Democratic state senators will have votes they cast in committee counted and other penalties imposed against them will be rescinded after they returned to the state on Saturday. Republican Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald said Tuesday that assurances he received from Democrats that they will participate in future Senate sessions and votes allowed him to rescind finding the Democrats in contempt.

The irate mother of a 4-year-old child enrolled in an expensive private preschool claims in a lawsuit against the institution that her kid spent too much time learning about "shapes and colors" with younger children and not enough time honing her testing skills to get into a top elementary school. Now, the 4-year-old's educational prospects of an Ivy League college career are ruined, alleges her mother Nicole Imprescia. And Imprescia wants the $19,000-a-year Manhattan school with which she says she entrusted her daughter's future to pay. Imprescia pulled her daughter Lucia out of the York Avenue Preschool just three weeks...

Hartford, Conn (WTNH) - Governor Dannel Malloy's office claims he is proposing close to $2 billion in spending cuts. Those will hurt, but it's the tax hikes that will hurt the most. Malloy's proposed hikes would be one of the largest tax increases in the history of the state. His plan would increase income taxes on the middle class and the wealthy, plus increase and extend the sales tax to things that have never been taxed before. The total tax hike is $1.5 billion. The new, top income tax rate would be 6.7 percent. The income tax rates would go...

<p>HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) - Connecticut lawmakers are considering a bill that would require people who commit certain gun crimes to register with the state's public safety commissioner.</p> <p>The legislation, proposed by Senate Majority Leader Martin Looney is one of several gun-related bills up for discussion Thursday at a Public Safety Committee public hearing.</p>

It was an unthinkable crime that led to an unbelievable reunion. Police say a 3-week-old infant named Carlina White was snatched from Harlem Hospital. Carlina's young parents were left without a clue. But in January, after more than two decades apart, mother and daughter would be reunited. And though the reunion was joyous, over the last two weeks it's become complicated. "I want my daughter back. I want her here. I want to get to know her. She's a stranger," says Carlina's mother, Joy White, who spoke exclusively with Meredith Viera on NBC's Today Show this morning. "I'm disappointed. This...

AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — A one-armed horseman is asking Maine lawmakers to allow amputees like him to carry switchblade knives, which are otherwise illegal. Paul Dumas Jr. of the Maine town of Mexico says that with only one arm — he lost the other to an electrical accident as a teenager — he can't react quickly enough in emergency situations like at an equestrian event he attended a few years ago.

CHARLES TOWN, W.Va. — Frank Woodruff Buckles, Jefferson County’s most famous living citizen and the last surviving World War I doughboy, turns 110 years old Tuesday. Buckles, who lives with his daughter, Susannah Buckles Flanagan, at Gap View, the family farm off old W.Va. 9, has been the subject of wide media and congressional attention in recent years. In 2010, U.S. Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., and U.S. Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., co-sponsored a bill to rededicate and restore a monument in Washington, D.C., honoring the 500 or so District of Columbia residents who served in World War I. Their...

Should Congress ban ammunition magazines that hold more than 10 rounds?

Hartford, Conn. (WTNH) - A state Senator from Meriden is giving up his seat and will plead guilty to misdemeanor election law violations. Sen. Tom Gaffey, D-13th, announced Monday he will not take the oath of office on Wednesday. He was re-elected back in November to a 9th term. Gaffey was charged with six counts of larceny. He is accused of double-billing his political action committee. He will plead guilty on Wednesday. He says he has repaid the money, paid a fine and agreed to perform one hundred hours of community service. Statement of Thomas P. Gaffey: "It is with...

New Haven, Conn. (WTNH) - City leaders in New Haven were joined by members of the state legislature to announce their proposal for a law that would make it more affordable for undocumented students to attend college in the state. By one estimate, of the 5,000 high school students in the city of New Haven there are hundreds of high achieving kids who are the children of illegal immigrants. If these high achievers want to go a state university like Southern, they would have to pay over $18,000 in tuition. Compare that to about $8,000 for a legal Connecticut resident....

New London, Conn. (WTNH) - A New London father, who police say took copper from his own home, is facing charges. Police say he put his children at risk and now his wife is letting him sweat-it-out in jail. 41-year-old Robert McClardy is facing six counts of risk of injury to a minor for allegedly removing two copper pipes from his Vauxhall Street home. News 8’s Tina Detelj: “Did he take the piping to sell it?” Jacquelin McClardy: “Yes, he did. Okay?” McClardy's wife Jacqueline, who owns the home, didn't want News 8 to show her face but did want...

CHARLESTON, S.C. — Former NFL player David Meggett was sentenced to 30 years in prison Wednesday after his conviction in a South Carolina court on charges of criminal sexual conduct and burglary, authorities said. Meggett was convicted in a case involving an encounter with a college student at her house in North Charleston in January 2009, according to authorities.

A firm handshake is usually seen as a good thing in business and even in politics. Not so much in South Florida. A candidate for the Broward County School Board wants the cops to lock up her opponent after what she claims was akin to battery after a recent debate. Jaemi Levine filed a complaint with the Broward Sheriff's Office claiming David Thomas squeezed her hand so hard during a post-debate handshake Tuesday that it now hurts. Instead of getting a grip on education issues, Thomas decided to get a grip on his opponent for the Disctrict 4 seat. Levine...

A hard-working cafe owner has been ordered to tear down an extractor fan - because the smell of her frying bacon 'offends' Muslims. Planning bosses acted against Beverley Akciecek, 49, after being told her next-door neighbour's Muslim friends had felt 'physically sick' due to the 'foul odour'.

Mexico City: A 20-year-old criminology student, the only candidate for the position, was designated as police chief in the violence-plagued town of Guadalupe Distrito Bravo, Mexican media reported Tuesday. Marisol Valles Garcia took charge on Monday of security in the town, population 10,000, on the US border. The community is around 80 km east of Ciudad Juarez, itself regarded as the most violent city in Mexico. The former mayor of Guadalupe Distrito Bravos, Jesus Manuel Lara Rodriguez, was killed on June 19 at his home in Ciudad Juarez, after receiving death threats. Valles Garcia said she will not have to...

THE ACREAGE, Fla. - Juan Guzman has a large, lawn-wide sign in his front yard labeled 'JP Morgan Chase help.' It's his last hope to save his dream home. The Acreage man built his house in 2007 but couldn't handle the mortgage payment of $3,600 a month. He said he tried negotiating a lower loan from his bank but it wouldn't budge. Last year Guzman became unemployed and now his house is in foreclosure. Talking about his sign, Guzman said, "Trying to save my house, my family and my savings, life savings." Guzman said his sign on his 82nd Lane...

Who will history show was a better president?

One of the actors in the 1970s hit television show "CHiPS" is accused of being part of a stock fraud scheme, authorities said Thursday. Larry Wilcox, who played motorcycle officer Jon Baker, was one of 12 people charged in the scheme, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said.

Do you think the recession is over?

<p>LAS VEGAS (AP) - Tony Curtis, the Bronx tailor's son who became a 1950s movie heartthrob and then a respected actor with such films as "Sweet Smell of Success," ''The Defiant Ones" and "Some Like It Hot," has died. He was 85.</p>