Free Republic

By Joel Leyden Israel News AgencyNew England, USA — January 17, 2015 … The above mosque is not in Iraq, Syria, Turkey or Iran. But one would have wished it was. The speaker was Dr. Saud Anwar, mayor of South Windsor, Connecticut. Dr. Anwar is respected for saving lives. Saud Anwar is a physician who specializes in Lung Diseases and Critical Care Medicine. Currently, he serves as Chair of the Department of Internal Medicine of Manchester Memorial and Rockville General Hospitals. Dr. Anwar is involved in humanitarian and peace initiatives nationally and internationally. He is frequently invited to consult for...

A 17-year-old girl in Connecticut who was recently diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma has decided she does not want to receive chemotherapy to treat her disease. The mother of Cassandra C., as she is known, supports her decision, but the state of Connecticut does not. It has removed Cassandra from her mother’s custody, given itself the authority to make medical decisions on her behalf, and initiated chemotherapy treatments against her will. On January 8, 2015, the Connecticut Supreme Court denied Cassandra’s appeal of the ruling requiring her to undergo treatment and ordered her to continue receiving chemotherapy. If my daughter were...

A former Connecticut high school teacher awaiting sentencing over a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old student has been arrested again after allegedly threatening to kill one of her accusers. Police say 32-year-old Danielle Watkins of Norwalk was arrested Friday. She was first arrested in July, accused of having sex with one student at Stamford High and giving marijuana to another. Police say she threatened one of the victims at a doughnut shop Friday. Watkins pleaded guilty to second-degree sexual assault and risk of injury to a minor last month under a deal with prosecutors. The agreement calls for her to...

HARTFORD — The state Supreme Court ruled Thursday that a Windsor Locks teen is not legally mature enough to decide against life-saving chemotherapy. The unanimous decision, after a 75-minute hearing, upheld a lower court ruling that the state can force treatment for Hodgkin´s lymphoma on the girl, identified as Cassandra C. The state Department of Children and Families had been awarded custody of the child, who is "doing well" with chemotherapy at Connecticut Children´s Medical Center, a lawyer for the state told the justices. The court Thursday heard arguments from lawyers for Cassandra and her mother, Jackie Fortin, who supports

HARTFORD — For the state's child-protection agency and the cancer doctors at Connecticut Children's Medical Center, there is no debate: 17-year-old Cassandra C. will die of Hodgkin's lymphoma without chemotherapy, and the teen doesn't have the legal standing to reject the treatments on her own. But at a noon hearing Thursday before the state Supreme Court, the justices will consider the constitutional argument from lawyers for Cassandra and her mother, Jackie Fortin, who supports her daughter's decision to reject chemotherapy treatments. The Department of Children and Families won temporary custody of Cassandra at the Superior Court level and Cassandra, of...

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Connecticut’s new victim advocate is joining other state and federal officials in calling for a stronger gun ban to better protect domestic violence victims. Natasha Pierre took office Monday and technically will be interim victim advocate until the legislature approves her appointment by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy. She previously served as policy and legislative director for the state Permanent Commission on the Status of Women and as a legal aid lawyer representing low-income victims of domestic violence. Pierre, 44, of Windsor, said one of her priorities will be pushing state legislators to add a gun ban...

Clash over condoms, gay sex and abortion unfolds at Jesuit university in Connecticut It all started in October with rows of crosses. Pink ones. Nearly 1,000 of them. They were neatly spread along a lawn at Fairfield University – a Jesuit-Catholic liberal arts college in Connecticut. The crosses stood as a representation of the 915 or so abortions that take place daily inside Planned Parenthood’s clinics nationwide. The display was put up by Fairfield University’s Students for Life, and aimed to encourage “students on our campus to turn away from Planned Parenthood’s exploitation and to turn towards life-affirming resources,” according...

The holidays will be a little merrier for about 200 appointees of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and other constitutional officers: They are getting raises ranging from three percent to 12 percent at an annual cost of $1.4 million. The raises were announced by Ben Barnes, who oversees the budget as the secretary of policy and management. His salary jumps by 12 percent, from $186,999 to $209,439. All the raises take effect on Dec. 26. For Barnes and most of the other top officials, including the governor's chief of staff, Mark Ojakian, the raises are the first since joining the Malloy...

Startling evidence suggests that the Gun Control Act of 1968 was lifted, almost in its entirety, from Nazi legislation. snip... We are not the first to have seen this hearing record. But we appear to be the first to have recognized its importance. This hearing record suggests strongly that the late Senator Thomas J. Dodd (D-CT) himself implanted the Nazi Weapons Law into American law, or, at very least, helped others to do so. snip... This original article appeared in Guns and Ammo Magazine May 1993

(VIDEO-AT-LINK) Peg Brokaw, 95, had missed the early Saturday morning Mass at St. Rose of Lima, on Church Hill Road in Newtown, but said she would go inside and say a prayer, anyway. She has lived in this town a long time, and tells you her son is a retired policeman here, one who still directs traffic in front of the church occasionally. And because this was another December in Newtown, two years now since 20 children and six adults were shot dead inside Sandy Hook Elementary, because Peg Brokaw stood outside what became the church of small coffins in...

MILFORD, Conn. (Reuters) - Connecticut said on Wednesday that it will provide special driver's licenses for illegal immigrants starting next week to help stop them from driving the state's roads unregistered and uninsured. The move comes days after President Barack Obama issued an executive order protecting millions of undocumented immigrants across the country from deportation, which state officials said could boost participation in their drivers' license program. "There are many undocumented immigrants driving without a driver's license who aren’t insured or registered, and we believe making that possible is very important," said Mike Lawlor, Connecticut's undersecretary for criminal justice policy...

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) has a person in mind to replace outgoing Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel: Joe Lieberman. Cruz floated the former Connecticut independent senator as a “strong” option to succeed Hagel, who announced his resignation earlier Monday. President Barack Obama has not yet named a proposed replacement. “One strong option would be former Sen. Joe Lieberman, a member of the president’s own party with deep experience and unshakable commitment to the security of the United States,” Cruz said. “I urge the president to give him full and fair consideration for this critical position.”(continued)

A popular bike path became the scene of a gruesome murder late Thursday when a life insurance executive was killed while running near her Connecticut home. Melissa Millan, 54, a triathlete and mother of two, was found stabbed at about 8 p.m. in the Hartford suburb of Simsbury, Conn. Police have stepped up patrols of the bike path and scoured the area on Saturday, but no suspect has been named and the murder weapon has not been recovered, WFSB reported. Millan, a senior vice president who had been with MassMutual Financial Group since 2001, was transported to an area hospital,...

A university of Connecticut investigation into a confrontation between white fraternity students and women belonging to a black sorority is regaining momentum after new allegations about the incidents were raised at a recent student community meeting. The September incident involving a rock-painting dispute has already resulted in a one-month suspension and continuing probation for the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity for "intimidation and bullying," according to UConn officials. But at a Nov. 10 meeting at the university's African-American Cultural Center, the adviser to the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority made new allegations that fraternity members used racial and sexist slurs during the...

Republican lawmakers are already denouncing President Barack Obama's planned executive action on immigration and the idea of another government shutdown has been floated. But Connecticut Representative Rosa DeLauro says the gridlock is a product of her chamber in Washington. "The House has been recalcitrant. [It] refuses to do it because I believe [that] they believe that it is better to deal with gridlock, and not to move in any direction that the Senate has," said DeLauro. She complimented the Senate's ability to compromise on an immigration bill they eventually passed. When asked if Obama's executive action could result in more...

When it came time for the US Senate to vote on the Keystone XL Pipeline, Sen. Mary Landrieu’s (D-LA) “clout” did not have much of an impact on fellow Democrat senators. In fact, 35 of the senators who voted against the project were given campaign cash by Landrieu since the 2008 election cycle. Take a look here at the list of senators who don’t seem to acknowledge Landrieu’s “clout.” Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) $10,000 Sen. Richard Blumenthal (R-CT) $5,000 Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) $10,000 Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) $7,000 Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) $10,000 Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD) $3,500 Sen....

GROTON, Conn. — Authorities say two Navy civilian police officers have been wounded while confronting a knife-wielding man at a Connecticut base. Navy officials say an officer guarding the submarine base in Groton Thursday night fired shots at the man who allegedly had tried to enter through a pedestrian gate. Authorities say one officer was injured by the ricochet of bullets. The second officer suffered a minor stab wound to the leg. Both have been treated and released from a local hospital.

A teacher in Southington, Connecticut was pulled out of class after arriving drunk, wetting himself, then attacking a student. The police, however, were never called and no incident report has been filed. The teacher has not been fired, and at the moment, the school only confirms that he will be “investigated.” The school, Southington High School, sent out a letter to parents sugarcoating what happened. The document explained that the teacher, who has not been named, “Behaved in an unprofessional manner… and was removed immediately from the classroom.” Someone with knowledge of the incident in the school, however, says that...

This happened last Thursday in Connecticut. There is very little information released. Last week, a Spanish Teacher arrived in class (tardy), and was very obviously intoxicated. After entering the classroom of high school students, this teacher proceeded to (inadventantly) urinate in his clothing, and subsequently, onto the chair and classroom floor. The students were, of course filming this as it occurred, some laughing, some scowling in disgust. One student went up to the teacher to voice his opinion of what had just transpired. The 'teacher' showed neither contrition or discretion. The teacher got angry and confrontational, grabbing the student by...

The battleground was different in 2010, when Dannel P. Malloy and Tom Foley first fought to become governor. Linda McMahon and Richard Blumenthal were slugging it out in a high-finance senate race that drew a lot of attention. The economy was sputtering badly. Tom Foley's running mate was popular Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton. Sandy Hook -- and the gun control legislation that came out of it -- was more than two years away.