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The Connecticut mom who strangled her three children before hanging herself left a suicide note for her husband that read, “Sorry, Pedro, I take my kids with me,” his cousin told The Post on Friday. Sonia Loja, 36, had long battled depression and had been crying for days over the shuttering of her illegal child-care business before Wednesday’s horrific murder-suicide in Danbury, said relative Digna Naulaguari, 47. Loja’s devastated husband, Pedro Panjon, saw no signs of the coming violence and only realized that something might be amiss when he got home from work that day — and none of the...

Senator Richard Blumenthal(D-Conn.) said he was “excited and proud” to help the Connecticut Communist Party celebrate the 102nd anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party USA over the weekend. On Saturday, the Connecticut People’s World Committee (CPWC) presented its annual “Amistad Awards” to State Sen. Julie Kushner, D-Danbury, Pastor Rodney Wade of Waterbury and SEIU activist Azucena Santiago at a union hall in New Haven. (Video of the event here). Blumenthal was the surprise guest to help celebrate the occasion, and share his appreciation of the awardees. “I am really excited and honored to be with you today and...

Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont claims Danbury Hospital is already at overcapacity. Two hundred nurses employed by an interstate health system in New York and Connecticut have been out of work since potentially being exposed to coronavirus patients, a report said. The health care workers from Nuvance Health will remain sidelined until they can obtain coronavirus tests to determine if they were infected, according to the Hartford Courant, citing Gov. Ned Lamont. Lamont was discussing the dire situation at Danbury Hospital, which he said was “at capacity,” on MSNBC’s “All In With Chris Hayes” when he made the shocking revelation....

Edmund Morris, who wrote an acclaimed biography of Theodore Roosevelt but is best known for his life of Ronald Reagan, in which the author inserted himself as a fictional narrator, a device that baffled and angered some historians, died on Friday in Danbury, Conn. He was 78. His death, at a hospital following a stroke on Thursday, was confirmed on Monday by his wife, the author Sylvia Jukes Morris. He lived in Kent, Conn. Mr. Morris’s “The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt” won a Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Award in 1980. He followed that with two other well-received books...

A former Chicago police officer convicted of second-degree murder in the killing of an African-American teenager he shot 16 times received a dose of prison justice just days after Illinois prosecutors moved to seek a harsher sentence for him, his wife said Thursday. Jason Van Dyke was allegedly beaten by inmates at a federal prison in Danbury, Connecticut, where he was secretly moved to last week, his wife and his attorneys said during a news conference in Chicago.

June 7, 2011NPR defends Palin? Aaron Gee While coming home I often listen to our local NPR station. This afternoons "All Things Considered" asked the question "How Accurate Were Palin's Paul Revere Comments?" The story started out with; "Sarah Palin is defending her knowledge of American history."  Here we go again, I was prepared for the usual "Palin is a moron" storyline. Surprisingly that didn't happen. What I got was Robert Allison, a professor and historian at Suffolk University, tell the NPR host that Palin basically got it right. The interviewer, Melissa Block, tries to cajole a different narrative...

One if by land, and two if by sea … and then what? According to historians interviewed by the Boston Herald, Paul Revere then warned the British not to challenge a roused and armed populace. That came as news to many observers who had rushed to criticize Sarah Palin for her response to a gotcha question at the Old North Church: Sarah Palin yesterday insisted her claim at the Old North Church last week that Paul Revere “warned the British” during his famed 1775 ride — remarks that Democrats and the media roundly ridiculed — is actually historically accurate. And...

Paul Revere gets all of the credit, but he never actually finished that famous ride, and in fact warned the British that the Americans were coming. William Dawes and Samuel Prescott were left out of the poem and subsequently most elementary history books: it was actually Samuel Prescott who completed the midnight ride.

Sixteen year old Sybil Luddington was a hero of the Revolutionary War.....as revolution number two shapes up, we could learn some lessons from our ancestors.

...Paul Revere, born in Boston in 1734... After the death of his father in 1754, Paul enlisted in the provincial army to fight in the French and Indian War... When the war was over, he returned to Boston to take over his father's silversmith business, only to fall into financial difficulties during the Stamp Act of 1765. Frustrated by this gave him cause to join the Sons of Liberty... On the night of April 18, 1775, Joseph Warren sent Revere to send the signal to Charlestown that the British troops were on the move... His journey ended in Lexington where...

Revere thoroughly deserves his place in American history, but another courageous American has been ill-served by those who write books about the Revolutionary War. Revere was 40 at the time of his journey, but she was a girl of 16. Born at Patterson, Putnam County, N.Y., on April 5, 1761, she was the eldest of 12 children born to Henry and Abigail Ludington. On the stormy night of April 26, 1777, she is said to have been putting her younger siblings to bed when the family had a visitor. Close to exhaustion, a messenger had come to tell her father...

SNIPPET: "BRANFORD, Conn. — Police and FBI agents Friday night said a tractor-trailer stopped in Branford, Conn., and suspected of carrying explosives was empty, NBC station WVIT of Hartford reported." SNIPPET: "Police were told to be on the lookout for a brown Peterbilt tractor-trailer that may have a bomb in it that was en route from Rhode Island to New York City, the New Haven Register reported. Officers were told if they encountered it to stop it and create a perimeter and stand by. Branford is about 80 miles north of New York City. In another incident, around 6:21 p.m....

Danbury (AP) -- Civil rights activist Rev. Al Sharpton told a Danbury church congregation that the immigration policy in the city is unfair. Sharpton is criticizing the way Danbury officials have handled the illegal immigration issue. Nine men who were nabbed after an undercover officer offered laborers work are being deported. Sharpton says he doesn't lie to people and then deport them. Sharpton was the guest speaker Sunday at New Hope Baptist Church and told the group that he plans to get arrested in New York on Wednesday. He says the action is part of a civil disobedience demonstration to...

By Brian Koonz THE NEWS-TIMES DANBURY - After blasting President Bush and the nation's immigration policy Sunday, the Rev. Al Sharpton said he plans to get arrested in New York on Wednesday as part of a civil disobedience demonstration to protest the Sean Bell verdict. Sharpton, the Brooklyn-born civil rights activist, said he plans to get arrested at One Police Plaza at 3 p.m. to protest last month's acquittals of three New York police detectives in the 50-shot barrage that killed Bell, who was unarmed. Sharpton revealed his arrest plans, the cornerstone of a six-site demonstration, at New Hope Baptist...

DANBURY -- Some were young people, who feared their parents could be deported. Others were parents, concerned about the safety of their children. Still others who attended Wednesday night's mass rally at City Hall had no personal stake in a proposed partnership between Danbury police and U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement. But they came to voice their opposition to the plan and their support for those who could be affected by it. "This is what being an American is all about, fighting for your rights," said Fernanda Franco, of Bethel, a legal Brazilian immigrant whose rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner"...

Danbury (WTNH) _ Protesters gathered outside Danbury City Hall tonight to rally against a plan that will crackdown on crime involving illegal immigrants. "Immigrant rights are under attack! What do we do! Stand up! Fight back," was the rally cry outside City Hall. Working with federal immigration agents, two to four Danbury police officers would be trained to handle immigration investigations, arrests, detainments and even begin the deportation process. Inside, dozens of citizens in favor of the plan say it is critical to curb crime committed by Danbury's illegal population. "We chronically hear that we need tools, we need things,...

Any fears or doubts about our country are quickly put to rest on those days when Americans come out and show their colors. Memorial Day 2007 in Danbury, Connecticut, USA was one of those days. Americans who can remember World War II were joined by those growing up during the war on terror, in honoring our fallen soldiers. For photos, please go to http://reportingobjectively.blogspot.com/

DeStefano calls for the state to issue identification cards as New Haven does Democrat John DeStefano is running for governor. One role the state can play in addressing illegal immigration is to issue ID cards, said New Haven Mayor John DeStefano, the Democratic candidate for governor. "They are a ready victim class. They have no Social Security number so they have no bank account, so they keep a large amount of cash on hand," DeStefano said. "Because of that, they become victims of crimes, but they don't report the crime to police because they are afraid of what will happen."...

"3. Resolved that it is true as a general principle and is also expressly declared by one of the amendments to the constitution that ‘the powers not delegated to the US. by the constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively or to the people’: and that no power over the freedom of religion, freedom of speech, or freedom of the press being delegated to the US. by the constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, all lawful powers respecting the same did of right remain, & were reserved, to the states or...

NEWTOWN - The estate of a man electrocuted while painting the Newtown Meeting House is suing the town and the nonprofit group that controls the local landmark, claiming the work environment wasn't safe.Virginia Martinez of Port Chester, N.Y., filed a lawsuit against Newtown and the Heritage Preservation Trust of Newtown Inc. on July 19. Martinez, a family friend, claims that the town and the trust were negligent in the July 26, 2004, death of Ivan Patricio Tenecela, a native of Ecuador who lived in Port Chester, N.Y. Danbury Probate Court appointed Martinez as executrix of Tenecela's estate In April 2005."It...