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Don-o's Mama, my mother-in-law, Irene, who just celebrated her 90th birthday, happy, healthy, with all the family, was found unresponsive at home following a probable cardiac arrest. She was rushed to the hospital this afternoon and put on a ventilator, but her prognosis is extremely poor. Sometime rather soon--- maybe it's a matter of hours, though only God knows --- we expect she will pass from this life to the next. I will post more later, because dear Mama deserves to be better known and loved, and I want to share what she has meant to me. Briefly, she is...

A state arbitrator has reinstated 40 of the 103 state employees who resigned, retired or were fired after being implicated in the improper receipt of disaster relief after Tropical Storm Irene. The reinstated employees must make restitution and serve suspensions ranging from 15 to 60 days, according to an announcement Wednesday by AFSCME Council 4. The employees obtained aid under the Disaster Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or D-SNAP. "While some state employees may have engaged in fraud regarding the D-SNAP program and have been dismissed or resigned from state service, these employees were found to have made errors that the...

Nine more state employees are suspected of filing "false and misleading" applications for post-Irene food stamps, the governor's office announced Monday. This brings to 24 the total number of employees under suspicion of fraud in the emergency food stamp program known as D-SNAP. The 15 already announced have been notified of the dates of their individual disciplinary hearings, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said in a statement. The administration has not publicly announced the identities of the employees. Monday's announcement said "several agencies" were notified of the latest names to surface. Sunday night, The Courant's Dave Altimari reported that a 13-year...

Connecticut Light & Power's president and CEO, Jeff Butler is resigning, Northeast Utilities has confirmed. Northeast Utilities' Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer Charles W. Shivery, said Thursday the utility company has accepted Butler's resignation, effective immediately. Butler came under fire from his handling of the massive power outages during a freak October snow storm that left more than 800,000 CL&P customers without power, some for as long as 12 days. Noreen Cameron of West Hartford said one of the worst mistakes CL&P made was saying 99 percent of their customers would have their power back on the Sunday following...

Union representing electric and phone utility repair crews charged Monday that profit-driven cutbacks significantly hampered the response to Tropical Storm Irene in the week following the Aug. 27-28 tempest. And as state legislators concluded their two-part hearing on the Irene response, they also heard a wide array of ideas for improving Connecticut's readiness for future storms, including a launching statewide assault on invasive vine species to hiring retired local repairmen to help out-of-state emergency crews find their way. "Money is clearly a motivator," Frank Cirillo, business manager for Local 420 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, told a panel...

Whether you believe that man has ruined the earth’s climate or not we can all agree that Washington’s bickering about emergency FEMA funding does nothing to fight the effects of global climate change. According to the New York Times, Hurricane Irene earlier this year was the first US catastrophe of the Obama administration to make the top 10 list, joining the insurmountable Bush catastrophes of Katrina and 911. Climate experts Bill McKibben and Al Gore agree that Obama has failed with only half hearted efforts to reverse the rising oceans. A search at usaspending.gov (Sponsored by Senator Obama under the...

NEW YORK (AP) — Northeastern states are facing a jack-o'-lantern shortage this Halloween after Hurricane Irene destroyed hundreds of pumpkin patches across the region, farmers say. Wholesale prices have doubled in some places as farmers nurse their surviving pumpkin plants toward a late harvest. Some farmers are trying to buy pumpkins from other regions to cover orders.

Bill Clinton 'kicked off' beach by cop after ignoring Irene warning NewsCore September 05, 2011 1:06AM FORMER President Bill Clinton was nearly in the doghouse with the East Hampton police while he walked one of Hillary Clinton's pooches in the wake of Irene. The Georgica and Main beaches -- located nearby the Clintons' rented Lily Pond Lane house in East Hampton, N.Y. -- were cordoned off to bar pedestrians following the storm, the New York Post reported. But despite the cordon, Bill Clinton decided it was safe to stroll on the sand anyway and he was soon stopped by a...

Rahm Emanuel may have decamped to Chicago, but Democrats in Washington still won't let a good crisis go to waste. Their current gambit is to use Hurricane Irene as a pretext to prevent spending cuts to one of Washington's most notorious boondoggles. This week the left-wing press has been attacking House Majority Leader Eric Cantor for holding disaster relief funding "hostage." A more accurate way to put this is that Senate Democrats won't approve new funding for disasters unless they get the funding they want for corporations that make electric cars.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal sent a letter to Jeffery Butler, president and COO of Connecticut Light & Power on Friday urging the company to use whatever means necessary to restore power to the remaining customers left in the dark after Tropical Storm Irene. "As I traveled the state this week meeting with state officials, first responders, mayors, residents and small business owners, I've heard loud and clear the concern that your company did not do enough to prepare or respond, and is not doing enough work now to restore power. I share these concerns. Among the most common complaints are your...

National Grid president in Hawaii when Irene hit **SNIP** As they worked, the company’s leader was under fire for not being in town when Tropical Storm Irene battered the area. “When we heard that the president of the company went off to Hawaii we were a little concerned,” said David Leonardi, Local 369 President. Last Friday workers received a memo that said all vacations were canceled due to Irene, but a day before the memo was sent, the company’s president in Massachusetts, Marcy Reed, took off for a Hawaiian vacation. “It’s no way to demonstrate leadership. It’s not what we...

When is a hurricane not a hurricane? Well, when it doesnÂ’t blow 64 knots (33 m/sec, 74 mph), because then itÂ’s only a tropical storm. Inspired by a post over at the Cliff Mass Weather Blog, IÂ’ve been trying to find a single report of sustained hurricane force winds anywhere along IreneÂ’s path at or near landfall Â… no joy. I knew exaggeration was the order of the day for some folks in the climate debate, but I hadnÂ’t realized that the illness had infected the Weather Service itself.Figure 1. The path of Tropical Storm Irene over the mainland of...

A creek running toward the Hudson River became a river of destruction, sweeping away several businesses and hundreds of badly needed jobs in Orange County, CBS 2′s Lou Young reports. The flood waters rushed into a creek-side complex of businesses in Cornwall, New York reducing it to rubble. “All the businesses that were down here have been wiped out,” said Bill Diamond. On one end of the scale is a candle-maker who picked through the mud for remnants of his livelihood. At the other end, a processed food wrapping firm that still has Welch’s fruit rolls that were on the...

Connecticut State Police have arrested two men accused of attempting to steal electrical wire downed by Tropical Storm Irene in Canterbury. State troopers said that they were notified by concerned citizens that two men were seen rolling up electrical wires brought down during Irene's fierce winds and heavy rain on Gooseneck Hill Road. Responding troopers arrested Gary Malone, 28, of Canterbury, and Paul Sherman, 48, of Plainfield. Malone was charged with larceny, criminal mischief and operating a motor vehicle with a suspended license. Sherman was charged with larceny and criminal mischief. Both are expected to appear in court on Thursday....

Hurricane Irene revealed new cracks in the Washington Monument, which was already closed following the Virginia earthquake, the National Parks Service said. Spokeswoman Carol Johnson told CNN Wednesday Parks Service employees found standing water in the monument when they inspected it Monday. She said engineers tried to find holes following last week's 5.8 magnitude earthquake and in advance of the hurricane. "There were some leaks that we were not able to identify or able to plug," Johnson said. "What happened was a lot of mortar popped out, so much so that you can see sunlight above 450 feet in the...

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has reacted angrily to a fight brewing in Washington over whether Hurricane Irene disaster aid may need to be offset by federal spending cuts. The Republican governor told a news conference Wednesday in the flood-ravaged town of Lincoln Park he doesn’t want to hear that offsetting budget cuts have to come before aid is distributed. He says no such discussion was held when help went to Joplin, Mo., where a deadly May tornado damaged 7,500 homes.

On the color-coded power outage map on Connecticut Light & Power's website, southeastern Connecticut Tuesday night was mostly purple and black, the colors representing areas where 61 percent to 100 percent of customers were without electricity. ... In Ledyard, resident Kim Prescott said she was alarmed to see cars drive under wires with large trees hanging precariously on them on busy Route 117. ... "For 800 trucks being out, it seems like you should at least see a few here and there," Prescott said. Prescott said she's driven around her town and others the past few days and sees the...

On Monday's Mark Levin Show: Mark gives his response to the mainstream media's hype over hurricane Irene and says although obviously some families were affected by it, the overall chaotic atmosphere that the media created was not necessary. Governor Chris Christie's arrogance towards the people of New Jersey was rude and unnecessary as well. There was no need for as many evacuations as there were - Governor Christie is the "You tube Governor," always trying to get his video bytes played.

The American flag flies in tatters above the U.S. Capitol after Hurricane Irene moved through the nation's capital.

Residents of the Cosey Beach area of East Haven are dealing with the loss of their beautiful beachfront homes and their property. Now looters are adding to their hardship. Police are lining the streets because looters are trying to steal what they can from these residents who have pretty much lost everything. “People (are) constantly back and forth, back and forth, so we did have to get the police to tell them. I mean they’re going in houses. Yes, there’s a lot of looting,” Bernadette Davies, of East Haven, said.