Free Republic

Rep. Katherine Clark (D-CT), the number two ranking House Democrat, is admitting that allowing families to suffer under the shutdown is all about leverage. “Shutdowns are terrible, and of course there will be families that are going to suffer,” she told Fox News Thursday. “We take that responsibility very seriously. But it is one of the few leverage times we have.” She added: “It is an inflection point in this budget process where we have tried to get the Republicans to meet with us and prioritize the American people.” So there you have it. Even though Republicans have made clear...

A shuttered plant is reimagined as Manresa Wilds, an example of an old facility repurposed to solve a new century’s problems. The hike up to the roof involved Escher-like flights of metal stairs and grated catwalks like high wires, dangling above a spectacular abyss of rusted machinery. The ’60s-era control room, straight out of “Apollo 13,” opened onto a turbine hall the size of the concourse at Grand Central.I was blown away. The plant has been shuttered since 2013 and parts of it look like workers walked out one day and left everything as it was. Suburban Connecticut is not...

BRENNAN: You've been critical of shutting down the government! 2018 and 2013. Here's what you said in 2018. SEN. MURPHY (D): "We shouldn't be having the discussion amidst a government shutdown, and trying to USE our nation's security and all of these federal workers and the work that they do as hostages!" BRENNAN: Aren't you doing today EXACTLY what you were criticizing then? SEN. MURPHY: No...that was long term...

LOS ANGELES (AP) — California has become the third U.S. state to designate Diwali — the Hindu “Festival of Lights” — as an official statewide holiday. Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill into law Tuesday to go into effect on Jan. 1. It would authorize public schools and community colleges to close on Diwali. State employees could elect to take the day off and public school students will get an excused absence to celebrate the holiday. The new law recognizes that Diwali is also celebrated by Sikhs, Jains and Buddhists. Pennsylvania was the first U.S. state to make Diwali a...

HARTFORD, Conn. (WTNH) — Gov. Ned Lamont (D-Conn.) is meeting with school superintendents on Wednesday to discuss ways to keep students safe from immigration enforcement.This comes after all three branches of state government announced new rules about where and how ICE can make arrests.

CONNECTICUT (WTNH) — In the ongoing fight to keep the WNBA’s Connecticut Sun in the state, Gov. Ned Lamont pitched a new plan for the state itself to become an investor in the franchise through the multibillion-dollar public employee pension funds it manages.News 8 first reported high-level talks about the pension fund investment plan last week. The idea came about as the Sun’s owners, the Mohegan Tribe, are actively seeking either a buyer or investor for the team.

WEST HARTFORD, Conn. (WTNH) — A mother has filed a lawsuit against Solomon Schechter Day School in West Hartford, claiming a former teacher’s alleged tickling and harmful touching led to lapses in all five of her children’s education, opportunity and community support.The children also all suffer from the same life-threatening medical condition, which is “exacerbated by stress and emotions,” according to the lawsuit.

After last week's mass shooting in Minnesota, which killed two children and injured more than a dozen others, Connecticut lawmakers are once again calling for tighter gun control laws. As of Sept. 1, there have been 292 mass shootings in the United States so far this year, according to the nonprofit Gun Violence Archive. They define a mass shooting as four or more people being injured or killed, besides the shooter. On Tuesday, state Sen. Richard Blumenthal held a press conference calling for an assault weapons ban and safe gun storage laws. He was joined by advocacy groups Hartford Communities...

New Haven experienced its fifth homicide in less than a month Monday, when a man was fatally gunned down in the city. It is the 13th murder in New Haven this year. Monday’s shooting occurred around 1:46 p.m. near Chapel Street and Ellsworth Avenue, New Haven Police Chief Karl Jacobson said in a press conference held there that evening. ... Mayor Justin Elicker also spoke at the press conference held near the site of the shooting. He was glad to hear that the murders haven’t been connected but is discouraged that they are occurring at all. “It’s just obviously really...

The Department of the Interior (DOI) is immediately halting all activity on a massive offshore wind farm project that was established by the Biden Administration, according to a report from the Daily Caller. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM, which falls under the DOI, is halting activity on the “Revolution Wind” project off the coast of Rhode Island and Connecticut effective immediately. President Donald Trump has long criticized wind farm projects, pointing to their notoriously unreliable output, foreign control of key components for wind projects and environmental concerns. In recent weeks and months, the DOI has dealt a number...

He’s definitely not off Target. A Connecticut Democrat has been busted twice for shoplifting at the same Target store. State Rep. Raghib Allie-Brennan turned himself in to cops on July 28 after a warrant was issued on new shoplifting charges involving the same store where he was previously arrested in June. Allie-Brennan, 33, was caught allegedly failing to scan $26.69 worth of merchandise at Target’s Bethel location. At the time, he told authorities he was rushing to bring the items to his grandma in the hospital. “I’ve been upfront about taking responsibility for my actions,” Aliie-Brennan said in a statement....

CONNECTICUT — Gov. Ned Lamont signed a new gun control bill into law that places the marketers of firearms clearly in the crosshairs."This law is just one more step as we try and make sure that it's not just Connecticut law enforcement doing all the enforcing; we hold the manufacturers and sales people accountable as well," Lamont told reporters on shortly after the bill's signing Thursday.And it's the manufacturers and resellers who are the target. Effective Oct. 1, both groups will be vulnerable to lawsuits if they fail to implement "reasonable controls."

The Democratic Governor of the deep blue state of Connecticut got himself caught up in a major scandal after it was revealed that he had approved a $440,000 annual salary for a “good friend” that was fully funded by taxpayer dollars, going on to defend that friend despite accusations against him of using taxpayer money to cover “lavish meals,” which drew the ire of a Republican senator. For background, during a press conference in May 2025, State Sen. Stephen Harding (R-CT) called out his state’s Democratic Governor, Ned Lamont, for providing Terrence Cheng, chancellor of Connecticut State Colleges & Universities,...

The U.S. attorney from Connecticut assigned by Attorney General William Barr to look into the origins of the Obama-era “Spygate” probe is reportedly examining documents generated by a “fusion cell” of officials established by former CIA Director John Brennan. John Durham, who specializes in official corruption cases, has been looking into the origins of the Spygate probe for several weeks now. In a tweet Wednesday, investigative reporter Paul Sperry noted, “According to Main DOJ sources, Durham’s portfolio for looking into the provenance of CH includes examining docs generated by an interagency ‘fusion cell’ Brennan set up in mid-2016 on Russian...

nearly all of Rite Aid's Connecticut stores will be closed by Labor Day ... The only store that doesn't have a definitive closing is the Stratford store, which is located at 3680 Main St. A female employee there on Friday said workers haven't been told yet when that location will shutdown. When questioned about the closing date, she agreed to answer the question if she could remain anonymous, because of concerns of potential retribution by Rite Aid officials. Company officials did not respond to a request for comment about the remainder of its Connecticut closings on Friday. Rite Aid announced...

The Connecticut chapter of the Yankee National Party has submitted designation petitions for a wide range of local and state offices ahead of the 2025 and 2026 election cycles. The organization is seeking to eventually qualify as a recognized political party under state election law. Independent Political Report first covered the Yankee National Party’s candidate recruitment efforts in November 2024, when the group was finalizing its updated platform and preparing for the future following the general election. At the time, the party said it planned to field candidates under its own label across the region, while also considering endorsements of...

ENFIELD — The 18-year old Waterbury resident arrested in connection with an Enfield crash that seriously injured two Connecticut State Police troopers July 10 is in the United States illegally and will be detained and arrested, according to federal officials. “Joel Alexander Caica Nishve is an illegal alien from Ecuador," a senior official with the Department of Homeland Security said in an email Wednesday… Caiza-Nishue … "was charged with reckless driving after he was involved in a car accident that seriously injured two Connecticut State Troopers. ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) has lodged a detainer for his arrest.” …...

Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that America was stuck with a “madman” in the Oval Office because Democrats did not force then-President Joe Biden to step down. Murphy said, “The president should have gotten out of the race earlier, there’s no doubt the Democratic Party would have been better served by having the ability to have a primary, Kamala Harris probably would have done very well in the process but in retrospect, we lost so we can’t defend the way in which our politics played out.”

President Trump’s public debacle with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky halted hopes for a signed minerals agreement while dividing the world — and Washington — over their support for them both. Long-simmering tensions between Trump and Zelensky exploded into the open during a heated Oval Office exchange that will have ramifications for the U.S., Russia, Ukraine and all of Europe. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) called his vote to confirm Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who was in that meeting with Trump and Zelensky, “a mistake” in a Sunday interview with CNN’s “State of the Union.” “It was a mistake. I think...

What do you call a nation where a high school student can graduate with honors—yet cannot read or write?You call it America in 2025.This week, we learned about Aleysha Ortiz, a 19-year-old who graduated from Hartford Public High School in Connecticut with academic distinction—despite being illiterate. She is now suing the school district, alleging negligence, emotional distress, and a complete abdication of duty by the educators and administrators who were supposed to serve her. Her story, reported by CNN, is both infuriating and emblematic of a national crisis that’s been engineered from top down.Aleysha’s early assessments showed severe learning challenges....