Free Republic

Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont acknowledged Monday he helped hire a landscaper that illegally chopped down more than 180 trees and thousands of bushes on a property behind his Greenwich home, capping off days of questions about his level of involvement. The wealthy two-term Democrat, along with one of his neighbors and a neighborhood organization, have been accused of removing trees in protected wetlands — property they do not own — to get a better view of a pond. Lamont denied that charge, telling reporters on Monday the trees were damaged in previous storms and the plan was to clean up...

Want to know how Republicans can win in 2024? By taking a few pages out of the Democrat playbook, that's how! You also need strong, principled and fearless leaders running your local Republican party. Not a bunch of spineless RINOs. But really courageous go-getters who aren't afraid to roll up their sleeves and do the hard work that's required to take on the well-oiled democrat election machine. Here's some advice from the most unlikely of places, deep blue Connecticut, where Republicans did exactly that, and won. It started nearly two years ago when hundreds of energized Republicans from Greenwich, CT,...

School is starting, but don't count on getting answers about what your child is being taught. School administrators commonly lie or give parents the runaround. That explains the fireworks over Jeremy Boland, a Greenwich, Connecticut, elementary school assistant principal, bragging about how the school pushes kids to think in a "progressive" way that he hopes will make them Democratic voters.

SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. - A Central Florida woman has been arrested in the death of an infant in Connecticut back in 1986, police said Friday. Janita Philips, 62, of Lake Mary was arrested for the charge of Murder, according to police. Her bond is set at $50,000. According to Greenwich police in Connecticut, on May 16, 1986, an infant boy was found deceased inside a sanitation truck that had just emptied a dumpster at the apartment building. "The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner determined that the cause of death was strangulation and ruled the case a homicide. It was...

Legendary crooner Bob Dylan plied a 12-year-old girl with drugs and alcohol before sexually abusing her at his Chelsea Hotel apartment in 1965, an explosive new lawsuit alleges. The “Blowin’ in the Wind” musician used his star status to groom, gain the trust of and control the victim “as part of his plan to sexually molest and abuse” her, according to the Manhattan Supreme Court papers, which only identify the plaintiff as “J.C.” “Bob Dylan, over a six-week period between April and May of 1965 befriended and established an emotional connection with the plaintiff,” say the papers, which were filed...

Billionaire activist investor Paul Singer is reportedly the latest Wall Street bigwig looking to relocate his hedge fund from New York City for Florida. Singer is taking his $41 billion firm, Elliott Management, to West Palm Beach, according to a report from Bloomberg, which cited people familiar with the matter. While planting a new headquarters in West Palm Beach, Singer will also keep space in Midtown Manhattan and open offices in Greenwich so that all of his employees are not required to relocate, the publication said.

A Connecticut woman says Joe Biden touched her inappropriately and rubbed noses with her during a 2009 political fundraiser in Greenwich when he was vice president, drawing further scrutiny to the Democrat and his history of unwanted contact with women as he ponders a presidential run “It wasn’t sexual, but he did grab me by the head," Amy Lappos told The Courant Monday. “He put his hand around my neck and pulled me in to rub noses with me. When he was pulling me in, I thought he was going to kiss me on the mouth.” Lappos posted about the...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court announced Monday that it is leaving in place a decision that vacated a murder conviction against Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel. Skakel was convicted in 2002 of the 1975 bludgeoning death of Martha Moxley, a 15-year-old who lived across the street from the Skakel family in Greenwich, Connecticut, and whose body was found in her family’s backyard. Both Skakel and Moxley were 15 at the time of her death. The high court’s refusal to hear the case means that a 2018 decision by Connecticut’s highest court throwing out Skakel’s conviction will stand. Connecticut’s highest court...

Sixteen months ago, the Connecticut Supreme Court reinstated the conviction, but then reversed itself on Friday and granted Skakel a new trial. In an interview with "Today" on Monday, attorney Michael Fitzpatrick said defense

HARTFORD, Conn. (WTNH) - The Connecticut Supreme Court has overturned the 1975 murder conviction of Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel. The Hartford Courant reports that the Connecticut Supreme Court voted 4-3 that Skakel's trial lawyer was so ineffective, that his right to a fair trial was violated. Skakel was convicted in the murder of his friend, Martha Moxley, when the two were neighbors in Greenwich. Skakel has been free since late 2013 while the court considered this latest appeal. He is expected to remain free unless state prosecutors make what many lawyers predict would be an unlikely decision to retry him...

(CNN)Michael Skakel could be headed back to prison after the Connecticut Supreme Court on Friday reinstated his conviction in the 1975 murder of a 15-year-old neighbor. Skakel, the 56-year-old nephew of Robert and Ethel Kennedy, had spent more than a decade in prison for the killing of Martha Moxley until a judge in 2013 decided he did not receive adequate representation in his trial and ordered a new one. On Friday, after Skakel had been free for three years, the state's high court overruled the decision. "Because we conclude that the petitioner's trial counsel rendered constitutionally adequate representation, we reverse...

HARTFORD, Conn. — A divided Connecticut Supreme Court Friday reinstated the murder conviction of Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel, rejecting a Superior Court judge’s finding that Skakel’s trial was tainted by ineffective lawyering and setting the stage for Skakel’s return to prison after three years of freedom. “Because we conclude that the petitioner’s trial counsel rendered constitutionally adequate representation, we reverse the judgment” of the lower court, a 4-3 majority of the Supreme Court wrote in a decision released Friday afternoon. Skakel was convicted in 2002 in the bludgeoning death 27 years earlier of Greenwich neighbor Martha Moxley, when she and...

Voters had their first opportunity Saturday to hear where four of the Democrats running or considering a run for governor in 2018 fall on some of the most pressing issues facing the state. For two hours, they spoke to a fullauditorium at Fair Haven School on economic inequality, the state’s over-reliance on the financial industry, police and criminal justice reform and sanctuary cities. The event, dubbed “the People’s Symposium,’’ featured Dan Drew, the Middletown mayor who is running to replace outgoing Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, and three potential candidates who have formed exploratory committees: Dita Bhargava, a former official with...

The GOP, with 1,639 accredited delegates, adopted a pre-arranged slate of running mates for Rell, whom they hope will be able to take advantage of her soaring popularity in November. They never had a roll call vote, unlike Democrats in Hartford, who battled all afternoon over their gubernatorial candidates. Alan Schlesinger of Woodbridge, a former Derby mayor and state representative, won the GOP nomination to run for U.S. Senate on a voice vote after Rell's speech emptied the gym. Paul Streitz, a Darien businessman, dropped his bid for the nomination on an immigration-reform platform, but was given platform time in...

HARTFORD -- A former mayor of the state's smallest city is thinking big and aiming high. Alan Schlesinger, a former two-term mayor of Derby and six-term state representative, announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate on Monday. Schlesinger is running for the seat Democrat Joseph I. Lieberman has held for 18 years. He is not the only Republican interested in the party's nomination. Schlesinger's announcement Monday coincided with the filing deadline for federal income taxes in Connecticut. "What better day to announce than on 'Tax Day' because I am really concerned our hard-earned tax dollars are...

A man reported to be a serving soldier is dead and two people have been shot in Woolwich, south east London, after what Sky sources understand is being treated as a terrorist attack. Downing Street has called a meeting of the Government's Cobra emergency committee after the incident in John Wilson Street, which David Cameron described as "truly shocking". Sky sources understand that senior police officers believe the killing was likely to be a politically-motivated Islamist terrorist attack. Dozens of weapons - including a number of knives - and pools of blood could be seen on the ground, where a...

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy has pledged the state's full support to Greenwich, which is in a state of emergency Monday after a tree weakened by Sunday night's storm took out a pair of transmission lines in Riverside, knocking out power to virtually every home and business in town. At about 1:30 p.m. Monday, there were nearly 26,400 outages in Greenwich -- about 88 percent of the town's Connecticut Light & Power customers. Earlier in the day, 99 percent of the town was powerless, prompting First Selectman Peter Tesei to declare a state of emergency. Power is out in every area...

A tree fell on a transmission line in Greenwich on Monday morning causing 99 percent of the town to lose power, according to Connecticut Light & Power. The area was hit hard Sunday night by thunderstorms, which caused a number of downed trees, one of which fell on the major transmission line Monday morning. CL&P officials said the line is in close proximity to railroad tracks operated by MetroNorth and Amtrak. The utility company said it was working closely with town, state and railroad officials to carefully remove the tree and complete repairs that are needed. ... In response to...

Conservation Experts: This Size Cat Hasn't Been Seen Here In 100 Years. There has been a wild animal alert issued in the northern suburbs. A mountain lion, yes, a mountain lion, is on the loose. ... We’re not looking for your Aunt Mildred’s kitty here, either. This is a big cat, a 160-pound predator that hunts and eats things. ... Ironically the Eastern mountain lion was officially declared extinct only a few months ago — in March.

Tony Greenwich, Connecticut isn’t immune to the fear and loathing that has been seen at townhall meetings across the country during the Congressional recess this summer. Wall Street traders and their wives showed up fully charged to debate health care reform last night... It was a bit of a mob scene. At one point Congressman Jim Himes, who represent Greenwich in Congress, went out to speak to the fifty or so people locked out of the meeting because of space restrictions. He was escorted by 8 armed police officers. The Congressman was “rattled” by questions ... At one point the...