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Rep. Ernest Hewett has put the snake incident behind him

 June 14, 2013; Updated: 11:42 pm

I have long thought state Rep. Ernest Hewett got railroaded back in February when he was accused of sexually harassing a young woman testifying before the General Assembly, telling her he had a snake under his desk.

By itself, the comment...

How certain is the slot money from the tribes?

 June 12, 2013; Updated: 11:42 pm

I still remember the wonder of it all when I read last year in The New York Times that Scott Butera, chief executive officer of Foxwoods, referred to the fiscal haircuts being required of the casino's creditors as "magic."

"We have six...

Amistad's star should burn brightly again

 June 9, 2013; Updated: 7:24 am

By last week, Amistad passed right by the coast of Connecticut, moving on through the Cape Cod Canal and toward Maine, without even a stop in the state that has invested more than $6 million in the ship. Amistad is not homeported here anymore,...

Keno legalization was a back room deal

 June 5, 2013; Updated: 11:03 pm

The plan to legalize keno across the state was secretly on the General Assembly's radar through much of this legislative session.

Lawmakers whispered among themselves about it. The two gambling tribes knew about it. Certainly the governor,...

Who would want to be governor anyway?

 May 26, 2013; Updated: 11:16 pm

Even from a distance at last week's Coast Guard Academy graduation, I thought I could see Gov. Dannel P. Malloy wince when Vice President Joe Biden called him Gov. O'Malley.

At least it made me feel a little sorry for Gov. Malloy, who can...

New London must take back Fort Trumbull

 May 24, 2013; Updated: 11:42 pm

I am not a lawyer, but even a layperson can read the state law governing redevelopment projects like the one for Fort Trumbull and see that it requires that the land be titled in the name of the city.

Connecticut general statute 8-199 could...

Perusing NLDC emails

 May 22, 2013; Updated: 11:42 pm

In reading through dozens and dozens of emails between officials of the city and the New London Development Corp. (Renaissance City Development Association, if you buy into the fake makeover), I was a little surprised to run across what I took as...

Lawsuits on guns and claims of selectman self porn

 May 17, 2013; Updated: 12:08 am

Some lawyers have all the fun.

Look at Scott Camassar of North Stonington, for instance.

One of his clients is the woman who is suing the first selectman of Stonington, claiming he sent her a picture of his genitals.

Her lawsuit...

Will tribal police arresting non-Indians be immune to non-tribal lawsuits?

 May 15, 2013; Updated: 11:55 pm

From the beginning, I've thought Gov. Dannel Malloy's plan to allow tribal police to take over much of the casino policing from Connecticut State Police was a terrible idea.

It is puzzling why the governor would go so far out of his way to...

A few driving pet peeves

 May 12, 2013; Updated: 11:29 pm

I have another critical campaign platform suggestion for Connecticut's next candidates for governor, in addition to a promise to improve the state's grocery store choices.

I think voters would respond really well to a pledge to raise the...

Amistad still sails some troubled waters

 May 10, 2013; Updated: 11:55 pm

Where in the world is the Amistad?
It turns out it's at a dock in Charleston, S.C., at the moment. But it took me the better part of two days to figure that out. I also learned that the future for the...

Bridge tenders: TV helps ward off tedium

 May 8, 2013; Updated: 11:42 pm

I heard from a reader not long ago who wrote to complain about a DirecTV dish installed on top of the control tower of the highway bridge over the Niantic River.

Wasn't this a good example, the reader suggested, of the sloth of state...

Taylor Swift is buying into a rich Watch Hill tradition

 May 5, 2013; Updated: 11:03 pm

It is interesting that a celebrated young entertainer like Taylor Swift, reportedly in contract to pay $17 million for an oceanfront mansion in Watch Hill, would settle on a house once owned by an eccentric heiress known for her patronage of the...

Misquamicut is ready to reopen after Sandy

 May 3, 2013; Updated: 12:01 am

After the official warnings for Hurricane Sandy unfolded last fall, the staff at the oceanfront Paddy's Beach Club in Misquamicut did all the usual preparations, just like the year before, with warnings for Hurricane Irene.

Merrick Alpert was hired in 2010 to help move gun maker Colt out of state

 May 1, 2013; Updated: 11:29 pm

What a difference three years can make, in the world of Connecticut guns.

In the spring of 2010, Merrick Alpert, a political nobody from Mystic, was challenging then Attorney General Richard Blumenthal for the Democratic nomination to run...

NLDC President Michael Joplin should resign

 April 28, 2013; Updated: 11:17 pm

In opening the annual meeting of the New London Development Corp. Thursday evening, agency President Michael Joplin made what seemed intended as a joke, saying people might have seen him earlier down on his knees in front of the mayor.

"I...

Eagle settles into a new downtown nest

 April 26, 2013; Updated: 11:37 pm

It was appropriate that New London Main Street's Big Picture this week, an annual downtown gathering of city faces for a group photo, included in the background the unmistakable outline of the masts of the Coast Guard's barque...

Free city land? Show us the money to build

 April 24, 2013; Updated: 11:42 pm

There are two possible scenarios for what's going on with the prime city land the New London Development Corp. is planning to give away before the middle of next month, and both are vexing.

Scenario One is that the chosen developer is...

Groton paid public relations consultants $63,000

 April 21, 2013; Updated: 11:16 pm

You can see why Groton officials got worried when it came time last year to finally go public with the news that the city had gone some $27 million into debt because of its failing cable television business, a money-losing company it was planning...

Trader Joe's is coming! (just kidding)

 April 19, 2013; Updated: 11:55 pm

There are suddenly so many large development parcels reported to be in play around here, you might think the Eighties were back.\n

Apartment project at Fort Trumbull: Will it happen?

 April 17, 2013; Updated: 11:16 pm

Careful readers might remember Mayor Finizio's apology for the eminent domain sins of the New London Development Corp., which he issued in February 2012, back when he announced a name change and new management for the agency he had promised on...

Why doesn't Andrew Maynard just become a Republican?

 April 14, 2013; Updated: 11:03 pm

Most Connecticut Democrats had reason to be proud of their new senator last week, as Chris Murphy took to the floor of the U.S. Senate to attack the bullying tactics of the National Rifle Association and its call for more guns in schools, not...

Tea Party alert: Feds to flush $1.4 million into the Thames

 April 12, 2013; Updated: 11:55 pm

There are times, not many, when I can sympathize with the anti-government rants of the Tea Party.

And nothing raises any taxpayer's ire more than government waste.

This week, we saw an especially good example of it in New London,...

The Coast Guard began here

 April 10, 2013; Updated: 12:45 am

Why build a Coast Guard museum in New London?
Adm. Robert J. Papp Jr., the locally raised Coast Guard commandant, posed that question and then answered it Friday, at the announcement of plans for a...

Mayor Finizio eyes a second term on the horizon

 April 6, 2013; Updated: 11:44 am

It was hard to duck all the seagoing analogies at Friday's big Coast Guard Museum announcement.
It is, after all, a project that has been tossed about on stormy seas for years, waiting for an...

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