Hyper Local News Pages

Monday, August 4, 2008

08/04/08 A New School And One Laptop Per Child - Glenville PTA Leaders Should Go Up To 1275 King Street And Invite Paul Tudor Jones On A Fishing Trip.


Forgetabout
Western Greenwich School Children.
I Am Angry that algae blooms fouled my backyard Florida fishing grounds.

Local Billionaire, Paul Tudor Jones Should Play A Big Role, And Spend A Few Bucks On The Local Toxic Waste Dump, Commonly Known As, Glenvile Elementary School.

This Uninhabitable School Toxic Is Just Down The Street From Paul Tudor Jones' Greenwich Home. Jones sends 20 Million To Florida Everglades while an entire elementary school is stuffed in modular classrooms.

HEADLINES:

Why Should Glenville Children Have The Lowest Test Scores In Town When Paul Tudor Jones Lives Just Up The Road.

Poor Western Greenwich School Children Do Without In The Shadow Of Paul Tudor Jones Estate

Billionaire Jones Ignores The Cries Of Poor And Minority Greenwich School Children As He Plans To Save His Favorite Fishing Spot

QUOTE:

"Please help us" say Glenville And Hamilton Avenue School Children. "We Don't Have A School To Go To."

"My school desk is still in storage and covered with mold spores." says a Hamilton Avenue School Child, "A my five year old sister has to take a long bus ride to an Old Greenwich classroom."

STORY:

Environmental elites are a force behind Everglades restoration

Bellingham Herald

MIAMI -- Early in the hush-hush negotiations to buy U.S. Sugar, Florida Gov. Charlie Crist dropped by a fundraiser for the small but powerful Everglades Foundation.

At the ritzy Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, the governor hobnobbed with gossip-page lovebirds Chris Evert and Greg Norman, celebrity magnate Donald Trump and the not-so-famous but even richer Paul Tudor Jones II, a Wall Street wizard and avid tarpon angler who chairs the nonprofit foundation.

Behind the glitter was a more telling measure of the foundation's clout: Crist's office put his hosts in the loop on the secret sugar talks well before the February shindig - and before many of his own top administrators.

Audubon, Sierra and many other brand-name environmental groups have sparred with the sugar industry. But the low-profile Everglades Foundation has played the biggest role, and spent the biggest bucks, trying to cut Big Sugar down to size. Led by Jones, prominent activists Mary Barley and Nathaniel Reed and a small group of directors and staff members, the Palmetto Bay-based foundation has never been more influential.

A former director sits as vice chair of the agency in charge of Everglades restoration. The governor fishes with its billionaire chairman. Its galas and grants provide millions of dollars that support a network of other groups' advocates, attorneys and lobbyists.

And when Crist unveiled the $1.75 billion proposal in June, the foundation supplied the glossy press kits hailing the buyout of its longtime foe as the "missing link" to Everglades restoration.

"They're wealthy people. They're philanthropists. They pick their causes, but they like to win, too," said Frank Jackalone, director of the Sierra Club's Florida office.

The foundation isn't one of those trendy new "green" groups. For its leaders, trying to save what's left of the Glades goes back decades.

Barley, named a "Hero of the Planet" by Time in 1999 for her Everglades efforts, said the foundation's most important role has been to keep activists' eyes on the prize.

"We have only one issue," said Barley, a vice chair who lives in Islamorada. "We are where we are because we brought together everybody who is working on the Everglades."

Having deep pockets hasn't hurt, either.

Jones, whose net worth is estimated at $3.3 billion, ranked No. 105 on Forbes' 2007 list of richest Americans. Other directors, including Jack Nicklaus and Jimmy Buffett, also qualify as well-heeled, well-connected or both. Forget scruffy stereotypes - these are enviro-elites.

Foundation and tax records don't detail individual giving, but its chairman also is its largest donor. Jones, a hedge-fund manager who lives in Greenwich, Conn., and owns an Islamorada vacation home, has easily poured $20 million-plus into the foundation himself - $11 million alone on a bruising but losing 1996 drive to pass a penny-a-pound pollution tax on sugar growers.

Three weeks before Crist's election, Jones gave $400,000 to the Florida Republican Party - the largest individual donation in at least a decade. If it didn't quite match Big Sugar - U.S. Sugar and Florida Crystals gave more than $690,000 - it signaled the foundation's intent to be a major player when Crist waded into Everglades politics.

Jones, traveling in Africa, declined to respond to e-mail questions. But foundation leaders and Crist aides said the men built a relationship through calls and fishing trips.

Before leaving on a European tour, Crist praised Jones to reporters: "This is a guy who cares very deeply about the Everglades and has put his money where his mouth is."

Foundation leaders downplay their role in the U.S. Sugar deal. But if they didn't exactly plant the seed, they plowed the field.

Crist spoke freely and frequently on Glades issues with several board members and listened along with aides as foundation scientist Thomas Van Lent detailed the water storage and pollution problems that hamper restoration, said Reed, a vice chair from Hobe Sound.

"He became engaged very early on, during the campaign and after," Reed said.

A few months into office, Crist boarded Jones' skiff for a fishing trip.

The destination, troubled Florida Bay, was the place the foundation was created to protect in 1993. Originally called Save the Everglades Foundation, the group was born out of anger that Jones and the late George Barley, neighbors in the Keys, felt when algae blooms fouled their backyard fishing grounds.

"George and Paul liked to fish for tarpon in the Everglades, and that's how all this got started," said Karl Wickstrom, the publisher of Florida Sportsman magazine, who joined as a director. "They thought Florida Bay was being trashed by sugar. I agreed."

Barley, an Orlando developer and state marine commissioner, became chief architect of the penny-a-pound proposal and a fierce critic of the sugar industry - a role his wife, Mary, assumed after his death in a 1995 plane crash. Jones became its chief financier. At Barley's graveside, his widow and his friend made emotional pledges to continue his fight.

Crist acknowledged the trip with Jones influenced him - but only to appoint another foundation director, veteran environmentalist Shannon Estenoz, to the board of the South Florida Water Management District, the agency overseeing Everglades projects.

"I think she's a great appointment," Crist said.

Estenoz's appointment and three others by Crist changed the balance of power in an agency previously protective of agricultural interests. Last August, Crist's appointees blocked the sugar-backed practice of replenishing Lake Okeechobee with polluted runoff.

That milestone defeat was high among concerns that led U.S. Sugar to call a meeting last year in which Crist said he seized on an unexpected "opportunity" and pitched the buyout proposal.

Kirk Fordham, a longtime Capitol Hill aide who is the foundation's chief executive, scoffed at speculation that Jones helped broker the complex deal. He said Jones was too busy with businesses and other charities to act as "some Wizard of Oz pulling the strings."

Downsizing Big Sugar isn't a new idea, Barley said. Environmental groups had urged it for decades, and Crist, as lawmaker, had backed the failed sugar tax.

Whatever its influence, the foundation's importance to the state's environmental interests is huge.

In the past three years alone, the foundation gave more than $4 million to 16 groups, including Audubon, Sierra and many of the state's big green groups. Each grant comes with one requirement: Spend it on Everglades issues.

Grants are lifeblood for smaller groups such as Everglades Law Center in Fort Lauderdale, whose four attorneys represent environmental groups in lawsuits. The center has received more than $700,000 since 2005.

"We simply would not be able to do the work we do without the foundation's help," director Richard Grosso said.

Estenoz, who is married to Grosso, resigned from the foundation after Crist named her to the water board. She recuses herself on the firm's cases and dismisses any conflict.

"I don't take marching orders from anybody," she said. "The goal of all of us is to restore the Everglades. It's not to get rid of sugar."

That's a stark change in tone from the foundation's first nasty bout with Big Sugar. The industry defeated the sugar tax in 1996, countering with a $24 million campaign that portrayed penny-a-pound backers as environmental elitists and Jones as a sharpie scheming to make a killing on the sugar market.

By 2000, both sides had agreed to compromise enough to cajole politicians into supporting the $10.8 billion state-federal Everglades restoration plan. After the landmark deal, technical disputes became as crucial as political ones, and directors decided to overhaul the foundation.

"What we needed were engineers and hydrologists," Mary Barley said.

In the past three years, the foundation has begun building just such an in-house staff. They now occupy offices overlooking Biscayne Bay in the former Burger King headquarters.

Van Lent, a former hydrologist at Everglades National Park, was the first hire - "the best hire we have and ever will make," Barley said. His computer models helped make the case that acquiring a swath of sugar fields would fix a flawed plan to restore flow to the River of Grass.

The board also has hired politically plugged-in managers and ramped up fundraising. The centerpiece is an annual gala - hosted this year by tennis icon Evert and headlined by Diana Ross - that nets about $1.4 million.

In some ways, the new approach-in-house consultants, big political donations - mirrors tactics employed by developers and industries.

For environmentalists, turnabout is fair play. The foundation, Grosso said, "levels the playing field."

"It's about time somebody did it on the side of the environment," Grosso said. "If Paul Jones has the ear of the governor, I'm thrilled."

Please Read About One Solution To The Education Problem:

Hedge-fund managers' tax break should go to teachers

Sunday, June 29, 2008.

BY LEO HINDERY JR. AND BOB KERREY.

One of the bedrock principles of our free and open society is that all of us obey laws and follow rules as they are written. The more universally we as citizens voluntarily submit to the rule of law, the greater our security and the less costly the efforts to protect us from those who choose to ignore it.

One set of laws where voluntary compliance is critical involves the collection of taxes. Right now, we have the most efficient tax collection system in the world because most Americans scrupulously obey these laws. They do so even though:

Congress continues to pass laws that make taxes ever more complex while giving speeches about simplification.

An individual taxpayer's effective tax rate is often inversely proportional to his ability to hire tax lawyers.

An increasing number of Americans believe the tax laws are rigged against them.

Our political leaders, however, cannot expect such ready compliance to go on forever. And it is not an exaggeration to say that tax provisions that blatantly favor those with high incomes over the middle class now threaten to bring down the confidence needed to sustain our experiment of self-government.

One such provision that has garnered a lot of attention lately has to do with what is known as "carried interest." Highly paid tax lawyers discovered a provision in current law that allows the managers of special investment partnerships to pay a much lower rate of tax on the preponderance of their income than other type managers pay on all of theirs.

Much of the performance-based management income earned by these few thousand private equity and hedge fund managers -- which income is called "carried interest" -- is taxed as capital gains, when by form, substance and logic it should be taxed as ordinary in come, just like the management in come and bonuses of all other managers.

And because the 15 percent capital gains tax rate is less than half the 35 percent maximum ordinary income tax rate, the cost of this loophole to the Treasury is huge.

The annual loss of tax revenue from this unfair treatment of carried interest is about $12 billion a year, or $120 per American household per year. It really is as if Congress had decreed that each year $120 out of the income of every household is to be diverted to the bank accounts of some of the wealthiest Americans.

We believe this has to change, and we believe that it would be desirable to convert carried interest into public interest by redirecting this annual $12 billion tax break to people who actually need it, namely America's K-12 teachers.

That $12 billion is just about enough to waive all the income taxes on those who choose our most important profession, which is the teaching of our children.

And it would also allow us to give refundable tax credits to K-12 teachers based on their qualifications and teaching specialties, in order to increase the pool of teachers in critically important areas such as languages, math and sciences, and instructing students who are economically disadvantaged or have disabilities.

Our country has a long and successful record of using the tax code to reward what we as a society determine are desirable social actions. In the 1960s, for example, we gave income-tax relief to VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America) and Peace Corps volunteers be cause their work was deemed so important -- and today we give substantial relief to our courageous and patriotic active-duty military personnel.

But teachers are just as patriotic and important, their contributions to our nation's vibrancy and economic well-being are exceptional, and vis-à-vis all other municipal professions (police, fire, general services) they are far and away the most difficult public servants to recruit and retain.

All informed citizens, starting with teachers themselves, want high teaching standards and accountability. But when asked, they also want the needed fixes to our nation's education travails to start with easing the economic plight of our K-12 teachers. Federal income tax relief for teachers would be a powerful response to this demand, and a powerful step toward assur ing the long-term vibrancy of our society, the health of our national economy, and our global competitiveness.

So let's remove the huge tax break going to those who don't de serve it, and give it instead to those who need it. We promise that kids everywhere will be the beneficiaries.

Leo Hindery Jr., is the managing partner of InterMedia Partners, a private equity firm, and a director and former chairman of Teach for America. Bob Kerrey, a former U.S. senator from Nebraska and earlier its governor, is president of New School University in New York City.

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08/04/08 Take a look at this eagle's nest at tod's point

An eagle has made its nest at Tod's Point - appropriately, it is right on top of the eagle statue! My mom and I drove down to the beach to try to get some pictures, but the eagle was nowhere in sight. I did get a couple good pictures of the nest, though, and hopefully the eagle will be back next time I go. It's a rare occurrence that one can say the nest is on top of the eagle:

Dear Greenwich Roundup,

A family friend told us that there's an eagle's nest on top of the eagle statue at Tod's Point! I went over with my camera to try to get pictures for you in case you were interested, and the nest was there but no eagle.

That's probably nowhere near interesting enough for your site.... but I put the pictures on my blog here if you want them:

http://blondeexcuse.pixxiestails.com/archives/2008/08/eagles_nest_at_tods_point.html

Lauren


Comment:

Oh Lauren,

How wrong you are. We are very interested in your art work.

Your photography is very entertaining and enjoyable.

A couple of neighbors got a kick out of your photo of these geese running for shelter from the storm.

Please keep pointing out the good and beautiful things around Greenwich.


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08/04/08 Today's Police Blotter From The Greenwich Post


The following are Aug. 4’s released arrests:

ASSAULT

An 18-year-old Greenwich man was arrested Aug. 1 and charged with disorderly conduct, second degree reckless endangerment, third degree criminal mischief and third degree assault. Police were responding to a report of a fight between a father and son and, while enroute, officers were told the son had fled the scene. The father told police that his son had demanded $40 to take a train to Hastings, N.Y. and, when they refused to give him any money, he became enraged and began throwing items from the second floor down the stairwell. According to police, when the father attempted to restrain his son he was hit in the head with a glass bowl, which broke and caused a three- to four- inch cut on the father’s head. Police found the 18-year-old on a nearby street. The son was held in lieu of a $1,000 cash bond and was due in court Aug. 4.

DUI

Michael White, of 111 North Water St. was arrested Aug. 1 and charged with driving under the influence. Police responded to a report of a fight at Tod’s Driftway and were told the participants were attempting to leave the scene in separate vehicles. White’s vehicle matched one of the descriptions and police pulled it over. White allegedly smelled of alcohol and failed field sobriety tests. White was released on a $250 cash bond and is due in court Aug. 15.

LARCENY

Elaine Foreman, 47, of New Britain was arrested Aug. 2 and charged with sixth degree shoplifting. Police responded to a report of a theft at the Whole Foods Market on East Putnam Avenue. Foreman had been detained by a store employee after she had allegedly attempted to leave the store with a blue shopping bag filled with items for which she had not paid. She was held in lieu of a $100 cash bond and was due in court Aug. 4.

DISORDERLY

Robert Barrette, 53, of 10 Brookside Drive was arrested Aug. 3 and charged with disorderly conduct and second degree criminal mischief. Several tenants of the apartment complex told police that Barrette had used a hammer to cause damage to the door of one of the apartments. Barrette told police that he believed the tenant had been playing loud music and when he knocked on the door and didn’t receive an answer he became angry and got the hammer from his apartment to strike the door. Barrette was released on a $250 cash bond and is due in court Aug. 11.

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08/04/08 Big Eagle traveled the world as a representative of the Golden Hill Tribe, Native Americans and other minority groups.

Chief of Golden Hill Paugussett tribe dies

NewsTimesLive.com

TRUMBULL, Conn.—Aurelius H. Piper, Sr., hereditary chief of the Golden Hill Paugussett Indian Tribe, died Sunday morning of natural causes on the tribe's reservation in Trumbull, tribal officials said. He was 92.

Known as Big Eagle, Piper was named chief in 1959 by his mother, Chieftess Rising Star, and later took over residence and care of the tribe's one-quarter acre reservation in Trumbull.

Though small, the tribe has been recognized by the state of Connecticut for more than 300 years and has small reservations in Trumbull and Colchester. In 2004, however, the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs rejected the tribe's request for federal recognition.

During the fight for recognition, the Paugussetts filed claims to more than 700,000 acres of land, setting off a flurry of legal challenges. The land claims, which stretched from Middletown to Wilton, and from Greenwich through lower Westchester County in New York, were eventually dropped, but could have been revived if the tribe had received federal recognition.

In 1993, Piper's son Kenneth, also known as Moonface Bear, was the central figure in 10-week armed standoff between state police and the Colchester faction of the tribe, for selling untaxed cigarettes on its reservation. Kenneth Piper died in 1996....

....He also served in the United States military during World War II, where he participated in the landing of North Africa, according to the tribe.

He is survived by his wife, Marsha Conte Piper, five children, several stepchildren, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

A traditional Native American memorial mourning walk will be held at 11:00 a.m. Thursday beginning at the Nichols Farm Cemetery on Shelton Road in Trumbull.

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08/04/08 WOW!!! ...Gas At Three Dollars A Gallon!!!!... I Feel So Lucky!!!!!


3-Dollar Gas Could Soon Be A Reality

WSTC-AM Norwalk

... think we will see another 15 to 20 cent drop by mid September. Regular prices over the weekend ranged from 4.39 in Greenwich and Darien to 4.09 at one Norwalk station. Motorists should continue to shop around. Warehouse club members can also usually ...

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08/04/09 Who might sleep in that room beginning in January 2009. Let us start categorically: no preachers, no Muslims, perhaps not even any Asians.


That bedroom

Village Soup

When Bill and Hillary Clinton exited the White House in January 2001 they were accused of taking a good many things with them. I have been shocked with the realization they they must have also taken the Lincoln Bedroom. Have you heard a word about it?

During the Clinton White House sagas, the Lincoln Bedroom got nearly as much copy as did Monica’s blue dress. One assumed that the Republican spies somehow managed to get that bedroom bugged, despite the fact that that FBI man Hoover had departed. How else could they have known so much about who was or had been in that room for one or more nights?

I will admit that my spying and bugging connections have altogether failed me in their attempt to find out even one guest who has slept there since the end of January 2001. Surely someone must have slept there on inaugural night. But you can bet it was not the presidential daughters -- much too stuffy for those fast track girls.

It could not have been Barbara Bush, the presidential mother. She has long been accustomed to much better beds, even before she was a Bush. She had very good beds back in her Greenwich, Conn., youth years. For Barbara it would have been like sleeping in the maid's room

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08/03/08 The Clock Is Ticking On Our Glenville PTA Leaders


Dear Greenwich Roundup,

The Glenville PTA is the problem at Glenville School.

They have intimidated people into believing that we should have to accept the lessor of two evils.

This should have never been the case.

We knew Hamilton Avenue School hated the modular classrooms and being disbursed all over town was a nightmare, yet our PTA persuaded people into believing we had no other choice.

Well if we had no other choice but bad choices then we should have waited.

The wait and see approach was repeatedly brought up at a meetings about Glenville, at the last meeting the Glenvile PTA leadership verbally attacked the parties involved which intimidated parents, such as myself, from speaking.

Poor job Glenville PTA.

This is all your fault!!!

Signed,

Intimidated & Suffering

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08/04/08 The Motlands built a guesthouse behind their home on Martha's Vineyard. Then they started spending the night.


Everything Is Illuminated

The Boston Globe

Sandy and Randy Motland's traditional Cape home on Martha's Vineyard is the quintessential island getaway. On a 30-foot grassy bluff overlooking the Vineyard Sound in Aquinnah, it's hard to imagine living anywhere else, which is why they decided to add a guesthouse; they wanted their family with them. The only problem was that they liked it so much that they sort of moved in. (They stay there when the main house is rented.)

It all started seven years ago, when a neighbor sold a plot of land to the Motlands. With five children between them, the Motlands, who live in Greenwich, Connecticut, in the off -season, suspected that a brood of grandkids was on the horizon, and they hoped that building a separate space for family would encourage them to visit more often. They wanted a house that could be easily shared by their grown children and their families. Mark Hutker, an architect in Falmouth, worked with the couple on the concept. "The sociology of the house drove the design," he says. "We started with the idea that there would be two distinct bedroom wings, as far apart as they could be, in order to provide privacy and autonomy for two different family groupings.".....

PHOTO GALLERY The guest house

08/04/08 "I made steps to do the book when Jerry [Siegel] was still alive but I was told 'Jerry doesn't want to be reached. Don't even try,' "


Superman creation story is a lively read

Connecticut Post

With summer pop culture dominated by super-hero movies, Greenwich author Marc Tyler Nobleman has one of the most perfectly timed books of the year - "Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman"

Although the oversized volume is designed for young readers, the lively and deeply researched text and the beautiful illustrations by Ross McDonald should also attract older comic-book fans.

"Boys of Steel" traces the long and rocky journey taken by two Depression-era Cleveland "nerds" — Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster — to create a new super-hero for one of the toughest periods in American history.

The two young men loved Flash Gordon and Tarzan, but wanted to create a fresh American hero.

"A brave, tough an who fought for truth and justice an alien who came from far away and now lived on Earth. The real Earth, the Great Depression Earth," Nobleman writes.

The most clever element in the character — the idea that separated Superman from Flash and Tarzan — was the fact that he had to keep his powers secret from human peers.

Young Siegel and Shuster saw Superman's alter ego of newspaperman Clark Kent to be someone like themselves.

" He would be meek and mild, like Joe and I are, and wear glasses, like we do," Jerry Siegel thought.

"No one would guess that such a hero was also someone like them," Nobleman explains.

"Boys of Steel" is the culmination of four years of work by Nobleman, who wanted to honor the creators......

08/04/08 Pathetic bluebloods - Jane finally threw in the towel on being accepted among the bluebloods of Greenwich

'Brideshead Revisited' - Curious Hunger

By Jane Genova
Executive and Marketing Communications Pro

Not everyone winds up like Charles Ryder who wants the world of aristocratic Brideshead too much. To most of my striving working-class and middle-class classmates in college and graduate school, that small corner of the universe was too foreign to bother with. Confident about their prospects in their own worlds, they focused solely on making a professional and social life there. Then there was me. What is it about the Ryders and my type who have the curious hunger for where the grass is very different but not necessarily greener? Lack of self-confidence? Diffuse self-hate? Arrested development?

Over the past eight years I have been asking myself that. It was just before the century turned that I finally threw in the towel on being accepted among the bluebloods of Greenwich, Connecticut. For 17 years I had been doing whatever I assumed would work to make me one of those. Of course, I saw the dysfunction in some of their lives. So? My childhood wasn't a pretty sight either.

Slowly I got it, like Ryder might have as he aged, that old money is like a tribe - if you're not born in, you're not in. Once I saw the impossibility of my dream and let go of it, I became downright puzzled what I thought I wanted from the bluebloods.

Surely not their money. I had my own, at least then. And they are tight-fisted with theirs.

Not their culture. I LOVE pop culture. They, true Crusties, don't.

Not their education. I attended Harvard Law School long enough to be repulsed by its values.

Not their exotic vacations. A hard-working girl I wouldn't know what to do with myself on the second day away from my multi-tasking.

Did I learn this lesson too late? No. It came just in time to exploit my blue-collar survival skills to make it through this global downturn. The Crusties who do have offices in Greenwich, Manhattan, and Boston are dropping like flies. We born-to-hustle kind are getting too much business. We might be the only shops around that are hiring..

More From

08/04/08 The stakes are high and the gloves are off.



Taped by News 12 Focus on Connecticut (http://www.news12.com/CT) on July 28th, between Democratic candidates for 4th CD (CT) Jim Himes and Lee Whitnum. Moderated by veteran news anchor Tom Appleby.

Primaries Abound Among Legislative Races

Hartford Courant

Veteran politicians with long tenures in their towns are supposed to cruise to victory with little opposition. That's one reason voters sometimes push for term limits — as incumbents rarely face serious challenges. ...

Primary Primer

Republican and Democratic primaries will be held around the state on Tuesday, Aug. 12.
  • -Number of primaries: 20
  • -State House primaries: 15
  • -State Senate primaries: 4
  • -Congressional primaries: 1
  • -Endorsed Democrat Jim Himes of Greenwich will face Lee Whitnum of Greenwich in the 4th Congressional District in Fairfield County
  • -Incumbents facing primaries: 8 in the House and 1 in the Senate
  • -Republican incumbents facing primary: 1, Rep. Selim Noujaim of Waterbury
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08/04/08 Greenwich Time News Links For Monday


Jimmy Robles, from St. Albans, Queens, fishes on Steamboat Road.
(Helen Neafsey/Greenwich Time photo)

Steamboat Road attracts anglers
Raul Rosario discovered the fishing pier at the end of Steamboat Road by accident 20 years ago after getting lost on Interstate 95.

An engineering survey commissioned by the town shows that Byram Park could accommodate a larger pool complex, paving the way for a group led by Selectman Lin Lavery to start seeking cost estimates for such a project.
A lawmaker plans to ask the General Assembly to halt the installation of artificial turf for one year in Connecticut, even as Norwalk High School athletes begin practicing on their new field this month.

High-voltage hybrids present special challenges to firefighters
Upon arriving at a scene of a crash, a firefighter would not be aware the high-voltage electrical system of a Toyota hybrid was on because the electric motor runs so quietly, a group of Greenwich volunteer firefighters learned one recent evening.

Police blotter
A New Britain woman was arrested for shoplifting Saturday morning at Whole Foods Market at 90 E. Putnam Avenue.

Elaine Foreman, 47, of 109 Clinic Drive, was charged with sixth-degree larceny, according to a police report.

A store employee saw Foreman place several items inside a blue shopping bag that she did not pay for, the report said. A manager confronted Foreman and the police were called around 9 a.m.

She was released on $100 cash bond and scheduled to appear Aug. 15 in state Superior Court in Stamford.

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A 17-year-old from Greenwich and a Stamford man were arrested Friday after a domestic dispute on River West in Pemberwick.

Eugene Rodda, 51, of 11 Cambridge Road, Stamford, and the 17-year-old, whose name was withheld by police because of his age, were both charged with third-degree assault and disorderly conduct, according to an arrest report.

Rodda was released on his own recognizance and scheduled to appear today in state Superior Court in Stamford. The 17-year-old was held in lieu of $1,000 cash bond and also scheduled to appear today in court.

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Matthew Mammone, 18, of 106 Monica Road, Greenwich, was charged with disorderly conduct, second-degree reckless endangerment, third-degree criminal mischief and third-degree assault, stemming from a domestic dispute, according to a police report.

He was released on $1,000 bond posted by a bail bondsman and scheduled to appear today in state Superior Court in Stamford.

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Michael White, 18, of 111 N. Water St., was arrested on Friday at 6:15 p.m. on Tod's Driftway and charged with driving under the influence, a police report stated.

Police had been dispatched to the area following a report of a fight. White was found in his vehicle and smelled of alcohol, the report said.

He was asked to do a series of field sobriety tests, which he failed, police said.

He was released on a $250 bond and is scheduled to appear in Stamford Superior Court on Aug. 15.

West Nile patrol stepped-up
State health officials have increased monitoring for West Nile virus since the discovery of infected mosquitos in Old Greenwich.

Listen to Jim Himes and Lee Whitnum debate issues like the war in Afghanistan or immigration policy, and they sound like members of opposing political parties She favors the immediate withdrawal of ...

Sternberg ready to return
Superintendent of Schools Betty Sternberg is poised to resume her position at the helm of the Greenwich public school system next week, according to town officials who have been in contact with her since she took a medical leave of absence nearly two months ago.

Recent data shows that the wealthy are more satisfied with alternative investments than traditional investments.

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08/03/08 Feds: Greenwich public pools will be required to be equipped with one of three approved drain covers or an entrapment prevention system


WisInfo

When I was 12, my folks got our family a swimming pool. We swam in it every day, every summer, until we got rid of it when I was 22. We were lucky that the only injuries sustained during those 10 years were my sunburns.

Now my sister's family has a pool, and she generously lets our family swim all the time. We make our kids take swimming lessons — especially after my 3-year-old accidentally fell in (he inherited his father's grace).

While fun, pools also can be very dangerous, especially if they have unsafe drain covers. Without proper covers, drains can cause a powerful suction effect, which has caused hundreds of injuries and 50 drownings, more than 30 of which were children, since the 1980s. Many experts believe the numbers could be much higher, since many police and medical records do not list the specific cause of drowning.

As a result, President Bush signed into law the Virginia Graeme Baker Pool and Spa Safety Act in December of 2007. Under the new law, all swimming pool and spa drain covers available for purchase in the United States must utilize new drains that will prevent or lessen the chances of entrapment.

In addition, public pools will be required to be equipped with one of three approved drain covers or an entrapment prevention system accepted by the Consumer Products Safety Commission by Dec. 19, 2008, or the next time the pool is open for public use.

District attorneys also are getting into the act. Last week, David Lionetti, a pool contractor in Connecticut, was arrested for manslaughter after 6-year-old Zachary Cohn drowned last summer after becoming trapped by the suction of a drain in his family's pool in Greenwich, Conn.

Lionetti allegedly failed to install safety devices mandated by Connecticut building codes in the Cohn family pool. As a result, Zachary was unable to remove the cover and was caught in the suction power of the drain and drowned. It was the first arrest of a pool contractor for manslaughter in the U.S.

So if you have a pool, please check your drains so sunburns are your worst injury, too.

Reg Wydeven is a partner with the Appleton-based law firm of McCarty Law LLP. He can be reached at pcbusiness@postcrescent.com.

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