05/29/08 The Police Blotter Via The Greenwich Post

Police Watch: The following are released reports of May 28-29

POSSESSION

Michael Spirer, 24, of Wilton was arrested May 27 and charged with possession of narcotics, possession of drug paraphernalia, possession of a controlled substance and sixth degree larceny. According to police, officers were called to the scene of Michaelangelo of Greenwich when store employees saw Spirer take a leather change purse from the shelves, place it in his bag and then attempt to leave without paying for it. Police retrieved the bag, which was valued at $22.50 from Spirer’s bag. During a search, police allegedly found a narcotic patch he didn’t have a prescription for, white powder that Spirer claimed was Ritalin, three broken pens which were being used as straws, seven green pills, one white pill and half a blue pill, all of which are controlled substances, and a one pound bag of Starbucks coffee. Spirer reportedly told police he had been in the store earlier to buy a cup of coffee and stole the bag of coffee at that time. Spirer was released on a $250 cash bond and is due in court June 4.

PROBATION

Darrell Anderson, 38, of New London was arrested May 27 and charged with violation of probation. Anderson was in custody at the Hartford Correctional Facility when he was brought to Greenwich to be charged. He was being held in lieu of a $25,000 cash bond and is due in court June 3.

EAVESDROPPING

David Weiss, 44, of 15 River Road was arrested May 28 and charged with eavesdropping. Police alleged that he had been recording conversations with another person without that person’s knowledge. The complaint had been filed on Oct. 29. Weiss was released on a promise to appear and is due in court June 11.

APPEAR

Allen Green, 26, of White Plains, N.Y. was arrested May 28 and charged with first degree failure to appear. Green failed to appear in court to respond to a May 12, 2002, charge of violation of probation. Green was being held in lieu of a $25,000 cash bond and is due in court June 4.

LARCENY

Bridgeport resident Alvaro Urbano-Bonilla, 28, was arrested May 28 and charged with sixth degree larceny, improper use of license, unregistered towing, not having any insurance and operating without a license. Police had reportedly discovered a stolen vehicle and pulled it over. Bonilla was reportedly identified by his passport and did not have a valid license, registration or insurance in his possession. He was released on a $1,000 surety bond and is due in court June 11.

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05/29/08 This month principals from all over the world have been suspendd and in each and every case the parents were told why, except in Greenwich

Challenging A Compliant Media:

So what happened?

What constitutes a "serious allegation"?

Typical local Greenwich media reporting.

With these facts, it's almost non news.


Why Ask Why

The High Paid Administrators Of The Greenwich School District And The Board Of Education Are Never Held Accountable, Because Of The Compliant Greenwich News Media.

When the Greenwich Board Of Education doesn't consider parents important enough to be informed about what's going in the schools, then local news reporters are supposed to get out on the streets and dig for details.

Shame on the Greenwich public school district spokeswoman Kim Eves for using spin doctor technique on the concerned parents of Glenville School. Local news outlets should just ignore Ms. Eves and go right to Betty Steinberg and the others responsible for the "serious allegation" that led to the school suspension.

All to often Greenwich school children suffer, because of
opportunistic school board politicians, compliant local media and an ineffective and passive PTA are not accountable the single family home-owners who pay the bills.

Information, news, ideas - that's the juice that gets
an accountable school district. When a few school board members
control all the juice, they decidehow the school system works.

Or how it won't work.

Greenwich doesn't have to worry that much about parents and
the single family home-owners doing the right thing if they have
the facts about what their school board is up to.

But if they don't get the facts, the whole thing falls apart.

The Hamilton Avenue School construction fiasco and the
Hamilton Avenue contaminated modular classrooms provides the
perfect example of how things fall apart when the local news media
fails to do it's job.

Who, What, When Where, But Not Why?

The parents and taxpayers in the Greenwich Public School system
are not told by their local news media why Glenville School Principal
Marc D'Amico was suspended.

Please See:

05/28/08 Greenwich Post And Greenwich Time Websites Have Breaking 
Glenville School News. Where's The Greenwich Citizen?

During the last month the local news media in school districts around
the world were fully informed as to why their school principals were
suspended.

However, the single family home-owners who pay the extravagant
salaries of failed school administrators are kept in the dark.

Greenwich School Superintendent Betty Sternberg and her failed
school board have placing the taxpayers on a "need to know" basis.

And Sterberg and her crownies will let the folks who pay the bills
whenand what they "need to know" 

Please see:

Hamilton County: Education board to vote on settlement for ..
Chattanooga Times Free Press, TN

May 20, 2008

Brainerd High School assistant The Hamilton County Board of Education likely will return suspendedprincipal Joshuah Barber to the
classroom as a teacher ...

Principal held for 'consuming liquor in school'
Hindu, India

May 18, 2008

District Magistrate Jai Prakash Tripathi suspended the principal Shyam Babu Sabita after some news channel aired the news of him having liquor in the school ...

Suspended Weinert principal resigns
Seguin Gazette-Enterprise, TX

May 16, 2008

By Jessica Sanders

SEGUIN — Weinert Elementary’s principal submitted her resignation this week after being placed on administrative leave. ...

Strip-search of girls leads to principal’s suspension
Thaindian.com, Thailand

May 6, 2008

“The report has found the principal guilty in the stripping case. The principal has been suspended and a show-cause notice has been served to three teachers ...

Liberia: Several Schools Principals Penalized for WAEC
AllAfrica.com, Washington

May 20, 2008

The Minister of Education, Dr. Joseph Korto has suspended four Public School Principals and two other officials indefinitely for their failure to ensure ...

Board deliberates fate of Farrell, Pa., principal
Youngstown Vindicator, OH

May 24, 2008

He was suspended without pay in February pending the outcome of a dismissal hearing. That hearing before the school board covered three days in March and ...

Farrell Principal Hearing
WYTV, OH

May 19, 2008

Lee McFerren, has been suspended without pay from his job as Farrell High School Principal since February. McFerren was suspended do to allegations of ...

Gateway BOE suspends vice principal
Gloucester County Times - NJ.com, NJ

May 15, 2008

"For the period he remains suspended with pay, the district will incur additional expenses as we will also compensate Ms. Phelps," said Stumpo. ...

Elementary School Principal Under Investigation
KCTV5 News, Mo

May 21, 2008

Munson has been suspended from her job. She's worked at the school for the last three years. Regarding that, Wheeler-Linden said it was a human resources ...

Principal Allegedly Ignored Student Sex
WDIV, MI

May 16, 2008

The principal of the Pontiac Alternative Leadership Academy at Bethune School was suspended Tuesday while officials look into allegations that she knew ...

School Principle Beats And Injures 12 Students
Biamag, Turkey

May 15, 2008

The students are hospitalized and the principle is suspended until the investigation is completed. The school principal who ordered his students to clean ...

South Davidson principal indicted
Lexington Dispatch, NC

May 13, 2008

Overcash, who had been a principal at South Davidson since 2004, was initially suspended from Davidson County Schools with pay. The suspension changed to ...

Sussex Central High principal charged with rape of minor
The News Journal, DE

May 3, 2008

By TERRI SANGINITI

The principal of Sussex Central High School in Georgetown has been suspended without pay after his ...

Lake County vice principal out in fallout from sex case
State Gazette, TN

May 14, 2008

Pillow, a Dyersburg resident, was appointed vice principal in August 2007. LCHS science teacher Tracy Hinson, 38, of Newbern, was suspended without pay on ...

Prosecutor: Principal leveraged his power for sex
The News Journal, DE

May 9, 2008

Central High School's principal and a 17-year-old student Thursday as the suspended administrator's attorney successfully argued for reduced bond. ...

Accused of theft, former principal now fired in Colo.
Hutchinson News, KS

May 8, 2008

Great Bend Superintendent Tom Vernon said Atkinson was suspended without pay and was awaiting an administrative hearing when he resigned in November. ...

Board gets principal's resignation
Asbury Park Press, NJ

May 6, 2008

Although the resignation is effective June 30, Maria Iozzi, supervisor of bilingual studies, who has a principal's certificate, will serve as interim ...

Ex-principal 'driven by test scores'
Kentucky.com, KY

May 3, 2008

She said Petrilli had the option of being suspended with pay while the investigation was pending. The investigation was completed because the district had ...

McFerren removal hearing set to resume next week
Sharon Herald, PA

May 12, 2008

By Tom Davidson

Suspended Farrell High School Principal Lee McFerren’s removal hearing is set to resume next week. McFerren has been suspended without pay ...

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05/29/08 Real Estate Spotlight - $7.995 MILLION - To See This House Contact Renee Gallagher, Round Hill Partners, (203) 861-0050

GREENWICH, CONN. REAL ESTATE

New York Post

The cost to send a letter may have gone up again, but buyers in Greenwich know the price of a postage-stamp property (i.e., humongous house, tiny plot of land) has never been cheap. So all the more reason to appreciate the value of this estate, set on 4 "park-like" acres on a private cul-de-sac in "prime mid-country."

The renovated 8,180-square-foot Georgian Colonial is really something to write home about, too, with six bedrooms, 6½ bathrooms, traditional (but "huge") entertaining rooms, 10-foot ceilings, custom moldings, a home theater, a gym, a wine cellar and a wraparound terrace on the second floor.

First-class amenities include a heated swimming pool "enhanced" by flagstone patios, an elevator to all levels and a backup generator (in case of rain, sleet or hail).

ALSO:

Getting to the Bottom of a Russian's 26 Toilets: Michael Lewis

Bloomberg.com

...In 2005 Valery Kogan, a Russian whom no one outside of Russia had ever heard of, turns up in Greenwich and buys a five- acre lot with a 20,000-square-foot house on it.

Naturally -- he being Russian, this being Greenwich -- he expects to tear down this old house and erect his own new 54,000- square-foot place. Like me, Valery Kogan overcame great odds to become a capitalist success. (I went to Penn, for example; Valery was born in a police state, and given a girl's name, to boot.)

Having made it this far he clearly never imagined that anyone might try to stop him from going even further. But then he met the organized proletariat of Greenwich...

...His desire for a 26-holer is the thing no ordinary person, even in Greenwich, seems capable of understanding.

``Who needs that many toilets?'' one of the protesting nimrods of Greenwich put it to Bloomberg News, speaking for the whole miserable rabble.

Well, for a start, Valery Kogan needs 26 toilets. He also needs someone to explain the need. Allow me.

To begin with -- and it depresses me that I find myself instructing citizens of Greenwich on the special needs of the very rich -- the seriously wealthy don't use their houses as ordinary people do....

...Bowl Superiority

Put this way you can see the true genius of Valery Kogan. Virtually every other form of conspicuous consumption in America has been bought and paid for; in the brain space that ordinary people reserve for the obsessive contemplation of the rich, there was hardly any real estate left.

Cars, houses, animals, furs, jewels, islands: From the point of view of the ordinary person looking for something to envy all are ``been there, done that.''

``Toilets!'' I can imagine Valery saying to himself, late on one cold Russian night, ``I will buy more toilets than any man on earth and the American people will speak of me with wonder.'' And they do.

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05/19/08 At the fishway, we've had a tremendous herring run this year. We've passed about 82,000 river herring so far

The Fish Are Spawning in the Mianus in Greenwich Again This Year
by Tom Andersen + Gina Federico

About 90000 anadromous fish -- alewives, mainly, but blueback herring as well -- made it over the fish ladder on the Mianus River in Greenwich in the spring of 2007. That number amazed fisheries biologists, because river herring ...
sphere - http://thissphere.blogspot.com/

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05/29/08 Times are definitely tough when Greenwich is starting to feelhe sting

Wall Street Woes Hit Greenwich, CT
by The Huffington Post News Team

Sylwester Lemanski was this close to selling a $400,000 Lamborghini to a Wall Street investment banker.

The customer had been eyeing the car for months at the dealership Lemanski manages. He had decided on the model and color -- a titanium Murcielago -- and needed only to sign on the bottom line.

Then, as financial markets teetered in March and layoffs mounted on Wall Street, the customer started getting cold feet. Lemanski could feel the deal slipping away.

"After a little bit you just have to ask someone the question: 'Are we, or are we not?' " Lemanski recalled. "He said, 'Sorry, not.' He said what's going on with all the investment banks was stopping him from making the purchase....

Business on HuffingtonPost.com - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/feeds/verticals/business/index.xml

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05/29/08 Thursday's News Links From The Greenwich Citizen

The WGCH News Anchor Reads From Today's Greenwich Citizen's News Links

The Greenwich Citizen Website Has Not Been Updated For 6 Days

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05/29/08 Thursday's News Links From The Greenwich Post

Not fair?

Parents file civil rights claim against schools

Quote:

“It’s just so frustrating to be constantly fighting, fighting, fighting for the basic educational resources that all children should get and you’re just never heard,” Ms. Bibeault told the Post Tuesday. “You get to the point where you have to say enough is enough.”

The Story:

The federal government is investigating Greenwich Public Schools for discrimination after one parent reported that Hamilton Avenue School students were not supplied with the same supplies and opportunities that students in the other district schools have received...

... “There’s a laundry list of complaints,” Ms. Bibeault said, adding that there was discrimination against the school’s teachers as well as the students because they were placed at a disadvantage without proper teaching supplies and often forced to buy items with their own money.

“The Board of Education had plenty of opportunities to right itself, but it just continued to squash the disadvantaged,” Ms. Bibeault said....

... “It varies from case to case,” Mr. Bradshaw told the Post. “All the information in the case that is needed to reach a determination about the facts will be collected. If we determine there has been a violation, we will work with the school district to get it to come into compliance with the civil rights laws.

Mr. Bradshaw said in most cases, th OCR is able to resolve the matter without enforcement, which could mean anything from taking the school district to court to withholding funding. Mr. Bradshaw called those “last resorts” and "rarely" used.

Hospital benefits from robotic surgery tools

That’s the No. 1 benefit for patients at Greenwich Hospital who undergo surgery using robotic technology, said Dr. John Clark, anesthesiologist and a prostate cancer survivor himself.

Sail & Power Squadron casts off, promoting boating safety

About 90% of those who drowned in 2006 were not wearing a life jacket, according to the latest available national statistics. Drowning was reported as the cause of death in two-thirds of all fatalities, and, consistent with previous years, 70% of reported deaths occurred on boats where the operator had not received boating safety instruction.

With Greenwich’s official boating season more than a month under way, the Captain Harbor Sail & Power Squadron and the Marine Division of the town’s police department are hoping captains and their crews will follow the rules and have a safe summer.

Selectmen want one field for park site

Plans for the Cos Cob power plant site have come full circle now that the Board of Selectmen has narrowed options for a future park to two — both with one athletic field and either a meadow or an area for passive recreation.

ALSO:
Excitement in the air

For a slideshow of photos from the
Greenwich Academy graduation, click here.

For a slideshow of photos from the
Brunswick School graduation, click here. ================================================ Please send your comments to GreenwichRoundup@gmail.com

05/29/08 Thursday's News Links From The Greenwich Time

James Clyburn Says Jim's The Man

House whip endorses Himes

NORWALK - James Clyburn of South Carolina, the majority whip and third-highest ranking Democrat in the U.S. House of Representatives, was upfront yesterday about endorsing Jim Himes of Greenwich in his bid to unseat longtime Republican Christopher Shays in the Fourth Congressional District.

Glenville principal suspended

Glenville School Principal Marc D'Amico was suspended pending an investigation into serious allegations, school officials said yesterday.

The nose knows

Like the many who came before and after her, Utsi was born and raised in the Netherlands with a nose for explosives.

Work starting this summer

A major project to upgrade the vast network of power cables beneath Greenwich Avenueis expected to start this summer, rebuilding an aging yet heavily-burdened energy grid that experts say is vulnerable to a major failure like the one that left much of downtown Stamford in the dark two years ago.

Residents stay close to home for the holidays

Forget Nantucket or the Hamptons. With the price of a gallon of gas flirting with the $5 mark, Greenwich is starting to show signs of becoming a backup summertime destination for stay-at-home tourists.

Abilis group prepares for performance

Dennis Waring looked around the circle last Sunday, his padded drum stick hovering above the long, red drum he carried around his neck.

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