The simple low-cost solution to improving Litchfield County’s economic prosperity is greater second home development/ownership, tourism and permanent resident transplants who primarily made their income outside of the County. Unlike other counties in CT, Litchfield County’s greatest competit…
There’s so much more to a book than just the reading. — Maurice Sendak
As impeachment again comes to dominate the national news, the twists in the story have been wild and unpredictable. But few could have foreseen a role for a mostly unknown congressional candidate from Connecticut who has already been denounced by his party over unrelated events.
Two recent events came together for me in one epiphany, defined by Merriam-Webster as “an usually sudden manifestation or perception of the essential nature or meaning of something.” Strangely enough, this was on the Twelfth Day of Christmas, which is also known as the Epiphany. When you’re …
Two state lawmakers, one from each party, asked the General Assembly’s banking committee reently, to hold an informational forum on a case now before the Department of Banking — a case that’s stretching the bounds of what we thought a regulatory action could look like.
The issue: A plan that would clear certain criminal records automatically was introduced in 2019 but died in the Connecticut General Assembly. The proposal would only apply to people with nonviolent convictions and would help clear a path to acquiring housing and employment after a sentence …
Red-bellied woodpeckers are just one of the once-rare birds in the state that now make it home
I have hazel eyes — green with flecks of gold and sometimes blue. According to published statistics, only 8 percent of human beings have hazel eyes, which can change with mood and surroundings. Since they often change color, people with hazel eyes are said to be unpredictable and fun loving.…
For many decades, hosts of individuals have reported seeing mountain lions in Connecticut. But other than the one killed by a motor vehicle on the Wilbur Cross Parkway in Milford on June 11, 2011 — the only confirmed presence of a mountain lion in Connecticut in recent times — none of myriad…
Against Donald J. Trump, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wanted narrow impeachment charges, despite key House Committee Chairs’ arguments for broadening the impeachment charges. These veteran lawmakers, led by House Judiciary Committee Chair Jerry Nadler, urged Speaker Pelosi to include the ten o…
Debt has always been a mixed-bag for me as it had to be paid even as outside forces beyond my control interfered.
The issue: The recently concluded year brought a new raft of environmental concerns for state residents, including one that even many well-informed advocates had never heard of. PFAS, which stands for per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances, are manmade chemicals that are potentially hazar…
My favorite book at age eight was “Alice in Wonderland.” I revisited it in the 1960s when Grace Slick and Jefferson Airplane gave it a psychedelic twist and it revived with the Tim Burton/Johnny Depp film interpretation that was even more psychedelic. But nothing can be more phantasmagorical…
If anyone had forgotten the underlying issue behind the never-ending statewide debate on highway tolls, a reminder was issued last week from the Department of Labor, and it told a familiar story. Despite some minor movement on a few indicators, the state’s job situation remains stuck in a ye…
I love the Litchfield Hills — the sound of it (a lot of quietude), the warp and weft of tall trees everywhere, curving byways, ups and downs and a herd of cows watching as you walk by their pasture. I also appreciate that very few people fence-in their homes. It wasn’t like that in Florida.
The job of University of Connecticut President Thomas Katsouleas, who was appointed to his position in February and took over in August, could not be more important. In leading the state’s flagship university, he has a vital role in developing the next generation of the state’s workforce and…
The polls are unclear and Democrats say they don’t expect a pro-Trump backlash from impeachment.
I believe what we drink says more about us than we know. At an early age, I was lapping up the dregs of holiday blackberry brandy from Waterford Crystal goblets. My family was large and Irish; certainly, I was a woman destined to appreciate a good drink.
The lawmakers are doing it. The candidates are doing it. The mass media are doing it. All are excluding from their arenas the leading citizen groups as never before, since the early 1960s. The nonprofit national advocacy/research organizations that led the way for social reforms are being sh…
Cities and towns should follow Gov. Lamont’s lead and tell State Department we consent to refugee placement.
Connecticut Christmas tree farmers need patience, planning and luck to grow the perfect tree.
You might think that the song “Blue Christmas” originated with Elvis Presley, but although the King made it hugely popular, it first hit #1 on the charts eight years earlier, recorded by The Grand Ole Opry Star Ernest Tubb. Up until then, Tubb was most famous for “Walking the Floor Over You.…
Chris Murphy was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2012, defeating Republican Linda McMahon. He was re-elected last year, facing only token opposition and, as such, is not due to face Connecticut voters again until 2024, which is several political lifetimes from now.
It’s the season of the mouse.
It is time to take Donald Trump’s disregard for climate crisis seriously. As Commander in Chief, Trump is abdicating his duties to protect his people, instead actively aiding and abetting the corporate polluters who are causing the climate chaos. Trump is wasting irreplaceable time that we n…
On this much, everyone can agree. When it comes to the halftime protest at the 2019 Harvard-Yale football game, the protesters chose their time and venue well.
It’s clear many of us feel helpless when trees suddenly come down near our homes because often there’s nothing we can do to stop it.
Eight days after moving into my new apartment, I awoke to find that my kitten had disappeared. Darlin’ wasn’t happy to be uprooted from the home she had known for five months, refusing to eat or speak (she’s always been very vocal).
To the Editor:
The issue: When a woman files a temporary restraining order against her partner, she is most vulnerable to violence. Yet in this country the partner is allowed to keep firearms until the restraining order becomes permanent by court order. The consequences can be deadly.
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The deer hunt on town-owned land in Ridgefield began in 2005.
Richard Wilhelm knows about the rise and fall of the American chestnut — how a foreign blight inadvertently wiped out the grandest tree in the North American forests in little over a half century.
In all this heated debate on tolls, people seem to have forgotten we once had them in Connecticut.
During the thirty years I lived in South Florida, I met my share of “characters.” In retrospect, though, none of them could beat the dyed-in-the-wool, stubborn, independent and odd Yankees I have known in Connecticut.
Republican senators on Thursday offered an extensive 10-year program to address transit issues without tolls.
Another school shooting, this time on Thursday. Two students shot dead by a classmate. This time, it was in California. This time, a 16-year-old boy packed a .45-caliber semiautomatic pistol in his backpack on his birthday and shot it six times in the school quad.
Around the world people are marching, rallying, and demonstrating in huge numbers. Some of these countries are ruled by dictators or plutocratic regimes, others are considered democracies. Despite the peril of protest, people are seeking justice, freedom, and decent livelihoods.
Federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents should not be hanging around Connecticut courthouses trying to pick up their targets.
Our trees are under attack from insects, fire, diseases and overzealous utility company crews who “clear cut” (destroy) rows of trees rather than trim the branches.
As Mercury crosses the Sun, it’s just a freckle, but loaded with history.
When I returned to my home state of Connecticut after several decades of living in south Florida, my husband and I made several house hunting trips to Litchfield County. We used all our frequent flyer miles and some donated by friends. We looked at every available home in our price range — C…
More electric car charging stations are on the way in Danbury-area towns. But for the more rural towns, they may not be cost-effective to install.
The issue: An increasing number of school-age children in Connecticut are not getting vaccinated against childhood diseases that if contracted could be physically debilitating or life-threatening. A rise in religious exemptions from the mandatory vaccines for measles, mumps and rubella has d…
To the Editor:
To the Editor,
Scientists have discovered a non-native invasive nematode has brought beech leaf disease to the state
The idea of offering economic incentives for companies to move to or grow in Connecticut has usually been viewed as a necessary evil. Even supporters of programs like former Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s First Five, which lavished millions of dollars on companies that may have had no intention of …
Bears see our state as one big forest with houses, and bird feeders, here and there. we can co-exist.
Bats have been misunderstood, but are actually environmentally valuable.
I was very curious when entrepreneur and visionary Russell Barton took on the challenging task of turning the Litchfield jail, dating back to 1812, into a contemporary mix of retail, businesses and apartments. It wasn’t just the logistics of making the project happen, it was the fact that th…
