is there enough to

FIX THE DAMN STREET LIGHT THAT'S BEEN OUT FOR WELL OVER TWO YEARS???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

by the way, there are a TON of lights out in town. i go to work VERY early in the morning and i know for a fact.

West Hartford Tax Collections Exceed Expectations
By BILL LEUKHARDT The Hartford Courant

WEST HARTFORD — - The harsh recession that began throttling the economy last fall did not have the anticipated negative effect on town tax collections in the 2008-09 fiscal year, interim Town Manager Ronald Van Winkle said Friday.

The town collected 99.1 percent of taxes for that year, better than the conservative 98.9 percent collection rate expected. That's about $700,000 more than the $177.6 million budgeted, he said.............

big breaking west hartford leaf collection news

head 'em up bag 'em up and move 'em out!

now if only they could FIX THE STREET LIGHT THAT'S BEEN OUT FOR WELL OVER TWO YEARS

New Policy For West Hartford Leaf Collection This Fall
By BILL LEUKHARDT The Hartford Courant
WEST HARTFORD — - The new policy on autumn leaf collection includes weekly pickup of bags of leaves at curbside from October to mid-December, the public works department said.

The town eliminated curbside leaf vacuuming to save $383,000 this fiscal year, so residents must now bag leaves in 30-gallon biodegradable paper bags...............

these four headlines are on the front page

of the courant's website

wtf????????????????????

Man Shot, Wounded In West Hartford

Updated: 11:57 p.m.

16-Year-Old Boy Shot In Hartford

Police Investigate Street Robbery In Hartford

Updated: 10:35 p.m.

Store Clerk Struck With Pistol During Robbery

catch my friend mark robinson

being interviewed by diane smith this morning.

it's about his book smoke fire and angels (all of the proceeds are going to the victims and their families) and experiences of/with/at/during the horrific avon mountain crash


image from here

once again, thank the goddess for the

connecticut innocence project. i cannot even imagine being behind bars for 21 years for a rape and murder YOU DID NOT COMMIT

(i can't imagine convicting, even partically based on the testimony of one witness who had a stake in protecting someone ELSE who was a suspect, either)

DNA Tests Clear Man Jailed Since Late 1980s Of Homicide
By HILDA MUÑOZ The Hartford Courant

NEW HAVEN — - A man serving a 50-year prison sentence in the rape and homicide of a Wallingford woman more than two decades ago was granted a new trial Wednesday after recent DNA tests showed someone else committed the crimes.

Kenneth Ireland, 39, was ordered released without bail by Judge Richard Damiani and is with his family, 21 years after he was taken into custody, said Karen Goodrow, director of the Connecticut Innocence Project, which took Ireland's case two years ago.

"It's really exhilarating," she said. "He's just doing really well."
..................

..........A witness, Marilou Flaler, testified during the trial that Ireland and another man, Donald Glover, told her and her boyfriend that they had raped and killed Pelkey. A third man, Max Arizmendi, also was supposed to have been with them.

No one else was arrested in the case. Both Glover and Arizmendi are now dead.

Ireland's public defender, Donald Dakers, challenged Flaler's testimony, saying she gave police a statement a year after the homicide for a $20,000 reward and to protect her boyfriend's brother, John Card, who was a potential suspect.,,,,,,,,,,,,,

i grew up in the north end

well, we lived there until i was nine. it was the proverbial melting pot. there were italians, poles, jews, catholics, protestants, hispanics, blacks, asians. really, MANY religions, MANY nationalities. we lived on clark street in a six family home my grandparents (mother's parents) owned. my grandparents lived next door in a one family home. my grandfather had a grape arbor, rhurbarb around his garage, peach trees, cherry trees (sweet and sour), apple trees (green and red) and plums. there may have been more, but i can't recall. he also had a wonderful flower garden (as did my father's parents in glastonbury. they had apple trees too, but mostly had garden vegetables. lots and lots of beans. all sorts of italian beans of all sorts of colors. my favorites were the white and red striped ones). the north end was a beautiful place. a place of wonder. the house i grew up in isn't there any more. the school i went to, st. michael's is. not sure it's still st. michael's though. i think some catholic workers live there or around there, so it just might still be catholic

anyway, this column by helen ubinas reminded me of my childhood:


DISPATCHES FROM GARDEN STREET
Holding The Family Together

Helen Ubiñas

Mattie Laird bought her home at 643-645 Garden St. in 1968 — back when people could walk to nearby factory jobs, when rooted Jewish families still lived here and a home on the street went for just over $18 grand.

It was a fortune back then, of course.

But even after her husband left, Laird did whatever it took to hold onto the three-family home, juggling a job at the old Colt factory, another at a nursing home.

Always, two and three jobs to pay the bills and keep her children in the house that four generations still call home.

"Whatever I did, it was better than farm work in South Carolina," Laird said, laughing. "Now that was hard work."

Her daughter, Donna Yvette Jackman, still lives here.

As does her grandson, 19-year-old Clayton Jackman.

And her great-grandchildren, Chevaughn Robinson, 8, and Michael Robinson, 10.

pic: Four generations in the same house on Garden Street started with Mattie Laird, 71, center, when she bought her family home in 1968. With her are her daughter, Donna Yvette Jackman, at left, and her grandson, Clayton Jackman, right. Her two great-grandsons, who also live with her, are Chevaughn Robinson, 8, second from left, and Michael Robinson, 10, second from right. (RICK HARTFORD / HARTFORD COURANT / August 3, 2009)

two things

i never really thought this would happen in connecticut. i thought we were smarter and better than that (i thought wrong)
AND
what the f**k do they think is going to happen to our country if we don't do something NOW about health care (one among a TON of other things king george either IGNORED, SWEPT UNDER THE RUG OR LIED ABOUT)? really we're literally going to hell in a handbasket here. people are suffering and this is only the beginning. where were all these assholes when king george was introducting the country to the devil?

so go ahead. listen to lou and glenn and flush and bill and ann and sean. believe what they say. hide your head in the sand. i'm gonna walk all OVER your sticking up asses in that case

Protesters Disrupt U.S. Representative's Meeting At Simsbury Supermarket
By DANIELA ALTIMARI The Hartford Courant
SIMSBURY— - Chanting "Dump Chris Dodd" and "No national health care," scores of angry constituents confronted U.S. Rep. Chris Murphy at a meet-and-greet outside the Super Stop & Shop Wednesday afternoon.

Murphy, a Democrat who represents the 5th District, routinely holds informal office hours at supermarkets and strip malls, but such gatherings are generally uneventful. This time, many of the 150 or so attendees were so boisterous that Stop & Shop management called the police to ask that the crowd be moved from the store's entrance.

The scene in Simsbury is being replayed throughout the nation this week as congressional Democrats convene town hall forums and other public get-togethers to win support for the Obama administration's plan to overhaul the health care system.

One conservative group critical of the plan has put out a call to members, encouraging them to attend these gatherings and voice their opposition to the member of Congress hosting the event. U.S. Sen. Christopher Dodd, a Democrat and a leading architect of the health care overhaul, has become a chief target........

ravings of a semi-sane madwoman: uh oh

ravings of a semi-sane madwoman: uh oh

blog this!

years and years and years ago, when i was in high school that is, i spent a LOT of time at the atheneum (and the library and the train station). i had enough credits to graduate (when i was a senior) but they wouldn't let me. they decided to torture me and make me take gym several times a day (something about me skipping gym in a prior life i think). anyway, i wasn't about to gym myself (and they made me do golfing shite during gym. that stopped right quick) to death. i used to grab some writing impliments and pads of paper and head off for the atheneum and the train station and the big hartford public library on main street. i'd sit and stare at the paintings or the people all day. i'd write and write and write. it helped to make me who i am today. it helped me appreciate art (although i would have anyway). i remember each and every painting and sculpture and artifact. i remember where they were and how they were set up. i remember the smells in each room (they were different). i rememeber being very happy indeed.

my favorite painting at the atheneum you ask? well i'll tell you: the vale of st. thomas, jamaica by frederic e church


the following is from the wadsworth atheneum:

The Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art invites you to join us at our inaugural Blog This! event, on August 6, from 4:30 – 6:30 pm.

Blog This! will provide a forum for social media writers from throughout the state to connect with each other, while connecting with great art! We also hope to gain insights into how we can better work together to position both Hartford, and Connecticut, as a premier cultural destination (and not just someplace between New York and Boston!)

The agenda includes an update from the Director, Susan Talbott, an overview of The Amistad Center for Art & Culture by Director, Olivia White and a Docent led highlights tour of the museum’s permanent collection.

Come for the formal part – but stay for the fun part - join us from 6:30 – 8 pm for our First Thursday festivities which will include temporary tattoos, the opening of Skin!, an exhibition of photographs created by teens in The Amistad Center for Art & Culture’s Neighborhood Studio summer youth program, and original hip-hop beats performed by Connectbeats. Food and cocktails will also be available.

• Date: August 6, 2009
• Time: 4:30 pm – 6:30 pm
• Location: Wadsworth Atheneum of ArtBlogger: the nutmeg grater - Create Post
600 Main St., Hartford, CT

For more information or to RSVP, please contact:
Kimberly Reynolds
(860) 838-4055
Kimberly.Reynolds@wadsworthatheneum.org.

and here's a lil' somethin' somethin' from the nyt:

In an Untamed Wilderness, Finding the Serene

By BENJAMIN GENOCCHIO

The upstairs galleries of the Beaux-Arts-style wing of the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, completed in the early 20th century, have never been so appropriately adorned as they are now, with the paintings that make up "American Splendor: Hudson River School Masterworks" — a glorious, robust assemblage of 120 works by artists from a movement that defined 19th-century American landscape art. Those who follow American art will find few surprises here, but will be rewarded with excellent examples of every major artist's work, all drawn from the Wadsworth's permanent collection and recently returned to Hartford from a national tour, before heading to Germany next year. For others less well versed, the show offers a superb overview of the movement and includes wall labels that offer more than the usual information......


pic: Frederic Edwin Church (American, 1826-1900), Vale of St. Thomas, Jamaica, 1867. Oil on canvas, 48-5/16 x 84-5/8 inches. Courtesy of Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, Conn. Bequest of Elizabeth Hart Jarvis Colt.

we don't have a budget and 'SHE'

wants to pass a tax on a couple of items that make me happy

BEVERAGES and BUTTS

i don't know. i thought the lotto or lottery or whatever the hell it is we have and/or participate in was supposed to help us

dang, we all take road trips to mass as it is m jodi. want us all to MOVE there as well?

Connecticut targets drinkers' wallets

Bill Dowd

Go to Bill's Home Page

Connecticut is joining the parade of financially troubled state governments looking to raise revenues by raising taxes on drinkers.

Gov. M. Jodi Rell on Thursday unveiled a new two-year budget that would raise "sin taxes" such as those on alcoholic beverages and tobacco and corporation taxes by $391 million. Those, she says, are the only taxes she'll consider.

Meanwhile, the General Assembly's two Democratic-controlled budget committees passed a proposal calling for $1.8 billion in tax increases, including higher income tax rates for wealthier taxpayers.

Connecticut, Pennsylvania and North Carolina are the only states that have not yet passed a budget for the current fiscal year.

Senate President Pro Tempore Donald E. Williams Jr., D-Brooklyn, said Friday that the governor's proposal to raise the excise tax on beer, wine and distilled spirits by 10% to raise about $8.5 million over the two years "is taxing the six pack but not the six-figure salary. This is not shared sacrifice. This is Republican-style trickle down economics.".........