Picturing Mark Twain in West Hartford

Back in 1895, Mark Twain signed a picture of himself. No doubt he did that a lot.
One of the photographs somehow landed in a file at the West Hartford library long ago, where it was quickly forgotten until librarians unearthed it as they moved everything out in preparation for the ongoing expansion. Pretty neat find, [...]

Justice has gone to the dogs

The West Hartford woman with 22 little Shih Tzus at home — illegally — still has them despite an order to move ‘em out. The Hartford Courant finally bothered to update us today. (It is just terrible at follow-up stories, by the way.)
The woman’s appealing the town’s ruling in court and a judge is letting the [...]

Why is West Hartford repeating Southington’s mistake?

In Southington last fall, the Democratic town council decided to enact a new ordinance to freeze the property taxes of low-income elderly homeowners without having an asset test as part of the equation.
That’s exactly what West Hartford is eyeing now.
The council in Southington got a shock, however, when residents banded together to force a referendum [...]

Why we lost the war

Even though the Bush administration and Sen. Lieberman haven’t yet accepted that the war is lost, it’s clear enough that it is. All you have to do is talk to the returning soldiers. They know there’s nothing left to fight for, nothing there to win. It’s just a question of how much more of our [...]

West Hartford’s anti-war group goes statewide

With town meetings planned in 24 towns across Connecticut on Saturday, the valiant band of anti-war protestors in West Hartford is reaching out. There’s a pretty good story in The Middletown Press this morning that lays out what’s going on at the gatherings, which will include a conference call from Sen. Dodd, Congressman Larson and gone-but-not-forgotten [...]

Building 18

Just read the sickening, wonderful news story from last Sunday’s Washington Post about the conditions that our wounded troops are living in at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. It’s appalling.
These men and women, who have suffered grievously in battle, are living in crappy old apartments with mold, mice, cockroaches and holes in the walls. They’re [...]

Sucking up to seniors

This notion of freezing property taxes for even wealthy seniors who happen to have little income has its roots in the most solid of political axioms: Old people vote.
The town has lots of reasons for wanting to lend a hand to struggling seniors, but one of the key ones is the most simple: politicians want [...]

No tax freeze for West Hartford seniors

Look, I’m no tax rebel. I’m a middle-aged, midde-class homeowner with kids who is ready to chip in my fair share of what is clearly an outrageously high property tax tab. I can’t afford it all, but somehow I will, because I want my kids to have an education in this great town and I [...]

Busway from New Britain to Hartford

I’ve never been able to tell if the state Department of Transportation is serious about the proposed busway between New Britain, a city nobody willingly visits, and Hartford. It would run through Elmwood, along the rail line, and have stations in Elmwood and Flatbush.
I’m still perplexed about who exactly would use this busway. For much of the town, [...]

I like dogs, but c’mon, this is ridiculous

You know the press is hard up for news when stories about police dogs make the cut.
This week, Channel 30 decided that a West Hartford family’s inexplicable decision to sell fudge to raise money for a bulletprof vest for Reign, a police dog, was worth telling all of Connecticut about. The Hartford Courant, proving once again [...]