What’s up with West Hartford’s closets?

I’m sort of afraid to peer too deeply into that funny old closet beside my dryer that I can’t open because the machine’s in the way.
After all, police found a kidnapped girl living in a closet under the stairs in a house in Elmwood not long ago. And now we find out that a doctor [...]

911 call transcript from grandmother who killed herself yesterday

Marcia Maglisco, 62, was caring for her 2-year-old grandson in West Hartford when the boy drowned last week.
Here’s the Transcript of her 911 Call To West Hartford Police On Oct. 5, 2007

Williams: West Hartford Police Fire Dispatcher Williams
Maglisco: Um, yes, um I’m at 14 Foxridge Road. I need the police to come and arrest me, [...]

Gridlock near I-84

I don’t understand why the congestion that surrounds the I-84 entrance and exit on Park Street has gotten so much worse than it was before the reconstruction. But it absolutely has.
It’s ridiculous at many times of the day.
What’s happened is that there are more cars lined up for the left turn onto Trout Brook Drive, causing them [...]

A total waste of money and a travesty

I learned today — thanks to a sharp-eared parent at a school’s opening day event — that the Board of Education is paying to have full-time security greeters at every elementary school this year. The logic, apparently, is that having someone there to be “security” will keep our kids safer.
Well, phooey.
I’ve been in the schools [...]

Why no speed bumps for residential streets?

The other day I happened to drive along the road in front of the governor’s mansion and was stunned to find that two plastic-like speed bumps had been more or less nailed into the street nearby to slow drivers down. Presumably, that’s to keep some nut from running down Gov. Rell.
Down the street only a [...]

Long-time professor killed on Cape Cod

According to the Cape Cod Times, a 37-year veteran professor at UConn’s School of Social Work in West Hartford, Albert Alissi, was struck and killed by a car while taking a walk in West Dennis. Alissi retired five years ago from the school.
Associate Dean Catherine Havens told the paper that Alissi was a specialist in social [...]

Webster Hill kid was lying

The story seemed shaky all along, and the schools’ reaction overblown in any case, but now we know that that the intruder story was a lie from the start, according to a story in today’s Courant.
What bothers me most is the police clearly suspected from the start that the incident never happened. They should have expressed [...]

Monster rats in West Hartford?!?

“Lots and lots of rats” are invading the Charter Oak neighborhood in Elmwood, according to today’s Hartford Courant.
“A rat problem that resulted in occasional complaints to health officials has spread over the past 18 months, leading officials to step up efforts to contain the rodents, which Mayor Scott Slifka called a public health [...]

Timeline fuzzy on Cheshire killings

One of the most perplexing aspects of the Petit murders in Cheshire is the seemingly slow response of local police.
Part of the reason there’s such rampant speculation that the police botched the job – and perhaps lost the chance to save three lives – is that authorities are inexcusably withholding key information, including 911 calls, [...]

Cheshire murders

I’ve been reading every scrap about this awful, awful massacre of Dr. William Petit’s wife and two daughters. It fills me with disgust, and worries me, too, because I can’t see that anyone screwed up in letting these two animals out on the streets. Despite criminal pasts, they’d never been charged with anything violent. They [...]