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Category Archives: Local issues

Arithmetic Lesson

Saturday, April 21, 2018

The City of Groton, distinct from the Town of Groton (I decline to address the absurdity of the existence of both of these entities) has announced a tax decrease: The Groton City Council is considering a budget for the coming fiscal year that would lower the city’s tax rate by 0.72 mill, or $72 for […]

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Strike a blow for net neutrality

Friday, April 6, 2018

The Republicans in the State Senate blocked the net neutrality bill using a parliamentary trick: Sen. Paul Formica, R-East Lyme and co-chairman of the Energy and Technology Committee, used his authority to split the committee and allow only the four senators to vote. While Democrats have a majority in the committee when House members are […]

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Trump delivers for Dems in Groton

Tuesday, November 7, 2017

This is, of course, a minor story, but in a way it may be significant. We had our local elections today. The Republicans have dominated the Town Council for something like thirty or more years, and most years they have a majority on the Board of Ed, though sometimes we’ve had a slim majority on […]

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An open letter to former State Rep John Scott

Thursday, September 28, 2017

Dear John: While the old saying that “the lawyer who represents himself has a fool for a client” is mainly true, I feel in this instance I can take that risk, as I have a fool for an adversary. I write at this time to put you on notice that I intend to take legal […]

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Local Republicans doing what Republicans do

Saturday, April 22, 2017

Our newly elected state representative, Chris Conley, had a bit of bad luck recently. Well, she had two pieces of bad luck, but lets start with the latest. A few weeks ago Chris broke her leg in two places. It was a nasty break, and as a result, Chris missed some committee meetings in Hartford, […]

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A word of caution re: Heather Somers

Monday, April 17, 2017

One of the good things that has happened (remember, always look on the bright side of life) since Trump lost the popular vote is the rise of the resistance movement, in its various and sundry groupings. We have several in this area. One downside of the movement is that it has attracted a lot of […]

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South Carolina on the Sound

Tuesday, February 21, 2017

The tweet from Chris Hayes linked to a story titled “Interracial couple fined for not removing racial slur spray painted on their garage.” I figured, for sure, it happened somewhere in the Confereracy, but: STAMFORD, Conn. (AP) — An interracial Connecticut couple whose home was vandalized by a racial slur has been fined for failing […]

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History repeats itself

Sunday, January 15, 2017

A bit of a heads up for folks who aren’t from this neck of the woods. Heather Somers, who ran for Lieutenant Governor in 2014 is gunning for statewide office again. You remember Heather. She was such a strong vote getter that she managed to swing exactly no districts in the Groton area to the […]

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An Open Letter to Aundre Bumgardner

Wednesday, October 19, 2016

(For those who don’t reside here in Groton, Aundre Bumgardner is the state representative from my district, which also includes a slice of New London. ) Dear Aundre: Well, it looks like you’ve passed the Trump test. Instead of voting for your party’s standard bearer, you are going to vote for Gary Johnson, the guy […]

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In some cases, past performance is a guarantee of future performance

Wednesday, October 19, 2016

Here in my home state Senate district, we have a race between an intelligent progressive candidate and the 2014 Republican candidate for lieutenant governor; a candidate so disastrous that the Republicans did their best to put a lid on her during the entire losing campaign. She was a do-nothing town councilor here in Groton for […]

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