Connecticut

The party on whose ticket Joe Lieberman ran for Senate in 2006 - but neglected to join - has issued the following announcement.

This is official notification that the Connecticut for Lieberman party is having a statewide party meeting to nominate candidates for office on March 6, 2008 at 6:30 PM at 243 Zion St.,Hartford, CT 06106.

Signed

John Orman

Man, I wish I could make it to the meeting. Having got into a “discussion” with Stuart Korchin at a Greenwich DTC meeting a few months back, it would be worth it just for the entertainment value.

One of the big accomplishments Speaker Jim Amann is often bragging about is the tax credits that brought bits and pieces of the film industry to Connecticut. However, a new report by Connecticut Voices for Children questions whether this is the right way to spend our money:

Connecticut’s tax credit-based investment in its entertainment industry far surpasses comparable investment in any other Connecticut industry or business activity through tax credits. The entertainment tax credits are $21 million greater than the total FY 09 bond funding for the Connecticut State University System’s 2020 infrastructure project; eleven times greater than FY 09 grants for stem cell research, and five times greater than the FY 09 funding increase approved last Session to expand school readiness to 4,100 additional children.

You can read the report here.

(Read the full post about ‘Group Questions Amann’s “Hollywood East”’…)

On Background had this to say about the recent attacks by the NRCC on Congressman Murphy:

Stop the presses. The National Republican Congressional Committee … thinks rookie Rep. Chris Murphy is a terrible person.
…
The committee says he’s been deliberately trying to block the updating of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act…
…
The NRCC said Murphy’s $1.2 million re-election coffers have been enhanced with a whopping — wait for it — $1,000 from the trial lawyers’ lobby. “And they are reaping the benefits from their backroom lobbying efforts,” today’s release said.

Hamilton goes on to mock the NRCC’s claim into oblivion (damp poker player lobby!).

(Read the full post about ‘Republican Attacks on Murphy Fall Flat’…)

WASHINGTON — Parents are putting their babies at risk when they place pillows and other soft bedding in their cribs, the Consumer Product Safety Commission warned Thursday.

From 2002 to 2004, 241 children under age 5 died in incidents involving nursery products. About 40 percent of the deaths involved cribs, with soft bedding cited as the leading contributing factor. Many of the children suffocated when lying face down on pillows or other bedding, the agency said.

“Less is more when you’re talking about the crib,” CPSC spokeswoman Julie Vallese said, adding that cribs should be free of adult pillows and blankets, stuffed animals and baby quilts.

To reduce risk of suffocation and sudden infant death syndrome, parents should place babies on their back in a crib that meets current safety standards, the agency said. (Read the full post about ‘Soft Bedding Can Be Deadly In Cribs’…)

ATLANTA — A new study finds children suffered higher rates of fever-related convulsions when they got a Merck combination vaccine instead of two separate shots.

The results prompted a federal advisory panel to back away from its preference for the combo vaccine ProQuad, which protects against measles, mumps and rubella as well as chickenpox.

In the study of children ages 12 months through 23 months, the rate of seizures was twice as high in toddlers who got ProQuad, compared with those who got one shot for chickenpox and one for the three other diseases.

The lead researcher of the federally funded study said the risk translates to about one extra case of convulsion for every 2,000 doses of the combo vaccine. (Read the full post about ‘Convulsions More Common After Vaccine’…)

NEW YORK — After two years of playing coy about his presidential ambitions, Mayor Michael Bloomberg declared in a newspaper editorial Wednesday that he will not run for president as an independent and said he might support the candidate who “takes an independent, nonpartisan approach.”

The 66-year-old billionaire businessman, who aides had said was prepared to spend $1 billion on his own independent campaign, wrote in an editorial posted on the Web site of The New York Times that he will be working to “steer the national conversation away from partisanship and toward unity; away from ideology and toward common sense; away from sound bites and toward substance.”

“Over the past year, I have been working to raise issues that are important to New Yorkers and all Americans — and to speak plainly about common sense solutions,” he wrote. (Read the full post about ‘No Presidential Run For NYC Mayor Bloomberg’…)

RIVERSIDE, Calif. — Authorities in Southern California said three people died in the crash of a small plane near the Riverside airport Wednesday night.

Witnesses said the plane developed trouble soon after taking off. The pilot tried to land on a street in a residential neighborhood but the plane clipped a palm tree and hit a car, bursting into flames. All three people on the plane were killed, but nobody on the ground was hurt.

The plane narrowly missed houses and people who were standing in a yard. The fire battalion chief on scene said the pilot “did one heck of a job.”

Riverside is about 60 miles east of Los Angeles.

LOS ANGELES — Court documents said Michael Jackson has until March 19 to pay more than $24 million dollars he owes on his Neverland Ranch, or his property will go up for auction.

According to the documents, a San Francisco-based title company has filed a notice of a trustee’s sale with a county superior court.

The papers indicate if there is an auction, the asking price could be higher than the $24.5 million the entertainer owes — due to of interest due and other costs.

Jackson no longer lives at the 2,500-acre ranch northwest of Santa Barbara, Calif.

The singer has spent a good deal of time overseas since his 2005 acquittal on child molestation charges.

Jackson has also spent some time in Las Vegas as he tries to jump-start his musical career. (Read the full post about ‘Michael Jackson’s Property May Be Auctioned’…)

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — Mischa Barton is facing four misdemeanors related to a drinking and driving arrest last year in West Hollywood.

Court papers obtained by CelebTV.com show the former star of “The O.C.” was charged Tuesday with driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, driving while having a 0.08 percent or higher blood alcohol level, driving without a valid license and possession of marijuana 28.5 grams or less.

Barton was arrested Dec. 27 in West Hollywood after sheriff’s deputies saw her car straddling two lanes of traffic and failing to signal for a turn.

A phone message left with Barton’s publicist, Howard Bragman, was not immediately returned. (Read the full post about ‘‘O.C.’ Star Barton Faces 4 Misdemeanor Charges’…)

GREENSBORO, Ga. — Nearly four decades after this rural Georgia county stopped segregating its schools by race, it wants to divide students again — this time by sex.

Greene County is set to become the first school district in the nation to go entirely single-sex, with boys and girls in separate classrooms — a move born of desperation over years of poor test scores, soaring dropout rates and high numbers of teenage pregnancies.

“At the rate we’re moving, we’re never going to catch up,” Superintendent Shawn McCollough told parents in an impassioned speech last week. (Read the full post about ‘Public Schools In Ga. County To Be Same Sex’…)