Mr. Hannan has conveniently omitted mention of several important considerations in his paen to Mother Earth: 1. Rachel Carson's predictions concerning DDT have been proven wrong. The claims made in Silent Spring are largely dismissed by scientists. Todd Seavey of the American Council on Health and Science has noted: "No DDT-related human fatalities or chronic illnesses have ever been recorded, even among the DDT-soaked workers in anti-malarial programs or among prisoners who were fed DDT as volunteer test subjects — let alone among the 600 million to 1 billion who lived in repeatedly-sprayed dwellings at the height of the substance's use. The only recorded cases of DDT poisoning were from massive accidental or suicidal ingestions, and even in these cases, it was probably the kerosene solvent rather than the DDT itself that caused illness. Reports of injury to birds could not be verified, even when one researcher force-fed DDT-laced worms to baby robins. Reports of fish kills have been greatly exaggerated, resulting from faulty data or aberrant, massive spills or overuse of the chemical that do not hint at a general danger in its use." Some groups, such as Greenpeace and the World Wildlife Fund, have made allowances for the new evidence and have changed their position from demanding a worldwide DDT ban, to now consenting to its limited use. The monumental effect of her work has been disastrous, particularly in Africa, where the unnecessary ban of DDT has cost millions of lives to diseases like malaria. 2. The environmental movement has been co-opted by radicals of the political left. The worthy goals of conservation and ecological stewardship are now subverted and subservient to an anti-capitalist, no growth, anti-Western agenda. Scratching the surface of the "Big Green" watermelon reveals the bright red core of Marxist ideology beneath. 3. The brief history of Earth Day neglects to include one of the principal founders on stage in Philadelphia at that first celebration. The emcee, and also a key speaker, was Ira Einhorn, a notorious radical of that era, friend to Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman. It's no surprise that Mr. Hannan has "forgotten" Mr. Einhorn, the environmental movement has disowned him ever since Einhorn became even more famous for the brutal murder of his girlfriend, Holly Maddux, in 1977. Einhorn crushed Maddux's skull, stuffed her into a trunk in his apartment, and went about his business of "saving the planet." While out on bail during his trial, he fled to Europe, and remained at large until 1997. He is now serving a life sentence. View Comment

The point is that those on death row are very likely to have their sentences commuted once Connecticut removes the death penalty from the books. Today, all the politicians supporting this dumb idea claim it won't happen, but defense attorneys predict otherwise when the condemned appeal in court. It won't take long for the other shoe to drop, and soon after, the taxpayers can subsidize the care and feeding of these vicious killers. That is the new definintion of justice and democracy in Connecticut. Bravo Malloy! View Comment

How long now until there are candlelight vigils to commute the sentences of the Butchers of Cheshire, Steven Hayes and Joshua Komisarjevsky? Will we hear State Rep. Pat Billie-Miller explain to Dr. Petit, how justice is served by sparing these two fiends and their fellow murderers on death row? Maybe Gov. Malloy will visit one of the hand-wringing sessions and recount the brutal actions that befell the Petits in their home: how the two young daughters were raped, strangled, and set on fire; how their mother was likewise annihilated; and how Dr. Petit, had his skull fractured and, thrown down the cellar stairs and left for dead, crawled out of his burning house. I'm sure the Governor can justify to Mr. Petit that all of the pain he endures each and every day, all of the those days during two murder trials, will be alleviated by the "enlightened" repeal of our law. What a travesty, Neither Gov. Malloy nor any of his supporters like Ms. Billie-Miller will ever offer any such justifications. They are the "masterminds", the "anointed", who know better than the people of Connecticut, who consistently support the death penalty by a wide margin. Concerning Hayes and Komisarjevsky, support is 76-18 percent favoring execution. Support for the death penalty in general, is at 65-23 percent. Is this respect for the will of the people? Public opinion be damned. Brutal murderers will now be enjoying: weightlifting, TV, three-meals-a-day, medical care, library privileges, mail from friends and family, conversation, games of chess, clean clothes, the cold, crisp morning air, and the warmth of the sun. The families of victims will experience: betrayal, heavy hearts, lingering memories, self doubt, anger, and gnawing pain. The victims...will be silent in their graves. View Comment

The headline misleads us! Cafero and Franz received FAILING grades! (A grade of 60, by the way, is a squeaker, but still a passing grade) They are out to poison the air and water. They're tree rapers, polluters who seek to foul our rivers and kill little bunnies! It is mere coincidence that they also happen to be Republicans Everyone knows that Democrats are the only true protectors of trees, rainbows, and unicorns. Oh, those EEEEVIL Republicans! What is the true political agenda of the "popular front" group, Connecticut League of Conservation Voters? Where do they get their funding? Who are their officers and trustees? What actions have they effected and what is their record? What is their claim to legitimacy? By what criteria and rationale do they "grade" legislators? Is their criticism and scorn meted out objectively or is it skewed? Are they truly the "bi-partisan group they claim to be? Whom do they hold up as "Friends" of the environment and why? Do they act in concert with other groups on environmental projects? If so, with whom? Do they truly act in the public interest or are they environmental "green shirts" who abuse valid concerns to bully public officials? Further, what are the voting and policy records of Messrs. Cafero and Franz concerning such matters over a period of many years? Hmmmmmm... These are the questions that used to be asked by "journalists" View Comment

Picture this: Chief Dastardly of the Darien Police Dept. sits in his darkened lair, the police station, plotting how to thwart the massive Occupy Darien protests led by the heroic humanitarian Margaret Raque. Twirling his greasy moustache he sneers, "Let's stop a train and search it for murderers!" (cue up musical theme) Dumb, dumb, dummmmmmmmmmmmmb! Theater of the Absurd at its very best. View Comment

Four loser hypocrites mouthing foolish Marxist dogma now qualifies as a news story? ...Really Daily Norwalk? This is truly the most pathetic excuse for journalism I've witnessed in some time. The Daily Norwalk attempts to promote an otherwise "non-story" here. These people are prime beneficiaries of market capitalism living on Connecticut's Gold Coast in DARIEN! The irony of it makes my hair hurt. As if that were not absurd enough, we are then treated to comments like: "Okay, so the guy who's your boss, who presumably makes more money than you--would you say he works even harder than you?" Such statements parrot Marx's Labor Theory of Value, as if effort were the only factor which determines value. What about quality, scarcity, and utility for starters? Such lazy thinking is no more than ignorant propaganda on parade. Shape up Daily Norwalk. View Comment

"Those 53 bags of dope weren't mine. I was just holding them for Wanda!" ...uh...really? View Comment

Drug dealing: Check. Bank Robbery: Check Drug use: Check Serial Lying: Check Criminal Fraud: Check Assault: Check Using a Friend: Check Slander: Check Professional Mooch: Check Good Mother? View Comment

Al Sharpton is a racist and provocateur of the most vile kind. He perpetrated the awful Tawana Brawley hoax and was ordered by the court to pay 350K for his slander. He made outrageous slurs against Jews before and during the deadly Crown Heights riots. He was a party to the attacks on Freddie's Fashion Mart, a Jewish owned business in NYC, in which seven people were killed by gunfire and arson. "Reverend" Al owed $1.5 million in unpaid taxes and penalties as of 2008, and had a tax lien put on him as a result. Further, he was fined $285K by the Federal Elections Commission for misuse of campaign funds in 2009. This was on top of the $100K he was forced to pay for similar offenses in 2004. It is fitting that such a fraud would come to support McDowell, herself a felon with multiple convictions, in her quest to worm out of an attempt to defraud the Norwalk Housing Authority, the public schools, and the taxpayers. She is far from the diligent mother the spin meisters would portray. This issue is NOT about race. It's about dishonesty. View Comment

The fact that Mr. Aguilar is a gifted and hard-working student or that, according to guidance counselor Daniella Tejada, the taxpayers have already invested so much in Mr. Aguilar's education, are both irrelevant to his illegal status. The very reason that the U.S. presents great opportunity to immigrants rests on our status as a civil society grounded in the rule of law. The Connecticut legislature has chosen to ignore Federal law by this measure. It is wrong on many levels. First, the apparatus of government cannot arbitrarily pick and choose which laws it will recognize and those it will not. Laws duely enacted by the Congress and signed by the President must be be respected and enforced. They are vested with the legitimate consent of the governed. If the immigration laws are unfair, there are proper means for the citizenry and government to amend or abolish them. To do otherwise is dangerous and follhardy. Secondly, this is an unjust response to illegal acts. While Mr. Aguilar is certainly not at fault for his parents illegal choices when he was a young child, Connecticut taxpayers are not either. The fact is, children often pay the price for the wrongful actions of their parents. For Senator Duff to say that taxpayers don't subsidize "in-state tuition" is nonsense. Of course the state university system is taxpayer subsidized and it ought to be. Senator Duff's false choice of either subsidy or deportation is his way of distracting from the fact that, by encouraging disregard for the law, he hopes to curry favor with the Hispanic voting bloc. Mr. Aguilar has been the recipient of a public education that helped him to attain valedictorian status, yet there is a hint of ungrateful entitlement to even more taxpayer largesse.in this commentary. The Norwalk Public Schools have been embroiled in a dispute over the barring of out-of-district students from Norwalk schools. There is something blatantly unfair about rigorously banning non-residents from Bridgeport or Stamford, but permitting illegal immigrants from Mexico, Poland, Bangladesh, et al. Instead of hollow excuse about "deportation" being unrealistic, Bob Duff should be seeking remedies that would encourage illegal immigrants to return home of their own accord: holding employers more accountable, denying access to state services rather than expanding them, implementing tougher legal and financial penalties for those who choose to defy the law, and also by being a more careful steward of tax dollars in these difficult fiscal times. View Comment

People for a Peaceful Tomorrow should be banned from the memorial Day parade permanently. The parade is a memorial tribute to our fallen troops, not a venue for political opinion. This group did not respect that core principle and wishes to use the occasion as a vehicle to espouse their pacifistic ideology. The Memorial Day Parade is not about them or their views. Let them sit it out on the sidelines. View Comment