Fred Lucas in the Danbury News-Times, under the headline "Congressional scandal makes incumbents vulnerable," writes an article about how there's really no reason to be mad at the likes of Johnson, Shays, and Simmons and how Democratic efforts will most likely fail.

First of all (according to Lucas) these aren't really Republicans.

But it may be tough to paint all Republicans with the same brush in Connecticut.

U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays, R-4th Dist., was the first House Republican to call on DeLay to resign as House majority leader in April – well before the leader was indicted by a Texas grand jury for money laundering and violating campaign finance laws.

Aha! So, for Lucas, managing a PR disaster by getting an equally corrupt but less obviously corrupt Roy Blunt into the leadership position passes for high moral principle.

The article goes on in a similar vein. Read it if you wish. Lucas' email address is at the end of the article, if you want to bitch.

One of the problems in western Connecticut that doesn't get much attention is the weak coverage of national politics. There are alot of reasons for this, but the basic one seems to be economic - they just don't make money doing it.

Case in point - today's puff piece in the Danbury News-Times on the Congressional races.

This sort of regurgitation of political spin does more harm than good. It does a disservice to the News-Times' readership and the community it serves, because it functions as an echo chamber for the carefully crafted, focus-group tested sound bytes and phony publicity stunts that political candidates and their handlers cynically substitute for real discussion of the policies they are deploying and whose interests they are serving.

Johnson is very close to the leadership team of DeLay and Blunt.That "petition" for "new leadership" was nothing but a publicity stunt, and everybody who is paying attention knew it. They were trying to spin the thing, when all that is really happening is a turnover to a top lieutenant, forced upon them by legal proceedings in Texas and the Congressional Democrats' increasingly effective campaign to raise the issue of Republican dishonesty and corruption nationally.

You'd think the News-Times and Lucas would have enough professional pride to either do real journalism on what is going on Washington, or stick to local news.

Johnson's trip also sparked criticism from Washington watchdogs. William Allison, editor-at-large at Washington's Center for Public Integrity, which studies congressional travel, had questions about the Nature Conservancy's sponsorship.

He asked why an agency that relies on money from the U.S. Agency for International Development, or AID, would take Johnson and three other House members on such a trip.

"I know money is fungible, but the Nature Conservancy gets federal money, so the question is whether taxpayer money is funneled through them for lobbying," Allison said.

There were 11 bedrooms in a space designed for three. There were 29 beds all told on just one side of the two-story duplex, city officials said.

For months, city inspectors have been cracking down on dangerous illegal apartment houses. Over the weekend, they found one of the more extreme examples.

Only this one had a twist.

Many illegal apartments are filled with undocumented immigrants, but the residents of the Thorpe Street duplex were of Asian, not Hispanic, ethnicity.

The house was purchased by the owners of the Ichiro Hibachi and Sushi Bar on Newtown Road, which opened in April. They turned one of the two apartments into a residence for restaurant workers. Now the restaurant's two partners are in hot water.

City inspectors entered the boarding house Saturday afternoon, with the permission of a man who answered the door. Officials described the renovated interior as resembling a dormitory or military barracks.

The inside rooms were neat and sparse – simply a series of bunk beds with little else, officials said. However, the city inspectors described it as one of the biggest fire traps they have seen.

The kitchen had been torn out and replaced with a bedroom. There were bedrooms in the attic as well. The heating system was jerry-rigged and bedrooms had too few escape routes, officials said.

"We know that often in situations like this the food service industry is involved with human trafficking," Boughton said, referring to the practice of bringing immigrants into the country to provide cheap labor. "If you have a single-family house with 29 beds, there is obviously something going on. We will refer this to the proper federal authorities."

When reached at the restaurant Monday, David Pan said the workers are legal residents of the United States. "They all have documentation. They are all legal residents.

"Some of them are my friends. Some of them are my relatives. This a family business."

I would like to address a Jan. 12 article in which Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton claims I am being "disingenuous." How convenient.

In this one article, Mayor Boughton blatantly tells untruths on at least three separate occasions.

Boughton claims: "At the time of the caucus, he was driving around with a rat painted on the side of his car." My truck was not lettered until three weeks after the Republican Common Council caucus in question.

He then claims that my "name came up" at the caucus and that he made an "off-hand remark about people being involved in the rat episode who have a personnel file an inch thick." It was the mayor who brought up my name and that of another Danbury police officer.

This is proven by the fact that the inflatable rat used in police union demonstrations did not appear until the night of Tuesday, Oct. 4, at a Common Council meeting - the day after the caucus meeting.

Lastly, the mayor said he did nothing wrong and the reference to my personnel file was made "in passing" and that personnel records of city workers can be disclosed under FOI regulations.

That represents a total misstatement on the part of the mayor. FOI regulations state if someone requests a personnel file, they have to articulate a valid reason for the request and then the employee has the absolute right to seek a denial of the request.

By disclosing my personnel file, even "in passing," he violated my rights under FOI.

No surprise here. The mayor's arrogance and cavalier attitude are on display daily and are compounded by the majority of Republican and Boughton administration lackeys who do not have the integrity to tell the truth or perform their sworn duties.

Mayor Boughton, you have threatened my livelihood and that of my family. You have overstepped your bounds.