A federal judge ruled in favor of the defendant and has stopped deportation proceedings against a Danbury family.

The judge said that deporting Tereza Pereira and Carlos Lima would result in an exceptional hardship on their two American-born sons, one of which is an honor student at Danbury High School.

"Thank God it's over, now we can return to peace," Pereira said immediately after the decision.

About a dozen supporters of Pereira and Lima were in the court room. The room erupted in cheers when the judge ruled in favor of the defendant.

Meanwhile, the mayor has said the truth about the ICE program is being lost amid hysteria.

"A lot of this hysteria -- and it really is hysteria -- is being generated by the ethnic press that has spread misinformation and by other people who have political points to gain," Boughton said, pointing to Comunidade News specifically.

If comments from a planning commission meeting are any indication, an application to build a transfer station on Plumtrees Road will be rejected.

"There wasn't one positive thing said in there. How can they pass it?" said Dick Mann, one of just three members of the public who attended a planning commission meeting Wednesday about the transfer station.

[...]

Planning commission members Helen Hoffstaetter, Kenneth Keller and Edward Manuel all said the transfer station does not fit into the character of the surrounding neighborhood and they were concerned about odors, noise and truck traffic the transfer station could generate.

Only planning commission member Fil Cerminara had something remotely positive to say about the application.

Cerminara said that while the transfer station could increase traffic, the area had once been home to a city dump and an emmissions testing center. He also said odors are already a problem in the area, due to the city's wastewater treatment plant. However, his fellow planning commission members said they weren't obligated to add to the problems.

"We don't want to make a bad situation worse," said Keller, referring to existing traffic problems on Plumtrees Road.

The National Republican Congressional Committee is targeting 23 Democratic incumbents, including several freshmen, and one open seat, according a memo obtained by Roll Call that was prepared by the NRCC for a March 5 briefing to political action committee officials.

[...]

The memo includes a write-up of the Republican candidates running in each of the targeted seats - all GOP candidates are included if there is a contested primary - as well as a short description of the Democratic incumbent.

"There are multiple pickup opportunities for our Republican challengers in the fall," NRCC spokesman Ken Spain said, when asked to comment on the memo. "With [a Congressional] approval rating hovering around a record low, Democrats sitting in Republican-leaning districts will have a hard time defending their abysmal record of tax hikes and runaway spending in a presidential election year."

According to the memo, the targeted Democratic incumbents are:

Rep. Harry Mitchell in Arizona's 5th district and Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in Arizona's 8th; Rep. Jerry McNerney in California's 11th; Rep. Christopher Murphy in Connecticut's 5th; Rep. Tim Mahoney in Florida's 16th; Rep. Jim Marshall in Georgia's 8th; Rep. Melissa Bean in Illinois' 8th; Rep. Baron Hill in Indiana's 9th; Rep. Nancy Boyda in Kansas' 2nd and Rep. Dennis Moore in Kansas' 3rd; Rep. John Yarmuth in Kentucky's 3rd; Rep. Tim Walz in Minnesota's 1st; Rep. Carol Shea-Porter in New Hampshire's 1st and Rep. Paul Hodes in New Hampshire's 2nd; Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand in New York's 20th; Rep. Michael Arcuri in New York's 24th; Rep. Jason Altmire in Pennsylvania's 4t, Rep. Patrick Murphy in Pennsylvania's 8th, Rep. Christopher Carney in Pennsylvania's 10th and Rep. Paul Kanjorski in Pennsylvania's 11th; Rep. Nick Lampson in Texas' 22nd and Rep. Ciro Rodriguez in Texas' 23rd; and Rep. Steve Kagen in Wisconsin's 8th.

What's really going on here? The NRCC is banking on Republican hatred of Chris Murphy. They have no realistic shot at winning the seat back. The only reason Murphy's name (and I suspect this is also true of a few others) is on the memo is to help the NRCC raise some much needed cash from their base.

"We get thousands of checks from thousands of people and we just wouldn't have any way of knowing something like that is happening."

Mayor Boughton's response to his acceptance of James Galante alleged bundled campaign contributions

• Democratic town committee members who donated to Boughton's campaign,

• An family-owned immigrant newspaper that has donated (along with immediate family members) over 600 dollars in in-kind advertising contributions in late 2005 (NOTE: although the in-kind advertising contribution was received on 10.10.05, Boughton's campaign did not disclose the contribution until after the election against then Democratic mayoral candidate Dean Esposito on 01.10.06). The same business donated over 1,400 to Boughton during the 2007 campaign cycle (including 1,100 after the ICE ACCESS program was introduced in during the October Common Council meeting),

• Massive contributions from developers (including the infamous Dan Bertram of BRT) and finally

• Contribution from the main players who contributed to the worst episode in the history of Danbury: The James Dyer scandal of the 1980s.

Boughton's PACs (pdf format)
People over Politics PAC

YEAR 2002
2002a
2002b
2002c
2002d

YEAR 2003
2003a
2003b
2003c
2003d

YEAR 2004
2004a ($8,000 IN GALANTE ILLEGAL CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS ARE HERE)
2004b
2004c
2004d
2004e

YEAR 2005
2005a

Mayor Mark's 21 Century PAC

YEAR 2006
2006a (07.10.06)
2006b (10.10.06)
2006c (11.02.06)

YEAR 2007
2007a (01.12.07)
2007b (04.10.07)
2007c (07.10.07)
2007d (10.10.07)

---

Boughton SEEC Form 20 Campaign Finance Statements (pdf format)

YEAR 2001

Statement: Termination Report
Date filed: 06.28.01, Period Covered: 04.23.01-06.28.01)

Statement: 2nd Thurs July 2001
Date filed: 07.12.01, Period Covered: 06.28.01-07.12.01)

Statement: 2nd Thurs Oct 2001
Date filed: 10.11.01, Period Covered: 07.13.01-10.04.01)

Statement: 7 days proceeding 2001 election
Date filed: 10.29.01, Period Covered: 10.05.01-10.23.01)

Statement: Within 45 days following election
Date filed: 12.21.01, Period Covered: 10.24.01-12.14.01)

YEAR 2002

Statement: 90 day report (Election 11.06.01)
Date filed: 02.04.02, Period Covered: 12.15.01-02.04.02)

Statement:Termination Report (2001 campaign)
Date filed: 05.07.02, Period Covered: 02.05.02-05.07.02

YEAR 2003

Statement: 2nd Thurs. month April 20th
Date filed: 04.10.03, Period Covered: 01.02.03-04.03.03

Statement: 2nd Thurs. month July 20th
Date filed: 07.07.03, Period Covered: 04.10.03-06.30.03

Statement: 2nd Thurs. month July 20th (Amendment #1 to 07.07.03 report)
Date filed: 07.09.03, Period Covered: 04.10.03-06.30.03

Statement: 2nd Thurs. month July 20th (Amendment #2 to 07.07.03 report)
Date filed: 08.17.05, Period Covered: 04.10.03-06.30.03

Statement: 2nd Thurs. month Oct. 20th (COLLECTED A MASSIVE AMOUNT OF MONEY DURING THIS PERIOD).
Date filed: 10.07.03, Period Covered: 07.01.03-09.30.03 (aprox.)

Statement: 7 days proceeding Election: Nov 4, 2003
Date filed: 10.28.03, Period Covered: 10.01.03-10.21.03 (aprox.)

YEAR 2004

Statement: Termination Report (2003 Campaign)
Date filed: 02.09.04, Period Covered: 01.01.04-02.31.04

YEAR 2005

Statement: April 7th Filing Date
Date filed: 04.07.05, Period Covered: 01.01.05-03.31.05

Statement: July 7th Filing Date
Date filed: 07.07.05, Period Covered: 04.01.05-06.30.05

Statement: Oct 7th Filing Date
Date filed: 10.07.05, Period Covered: 07.01.05-09.30.05

Statement: Oct 7th Filing Date
Date filed: 10.07.05, Period Covered: 07.01.05-09.30.05

Statement: 7 day proceeding report
Date filed: 11.01.05, Period Covered: 10.01.05-10.26.05

YEAR 2006

Statement: Jan 10 2006 report
Date filed: 01.10.06, Period Covered: 10.27.05-12.31.05

Statement: Deficit report
Date filed: 08.07.06, Period Covered: 12.31.05-07.31.06

Statement: Termination report
Date filed: 12.07.06, Period Covered: 07.31.06-11.30.06

YEAR 2007

Statement: January 10 Filing
Date filed: 01.10.07, Period Covered: 11.27.06-12.31.06

Statement: April 10 Filing
Date filed: 04.10.07, Period Covered: 01.01.07-03.31.07

Statement: July 10 Filing
Date filed: 07.05.07, Period Covered: 04.01.07-06.30.07

Statement: October 10 Filing
Date filed: 10.10.07, Period Covered: 07.01.07-09.30.07

Statement: 7th day preceding election report
Date filed: 10.27.07, Period Covered: 10.01.07-10.23.07

YEAR 2008

Statement: January 10th 2008 Report
Date filed: 01.10.08, Period Covered: 10.24.07-12.31.07

Today, State Representative Joe Taborsak (D-109) announced his appointment to the Connecticut General Assembly’s Joint Committee on Judiciary. With broad jurisdiction on all matters relating to the Judicial Department, the Department of Correction and to the commission on Human Rights and Opportunities, the committee is expected to be very active throughout the remainder of the current legislative session.

“I’m absolutely thrilled about the opportunity to serve on this important committee,” remarked Representative Taborsak. “With so many issues before the committee that will impact our community directly, I look forward to weighing in on the debate. I am particularly interested in making sure that criminal justice reforms currently being proposed are firm but also effective.”

Among the proposals the Judiciary Committee will be addressing over the coming months will be possible changes to laws regarding Connecticut’s parole system.

“Bar none our first responsibility is to protect Connecticut families from violent offenders. But we would be foolish if we also did not recognize our need for increased re-entry services, such as half-way housing, substance abuse counseling and job placement help. Study after study shows that these post-release services are critical to reducing recidivism rates and therefore reducing crime” said Taborsak.

$70,665 was given by people who identified their city as "Danbury".
$26,005 from 27 people to Republicans
$44,660 from 40 people to Democrats

If the council members are serious about the need for a staff, they would suggest eliminating the city clerk's job as an elected position. The clerk is supposed to be a functionary of the council, but as an elected official is traditionally loyal to the mayor.

In the place of the city clerk, an administrative aide's position could be created that would be under Civil Service - to endure professionalism - but responsible to the council, not the mayor. This person could do research for council members and keep tabs on council requests for information from the mayor or departments.

Prominent Danbury Democrats are calling for the repeal of the seven-year tax assessment deferral for the BRT property at 30 Crosby Street. Helena Abrantes, Democratic Candidate for Mayor, said, "Mark Boughton and the Republican controlled Common Council have ignored the opposition of this tax giveaway and the Ad Hoc committee appointed to consider repeal has been delaying any resolution of this issue." Abrantes stated, "I have the signatures of hundreds of Danbury Taxpayers who demand an answer from their elected officials and want a decision from the Republican controlled Ad Hoc Committee so the entire Council can move forward with the repeal."

"This is the FIRST time in the City's history that a tax deferral was offered for any residential development. There is no benefit to the City or its residents that would justify such a windfall to a single corporate real estate condominium developer, especially recognizing BRT went back on its word regarding the marketing of these apartments on Crosby Street," Abrantes concluded.

Tom Saadi, Democratic Council Leader, who opposed these condo tax abatements from the beginning, said, "We are demanding repeal, especially in light of the developer's 'bait and switch' change in use." BRT originally attempted to justify the tax abatement for its Crosby Street project by claiming it would be bring young professionals to downtown and have an overall positive effect on economic development and revenue for the city.

However, this is an unprecedented use of tax deferrals. In contrast, tax deferrals for the recruitment, retention and/or expansion of Cendant Mobility/Cartus, GE Capital, Belimo and MannKind Pharma provide quality jobs and produce a significant economic benefit for the City of Danbury.

Councilwoman Lynn Taborsak stated, "There are no jobs created, no additional businesses started and no benefit that warrants a multi-million dollar giveaway of both tax dollars and reduced hookup fees for sewer and water. Homeowners in my neighborhood on Jackson Drive, Woodbury Drive and Hawley Road had to pay full-freight for their water and sewer hookups. Why couldn't they get a sweetheart deal like BRT?"

Councilman Ben Chianese said, "The original plan for this project was thrown out the window. Now this project has no resemblance to the plan that was approved by the previous Common Council. As a city, we cannot afford these tax giveaways for residential developers. As Democratic officeholders and candidates, we will demand that the Ad Hoc Committee meet to resolve this issue and we will push for repeal."

Anyone who doubts the flexing power of Connecticut's Hispanic vote — for that matter, the Hispanic vote throughout the United States — should spend five minutes with a young man in a hurry named Joseph Rodriguez.

Last fall, Rodriguez, 22, whose parents moved here from Puerto Rico, didn't stop at getting himself elected as a Democratic member of the New Haven Board of Aldermen. Excited about the possibility of changing politics in Washington and transfixed by what promised to be an epic primary battle between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, Rodriguez threw himself at the job of organizing New Haven's Hispanic wards for Obama, an effort that eventually contributed to the Illinois senator's 4-percentage-point win over Clinton in Connecticut's Feb. 5 primary.

"There is no question that, by late last summer, Hillary Clinton was way ahead among the Hispanic community in New Haven," Rodriguez said last week. "The mainstream media kept saying that the Latino population would vote for Hillary because of favorable memories of the presidency of Bill Clinton."

"These so-called political commentators also said that Latinos were Democratic conservatives and would go for Hillary, or that Latinos wouldn't vote for an African American," Rodriguez said. "But I knew that the commentators really didn't understand Latinos."

While simultaneously running for alderman, Rodriguez set up a phone bank for Obama, dispatched teams of canvassers on door-to-door efforts in eight wards, and worked closely with a college group, Yale Students for Obama, educating New Haven residents about their candidate. Rodriguez and his Yalies even organized a "Faith Lit" effort every Sunday morning, canvassing Hispanics as they left church and placing Obama literature on the windshields of cars parked for services.

The result?

"On primary day, New Haven went 2-to-1 for Obama — 12,000 votes for Obama, 6,000 for Hillary — and we demonstrated what the Latino vote can do," Rodriguez said. "We've proven that all of these myths about our voting patterns [across the country] aren't true."

Before this extraordinary election year is out, Americans are going to hear a lot more about the Joseph Rodriguezes of the Hispanic community. And on Tuesday, the powerful Mexican-American vote in Texas will figure prominently in that state's Democratic primary. (Texas' 7 million Hispanics are now one-third of the state's population; they are projected to grow to 15 million, roughly half the state's population, by 2030.)

There's no doubt that the candidates know the importance of the Hispanic vote. Last week, as soon as Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., endorsed him, Obama dispatched Dodd, who is fluent in Spanish, to be his surrogate speaker in Hispanic districts in Texas.

Nationwide, there are 46 million Americans of Spanish-speaking descent, or 15 percent of the total U.S. population, and Hispanics are expected to grow to 102 million, or almost 25 percent of the population, by 2050. Hispanic population growth is dramatic in many critical swing states — Florida, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico — that figure prominently in Electoral College vote counts.

Andres Ramirez, vice president for Hispanic programs at the New Democrat Network, a Washington think tank, has analyzed the Hispanic vote in this year's presidential primaries. He calculated that Hispanic participation increased from 9 percent of the overall Democratic primary electorate in the 2004 primaries to 13 percent this year.

In Connecticut, Ramirez found that the number of Hispanic voters grew from 2,535 in the 2004 presidential primary to 20,236 this year. This swelled the Hispanic vote to 6 percent of the state's primary electorate. It might not sound like a lot, but many elections are decided by just a few percentage points, as occurred in the state primary this year.

This gives Hispanic voters a powerful ability to sway elections.

Ramirez also found that rising participation among Hispanics is good news for the Democrats — 75 percent of Hispanics who voted in the primaries this year voted Democratic. And in states such as Florida, where Cubans and other Hispanics historically have leaned toward Republicans, Ramirez has concluded that the large turnouts this year showed a substantial shift to the Democrats.

[...]

Connecticut's current Hispanic population of roughly 450,000, expected to grow to more than 750,000 by 2030, exhibits most of the dynamic factors found nationwide. The diversity of the Hispanic community is growing, as "new Latinos" from Central and South America augment the state's predominantly Puerto Rican base. Young, second- and third-generation Hispanics who have become more culturally assimilated often are willing to split ranks with their parents and vote independently. They are "breaking by age," or education levels, like any other ethnic group.

Although most Hispanic political activists and experts agree that the community does not vote as a bloc, one topic has clearly energized it this year. After three years of repeated efforts by the Bush administration and Senate Republicans to enact tougher immigration laws, a backlash favoring the Democrats has swept through.

Last November, the Pew Hispanic Center polled 2,000 Hispanics nationwide and found that 79 percent of Hispanic registered voters said that the immigration issue has become "extremely" or "very" important to them in the presidential race — up from 63 percent who said the same thing in June 2004. And 41 percent told Pew that the Democrats are doing a better job of dealing with illegal immigration, while 14 percent said that Republicans are doing better.

Yolanda Castillo is a vocational counselor with the state Department of Social Services who lives in Hartford's South End. She is a member of the Connecticut Hispanic Democratic Caucus and, after carefully studying the websites of the Democratic candidates this year, decided to back Clinton.

Castillo says one of the mistakes that white voters make on the immigration issue is considering it a problem that happens somewhere else — along the borders of far-off Texas, say, or in southern California.

"Well, right now in Connecticut, in Danbury, we have a mayor who is really against illegal immigrants," Castillo said. "He has decided to turn municipal police officers into immigration police. Oh my God. We are in the United States, in 2008, where people are supposed to be free and pursuing opportunity, and this is happening right here in Danbury. And here's why that is significant now. Puerto Ricans like me, who are citizens, or Cubans, who were invited here, might not have cared about this issue before. But I can tell you that I am one totally faithful Democrat who will fight for all Latinos on this issue."

Ramirez said he believes that the immigration issue has galvanized Hispanics to register and vote — one reason that Hispanic turnout rates climbed this year.

"Many Latinos who have been reluctant to engage now have a cause to champion," Ramirez said. "The Republican party has gone to great lengths demonizing immigrants and making this a Latino issue while ignoring immigrants from other regions. Latinos know that there is no hope for them in the GOP."

When Harold Ford, Jr. walked onto the Quick Center stage for his OPEN Visions forum he knew whose district he was standing in.

"There is not a better Congressman in Washington than Chris Shays," said Ford, to a crowd of about 600 Fairfield University students and community members.

"Chris Shays is my friend, and I was proud to serve with him in Congress. It's unfortunate he's not a Democrat.

However, I plan on endorsing the Democratic nominee for Congress in Chris's district and everywhere in the country for that matter - as I plan to work for the Democratic nominee for President with all my energy and heart.

My comments were clearly taken out of context.

"Democrats are not supposed to say nice things about Republicans and Republicans are not supposed to say nice things about Democrats, but I got to tell you there isn't a better congressman in all of Washington than your Chris Shays, who calls it as it is; when its wrong it's wrong; when it's right, it's right." The audience burst into applause.