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Teachers Face Tougher Evals Based on Student Work

News

HARTFORD, Conn. – Student achievement will play a dramatically larger role in evaluating teachers across Connecticut under new guidelines approved by a panel that represents teachers, school administrators and public school boards.

The state’s 10-member Performance Evaluation Advisory Council agreed this week on a new teacher evaluation process after two years of contentious meetings over how much emphasis should be placed on student performance.

“Connecticut has taken a major step toward a meaningful teacher evaluation system. This is a milestone in what I expect ...

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News

Real Estate is Looking Up in Fairfield County

By Alissa Smith

FAIRFIELD COUNTY, Conn. – Real estate markets are expected to be stronger this year in most lower Fairfield County towns, brokers say. In fact, some brokers are saying 2012 could be a great year.

"I've been in the industry for 25 years," Brenda Maher, manager of the Norwalk office of Prudential Connecticut Realty, told The Daily Norwalk. "I've never seen a January as strong as this year. It could be the weather – I mean think about last year at this time, we had about three feet of snow. Last year, basically we lost about three months of typical sales ...

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Sports

Fairfield Warde Girls Take 5th Straight

By Tom Renner

FAIRFIELD, Conn. — After a slow start, Fairfield Warde’s girls basketball team has looked like one of the best teams in the Fairfield County Interscholastic Athletic Conference. Further evidence came Friday in a convincing 52-40 victory over Staples.

Jamera Fountain scored 19 points and Kate Kerrigan added 13 as the Mustangs won their fifth straight game to improve to 9-5 overall and 7-5 in the conference. Staples fell to 8-6, 7-5 in the conference, with its third straight loss.

“I like the way the seniors are finishing out their careers, I like how people are staying ...

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Neighbors

Fairfield Library's Writing Contest Deadline Nears

By Greg Canuel 12 hours ago

FAIRFIELD, Conn. – The Fairfield Public Library’s annual One Book, One Town writing contest is back. If you’re interested in submitting work for the contest, you have only a few days to do it. Town Librarian Karen Ronald will accept the last entries Jan. 31.

This year’s theme is “Voices from the Past.” It’s inspired by the library’s 2012 One Book, One Town selection, “The Watch That Ends the Night: Voices from the Titanic” by Allan Wolf.

The winners of this year’s contest will be announced March 1. They will be honored at a special reception before Wolf’s visit to ...

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News

Seized Easton Horses Doing Well Under State Care

By Erin Lynch 13 hours ago

EASTON, Conn. – The five horses seized from Pee Wee Horse Farm in an animal cruelty investigation are thriving in their new home in a Niantic facility, said Ray Connors, the supervisor for the state Animal Control Division.

The owner of Pee Wee Horse Farm, Apollonio “Paul” Vittorio, was arrested Thursday by the Easton Police Department and charged with six counts of animal cruelty in a state arrest warrant.

The charges stem from an ongoing investigation by state animal control officers, who say they received several complaints about the condition of the ...

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News

Fairfield Hookah Lounge Owner Arrested Again

By Greg Canuel 13 hours ago

FAIRFIELD, Conn. – Fairfield police brought more charges against the owner of a Post Road hookah lounge Thursday. Jaled Mayki Gorra, 41, of Grasmere Ave., was charged after teenagers were found drinking alcohol in his business earlier this month, police say.

Patrol officers responded to a call at Casablanca Hookah Lounge at 86 Post Road on Jan. 15 for an unrelated incident. While there, officers saw four teenagers in the lounge, all under the age of 16, drinking alcohol and smoking marijuana, police say.

The Fairfield Health Department and the Fire Marshal’s office ...

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News

Soundkeeper Sails to Big Win in Court Case

By Luke Lavoie 15 hours ago

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. - Connecticut Soundkeeper Terry Backer was thrilled that the New York Supreme Court found that the state Department of Environmental Conservation's was too lenient in its management of stormwater runoff into Long Island Sound.

"This is a big win," Backer said. "Stormwater runoff is one of the critical and serious problems facing both the Sound and other area waterways."

The court ruled that the department was too lax in its certification and must "issue revisions" consistent with the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, also known as the Clean Water ...

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Sports

High School Boys Ice Hockey Standings

By Eric Gendron 15 hours ago

Fairfield County Interscholastic Conference Boys Ice Hockey Standings - Through Jan. 26

East Division Conference Record Overall Record

Ridgefield 5-0 10-1

Darien ...

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News

$850K Condo Leads Fairfield's Weekly Home Sales

By Greg Canuel 16 hours ago

FAIRFIELD, Conn. − Here’s a list of paid residential property transfers in Fairfield for Jan. 17-20, as reported to the Fairfield Town Clerk’s office:

▪ Southport Green Acquisition LLC sold 22 Old Meadow Lane to William and Peggy T. Duncan for $850,000.

▪ Daniel T. Fontaine sold 215 Alden St. to Jane Heaney Beckman for $225,000.

▪ Allison H. Dickens and Todd Barmash sold 87 Edgewood Place to Michael J. and Jennifer Miley for $385,000.

▪ Frances E. Erskine sold 392 Jefferson St. to Joshua E. Prince for $260,000.

▪ Terry P. and Carol K. Medlin sold ...

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Opinion

Make Decisions Based on Your Values

By Linda Soper-Kolton 01/27/12

A close friend of mine told me she was admonished by an acquaintance recently for not doing more to bring money into the household. My friend had been complaining of her money woes and this person said she was foolish for not going back to work full-time in the high-paying industry she had worked in prior to having children. With three young children, one of them severely disabled, my friend decided that her children needed her more than they needed more money.

Although she does work, it's not enough to allay the money worries that hang heavy on the shoulders of her and ...

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Community Calendar

8:00 am

Wilton Y Wahoos Winter Invitational
10:00 am

Walter Wick: Games, Gizmos and Toys in the Att ...
11:00 am - 2:00 pm

Timetravel with Jack & The Bean Stalk at Ridge ...
11:00 am - 3:00 pm

Amber Alert Registration Day
1:00 pm

Virginia Woolf Birthday Celebration and Reading
1:00 pm - 2:30 pm

Learn the Secrets of the Rubik's Cube in Fairfield

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News

Shelter Struggles to Fit All the Homeless

By Nancy Guenther Chapman 01/27/12

NORWALK, Conn. – Updated, 11:12 a.m., Jan. 27. Bill Okwuosa left work to head home Thursday, his heart hardened and prepared to do the worst – or so he thought.

The director of Norwalk's Open Door Shelter had decided to turn people away because of overcrowding. But he couldn't do it.

"I just got in the car to leave and come home, and I'm noticing there's quite a few people outside the shelter that can't get in because we are beyond our capacity. And I told you I was going to stop letting them come in," Okwuosa said in a voicemail. "I can't do it. I ...

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News

Lawmakers Hedge Bets on Online Gambling

By Richard Weizel 01/27/12

FAIRFIELD COUNTY, Conn. – Gov. Dannel P. Malloy is betting that online gambling “is inevitable” in Connecticut and would raise significant revenue for state coffers. But Republican state legislators are wagering against him.

“It is clear online gambling will become a reality, given the federal decision, and now (we) must decide how to address it,” Malloy said during a news conference in Hartford earlier this month.

The online gambling debate was fueled after the U.S. Department of Justice released a legal opinion several weeks ago that New York and Illinois ...

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Students from St. Thomas Aquinas School show off the peanut butter and jelly they collected for the needy. Photo Credit: Barbara Duffin

Sal Sicliano of Fairfield Warde and Arkel Miles of Notre Dame face off in the Fairfield Holiday Classic Basketball tournament. Photo Credit: Eric Gendron

Students at Fairfield's Dwight Elementary School play music for their teachers and classmates. Photo Credit: Kathy Orefice

James Adams, Beverly Peck and June McClendon and Longfellow School pre-K students receive donated coats. Photo Credit: Courtesy of William Pitt Sotheby's

Brad Kimmelman and Irwin Peck from William Pitt Sotheby's in Fairfield with coats their agency helped collect for preschoolers. Photo Credit: Courtesy of William Pitt Sotheby's

Snowy pumpkins at Stew Leonard's. Mother Nature's Halloween trick?? Photo Credit: michele

RIVERFIELD VOTES 2011! Riverfield students voted for their favorite P.E. Activity this morning on their way into school. Photo Credit: Nancy Haberly

Fairfield RTM member Jeff Steele climbs a ladder truck during a fire department training session. Photo Credit: Jen Mockalis Smith

Chiefs Richard Felner and Gary MacNamara honor their crew members at the Public Safety Awards Ceremony. Photo Credit: Sheila Tesei, Fairfield Fire Department