Westport police are searching for two men and two women involved in assault, robbery and threatening to kill at knife point a man they gave a ride to early today from the East Norwalk train station before letting him out on Wright Street and Kings Highway North in Westport.

The East Norwalk station is not far from Westport’s Saugatuck Shores.

According to police, the suspects told the victim they would drive him for $10, but after taking him through unknown streets, they forced him out of the car and demanded more money.

“The driver demanded more money from the victim at knife point and took the victim’s wallet,” said Capt. Vincent Penna. “The victim was blocked from fleeing by both male suspects.”

Both the state’s Department of Transportation and Transportation Commission have approved the Exit 41 modification to improve safety. Westport’s Board of Selectmen, acting in its capacity as Traffic Authority, has also voted to support the state’s recommendation.

Y spokesman Scott Smith noted that the project “is being funded entirely by the Family Y” through its capital campaign to construct a new facility at the 32-acre Mahackeno property bordered by the Merritt to the north and Saugatuck River to the east.
He added that the Y has scheduled a public informational session on Monday, June 24 at 7 p.m. in the Board Room of the Y’s downtown facility at 59 Post Road East.

Quinnipiac University’s first poll of the 2014 gubernatorial race shows Gov. Dannel P. Malloy slightly trailing Republican Tom Foley, the man he beat three years ago in Connecticut’s closest gubernatorial contest in a half-century.

Malloy, a Democrat still dogged by the weak economy that greeted his inauguration in January 2011, trails 43 percent to 40 percent in a matchup with Foley, according to a poll released today. Malloy leads other potential GOP challengers by seven percentage points.

The survey finds the electorate evenly divided on a governor who has raised taxes, battled with employees over concessions and teachers over education reforms, while betting heavily on bioscience as Connecticut’s economic future.

His approval rating is 47 percent. Voters who say he deserves re-election are slightly outnumbered by those who say he doesn’t, 44 percent to 46 percent.

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Four probate judge hopefuls made their case before Westport’s Democratic Town Committee (DTC) tonight to get the party’s nomination to run in November.

The Democratic Town Committee tonight elected Joe Scordato (l) vice chair to serve with Jim Ezzes (r), chair. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com

Kevin O’Grady, a Democrat elected to the Westport-Weston Probate Court judgeship in 1999, resigned in April because of health problems.

DTC Chairman Jim Ezzes said that one of the four will be nominated to run to replace O’Grady at the committee’s July 18 convention.

Each of the four who presented to the DTC touted his background in probate law and estate planning. The candidates were: James M.Powers of Weston; David B. Krauss, an attorney who curently serves as chair of the Board of Assesment Appeals; Kieran Costello, a Westporter and Fairfield attorney; and Westport resident Neil Phillips.

As Connecticut’s shoreline braces for a hurricane season forecast to be one of the worst in years, it is still digging out from the damage of previous storms.

This home on Spriteview Ave. in Westport’s Saugatuck Shores area is one of dozens that have been raised in Westport since Storm Sandy. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com

Along entire stretches of coastline in Fairfield and Milford, rows of homes are boarded up, some marked for demolition with thick red paint. Many have already been reduced to rubble.

These coastal neighborhoods are also busy with construction activity. Workers are raising and expanding existing homes, or building large, taller homes in the place of old ones.

The interweaving of tearing down homes and rebuilding, or simply building anew, tells the story of neighborhoods in transition.

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The Westport News, the town’s newspaper of record published every Wednesday and Friday for almost half a century, will end its twice-weekly print run in July, with the Wednesday edition moving online, Barbara T. Roessner, executive editor of the Hearst Connecticut Media Group, informed readers today.

The same schedule has also been set for the company’s twice weekly Fairfield Citizen paper.

“We’ve decided to alter our traditional twice-a-week print schedule to reflect the 24/7 news cycle our local communities have come to expect,” Roessner said on the newspaper’s website.

“During the first five months of this year, your visits to our websites have soared—up 387 percent in Westport and 284 percent in Fairfield over the same period a year ago,” she continued. “You’re coming to our sites more often and staying longer. Our goal is to serve up the news and information you want whenever and wherever you choose.”

The storm was as local as local storms get.

Westporter Karen Sherman and her son, Justin Schwebel, pick up their kayak and put it back in place on the rack at Compo Beach today. It was one of numerous kayaks knocked off the racks by the storm. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Phyllis Groner for WestportNow.com

Monday’s 2:30 p.m. downpour and lightning left Westport’s Ned Dimes Marina at Compo Beach unscathed, but dealt a sucker punch to the dry dock boats and water crafts a stone’s throw away between the marina and South Beach.

There, concentrated winds knocked over more than a dozen kayaks, canoes and sailboats, snapping the masts of two Hobie Cats and blowing boats out into the roadway, said Rick Giunta, administrative manager for the Parks and Recreation Department.

The boats were all in the street,” he added about the road that circles the boat stands.

“Emergency preparedness is a focus for CL&P year-round as New England can experience a wide range of severe weather conditions, including devastating hurricanes,” said Bill Quinlan, CL&P’s senior vice president of emergency preparedness.

“We learned a lot from Superstorm Sandy that will help us prepare for future hurricanes,” he added, “but no utility can stop the wrath of Mother Nature, so we also encourage our customers to prepare in advance for the hurricane season.”

Westport Fire Chief Andrew Kingsbury, Westport’s emergency management director, noted that while most associate September and early fall with bad storm, “the hurricane season does start June 1.