This rider at Westport’s Fairfield County Hunt Club managed to find some sunshine amid afternoon thunderstorms today. (CLICK TO ENLARGE)  Emily Laux Roche for WestportNow.com

A comment made on a WestportNow story by the ex-wife of a Secret Service employee charged with perjury after testifying in the stock fraud of Westport’s Martha Stewart is drawing national attention.

A gossip column on the MSNBC Web site carried a story about the comment posted Tuesday as did the SaveMartha.com Web site.

Under the headline “Was the Secret Service employee who testified against Martha Stewart set up?,” MSNBC reported that “Larry Stewart (no relation to the domestic diva) was recently charged with perjury in connection with his testimony against Martha Stewart. But now Stewart is getting defended from an unlikely defender: his ex-wife.”

It continued: “‘The person who came forward alleging that Larry Stewart lied at Marthas trial is the same person who filed complaints about Larry approx. 3 years ago.’ Larry StewartҒs ex-wife wrote in a letter to WestportNow.com.”

The Staples High School jazz concert Tuesday night started off with “Begin the Beguine” featuring a trombone solo by junior Robert Nitkin. See another photo on ARTS & LEISURE page. WestportNow.com photo

Today’s New York Times spotlights Staples grad Dan Lowenstein’s new venture that eases some of the strain of dining out with the kids.

Called PlayDine, the company operates adult-supervised play centers at New York City restaurants.

The centers relieve parents of “the usual burden of distraction while waiting for the food (‘Don’t eat the whole bread basket!’) to the missed entre (‘But Dad, I have to go to the bathroom now!’) to the post-entre whining (‘Can’t we have dessert at home?’),” the newspaper said.

Lowenstein, a 1986 Staples grad and son of Westporters Dick and Ellie Lowenstein, has now expanded the venture to several Manhattan restaurants, winning plaudits from harried parents, the Times said.

Lowenstein, 36, is the father of two boys—Ben, 5, and Arthur, 4. They are pictured together in a photo accompanying the Times story. More information is available at the PlayDine Web site.

The Long Lots Elementary School parking lot, long a safety concern for school administrators and parents, is closer to being fixed following Representative Town Meeting (RTM) approval of $2,447,502 to expand it.

The town’s legislative body acted at its monthly meeting Tuesday night only hours after the Board of Finance, meeting in special session, had approved the expenditure.

During the RTM debate, there were several failed attempts to reduce the appropriation on issues not directly related to enhancing the safety of the lot and providing more spaces.

Dick Lowenstein, District 5, proposed a symbolic $14,000 cut that related to a house that was being torn down as part of the project.