Saturday, December 09, 2023

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Town Picks Up Martha Stewart’s Rocks in Sweep of Turkey Hill Road South

As if Westport’s Martha Stewart doesn’t have enough problems, today she got one more town employees picked up the rocks she and her neighbors had placed in front of their homes to discourage parking and to protect their roadside grassy areas. rocks073004130.jpgrocksgone073004b130.jpg
Westport public works employees today removed rocks along Turkey Hill Road South, including some in front of Martha Stewart’s house. Left photo was taken July 8, the one on the right today. Alan Beasley photo/WestportNow.com photo

“I got orders from my boss to pick them up and that’s what I did,” said Scott Sullivan, superintendent of the Highway Division in the Department of Public Works.

Sullivan, whose boss, Public Works Director Stephen Edwards is on vacation, said the town acted after publication of a letter July 21 in the Westport News complaining that the rocks along Turkey Hill Road South were a danger to cars, pedestrians, bicyclists, and snowplows.

A neighbor tipped off Stewart—who was not at home at the time—to what was happening and she called the town attorney’s office to complain, according to a Town Hall source. Her stones had reportedly been imported from her property in Bedford, N.Y.

Farrell, Back from Democratic Convention, Says it was “Exhilarating”

Westport First Selectwoman Diane G. Farrell’s voice is a little hoarse and she has yet to catch up on her sleep, but she said today that attending the Democratic national convention in Boston this week was an “exhilarating” experience.WNDemCon.jpg

“It was my first convention and it was very exhilarating,” she said in an interview. “It’s sort of a spectacle but it’s important to our democracy. It was thrilling to participate.” farrellcrowd07300402260.jpg
Westport First Selectwoman Diane Farrell works the crowd in Boston this week.(CLICK TO ENLARGE) WestportNow.com photo

Farrell, who returned to Westport Thursday morning after spending two nights in Boston, said she was struck by the blend of big-name politicians and well-known personalities with ordinary people from all over the country.

“I walked into the Sheraton Hotel lobby and there was Jesse Jackson, Jerry Springer, and (former Texas Gov.) Ann Richards,” she said. “Lots of people were freely mingling with them. It felt a bit surreal.”

The Westport official, who faces an uphill battle in her bid to unseat veteran Republican Rep. Christopher Shays in Connecticut’s 4th Congressional District, said she sat with the Connecticut delegation for the Tuesday and Wednesday evening sessions.

Essay: The Meaning of Security in a Post 9/11 World

By Jessica Bram

Contributing Editor
WestportNow.com

Having experienced a whole new level of security screening in airports and New York City building lobbies in the last two years, I thought I already knew what high security means in a post-9/11 world. WNDemCon.jpg

But nothing prepared me for the phalanx of armed guards, screeners, scanners and weaponry that I encountered this week at the Democratic National Convention in Boston. And not just at the Fleet Center, where the actual convention is taking place, but in just about every hotel, subway station, nook and cranny throughout the city.

Serious young men in crew cuts, white shirts and suits with curly wires in their ears survey hotel lobby crowds with piercing eyes. Clusters of MPs in camouflaged combat fatigues with M-16 equivalents patrol street corners. Secret Service agents in tight black tee shirts and bulletproof vests block entrances to chain link checkpoints. Its all a little more than unsettling. 

But what really raises inner alarms is the nearly solid wall of police in full riot gear surrounding the Old State House. With segmented armor of thick black padding strapped onto every inch of their bodies, Darth Vader helmets and high-rise black steel sole boots, they look like a cross between something out of Revenge of the Clones and ungainly, upright black carpenter ants. 

It makes the Boston police officers with ordinary pistols and handcuffs seem positively tame, like Officer Boltons without a whole lot to do.

Martha Stewart Visits Probation Officer

Westport’s Martha Stewart has paid a visit to her probation officer, several newspapers reported today.

The New York Post and Newsday said Stewart appeared Wednesday at the federal courthouse in Manhattan

“She came in to review and sign a document concerning the conditions of her supervised release that will follow her five months of imprisonment,” said Chris Stanton, head of U.S. Probation.

Stanton said Stewart was notified that she must follow 13 specific conditions that include not leaving the district without permission from her probation officer and is subject to check in monthly with the office.

Essay: The Meaning of Security in a Post 9/11 World

By Jessica Bram

Contributing Editor
WestportNow.com

Having experienced a whole new level of security screening in airports and New York City building lobbies in the last two years, I thought I already knew what high security means in a post-9/11 world. WNDemCon.jpg

But nothing prepared me for the phalanx of armed guards, screeners, scanners and weaponry that I encountered this week at the Democratic National Convention in Boston. And not just at the Fleet Center, where the actual convention is taking place, but in just about every hotel, subway station, nook and cranny throughout the city.

Serious young men in crew cuts, white shirts and suits with curly wires in their ears survey hotel lobby crowds with piercing eyes. Clusters of MPs in camouflaged combat fatigues with M-16 equivalents patrol street corners. Secret Service agents in tight black tee shirts and bulletproof vests block entrances to chain link checkpoints. Its all a little more than unsettling. 

But what really raises inner alarms is the nearly solid wall of police in full riot gear surrounding the Old State House. With segmented armor of thick black padding strapped onto every inch of their bodies, Darth Vader helmets and high-rise black steel sole boots, they look like a cross between something out of Revenge of the Clones and ungainly, upright black carpenter ants. 

It makes the Boston police officers with ordinary pistols and handcuffs seem positively tame, like Officer Boltons without a whole lot to do.