Fairfield County Bank and Bank of Westport have received regulatory approval for their merger, it was announced today.

The approvals were received from the Connecticut Department of Banking, primary regulator of both banks, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. The merger was announced Feb. 10.

“This represents a strategic opportunity to expand our brand of community banking to Westport,” said Fairfield County Bank chairman Paul S. McNamara.

“It brings an extensive range of banking, brokerage, investment and insurance services to Bank of Westport customers.”

“We are extremely pleased to unite with Fairfield County Bank,” said Bank of Westport president and CEO Keith Lyon.

Congressman Christopher Shays this week congratulated Westport’s Jane Sherman of Norwalk-based Alden O. Sherman Co., Inc.  for being the 150th registrant to the Quality Management System with assistance from The Connecticut State Technology Extension Program known as CONNSTEP. The organization helps Connecticut manufacturers apply advanced manufacturing and management techniques to become more competitive, supporting the growth of Connecticut’s economy. A. O. Sherman Co., Inc. is a family-owned aerospace manufacturing company. Contributed photo

Move over Martha Stewart and Ann Fudge and make room for Erica Feidner—Westport’s latest female business executive on the cover of a national magazine.
Erica Feidner performs in March at Long Lots Elementary School.  Long Lots Elementary School photo

Feidner, the top salesperson for Steinway and Sons pianos in New York City, is the cover story in June’s Inc. Magazine.

A profile accompanies her photograph and highlights her success as a salesperson, musician and burgeoning inspirational speaker.

“The whole thing came together in a magical way,” Feidner told the Bennington (Vt.) Banner in explaining how she came to be the cover story. 

Feidner grew up in Bennington and every Saturday attended Juilliard’s pre-college division in New York.

Lawyers for Westport’s Martha Stewart are hard at work on another motion for a new trial based on perjury charges against a key government witness, according to ABC News.

Last week handwriting expert Larry Stewart was charged with perjury. The perjury charge stems from his testimony about ink on a stock brokerage worksheet.

That worksheet was key to the prosecution’s case.

ABC News has learned Stewart’s lawyers will present a motion for a new trial sometime this week.

The judge threw out a previous motion early this month.

In another strange twist in the stock fraud trial of Westport’s Martha Stewart, federal authorities today charged a government witness with lying on the witness stand.

But they said the false testimony did not make her conviction invalid.

Prosecutors said they had discovered false statements made on the stand by Larry F. Stewart, a national ink expert who works at the Secret Service.

A government news release said prosecutors did not believe any of the new information called into question the “integrity or validity” of the convictions of Martha Stewart and broker Peter Bacanovic.

Westport’s Martha Stewart, facing a possible prison sentence, will no longer have her television show, much of it produced at her Westport production facility.

The show’s producers announced today that “Martha Stewart Living” will be put on hiatus after this season winds up. One source estimated as many as 40 layoffs in Westport as a result.

Production of the award-winning syndicated television show, distributed by King World Productions, will continue for the remainder of the 11th season, through September.

“I am deeply sorry that it has become necessary for the show to go on hiatus until my personal legal situation is resolved,” said Stewart, founder of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc.

The Wall Street Journal reported today that lawyers for Westport’s Martha Stewart plan to argue that a prison sentence could hurt her company and force it to lay off some of its 500 employees.

The newspaper said the lawyers, in asking a federal judge to go easy on Stewart when she is sentenced for lying to investigators next month, will cite a 1995 appeals court decision.

That ruling spared a corporate executive a jail sentence because he was deemed crucial to his company.

The Journal cited “a person familiar with the matter” as the source for its report.

Legal experts say it is a long shot because her company has continued operating since she stepped down as chairman after being indicted in June 2003, the newspaper said.

A federal judge today turned down a motion by Westport’s Martha Stewart for a second trial based on allegations that a juror lied about his arrest record on a questionnaire.

The decision by U.S. District Judge Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum came two months after Stewart and broker Peter Bacanovic were convicted of lying to authorities about Stewart’s sale of ImClone Systems stock.

Stewart said her right to a fair trial was compromised when juror Chappell Hartridge had failed to disclose a prior arrest in a domestic dispute on his questionnaire.

Stewart lawyer Robert Morvillo said he would have struck Hartridge from the jury had he known the information during the jury selection process. Hartridge has not spoken publicly about the matter.

The brother of Westport’s Martha Stewart said today he plans to sell on eBay some of her belongings that date back to childhood.

Among them: A Singer sewing machine used by Stewart to sew her wedding dress in 1961.

Frank Kostyra, 59, who lives in the Alabama community of Fairhope near Mobile, said he got the items in 1987 from their mother with Stewart’s
“blessings’’ and hoped to have more than 200 items posted on the eBay site by tonight.

While Stewart awaits sentencing June 17 for her conviction in a stock sale case, Kostyra said he’s selling the items partly to raise money for a self-published book, “My Life with Martha The Making of Martha Stewart.’’

Despite her legal problems, Westport’s Martha Stewart got a $500,000 bonus from her company, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc., last year, according to a federal filing.

It was about 67 percent more than required by her employment contract.

Stewart was convicted in March of lying to investigators about a stock sale and will be sentenced in June.

She received her regular salary of $900,000 last year from the company as well as the bonus, a Securities and Exchange Commission filing showed.