The region’s planning agency will hold a public information session on transit issues Feb. 14 in Norwalk.

An announcement from the South Western Regional Planning Agency (SWRPA) and the South Western Region Metropolitan Planning Organization (SWRMPO) said it will host the meeting “to receive input and questions from the public on the current state of public transportation in southwestern Connecticut, including the New Haven Line railroad and the bus transit system.”

The Saturday session will be held from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. in the Common Council chambers, Norwalk City Hall, third floor, 125 East Ave.

Harry Harris, chief of the Connecticut Department of Transportations Bureau of Public Transportation, will be available to receive public comments and answer questions, the announcement said.

Comments pertaining specifically to the New Haven Line (including the Danbury, New Canaan and Waterbury Branch lines) or bus transit in southwestern Connecticut may be submitted electronically to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or mailed to Robert H. Wilson, Executive Director, SWRPA, 888 Washington Boulevard, Stamford, CT 06901.

Here are the governments charges against Martha Stewart and former stockbroker Peter Bacanovic: 
 
Charges against Stewart:

Conspiracy
Alleges Stewart and Bacanovic “willfully and knowingly” worked together to obstruct justice and make false statements in the stock-trading scandal.

False statements
Alleges, among other things, Stewart lied when she told the Securities and Exchange Commission, FBI and federal prosecutors she had prearranged with Bacanovic to sell ImClone when it fell below $60 per share.

Alleges, among other things, Stewart lied when she told the SEC, FBI and prosecutors that she did not recall being told on Dec. 27, 2001, that the Waksal family was selling ImClone stock.

Despite a plea from town historian Allen Raymond, the Board of Finance tonight approved a $50,000 request to demolish the old Allen’s Clam House restaurant on Hillspoint Road, which is now town-owned. “I am not coming into this at a late point,” said Raymond, shown here before paintings of the restaurant at a Westport Historical Society exhibit. “I have been involved in Allen’s all my life.” The request goes before the Representative Town Meeting next month. WestportNow.com photo

The jury trying Westport’s Martha Stewart today heard the most damaging testimony yet in her stock fraud trial in a federal courtroom in Manhattan.

A former Merrill Lynch assistant said Stewart told him to sell her ImClone Systems stock after he advised her that the company founder was trying to dump his own shares.

Douglas Faneuil, under questioning from the prosecution, told the jury about a phone call he received from Stewart on Dec. 27, 2001.

Faneuil said he told her that ImClone founder Sam Waksal was trying to sell all his shares of the stock - and she ordered him to do the same.

The Westport-based United Food and Commercial Workers Union has threatened to strike Stop & Shop supermarkets in Connecticut and western Massachusetts if the company doesnt change its position in current negotiations.

The unionҒs contract is scheduled to expire at midnight Feb. 14.

Brian A. Petronella, president of Local 371, which has its office on Post Road West, in a written statement accused Stop & Shop officials of proposing “outrageous givebacks that would destroy health care benefits, pension benefits and wage scales.”

He said unless the company changes its position, he will urge workers to vote to strike.

The government’s star witness against Westport’s Martha Stewart testified today that Stewart’s stockbroker ordered him to pass an ImClone Systems stock tip to Stewart just before she dumped her shares in the company.

Douglas Faneuil, a former assistant at Merrill Lynch & Co., testified that broker Peter Bacanovic ordered him on Dec. 27, 2001, to alert Stewart that the family of ImClone Systems founder Sam Waksal was trying to sell its shares.

Faneuil, 28, said he expressed concern and asked Bacanovic whether passing such a tip would be appropriate.

“Of course. You must. That’s the whole point,” he said Bacanovic replied.

Westport’s Martha Stewart was back in a Manhattan federal courtroom today as her stock fraud trial resumed with testimony that she was “very hurried and harsh and direct” in a telephone call on the day of her controversial stock sale.

The description was made by Emily Perret, secretary to ImClone Systems chief Sam Waksal, who said she took a call from Stewart on the day she dumped her stock in the company.

Meanwhile, the judge ruled that Douglas Faneuil, the government’s star witness, will be allowed to testify beginning Tuesday afternoon.

The decision by U.S. District Judge Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum was a boost for prosecutors because Faneuil’s testimony—which had been postponed last week—is the most critical piece of their case.

The judge in the stock fraud trial of Westport’s Martha Stewart today postponed the testimony of the government’s star witness against her after defense attorneys accused prosecutors of withholding vital information about his story.

The delay came on the second day of testimony of Stewart, 62, in a Manhattan courtroom.

The postponement was ordered after doubts were raised about what the former lawyer for star witness Douglas Faneuil recalled about the circumstances of the stock sale that triggered the case against Stewart.

Rep. Rosa DeLauro has joined efforts to have the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers hold another public hearing on a controversial proposal to raise oysters in cages under the surface of Long Island Sound off of Westport and Milford.

The Democrat, who represents Connecticut’s 3rd District which includes Milford, sent a letter to the New England regional office of the Army Corps on Tuesday requesting that it hold a hearing on Mariculture Unlimiteds revised proposal, according to today’s New Haven Register.

The Army Corps is one of two entities that have final say on the permit to raise oysters. The state Department of Agriculture must also approve the proposal.

Last week, the Army Corps extended until Feb. 9 the period for the public to offer feedback on the revisions made to the plan. (See WestportNow Jan. 21, 2004).