A controversial proposal to harvest oysters off the Westport coastline using suspended cages goes before state regulators next week in a scaled-down version, according to the New Haven Register.

The newspaper said the proposal by Westport-based Mariculture Unlimited will be submitted to the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Dec. 15.

The company earlier this year applied to conduct operations on 366 acres of waters off of Westport and 155 acres off of Milford.

The reaction was swift and mostly negative. Westport boaters said it would seriously jeopardize their recreational activities on Long Island Sound.

The DEP told the firm to scale back its plan and, on Dec. 15, the revised proposal gets put on the table.

The revisions are substantial, said Peter Francis, a DEP analyst.

The Westport portion of the project is down to 91 acres and the Milford area is down to 83 acres, the newspaper said.

And unlike the original application which called for the deployment of all of the cages all at once ח the new proposal calls for the oyster cages to be submerged just below the surface of Long Island Sound over a three-year period, Francis said.

Mariculture is now proposing setting out 20 acres of oyster cages in Westport in the first year, about 25 acres the second and 46 acres in the final year.

The Milford deployment would be 15 acres in the first year, 12 acres in the second year and 56 acres in the third, the newspaper said.

 

Workers busily prepare for Tuesday’s 10 a.m. opening of Smith & Hawken, the newest arrival to Westports commercial scene. The California-based chain will open its 55th garden and home accessories store in the building formerly occupied by KidsҒ Wear at 1045 Post Road East. The Westport store will be the third in Connecticut, in addition to one in New Canaan opened in 1995, and Glastonbury in 1999. WestportNow.com photos

Workers busily prepare for Tuesday’s 10 a.m. opening of Smith & Hawken, the newest arrival to Westport’s commercial scene. The California-based chain will open its 55th garden and home accessories store in the building formerly occupied by Kids Wear at 1045 Post Road East. The Westport store will be the third in Connecticut, in addition to one in New Canaan opened in 1995, and Glastonbury in 1999. WestportNow.com photos

With eight weeks to go before her trial, Westports Martha Stewart lost a round in federal court today in connection with insider trading-related charges against her.

U.S. District Judge Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum refused to dismiss a securities fraud charge against Stewart on First Amendment grounds, saying the government was entitled to prosecute her for statements she made.

Cedarbaum read the ruling from the bench at the start of a hearing. The government had insisted all five charges should be preserved.

The judge said she could not dismiss the securities fraud charge that accused Stewart of making false statements to protect the value of her company’s stock.

“Such false factual statements are not protected by the First Amendment,” Cedarbaum said.

Stewart, 62, is accused of conspiracy, obstructing justice, securities fraud and two counts of lying to investigators in connection with her Dec. 27, 2001, sale of about 4,000 shares of ImClone Systems stock. The judge also refused to throw out the obstruction charge.

The judge said the defense had challenged the obstruction of justice charge prematurely. She said it would be appropriate to do so only after the government had presented its case to a jury.

Stewart’s defense team claims the securities fraud count, in which the government accuses her of deceiving shareholders in her own company by saying she was innocent and was cooperating with investigators, is unconstitutional.

The lawyers also say the obstruction count should be dismissed because none of Stewart’s statements to investigators could have hindered the federal investigation into her stock sale.

The government says both charges are proper. And prosecutors have defended the securities fraud count by saying Stewart engaged in a pattern of lying to her own shareholders while the government was investigating the ImClone sale.

The charges against Stewart carry a potential prison term of 30 years, although she would get far less if convicted under federal sentencing guidelines.

The widening investigation into mutual-fund trading agreements that hurt small investors has hit Westport.

The Denver-based Janus Capital Group said Janus International chief executive Richard Garland, 42, resigned on Monday. While not widely known to many Westporters, Janus International is headquartered on Westports Riverside Avenue.

Janus offered no formal explanation of why Garland left, in a statement equally lacking in praise for a hard-charging executive who built up $5.9 billion in overseas assets for the group, according to the Denver Post.

“Both Janus and Mr. Garland came to the view that it would be best if he left the company,” Janus spokesman Blair Johnson said. “We have accepted his resignation.”

Garland was at the center of a market-timing scandal that enveloped Janus and three other mutual-fund groups in early September.

New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer alleged that Janus had allowed a New Jersey hedge fund, Canary Capital, to make short-term trades in the Janus High Yield and Mercury funds.

Market timers like Canary were allowed to trade quickly in and out of mutual funds, skimming returns that might have otherwise gone to long-term investors and adding costs.

More than 40 mutual-fund industry executives have either been fired, forced to resign or suspended because of their involvement in late trading or market timing, according to Bloomberg News.

Todays New York Times notes the publication of a new book tracing the history of the founding of the highly successful profit-for-charity food company NewmanҒs Own by Westporters Paul Newman and A. E. Hotchner (see WestportNow Oct. 26, 2003).

The lengthy business section piece covers familiar ground but also includes a few nuggets from both about their decades-long friendship, politics, Westport, and a public encounter with fellow Westporter Martha Stewart.

Hotcher relates that he has at times been pushed to the cusp of despair by Newman’s whims and high jinks.

“Oh, I’m beyond complaining,Ғ Mr. Hotchner says with a theatrical flourish. But he complains anyway, the report said.

The Times quotes Hotchner as saying the idea of watching Newman’s Own double in size over the next few years is particularly appealing. “Think of what we could do with the money,” he says.

Newman adds, ԓI just want to be able to give away more than Dick Cheney got in tax relief. That’s what I want.” The newspaper said after a slight dramatic pause, he and Hotchner burst out laughing.

The Times reporter was there as Hotchner, Newman, and his wife, Joanne Woodward, attended last months charity benefit and auction in Greenwich for the Westport Country Playhouse where Woodward is artistic director.

ғAt the auction, the two stars make their entrance before a pack of photographers, the newspaper said.

ԓMr. Hotchner arrives later and immediately announces that he is ready for a gin and tonic. He takes a look around and pronounces the crowd the other side of Westport, the money side, the WASP-y side. I don’t know anyone here.ђ

Just then, a woman runs up to give him a bear hug. It is Martha Stewart, who, as a caterer in Westport years ago, organized a successful taste testing for Newman’s Own salad dressing before it went on the market.

ӓThe founders credit her with a pivotal role in giving them the confidence to go forward.

They chat for a few minutes and make tentative plans for dinner. Perhaps, Ms. Stewart tells him, she could have the two men on her television show to talk about their book and their business.Ӕ