Issues. People. Events. Waterbury Connecticut's Independent Newspaper
Wesley Rouse, the noted landscape designer will conduct a tour and talk of his personal gardens on July 10, 2011. Each of Mr. Rouse’s gardens makes its own statement through the use of color, unusual plant combinations, and creative landscaping; his white garden is exactly that, a garden of white flowers, shrubs and flowering trees.
Devon Williams, left, and Kevin Smythe, rap for Jesus on the Green in downtown Waterbury June 18th during the Greater Waterbury Youth Network summer concert.
Story and Photographs By John Murray
The music was loud and powerful and had hundred of people on and around the Green craning their heads for a glimpse. Young basketball players leaving the YMCA stopped to listen from across the street, and Russian immigrants, senior citizens and drunks on park benches tapped their feet to the pulsating sounds coming from Waterbury youth.
The University of Connecticut's Waterbury campus will be dedicating the newly renovated campus courtyard and artistic water sculpture "Synergy" on Monday, June 27, 2011 from 5:30 to 7:30 PM. Scheduled speakers include Senator Joan Hartley, Artist Barton Rubenstein, and the University of Connecticut's 15th President, Dr. Susan Herbst. This project was several years in the making and came together as a result of the hard work of many individuals in and outside the University. The event is free and open to the public. Please RSVP by June 17, 2011 by calling 203.236.9943 or by emailing waterburyRSVP@uconn.edu
Photographs By John Murray
The statue of father McGivney at the intersection of Meadow Street and Grand Street in downtown Waterbury is about to undergo a complete restoration in the next two weeks. McGivney was born and raised in Waterbury, CT, and is the founder of the Knights Of Columbus. He is currently being considered for sainthood by the Catholic Church.
A massive thunderstorm sweeping across Morris, Connecticut reflects the last rays of sunlight.
Photograph by John Murray (September 3, 2008, 7:30 pm)
Neil O'Leary continues to muscle his way towards the Democratic nomination for mayor, this time throwing a well attended block party in the shadow of City Hall.
Photographs by John Murray
Billy Smolinski vanished on August 24th, 2004
Story By John Murray
Last night the Connecticut Senate voted unanimously to approve new legislation that alters the way state and local police officers handle the report of a missing adult. The legislation, which still needs Governor Dannel Malloy's signature to become law, ensures that reports of missing adult persons are accepted and investigated by the police in an effective and timely manner.
Larry Butler and one of the 1200 catfish.
State Representative Larry B. Butler (D-Waterbury) announced the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has stocked Lakewood Lake in Waterbury with fish for a fourth consecutive year. The DEP delivered about 1,200 Arkansas Channel Catfish to Lakewood on Tuesday as part of the agency's Community Fishing Program. In all, eleven lakes and ponds around the state were stocked. The DEP also annually stocks streams and rivers with trout for fishing season.
Spinach Pie and Politics
Malloy Touts Local Albanian Community, Endorses Neil O'Leary
The dance group "Besa" performed "Valle e Devollit" at the 6th Annual Albanian Festival at the Albanian- American Muslim Community Center, on Raymond Street, in the South End of Waterbury. Valle means dance, and Devolli is a village in Albania. Photographs by John Murray
Traditional Albanian dancing and great Albanian food is on full display in Waterbury's South End for the next two days. Waterbury has one of the largest Albanian communities in the United States.
Famed Irish tenor Ronan Tynan will perform a concert on behalf of the Foundation for the Advancement of Catholic Schools (FACS) on Saturday, June 25, 2011 at the Palace Theater in Waterbury, CT at 8 p.m. The concert will benefit Catholic schools in the Greater Waterbury area and FACS.
War Horse
(editor's note - this column is published every other month. It is written by the executive director of the Palace Theater in downtown Waterbury, Frank Tavara. It's mission is to provide readers with a peek behind the curtain to see how the theater operates)
Old Time Political Nonsense
J. Paul Vance Jr.
Waterbury mayoral candidate and former four-term President of the Waterbury Board of Alderman, J. Paul Vance, Jr., commented today on Mayor Michael J. Jarjura’s defection from the Democrat to the Republican parties.
Former Waterbury police chief Neil O'Leary announced his candidacy for mayor in early February. O'Leary had agreed not to challenge Mike Jarjura in 2009 when the mayor promised to support him in 2011. Jarjura changed his mind, but the Democratic establishment, which had helped broker the arrangement in 2009, threw its support behind O'Leary. Without party support, and with philosophical differences with state and federal Democratic leaders, Jarjura announced on May 31st that he had switched parties and is now a Republican. Photo by John Murray
It's Official
Jarjura Switches Political Party
Photographs By John Murray
Honoring The
Supreme Sacrifice
Photographs By John Murray
U.S. Marine Corps veteran, Sam Beamon
Still Not Talking
Story By John Murray
The Leatherman remains as elusive in death as he was during a mysterious life wandering through Connecticut and New York 150 years ago.
Party's Over
Story By John Murray
The Waterbury Observer has confirmed that Waterbury Mayor Michael Jarjura is switching political parties and will head the Republican ticket in November. The official announcement was originally scheduled for Wednesday, May 25th, but when two top GOP lawmakers – Tony D’Amelio and Selim Noujaim – couldn’t make it, the press conference was re-scheduled for May 31st, at Waterbury City Hall.
Hanoi Jane
War, Sex, and Fantasies of Betrayal
Meet author
Jerry Lembcke
Book Talk & Signing
Wednesday, June 22, 2011 - 6:30 p.m.
From Aristophanes’ Lysistrata to Mata Hari and Tokyo Rose, stories of female betrayal during wartime have recurred throughout history. The myth of “Hanoi Jane” Fonda, Dr. Jerry Lembcke argues in Hanoi Jane, War, Sex & Fantasies of Betrayal, is the latest variation on this enduring theme - com-bining traces of fact with heavy doses of fiction to create a potent symbol of feminine perfidy - part erotic warrior-woman Barbarella (the title role of a 1968 Fonda film), part savvy antiwar activist and part powerful entrepreneur.
Life on "The Hill"
By Megan Sullivan, December 2007
James Dennis Galvin
My grandfather taught me how to pour beer. We sat at the round, glass topped table on his screened-in back porch, and with the convex pint glass tipped toward the wall, I held one hand steady on the jar as the other gripped the brown glass bottle before me.
“Good girl, Meg,” my grandfather said. “Right, lean the jar towards you,” he instructed gently. “That’s the girl,” he said, “hold the bottle close to the rim.”