The Christopher D Corbett Memorial Fund was created to honor the memory of Deputy Police Chief Christopher D. Corbett and to carry on his support of Waterbury’s Catholic schools and their students educational goals. It provides scholarships to students wishing to attend Catholic elementary and high schools in the greater Waterbury area, as well as to graduates of Catholic high schools planning to attend college to pursue studies in criminal justice. The fund engages in fundraising activities for this purpose.

                                        Story By John Murray

   Dan Lynch looked at the e-mail with a mix of joy and confusion. It was 2:38 PM on Thursday, January 26th. The message was from the Connecticut Secretary of State’s Office, and it confirmed that Lynch had qualified to have his name placed on the February 28th ballot in a special election to fill the vacant seat in State Senate’s 32nd District.

   The joy came from Lynch’s realization that his intense six-day effort to get 502 signatures on petitions had worked. Lynch had spent 12-14 hours a day working on his campaign; he’d stood in front of diners in the cold; he’d frequented a Dunkin Donuts in Southbury; he’d mingled at sporting events; he’d driven back and forth across the ten-town district visiting friends; and as a strategic move to maximize his time on the last night before deadline, he’d slept in his car.

   The following is Connecticut Governor Dannel P. Malloy's Budget Address (for 2018-2019 fiscal year) delivered this afternoon at the State Legislature in Hartford.....

   Mr. Speaker, Mr. President, distinguished members of the General Assembly, thank you for inviting me once again into the people’s house to address you.

Dan Lynch

   Dan Lynch is an energetic, high-tech lover of history and genealogy and is plunging into a special election for the 32nd Senatorial District in Connecticut as an unaffiliated petitioning candidate.

   At first glance Lynch seems an unlikely person to throw his hat into the political ring, but during the past eight years he has testified numerous times in Hartford about court corruption, attorney misconduct and judicial retaliation he said he experienced during his divorce.

   “The courts are in the business to make business for themselves,” Lynch said. “And when the system is challenged they band together and double down to protect the system.”

At 1 pm this afternoon a mixture of sun and rain and light created a spectacular rainbow above Waterbury, CT. Observer photographer John Murray darted around the South End of the city trying to avoid trees and wires and buildings to get a clean shot of the rainbow. He shot this image from the edge of Route 8 north looking up towards the cross at Holy Land USA.

Irving Duggans

   The Observer just received the following press release from the Waterbury PD.....

   "On December 27, 2016 at approximately 1400 hours the Waterbury Police received a complaint of a body found in a bathroom shower stall located in a second floor apartment at 475 East Main Street. Upon arrival officers observed the body of the victim identified as Luis Rodriguez (07/30/1957) located in the bathroom shower stall suffering from significant trauma to his head.

A shepherd near the village of Bilisht, Albania. There are an estimated 1000 Albanians from Bilisht that now live in greater Waterbury, most coming to seek economic opportunity in America.

                              Story and Photographs By John Murray

    I rounded a corner in Fier, Albania, and encountered ten police officers standing on the side of the road gesturing towards me. Crap, I thought, here comes the shakedown. I pulled my rental car over and fumbled for my passport and rental agreement. I wondered how I’d manage with the few words of Albanian I knew; mirëdita, (good afternoon), faleminderit (thank you), jo (no) and po (yes).

    It was too late to learn, “Hi officer, Albania is a beautiful country and I look forward to writing about my experience with Prime Minister Edi Rama in my newspaper back in America.”

    As I watched three uniformed police officers surround my car I wondered how much this was going to cost me.

Waterbury's Reservoirs have gone below 50% usable capacity due to the dry weather.

   The Mayor’s Office and the Waterbury Bureau of Water announced today that the City’s reservoirs have declined to below 50 percent usable capacity due to the continued dry weather conditions. In response to these conditions we are implementing the Drought Warning stage of our Emergency Contingency Plan. Under this stage a number steps will be implemented to respond to the drought including Mandatory Water Use Restrictions that become effective immediately. These Mandatory Restrictions include a ban on all non-essential outdoor water usage such as lawn and garden watering; watering of golf course fairways; non-commercial washing of motor vehicles; hose washing of streets, driveways and sidewalks; ornamental water use such as fountains and waterfalls; the use of hydrants for any purpose other than fire-fighting or as approved by municipal health officials for public health or safety needs; and the serving of water in restaurants or clubs unless specifically requested by a patron.

  Vasilios Kaloidis believes Greater Waterbury has plenty of restaurants with cuisine excellent enough to match the best restaurants anywhere in the state. “We have 25 to 30 great restaurants in Greater Waterbury, just like other areas,” said Kaloidis, who owns two restaurants in the region, Vasi’s Restaurant & Bar and Spartan Restaurant & Bar and chairman of the Chamber’s Restaurant Week Committee. The Waterbury area restaurants, however, “are larger, have better parking, and are centrally located between two highways,” Interstate 84 and Route 8. To help spread the word, the Waterbury Regional Chamber has partnered with many of its member restaurants to create the first Greater Waterbury Restaurant Week, to be held Sunday, September 11 through Friday September 16.