Connecticut, Stamford | featured news

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy could hardly be less popular if he tried.

And he often seems to be trying.

The last time Quinnipiac University took the public’s temperature, his approval rating was below 25 percent. Republicans chortle that he’s the least popular Democratic governor in the country. That hasn’t stopped him from trying to serve broccoli to people who want M&M’s.

When we sat down for an editorial board about the will-not-resuscitate state budget Thursday, I recalled similar sessions over the past two decades, many while he was mayor of Stamford.

STAMFORD — A grassroots offshoot of the city’s Democratic Party is gearing up for its first ballot showdown on Tuesday. Five candidates running on the Democratic slate known as “Reform Stamford” will be on the ballot next week. They’re vying for the right to seek election in November in three of five districts with primary races for the Board of Representatives. The group goes out almost nightly to canvass in their districts, including the Cove, East Side, Waterside, Springdale and Westover, and the force of their joint efforts will continue into the general election.

STAMFORD-A city man with a drug conviction on his record was arrested again Wednesday, this time for allegedly being in possession of 34 bags of a brand of heroin known to be causing overdoses locally.

James Higgs, 51, of Stillwater Avenue, was charged with possession of narcotics and possession of narcotics with intent to sell. He is being held in lieu of a $2,500 court appearance bond.

Capt. Richard Conklin said Narcotics and Organized Crime investigators heard on the street that Higgs was selling heroin and applied for a search warrant for his apartment.

STAMFORD-City police say they have apprehended an 18-year-old man who is accused of a series of restaurant burglaries in Glenbrook and Hope Street over the past week.

Police have not yet released his identity, but say he is responsible for a number of repeat burglaries, where businesses have been broken into over and over again.

Earlier this week Capt. Richard Conklin said that police were investigating about five commercial burglaries of restaurants that had been broken into on Thursday night, Aug 31, and into the next morning.

STAMFORD-A city man was charged with beating his former girlfriend’s car with a recycling bin while calling her names.

Sgt. Sean McGowan said police were called to the Ridgeway neighborhood on the report of a man damaging his ex-fiance’s car. The woman reported to police that she was woken up at about 1 a.m. on July 26 by her mother who told her that she heard screaming and noise from outside.

STAMFORD-A Stamford man in federal prison on drug charges was brought back to Stamford Wednesday and charged with bashing a woman over the head with a beer bottle in July.

On July 24, police were called to Pequot Drive on the report of a woman being assaulted. Police arrived on West Side scene and saw a 45-year-old woman holding a towel over left ear. When she removed the towel the officer could see a laceration about eight inches long and an inch and one-half wide just in front of her left ear, Sgt.

STAMFORD-Catching a lucky break, a Norwalk man pleaded guilty to reduced charges and will only receive a four-year jail sentence for helping his cousins stab a man and slash his face open for making a pass at one of their wives during a Christmas party in 2014.

Appearing before Judge Richard Comerford at the Stamford courthouse on Wednesday, Nelson Zuniga Zelaya, 34, of KNapp Street pleaded guilty to a felony charge of accessory to second-degree assault.

Zuniga Zelaya was picked up on a warrant by Norwalk police this past November when he was pulled over for driving drunk.

STAMFORD-Police are warning residents, especially those in North Stamford, to lock their doors and turn on their burglar alarms as the area is being hit with a wave of break-ins.

“We are certainly seeing a rise in burglaries in North Stamford over the past several weeks,” said Capt. Richard Conklin, who supervises the property crimes and major crime units in the department. “It’s not just in Stamford it is now a regional problem where we have seen quite a large increase in burglaries.”

Conklin said large homes set back from others in wooded are being targeted by the thieves.

STAMFORD-The city man who caused a big accident at the start of last week that forced the closure of northern Newfield Avenue for nearly a day, was busted three days later with 115 bags of heroin stamped “Sleepwalker”, police said.

Police say that Monday August 28 at about 11 p.m. Nue Perdedaj, 29, of Seaside Avenue, was traveling south on Newfield near Sterling Farms when he lost control of his vehicle and spun out, striking a power pole and dislodging it at its base. With wires all over the roadway it took until the following night to get the busy road open again.

STAMFORD - Waterbury has sued several pharmaceutical companies that make the opioids that have triggered the worst drug epidemic in U.S. history, and Bridgeport soon will join the suit. But officials in Stamford, home to Purdue Pharma, manufacturer of the top-selling opioid OxyContin, did not take part Thursday in a press conference that followed the court filing in Waterbury. Five Connecticut towns -- New Milford, Oxford, Bristol, Naugatuck, Wolcott and Roxbury -- pledged to sign on, and another 15 to 20 likely will follow, Waterbury Mayor Neil O’Leary said.