Wallingford News

Fiscal Press announced today that Toby Gold and the Secret Fortune by Craig Everett has been named a finalist in the children's fiction category for the 2013 International Book Award, an honor presented by USA Book News.

A commencement speech that touched on elephant excrement, the stupidity of drinking and driving, and Balzac's thoughts on the relations between the sexes delighted graduates of University of Hartford Sunday, so much so that they gave novelist and commencement speaker Bernard Cornwall a standing ovation.

Sometimes you need to leave your significant other, children, or stress at home...and fine solace with your girlfriends.

The manager of a Wallingford motel found a moose antler on the ground outside the motel on Friday, but there has been no sign of a moose.

Pregnant women are among the people protected by state and federal anti-discrimination laws, and one of the key rules says employers must make a reasonable effort to find suitable work for women whose pregnancy keeps them from their normal line of duty.

WALLINGFORD — In what town officials called a rare instance of involving themselves in the discussion of state legislation, the Town Council this week passed a resolution opposing a bill that would redefine public meetings under the state Freedom of Information Act. The resolution passed 6-1 Tuesday night, with Town Councilor Craig Fishbein, a Republican, casting the lone dissenting vote. Senate Bill 1148 would “exempt certain negotiations between the leaders of political parties from being considered a meeting for purposes of the Freedom of Information Act.” The resolution, passed Tuesday, will be sent to the state legislature. It states that the bill “has the potential to make local government less accountable to the citizens.” Current Chairman Bob Parisi, a Republican, said that former Town Council Chairman Mike Brodinsky made him aware of the issue through an email, part of which he read aloud during Tuesday’s Town Council meeting. Fishbein said Tuesday night he did not vote in favor of the resolution because he doesn’t feel it will have any effect on local government. “I know of no situation in this town or other towns that I’m aware of in which this could occur,” he said. Councilors who supported the resolution said the bill does not make for transparent government. On Wednesday, Fishbein said that is “absolutely ironic” because the council held a meeting not publicly posted before Tuesday night’s meeting. Fishbein said the council met to discuss an arbitration award. Discussions of strategy and negotiations connected to collective bargaining aren’t considered meetings, according to state Freedom of Information Commission public education officer Tom Hennick, so the arbitration discussion session was legal. “On one hand we’re saying to the state you shouldn’t be able to do this, and then we’re holding meetings without announcing them,” Fishbein said. “Where’s the transparency?” While Town Councilor John LeTourneau, a Republican, said he did agree that closed-door meetings like the one held before Tuesday night’s council meeting aren’t fair. “There is stuff we talked about during that meeting that should have been in open session,” LeTourneau said. “We seem to have gotten off track and have these non-meeting meetings. I don’t agree with this policy.”