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Connecticut State Police are mourning the killing of retired State Trooper Thomas Driscoll in Las Vegas. WWLP of Springfield reported these details:

According to the arrest report, Driscoll, who is a Chicopee resident, and a woman identified as Nava Fuehrer were walking across the pedestrian bridge that connects Ballys and the Cromwell around 4:30 a.m. Sunday and passed by Leath who made a comment at the couple. 

As the couple headed down an escalator, Leath ran down the stairs and took a “fighting stance” at the bottom of the escalator.

When Driscoll reached the bottom of the escalator, Leath punched him causing him to fall onto his back. Driscoll did not move, the report said. Driscoll was transported to Sunrise Medical Hospital where he was pronounced dead one hour later.

Leath was taken into custody by police near the Mirage Hotel.

Former federal prosecutor Nora Dannehy will join the Governor Ned Lamont’s office as his legal counsel. Dannehy is a familiar figure in Connecticut law enforcement. She was among the leading prosecutors on the team that investigated and convicted former Governor John G. Rowland of corruption in 2004.

Dannehy has also worked for UTC–now part of Raytheon–and served a tour with George Jepsen at the start of his tenure as attorney general.

Dannehy joined William Barr’s justice department in 2019 to work on the widely disparaged investigation of the FBI’s investigation of contacts between Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russian agents and surrogates. Dannehy resigned from that investigation last fall, but has never disclosed a reason for joining the discreditable Barr operation.

Dannehy will replace Robert Clark, who Lamont nominated to a spot on the state’s Appellate Court. Clark enjoyed the advantage of interviewing others interested in filling that vacancy.

Rides to the insurrection in January. Covid test kookiness in February. One dares not contemplate what March will bring from the once-formidable Stamford Republicans.

Commissioner of the Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection (DESPP) James Rovella is expected to testify in favor of Governor Ned Lamont’s proposal to legalize the recreational use of marijuana. The veteran police officer will appear remotely before the legislature’s judiciary committee when it holds a public hearing Friday, February 26th on Senate Bill Number 888 An Act Concerning Responsibly and Equitably Regulating Adult-Use of Cannabis. The hearing begins at 10 a.m.

Rovella’s experience on the beat in Hartford early in his career, as an inspector in the Office of the Chief State’s Attorney, and leading Hartford’s police as chief provide him with varied perspectives in law enforcement and the use of resources.

Leaders of the Connecticut Business and Industry Association (CBIA) are frustrated at the state’s dismal ranking in Chief Executive Magazine’s the annual survey of the best and worst worst states in which to do business. Last year, Connecticut place a disheartening 46th.

The survey is being conducted now and CBIA wants a better showing for Connecticut this year. It’s asking members to participate in the online poll and give the Constitution State a boost in the widely-circulated survey.

Click here to participate–and tell the truth. You do not need to be a chief executive.

State Representative Mike France announced Tuesday that he will seek the Republican nomination for Congress in the Connecticut’s Second District. If nominated, France is expected to face popular eight-term incumbent Democrat Joe Courtney.

France, whose 42nd district includes Ledyard, Montville, and Preston, was elected to the legislature in 2014. He is a Navy veteran and serves as the head of the House Republicans’ conservative caucus.

France’s statement:

“Watching Congress fail the American people is difficult for anyone to sit back and watch. Given my background in public service and service to my country, I felt compelled to run for many reasons, but it was the withholding of COVID assistance last Fall that got me into this race. While families suffered, with businesses shuttered, and our country holding on by a thread, Pelosi and her party withheld crucial, life-saving aid for what they now admit were entirely political purposes. We can disagree on the issues, even passionately at times, but that brazen and disgraceful act made clear to me that our representatives in Congress have forgotten that they are accountable to the people.”

“Bipartisanship and putting people first used to be hallmarks of good government. Today those traits seem too inconvenient for our members of Congress to even use as a sound bite. I am running for Congress to give the people of Connecticut’s second congressional district a voice in Washington that cannot be silenced by special interest or party pressure. I am proud to run on my track record of doing exactly that in the State Legislature and look forward to a competitive fight to win back the second congressional district for the people.” 

Second District Republicans have struggled to find a serious challenger to Courtney. France, 58, would be the first legislator to make the race in the district that includes all of the eastern region of Connecticut.

Governor Ned Lamont has expressed surprise at how many lawyers want an appointment to the Superior Court. “But everybody wants to be a judge. It’s incredible,’ Lamont said, laughing,” according to the CtMirror.org. “But I’ll do it based on need, not based on favor,” he continued. Lamont found a spot for an old friend among his 15 nominees announced Wednesday. Edward O’Hanlan, a partner at the Robinson & Cole law firm, is the husband of Chase Rogers, the former Chief Justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court and the father of Lamont’s godson.

Rogers and Ann Huntress Lamont, who is married to the governor, enjoy a long friendship from their days as students at Stanford University. Rogers has been an influential adviser to the governor since his 2018 election. Rogers and O’Hanlan’s son is named after Ned Lamont.

O’Hanlan, 65, will be eligible for a reduced state pension when he reaches the mandatory retirement age of 70 in five years. Still, it will be more than most Connecticut working people receive in retirement each year after decades of labor. But the appointment must be based on need, not favor, of course.

Choose your children’s godparents wisely, readers.

Governor Ned Lamont is expected to nominate more than a dozen new judges this week. Most of the nominations will be to the Superior Court, the state’s trial level court.

The biggest prize in the anticipated round of nominations will go to Robert Clark, who resigned from the Superior Court after serving on it for eight months to become Lamont’s legal counsel in 2019. Clark will get a boost to the nine-member Appellate Court. He will fill the vacancy created by Judge Douglas Lavine, who in December reached the mandatory retirement age of 70. Lavine was elevated to the appeals court from the Superior Court by former Governor M. Jodi Rell in 2006.

Clark’s nomination, long expected, has caused considerable speculation on who the Greenwich Democrat will select to fill the crucial job as he prepares to tussle with the legislature and seek a second term.

Step off. Just step off. We don’t need no stinkin’ bills.

Former Republican state Representative Chris Davis has landed a pension boosting job at the troubled Connecticut Lottery Corporation. He’s a government relations manager, commonly called a lobbyist.

Davis, who was the ranking Republican on the legislature’s finance committee, abandoned his re-election race in July, two months after winning renomination for a sixth term. East Windsor and Ellington Republicans scrambled to find a replacement for Davis. The five-term veteran announced he had discovered during the pandemic that he wanted to spend more time with his family. Democrat Jaime Foster won the seat in November against David Stavens.

Foster was also a late entry into the race. She replaced Taylor Biniarz, who decided after Davis quit the race she would rather spend time on activism than in the legislature, according to the Journal Inquirer.