Rivereast News Bulletin reports in its May 2nd edition that State Police took Earl O’Garro into custody on April 26th “on an outstanding warrant charging him with second degree failure to appear.” The arrest appears to arise out of an April 4th rearrest order arising out of failure to pay weekly wages to employees pending in Superior Court GA 14 in Hartford.

O’Garro came to the public’s attention last fall when $670,000 paid to his insurance agency for city government insurance premiums was discovered missing. O’Garro has been regularly in the news since.

Forty years of excuses and explanations have done nothing to diminish the chill a retelling of the Watergate scandal elicits. WNPR’s John Dankosky’s included me in his interview with Watergate villain and Nixon White House counsel John Dean this morning. Here’s a link to one of our exchanges. He did not explain how Carol Channing, Bill Cosby and every black member of the House of Representatives were threats to “our administration.”

Here’s Dean’s notorious White House enemies list memo.

Dean says nothing happened with the list, but not because of anything he did. The head of the IRS at the time, Johnnie Mac Walters, did the right thing and refused to act on Dean’s ugly request. Here’s a 2013 USA Today story on Walters and his rectitude. The enemies list did not stay in Dean’s desk.

Here’s Governor Dannel P. Malloy’s spokesman’s April 23rd reaction to state Senator John McKinney’s call for Malloy to drop a $55 tax refund in his 2014 budget proposal:

STATEMENT FROM GOV. MALLOY’S COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR ANDREW DOBA

(HARTFORD, CT) – Andrew Doba, Director of Communications for Governor Dannel P. Malloy, today released the following statement regarding a call by State Senator John McKinney to eliminate tax relief for residents from the state budget:
“Senator McKinney needs to stop rooting for failure.  Governor Malloy’s proposal to issue a refund to taxpayers is part of an overall effort that will put money in the rainy day fund, pay down our long-term obligations, and provide some necessary tax relief for residents.  If Senator McKinney was so concerned with gimmicks, he wouldn’t have put out a Republican “budget” that included a $120 million dollar tax increase on working families and $54.8 million in phantom, unspecified cuts that are not detailed anywhere.”

Malloy withdrew his proposal Monday morning.

Dennis House invited Jonathan Pelto to talk about his gestating plans to run for governor as an independent candidate. Pelto, who sounds fluent on a range of topics and appears at ease in the extended segment, hit notes that are likely to please an array of interested voters and alarm Malloy insiders. There must have been some tension in the bunker Sunday.

The former Storrs state representative and Democratic operative talked about Malloy’s curious hostility to public school teachers and his, as Pelto sees it, poor record on higher education. Tax increases on some but not others also earned an extended mention.

You can watch the opening segment of Sunday’s edition of Face the State here.

Pelto also appeared on Fox CT.

It’s the annual Brown Rudnick Let’s Drink Red Wine and Pretend the House Minority Leader is Not Our Lobbyist Night.  House Minority Leader Lawrence Cafero (R-Brown Rudnick) is completing his final term. He has, however, not stopped working as a “contract partner” for Brown Rudnick from his satellite office on the floor of the House.

Partygoers this evening should spare a moment to thank the genetically modified products industry for its contribution for the evening’s festivities. Among its lobbyists is the aforementioned Brown Rudnick. It represents RISE (Responsible Industry for a Sound Environment), which urges readers of its website to visit DebugtheMyths.com.

Here’s a curious turn of events. A bill banning genetically modified grass seed was passed in the Senate earlier this month and sent to the House. The bill would normally have had a place on the House calendar for a few days before being taken up for action. Instead, the day after the Senate passed the bill–the very next day, mind you–the House suspended its rules, took up the bill, and sent it to swift defeat. Suspending the rules in this manner required the cooperation and support of the House Republicans. See above for a reminder of who leads them. The Republicans cooperated, causing observers,  interested participants, and others who worry about the reputation of the legislature to shake their heads in dismay. Talk about your “pest facts”.

For $7,500 a month? Did two days of questioning by the FBI at the Legislative Office Building and other more personal visits make no impression on the House Republicans?

Here’s a flashback from last year’s eventful party aftermath. He took it out.

The Hartford regional office of the Department of Children and Families was hit by another incident of parking lot vandalism last week. Last month, Daily Ructions reported on an employees motor vehicle being set on fire in the office parking lot. On April 8th, the rear window on the same employee’s Chevrolet Tahoe was shot and shattered early in the afternoon.

A Hartford police report states that an officer and the owner of the Tahoe, Aaron Howard, attempted without success to locate a bb pellet that might have caused the damage. The report states, “An anonymous complainant reported that she was in her vehicle having a cigarette. She reported that while she was in her vehicle smoking she heard a loud bang. That is when she got out of her vehicle and observed the glass on Howard’s vehicle was broken. She reported she did not see who broke the window.” A review of surveillance footage failed to reveal the offender.

A department spokesman says this case and the previous one, in which Howard was also the victim, are low on “solvables”. That means clues. The police report concludes, “Nothing further to report.”

DCF, however, told office employees in a Monday memo, “Law enforcement has been engaged, as well as building security, to investigate and these matters to an end. In additions the Hartford Police Department will be increasing its patrols of this area and all parking lots for 250 Hamilton Street [regional headquarters].” The memo also states that “[w]hile these do not appear to be random events, we wanted to let employees know that we are taking these occurrences extremely seriously.”

It’s Maundy Thursday. Mark the Last Supper with Mahalia Jackson and Dinah Shore putting over a classic gospel song. Put on your starry crown.

Something spiritual from Ethel Waters, one of the 20 century’s great performers.

Ethel Waters’ historic “Suppertime”, introduced here by Diana Ross.

A first sentence slap in a Wall Street Journal column is probably not the sort of attention even the preening Bosworths would like for their aspiring louche golf cable bid. Holman Jenkins opens his piece on the Comcast-Time Warner merger with the sober declaration that Back9 Network head James Bosworth’s inclusion on a  panel testifying at a United States Senate panel last week on the proposed merger was “bizarre shilling”. Bosworth was mewling about his trouble getting a cable deal for his state-subsidized gambit.

From Connecticut’s own Chris Cillizza:

This is the exact moment when the selfie stopped being cool. http://t.co/DVXk6ougUx pic.twitter.com/VyTnMcsNfe

— Chris Cillizza (@TheFix) April 16, 2014