In the fickle world of politics, where a candidate's shelf life can be about a short as Kim Kardashian's marriage, the early favorites to win the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate have rebranded themselves after bitter losses in their last races. The last time the voters of Connecticut elected a Republican to the Senate was in 1982, when Lowell P. Weicker Jr. was elected to his third and final term, a three-decade drought that is not lost upon the state's minority party. Thwarted two years ago from wresting Christopher Dodd's seat away from the Democrats, in a race won by longtime Attorney General Richard Blumenthal over McMahon, GOP leaders are admittedly preaching to their candidates to save their heavy ammo for the general election. What gives Republicans cause for optimism is that the prize is an open seat in a presidential election year in which the current occupant of the White House, President Barack Obama, has a national approval rating of 46 percent. A conscientious objector to the Vietnam War who served in the Peace Corps, Shays has spent most of his adult life in public service, first representing Stamford in the General Assembly. "Among Republicans, they know I'm the only one who can win the race," said Shays, who formally kicked off his campaign Jan. 25 at the Old State House in Hartford. [...] the self-proclaimed centrist from Bridgeport has hit the trail with his message of the urgency to balance the federal budget, venturing in uncharted territory beyond the borders of his one-time congressional district in an effort to build up name recognition. A former schoolteacher who overcame personal bankruptcy to earn a fortune with her famous husband, Vince, at WWE (formerly World Wrestling Entertainment), McMahon left her post as the Stamford company's chief executive officer to run for the Senate two years ago. McMahon's public service experience is limited to a stint on the state Board of Education, but her corporate record at the WWE has already come under fire from Shays, who has blamed the company for a number of wrestler deaths and accused McMahon of peddling soft-core pornography.

Sounding a note of fiscal restraint, the Board of Education on Monday unanimously approved a $100.2 million operating budget for 2012-13 after trimming about $331,000 from Superintendent of Schools Elliott Landon's proposed spending package. While Landon defended his budget, which called for a 2.5 percent increase, Board of Education Chairman Don O'Day argued that a more austere spending approach would provide him more credibility when he presents the education budget next month to the Board of Finance. School board members have signaled in recent weeks that they are bracing themselves for possible cuts to the education budget when it is voted on during the next three months by the Board of Finance and the Representative Town Meeting. In 2012, however, contentiousness has flared during public review of school spending as parents voiced opposition to Landon's proposal to reduce physical education class times for students in grades one through five, as well as to eliminate French-language instruction for sixth graders. The proposal considered by the board outlined a spending increase of $180,000 by returning to the school district's former break point policy, which set lower class size thresholds to create new classes than the district's current break-point mandate. Contention also surfaced when some school administrators showed their displeasure with the board's decision to cut spending for secretarial staff by $230,000, which could result in the loss of five full-time positions. The board also approved a $50,000 cut to electricity expenditures, which will be offset by a corresponding increase in the school district's self-funded continuing education budget.

The town has planned two free public workshops on using the latest version of the web-based viewer for the map program GIS -- geographic information system, Town Engineer Peter Ratkiewich announced. The system allows users to get information about the land parcels, roads, wetlands, zoning and the status of permits requested for parcels.

Qualified applicants for the state program are those who own their own homes or hold a "life use" title to their homes, have resided in Connecticut for one year prior to filing an application and whose "qualifying income" does not exceed $32,300 for single individuals or $39,500 for married couples. The town's veterans program offers $20,000 off an assessment, a tax break based on "qualifying income" not exceeding $57,300 for single individuals and $64,500 for married couples.

In a recent edition of Connecticut Magazine, Egan said that while bishop here, he did nothing wrong regarding abuse allegations against priests in the diocese and, in fact, never had a case of alleged abuse while he was bishop. "First of all, I should have never said that," Egan told the magazine regarding his 2002 statement of regret. "Egan is obviously unrepentant, self-absorbed and painfully dismissive of the abject suffering of tens of thousands of deeply wounded men, women and children who have been sexually violated by priests, nuns, bishops, brothers, seminarians and other Catholic officials," said David Clohessy, director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. "Cardinal Egan's statements in this article, including describing the sex abuse scandal as being `incredibly good' or `fun' for the news, confirms the extent to which he was out of touch with the reality of what occurred to the Catholic faithful within his diocese," said area lawyers Cindy Robinson, Jason Tremont and Douglas Mahoney. For the cardinal to take back his apology is just another slap in the face of every victim who has endured the physical and emotional upheaval and betrayal of childhood sexual abuse at the hands of a priest. According to Senior Assistant State's Attorney Cornelius Kelly, under Connecticut law since 1971 clergy have been among those "mandated reporters" who are obligated to inform law enforcement agencies when they are aware of allegations of sexual abuse against children.