Another landmark case heads for Connecticut's Supreme Court. The questions this time: How many parties get paid when government takes land? And how do you value toxic land that might become homes?

Click here for Marcia's report.

Members of the Judiciary Committee accused Gov. M. Jodi Rell Tuesday of refusing to meet with members of the legislature's Black and Latino caucus regarding recruitment of minority candidates to the Superior Court bench, but Rell's spokesman says she did meet with at least one of the 20 caucus members and is just as appalled at the lack of minority candidates on the Judicial Selection Commission list.

Sen. Andrew McDonald, D-Stamford, said he is encouraging Rell to reconsider her decision not to personally meet with the 20 members of the Black and Latino caucus. He said while each of her nominees were approved Monday by the Judiciary Committee, "the votes were highly controversial," with about 10 votes against each of the four white candidates she chose to nominate.

"We appreciate their concern, but their blame is misplaced," Rell's spokesman Chris Cooper said Tuesday.

(Updated 6:08 p.m.) Former Lt. Billy White, the center of a New Haven police corruption scandal, was sentenced to 38 months in prison Monday, despite emotional testimony about his years of public service.

Judge Janet Arterton handed down the sentence, which also included two years of supervised release, in U.S. District Court in New Haven. The courthouse was mobbed with supporters and reporters; the crowd spilled out into the hallway.

In addition to his prison sentence, White was ordered to pay $15,505 in restitution. he was fined $20,000, and he has to forfeit $10,200 in bribes he accepted from local bail bondsmen.

Click here to continue reading Paul's report.

Black and Latino legislators feel there needs to be a more aggressive effort to campaign and recruit minority candidates to become judges.

At a press conference Monday, Rep. Don Clemons, D-Bridgeport, said over the past few years 30 newly appointed judges have been submitted by the Judicial Selection Commission to Gov. M. Jodi Rell for nomination and only two of those nominees were African-American and none were Latino.

On Monday the Judiciary Committee will consider the appointment of four nominees to the judicial bench. All four nominees are white.

Seven months ago Superior Court Judge Joseph Shortall gutted a lawsuit aimed at fixing the badly broken education cost sharing (ECS) formula the state uses to fund its public schools. This week two Yale Law School students asked the justices of the Supreme Court to restore the full lawsuit, saying the trial court "prematurely decided the case."

The law students, David Noah and Neil Weare, are members of the Yale Law Education Adequacy Project, a clinic type class that brought the lawsuit in 2005 on behalf of Connecticut Coalition for Justice in Education Funding (CCJEF). Several major cities and towns have joined the lawsuit. At this juncture, only one of four counts in the complaint remains.

Click here to continue reading Marcia's report.

Arguing that he was acting out of greed, not out of compassion, the federal government wants a judge to send a former top narcotics cop to more than three years in prison.

The recommendation is contained in a pre-sentencing memo filed Tuesday by Acting U.S. Attorney Nora R. Dannehy.

It concerns former New Haven Lt. Billy White, whose career came to a crashing end last year after the feds arrested him on corruption charges, launching a citywide soul-searching and reform plan about how the city police department runs.

Click here to continue reading Paul's report.

The Connecticut Supreme Court will be asked Tuesday to determine if Connecticut schoolchildren have a right to an adequate education.

Yale Law students filed the case against the state more than two years ago on behalf of 15 students and their families that feel the quality of education is falling far short of its intended goal. The Attorney General's office is expected to argue on behalf of the state.

"By recognizing that each child in this State has the right to an adequate education, the Supreme Court can empower the Legislature to provide our children with the kind of education they deserve," David Noah, one of the law students who will make the oral arguments to the court, said in a press release.

State officials accused a nursing home chain of taking millions in Connecticut taxpayer dollars and using them to purchase a nursing home in Springfield, Mass.

Sen. President Donald Williams, D-Brooklyn, said while it's not illegal to do this, it's what lead to the nursing home chains financial difficulties. "We ought to know when Connecticut taxpayer's money is leaving the state," he said.

"An overambitious nursing home acquisition has drained the chain's resources, impairing solvency," Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said in a press release.

A partisan debate over a three-strikes-and-you're-out law for violent criminals seemed to fade Thursday as the rhetoric from a handful of lawmakers changed to one of consensus about how to make the state safer.

Flanked by top administrators, Gov. M. Jodi Rell said she has not given up on a properly written three strikes proposal - it just wasn't the focus of the Thursday afternoon meeting at the governor's residence that Democratic leaders were not invited to attend.

It's been about one year since a federal investigation brought down New Haven's most prominent bail bond family, one week since a judicial marshal pled guilty to related bribery charges, and more than four years since a nonpartisan office found the potential for corruption in Connecticut's bail bond system.

Rep. Michael Lawlor, D-East Haven, said Monday that this is the year the legislature needs to take action on a bill to reform the corrupt bail bond system.

Before a public hearing on the bill Monday, Lawlor said it should be a lot harder for those gaming the system to lobby against the legislation this year. "It is our obligation to re-write the laws to make sure this can't happen again and it is the obligation of the executive branch to enforce these laws so that the integrity of our justice system is not undermined," Lawlor said.