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WESTPORT - The Westport Country Playhouse has named new leaders, including a new artistic director who will take over for Joanne Woodward and Anne Keefe.

More than a year after leaving Greenwich Time as part of a wave of staff reductions, veteran editor Bruce Hunter is returning in a restructuring of the upper management of The Advocate and Greenwich Time.

STAMFORD - Since coming to Stamford from Mexico in 1956, Galdino Velasco has worked to keep Latino traditions alive.

NORWALK - There was no cake Sunday at the 200th birthday party for famed inventor Louis Braille at Stepping Stones Children's Museum.

For those who were only scanning the front page headlines, here are some highlights from The Advocate's inside pages: Jan.

Staff Writers Owners of public swimming pools in lower Fairfield County are struggling to comply with a new federal law requiring drain covers that prevent underwater entrapment.

The year in crime and punishment saw a run-away hedge fund manager, a stolen 600-pound statue of a police officer and a flurry of December arrests in previously unsolved Stamford homicide cases.

Joan Ross has worried less about running errands by car in the past few months, but low gas prices haven't erased the memory of paying $50 or more per fill-up.

25 years ago: Jan. 5, 1984: Connecticut high school students continued to outperform their counterparts in most other states on the Scholastic Aptitude Test, according to rankings released by U.

NORWALK - Despite enormous gains in the last half-century and the election of the nation's first black president, the need for the NAACP remains, the head of the Norwalk branch said.

STAMFORD - For Stamford schools, 2008 brought dramatic twists and a few conclusions to longstanding questions.

GREENWICH - Lying amid the pistols used by either the Nazis or Allied forces in World War II was the elusive and rare Singer .

STAMFORD - It was a rocky 2008 for firefighting in the city. Tension and bad bloodbetween volunteer firehouses and the city lingered from a merger proposed in 2007 that would have staffed three volunteer fire departments with city firefighters.

Stamford Arrests: * Yazmin Rosa, 33, of 42 Merrell Ave., Stamford, was charged Sunday with third-degree assault, disorderly conduct and risk of injury to a child.

Autistic author to tell of new book NEW CANAAN - Temple Grandin, an adult with autism, will speak about her latest book, "Animals Make Us Human: Creating the Best Life for Animals," at 7:30 p.

Early last year, when the state still had a budget surplus, Senate President Donald Williams Jr. proposed tax refunds for low- and middle-income households.

It was the year of the rise and the fall. Barack Obama, Trump Parc tower and gas prices belong in the former category. For a look at at year that was in local news, read full coverage below.

NORWALK - Police Sgt. Russell Fallo has long been one of the city's leading earners - and this year was no exception.

The Advocate and Greenwich Time Giving Fund provides assistance to families in lower Fairfield County in desperate need.

WASHINGTON - Connecticut residents have contributed more than $575,000 to help pay for the official inaugural celebration of President-elect Barack Obama.