The Daily Five: Sandy Recovery Q&A, Tasty Treats, Conspiracy Theories and Fringe Politics

1. Patchy fog this morning will give way to a partly sunny, partly cloudy day with a high temperature of 55 degrees, according to weather.com. Tonight should be mostly clear with a low temperature of 38 degrees. 

2. A number of questions came up at last week's meeting with FEMA representatives in Old Lyme. Here are some of the answers.

• Yes, you do have to keep paying property taxes even if you can't live in your home.
• No, you shouldn't wait until you've filed an insurance claim before applying for FEMA assistance or a Small Business Adminstration loan. You should apply for federal aid first. Then, if and when your insurance pays up, you can use it to pay off the SBA loan. There is no penalty for early payment but you can't apply for an SBA loan after the fact. 
• Yes, Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy has waived some of the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection permits usually required for, say, the rebuilding of seawalls. 
• No, the town has not waived any of the usual zoning permits or approvals for people who may now be required to raise their homes if they are in a flood area. Raising a home changes the structure, and is subject to approval by the town's building inspectors and planning and zoning committees to ensure that the new building meets safety and building codes. "We can't have chaos because we just had chaos," said Old Lyme First Selectwoman Bonnie Reemsnyder.  

3. There's likely to be a recap of the Q&A session when the Old Lyme Board of Selectmen meets tonight at Old Lyme Memorial Town Hall at 7:30 p.m. The Federation of Beaches is also scheduled to meet at Old Lyme Town Hall today at 4 p.m.

4. Coffees Country Market on Boston Post Road in Old Lyme held its third annual holiday tasting and social last night. The well-attended event offered samples of baked Brie, Bourbon meatballs, exotic cheeses, and much more. Representatives from Deep River Snacks, Orsini Sausage, Cush's Salsa and Covered Bridge Cheese were also on hand and handing out their delicious wares too. Live music from Liquid Groove kept the party lively. Coffees Country Market is a family-owned and operated business that's been in business since 1958.

5. Just when I thought the politicking was over, a table covered in political leaflets and a poster of President Barack Obama bearing a Hitler-style mustache popped up on the corner of Grand Street and Pennsylvania Avenue in Niantic on Friday. 

In case you were curious, the two people who were urging drivers to "pull over" if they wanted to impeach Obama are part of Lyndon Larouche's organization. In October, the same poster prompted an 80-year-old woman in Hebron, Conn., to pull over and rip it down. 

Larouche, a Marxist and frequent presidential candidate, is famous for his conspiracy theories. Based on my brief conversation with his two volunteers (who were from Boston, by the way) he is now claiming that Obama is using drones to take out people on an international hit list.