December 16, 2011 Civic Beat By Charlene LaVoie Dec. 15 marks 220 years from the day the Bill of Rights became part of the Constitution, establishing that the rights and voices of “We the People” are the heart of American democracy. On Sept. 17,... Read more
September 16, 2011 The Civic Beat By Charlene LaVoie On Sept. 17, 1787, the delegates to the Constitutional Convention met for the last time to sign the document they had created. Constitution Day commemorates the formation and signing of the U.... Read more
July 4, 2011 By CHARLENE LaVOIE Community Lawyer Forty-five years ago on July 4, 1966, Lyndon Johnson signed the landmark Freedom of Information Act at his Texas ranch. But the event does not appear on LBJ’s Daily Diary, which is the first indic... Read more
April 22, 2011 The Civic Beat By Charlene LaVoie Next Thursday, April 28, at Northwestern Connecticut Community College, author and activist David Bollier, the co-founder of the Commons Strategy Group, which advocates the commons as a focus for... Read more
March 25, 2011 The Civic Beat By Charlene LaVoie The president is promoting federal loan guarantees to build two new nuclear power plants at a cost of $8.3 billion. Over the last decade, the nuclear industry has spent more than $600 million lobb... Read more
May 5, 2010 Charlene Lavoie The first words of Senator Charles Schmuer’s recent amendment to the Restoring American Financial Stability Act of 2010 (SB3217) are: “To promote the financial stability of the United States by improving accountabilit... Read more
May 5, 2010 By Charlene Lavoie “Down the long lane of the history yet to be written, America knows that this world of ours, ever growing smaller, must avoid becoming a community of dreadful fear and hate, and be, instead, a proud confedera... Read more