Education

Cub Scout Pack 170 Slates Ice Cream Social

Published: September 05, 2013 12:00 am

Cub Scout Pack 170 invites all boys entering first through fourth grade, and siblings, to an ice cream social slated for Thursday, September 12, in the pavilion at Treadwell Park, 39 Philo Curtis Road...

Family Picnic At Dickinson Park For Incoming Fifth Graders

By Eliza Hallabeck

Published: August 29, 2013 12:00 am

Incoming fifth grade Reed Intermediate School students, family members, and friends were welcomed at Dickinson Park on Monday, August 26. The event was coordinated by the school’s Parent Teacher Assoc...

NHS Class Of 2017 Welcomed During Orientation

By Colleen Francke

Published: August 29, 2013 12:00 am

Newtown High School opened its doors a week early for the incoming Class of 2017 on Wednesday, August 21, for a day of icebreakers, tours, questions and answer sessions, and opportunities to voice any...

'City Of Bones' Fans Hold Pre-Premiere Party At Booth Library

By Colleen Francke

Published: August 29, 2013 12:00 am

Cassandra Clare fans of all ages congregated at C.H. Booth Public Library on Tuesday, August 20, to celebrate the upcoming release, on August 21, of the City of Bones film, based on the author’s book ...

Classrooms Open, Buses Roll For The 2013-14 School Year

By Eliza Hallabeck

Published: August 29, 2013 12:00 am

Students across the district stepped onto buses for the first time of the 2013-14 school year Tuesday, August 27, while teachers and school staff waited to welcome them. “By all reports, people were e...

Local Girl Scouts Collecting For 'Bedtime Bundles'

Published: August 29, 2013 12:00 am

Newtown Girl Scout Troop 50859 members Maria Ringes and Diana Kirkman, both students at Immaculate High School, are hoping to provide “Bedtime Bundles” for children who stay overnight at Yale New Have...

NHS Class Of 1993 Slates 20-Year Reunion

Published: August 29, 2013 12:00 am

The Newtown High Class of 1993 has set its 20-year reunion for October 12, from 7 pm until 11 pm at the Inn at Newtown. The cost is $35 per person, which needs to be sent to Gordon Wong either via Pa...

Newtown Kids Are Welcomed Back To The District's Schools

By Eliza Hallabeck

Published: August 27, 2013 12:00 am

Students across the district stepped onto buses for the first time of the 2013-14 school year Tuesday, August 27, while teachers and school staff waited to welcome them. At Head O’ Meadow Elementary S...

Dr. Reed's Request To Parents: Do Not Show Up, Call During 'Lock-Ins'

By John Voket

Published: August 25, 2013 12:00 am

"ALL CHILDREN ARE SAFE," was both a direct message and the overarching theme of an extensive memo sent to parents late last week by Interim School Superintendent Dr. John Reed. The letter was also pos...

French Students Visit Newtown For Summer Vacation

By Eliza Hallabeck

Published: August 22, 2013 12:00 am

Reflecting on their summer vacation with The Bee recently, Newtown High School rising senior Jordan Trager and rising junior Kristina Tollkuci both smiled when describing what made this summer special...

Carolyn Bloomberg

Tourette Syndrome Awareness

Garden Club Offers Thanks

Remembering Sandy Hook

Unfortunately, I think this is likely to get worse, not better... Based on both public comments and private conversations, I’m increasingly concerned that our newly elected First Selectman intends not just to install these cameras, but to expand their use for full-blown enforcement and fines. Try getting a straight answer out of him about the long-term plan and you quickly realize how vague the responses become. Tyler is absolutely right to raise the privacy issue. These systems don’t just “catch speeders” — they quietly build a database of where we drive, when we drive, and who is in our vehicles. Once that infrastructure is in place, it becomes very easy to justify expanding its scope: more cameras, more locations, more uses, and eventually more automated enforcement. If Newtown is going down this road, residents deserve clear, written answers to some basic questions before anything is expanded: What limits will be placed on how and where cameras are used? Will footage and plate data be used only for speed enforcement, or for other investigations too? How long will data be stored, and who can access it? What safeguards will prevent vendors and individuals from abusing this information? Without firm, enforceable rules in place, “just a few cameras to slow traffic” can turn into something very different over time. I support safe roads — but not at the cost of unchecked surveillance and vague promises from our leaders. You try getting straight answers out of our First Selectman, myself and others have not been able to...

Discusses Traffic Cameras

I had to hold back a laugh at the idea that 7:30 pm is apparently such a late-night hardship that we’re already talking about moving meetings earlier. For a lot of residents, 7:30 is the earliest they can realistically get to Town Hall after work, family obligations, and the rest of real life. Shifting BOS meetings to 7:00 might make the calendar look tidier for those in the building, but it makes participation harder for the people who pay for the building. If the new First Selectman’s week is already booked solid and evening meetings feel like a strain, that’s not a reason to move the goalposts on public access—it's a reminder that the job is supposed to be demanding. Public service means accommodating the public, even when it’s inconvenient.

Walczak Adjusts To New Role, First Board Meeting

Real people were just in a frightening car accident. To immediately frame their misfortune as rhetorical ammunition against new housing — affordable housing included — feels less like concern for “health and safety” and more like opportunistically using a scary moment to support a pre-existing position. If we’re going to debate this proposal, we should do it honestly: with data on traffic volume, accident history, engineering recommendations, and the town’s housing needs, not by seizing on a single crash as proof that 300 apartments are inherently unsafe. Newtown deserves a thoughtful, fact-based conversation about growth, safety, and affordability — one that doesn’t turn other people’s bad day into a political talking point.

How Many Accidents Will It Take?

To add context that did not occur at the meeting would not be an accurate representation of the meeting and would, in fact, be editorializing to shape public opinion. The editorial staff here do not consider ourselves to be final arbiters of what the truth is (and if we did, it would make us partisan and biased), and we would need to provide a source for any dissenting information (sourcing all information in an article is literally Journalism 101). There were no such sources present at the meeting in question, and so it would not be appropriate to include such information in an article about the meeting. Dissenting voices appear in meeting stories when there were active participants with dissenting opinions, such as during public participation or the words of a council member who disagreed. It should be noted that the Interfaith Council, like many local boards and commissions, conduct meetings that are open to the public. This was not an article on the actions of the Greater Danbury Area Unites for Immigrants, or on immigrants, or on ICE's actions in the community, where including other voices or perspectives would be appropriate. We appreciate your opinion, but we stand by our meeting coverage and consider this discussion closed.

NIC Speaks With Danbury Unites For Immigrants, Discusses 12/14 Service

Propaganda is the systematic dissemination of information, often biased or misleading, to shape public perception and behavior toward a specific political cause or point of view. I'm not asking for Newtown Bee to editorialize, but providing context, where appropriate, to provide the reader with a more holistic view of the facts seems like a reasonable practice, particularly when encouraging the reader to decide what to believe/not to believe. Absent that context, this feels biased and misleading and intended to shape public perception.

NIC Speaks With Danbury Unites For Immigrants, Discusses 12/14 Service

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