Residents and small business owners in Northwest Connecticut have known for a long time the value of our local community banks.

Now there is a nationwide movement urging people to support community banks by switching their deposits from mega-banks such as Bank of America, Citibank and Wells Fargo.

"...since April, JP Morgan/Chase, Citibank, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo -- all of which took billions in taxpayer money -- have cut lending to businesses by $100 billion," Arianna Huffington and Rob Johnson said in a column announcing the Web site www.moveyourmoney.info, which helps consumers search for community banking options.

No searching necessary here ... If you're down with this concept, consider supporting Torrington Savings Bank, Northwest Community Bank, Litchfield Bancorp or First National Bank of Litchfield, and in the Farmington Valley, Collinsville Savings Society, Simsbury Bank and Farmington Savings Bank.

And don't forget the credit union option - a very good one - including Northwest Hills Credit Union, Torrington Municipal Teachers and Federal Credit Union and Hartford Federal Credit Union.

With each of these local financial institutions, you can have confidence that money stays local and is reinvested in the community.

And if you have a problem, you can know that the top decision makers are accessible. They are your neighbors. They are involved in community organizations and serve on local boards.

The whole concept of "Move Your Money" is at the very least an opportunity to be grateful for what we have in this region in terms of solid community banks.

I'm excited to tell you that we've made it a lot easier to keep up with local job openings.

Our partnership with Yahoo! Hot Jobs provides local employers with the best local presence in Northwest Connecticut as well as extended reach through Yahoo's national network.

Now every local job that we put on our RegisterCitizen.Com and Yahoo! partnered Web site will be "tweeted" on Twitter at www.twitter.com/northwestCTjobs.

If you are using Twitter, this is a natural for you ... become a follower today.

If you are not on Twitter, you can still go to our direct Twitter page at any time and keep up with the latest postings.

And, of course, you can still go to http://jobs.registercitizen.com at any time and enjoy all the benfits there, such as searching for the type of job, the region and the pay range you are seeking.

And don't forget. You can upload your resume at our page by CLICKING HERE. Potential employers in Northwest Connecticut and the Farmington Valley are searching those resumes to recruit their future employees.

I had an interesting and informative exchange with readers yesterday on RegisterCitizen.Com. CLICK HERE to see the whole thing.

We received many good story ideas, and thoughts on aspects of the news, in general, on which our reporters and editors should focus.

But we also got some great questions and feedback about the operation of RegisterCitizen.Com and The Register Citizen.

Reporting suggestions included:

* More specifics about what the Winsted police focus on, from drivers using cell phones to speeding in particular neighborhoods.

* Go beyond the statistics for unemployment and provide an in-depth analysis of what it is like to be looking for a job in Northwest Connecticut and the impact that is having on some families.

* Provide a more in-depth analysis and continue to follow the issue of sex offenders living in particular neighborhoods and near schoolchildren.

* Further examine the heroin problem in Torrington and how it has led to crime and overdoses.

* Stay on top of and examine the unfolding changes in the Winsted school system, as parents are very concerned about what is happening.

Feedback about our news gathering and policies included:

* Loud and clear, spelling and grammar mistakes were the #1 thing mentioned as a problem.

* The second biggest concern was how to clean up some of the nasty and/or abusive comments that make it into Sound Off and story comments online. Some suggested requiring that readers go through a registration process before being allowed to comment.

* Others said they'd like to see less emphasis/space devoted to national news.

* A reader questioned why we get beat sometimes by the competing daily newspaper out of Waterbury. The choice of a new assistant school superintendent in Torrington was cited.

* Support was expressed for our new emphasis on reporting every news story on RegisterCitizen.Com first, as soon as we've confirmed it. And in this new environment, impatience was expressed over being an hour later than other news sources yesterday morning, for example, to report that a Goshen man had died from injuries in a car accident the night before.

* Concern was expressed over the price of paid obituaries.

* Concern was expressed over the perception of bias in some of our crime reporting, where the accused is treated in stories as though they are guilty. Concern was also expressed

* Support was expressed for our weekly newspaper, "Good News About Torrington," and for reporting more positive news and human interest stories in The Register Citizen.

* Concern was expressed that sexual abuse stories include too many details, which are harmful to victims and families and not appropriate for young readers.

* Concern was expressed over how Web site moderators decide which comments to remove and which comments to leave up on the site.

* The suggestion was made to open the pages of The Register Citizen and space on RegisterCitizen.Com to more "citizen journalism."

* A question was raised about whether police blotter items should remain online indefinitely when in some cases the original charges end up being dropped.

* A reader suggested having an online listing of local movie theater times.

See the original article for some of my responses. Stay tuned for follow-up on many of these other great suggestions and ideas.

I had the opportunity recently to record a Podcast interview with Dr. Steven Minkler for his class on mass media at Northwestern Connecticut Community College.

We discussed the role of local media and how it is changing, particularly how a traditional newspaper business such as The Register Citizen is transforming into a multimedia company.

Click below to listen.

Unit_04_DeRienzo.mp3