How newspaper ads protect the public's right to know

All kinds of local government decisions can affect your quality of life and your pocketbook. If a cell tower is built between your back porch and the rural scenery on the horizon, the value of your property can go down. And that, literally, could mean that you have less money to live on in retirement. ... State law requires that you get a heads up about decisions like this before they are made, so that you have the opportunity to influence them. That comes in the form of paid legal advertisements in a “newspaper of general circulation in the community.”