We had a great "live chat" on RegisterCitizen.Com yesterday with staff and readers to explain and discuss our "Ben Franklin Project."

CLICK HERE for an archived version of the live chat.

The Register Citizen won more than a dozen awards last night in the Connecticut Society of Professional Journalists annual news reporting contest.

Editor Jordan Fenster took home three awards for his weekly column, including a first place prize for feature column writing.

Reporters Dan Ivers and Ron DeRosa won news reporting honors for their coverage of drug problems in Torrington, "squatters" at a local apartment complex and former Torrington High School Principal John Metallo's lawsuit against the city, among other stories.

CLICK HERE for the full story.

News about Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal allegedly lying about serving in Vietnam last night pushed our staff to embrace some new (for us) technology to get information to you as quickly and effectively as possible - and involving you the most - over the past 24 hours.
We've created a special page HERE with all of our Blumenthal coverage.

Our Northwest Connecticut Politics Blog has links to commentary and analysis of the situation from all over the country.

We posted an editorial about the situation this morning, and turned it into a LIVING EDITORIAL, updated after Blumenthal's press conference today and to incorporate unfolding reaction from our readers.

And ... we live-streamed video from the press conference, with help from friends at our sister paper, the New Haven Register, and we held a "live chat" session at the same time, so that readers could watch the press conference and talk with each other and with editors and reporters at the same time.

CLICK HERE to check out the archive of that chat session.

It is a tool that we will most certainly be using again, and we'd love to hear your feedback about how you think live chat can help us cover local news and sports.

Have you filled out your ballot yet for The Register Citizen's 2010 Reader's Choice contest?

CLICK HERE to vote online. It's easy.

Voting ends May 12!