The Register Citizen is adopting a bear as part of the Northwest Connecticut Chamber of Commerce's "Bear-lieve It Or Not" campaign.

The concept is this:

Local businesses purchase fiberglass bears, local artists decorate them, they are out on display as part of a Northwest Connecticut "bear trail," and then the bears are auctioned to support charity.

We are excited to be participating, but we need a name for our news-themed bear.

Vote for your favorite name below or add your own suggestion in the comments and we'll add it to the poll.

What should The Register Citizen name the bear... » poll maker
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The Register Citizen's "Ben Franklin Project," an experiment in using open-source technology to produce the newspaper and its Web site, and crowdsourcing concepts to report the news, is entering its final week.

The centerpiece of our "Ben Franklin" issue, this Sunday, July 4, will be a major citizen-based reporting project on downtown revitalization in Torrington.

The key to this project is that the community is framing each aspect of it, and you can still get involved this week by suggesting directions it take, adding your views, completing one of the surveys that our reporters have prepared, or suggesting people who should be interviewed.

Reporter Ron DeRosa is working on issues of crime and safety and how it has impacted growth in the downtown.

Reporter Dan Ivers is working on issues related to housing and low-income, subsidized housing in the downtown.

Reporter Kevin D. Roberts is using crowdsourcing to write about the first crowdsourced baseball franchise is located right here, the Torrington Titans, and is making an impact on downtown revitalization.

Reporter Kaitlyn Yeager is working on issues of parking and traffic in the downtown.

Reporter Jessie Sawyer is tackling the issue of chain stores and what place they have in downtown revitalization efforts.

Reporter Mike Agogliati is working on the place that local merchants have in downtown revitalization. Email him at magogliati@registercitizen.com.

Photographer Mic Nicosia is gathering citizen-taken photos and videos to show the best and worst of downtown Torrington, and a snapshot of its potential.

Reporter Jenny Golfin is putting together a collection of viewpoints on residents' vision of the downtown, past, present and future, in an effort to find some kind of "common vision."

I'm pleased to be presenting a check for $1,400 to the FISH homeless shelter and food bank in Torrington today.

It is the profit from a special Memorial Day section we produced listing the names and hometowns of every American soldier who has died while serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The money will go to benefit FISH's programs and services supporting local veterans in need.

Two years ago, now-retired United Way of Northwest Connecticut Executive Director Bill Egan and I started the Northwest Connecticut Diaper Drive because we were moved by stories of local families having to divert money from budgets for food and medicine to pay the cost of diapering their young children.

(Obligatory photo of my daughter Marley making me wear one of her Dora the Explorer diapers as a hat provided.)

And by a social worker's tales of struggling parents "stretching" their supply by keeping infants and toddlers in soiled diapers, leading to some unhappy little kids at the least, health problems such as severe rash and hepatitis exposure at the worst.

Diapers are expensive. And they're not covered by any kind of food stamp or other government assistance program.

Women show up at places like the Susan B. Anthony Project domestic abuse shelter, or the FISH homeless shelter, with nothing. These organizations scrape for every dollar just to keep the doors open and food on the shelves. And they must divert resources to diapers in situations like that also.

So, modeled after the hugely successful Diaper Bank in New Haven, the Northwest Connecticut Diaper Drive was born as a joint project of The Register Citizen and the United Way of Northwest Connecticut.

We're proud, through the generosity of our readers and local businesses, to have provided more than 100,000 diapers so far.

And now we're gearing up to launch our 3rd annual Diaper Drive.

It will run from July 1 to July 31, accepting both cash donations (used to purchase diapers at a bulk discount and in the sizes most needed by local organizations) or actual diapers at drop-off locations throughout the area.

If you've given in the past, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts and from the bottoms of babies across Northwest Connecticut.

If you are new to the project, we ask that you consider giving whatever you can afford. Like our Warm the Children, still going strong after 26 years of providing warm, winter clothing each holiday season, the Diaper Drive has been carried by lots of small donations from readers.

Together, it adds up to a lot.

You can send donations to Northwest Connecticut Diaper Drive, care of The Register Citizen, P.O. Box 58, Torrington, CT 06790, or stay tuned for a full list of drop-off locations, which will always include our offices at 190 Water St. in Torrington and the United Way office on Bird Street, just off East Main.

For more information, email diapers@registercitizen.com or call the United Way at 860-489-4131.

Follow news about the Northwest Connecticut Diaper Drive at its new blog by clicking here.

We will be holding a live online chat at RegisterCitizen.Com at 1 p.m. today as part of a major citizen-based reporting project that we have launched exploring downtown revitalization efforts in Torrington.

CLICK HERE for more information.

My editor needed a day off, badly.

We are a small community daily newspaper, and don't have a huge staff.

Our managing editor position is vacant. The editor of our weeklies is away for her wedding and honeymoon.

So, having worked as an editor for most of my career prior to becoming publisher of The Register Citizen, and even having the title of "corporate director of news" for our company a few years back, I decided that I would step in for a day and give him a well-deserved breather.

A quick refresher on page layout, and an introduction to our newsroom computer system, and I was in business.

I was pretty proud of myself. Only had to call him once, for a password to the Web site of the service we use for editorial cartoons.

Until I arrive at the office to this front page headline.

And now ... every time I talk to my editors about proofreading mistakes, guess what will be mentioned?

There's still time to submit entries - and vote for your favorites - in The Register Citizen's Children's Art Calendar Contest.

We'll be publishing a full-color wall calendar for the Torrington school year, and artwork will be chosen through this online contest. Children ages 5-18 are eligible.

CLICK HERE to see the entries so far.

This is very cool ... on RegisterCitizen.Com we now have a live Web cam and tracker counting how many gallons have been spilled in the BP disaster down in Louisiana.

This is very cool ... on RegisterCitizen.Com we now have a live Web cam and tracker counting how many gallons have been spilled in the BP disaster down in Louisiana.

CLICK HERE to check it out

The Register Citizen's opinion section and online community forum, including letters, editorials, columns and Sound Off, now have their own Twitter and Facebook pages.

CLICK HERE for The Register Citizen Voices Twitter feed.

CLICK HERE for The Register Citizen Voices Facebook page.

In case you missed it, The Register Citizen unveiled a major, new effort last week urging readers to challenge and report factual errors in its news stories.

CLICK HERE for an explanation of the project.

We have added an easy-to-use form on the home page of RegisterCitizen.Com allowing you to quickly report errors, or facts that lack context, etc.

This is very cool ...

The Register Citizen is sponsoring an online children's artwork contest for the chance to be one of 13 students chosen to be featured on a special, full-color wall calendar that we are producing for the Torrington school year.

Entering is easy ... just scan and upload your artwork at our contest page - CLICK HERE.

Then spread the word to family and friends to visit and vote for your child's work.

The top vote-getter will be featured on the cover of the calendar.

CLICK HERE for more information. CLICK HERE for the contest page.