It is a rainy Sunday morning about two weeks before municipal elections in Connecticut. My inbox has piled up with various notices and it seems like a good time for another Blogger’s Notebook post, highlighting some of the notices and clearing my queue.

At the top of the list are notices about voter registration. Since we do not yet have election day registration in our state it is even more important to look at when your last chance to register will be. Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz as well as various civic involvement organizations have been working hard to get more citizens registered. For those wishing to register by mail, voter registration cards must be postmarked by Tuesday October 20th. If you wish to register in person you have until 8:00 p.m. on Tuesday October 27th to make it to your Registrar of Voters office.

Politicians are all out this weekend meeting potential voters. Since the elections are municipal elections, many of the candidates lack name recognition and the draw is often the better-known politicians stumping for the local candidates.

On Sunday Senator Chris Dodd, Mayor Dan Malloy, Ned Lamont, State Treasurer Denise Nappier, State Comptroller Nancy Wyman, and State Representatives Roberta Willis and Michelle Cook will be attending various events supporting local candidates in Torrington, Harwinton, and Goshen. The Torrington event will take place at Torrington Democratic Headquarters, 29 Main Street, Torrington, 2 p.m. Harwinton will have a turkey roast at 215 Locust Road, Harwinton for $25 per person and the Goshen event will take place at Goshen Town Hall Conference Room, Route 63, Goshen, 2-4 p.m.

Yesterday, Senator Dodd, along with his wife Jackie Clegg Dodd and Milford Democratic Mayoral hopeful Genevieve Salvatore all participated in the Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network’s (FAAN) 3rd annual “Walk for Food Allergy: Moving Toward a Cure”. The Dodd’s daughter and the Salvatore’s son both suffer from severe allergies.

Ned Lamont is also out stumping for other Ms. Salvatore at 100 Lansdale Avenue in Milford this morning, after also having been out stumping for David Martin in Stamford.

In other electioneering, the New Haven Register has an interesting article, Tweeting for Votes on the use of social media in local elections. The article is worthy of a blog post in and of itself discussing some of the views expressed there.

In other news about Twitter and politics, CTNewsJunkie reports Twitter has sided with the Democrats over the fake Twitter accounts the CT GOP had set up. These accounts have been taken down.

One of the important aspects of the municipal elections in many locations will be board of education elections. One board of education announcement that came across my desk from several different directions was the announcement that “Alex Johnston, Chief Executive Officer of the Connecticut Coalition for Achievement Now (ConnCAN), a New Haven-based education reform advocacy group, has been appointed by Mayor John DeStefano, Jr. to serve on the New Haven Board of Education.”

I met Mr. Johnston at a conference on education at Yale and New Haven is lucky to have him. The conference was during the confirmation hearings for Linda McMahon to be appointed to the State Board of Education. State Rep. Andrew Fleischmann at the time spoke vehemently against McMahon’s appointment. With her current run for U.S. Senate, McMahon’s work at WWE is coming under much greater criticism, as highlighted in this blog post on MyLeftNutmeg.

As a final note about electoral politics, CTNewsJunkie also reports about an informational forum planned by the Government Administration and Elections Committee on the Citizens’ Election Program. This program was struck down by a judge and needs prompt modifications if it is to be used for the 2010 election cycle. The forum will take place at the Legislative Office Building on Thursday at 11 AM. Hopefully, I will be able to attend and live blog the event.

Last Thursday, there was a Bus Rapid Transit Symposium at the Legislative Office Building. On Monday, there will be a “2009 Prospering Communities, Thriving Families” conference at the Hartford Downtown Marriott. The week ends off with International Day of Climate Action on Saturday. From 1 to 4:40 there will a Family Fun Day at the Massaro Farm at 41 Ford Road in Woodbridge. Community Supported Agriculture shares in the farm are expected to be available at the family day. This is a practical, fun, and close to home way to help fight climate change.

There will also be events at the lower green in New Haven on Saturday starting at 2 PM as well as a potluck dinner and discussion at the Quaker Meetinghouse on 225 East Grand Avenue starting at 5 PM.

Unfortunately, we are supposed to be attending an event in New Hampshire and will most likely miss these events.

On the national level, I need to finish up my work on my response to Cablevision’s request to encrypt basic cable in New York City. I’m also working on my thoughts for the FTC hearings in Washington in December about the future of journalism.

The FCC has now posted an independent review of the FCC by the Berkman Center for Internet & Society, Next Generation Connectivity: A review of broadband Internet transitions and policy from around the world. That is on the to do list, as well as following legislation to support public access television as well as Local Community Radio Act (HR 1147).

In other tidbits, David Plouffe campaign manager for Obama's presidential campaign will be speaking in Second Life as part of the fall public affairs lecture series, “Assessing Obama's First Year.” . You can find more information at http://www.udel.edu/udaily/2010/oct/plouffe101609.html

The GoodNewsNetwork highlights an article about a Former refugee who recycles US hotel soap for Uganda

The Country Club of Woodbridge is having an open house today. It is a rainy day which might not be best for the open house. However, they have discounts on membership in effect until the end of the month, so it is worth stopping by and checking out.

Finally, for this morning, Bill Chmura has written about his first batch of hard cider. Bill and I have been emailing back and forth, and I need to follow up with him on his latest adventures.

There are plenty of other items I would have liked to highlight, but the notebook is long enough, and I have other tasks to get to.