Free Republic

Candidates lob shots during convention Open season on Scott Brown officially kicked off yesterday with five of the six Democratic candidates seeking to reclaim the “people’s seat” training their sights and barbs squarely on the freshman U.S. senator during speeches at their party’s state convention in Lowell. “When Ted Kennedy went behind closed doors with lawmakers and lobbyists, he always fought for us,” Bob Massie, the nonprofit executive who ran unsuccessfully for lieutenant governor in 1994, told some 3,000 Democratic delegates gathered on the floor of Tsongas Center. “When Scott Brown goes behind closed door with lawmakers and lobbyists and...

Does anyone know anything about City Year? I have seen commercials on the tube about them. Helping poor blighted areas. Dressed in tan slacks and red jackets. I looked them up on wikipedia. Very favorable toward them. Started by a Michael Brown and another guy. Is this the same Mike Brown that is the son of the Commerce guy who was found in a plane crash with a pistol wound in the head? Started in 88 and rolled into AmeriCorps while Clinton was President. Receive 25 percent of their funding from AmeriCorps, the rest from foundations and corporations but the...

Thirty years ago, future U.S. Sen. Harris Wofford led the committee that concluded that year-long mandatory civilian-service programs were politically infeasible. Wofford, however, did not give up on the idea. And as the nation prepares to mark tomorrow's annual Martin Luther King Day of Service, maybe what was infeasible then is workable today. What's changed? The economy, for one thing. Consider City Year. City Year corps members, young adults ages 17 to 24, volunteer for a year of service in cities throughout the country - usually in public schools - and receive a college scholarship in return. It was described...

The name “City Year” reflects the idea that just as young people enroll in a freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior year at school, so too should they be challenged to dedicate themselves to a “city year” of full-time service, idealism, civic engagement, and leadership development. (SNIP> Twenty years ago, City Year was founded by Michael Brown and Alan Khazei, then-roommates at Harvard Law School, who felt strongly that young people in service could be a powerful resource for addressing our nation's most pressing issues. Since 1988, City Year has been built on the belief that one person can make a...