text:
New England facts for kids
This page is about the region in North America. For the region in Australia, see New England (New South Wales). For other uses, see New England (disambiguation).
Left-right from top: Boston skyline, the Connecticut River valley, the Presidential Range, Burlington skyline, Aquinnah, Portland Head Light in Cape Elizabeth, skyline of Providence
Flag (unofficial)
None official. "An appeal to Heaven" and "Nunquam libertas gratior extat" (Latin: "Never does liberty appear in a more gracious form") are common de facto mottos.
Location of New England (red) in the United States
Location of New England (red) in North America
Largest metropolitan area
Largest city
71,991.8 sq mi (186,458 km2)
(2020 census)
209.97121/sq mi (81.07034/km2)
New Englander, Yankee
GDP (nominal)
$1.148 trillion (2019)
• per capita
New England English, New England French
New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick to the northeast and Quebec to the north. The Atlantic Ocean is to the east and southeast, and Long Island Sound is to the southwest. Boston is New England's largest city, as well as the capital of Massachusetts. Greater Boston is the largest metropolitan area, with nearly a third of New England's population; this area includes Worcester, Massachusetts (the second-largest city in New England), Manchester, New Hampshire (the largest city in New Hampshire), and Providence, Rhode Island (the capital of and largest city in Rhode Island).
In 1620, the Pilgrims, Puritan Separatists from England, established Plymouth Colony, the second successful English settlement in America, following the Jamestown Settlement in Virginia founded in 1607. Ten years later, more Puritans established Massachusetts Bay Colony north of Plymouth Colony. Over the next 126 years, people in the region fought in four French and Indian Wars, until the English colonists and their Iroquois allies defeated the French and their Algonquian allies in America. In 1692, the town of Salem, Massachusetts, and surrounding areas experienced the Salem witch trials, one of the most infamous cases of mass hysteria in American history.
In the late 18th century, political leaders from the New England colonies initiated resistance to Britain's taxes without the consent of the colonists. Residents of Rhode Island captured and burned a British ship which was enforcing unpopular trade restrictions, and residents of Boston threw British tea into the harbor. Britain responded with a series of punitive laws stripping Massachusetts of self-government which the colonists called the "Intolerable Acts". These confrontations led to the first battles of the American Revolutionary War in 1775 and the expulsion of the British authorities from the region in spring 1776. The region played a prominent role in the movement to abolish slavery in the United States, and it was the first region of the U.S. transformed by the Industrial Revolution, initially centered on the Blackstone and Merrimack river valleys.
The physical geography of New England is diverse for such a small area. Southeastern New England is covered by a narrow coastal plain, while the western and northern regions are dominated by the rolling hills and worn-down peaks of the northern end of the Appalachian Mountains. The Atlantic fall line lies close to the coast, which enabled numerous cities to take advantage of water power along the many rivers, such as the Connecticut River, which bisects the region from north to south.
Each state is generally subdivided into small municipalities known as towns, many of which are governed by town meetings. While unincorporated areas do exist, they are limited to roughly half of Maine, along with some isolated, sparsely populated northern regions of New Hampshire and Vermont. New England is one of the U.S. Census Bureau's nine regional divisions and the only multi-state region with clear, consistent boundaries. It maintains a strong sense of cultural identity, although the terms of this identity are often contrasted, combining Puritanism with liberalism, agrarian life with industry, and isolation with immigration.
Eastern Algonquian peoples
The Virginia Companies
Plymouth Council for New England
Dominion of New England
New England in the new nation
Post-Revolutionary New England
20th century and beyond
Cities and urban areas
State capitals
Cultural roots
Social activities and music
Film, television, and acting
Urban centers
Overall tax burden
Private and independent secondary schools
Main page: History of New England
Main page: Algonquian peoples
The earliest known inhabitants of New England were American Indians who spoke a variety of the Eastern Algonquian languages. Prominent tribes included the Abenaki, Mi'kmaq, Penobscot, Pequot, Mohegans, Narragansett Indians, Pocumtuck, and Wampanoag. Prior to the arrival of Europeans, the Western Abenakis inhabited New Hampshire, New York, and Vermont, as well as parts of Quebec and western Maine. Their principal town was Norridgewock in present-day Maine.
The Penobscot lived along the Penobscot River in Maine. The Narragansett and smaller tribes under Narragansett sovereignty lived in most of modern-day Rhode Island, west of Narragansett Bay, including Block Island. The Wampanoag occupied southeastern Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and the islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket. The Pocumtucks lived in Western Massachusetts, and the Mohegan and Pequot tribes in the Connecticut region. The Connecticut River Valley includes parts of Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Connecticut, and linked different indigenous communities culturally, linguistically, and politically.
As early as 1600, French, Dutch, and English traders began exploring the New World, trading metal, glass, and cloth for local beaver pelts.
Main page: New England Colonies
On April 10, 1606, King James I of England issued a charter for each of the Virginia Companies, London and Plymouth. These were privately funded ventures, intended to claim land for England, conduct trade, and return a profit. In 1620, Plymouth in present-day Massachusetts was settled by Pilgrims from the Mayflower, beginning the history of permanent European settlement in New England.
Main pages: Plymouth Council for New England, Connecticut Colony, and Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations
Title page of John Smith's A Description of New England (1616)
In 1616, English explorer John Smith named the region "New England". The name was officially sanctioned on November 3, 1620, when the charter of the Virginia Company of Plymouth was replaced by a royal charter for the Plymouth Council for New England, a joint-stock company established to colonize and govern the region. As the first colonists arrived in Plymouth, they wrote and signed the Mayflower Compact, their first governing document. The Massachusetts Bay Colony came to dominate the area and was established by royal charter in 1629 with its major town and port of Boston established in 1630.
Massachusetts Puritans began to settle in Connecticut as early as 1633. Roger Williams was banished from Massachusetts for heresy, led a group south, and founded Providence Plantation in the area that became the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations in 1636. At this time, Vermont was yet unsettled, and the territories of New Hampshire and Maine were claimed and governed by Massachusetts.
An early English map of New England, c. 1670, depicts the area around modern Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
Relationships between colonists and local Indian tribes alternated between peace and armed skirmishes, the bloodiest of which was the Pequot War in 1637 which resulted in the Mystic massacre. On May 19, 1643, the colonies of Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, New Haven, and Connecticut joined together in a loose compact called the New England Confederation (officially "The United Colonies of New England"). The confederation was designed largely to coordinate mutual defense, and gained some importance during King Philip's War. From June 1675 through April 1678, King Philip's War pitted the colonists and their Indian allies against a widespread Indian uprising, resulting in killings and massacres on both sides.
During the next 74 years, there were six colonial wars that took place primarily between New England and New France (see the French and Indian Wars as well as Father Rale's War and Father Le Loutre's War). Throughout these wars, New England was allied with the Iroquois Confederacy and New France was allied with the Wabanaki Confederacy. After the New England Conquest of Acadia in 1710, mainland Nova Scotia was under the control of New England, but both present-day New Brunswick and virtually all of present-day Maine remained contested territory between New England and New France. After the British won the war in 1763, the Connecticut River Valley was opened for British settlement into western New Hampshire and what is today Vermont.
The New England colonies were settled primarily by farmers who became relatively self-sufficient. Later, New England's economy began to focus on crafts and trade, aided by the Puritan work ethic, in contrast to the Southern colonies which focused on agricultural production while importing finished goods from England.
Main pages: Dominion of New England, American Revolutionary War, American Revolution, and Boston campaign
The New England Ensign, one of several flags historically associated with New England. This flag was reportedly used by colonial merchant ships sailing out of New England ports, 1686 – c. 1737.
New England's Siege of Louisbourg (1745) by Peter Monamy.
By 1686, King James II had become concerned about the increasingly independent ways of the colonies, including their self-governing charters, their open flouting of the Navigation Acts, and their growing military power. He therefore established the Dominion of New England, an administrative union comprising all of the New England colonies. In 1688, the former Dutch colonies of New York, East New Jersey, and West New Jersey were added to the Dominion. The union was imposed from the outside and contrary to the rooted democratic tradition of the region, and it was highly unpopular among the colonists.
The Dominion significantly modified the charters of the colonies, including the appointment of Royal Governors to nearly all of them. There was an uneasy tension between the Royal Governors, their officers, and the elected governing bodies of the colonies. The governors wanted unlimited authority, and the different layers of locally elected officials would often resist them. In most cases, the local town governments continued operating as self-governing bodies, just as they had before the appointment of the governors.
After the Glorious Revolution in 1689, Bostonians overthrew royal governor Sir Edmund Andros. They seized dominion officials and adherents to the Church of England during a popular and bloodless uprising. These tensions eventually culminated in the American Revolution, boiling over with the outbreak of the War of American Independence in 1775. The first battles of the war were fought in Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts, later leading to the Siege of Boston by continental troops. In March 1776, British forces were compelled to retreat from Boston.
Boston College: the architecture style is Collegiate Gothic, a subgenre of Gothic Revival architecture, a 19th-century movement.
After the dissolution of the Dominion of New England, the colonies of New England ceased to function as a unified political unit but remained a defined cultural region. By 1784, all of the states in the region had taken steps towards the abolition of slavery, with Vermont and Massachusetts introducing total abolition in 1777 and 1783, respectively. The nickname "Yankeeland" was sometimes used to denote the New England area, especially among Southerners and British.
After settling a dispute with New York, Vermont was admitted to statehood in 1791, formally completing the defined area of New England. On March 15, 1820, as part of the Missouri Compromise, the territory of Maine, formerly a part of Massachusetts, was admitted to the Union as a free state. Today, New England is defined as the six states of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont.
For the rest of the period before the American Civil War, New England remained distinct from the rest of the United States. New England's economic growth relied heavily on trade with the British Empire, and the region's merchants and politicians strongly opposed trade restrictions. As the United States and the United Kingdom fought the War of 1812, New England Federalists organized the Hartford Convention in the winter of 1814 to discuss the region's grievances concerning the war, and to propose changes to the Constitution to protect the region's interests and maintain its political power. Radical delegates within the convention proposed the region's secession from the United States, but they were outnumbered by moderates who opposed the idea.
Politically, the region often disagreed with the rest of the country. Massachusetts and Connecticut were among the last refuges of the Federalist Party, and New England became the strongest bastion of the new Whig Party when the Second Party System began in the 1830s. The Whigs were usually dominant throughout New England, except in the more Democratic Maine and New Hampshire. Leading statesmen hailed from the region, including Daniel Webster.
New England was distinct in other ways, as well. Many notable literary and intellectual figures were New Englanders, produced by the United States before the American Civil War, including Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, John Greenleaf Whittier, George Bancroft, and William H. Prescott.
The Slater Mill Historic Site in Pawtucket, Rhode Island
New England was key to the industrial revolution in the U.S. The Blackstone Valley, running through Massachusetts and Rhode Island, has been called the birthplace of America's industrial revolution. In 1787, the first cotton mill in America was founded in the North Shore seaport of Beverly, Massachusetts as the Beverly Cotton Manufactory. The Manufactory was also considered the largest cotton mill of its time. Technological developments and achievements from the Manufactory led to the development of more advanced cotton mills, including Slater Mill in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Towns such as Lawrence and Lowell in Massachusetts, Woonsocket in Rhode Island, and Lewiston in Maine became centers of the textile industry following the innovations at Slater Mill and the Beverly Cotton Manufactory.
The Connecticut River Valley - and in particular the Springfield Armory - became a crucible for industrial innovation, pioneering such advances as interchangeable parts and the assembly line, which influenced manufacturing processes all around the world. From early in the nineteenth century until the mid-twentieth, the region surrounding Springfield and Hartford served as the United States' epicenter for precision manufacturing, drawing skilled workers from all over the world.
The rapid growth of textile manufacturing in New England between 1815 and 1860 caused a shortage of workers. Recruiters were hired by mill agents to bring young women and children from the countryside to work in the factories. Between 1830 and 1860, thousands of farm girls moved from rural areas where there was no paid employment to work in the nearby mills, such as the famous Lowell Mill Girls. As the textile industry grew, immigration also grew. By the 1850s, immigrants began working in the mills, especially Irish and French Canadians.
New England, as a whole, was the most industrialized part of the young United States; by 1850, it accounted for well over a quarter of all manufacturing value in the country and over a third of its industrial workforce. It was also the most literate and most educated region in the country.
During the same period, New England and areas settled by New Englanders (upstate New York, Ohio's Western Reserve, and the upper midwestern states of Michigan and Wisconsin) were the center of the strongest abolitionist and anti-slavery movements in the United States, coinciding with the Protestant Great Awakening in the region. Abolitionists who demanded immediate emancipation such as William Lloyd Garrison, John Greenleaf Whittier and Wendell Phillips had their base in the region. So too did anti-slavery politicians who wanted to limit the growth of slavery, such as John Quincy Adams, Charles Sumner, and John P. Hale. When the anti-slavery Republican Party was formed in the 1850s, all of New England, including areas that had previously been strongholds for both the Whig and the Democratic Parties, became strongly Republican. New England remained solidly Republican until Catholics began to mobilize behind the Democrats, especially in 1928, and up until the Republican party realigned its politics in a shift known as the Southern strategy. This led to the end of "Yankee Republicanism" and began New England's relatively swift transition into a consistently Democratic stronghold.
Autumn in New England, watercolor, Maurice Prendergast. C. 1910–1913
The flow of immigrants continued at a steady pace from the 1840s until cut off by World War I. The largest numbers came from Ireland and Britain before 1890, and after that from Quebec, Italy and Southern Europe. The immigrants filled the ranks of factory workers, craftsmen and unskilled laborers. The Irish assumed a larger and larger role in the Democratic Parts in the cities and statewide, while the rural areas remained Republican. Yankees left the farms, which never were highly productive; many headed west, while others became professionals and businessmen in the New England cities.
The Great Depression in the United States of the 1930s hit the region hard, with high unemployment in the industrial cities. The Democrats appealed to factory workers and especially Catholics, pulling them into the New Deal coalition and making the once-Republican region into one that was closely divided. However the enormous spending on munitions, ships, electronics, and uniforms during World War II caused a burst of prosperity in every sector.
Fall foliage in the town of Stowe, Vermont
The region lost most of its factories starting with the loss of textiles in the 1930s and getting worse after 1960. The New England economy was radically transformed after World War II. The factory economy practically disappeared. Like urban centers in the Rust Belt, once-bustling New England communities fell into economic decay following the flight of the region's industrial base. The textile mills one by one went out of business from the 1920s to the 1970s. For example, the Crompton Company, after 178 years in business, went bankrupt in 1984, costing the jobs of 2,450 workers in five states. The major reasons were cheap imports, the strong dollar, declining exports, and a failure to diversify. Shoes followed.
Alexander King House in Suffield, Connecticut
What remains is very high technology manufacturing, such as jet engines, nuclear submarines, pharmaceuticals, robotics, scientific instruments, and medical devices. MIT (the Massachusetts Institute of Technology) invented the format for university-industry relations in high tech fields, and spawned many software and hardware firms, some of which grew rapidly. By the 21st century the region had become famous for its leadership roles in the fields of education, medicine and medical research, high-technology, finance, and tourism.
Some industrial areas were slow in adjusting to the new service economy. In 2000, New England had two of the ten poorest cities (by percentage living below the poverty line) in the U.S.: the state capitals of Providence, Rhode Island and Hartford, Connecticut. They were no longer in the bottom ten by 2010; Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire remain among the ten wealthiest states in the United States in terms of median household income and per capita income.
Bangor, ME MSA
Barnstable Town, MA MSA (Greater Boston)
Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH MSA (Greater Boston)
Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk, CT MSA (New York-Newark CSA)
Burlington-South Burlington, VT MSA
Hartford-West Hartford-East Hartford, CT MSA
Lewiston-Auburn, ME MSA
Manchester-Nashua, NH MSA
New Haven-Milford, CT MSA (New York-Newark CSA)
Norwich-New London, CT MSA
Pittsfield, MA MSA
Portland-South Portland, ME MSA
Springfield, MA MSA
Providence-Warwick, RI-MA MSA (Greater Boston)
Worcester, MA-CT MSA (Greater Boston)
Hartford, Connecticut
Augusta, Maine
Concord, New Hampshire
Montpelier, Vermont
Main pages: Geography of Connecticut, Geography of Maine, Geography of Massachusetts, Geography of New Hampshire, Geography of Rhode Island, and Geography of Vermont
A political and geographical map of New England shows the coastal plains in the east, and hills, mountains and valleys in the west and the north.
A portion of the north-central Pioneer Valley in Sunderland, Massachusetts
The states of New England have a combined area of 71,991.8 square miles (186,458 km2), making the region slightly larger than the state of Washington and larger than England. Maine alone constitutes nearly one-half of the total area of New England, yet is only the 39th-largest state, slightly smaller than Indiana. The remaining states are among the smallest in the U.S., including the smallest state, Rhode Island.
Main page: Geology of New England
New England's long rolling hills, mountains, and jagged coastline are glacial landforms resulting from the retreat of ice sheets approximately 18,000 years ago, during the last glacial period.
New England is geologically a part of the New England province, an exotic terrane region consisting of the Appalachian Mountains, the New England highlands, and the seaboard lowlands. The Appalachian Mountains roughly follow the border between New England and New York. The Berkshires in Massachusetts and Connecticut, and the Green Mountains in Vermont, as well as the Taconic Mountains, form a spine of Precambrian rock.
The Appalachians extend northwards into New Hampshire as the White Mountains, and then into Maine and Canada. Mount Washington in New Hampshire is the highest peak in the Northeast, although it is not among the ten highest peaks in the eastern United States. It is the site of the second highest recorded wind speed on Earth, and has the reputation of having the world's most severe weather.
The coast of the region, extending from southwestern Connecticut to northeastern Maine, is dotted with lakes, hills, marshes and wetlands, and sandy beaches. Important valleys in the region include the Connecticut River Valley and the Merrimack Valley. The longest river is the Connecticut River, which flows from northeastern New Hampshire for 655 km (407 mi), emptying into Long Island Sound, roughly bisecting the region. Lake Champlain, wedged between Vermont and New York, is the largest lake in the region, followed by Moosehead Lake in Maine and Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire.
Main page: Climate of New England
Köppen climate types in New England
The White Mountains of New Hampshire are part of the Appalachian Mountains.
The climate of New England varies greatly across its 500 miles (800 km) span from northern Maine to southern Connecticut:
Maine, northern and central New Hampshire, Vermont, and western Massachusetts have a humid continental climate (Dfb in Köppen climate classification). In this region the winters are long, cold, and heavy snow is common (most locations receive 60 to 120 inches (1,500 to 3,000 mm) of snow annually in this region). The summer's months are moderately warm, though summer is rather short and rainfall is spread through the year.
Central and eastern Massachusetts, southeastern New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and most of Connecticut, the same humid continental prevails (Dfa), though summers are warm to hot, winters are shorter, and there is less snowfall (especially in the coastal areas where it is often warmer).
Southern and coastal Connecticut is the broad transition zone from the cold continental climates of the north to the milder temperate/subtropical climates to the south. The frost free season is greater than 180 days across far southern/coastal Connecticut, coastal Rhode Island, and the islands (Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard). Winters also tend to be much sunnier in southern Connecticut and southern Rhode Island compared to the rest of New England.
Main page: Demographics of New England
Largest self-reported ancestry groups in New England. Americans of Irish descent form a plurality in most of Massachusetts, while Americans of English descent form a plurality in much of the central parts of Vermont and New Hampshire as well as nearly all of Maine.
In 2020, New England had a population of 15,116,205, a growth of 4.6% from 2010. Massachusetts is the most populous state with 7,029,917 residents, while Vermont is the least populous state with 643,077 residents. Boston is by far the region's most populous city and metropolitan area.
Although a great disparity exists between New England's northern and southern portions, the region's average population density is 234.93 inhabitants/sq mi (90.7/km2). New England has a significantly higher population density than that of the U.S. as a whole (79.56/sq mi), or even just the contiguous 48 states (94.48/sq mi). Three-quarters of the population of New England, and most of the major cities, are in the states of Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island. The combined population density of these states is 786.83/sq mi, compared to northern New England's 63.56/sq mi (2000 census).
According to the 2006–08 American Community Survey, 48.7% of New Englanders were male and 51.3% were female. Approximately 22.4% of the population were under 18 years of age; 13.5% were over 65 years of age. The six states of New England have the lowest birth rate in the U.S.
World's largest Irish flag in Boston. People who claim Irish descent constitute the largest ethnic group in New England.
White Americans make up the majority of New England's population at 83.4% of the total population, Hispanic and Latino Americans are New England's largest minority, and they are the second-largest group in the region behind non-Hispanic European Americans. As of 2014, Hispanics and Latinos of any race made up 10.2% of New England's population. Connecticut had the highest proportion at 13.9%, while Vermont had the lowest at 1.3%. There were nearly 1.5 million Hispanic and Latino individuals reported in New England in 2014.
Puerto Ricans were the most numerous of the Hispanic and Latino subgroups. Over 660,000 Puerto Ricans lived in New England in 2014, forming 4.5% of the population. The Dominican population is over 200,000, and the Mexican and Guatemalan populations are each over 100,000. Americans of Cuban descent are scant in number; there were roughly 26,000 Cuban Americans in the region in 2014. People of all other Hispanic and Latino ancestries, including Salvadoran, Colombian and Bolivian, formed 2.5% of New England's population and numbered over 361,000 combined.
According to the 2014 American Community Survey, the top ten largest reported European ancestries were the following: Irish: 19.2% (2.8 million), Italian: 13.6% (2.0 million), French and French Canadian: 13.1% (1.9 million), English: 11.9% (1.7 million), German: 7.4% (1.1 million), Polish: 4.9% (roughly 715,000), Portuguese: 3.2% (467,000), Scottish: 2.5% (370,000), Russian: 1.4% (206,000), and Greek: 1.0% (152,000).
English is, by far, the most common language spoken at home. Approximately 81.3% of all residents (11.3 million people) over the age of five spoke only English at home. Roughly 1,085,000 people (7.8% of the population) spoke Spanish at home, and roughly 970,000 people (7.0% of the population) spoke other Indo-European languages at home. Over 403,000 people (2.9% of the population) spoke an Asian or Pacific Island language at home. Slightly fewer (about 1%) spoke French at home, although this figure is above 20% in northern New England, which borders francophone Québec. Roughly 99,000 people (0.7% of the population) spoke languages other than these at home.
As of 2014, approximately 87% of New England's inhabitants were born in the U.S., while over 12% were foreign-born. 35.8% of foreign-born residents were born in Latin America, 28.6% were born in Asia, 22.9% were born in Europe, and 8.5% were born in Africa.
Southern New England forms an integral part of the BosWash megalopolis, a conglomeration of urban centers that spans from Boston to Washington, D.C. The region includes three of the four most densely populated states in the U.S.; only New Jersey has a higher population density than the states of Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Connecticut.
Greater Boston, which includes parts of southern New Hampshire, has a total population of approximately 4.8 million, while over half the population of New England falls inside Boston's Combined Statistical Area of over 8.2 million.
Cushing house, Hingham, Massachusetts
Classic New England Congregationalist church in Peacham, Vermont
New England has a shared heritage and culture primarily shaped by waves of immigration from Europe. In contrast to other American regions, many of New England's earliest Puritan settlers came from eastern England, contributing to New England's distinctive accents, foods, customs, and social structures. Within modern New England a cultural divide exists between urban New Englanders living along the densely populated coastline, and rural New Englanders in western Massachusetts, northwestern and northeastern Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine, where population density is low.
Today, New England is the least religious region of the U.S. In 2009, less than half of those polled in Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont claimed that religion was an important part of their daily lives. In Connecticut and Rhode Island, also among the ten least religious states, 55 and 53%, respectively, of those polled claimed that it was. According to the American Religious Identification Survey, 34% of Vermonters, a plurality, claimed to have no religion; on average, nearly one out of every four New Englanders identifies as having no religion, more than in any other part of the U.S. New England had one of the highest percentages of Catholics in the U.S. This number declined from 50% in 1990 to 36% in 2008.
Many of the first European colonists of New England had a maritime orientation toward whaling (first noted about 1650) and fishing, in addition to farming. New England has developed a distinct cuisine, dialect, architecture, and government. New England cuisine has a reputation for its emphasis on seafood and dairy; clam chowder, lobster, and other products of the sea are among some of the region's most popular foods.
See also: Cuisine of New England
New England has largely preserved its regional character, especially in its historic places. The region has become more ethnically diverse, having seen waves of immigration from Ireland, Quebec, Italy, Portugal, Poland, Asia, Latin America, Africa, other parts of the U.S., and elsewhere. The enduring European influence can be seen in the region in the use of traffic rotaries, the bilingual French and English towns of northern Vermont, Maine, and New Hampshire, the region's heavy prevalence of English town- and county-names, and its unique, often non-rhotic coastal dialect reminiscent of southeastern England.
Within New England, many names of towns (and a few counties) repeat from state to state, primarily due to settlers throughout the region having named their new towns after their old ones. For example, the town of North Yarmouth, Maine was named by settlers from Yarmouth, Massachusetts, which was in turn named for Great Yarmouth in England. As another example, every New England state has a town named Warren, and every state except Rhode Island has a city or town named Andover, Bridgewater, Chester, Franklin, Manchester, Plymouth, Washington, and Windsor; in addition, every state except Connecticut has a Lincoln and a Richmond, and Massachusetts, Vermont, and Maine each contains a Franklin County.
There are several American English accents spoken in the region, including New England English and its derivative known as the Boston accent.
The so-called Boston accent is native to the northeastern coastal regions of New England. Many of its most identifiable features are believed to have originated from the influence of England's Received Pronunciation, which shares those features, such as dropping final R and the broad A. Another source was 17th century speech in East Anglia and Lincolnshire where many of the Puritan immigrants originated. The East Anglian "whine" developed into the Yankee "twang". Boston accents were most strongly associated at one point with the so-called "Eastern Establishment" and Boston's upper class, although today the accent is predominantly associated with blue-collar natives, as exemplified by movies such as Good Will Hunting and The Departed. The Boston accent and those accents closely related to it cover eastern Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine.
Some Rhode Islanders speak with a non-rhotic accent that many compare to a "Brooklyn" accent or a cross between a New York and Boston accent, where "water" becomes "wata". Many Rhode Islanders distinguish the aw sound as one might hear in New Jersey; e.g., the word "coffee" is pronounced KAW-fee. This type of accent was brought to the region by early settlers from eastern England in the Puritan migration in the mid-seventeenth century.
Acadian and Québécois culture are included in music and dance in much of rural New England, particularly Maine. Contra dancing and country square dancing are popular throughout New England, usually backed by live Irish, Acadian, or other folk music. Fife and drum corps are common, especially in southern New England and more specifically Connecticut, with music of mostly Celtic, English, and local origin.
Opera houses and theaters are popular in New England towns, such as the Vergennes Opera House in Vergennes, Vermont.
Traditional knitting, quilting, and rug hooking circles in rural New England have become less common; church, sports, and town government are more typical social activities. These traditional gatherings are often hosted in individual homes or civic centers.
New England leads the U.S. in ice cream consumption per capita. In the U.S., candlepin bowling is essentially confined to New England, where it was invented in the 19th century.
New England was an important center of American classical music for some time. Prominent modernist composers also come from the region, including Charles Ives and John Adams. Boston is the site of the New England Conservatory, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and the Yale School of Music.
In popular music, the region has produced Donna Summer, JoJo, Bobby Brown, Passion Pit, Meghan Trainor, New Kids on the Block, and John Mayer. In rock music, the region has produced Rob Zombie, Aerosmith, The Modern Lovers, Phish, the Pixies, GG Allin, the Dropkick Murphys, and Boston. Quincy, Massachusetts native Dick Dale helped popularize surf rock.
The leading U.S. cable TV sports broadcaster ESPN is headquartered in Bristol, Connecticut. New England has several regional cable networks, including New England Cable News (NECN) and the New England Sports Network (NESN). New England Cable News is the largest regional 24-hour cable news network in the U.S., broadcasting to more than 3.2 million homes in all of the New England states. Its studios are located in Newton, Massachusetts, outside of Boston, and it maintains bureaus in Manchester, New Hampshire; Hartford, Connecticut; Worcester, Massachusetts; Portland, Maine; and Burlington, Vermont. In Connecticut, Litchfield, Fairfield, and New Haven counties it also broadcasts New York based news programs—this is due in part to the immense influence New York has on this region's economy and culture, and also to give Connecticut broadcasters the ability to compete with overlapping media coverage from New York-area broadcasters.
NESN broadcasts the Boston Red Sox baseball and Boston Bruins hockey throughout the region, save for Fairfield County, Connecticut. Most of Connecticut, save for Windham county in the state's northeast corner, and even southern Rhode Island, receives the YES Network, which broadcasts the games of the New York Yankees. For the most part, the same areas also carry SportsNet New York (SNY), which broadcasts New York Mets games.
Comcast SportsNet New England broadcasts the games of the Boston Celtics, New England Revolution and Boston Cannons.
While most New England cities have daily newspapers, The Boston Globe and The New York Times are distributed widely throughout the region. Major newspapers also include The Providence Journal, Portland Press Herald, and Hartford Courant, the oldest continuously published newspaper in the U.S.
New Englanders are well represented in American comedy. Writers for The Simpsons and late-night television programs often come by way of the Harvard Lampoon. Family Guy, an animated sitcom situated in Rhode Island, as well as American Dad! and The Cleveland Show, were created by Connecticut native and Rhode Island School of Design graduate Seth MacFarlane. A number of Saturday Night Live (SNL) cast members have origins in New England, from Adam Sandler to Amy Poehler, who also stars in the NBC television series Parks and Recreation. Former Daily Show correspondents Rob Corddry and Steve Carell are from Massachusetts, with the latter also being involved in film and the American adaptation of The Office. The American "Office" also featured Dunder-Mifflin branches set in Stamford, Connecticut and Nashua, New Hampshire.
Late-night television hosts Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien have origins in the Boston area. Notable stand-up comedians, including Bill Burr, Dane Cook, Steve Sweeney, Steven Wright, Sarah Silverman, Lisa Lampanelli, Denis Leary, Lenny Clarke, Patrice O'Neal, and Louis CK, are also from the region. SNL cast member Seth Meyers once attributed the region's imprint on American humor to its "sort of wry New England sense of pointing out anyone who's trying to make a big deal of himself", with the Boston Globe suggesting that irony and sarcasm, as well as Irish influences, are its trademarks.
Main page: Literature of New England
Ralph Waldo Emerson was born in Boston and spent most of his literary career in Concord, Massachusetts.
The literature of New England has had an enduring influence on American literature in general, with themes such as religion, race, the individual versus society, social repression, and nature, emblematic of the larger concerns of American letters. Famous New England writers include the Transcendentalist philosophers Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, poets Emily Dickinson and Elizabeth Bishop, and novelists Nathaniel Hawthorne and Harriet Beecher Stowe.
Largely on the strength of its local writers, Boston was for some years the center of the U.S. publishing industry, before being overtaken by New York in the middle of the nineteenth century. Boston remains the home of publishers Houghton Mifflin and Pearson Education, and was the longtime home of literary magazine The Atlantic Monthly. Merriam-Webster is based in Springfield, Massachusetts. Yankee, a magazine for New Englanders, is based in Dublin, New Hampshire.
New England has a rich history in filmmaking dating back to the dawn of the motion picture era at the turn of the 20th century, sometimes dubbed Hollywood East by film critics. A theater at 547 Washington Street in Boston was the second location to debut a picture projected by the Vitascope, and shortly thereafter several novels were being adapted for the screen and set in New England, including The Scarlet Letter and The House of Seven Gables. The New England region continued to churn out films at a pace above the national average for the duration of the 20th century, including blockbuster hits such as Jaws, Good Will Hunting, and The Departed, all of which won Oscars. The New England area became known for a number of themes that recurred in films made during this era, including the development of yankee characters, smalltown life contrasted with city values, seafaring tales, family secrets, and haunted New England. These themes are rooted in centuries of New England culture and are complemented by the region's diverse natural landscape and architecture, from the Atlantic Ocean and brilliant fall foliage to church steeples and skyscrapers.
Since the turn of the millennium, Boston and the greater New England region have been home to the production of numerous films and television series, thanks in part to tax incentive programs put in place by local governments to attract filmmakers to the region.
Notable actors and actresses that have come from the New England area include Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Amy Poehler, Elizabeth Banks, Steve Carell, Ruth Gordon, John Krasinski, Edward Norton, Mark Wahlberg, and Matthew Perry. A full list of those from Massachusetts can be found here, and a listing of notable films and television series produced in the area here.
Main page: Transportation in New England
The MBTA Commuter Rail serves much of Massachusetts and parts of Rhode Island radiating from Downtown Boston, with plans for expansion into New Hampshire.
The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) provides rail and subway service within the Boston metropolitan area, bus service in Greater Boston, and commuter rail service throughout Eastern Massachusetts and parts of Rhode Island. The New York City Metropolitan Transportation Authority in partnership with the Connecticut Department of Transportation (CTDOT) operates the Metro-North Commuter Railroad, which provides rail service in Southwestern Connecticut in the corridor between New York City and New Haven. CTDOT provides the Shore Line East commuter rail service along the Connecticut coastline east of New Haven, terminating in Old Saybrook and New London.
Amtrak provides interstate rail service throughout New England. Boston is the northern terminus of the Northeast Corridor. The Vermonter connects Vermont to Massachusetts and Connecticut, while the Downeaster links Maine to Boston. The long-distance Lake Shore Limited train has two eastern termini after splitting in Albany, one of which is Boston. This provides rail service on the former Boston and Albany Railroad, which runs between its namesake cities. The rest of the Lake Shore Limited continues to New York City.
Main page: Economy of New England
The Port of Portland in Portland, Maine, is the largest tonnage seaport in New England.
Several factors combine to make the New England economy unique. The region is distant from the geographic center of the country, and it is a relatively small region but densely populated. It historically has been an important center of industry and manufacturing and a supplier of natural resource products, such as granite, lobster, and codfish. The service industry is important, including tourism, education, financial and insurance services, and architectural, building and construction services. The U.S. Department of Commerce has called the New England economy a microcosm for the entire U.S. economy.
The region underwent a long period of deindustrialization in the first half of the 20th century, as traditional manufacturing companies relocated to the Midwest, with textile and furniture manufacturing migrating to the South. In the late-20th century, an increasing portion of the regional economy included high technology, military defense industry, finance and insurance services, and education and health services. As of 2018, the GDP of New England was $1.1 trillion.
New England exports food products ranging from fish to lobster, cranberries, potatoes, and maple syrup. About half of the region's exports consist of industrial and commercial machinery, such as computers and electronic and electrical equipment. Granite is quarried at Barre, Vermont, guns made at Springfield, Massachusetts, and Saco, Maine, submarines at Groton, Connecticut, surface naval vessels at Bath, Maine, and hand tools at Turners Falls, Massachusetts.
The Hartford headquarters of Aetna is housed in a 1931 Colonial Revival building.
In 2017, Boston was ranked as having the ninth-most competitive financial center in the world and the fourth-most competitive in the United States. Boston-based Fidelity Investments helped popularize the mutual fund in the 1980s and has made Boston one of the top financial centers in the United States. The city is home to the headquarters of Santander Bank and a center for venture capital firms. State Street Corporation specializes in asset management and custody services and is based in the city.
Boston is also a printing and publishing center. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt is headquartered there, along with Bedford-St. Martin's and Beacon Press. The city is also home to the Hynes Convention Center in the Back Bay and the Seaport Hotel and Seaport World Trade Center and Boston Convention and Exhibition Center on the South Boston waterfront.
The General Electric Corporation announced its decision to move the company's global headquarters to the Boston Seaport District from Fairfield, Connecticut, in 2016, citing factors including Boston's preeminence in the realm of higher education. The city also holds the headquarters to several major athletic and footwear companies, including Converse, New Balance and Reebok. Rockport, Puma and Wolverine World Wide have headquarters or regional offices just outside the city.
Hartford is the historic international center of the insurance industry, with companies such as Aetna, Conning & Company, The Hartford, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, The Phoenix Companies and Hartford Steam Boiler based in the city, and The Travelers Companies and Lincoln National Corporation have major operations in the city. It is also home to the corporate headquarters of U.S. Fire Arms Mfg. Co., United Technologies, and Virtus Investment Partners.
Fairfield County, Connecticut, has a large concentration of investment management firms in the area, most notably Bridgewater Associates (one of the world's largest hedge fund companies), Aladdin Capital Management and Point72 Asset Management. Moreover, many international banks have their North American headquarters in Fairfield County, such as NatWest Group and UBS.
A plowed field in Bethel, Vermont
Agriculture is limited by the area's rocky soil, cool climate, and small area. Some New England states, however, are ranked highly among U.S. states for particular areas of production. Maine is ranked ninth for aquaculture, and has abundant potato fields in its northeast part. Vermont is fifteenth for dairy products, and Connecticut and Massachusetts seventh and eleventh for tobacco, respectively. Cranberries are grown in Massachusetts' Cape Cod-Plymouth-South Shore area, and blueberries in Maine.
Seabrook Station Nuclear Power Plant in Seabrook, New Hampshire
The region is mostly energy-efficient compared to the U.S. at large, with every state but Maine ranking within the ten most energy-efficient states; every state in New England also ranks within the ten most expensive states for electricity prices. Wind power, mainly from offshore sources, is expected to gain market share in the 2020s.
Unemployment rates in New England
Employment area
United States 9.7 9.0 7.9 7.2 5.6 5.0 4.7 −5.0
New England 8.3 7.6 7.4 7.1 5.4 4.3 3.5 −4.7
Connecticut 9.1 8.7 9.0 7.6 6.4 5.2 4.4 −4.7
Maine 7.6 7.3 7.4 6.5 5.5 4.0 3.8 −3.8
Massachusetts 8.3 7.3 6.6 7.2 5.5 4.7 2.8 −5.5
New Hampshire 5.7 5.3 5.7 5.2 4.0 3.1 2.6 −3.1
Rhode Island 11.5 10.4 10.4 9.4 6.8 5.1 5.0 −6.5
Vermont 5.9 5.6 5.5 4.4 4.2 3.6 3.1 −2.8
As of January 2017, employment is stronger in New England than in the rest of the United States. During the Great Recession, unemployment rates ballooned across New England as elsewhere; however, in the years that followed, these rates declined steadily, with New Hampshire and Massachusetts having the lowest unemployment rates in the country, respectively. The most extreme swing was in Rhode Island, which had an unemployment rate above 10% following the recession, but which saw this rate decline by over 6% in six years.
As of December 2016, the metropolitan statistical area (MSA) with the lowest unemployment rate, 2.1%, was Burlington-South Burlington, Vermont; the MSA with the highest rate, 4.9%, was Waterbury, Connecticut.
In 2018, four of the six New England states were among the top ten states in the country in terms of taxes paid per taxpayer. The rankings included #3 Maine (11.02%), #4 Vermont (10.94%), #6 Connecticut (10.19%) and #7 Rhode Island (10.14%). Additionally New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine and Rhode Island took four of the top five spots for "Highest Property Tax as a Percentage of Personal Income".
New England is home to four of the eight Ivy League universities. Pictured here is Harvard Yard of Harvard University.
New England contains some of the oldest and most renowned institutions of higher learning in the United States and the world. Harvard College was the first such institution, founded in 1636 at Cambridge, Massachusetts, to train preachers. Yale University was founded in Saybrook, Connecticut, in 1701, and awarded the nation's first doctoral (PhD) degree in 1861. Yale moved to New Haven, Connecticut, in 1718, where it has remained to the present day.
Brown University was the first college in the nation to accept students of all religious affiliations, and is the seventh oldest U.S. institution of higher learning. It was founded in Providence, Rhode Island, in 1764. Dartmouth College was founded five years later in Hanover, New Hampshire, with the mission of educating the local American Indian population as well as English youth. The University of Vermont, the fifth oldest university in New England, was founded in 1791, the same year that Vermont joined the Union.
In addition to four out of eight Ivy League schools, New England contains the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the bulk of educational institutions that are identified as the "Little Ivies", four of the original Seven Sisters, one of the eight original Public Ivies, the Colleges of Worcester Consortium in central Massachusetts, and the Five Colleges consortium in western Massachusetts. The University of Maine, the University of New Hampshire, the University of Connecticut, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, the University of Rhode Island, and the University of Vermont are the flagship state universities in the region.
See also: List of colleges and universities in Connecticut, List of colleges and universities in Maine, List of colleges and universities in Massachusetts, List of colleges and universities in New Hampshire, List of colleges and universities in Rhode Island, and List of colleges and universities in Vermont
Phillips Academy Andover is an elite preparatory school in Andover, Massachusetts.
At the pre-college level, New England is home to a number of American independent schools (also known as private schools). The concept of the elite "New England prep school" (preparatory school) and the "preppy" lifestyle is an iconic part of the region's image.
See the list of private schools for each state:
Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont.
Boston Latin School, founded in 1635, is the oldest public school in the United States.
New England is home to some of the oldest public schools in the nation. Boston Latin School is the oldest public school in America and was attended by several signatories of the Declaration of Independence. Hartford Public High School is the second oldest operating high school in the U.S.
As of 2005, the National Education Association ranked Connecticut as having the highest-paid teachers in the country. Massachusetts and Rhode Island ranked eighth and ninth, respectively.
New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont have cooperated in developing a New England Common Assessment Program test under the No Child Left Behind guidelines. These states can compare the resultant scores with each other.
The Maine Learning Technology Initiative program supplies all students with Apple MacBook laptops.
Indigenous territories, circa 1600 in present-day southern New England
Soldier and explorer John Smith coined the name "New England" in 1616.
A 1638 engraving depicting the Mystic massacre
Cambridge, Massachusetts, has a high concentration of startups and technology companies.
Montpelier, Vermont, is the smallest state capital in the United States.
Flag of New England flying in Massachusetts. New Englanders maintain a strong sense of regional and cultural identity.
A classic New England Congregational church in Peacham, Vermont
Boston's Symphony Hall is the home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra—the second-oldest of the Big Five American symphony orchestras.
New England regionalist poet Robert Frost
The Green Line in Boston
2. Worcester, Massachusetts
3. Providence, Rhode Island
4. Springfield, Massachusetts
5. Bridgeport, Connecticut
6. Stamford, Connecticut
7. New Haven, Connecticut
8. Hartford, Connecticut
9. Cambridge, Massachusetts
10. Manchester, New Hampshire
Harvard vs. Yale football game in 2003
Bill Russell and Red Auerbach of the Boston Celtics
The New England Patriots are the most popular professional sports team in New England.
The Middlebury College rowing team in the 2007 Head of the Charles Regatta
New England Facts for Kids. Kiddle Encyclopedia.


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Frei statt Staat! 2016
The Missing Link 2013
Das dritte Axiom - Eine Logik der Freiheit 2010
Steuer-Kopf-Wahl 2005
Vortrag Frei statt Staat!
Just Not State! 2018
A Constitutional Rationale 2015
The Third Axiom 2010
Tax-Man-Voting 2005
Bürger zweier Welten 2019
Das sogenannte Gute 2019
In memoriam Roland Baader
Regine Wagner-Preusse
Vorsicht (Staats-) Schule!
Biographie und Politisierung
Just Not State! Self-Ownership, Ethics, and the Constitution of the Private Law Society
In this concise work of social philosophy, the author not only argues that, according to the well-established School of Austrian Economics and Ethics, any form of domination and coercive rule is illegitimate; he also consolidates and restates ethics of self-ownership and ownership by introducing something so far neglected: an explicit axiom of the 'equal human rank' as a valuator. Furthermore, he enables confidence in the feasibility of a peaceful, lasting and flourishing stateless society by introducing a novel concept for a draft constitution, which combines all legitimate aspects of equality and full sovereignty of the individual's encompassing property rights. The key issue here is the constitutional preclusion of any permanent and autonomous public sector.
Review by Gerard Casey, Professor emeritus, Philosophy, Dublin, Ireland:
Dr Preusse is to be congratulated for attempting to do in the first part of his compact book, Just not State!, what, to my knowledge, has never been done and that is to provide a coherent and plausible account of the foundations of praxeology as articulated in the writings of Ludwig von Mises, Murray Rothbard, Hans-Hermann Hoppe and Antony de Jasay. This is a project I once thought of attempting myself and I made some small beginnings in that direction but, in the end, I was not able to see my way through the thickets of complications. I cannot say that Dr Preusse has succeeded—in the end, it may not be possible to reconcile the accounts of these thinkers—but I can say that he has made the most comprehensive effort that I know of so to do. Apart from his pioneering work on this most difficult, if somewhat recondite, of topics, Dr Preusse develops the notions of ownership and self-ownership as a replacement for the much-abused notion of freedom and provides a schema for a constitution for a private law society.
Book review:Just Not State!
Review by Robert Grözinger, equity & freedom, 17 Sept. 2018:
Self-Ownership, Ethics, and the Constitution of the Private Law Society
A body of thought which claims to have the most far-reaching consequences, such as that of the Austrian School of Economics and Ethics, requires foundations that are as solid as possible. Peter J. Preusse, a newcomer to philosophy, has written a book, now also available in English, in which he expressly attempts to isolate the inner logical structure of Austrianism and present something that has probably not been attempted before, despite the explicit claim of Austrianism to be an axiomatic-deductive system. Preusse, who is German, reconciles the claims of final justification from the fact of Ludwig von Mises' concept of action and from Hans-Hermann Hoppe's a priori of argumentation and then expands Austrian theory by introducing the axiom of human rank, which conceptually determines the hitherto neglected element of equality among humans.
Unfortunately, there is continued confusion especially around the basic terms 'ethics' and 'morality,' which are important for social philosophy. Preusse clearly separates the spheres of a group-related code of conduct on the one hand and, on the other, the property norm as the only possible interpersonal conflict avoidance strategy in view of scarcity. In general, and also in specialist, language, both spheres are described sometimes as ethics, sometimes as morals. Following Schopenhauer, Preusse makes the distinction between 'harm nobody' as the core of ethics, namely as an expression of the ethics of duty or law on the one hand, and the aspiration 'give help to the best of one's ability' as ethics of love or rather morality, which has a limited scope and discriminatory power. In addition, there is cognitive ethics: 'Consecrating life to truth.'
Preusse shows that there is a fundamental difference between alienable and inalienable property, i.e. of goods and contractual rights on the one hand, and of one's own lifetime and freedom of will on the other. From this difference it follows that a private law society, a society constituted without a state, must find a way to deal with conflicts in the area of self-ownership. Laudably, the author presents the reader with a draft constitution that attempts to tackle these conflicts. An almost practical political result at the end of an otherwise rather theoretical work.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Patient Safety News: Connecticut Woman Seeks Millions in Damages from ConAgra
In one of the first cases of its kind, Guillermina Coello of West Haven, Connecticut seeks about millions in damages from ConAgra Brands, Inc., maker of PAM cooking spray, according to a news article. Coello alleges that ConAgra is liable for faulty design of its canisters and failure to warn users of their dangers, which caused her to suffer severe burns.
While Coello was cooking, a can of PAM she had set down far away from her stove exploded and burst into flames.
"I was screaming, there were flames everywhere on the counter, on my clothes, all over me," said Coello. First- second- and third-degree burns covered her face, chest, right arm, hand, leg, and foot. She needed skin grafts, extensive therapy, and rebuilding of some of her knuckles, and was later treated for infections. Coello was out of work for nine months, and she says she's still not at full strength and remains physically and emotionally scarred.
Her law firm, also represents plaintiffs from an incident that involved two Yale students cooking at a house in Washington, Connecticut.
Coello's lawyer said that ConAgra might be at fault for a redesign of their PAM containers that could have caused the accident. To reduce the risk of explosion, ConAgra or a vendor company designed a pressurized tab on the bottom of some larger cans of PAM. The tab can open, spewing its contents quickly to relieve pressure build up. The vented, flammable cooking spray can then ignite when it's near heat or open flames.
ConAgra hasn't issued any product recalls. In some cases, cooking spray users have left the cans too close to a stove, but were unaware of any dangers.
The cases claim ConAgra knew about the dangers of bursting or venting cans even when consumers used them properly, and that Coello and the other Connecticut victims used care and kept the cans at a reasonable distance.
Berman & Simmons attorneys Michael Bigos and Christopher Boots are handling claims involving consumers who have been harmed by cooking oil spray can explosions and fires.
"These cases highlight the importance of making safer cooking spray cans to prevent future accidents," said Bigos. "Many of the injured have endured severe injuries and should be compensated for their pain and suffering."


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Tuesday's Frosty Mug
By Kyle Lobner May 19, 2009, 9:32am CDT
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Some things to read while getting ready for your photo shoot.
The Summer of Rickie Weeks was suddenly and abruptly canceled yesterday, leaving many of us wondering where we go from here. Willie Randolph, who spent most of the spring working with Weeks to improve his game, called the news "depressing", and Cory Provus notes that the news came just a week after Ken Macha called Weeks "his kind of player."
So where do the Brewers go from here? Adam McCalvy lists five internal options to fill in the void at second base. As of this writing, about 30% of voters in the poll on your right think Craig Counsell should take over, with 22% voting for Bill Hall and 18% hoping Doug Melvin is on the phone with Ray Durham. Casey McGehee is expected to start tonight and tomorrow, as the Astros send lefties Mike Hampton and Wandy Rodriguez to the mound. The Brewers are also expected to call up Hernan Iribarren from Nashville, but the move has not yet been announced.
How valuable was Weeks this season? On top of already having nine home runs and being on pace for 100 RBI, he was also the second most valuable defensive second baseman in baseball, according to FanGraphs. Mike Cameron is still the most valuable defensive center fielder, but the Brewers as a team have dropped from second to fifth.
Last night's game had a couple of milestones in it: Of course, Mat Gamel hit his first major league home run, but Jason Kendall also picked up his 2000th hit, becoming just the eighth catcher to do so. Baseball Reference looks at the eight catchers who accomplished the feat, and one stat jumps out: each of the other seven catchers hit at least 248 home runs, and Ted Simmons is the only one with less than 300. Jason Kendall has 73 career homers.
We've known for a few days now that Brad Nelson would not be back, but now we also know where he's headed: Nelson has signed a minor league deal with the Mariners and will report to AAA Tacoma. Hopefully Brad can rebound from a tough start to 2009 and have a nice major league career in the AL, where the Brewers won't have to face him very often.
Down in the minors, Taylor Green is off to a hot start in his rehab assignment with the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers. He's expected to be called up to Huntsville soon, but Rattlers manager Jeff Isom is hoping to dodge that phone call.
Elsewhere in the minors, the Astros have released former Brewer Lou Palmisano. Cap'n Lou was picked in the Rule 5 draft by the Orioles, traded to the Astros, and then offered back to the Brewers. The Brewers decided not to take him back.
On power rankings:
Whatifsports has moved the Brewers up from tenth to fifth in their rankings.
Richard Griffin of the Toronto Star has moved the Brewers from eighth to third.
Here's one more way you can help the Brewers own Pittsburgh: The Racing Sausages are up against the Racing Pierogies in Home Run Derby's Mascot Challenge. Head on over there and vote for the sausages.
Around the league:
A's: Reliever Dan Giese has been placed on the DL with irritation in his ulnar nerve.
Mets: Carlos Delgado will miss at least two months after undergoing hip surgery, Alex Cora has been placed on the DL with a sprained thumb ligament and, once again, Nelson Figueroa has been designated for assignment.
Nationals: 26-year-old reliever Ryan Wagner, who had been pitching in AAA, has decided to retire.
Phillies: Signed Paul Bako to a minor league deal.
Pirates: Claimed reliever Steven Jackson off waivers from the Yankees.
Rockies: Designated reliever Steven Register, who had been pitching in AAA, for assignment.
Twins: Placed starter Glen Perkins on the DL with elbow inflammation.
I believe I've mentioned before that home runs are way up this season, although I haven't seen it reported recently. On the other side, though, Baseball Reference notes that there has not been a single three-HR game in 2009, and this is the farthest into the season we've gone without one since 1993.
Oh, and I don't have my new house yet (and won't for another month), but I already have a gardening idea.
Drink up.


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Archbishop Joseph Augustine Di Noia, O.P.
Adjunct Secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
Titular Archbishop of Oregon City
4 Jun 1970 26.9 Ordained Priest Priest of Order of Friars Preachers
16 Jun 2009 65.9 Appointed Titular Archbishop of Oregon City
16 Jun 2009 65.9 Appointed Secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments
11 Jul 2009 66.0 Ordained Bishop Titular Archbishop of Oregon City
26 Jun 2012 68.9 Appointed Vice President of the Pontifical Commission "Ecclesia Dei"
21 Sep 2013 70.1 Appointed Adjunct Secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
MicroData Summary for Joseph Augustine Di Noia (VIAF: 18864528)
Archbishop Joseph Augustine Di Noia O.P. (born 10 Jul 1943 ) Adjunct Secretary of Doctrine of the Faith
Birth Place New York, NY, USA
Ordained Bishop National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, Basilica, Washington, DC, Archdiocese of Washington, District of Columbia, USA
Please contact the Archbishop through the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
a priest for
a bishop for
William Joseph Cardinal Levada †
Cardinal-Deacon of Santa Maria in Domnica
Archbishop Donald William Wuerl
Archbishop of Washington, District of Columbia
Archbishop Thomas Cajetan Kelly, O.P. †
Archbishop Emeritus of Louisville, Kentucky
William Joseph Cardinal Levada † (1983)
Timothy Finbar Cardinal Manning † (1946)
Archbishop of Los Angeles, California
Bishop Joseph Thomas McGucken † (1941)
Titular Bishop of Sanavus
Archbishop John Joseph Cantwell † (1917)
Archbishop Edward Joseph Hanna † (1912)
Archbishop of San Francisco, California
Archbishop Giovanni Vincenzo Bonzano † (1912)
Titular Archbishop of Melitene
Rafael Cardinal Merry del Val y Zulueta † (1900)
Cardinal-Priest of Santa Prassede
Mariano Cardinal Rampolla del Tindaro † (1882)
Edward Henry Cardinal Howard of Norfolk † (1872)
Cardinal-Priest of Santi Giovanni e Paolo
Carlo Cardinal Sacconi † (1851)
Cardinal-Bishop of Palestrina
Giacomo Filippo Cardinal Fransoni † (1822)
Cardinal-Priest of Santa Maria in Ara Coeli
Pietro Francesco Cardinal Galleffi † (1819)
Alessandro Cardinal Mattei † (1777)
Bernardino Cardinal Giraud † (1767)
Cardinal-Priest of Santissima Trinità al Monte Pincio
b: Bollettino, 16 Jun 2009
ob/c2+: CB
ob/c2+: Le Petit Episcopologe, Issue 199, Number 16,250
ab: Bollettino, 26 Jun 2012
ab: Bollettino, 21 Sep 2013
ob/c2: Le Petit Episcopologe, Issue 241, Deceased Cardinals (back)


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Your order amount did not reach or exceed $49.00.
When you were checking out you did not select the "Standard Shipping" option at $0.00 for your shipping method.
Your order is being shipped to AK, HI, PR or an International address.
If you think there is an error in regards to your order not having a free shipping option, please contact support@sportstop.com.
Can I express ship my order?
Yes, we offer several express shipping options. Each product page has information on shipping for that specific item. Orders placed for items that ship from the Sportstop.com warehouse will ship the same day if the order is placed by 3:00pm Eastern Time. For orders with items that ship from our manufacturer's warehouse, they are typically shipped out within 1-3 days. At that time, the express shipping transit time will begin.
Please be aware that if you place an express order on a Friday prior to 3:00pm EST, it will be shipped out that Friday but Overnight Service will arrive on the following Monday, 2nd Day Service will arrive on the following Tuesday and 3 Day Service will arrive on the following Wednesday. Also, if you place an order after 3:00pm EST on a Friday your order will not get shipped out until the following Monday to arrive on Tuesday if Overnight Service was paid for, Wednesday if 2nd Day Service was paid for and Thursday if 3 Day Service was paid for.
Can I Express an order to be shipped outside the Continental United States?
No, we only offer express shipping for orders that are shipped to a Continental United States address. No International orders can be expressed.
Is there a shipping forwarder you recommend for shipping Internationally?


Initial coin offerings have become very popular over these past few months. Dozens of new projects attempt to raise money every single month. We asked a few ICO teams why they decided to take this particular approach rather than seek VC investment. Their answers are pretty interesting to take note of.
It is good to see some different opinions on why ICOs make more sense than VC funding. This new business model opens up a lot of opportunities, yet it also creates certain risks. Whether or not these businesses made the right decision in choosing to go with an ICO business model remains to be seen. Governments all over the world are still scrutinizing this industry whenever possible. An interesting future lies ahead, though; that much is evident.


Compliments of the Season and please accept our hearty welcome to the NEC meeting of our great and unparalleled Association. We thank the Almighty for journey mercies particularly for those of you who travelled for this meeting from States of the Federation outside Abuja. It is the Season of goodwill and, on behalf of the National Officers, I sincerely extend our goodwill and Seasons' Greetings to all our members, represented at this NEC meeting by you, our distinguished NEC members.
It is three months now since we were inaugurated and sworn in as your National Officers on 31 August 2018 and this is our first NEC meeting. This is also the NEC meeting for Quarter 2 of the NBA 2018/2019 Financial Year which, in practice, is calculated from August of each year to the July of the succeeding year. That, understandably, is why our Audited Financial Statement for each year is prepared as at July of that year. In effect, NBA's 2018/2019 Q1 spans the period August to October 2018 and Q2 of our Financial Year will span the period November 2018 to January 2019.
Our Constitution stipulates that NEC meetings must be held quarterly and as in every structured institution, this can only be interpreted to mean every financial quarter. The NEC meeting that was held on 26 August 2018 therefore qualified as our 2018/2019 Q1 NEC meeting and the meeting of today, as I earlier pointed out, is our 2018/2019 Q2 NEC meeting. All properly organized institutions schedule their quarterly Board of Directors' meetings – the equivalent of our NEC – for such dates within the quarter as would allow for the preparation and publication of the preceding quarter's Financial Statements and this is understandable because, those quarterly meetings afford the directing minds of the institution the opportunity to take stock and reflect on the organization's performance in the preceding quarter for the purposes of mapping their next quarter activities and indeed the future activities of the enterprise or organization generally.
Going forward, we would schedule our quarterly NEC meetings in like manner, making sure that our quarterly accounts are ready and circulated for dissection and discussions during those meetings. That, in large parts, informed the holding of this meeting in this month of December, thereby allowing a one month period from the end of 2018/2019 Q1 for the preparation of our Management Accounts for the said Q1 which would be presented at this meeting and published to our members immediately after this NEC meeting, in fulfilment of our cornerstone commitment to enthrone transparency and financial rectitude in our body politic.
Just before reviewing our performance in 2018/2019 Q1, it is perhaps only right that I address the orchestrated social and online media reports of the last 24 hours in regard tomy allegedly being charged to court for money laundering offences by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission ("EFCC"). I have not been served with any such charge neither have I been arraigned before any court on any such charge or at all. It is however correct that I have been questioned by the EFCC in the last several months in respect of fees that my Firm had been paid by Akwa Ibom State Government ("AKSG") between 2015 and 2016 and also fees that Governor Udom Emmanuel, the Governorof Akwa Ibom State had paid to me for the benefit of Counsel that worked on his Election Petition Appeal that was decided by the Supreme Court early in 2016.
Luckily, I had kept a contemporaneous and detailed record of my visits to the EFCC offices in Abuja and it would be useful that I quote excerpts therefrom on the facts of the EFCC investigation for the benefit of you, my colleagues: "I was invited by the EFCC Bank Fraud Section, vide a letter of 28 May 2018, to provide "clarification" in respect of "a case" that they were investigating. I met with them on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, 04, 05 and 06 June 2018 and their questioning of me was on two specific issues as outlined below.
"I was questioned in respect of a N300m cash inflow that came into PUC's Zenith Bank Account on 14 March 2016 and the subsequent outflows from the account to various Senior Counsel between 22-23 March 2016. I explained that the inflow was payment by Governor Udom Emmanuel in respect of an Election Petition Appeal that was determined by the Supreme Court and that I served as the coordinating Counsel in respect of the matter and had engaged various Senior Counsel therefor on his behalf. The subsequent outflows which were made through bank transfers were the professional fees which I made on his behalf to those Counsel based on the N300m inflow. They wanted to know how the cash lodgment was made into the PUC account and I informed them that the lodgment was made at the instance of Governor Emmanuel (albeit, not necessarily by him) and definitely not by me or any PUC personnel and that I had no further information, clue or knowledge beyond that.
"EFCC also wished to know the basis for the aggregate inflow of N1,110,000,000.00, paid in 4 tranches, into the PUC Access Bank Account from AKSG between 24 August 2015 and 18 September 2016. I provided an explanation in writing to them showing that these were payments-on-account by the State in respect of several dispute resolution matters that we were and, in some cases, are still handling for the State Government. I backed the explanation up with (a) copies of the PUC Notes of Charges in respect of 3 of the 4 payment tranches, pursuant to which the payments were made and which clearly showed that these were payments-on-account in respect of various matters that we were handling for the State; and (b) a non-exhaustive List of 19 matters, none of which was election-related, which we were handling for the State at all times material to their enquiry and the payments. We pointed out that we were in the process of reconciling accounts with the State Government in order to determine the outstanding fees due from the Government to us and that for none of these matters were we previously paid by the State Government.
"They questioned me on the agreed fees for each of the matters and I told them that there was no such agreement which explains why the payments were made on account, albeit, there is a reconciliation process afoot. They asserted that from their experience, fees are always agreed in advance with counsel prior to engagement. I strenuously refuted that assertion and gave them illustrative instances where we've worked for FGN – the MTN Fine case, for instance – and fees were not agreed in advance and we haven't even been paid as I write. I also gave instances of very established organizations where we've experienced the same circumstances and concluded by informing them that the processes for engagement of counsel and negotiation/payments of their fees are not standard and immutable but remain the exclusive prerogative of the client and are at the clients' discretion. They asked for our letters of engagements and I explained that traditionally, letters of engagements are not issued to us by the State in these matters; the State merely hands over the processes to us and requests that we represent the State in the matters or institute required proceedings on behalf of the State.In any case, I told them that I wasn't aware that AKSG was complaining howsoever in respect of these fees or denying that we had provided the services outlined in our letter and even if they were, the court/arbitral records and processes in these proceedings are available to bear our services out.
"Attention then turned to the payments that PUC made to some senior counsel at all times materials to the EFCC investigation. Soon after the payment-on-account of N530m by AKSG on 24 August 2015, we had made some payments to several senior counsel. Similar payments were also made soon after the payments to us by AKSG of N260m and N280m respectively on 03 December 2015 and 18 January 2016 and the EFCC wanted to know what these payments were made for. I explained that these were the same set of Counsel – comprising eminent members of the Inner Bar and a host of other members of the outer Bar – that I had engaged to work with me in respect of the Election Petition matter for which payments were made from the PUC Zenith Bank Account (for the Supreme Court Appeal) and that these payments that were made from the PUC Access Bank Account were professional fees which I paid to them for their services at the Tribunal and Court of Appeal. They wanted to know if I was paying them out of the AKSG payments-on-account and I answered in the negative. I explained that these were independent transactions and that the AKSG payments-on-account were in respect of my Firm's professional services to the State while the payments to the senior counsel were made by me for and on behalf of Governor Udom Emmanuel, at his request and in expectation of refunds at a future date.
"The EFCC tried very hard to link the payments to the senior counsel to the AKSG payments-onaccount to PUC but I told them that, at each time when the inflows from AKSG came into PUC's account, the Firm had available funds in its Access Bank account of not less than N450m (made up, amongst others, of a standing overdraft from Access Bank) and that the fresh funds always comingled with the existing available funds and it was practically impossible to separate them by source and attribute subsequent expenditures to specific preceding inflows or available funds.
(b) EFCC's lack of Locus Standi in Client-Lawyer Contractual Relationship. The fees that are paid by a Client to his lawyer is not only a matter of privilege but is also contractual. As we all know, non-parties to a contract are complete strangers thereto and lack the locus standi to question and/or determine the propriety of such contract(s). The EFCC stands in that position in this and other matters of this nature; it lacks the locus standi to question the basis for the fees. Only the parties to the contract can question the justification for the fees and in this instance, neither party has raised any such query. Indeed, neither party reported this matter to the EFCC or invited the Agency to carry out any investigation in regard thereto.
(c) EFCC as Auditor and/or Regulator of Legal Fees. There is no provision in Nigeria's statute books that constitutes the EFCC into the auditor of legal fees. When the EFCC arrogates to itself the right to determine the basis for a lawyer's fees, it not only intrudes into a client-lawyer contract which by its nature is privileged, but also constitutes itself into an auditor of lawyers' fees. No such position has been created in our statute books for the EFCC or any other agency for that matter. The EFCC is also not set up as the regulator of lawyers and their fees and it ought not assume such a position.
(d) Criminalization of Lawyers' Fees. The EFCC appears to be straining quite hard to criminalize the fees that are earned by lawyers for their legitimate work. Mine is not the first of these intrusions; we all recall the case of Chief Mike Ozekhome, SAN when the EFCC attempted to forfeit his fees on the pretext that the funds came from illegal sources. The allegations of the EFCC against me are not any different, particularly in regard to the N300,000,000.00 which was paid by Governor Udom Emmanuel to my Firm's account for the benefit of his Counsel in the Election Petition Appeal. If these EFCC incursions are not checked, the Bar and the practice of our profession are doomed.
(e) Independence of Legal Profession and Practice. The practice of law, as we all know, is founded on the independence of the legal practitioner and his courage to advocate on behalf of his client to the best of his ability and conviction. That independence and the courage of the advocate are now being threatened and trampled upon by the EFCC. Lawyers now have to work and walk on tip-toe, looking over their shoulders to determine whether the EFCC would be coming after them solely on account of their courage and independence in advocacy. That does not bode well for the profession or for legal practice generally. My case is not isolated; I have received incessant reports from lawyers who represent clients against the EFCC whose bank accounts and legitimate fees have been and are being investigated by the EFCC sequel to their representations of those clients – not any different from my case. Democracy and the rule of law are threatened when the lawyers' independence and courage in advocacy are fettered howsoever,whether by the EFCC or any other person or organization, consequent upon the lawyers' choice of clients. I will say no more, for now, on this matter.
On the first challenge, we have lost 4 of our membersto violent crimes between 31 August 2018 and today, to wit, Emeka Agundu, the late Chairman of our Obollo-Afor Branch who was violently assassinated on 02 September 2018, Adeola Adebayo, the late Secretary of our Ikole-Ekiti Branch whose decomposed body was found in the forest on 30 November 2018 after being kidnapped on 17 November 2018, RemigusOgu (Jnr), a serving magistrate in Orlu Judicial Division of Imo State whose lifeless body was dumped on the highway in Amucha Community of Imo State by his kidnappers and AdeshinaOkeya, a new wig who was violently attacked in the outskirts of Abuja in the evening of the day he was called to Bar, 29 November 2018, leading to his death the following day, Friday, 30 November 2018. The past Chairman of our Auchi Branch, A AAtemoagbo also lost his wife when criminals rained bullet shots at his car, along Auchi-Benin Road, near Ehor, in Edo State, in an attempt to halt him.
May we please observe a minute's silence in honour of these departed souls. Returning to the incident during which Joan Atemoagbo was violently killed, Mr. Atemoagbo's car was indeed stopped by the hoodlums and he was kidnapped and only released days later after the payment of the specified ransom amount. As we pointed out in our Statement of 01 December 2018, "these incidents bring to the fore the terrifying state of insecurity in our land. It is instructive that" these incidents "occurred in the three geographical regions of Nigeria – the East, West and North – clearly making the point that no part of the country is immune from the current nemesis of insecurity. These murders" and kidnap incidents "also epitomize the all-round insecurity of lives and property and incessant killings of innocent citizens by criminals in the country". I am certain that this state of affairs would constitute a significant discussion topic under our State of the Nation agenda item at this meeting. Our second challenge has been paucity of funds. As clearly stated in the NBA's Financial Statement as at 31 August 2018 which would be presented shortly, not only did we inherit an empty treasury, we inherited enormous liability of over N400,000,000.00 as at the said 31 August 2018 (and still counting). The said debt overhang did not only haunt and inhibit our 2018/2019 Q1 activities, it promises to castrate and affect our activities and plans for 2019;we would shortly make a Presentation to NEC members that would graphically showthe impact of that debt overhang on our projected revenue for 2019 and, by extension, our plans and activities for next year.
I. Financial transparency and accountability. This was our cornerstone reform agenda and we fulfilled that promise through the preparation and publication of the Financial Statement as at 31 August 2018. We indeed committed to the preparation and publication of quarterly financial statements and the 2018/2019 Q1 FS will be presented at today's NEC meeting and published to all our members soon thereafter. In order to vest this enterprise with professionalism and credibility, we engaged PricewaterhouseCoopers ("PwC"), one of the biggest international accounting firms, to assist us in the preparation of the Financial Statements. They are with us today to present the Financial Statements.
avoiding wasteful and unnecessary spending. Some may argue that prudence is forced upon us by the exigencies of our financial paucity, but it needs be remembered that the debt overhang of over N400,000,000 was incurred at a time that our purse was empty, resulting in the non-payment of those liabilities by the previous administration. If we were so inclined, we could have racked up further credits and pile up further debts for succeeding NBA administrations. In fact, if we were so inclined, we would not even have started the policy of financial transparency and accountability which, more than anything else, forces prudence on the managers of our resources. The point that I make is that, financial prudence is practiced by us in the administration of the NBA affairs, as of choice and we are hoping to pass on this virtue to the succeeding NBA administrations through constitutional reforms.
III. Regaining the Confidence of Members. We believe that the combination of the two successes afore-highlighted has rekindled the confidence of our members in the NBA which had waned considerably as at when we took over the mantle of NBA leadership. The fact that our members are now fully in the know of the state of NBA's finances and management, coupled with demonstrated and demonstrable prudence and openness in the management of our finances, we believe, has gone quite some length in restoring confidence in the Association and in its leadership. That confidence would continue to be boosted, we believe, with the consistency in our preparation and publication of quarterly accounts and demonstrated prudence in the management of our affairs and finances.
take it as our credo to always connect with our members countrywide. I have opened direct channels of communication with all the Chairmen of the different branches of our Association and I have indeed spoken with each of them directly and personally. More often than not, once we receive complaints from our members or branches, we call the member or branch directly to discuss their issues and/or complaints and assist in resolving them. Such direct and immediate interface, we have found, to be most useful in building trust and confidence with our members and also in resolving the challenges and issues that they face.
VII. Greatly Improved Turnaround Time in Delivery of Stamps. These days, stamps are delivered to our members within a fortnight of our receiving the orders at the National Secretariat from the branches. Recall that one of the hottest topics during the last NBA Election Campaigns was the inordinate delays in the delivery of stamps to our members after orders were placed. That, indeed, was a pervasive problem and issue and we have now resolved that issueas some Branch Chairmen would readily testify. We have, of course, not achieved our optimum; this is still a work-in-progress and we do hope to shorten further the delivery time as we move into 2019.
II. Constitutional and Electoral Reforms. We believe that the sustenance of our current reform initiatives depends upon their being embedded in our Constitution. For example, if indeed we are appreciative of the current openness and transparency in the publication of the NBA's quarterly financial statements and wish to sustain the initiative beyond this administrative, it is incumbent upon us to ensure that that practice is enshrined in and mandated by our constitution. This is illustrative of the reforms which we need to carry out inthe review and amendment of our Constitution. As an accompaniment to such required constitutional reform, we recall that, in the wake of the lastNBA elections, there was a clamor for electoral reforms. Those reforms would need to be coupled with the constitutional reforms and we believe that these reviews and reforms must necessarily be concludedand finally adopted by members at the next Annual General Meeting which would hold during our Annual General Conference in August 2019 – well ahead of the NBA elections in 2020.
horizon and it behooves us as lawyers and the conscience of society to be vigilant, vocal and remain on the vanguard of fighting for free, fair and credible elections where the will of our people will not be subverted. The votes of our people must count, and their will must not be sabotaged or subverted howsoever, and this applies to all the levels of polls – Presidential, Gubernatorial, National and State Houses of Assemblies. In that wise, we intend to be very active in the coming months in our election monitoring activities. We would couple this with our consistent fight for the promotion and preservation of the rule of law. Several actions of governments and its agencies continue to threaten and undermine the rule of law in our country and these we must continually resist and fight against. We know that we have your mandate to continue that struggle and we therefore commit not to relent in the coming months or at all.
for the belief, hope and trust you repose in me and I assure you and indeed our members that I shall neither betray nor disappoint.


The Kilgore City Council's Tuesday night meeting ended with an 'agree to disagree' moment as officials continue their discussion of the city's looming tax rate for Fiscal Year 2018-2019.
City Manager Josh Selleck's proposed budget includes about $3.1 million drawn from various reserves to cover a litany of projects – some of which have been put off for years amid the economic downturn – on top of ongoing operational costs. That injection of funds includes more than $1 million from sales tax dollars, more accruing as the local market recovers.
To cover the proposed budget's expenditures, Selleck has recommended a tax rate of 53.9-cents per $100 valuation, the same rate as the current FY2018. On a $100,000 home, a taxpayer would pay $539 to City Hall.
While keeping the rate unchanged, the city will reap more in revenue following the past year's improvements in the tax base. The effective tax rate (what's needed to recoup the same revenue as the prior year) is about 51.5 cents per $100 valuation.
Amid the ongoing recovery, Kilgore Mayor Pro Tem Harvey McClendon suggested the city should lower the tax rate, easing up the burden on payers while relying more on the steadily-improving sales tax revenues. This month's check from the state comptroller's office is about $1.19 million, the largest allocation Kilgore has received since early 2009.
"Kilgore is blessed with sales tax revenues," McClendon said. With more monies coming in, "Personally, I would like to reduce the tax rate this year.
In his approach to the city's finances, Selleck is loathe to base operating costs on sales tax dollars, wary of the local revenue rollercoaster tied to oil-and-gas performance.
Kilgore Mayor Ronnie Spradlin was also reluctant to lower the tax rate – in a common refrain, he warns against backing offing the rate, as previous elected officials did here, when it's so far below where it should be relative to other communities and the city's ongoing needs.
Just the variety of street projects on tap for the coming year, Selleck added, need $2.5 million.
McClendon said he agrees with the expenditures presented in the proposed budget, but he maintains a different philosophy on how to fund them.
Council member Merlyn Holmes disagrees.
"I really don't think you're correct on that," she said. Likewise on sales tax, "It's still so volatile, you can't count on that.
Ultimately, Selleck and McClendon agreed to meet one-on-one for another review of the city's finances prior to the council's next meeting. The group's next regularly-scheduled session is set for Aug. 28 and will include a public hearing on the proposed tax rate. The second, mandated hearing on the rate is scheduled for Sept. 11 as the elected officials prepare to adopt the rate for FY19.
With a proposed tax rate under consideration, by law the council can adopt a rate less than the 0.539 proposed but no more.
The council typically meets on the second and fourth Tuesdays of the month at 5:30 p.m. in Kilgore City Hall at 815 N. Kilgore St.