Bethel Daily Briefing: Wednesday, Dec. 14

Today is Wednesday, December 14, 2011, the 348th day of the year. Including today, there are 11 more days until Christmas. 

Today's Weather

• Wednesday: Mostly cloudy through mid morning, then gradual clearing, with a high near 43. Light and variable wind.  
• Wednesday Night: A chance of rain, mainly after 3 a.m. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 32. Light south wind. Chance of precipitation is 40 percent. 

Municipal Meetings

• Bethel's Public Site & Building Commission will meet tonight at 7:30 p.m. in Meeting Room B at the municipal center (agenda).
• At 7:30 p.m. tonight, the Housing Authority will meet at 25 Reynolds Rige (agenda).

Events, Reminders, Notices

• Combined Chess Class: For those signed up for the library's chess program, due to the holidays, The Knight's and Pages's Chess Clubs will combine for one meeting this month only, tonight from 6:30-7:30 p.m.
• Leaf Pick-Up: Debris pick-up from October's snowstorm has been completed in the Town of Bethel. Leaf pick-up will start today and will start from Brookfield town line and crews will work their way down into town. There will be only one pass through each road, no special pick ups.
• Hat & Glove Drive: Boy Scout Pack 156 is holding a hat and glove drive in Bethel between now and Dec. 15. There will be roughly 25-30 hat and glove donation boxes placed around Bethel including at Ace Hardware, Famous Pizza, Molten Java, Capri Pizza, The Toy Room, Bethel Health Care and Wells Fargo in Stony Hill. On Dec. 16 at 6 p.m. in P.T. Barnum Square, the scouts will be hosting a Holiday Sing-A-Long and then bring the collected items to St Thomas' Church where they will enjoy hot cocoa and cookies. The Next morning they will be taken to Dorothy Day in Danbury by Troop 71 for distribution.

Today in History

• 1819: Alabama becomes the 22nd U.S. state. 
• 1903: The Wright brothers make their first attempt to fly with the Wright Flyer at Kitty Hawk, N.C.
• 1946: The United Nations General Asembly votes to establish its headquarters in New York City.
• 1964: The United States Supreme Court rules that the U.S. Congress can use the Constitution's Commerce Clause power to fight discrimination.
• 2008: President George W. Bush makes his fourth and final planned trip to Iraq as president and is almost struck by two shoes thrown at him by a Iraqi journalist during a news conference in Baghdad.

Weather information taken from the National Weather Service. Today in History compiled from Wikipedia and other sources.