Massachusetts General Court
The Massachusetts General Court is the state legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The name "General Court" is a hold-over from the earliest days of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, when the colonial assembly, in addition to making laws, sat as a judicial court of appeals. Before the adoption of the state constitution in 1780, it was called the Great and General Court, but the official title was shortened by John Adams, author of the state constitution, it is a bicameral body. The upper house is the Massachusetts Senate, composed of 40 members; the lower body, the Massachusetts House of Representatives, has 160 members. It meets in the Massachusetts State House on Beacon Hill in Boston; the current President of the Senate is Karen Spilka, the Speaker of the House is Robert DeLeo. Since 1959, Democrats have controlled both houses of the Massachusetts General Court by large majorities; the Democrats enjoyed veto-proof super-majorities in both chambers for part of the 1990s and presently hold supermajorities in both chambers.
State Senators and Representatives both serve two-year terms. There are no term limits; the legislature is a full-time legislature, although not to the extent of neighboring New York or some other states. As of 2018, the General Court was composed of 25 percent female representation; each Representative represents about 41,000 residents. The speaker of the House has been quite powerful, exerting significant influence over all aspects of state government. Representative districts are named for the primary county in which they are located, tend to stay within one county, although some districts contain portions of adjacent counties; the current composition of the House is 32 Republicans and 1 Independent. There are 40 senatorial districts in Massachusetts, named for the counties in which they are located; each state Senate district contains about 164,000 constituents. The current composition of the Senate is 6 Republicans; the General Court is responsible for enacting laws in the state. The two legislative branches work concurrently on pending laws brought before them.
Lawmaking begins when legislators, or their delegates, file petitions accompanied by bills, resolves or other types of legislation electronically, using the Legislative Automated Workflow System. The electronically submitted legislation is received in the House or Senate Clerk's office where the petitions and resolves are recorded in an electronic docket book; the clerks assign them to appropriate joint committees. There are 26 of these committees, each responsible for studying the bills which pertain to a specific area; each committee is composed of six senators and eleven representatives. The standing committees schedule public hearings for the individual bills, which afford citizens and lobbyists the opportunity to express their views. Committee members meet at a time in executive session to review the public testimony and discuss the merits of each bill before making their recommendations to the full membership of the House or Senate. Note that the public may still observe "executive" sessions, but may not participate in these meetings.
The committee issues its report, recommending that a bill "ought to pass" or "ought not to pass" and the report is submitted to the Clerk's office. The first reading of a favorably reported bill is automatic and occurs when the committee's report appears in the Journal of the House or Senate. Matters not requiring reference to another Joint, House or Senate committee are, following the first reading, referred without debate to the Committee on Senate Rules if reported in the Senate, except certain special laws are placed directly on the Senate Calendar, or, without debate to the House Steering and Scheduling committee if reported into the House. Reports from Senate Rules or House Steering and Scheduling are placed on the Calendar of the Chamber receiving the report for a second reading. If a bill reported favorably by a joint committee affects health care it is referred by the House or Senate Clerk to the joint committee on Health Care Financing; the Health Care Financing Committee is required to provide an estimated cost of the bill, when making their report.
If the estimated cost is less than $100,000, the bill bypasses having to be referred to Ways and Means. If a bill is not related to health care, but affects the finances of the Commonwealth, or, if it is reported by the Health Care Financing Committee with an estimated cost greater than $100,000, it is referred to the Senate or House Committee on Ways and Means after the first reading. Adverse reports are referred to the Committee on Steering and Policy in the Senate or placed without debate in the Orders of the Day for the next session of the House. Acceptance by either branch of an adverse report is considered the final rejection and the matter of the matter. However, an adverse report can be overturned. A member may move to substitute the bill for the report, and, if the motion to substitute carries, the matter is then
Groton, Massachusetts
Groton is a town in northwestern Middlesex County, United States, within the Greater Boston metropolitan area. The population was 10,873 at the 2012 town census, it is home to two prep schools: Groton School, founded in 1884, Lawrence Academy at Groton, founded in 1792 and the third-oldest private school in Massachusetts. Lawrence Academy was founded with a charter from John Hancock. Near the former border with Maine, the historic town was a battlefield in King Philip's War and Queen Anne's War, with children taken captive in a raid by Abenaki and French; the area surrounding modern-day Groton has, for thousands of years, been the territory of various cultures of indigenous peoples. They settled along the rivers, which they used for domestic tasks and transportation. Historic tribes were Nashaway Indians; the Anglo-American Groton started with the trading post of John Tinker, who conducted business there with the Nashaway at the confluence of Nod Brook and the Nashua River. The Nashaway called the area Petapawag, meaning "swampy land."
As Tinker had, other pioneers followed the Algonquian trails from Massachusetts Bay. They found the region productive for farming; the town was settled and incorporated in 1655, named for Groton in Suffolk, England. Called The Plantation of Groton, it included all of present-day Groton and Ayer all of Pepperell and Shirley, large parts of Dunstable and Tyngsborough, plus smaller parts of Harvard and Westford in Massachusetts, as well as Nashua and Hollis, New Hampshire. During King Philip's War, on March 13, 1676, Indians burned all buildings except for four Groton garrisons. Among those killed was John Nutting, a Selectman at Groton. Survivors fled to Concord and other safe havens, but two years returned to rebuild. Native Americans attacked the town again during the Raid on Groton in 1694. In 1704 during Queen Anne's War, a French-Abenaki raid captured three children of Thomas Tarbell and his wife, among others, taking them overland about 300 miles to the Mohawk village of Kahnewake south of Montreal, where they would be held for ransom or adopted into the tribe by individual Mohawk families.
The trade in captives was a thriving business between the opposing colonies of the English and French. The two Tarbell boys and Zachariah, were adopted by Mohawk families and became assimilated marrying into the tribe, having families, becoming chiefs, they were among the founders in the 1740s of Akwesasne, after moving up the St. Lawrence River from Kahnewake; the brothers' older sister Sarah Tarbell was ransomed by a French family, converted to Catholicism. She joined a Catholic teaching/nursing religious order in Montreal and served with them for the rest of her life. There are Tarbell-named descendants among Mohawk of Akwesasne in the 21st century. In 1775, the common in front of the First Parish Church was an assembly area for Minutemen who fought in the Battle of Lexington and Concord. According to the United States Census Bureau, Groton has a total area of 33.7 square miles, of which 32.8 square miles is land and 0.9 square miles is water. Groton is the largest town in Middlesex County in terms of square mileage.
The town is drained by the Nashua Squannacook River. The center of the town is dominated by Gibbet Hill, with several other large hills throughout the town. Groton is served by state routes 40, 111, 119 and 225, it borders the towns of Pepperell, Tyngsborough, Littleton, Ayer and Townsend. See also: Groton, Massachusetts As of the census of 2000, there were 9,547 people, 3,268 households, 2,568 families residing in the town; the population density was 291.3 people per square mile. There were 3,393 housing units at an average density of 103.5 per square mile. The racial makeup of the town was 97.22% White, 0.35% Black or African American, 0.13% Native American, 0.97% Asian, 0.02% Pacific Islander, 0.27% from other races, 1.04% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.14% of the population. There were 3,268 households out of which 46.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 70.0% were married couples living together, 6.3% had a female householder with no husband present, 21.4% were non-families.
Of all households 17.1% were made up of individuals and 5.4% had someone living alone, 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.90 and the average family size was 3.31. The age distribution of the town's population was 32.6% under the age of 18, 4.2% from 18 to 24, 32.7% from 25 to 44, 23.5% from 45 to 64, 7.0% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36 years. For every 100 females, there were 98.2 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 94.5 males. The median income for a household in the town was $118,041, the median income for a family was $136,653. Males had a median income of $101,117 versus $60,402 for females; the per capita income for the town was $44,756. About 1.1% of families and 1.8% of the population were below the poverty line, including 1.0% of those under age 18 and none of those age 65 or over. Groton annually hosts an equestrian competition; the Groton-Dunstable Crusaders high school football team competes in the town. The town is governed by an open Town Meeting and administered by an elected Board of Selectmen and appointed Town Manager.
Boutwell School Florence Roche Elementary School Groton-Dun
General store
A general merchant store is a rural or small town store that carries a general line of merchandise. It carries a broad selection of merchandise, sometimes in a small space, where people from the town and surrounding rural areas come to purchase all their general goods; the store obtains special orders from warehouses. It differs from a convenience store or corner shop in that it will be the main shop for the community rather than a convenient supplement. General stores sell staple food items such as milk and bread, various household goods such as hardware and electrical supplies; the concept of the general store is old, although some still exist, there are far fewer than there once were, due to urbanization, urban sprawl, the recent phenomenon of big-box stores. The term "general merchandise store" is used to describe a hybrid of a department store, with a wide selection of goods, a discount store, with low prices. Examples include Sears. General dealers were established in the 18th and 19th century in many remote populated places where mobility was limited and a single shop was sufficient to service the entire community.
Due to its close connection and confinement to its customers, general dealers adjusted their sales offerings to the specific preferences of their community. General dealers existed, apart from mainland England and North America, in all colonies and in areas where settlers encroached communities that did not trade with money. In the colonies trade in local produce had existed; the growing need for imported goods, both from European settlers and the indigenous population, led to the establishment of a network of merchants, subsequently to the creation of a money economy. While a large number of general stores still exist in Australia, as in other parts of the world their numbers were reduced by the advent of supermarkets; the oldest continually run general store in Canada is Trousdale's, located in Sydenham, operated by the Trousdale family since 1836. Socialbility has always been a feature. Gray Creek Store in Gray Creek, Kootenay Bay, Canada is the largest and oldest general dealer in the Kootenay Lake region Enniskillen General Store in Clarington, Ontario has been in operation since 1840 and still continues today.
Robinson's General Store in Dorset, voted "Canada's Best Country Store", has been owned and operated by the same family since 1921. In the Dominican Republic, a colmado is the country's equivalent to a general store. Colmado literal translation is'full to the brim' implying its great density of goods in a small space; the colmado is much more than just a general store, for it offers a social gathering point for the residents of the town or neighborhood. The colmado is an important institution in the Dominican Republic serving as an economic and political center for every small community, it is common for colmados to have loud Dominican music such as bachata, or salsa playing. A common pastime for Dominican men is to play dominoes and drink a beer at their local colmado on Sundays. Another particularity of the colmado is that they provide delivery services of their products straight to your house door. Products go from beers, toilet paper to a flash light or canned food; the Greek merchants in Egypt were called bakal.
In India, a tapri is a regional version of a general store. It stores all home, personal and hygienic daily used products. Many Kirana shops sell products other from food, such as clothing or household items, toys and medicines. Small Kirna stores, which are located on the corner of streets and known as katta or tapri, sell cigarettes and tea. Due to its sparse population there are still a number of general dealers in Namibia, for instance the Solitaire General Dealer in Solitaire, an important stopover for tourists through Namibia's Namib-Naukluft Park. In Puerto Rico, a U. S. territory, several general stores have proliferated since the 1970s. Supermercados Selectos Supermercados Econo There are still many general dealers in South Africa. Oepverkoop is the oldest general dealer in Western Cape. Goodwood Museum in Cape Town displays the operation of a general dealer shop. Bodeguita comes from the Spanish language as a diminutive of bodega which means "small store" or "small warehouse". Traditionally, Bodeguita existed selling general merchandise they were replaced by the chain store, the same way large US chains have eliminated the "mom and pop" store.
Village shops are becoming less common in the densely populated parts of the country, although they remain common in remote rural areas. Their rarity in England is due to several factors, such as the rise in car ownership, competition from large chain supermarkets, the rising cost of village properties, the increasing trend of the wealthy to own holiday homes in picturesque villages these houses which used to be occupied full-time by potential customers are vacant for long periods. Of those villages in England who still have shops, these days they are a combination of services under one roof to increase the likelihood of profit and survival. Extra services may include a post office, private business services such as tearooms and bed and breakfast accommodation.
General officer
A General Officer is an officer of high rank in the army, in some nations' air forces or marines. The term "general" is used in two ways: as the generic title for all grades of general officer and as a specific rank, it originates in the 16th century, as a shortening of captain general, which rank was taken from Middle French capitaine général. The adjective general had been affixed to officer designations since the late medieval period to indicate relative superiority or an extended jurisdiction. Today, the title of "General" is known in some countries as a four-star rank; however different countries use other insignia for senior ranks. It has a NATO code of OF-9 and is the highest rank in use in a number of armies, air forces and marine organizations; the various grades of general officer are at the top of the military rank structure. Lower-ranking officers in land-centric military forces are known as field officers or field-grade officers, below them are company-grade officers. There are two common systems of general ranks used worldwide.
In addition, there is a third system, the Arab system of ranks, used throughout the Middle East and North Africa but is not used elsewhere in the world. Variations of one form, the old European system, were once used throughout Europe, it is used in the United Kingdom, from which it spread to the Commonwealth and the United States of America. The general officer ranks are named by prefixing "general", as an adjective, with field officer ranks, although in some countries the highest general officers are titled field marshal, marshal, or captain general; the other is derived from the French Revolution, where generals' ranks are named according to the unit they command. The system used either a colonel general rank; the rank of field marshal was used by some countries as the highest rank, while in other countries it was used as a divisional or brigade rank. Many countries used two brigade command ranks, why some countries now use two stars as their brigade general insignia. Mexico and Argentina still use two brigade command ranks.
In some nations, the equivalent to brigadier general is brigadier, not always considered by these armies to be a general officer rank, although it is always treated as equivalent to the rank of brigadier general for comparative purposes. As a lieutenant outranks a sergeant major; the serjeant major was the commander of the infantry, junior only to the captain general and lieutenant general. The distinction of serjeant major general only applied after serjeant majors were introduced as a rank of field officer. Serjeant was dropped from both rank titles, creating the modern rank titles. Serjeant major as a senior rank of non-commissioned officer was a creation; the armies of Arab countries use traditional Arabic titles. These were formalized in their current system to replace the Turkish system, in use in the Arab world and the Turco-Egyptian ranks in Egypt. Other nomenclatures for general officers include the titles and ranks: Adjutant general Commandant-general Inspector general General-in-chief General of the Army General of the Air Force General of the Armies of the United States, a title created for General John J. Pershing, subsequently granted posthumously to George Washington Generaladmiral Air general and aviation general Wing general and group general General-potpukovnik Director general Director general of national defence Controller general Prefect general Master-General of the Ordnance – senior British military position.
Police Director General. Commissioner Admiral In addition to militarily educated generals, there are generals in medicine and engineering; the rank of the most senior chaplain, is usually considered to be a general officer rank. In the old European system, a general, without prefix or suffix, is the most senior type of general, above lieutenant general and directly below field marshal as a four-star rank, it is the most senior peacetime rank, with more senior ranks being used only in wartime or as honorary titles. In some armies, the rank of captain general, general of the army, army general or colonel general occupied or occupies this position. Depending on circumstances and the army in question, these ranks may be considered to be equivalent to a "full" general or to a field marshal; the rank of general came about as a "captain-general", the captain of an army in general (i.e. th
Great Britain
Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of 209,331 km2, it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island, the ninth-largest island in the world. In 2011, Great Britain had a population of about 61 million people, making it the world's third-most populous island after Java in Indonesia and Honshu in Japan; the island of Ireland is situated to the west of Great Britain, together these islands, along with over 1,000 smaller surrounding islands, form the British Isles archipelago. The island is dominated by a maritime climate with quite narrow temperature differences between seasons. Politically, Great Britain is part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, constitutes most of its territory. Most of England and Wales are on the island; the term "Great Britain" is used to include the whole of England and Wales including their component adjoining islands. A single Kingdom of Great Britain resulted from the union of the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland by the 1707 Acts of Union.
In 1801, Great Britain united with the neighbouring Kingdom of Ireland, forming the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, renamed the "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland" after the Irish Free State seceded in 1922. The archipelago has been referred to by a single name for over 2000 years: the term'British Isles' derives from terms used by classical geographers to describe this island group. By 50 BC Greek geographers were using equivalents of Prettanikē as a collective name for the British Isles. However, with the Roman conquest of Britain the Latin term Britannia was used for the island of Great Britain, Roman-occupied Britain south of Caledonia; the earliest known name for Great Britain is Albion or insula Albionum, from either the Latin albus meaning "white" or the "island of the Albiones". The oldest mention of terms related to Great Britain was by Aristotle, or by Pseudo-Aristotle, in his text On the Universe, Vol. III. To quote his works, "There are two large islands in it, called the British Isles and Ierne".
Pliny the Elder in his Natural History records of Great Britain: "Its former name was Albion. Old French Bretaigne and Middle English Bretayne, Breteyne; the French form replaced the Old English Breoton, Bryten, Breten. Britannia was used by the Romans from the 1st century BC for the British Isles taken together, it is derived from the travel writings of the Pytheas around 320 BC, which described various islands in the North Atlantic as far north as Thule. Marcian of Heraclea, in his Periplus maris exteri, described the island group as αἱ Πρεττανικαὶ νῆσοι; the peoples of these islands of Prettanike were called the Priteni or Pretani. Priteni is the source of the Welsh language term Prydain, which has the same source as the Goidelic term Cruithne used to refer to the early Brythonic-speaking inhabitants of Ireland; the latter were called Picts or Caledonians by the Romans. Greek historians Diodorus of Sicily and Strabo preserved variants of Prettanike from the work of Greek explorer Pytheas of Massalia, who travelled from his home in Hellenistic southern Gaul to Britain in the 4th century BC.
The term used by Pytheas may derive from a Celtic word meaning "the painted ones" or "the tattooed folk" in reference to body decorations. The Greco-Egyptian scientist Ptolemy referred to the larger island as great Britain and to Ireland as little Britain in his work Almagest. In his work, Geography, he gave the islands the names Alwion and Mona, suggesting these may have been the names of the individual islands not known to him at the time of writing Almagest; the name Albion appears to have fallen out of use sometime after the Roman conquest of Britain, after which Britain became the more commonplace name for the island. After the Anglo-Saxon period, Britain was used as a historical term only. Geoffrey of Monmouth in his pseudohistorical Historia Regum Britanniae refers to the island as Britannia major, to distinguish it from Britannia minor, the continental region which approximates to modern Brittany, settled in the fifth and sixth centuries by migrants from Britain; the term Great Britain was first used in 1474, in the instrument drawing up the proposal for a marriage between Cecily the daughter of Edward IV of England, James the son of James III of Scotland, which described it as "this Nobill Isle, callit Gret Britanee".
It was used again in 1604, when King James VI and I styled himself "King of Great Brittaine and Ireland". Great Britain refers geographically to the island of Great Britain, it is often used to refer politically to the whole of England and Wales, including their smaller off shore islands. While it is sometimes used to refer to the whole of the United Kingdom, including Northern Ireland, this is not correct. Britain can refer to either all island
Shrewsbury, Massachusetts
Shrewsbury is a town in Worcester County, United States. Shrewsbury, unlike surrounding towns like Grafton, Millbury and Northborough, did not become a mill town or farming village; the population was 35,608 in nearly 12,400 households. Incorporated in 1727, the town is governed now under the New England representative town meeting system, headed by the Town Manager and five-member elected Board of Selectmen whose duties include licensing, appointing various administrative positions, calling a town meeting of citizens annually or whenever the need arises; the Town of Shrewsbury, named for Shrewsbury, England, is a suburban community with an uneven and hilly terrain cut by a number of minor streams providing several small water power sites. Grants of land were made in what would be the town beginning in 1664, with the 3,200-acre grant called Haynes Farm as the largest. Settlers came from Sudbury and Marlborough, the first permanent settler was Gersham Wheelock in 1720; as a town, Shrewsbury was first settled in 1722 and incorporated in 1727.
Townspeople created an agricultural economy with apple orchards, by 1750, there were two stores and four taverns as well as several small industries in operation. The rapid fall of prices for agricultural goods, the shortage of hard currency, the general economic depression following the Revolutionary War produced disastrous conditions for colonists. Shays' Rebellion in 1786 sought to close the courts to prevent debt collections and the foreclosure of mortgages. Shrewsbury became a staging area for the rebellion and the encampment of the more than 400 insurgents, before the march on the Worcester Court House. A leather industry began in 1786 in Shrewsbury, town farmers developed large cattle herds to support the manufacture of boots and shoes; this was followed by the establishment of gunsmithing operations in 1797, which produced rifles and pistols and cutlery. Luther Goddard began in 1809 by making brass clocks and established a small watch factory employing a few skilled Swiss and English watchmakers.
Lumbering created sawmills, they in turn drew chair and cabinet makers and wagon builders. The development of streetcar routes in the 19th century propelled the growth of single-family housing in town. A summer resort population on Lake Quinsigamond became consumers of the market garden produce grown by town farmers; as Shrewsbury's industry was killed by the lack of large waterpower sites and the tardy arrival of the railroad, its role as a suburb of Worcester grew more important. The town's population doubled from 1915 to 1940 as continued streetcar suburb growth brought more modern settlers into the community. Other modern developments included an increased number of lakeside cottages, ethnic clubs and recreational areas on the lake; the economy of modern Shrewsbury has been described as depending on agriculture, the resort industry and the providing of recreation and food for the population of Worcester. Shrewsbury is home to three current and one former Nationally Registered Historic Places: The Gen. Artemas Ward Homestead on Main Street The Shrewsbury Historic District, in the town center which includes parts of Church Road, Main Street, Prospect Street, Boylston Street, Grafton Street 1767 Milestones, of which two surviving milestones are in town, along the route of the old Boston Post Road.
Shrewsbury is a suburb of Worcester, about 45 minutes from Boston and 10 minutes to downtown Worcester. The town has a total area of 21.6 square miles, of which, 20.7 square miles of it is land and 0.9 square miles of it is water. By the 2010 census, the population had reached 35,608; as of the census of 2010, there were 35,608 people, the racial makeup of the town was 77.3% White, 2.0% African American, 0.08% Native American, 15.3% Asian, 0.01% Pacific Islander, 0.9% from other races, 1.60% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2.7% of the population. As of the 2000 Census There were 12,366 households, out of which 34.5% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 60.1% were married couples living together, 7.5% had a female householder with no husband present, 29.7% were non-families. 25.3% of all households were made up of individuals, 10.5% had someone living alone, 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.54, the average family size was 3.09.
In the town, the population was spread out, with 25.6% under the age of 18, 5.0% from 18 to 24, 33.4% from 25 to 44, 22.4% from 45 to 64, 13.5% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 38 years. For every 100 females, there were 94.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 91.4 males. The median income for a household in the town was $109,000, the median income for a family was $124,000 ). Males had a median income of $56,259 versus $37,129 for females; the per capita income for the town was $45,570. About 3.3% of families and 4.8% of the population were below the poverty line, including 4.6% of those under age 18 and 7.6% of those age 65 or over. Shrewsbury is governed in the traditional New England style. Municipal elections are held on the first Tuesday in May. Legislative Branch: Representative Town Meeting: 240 elected members. Executive Branch: Five-member Board of Selectmen with three-year staggered terms, an appointed Town Manager, other elected and appointed positions.
ModeratorChristopher Mehne Board of SelectmenMaurice M. DePalo Beth Casavant James F. Kane John I. Lebeaux Moira Miller School CommitteeErin H. Canzano Sandra Fry
Kingdom of Great Britain
United States
Media related to Artemas Ward at Wikimedia Commons
