Five Things, Including a Republican Town Committee Meeting

Watch for rain. Weather Underground is calling the chance of rain “likely” today, and predicting high temps in the low 50s. It will be cloudy in the evening, with lows in the 30s. The chance of rain at night is 50 percent.

Monthly Republican Town Committee Meeting. The will be holding its monthly meeting tonight in the RCTV Studios viewing room. The meeting runs from 7 p.m. until 9 p.m. With the 2012 election season upon us, join the RTC as they discuss what can be done to aid GOP candidates as the primaries draw nearer, and engage in other debates of national interest.

Not-Too-Stuffy Book Group. Join the group for a discussion about Ruth Reichl’s “Not Becoming My Mother: and Other Things She Taught Me Along the Way.” Reichl, a culinary author and editor-in-chief of Gourmet magazine, chronicles her relationship with her late mother, Miriam. No prior registration is necessary, and copies of Reichl’s book are available at the Reading Public Library. The group will meet on the second floor of the senior center, and the discussion will be led by Barbara Currie.

Food pantry holiday drive. The Reading/North Reading Food Pantry is celebrating its one year anniversary and is . The food drive kicks off each day—beginning today and lasting until Sunday—at 10 a.m., and there will be raffles, free snacks and free giveaways. Please limit donations to canned and other non-perishable goods.

A Matter of Law. On this day in 1791, the state of Virginia ratified the first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution, known collectively as the Bill of rRights. As the 10th of the then 14 states to sign off on the amendments, Virginia’s ratification gives the Bill of Rights the two-thirds majority necessary to become the law of the land. The amendments were designed to protect the basic rights of U.S. citizens, guaranteeing the freedom of speech, press, assembly and the exercise of religion. Also guaranteed are the right to fair legal procedure and the right to bear arms; and that powers not expressly delegated to the federal government would be reserved for the states and the people. The Bill of Rights was influenced by the 1689 English Bill of Rights, as well as by Virginia’s Declaration of Rights, drafted by George Mason in 1776.

The two amendments that weren’t immediately ratified concerned the population system of representation, while the second prohibited laws varying the payment of congressional members from taking effect until an election intervened. The first of these two amendments was never ratified, while the second was finally ratified more than 200 years later, in 1992.