A tradition since 2002, Gilbert Constitution Week returns to the town this week with an array of activities to promote the principles of the U.S. Constitution. Events will include a Scout clinic, student art and essay contests, adult fine arts competition, and seminars on the "Making of America."

Celebrate America’s founding document at this annual Gilbert event, featuring live music from recording artist Alex Boyé, replicas of key American buildings and monuments, and a fireworks display. Seating is on the lawn, so bring blankets and mosquito repellent.

Ask Americans to rattle off the federal holidays and observances they know by heart, and Citizenship Day isn’t likely to make many people’s top 10.

Gilbert is once again getting ready to host a celebration of the U.S. Constitution's birthday, with the Town Council once again getting ready to debateits proper role in an event that draws up to 10,000 people.

September 11, 2004

Gilbert will hold the area’s largest U.S. Constitution celebration during the next week featuring fireworks, flyovers, patriotic music and replicas that include a new 31-foot-tall Washington Monument.

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Sunni Arab leaders showed no sign of compromise Tuesday as they prepared to resume talks in yet another bid by the Shiite-led government to win approval of Iraq's new constitution.

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraqis voted Saturday to give a "yes" or "no" to a constitution that would define democracy in Iraq, a country once ruled by Saddam Hussein and now sharply divided among its Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish communities.

BAGHDAD, Iraq - The country's most powerful Shiite cleric endorsed the draft constitution Thursday, rejecting opposition voiced by two popular leaders of Iraq's majority sect and underlining a rift also on display in anti-British violence in the southern city of Basra.

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Enveloping the capital in an eerie orange glow, a blinding sandstorm Monday reduced visibility in Baghdad to a few feet - slowing traffic to a crawl, canceling a key meeting on the Iraqi constitution and sending hundreds of people to the hospital with breathing problems.

Fireworks in Gilbert, concerts in Mesa and a statewide proclamation are among the ways the 216th anniversary of the U.S. Constitution will be celebrated.

Give us live music, face-painting, replicas of key American buildings and monuments, and a fireworks show, and we’re there.

It’s been more than 200 years since there’s been a constitutional convention, but some Republican state lawmakers say the rising national debt makes it high time for the next one.

Tom Patterson, guest commentary

The U.S. House of Representatives, as it is periodically wont to do, last week approved by a comfortable 286-130 margin a proposed constitutional amendment that would allow Congress to outlaw flag burning as a form of political protest.

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Shiite members of Iraq's Governing Council refused to sign the interim constitution at the last minute Friday, delaying a signing ceremony after the country's top cleric rejected parts of the document, Iraqi officials said.

About 400 people who gathered this week at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints stake center in Gilbert got a refresher course on why the U.S. Constitution holds such a revered place in Mormon faith.

About this time 221 years ago, 42 delegates gathered behind locked, guarded doors to complete a document they spent four months creating: The U.S. Constitution. They had convened, under rule of secrecy, to hammer out a framework for a new government, and evidence shows they realized the importance of the work at hand.

It could be a new incarnation or just one last hurrah. An aging building in downtown Gilbert has become the town’s community fine arts center — at least temporarily.

It could be a new incarnation or just one last hurrah. An aging building in downtown Gilbert has become the town’s community fine arts center — at least temporarily.

The League of Latin American Citizens is looking into complaints that Jon Garrido, president of East Valley LULAC, has violated the organization’s bylaws.

The last 10 years have constituted a rather crude metamorphosis for filmmaker Oliver Stone. Stone (“JFK,” “Wall Street”) has busied himself with sultry noir thrillers (“U-Turn”), fawning sports dramas (“Any Given Sunday”) and — most inanely — budget-busting toga epics (“Alexander”).

WASHINGTON - President Bush urged lawmakers Wednesday to give Supreme Court nominee John G. Roberts "a timely hearing, a fair hearing" during a Senate confirmation battle that both sides expect to center on abortion.

May 4, 2005