He spends three weeks every year driving around the state unencumbered by handlers.
Still, Mr. Harnett said his office received 250 to 300 reports of bias incidents every year from around the state, most of them racially motivated.
But last year, having had enough of the hooded men, Confederate battle flags and racial taunts that Wallingford, which is 94percentt white, seemed to draw every year around the holiday, state lawmakers and Gov. John G. Rowland resolved the problem themselves.
In 1994, he ran for attorney general but came in last among the Democrats, then spent the next several years travelling around the state in a mini-van, cultivating support for another run.
Twenty-five teams from Maryland high schools, community colleges, and four-year institutions around the state participated.
Decades later, the squad is still going strong, entertaining at around 50 shows per year across the state of Arizona.
Air events take place all year, including flight shows around the state, exhibitions, festivals and concerts, with the highlight coming on the anniversary itself with a re-creation of the first flight at 10 35 a.m.
Hugh Wolff, who preceded Zdenek Macal as the music director of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, plans to start the new year with four concerts around the state -- some of which may be sold out.
Doing so would cost around $8m a year; the state, alas, currently faces a $120m budget shortfall.
Long before the civil war ended 150 years ago, landowners from around the state sent their sons here to the University of Mississippi.
