John Dean to speak at Moorpark College

Former White House counsel John Dean will be the keynote speaker at the Constitution Day events on Wed., Sept. 17 at Moorpark College, 7075 Campus Road, Moorpark. The public is invited to attend, and it's free.

A free-speech forum with tables from area political groups and voter registration will open at 10 a.m. in front of the Performing Arts Center on campus. Pizza and soft drinks will be provided at 11:30 a.m.

Dean, an author, lecturer and columnist for FindLaw.com, will address the community in the main stage of the Performing Arts Center at noon, with a questionand-answer session to follow.

The lecture will have no tickets or reservations, and seats in the 400-capacity theater will be available on a first come, first served basis.

Dean, whose testimony before Congress in 1972 helped lead to the opening of impeachment hearings against President Richard Nixon, has written several books, including "Blind Ambition" in 1976 and his most recent, "Broken Government: How Republican Rule Destroyed the Legislative, Executive and Judicial Branches" in 2007.

Constitution Day kicks off the Year of Democracy at the college. A calendar of events is available at the school's Internet website, www.moorparkcollege.edu/ yearof.

For more information, e-mail Jeanne Marie Brown at jmbrown@vcccd.edu or political science professor Dr. Lee Ballestero at LBallestero@vcccd .edu or journalism professor Joanna Miller at JoannaMiller @vcccd.edu.