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When you’re a newborn, like we are at Civil Beat, each new day feels like an adventure.

What we’re doing feels fresh to us — and we hope to you.

If you want to get a taste of what I’m talking about, click on the Articles link at the top of this page and it’ll open a page with links to all the articles we’ve written this week.

In the meantime, I’d like to point out a few standout articles and discussions from this week to give a better sense of what we’re about here at Civil Beat. I guarantee that these will be worth a few minutes of your time this weekend.

• How will civil unions affect people not in the relationships? That’s an important and concrete question to consider as the governor evaluates whether to allow the bill to become law. To find the answer, read Biggest Impact Of Civil Unions Will Be On Couples and a related story, Legal Benefits and Implications of Civil Unions by our Hawaii Beat reporter Chad Blair.

• The land and the ocean are at the heart of Hawaii life. A fascinating aspect of living on an island is that the shoreline keeps changing. Land is created, and land is destroyed. So who owns the land that is formed, the sand on new beaches? That’s a fundamental question for all of us, one explored by Land Beat reporter Michael Levine in his article, As Beaches Grow, Do Property Rights Grow With Them.

• History matters. Voters this year will be asked whether to ditch an elected board of education members and instead give the governor the power to appoint the board. What was fascinating in Education Beat reporter Katherine Poythress‘ article, Arguments Against Elected Board of Education Sound Familiar, was that arguments being made in favor of an appointed board this year were made to push for an elected board in the early 1960s, when voters decided to take the power to appoint the board away from the governor.

• And then there was Israel Kamakawiwo’ole, and an article by Dan Kois, a contributing writer to New York magazine and a film critic for The Washington Post. Dan’s the first guest contributor to Civil Beat. You can count on seeing many more as we expand the range of topics we’re going to cover.

One of the strangest things I’m finding about journalism in Hawaii is how many different ways government types here find to say, “No.” Don’t get me wrong. We’re finding a friendly response from many. But it’s almost funny — if it weren’t so sad — how many people in government feel like “No” is the best answer when it comes to requests for public information. You want to see a public contract? No. But maybe in a month. You want to know about a program. No. We can’t talk about it.

We’ll tell you more about encountering the “No” in coming weeks. At Civil Beat, we want to share our experience acting as our readers’ agents, asking the questions they would ask. We also, as our name might suggest, want to create an environment that’s civil, a place we’re calling the new civic square. So it was encouraging on Friday to read what veteran blogger and savvy web journalist Mark Potts wrote on his .

“This is a huge step in the right direction,” he wrote of the way we’re handling comments, “and points toward a way toward fixing the cesspools that most news site comments areas have become.” That’s our goal, to make our discussions something people will want to join. We’re already seeing great contributions. And as the site grows — remember, we’re less than two weeks old — and as more people opt for our various offers — Full Membership, Daily Membership and Discussion Membership — we expect the debate to get even livelier. Feel free to jump in. It’s just 99 cents for 30 days to participate in the discussions.

Civil unions and homelessness are topics that can draw the most toxic of comments on traditional news sites. I know from experience. When I was editor of the Rocky Mountain News in Denver, we would have to police the comments for vile and hateful statements. But what we’re finding at Civil Beat is that people who are willing to stand behind their name — as everybody does at Civil Beat — are much more likely to act in a reasonable way. I hope you’ll check out the discussions on Homelessness, Furlough Fridays and Civil Unions to see what I’m talking about.

We head into Week 3 ready for more new experiences. But for now, it feels like it’s time for a nap. This start-up life can take it out of you.

Have a great weekend, and we’ll see you next week.