Connecticut Public Accounting Firms Reach National Rankings

The largest Connecticut-based public accounting firm, BlumShapiro, earned the #54 position in the nation’s top 100, according to the publication Inside Public Accounting.  It is one of a handful of Connecticut firms to make the annual top 300 list, in addition to regional firms with offices in Connecticut. BlumShapiro is the largest regional business advisory firm based in New England providing accounting, tax and business consulting services. The firm serves clients from six offices offices in Connecticut (West Hartford and Shelton), Massachusetts and Rhode Island. BlumShapiro ranked #53 last year. 

Noted among the nation’s top 200 public accounting firms is Hartford headquartered Whittlesey & Hadley.  The firm, ranked at #155 this year, up from #178 a year ago, and #192 in 2014, has two additional offices, located in Hamden, CT and Holyoke, MA. The firm provides a comprehensive array of accounting, auditing, tax, and advisory services to a broad range of businesses and individuals.

Ranked #285 is Reynolds & Rowella LLP, which maintains offices in Ridgefield and New Canaan.  “We are proud to be counted among the top-ranked accounting firms nationwide on a list that includes Deloitte, PwC, Ernst & Young and KPMG,” Frank Rowella, Reynolds & Rowella’s managing partner, told the Fairfield County Business Journal. “The IPA list is known as one of the most thorough and accurate sets of rankings in the accounting profession. Our inclusion reflects our determination to provide the very best quality compliance and financial services solutions to our valued clients.”

At #296 is Glastonbury-based Fiondella Milone & LaSaracina.  FML was founded in 2002 “for the purpose of providing professional auditing, tax and business consulting services to a wide range of clients and industries throughout the Northeast,” the company’s website indicates.  After working together at Ernst & Young, the firm’s founding partners, Jeff Fiondella, Frank Milone and Lisa LaSaracina launched FML.

Inside Public Accounting (IPA), founded in 1987, is published by The Platt Group. The Platt Group publishes both the award-winning Inside Public Accounting newsletter and the award-winning National Benchmarking Report.

Beginning in 1994, INSIDE Public Accounting’s Survey and Analysis of Firms and the resulting national benchmarking report on the nation’s largest accounting firms has served as a barometer of the overall health, challenges and opportunities of the profession, according to the publication.

Annually more than 500 accounting firms across the North America complete the in-depth financial and operational survey. The data is then used to compile the annual ranking of the nation’s largest accounting firms, which is unveiled in August of each year. The annual IPA rankings are considered to be among the longest-running, most accurate and up-to-date for the nation’s largest accounting firms.

Leading the list nationally were Deloitte, PricewaterhouseCopers, Ernst & Young, KPMG, RSM, and Grant Thornton.  Ranked at #11 is New York based CohnReznick, which has offices in Hartford.  Marcum LLP ranked #16, Citrin Cooperman & Company, also based in New York and ranked #21, has offices in Fairfield County.

Opioid Epidemic Leads Conference Marking 100 Years of Public Health in CT

Tackling the opioid epidemic at the federal, state, and local levels will be the focus of the featured panel when the Connecticut Public Health Association (CPHA) celebrates 100 years of public health in Connecticut at the 2016 CPHA annual conference in November. In addition to the expert panel on opioid abuse, there will be more than 30 presenters on public health topics, a presentation on the history of CPHA and public health in the state, and a look forward to the future and innovations on the horizon in health research, policy, and community programs.

“Today, more than ever, the value of public health in saving lives and reducing health care costs is at the forefront of public policy,” the organization’s website points out.  Members represent a wide variety of disciplines, and “are united in the goal of protecting and promoting the public's health.”

Keynote speaker will be Camara P. Jones, MD, MPH, PhD, President of the American Public Health Association (APHA).  Dr. Jones is a research director on social determinants of health and equity in the Division of Adult and Community Health, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion and President of the American Public Health Association (APHA).

She seeks to broaden the national health debate to include not only universal access to high quality health care but also attention to the social determinants of health (including poverty) and the social determinants of equity (including racism). As a methodologist, she has developed new ways for comparing full distributions of data (rather than means or proportions) in order to investigate population-level risk factors and propose population-level interventions.

Opioid abuse has hit record levels in the United States, with drug overdose deaths quadrupling over the last 15 years, the CPHA points out. According to the Centers for Disease Control, Connecticut is experiencing a death rate for drug and opioid overdoses that surpasses the national rate and has reached epidemic proportions.

The conference is being held at Anthony’s Ocean View in New Haven on November 10.  The theme is “Back to the Future – 100 Years of Public Health in Connecticut and Beyond.” The annual meeting is the oldest and largest gathering of public health professionals in Connecticut, attracting hundreds of attendees each year.

Financial Capital Remains Hurdle for Women Entrepreneurs

“Data reveal that an increasing number of women are choosing entrepreneurship as a career path, and of those, a growing number of them share aspirations for growth.”  That fact, pointed out in the preface of a new book co-written by a local university professor, is the proverbial tip of the iceberg. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there are roughly 9.9 million women-owned firms in the United States, representing over a third of all firms in the country—and the ranks of new enterprises with women at the helm are growing rapidly. Between 2007 and 2012, women-owned firms in the U.S. grew by 27 percent compared to a growth rate of 2 percent for firms overall.

“But in spite of their impressive growth in numbers,” writes University of Hartford finance professor Susan Coleman, “the business ventures women are launching today continue to lag behind those launched by men in terms of revenues and employment. So while an increasing number of women can count themselves as entrepreneurs, many appear to be running into barriers, as the vast majority of their businesses remain quite small.”

Coleman, along with Alicia M. Robb, have co-authored The Next Wave: Financing Women’s Growth-Oriented Firms (published by Stanford University Press), which points to “three essential factors that women entrepreneurs need to thrive: knowledge, networks, and investors. In tandem, these three ingredients connect and empower emerging entrepreneurs with those who have succeeded in growing their firms while also realizing the financial and economic returns that come with doing so.”

Robb is Senior Fellow with the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and Visiting Scholar at the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Colorado, Boulder. She previously worked with the Office of Economic Research in the Small Business Administration and the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. Coleman is Professor of Finance and Ansley Chair at the Barney School of Business at the University of Hartford.

Coleman notes that “A crucial pitfall is that women face unique challenges in their attempts to acquire financial capital. Growth-oriented firms typically require substantial investment—both in the form of bank loans and external equity in the form of angel or venture capital funding—to scale up.” Studies reveal, however, that “women entrepreneurs raise significantly smaller amounts of capital than men and face continued barriers in their attempts to secure external equity in particular,” Coleman points out.

In the book’s forward, the authors explain that the motives behind women-run entrepreneurial businesses vary.  “Some of these growth-oriented entrepreneurs are motivated by a desire to pursue an opportunity or an unmet need in the marketplace.  Others are frustrated by the constraints imposed by a ‘glass ceiling’ that prevents them from reaching the most senior ranks of corporations.  Still others are drawn by the financial and economic rewards that can come from leading a firm that achieves scale.”

According to IRS data, women represent over 40 percent of top wealth holders in the United States, yet estimates from the University of New Hampshire’s Center for Venture Research indicate that they represented only 25 percent of angel investors in 2015, Coleman notes.

Optimistic about the future success of women entrepreneurs, Coleman and Robb observe that “Successful women entrepreneurs who are paying it forward in a variety of ways are a driving force” in what they describe as the “next wave.”

“In a virtuous cycle, women entrepreneurs evolve from being the recipients of human, social, and financial capital into becoming the providers of those key resources as their firms grow and create economic value. The more successful women at the helm of businesses that kick off cash, the more women there are to invest in others, and the faster we see the number of women grow in the ranks of larger businesses and investing.”

In addition to appreciation expressed to the Kansas City-based Kauffman Foundation for financial support, the book’s acknowledgements note that the Barney School of Business and the University of Hartford’s Women’s Education and Leadership Fund provided grants that helped support initial research and development of case studies on women entrepreneurs. The authors also expressed appreciation to three University of Hartford graduate assistants – Ece Karhan, Mert Karhan, and Isha Sen – who “played an invaluable role in the book’s development.”

UConn Study: Look-alike ‘Smart Snacks’ Confuse Students, Parents

Unhealthy snack food brands such as Cheetos, Fruit-by-the-Foot and Froot Loops have reformulated their products to meet new USDA Smart Snacks nutrition standards so they can be sold to kids in schools. But these products often come in packages that look similar to the unhealthy versions of the brands that are still sold in stores and advertised widely to youth. Selling these look-alike Smart Snacks in schools confuses students and parents, provides companies a way to market their brands to kids in schools, and may hurt schools’ credibility, according to a new study by the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at the University of Connecticut, published in the journal Childhood Obesity and reported by UConn Today.

It is the first to examine how selling look-alike Smart Snacks in schools affects attitudes about the brands and perceptions of schools selling these products.

“Kids think the healthier Smart Snacks they can buy in school are the same products that are sold in stores,” says Jennifer Harris, lead author of the study and director of marketing initiatives for the UConn Rudd Center. “It’s confusing because the packaging for these look-alike Smart Snacks looks so much like the less nutritious versions that kids see advertised on TV and in the stores.

“This is a great marketing tool,” she adds. “The snack makers get to sell their products in schools and at the same time market their unhealthy brands to kids every school day.”

The study involved an online experiment with 659 students 13 to 17 years old, and 859 parents of children 10 to 13 years old.  The participants viewed information about a hypothetical school that sold either look-alike Smart Snacks, regular versions of the same brands sold in stores, Smart Snacks in redesigned packages, or only brands whose regular products met Smart Snacks standards.

Specific findings of the study include:

• Students and parents rated the healthier look-alike Smart Snacks similarly in taste, healthfulness, and purchase intent as the store versions, while considering Smart Snacks in different packages to be healthier but less tasty.
• Most participants inaccurately believed they had seen look-alike Smart Snacks for sale in stores.
• Participants also rated schools offering the look-alike Smart Snacks and the store versions of the brands as less concerned about students’ health and well-being.

“The practice of selling look-alike Smart Snacks in schools likely benefits the brands,” says Harris, “but may not improve children’s overall diet, and undermines schools’ ability to teach and model good nutrition.”

The Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity relocated to UConn in 2015 after 10 years at Yale.  The Center is a distinguished multi-disciplinary policy research center dedicated to promoting solutions to childhood obesity, poor diet, and weight bias through research and policy. The Rudd Center is a leader in building broad-based consensus to change diet and activity patterns by conducting research and educating policy makers and the public.

The research was funded by a grant from the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation.

CT Residents Concerns About Health Care Affordability, Job Prospects Increase; More Expect to Leave, Even as Optimism Grows

Nearly two-thirds of Connecticut residents are concerned about the affordability of health insurance, a jump of 12 percentage points in just the past year, and the highest level since the quarterly Inform CT Consumer Confidence Survey began 18 months ago. And slightly more than 4 in 10 Connecticut residents now say it is likely that they will move out of the state within the next five years, reflecting concerns about a lack of jobs, declining business conditions and health insurance costs. Yet, many residents continue to say that Connecticut is a good place to live and raise a family, and some optimism is evident in consumer spending expectations.  The survey found that:

• 41% say it is likely they will make a major consumer expenditure (for furniture or other products) during the next six months.
• 31% say it is likely they will purchase a car in the next six months.
• 71% indicated they expected to take a vacation outside of Connecticut in the next six months.

All are the highest percentages since the quarterly survey began in 2015.

The quarterly survey is released by InformCT, a public-private partnership that provides independent, non-partisan research, analysis, and public outreach to help create fact-based dialogue and action in Connecticut.  Administered by researchers from the Connecticut Economic Resource Center, Inc. (CERC) and Smith & Company, the analysis is based on the responses of residents across Connecticut and addresses key economic issues, providing a glimpse of the public’s views.

Despite qualms about the state’s economy, residents are increasingly optimistic about their own financial circumstances.  One-third (32%) say they are better off now than six months ago, and 42 percent believe they will be better off six months from now than they are today.  Both numbers are 5 percentage points higher than they were a year ago.  The overall view of the state’s fiscal picture differs:

• A year ago, 40 percent of those surveyed disagreed with the statement that the Connecticut economy is improving. That percentage has now climbed – one year later – to 49 percent, nearly half the state.
• The percentage who believe that the state’s economy is improving has dropped from 29% a year ago to 23% during the second quarter of this year.
• Residents of New London and Fairfield County most strongly believed that business conditions had improved over the previous six months, with Middlesex, Windham and Litchfield more likely to say that business conditions had worsened.

Increasingly, residents believe that jobs are “very hard to get” in Connecticut compared with six months ago (from about one-quarter to one-third of those surveyed in Q2 2016 versus Q2 2015), and are, in growing numbers, saying they would rather leave than stay.

• A year ago, 32 percent of those surveyed said it was very likely or somewhat likely that they would move out of Connecticut within the next five years.
• A year later, that percentage has climbed by 10 points to 42 percent.

At the same time, about half of those surveyed say that “Connecticut is a good place to live and raise a family” – a number that has remained consistent for the past year and a half.  Only 1 in 4 disagree.  More than half of 18-21 year-olds and 22-25 year olds say they are likely to leave in the next five years; in all other age categories it is less than half, with those age 56-65 the least likely.

Concerns about having “enough money to retire comfortably” have remained steady for six consecutive quarters, with about less than 1 in 4 expressing the opinion that they anticipate having sufficient funds. And 1 in 4 now say it is likely that they will refinance their home or purchase a new home in the next six months, the highest percentage since the quarterly survey began.

With increasing calls for regional support of Hartford and regional approaches to tackling budget challenges, the survey found that an increasing number of residents in Connecticut believe that a range of services “could be effectively delivered regionally.”

Forty-three percent, an increase from 40 percent in the year’s first quarter, answered “all of the above” when asked if education, libraries, public health, public safety and animal control could be provided regionally.  Among those services individually, there was slightly greater support for a regional approach to public safety, slightly less for each of the others.  The largest increase was for “all” of the services.

The question of what residents in the region consider to be the “best way to grow the economy” saw a preference for investing in schools and community features over recruiting companies, by an increasing margin.  In this year’s first quarter, the margin was 52% to 48%. In the most recent quarter that margin had grown by 9 percentage points to 61%-39%, from just over half to more than 6 in 10.

Veteran-Owned Small Businesses Will See Expanded Price Preference for State Work, Beginning Oct. 1

Applications are available for a new Connecticut initiative designed to “spur veterans to start a business and to help small veteran-owned businesses to flourish.”  The law, which takes effect on October 1, is the most generous of it’s kind in the nation, and provides veteran-owned businesses with a price preference of up to 15% for certain state Department of Administrative Services open-market orders or contracts. These businesses must have a gross revenue of up to $3 million in the most recently completed fiscal year, and at least 51% of the ownership must be held by one or more veterans. Under existing law, a “veteran” is anyone honorably discharged or released from active service in the U. S. Armed Forces or their reserve components, including the Connecticut National Guard performing duty under Title 32 (such as certain Homeland Security missions).

The legislation, which began as Senate Bill 2 in the 2016 session of the state legislature, was unanimously approved by the Veterans Affairs Committee and Government Administration and Elections Committee, before gaining unanimous approval in the Senate and House and the Governor’s signature.

The National Veteran-Owned Business Association, in testimony before the state legislature in March, said passage of the new law would “make Connecticut the most ‘Vetrepreneur-Friendly”state” in the U.S.  The organization noted that 27 states have programs in place “to create opportunities for veteran-owned businesses, and that New Mexico had recently increased its preference to 10 percent.  At the time, Connecticut’s veterans preference also stood at 10 percent.

Senate leaders Martin Looney (New Haven) and Bob Duff (Norwalk) said the move to 15% was part of a multi-year effort by the legislature to “improve the lives of our vets, and help them earn a living.” State Comptroller Kevin Lembo, testifying in support of the proposal, told the legislature it would “decrease a bit of the burden on those veterans who are doing much more than just getting by.  These veterans have not only re-entered their communities as productive taxpayers, but have taken the risk of starting up their own business to realize their piece of the American dream.”

“We applaud your leadership of the important piece of legislation that will enhance and expand opportunities for the small businesses” owned by veterans, said Matthew Pavelek, Vice President of the national organization, NaVOBA, based in Pittsburgh.

To receive the fifteen per cent price preference, a bidding business must first obtain a Veteran-owned Micro Business certification from the Connecticut Department of Veterans Affairs. The Certification is valid for six months or until such time as the business is no longer in compliance with the statutory requirements, whichever occurs first.  Applications for the certification are now available from the state Department of Veterans Affairs.

Childcare Costs Continue to Outpace Inflation, Low Income Families Hit Hardest; CT 6th Most Expensive

One of the more notable aspects of the latest data on consumer prices provided this month by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics is the striking increase in childcare and nursery school prices.  That data, along with statistics that reflect the impact of those increasing costs on families ability to afford such care, highlight the struggles and disparities that continue to exist, in Connecticut and nationwide. Over the past 25 years, childcare and nursery school costs have risen 177 percent, while prices more generally have risen just 77 percent.  Childcare and nursery school costs have been outpacing general inflation for at least 25 years (the data do not go back any further than 1991);  this is putting a significant strain on the budgets of low-income families.

The Center for Economic and Policy Research points to an August 2014 study by the U.S. Department of Agriculture that found a two-parent, middle-income family (those making between $62,000 and $107,000 per year) will spend an average of $245,000 (in 2013 dollars) on their kids between the ages of zero and 17.

Significantly, due to rising income inequality, poor families are finding it harder to give their children the same opportunities afforded to rich children, the study points out. At present, families in the top fifth of the income distribution spend seven times as much on their children as families in the bottom fifth.

“This inequality can also be observed for paid leave: about 23 percent of workers in the top tenth of the wage distribution have access to paid family leave, compared to just four percent of workers in the bottom tenth,” the findings show.

Child care in Connecticut, the Economic Policy Institute points out, “is expensive.” Connecticut is ranked 6th out of 50 states and the District of Columbia for most expensive infant care.

• The average annual cost of infant care in Connecticut is $13,880—that’s $1,157 per month.
• Child care for a 4-year-old costs $11,502, or $959 each month.

Childcare is also “unaffordable” for a large percentage of Connecticut famiies.  The Economic Policy Institute indicates that infant care for one child would take up 16 percent of a typical family’s income in Connecticut, noting that according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), child care is affordable if it costs no more than 10% of a family’s income. By this standard, only 28.1% of Connecticut families can afford infant care.

A minimum-wage worker in Connecticut would need to work full time for 36 weeks, or from January to September, just to pay for child care for one infant. And a typical child care worker in Connecticut would have to spend 63.6% of her earnings to put her own child in infant care, according to the data.

CEPR points out that other costs for raising children have increased as well, also outpacing the inflation rate. For instance, elementary and high school tuition and fees have risen 3.2 percent over the past year (four times the overall inflation rate of 0.8 percent); college tuition and fees are up 2.7 percent. At the same time, infant care in Connecticut costs $3,752 (37.1%) more per year than in-state tuition for 4-year public college, according to the Economic Policy Institute.

According to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), public expenditure on pre-primary education and childcare is just 0.4 percent of GDP in the United States; this is far lower than the rates of spending in Denmark (2.0 percent of GDP) or Iceland and Sweden (1.6 percent). By this measure, the U.S. comes in 33rd out of the 36 countries surveyed by the OECD, according to the CEPR report.

Public expenditure on pre-primary education spending is 0.3 percent of GDP in the U.S. but averages 0.5 percent in the other OECD countries; even more shockingly, public expenditure on childcare is just 0.06 percent of GDP, well short of the 0.4 percent average from the rest of the OECD. Nor do differences in GDP make up for the latter gap.  In 2011, public expenditure on childcare was $794 per child in the U.S., less than one-third of the OECD average. By contrast, public spending on childcare is $7,100 per child in Finland, $6,400 in Norway and Denmark, $5,900 in Sweden, and $5,700 in Iceland — despite the fact that the U.S. is substantially richer than all those countries except Norway.

In a separate survey, the OECD found that just 14 percent of all public spending on children in the U.S. went to children age five and under — dead last among the 32 OECD countries in the sample. In the United States, 14 percent of all public spending on children goes to children ages zero to five; 41 percent goes to children ages six to 11; and 45 percent goes to children ages 12 to 17. For the other 31 countries (data were not available for Canada and Turkey), 26 percent of all public spending on children went to children ages zero to five; 35 percent went to children ages six to 11; and 39 percent went to children ages 12 to 17, the Center for Economic and Policy Research explained.

Prompted by Economy, Only Half of Nation's Millennials Plan to Work for Same Company Next Year, Gallup Survey Says

Millennials are entering the workforce in increasing numbers, and are the intense focus both of governments – including Connecticut – and businesses seeking to attract and retain them.  As Connecticut’s economic ranking among the states continues to hover near the bottom, the job choices of millennials become increasingly important to future economic vitality. Even amidst less than favorable comparisons in recent rankings, Connecticut has managed to achieve recent employment figures that show improvement. Last month, the state added some 3,000 jobs in the private sector and wages have also risen slightly in recent reports after a period of stagnation, WNPR reported recently.

Heather Ziegler, managing partner for Deloitte in Stamford, told WNPR that in her view the state is doing some things right, like encouraging high technology industries and fostering entrepreneurship. "But what I think is most effective, and one of the challenges at the same time," she told WNPR, "is getting individuals with the right skill sets interested in staying in the area and staying in Connecticut, versus moving on to the larger metropolitan areas that we are right between."

Millennials are already in a tough situation – they’re better educated, yet earning less than their counterparts in 1990, points out Christine Schilke of Young Energetic Solutions (YES CT), a statewide initiative seeking to empower young people to create a vibrant Connecticut.  She indicates that “while 28% of millennials hold bachelor’s degrees compared to 24% in 1990, only 67% are employed, compared to 74% two decades ago.  Those who are working earn an average $40,849, versus $46,569 by their predecessors.”

“Today’s millennials,” Schilke adds, “are also burdened with college debt, and are less likely to be married, live alone or drive. Adding to these challenges is the fact that Connecticut has some of the highest homeownership and rental costs in the nation (6^th and 8^th most expensive, respectively), creating a tough living environment for today’s young adults.”

Nationwide, according to a recent Gallup poll, six in 10 millennials say they're open to different job opportunities, and only 50% plan to be with their company one year from now. Millennials are cracking under the weight of too much debt, according to Merrill Lynch's 2016 Workplace Benefits Report, which points out that only 24% of millennials surveyed say that they are in control of their finances.

Technology is the primary facilitator of millennials' job research: 81% of millennials indicate that they view the websites of organizations they're interested in, and a majority (62%) report that they conduct a general web search to learn about job opportunities, Gallup reports.

Not surprisingly, “millennials are extremely digitally connected, and smartphones have become a ubiquitous accessory for them.” Gallup found that 91% of millennials owned smartphones in 2013, compared with 83% of those in older generations. And compared with other generations, millennials are:

• almost 40% more likely to say they sent or read email messages "a lot" within the past day
• 2.5 times more likely to say they posted or read messages on Facebook, Instagram or another social media site "a lot" within the past day
• 11 times more likely to say they used Twitter, including posting or reading tweets, "a lot" within the past day
• more than 2.5 times more likely to say they sent or read text messages "a lot" within the past day

To attract the best workers, Gallup suggests, “organizations need brand strategies that account for millennials' motivation and ability to find the best employers -- especially considering that millennials currently make up 38% of the U.S. workforce, and some estimate that they will make up as much as 75% of it by 2025.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkOmyg5lJbQ

Connecticut’s Anxiety Above National Average, Analysis of Google Searches Shows

High anxiety.  It is apparently as American as apple pie.  At least that is what an analysis of Google searches is showing.  And Connecticut is above average, although less anxious than the rest of New England. In a state-by-state comparison of anxiety levels based on Google searches, topping the list was Maine, 21 percent above the national average.  At the other end of the spectrum was Oregon, 26 percent below the U.S. average. 

The states with the highest percentages of Google searches for “anxious” and related terms include Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and North Dakota.  The least anxious:  Oregon, Nevada, Virginia, Kansas, Alaska and Hawaii.

The New York Times reports that Google’s measure of anxiety includes a broad range of searches, including “anxiety help,” “anxious” and “anxiety symptoms.”

“While Google searches may not be a perfect measure of anxiety,” a Times columnist reports, “there is increasing evidence that searches on a health condition highly correlate with the number of people suffering from that condition.” The rates of Google searches for anxiety in a state also correlate with survey measures of anxiety, explained Seth Stephens-Davidowitz, an economist and a contributing opinion writer for the Times.

Nationwide over the past eight years, Google search rates for anxiety have more than doubled. They are higher this year than they have been in any year since Google searches were first tracked in 2004, according to Stephens-Davidowitz.  Anxiety, however, is not uniquely American.  A review of online searches in the United Kingdom in 2014 found that 'What is anxiety?' was one of the top 10 most searched for questions.

Among the leading searches this year in the U.S. are driving anxiety, travel anxiety, separation anxiety, anxiety at work, anxiety at school and anxiety at home. Connecticut is the only New England state where the rate of Google searches for anxiety is not more than 10 percent above the national average.  The analysis indicates that “Americans anxieties are up 150 percent compared with 2004, based on internet searches.”  And still climbing.

The two leading drivers, according to the analysis:

• Poverty, and/or a major recession. States that were more deeply affected by the Great Recession saw bigger increases in anxiety during and after the recession. The estimate is that each percentage point increase in unemployment is associated with a 1.4 percent increase in anxiety. Google searches for anxiety tend to be higher in places with lower levels of education, lower median incomes and a larger part of the population living in rural areas, the analysis discovered.
• High opiate prescription rates — and high search rates for opiate withdrawal — are among the places with the highest search rates for panic attacks. These areas include Appalachia and the South. During years in which many people complained of opiate withdrawal, many people also complained about panic attacks. Searches for opiate withdrawal consistently start high at the beginning of the year. They mostly drop through the year, although they rise in the summer and then surge around Christmas.

Some have raised questions about the inferences in the analysis, wondering if opiate usage, for example, is a cause or effect reflected in the Google searches.  Others have suggested that merely the act of using Google to investigate real or perceived symptoms can make an individual more anxious, and more likely to search Google again, and the pattern could then repeat, leading to more frequent searches.

New Documentary, Travelers Championship Heighten Attention to ALS, Sports is Once Again Common Theme

Public awareness of ALS - amyotrophic lateral sclerosis – has been intertwined with sports since Lou Gehrig played with the New York Yankees, and saw his career and his life, tragically shortened by the neurodegenerative disease eight decades ago.  Gehrig’s Yankee Stadium speech in 1939 has endured as one of the century’s most memorable. Earlier this month, the Travelers Championship on the PGA Tour raised more money for charity than in any previous year, when $2.8 million was raised with ALS as the primary charity.  Travelers Executive Chairman of the Board Jay Fishman announced in August 2015 that he had been diagnosed with ALS.

And now, a new motion picture documentary telling the story of a former NFL player afflicted with ALS is reaching theaters across the country, including Connecticut.  The film, Gleason, goes inside the life of Steve Gleason, the former New Orleans Saints defensive back who, at the age of 34, was diagnosed with ALS and given a life expectancy of two to five years. Gleason played for the Saints from 2000-2008.

The primary beneficiary for the 2016 Travelers tournament was the ALS Clinic at the Hospital for Special Care (HSC) in New Britain. Each year, HSC cares for more than 250 Connecticut residents with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). HSC is the only facility in Connecticut that is part of the ALS Association’s national network of Certified Treatment Centers of Excellence and is certified by the Muscular Dystrophy Association for ALS care.

According to the ALS Association, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. When a muscle has no nourishment, it "atrophies" or wastes away. "Lateral" identifies the areas in a person's spinal cord where portions of the nerve cells that signal and control the muscles are located. As this area degenerates it leads to scarring or hardening ("sclerosis") in the region.  Motor neurons reach from the brain to the spinal cord and from the spinal cord to the muscles throughout the body. The progressive degeneration of the motor neurons in ALS eventually leads to their demise.

ALS burst back into the public conversation during the 2014 ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, as millions of people started talking about ALS. Recently, there have been some indications that the money raised during that social media explosion may have helped to advance research into ALS.

As the movie tells it, just weeks after his diagnosis, Gleason found out his wife, Michel, was expecting their first child. A video journal that began as a gift for his unborn son expands to chronicle Steve’s determination to get his relationships in order, build a foundation to provide other ALS patients with purpose, and adapt to his declining physical condition—utilizing medical technologies that offer the means to live as fully as possible, according to the movie synopsis appearing on the film’s website. The documentary was highly regarded at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival, and is making its Connecticut debut at Cinema City at the Palace 17 in Hartford.

ALS usually strikes people between the ages of 40 and 70, and approximately 20,000 Americans can have the disease at any given time (although this number fluctuates), the ALS Association reports. For unknown reasons, military veterans are approximately twice as likely to be diagnosed with the disease than the general public.

The Greater Hartford Walk to Defeat ALS will take place on September 25 in East Hartford.  The New Haven Walk will be held on October 2 in New Haven.

https://youtu.be/WgkQU32XSFQ