Connecticut Ranks #39 Among States for Retirement; Lowest In New England

Connecticut, ranking 39^th overall and lowest among the six New England states, came away with a mixed bag of results on a list of the “Best and Worst Places to Retire,” compiled by the financial data website bankrate.com and published this week. The good news:  Connecticut ranked #6 in crime rate, the state’s highest ranking among the six categories included in the survey, and just outside the top ten at #12 for health care quality.  Undeterred by the challenging February weather this year, Connecticut ranked #14 for weather among the nation’s 50 states.  Not so good – Connecticut ranked near the bottom, at #48, in cost of living, and at the middle-of-the-pack, at #24, for community well-being.

The survey of around 1,000 adults in the U.S. questioned what Americans' priorities are when it comes to retirement. Nearly a quarter of those surveyed said being close to family was the deciding factor. But when it came to climate, while around a quarter prefer being close to a beach, nearly 40 percent of people want access to the great outdoors, rivers and mountains, according to published reports highlighting the survey results.

The top 10 states were Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Virginia, Iowa, Montana, South Dakota, Arizona and Nebraska.  The highest ranked New England states were Maine at #12, Vermont at #15 and New Hampshire at #16.  Massachusetts came in at #18 on the list, and Rhode Island was just ahead of Connecticut at #38.

By category, Minnesota topped the list in health care quality, Hawaii was #1 in community well-being, New Mexico was #1 in weather, and Mississippi (which ranked #36 overall) had the lowest cost of living.   Vermont had the lowest crime rate and Wyoming the lowest tax rate.

Bankrate provided the following breakdown of the origin of the data used in compiling the rankings:  The cost-of-living data was provided by the Council for Community and Economic Research, a Virginia-based group that tracks retail prices in more than 300 communities around the country. Crime statistics include property and violent crimes reported by police departments to the FBI.

Health care quality scores come from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, a federal office that measures each state's performance on about 160 different health-related issues. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration provided weather data, including readings on temperature, humidity and sunshine. The "well-being" scores for seniors were from Healthways, a research group that works with the Gallup polling service to survey the public about their happiness and general satisfaction with their surroundings.

There are worse places than Connecticut to retire, according to the survey.  Among them:  Oklahoma, Oregon, Missouri, Kentucky, Louisiana, West Virginia, Alaska, and Arkansas, as well as New York and New Jersey.  Hawaii also ranked in the bottom 10, largely due to its highest-in-the-nation cost of living.

Women at Disadvantage in Seeking IPO Investments, Research Study Finds

A new study by academic researchers into decisions regarding the financing of Initial Public Offerings (IPO) of fledgling businesses has found "one significant and persistent effect on investor perceptions that did influence those evaluations—the gender of the CEO.” Even though women-owned firms represent almost half of U.S. new businesses, female founders and CEOs of start-ups fared poorly in an IPO simulation involving MBA students, the researchers found – a result of interest to Connecticut’s business start-up, venture capital, and entrepreneurial communities, at a minimum.

The study found that the amount of money that participants recommended for investment in a fictionalized initial public offering for a cosmetic-surgery company was almost 4 times higher if the CEO was identified as male.  In fact, the anticipated share price of IPOs led by male CEOs was approximately 11 percent higher than those of female-led IPOs, suggesting that bias explains why successful female-led IPOs are an "extremely rare phenomenon," the researchers point out.

The paper,recently  published and now available through the Social Science Research Network, was conducted by Lyda S. Bigelow, Leif Lundmark and Robert Wuebker of the University of Utah and Judi McLean Parks of Washington University in St. Louis.

“Skirting the Issues: Experimental Evidence of Gender Bias in IPO Prospectus Evaluations,” stresses that “given the impact of entrepreneurial activity around the world, the question of how entrepreneurs finance their ventures is a crucial question, as adequate capitalization for a new venture can make the difference between firm survival and failure. Whether a spin-off or start-up, firms that seek to grow beyond initial size at founding rely on the decisions of potential investors for the necessary financial resources.”

Given that women executives are present in the top management teams of IPO firms in increasing numbers, the lack of female-led IPO firms is a “curious fact, especially since women-owned private businesses represent almost half of the new businesses formed in the United States, with patterns of founding similar to male-owned businesses.”

In the study, using a sample of MBA students the researchers constructed a simulated initial public offering (IPO) manipulating the gender demographics of the top management team. Their results suggested that female CEOs “may be disproportionately disadvantaged in their ability to attract growth capital when all other factors are controlled.”

Despite identical personal qualifications and firm financials in the scenario, the study results indicated that:

• firms led by females were seen as having a poorer strategic position than those led by males,
• female Founder/CEOs were perceived as less capable than their male counterparts, and
• IPOs led by female Founder/CEOs were considered less attractive investments.

“The disparity is significant, as is its potential economic and social impact,” the researchers state. “If companies led by females are disadvantaged in their ability to raise cash through the stock market, it can impact the viability and financial health of their companies, their ability to expand and compete in an increasingly global and competitive environment, and if they are unable to remain viable, their employees’ livelihoods.”

The 43-page research report also suggests that gender bias may extend beyond IPO’s to other disciplines within the financial world, and urge additional study.

Future research, they suggest, “could explore whether or not these findings extend to financial professionals such as bank loan officers or venture capital investors, and could investigate the role that prior experience plays in that process. This is an important question, as financial professionals, making investment decisions for individuals and institutions, control enormous amounts of money (for example, the combined assets of the nation’s mutual funds exceed $7.4 trillion, retirement funds exceed $2.7 trillion, closed end funds exceed $20 billion and exchange traded funds weigh in at $174 billion,” the research team pointed out.

Photos:  Judi Parks (left), Lyda Bigelow

Questionable Patent Claims Push Small Businesses to Pay Rather Than Fight; Congress to Again Consider Reforms

The odyssey began with a letter.  The owner of an Old Lyme small business, providing employment services for people with disabilities, was told that by scanning documents into emails, she was violating a patent.  In fact, every scan meant a $1,000 fine.  Pay $75,000, she was told, or face legal action. She ignored the first letter, hoping it was junk mail.  When a second, “scarier, and more threatening” arrived, she contacted an attorney, who put her in touch with a patent attorney.

What was happening was a phenomenon described as patent trolling.  The New York Times has described patent trolls as “people who sue companies for infringement, often using patents of dubious value or questionable relevance, and then hold on like a terrier until they get license fees. In recent years, patent trolls — they prefer “patent assertion entities,” or P.A.E.’s — have gone from low-profile corporate migraine to mainstream scourge.”

Roberta Hurley, the small business owner in Connecticut, describes them as “creepy people,” intentionally frightening business owners with a “big scam.”  They depend on the unknowing to pay the outrageous demands, afraid of being taken to court.

The company making the demand could not be reached by phone, and the letter had nothing more than a Post Office box for an address.  But the tone was nonetheless daunting.

“If you’re scared, you don’t understand patent infringement, don’t have the funds to hire an attorney, which is true of many mom and pop businesses, it’s easier to write a check to stop them,” Hurley observed.

She couldn’t afford the $75,000 being demanded – “I would have had to close my doors” – and decided she would fight, and did.  “I wasn’t doing it,” she recalled.

It took time, effort and energy, and a bill from her attorney, but ultimately the demands stopped.  The entire process went on for nearly a year and a half, ending in 2013.  Along the way, she testified in Washington, went public to the news media, and told everyone she could what was happening.

Patent trolls may not have succeeded in this instance, but often do.  As The Atlantic pointed out in an article on the subject, “Given the cost, many defendants are willing to pay the troll to avoid a lawsuit even if the suit is not justified.”

In 2013, American courts saw six times as many patent lawsuits as in the 1980s, a Boston Globe op-ed by the authors of “Patent Failure” reported last fall.  “Over the past decade, there has been a 900 percent increase in the number of businesses facing patent litigation.”  They added that “recent research estimated that defendants spent at least $29 billion per year in out-of-pocket costs to defend or settle claims brought forth by patent trolls in 2011. Patent lawsuits by these entities drain an estimated $60 billion every year from the economy.”

Last month, a bipartisan group of 20 members of Congress reintroduced legislation aimed at reining in "patent trolls." A similar bill last year was approved by the House, but stalled in the Senate.  The legislation would express a sense of Congress that sending purposely evasive demand letters should be considered a fraudulent and deceptive practice, according to a published report in The Hill, a website that reports on Congress and the nation’s Capitol.

The Credit Union League of Connecticut is among the local and national consumer organizations urging approval of safeguards against patent trolls.  "Patent trolls often allege that the use of necessary everyday technology violates the patent holders' rights, state vague or hypothetical theories of infringement, often overstate or grossly reinterpret the patent in question, and make allegations of infringement of expired or previously licensed patents," the organization said in urging Congressional action.

The Connecticut Retail Merchant Association has also called for federal action, noting that “patent trolls are entities that threaten main street businesses with frivolous lawsuits over vaguely crafted or poorly worded patents. Usually, the patent troll wins a settlement because small businesses do not have the resources to fight it out in court. In fact, most trolls wouldn’t stand a chance to win and so they rely on scare tactics to extract a settlement, said Executive Director Tim Phelan in an op-ed published last year.  The National Retail Federation has pointed out that patent trolls "lose more than 90 percent of the cases that make it to trial. But the cost of defending companies against the claims is so high — the average case costs $2 million and can take 18 months — that many victims settle out of court. The cases cost legitimate businesses close to $30 billion a year in direct costs and $80 billion indirectly, amounting to $943 a year for the average household when passed on to consumers."

Authors Michael J. Meurer and James Bessen indicate, based on their research, that "there is no question that patent trolls cause immense harm. A recent survey of software startups found that nearly half reported “significant operational impacts” from patent troll lawsuits. These included a wholesale change of strategy or a shutdown of certain lines of business. Another survey found that roughly three of every four venture capitalists were adversely impacted by patent litigation."

Hurley, who has grown her Eastern Connecticut business (Southeastern Employment Services) from less than a handful of employees to 80 employees in just over a dozen years, says her advice to other small business owners is simple:  “don’t give them a penny.”  And she hopes that this will be the year that Congress approves patent reforms that will protect unsuspecting small business owners from “paying because they’re scared.”

3 Cities, 3 Towns from CT Take Up National Challenge on Pedestrian, Bicyclist Safety to Launch Thursday

Six Connecticut towns and cities are among the first 150 in the nation to respond to a challenge issued by U.S. Secretary of Transportation (USDOT) Anthony Foxx aimed at promoting bicyclist and pedestrian safety.  The year-long nationwide initiative will officially kick-off this Thursday. The chief elected officials of the cities of Hartford, Stamford, and Bridgeport, and the towns of Glastonbury, Simsbury, and South Windsor have signed on to the Mayor’s Challenge, announced earlier this year at the annual meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors.  The Mayors’ Challenge for Safer People and Safer Streets is a call to action by Secretary Foxx for mayors and local elected officials  to take significant action to improve safety for bicycle riders and pedestrians of all ages and abilities over the next year.

The challenge is based on the 2010 USDOT Policy Statement on Bicycle and Pedestrian Accommodation to incorporate safe and convenient walking and bicycling facilities into transportation projects. In the policy statements, USDOT recognizes the many benefits walking and bicycling provide — including health, safety, environmental, transportation, and quality of life.

The challenge calls on Mayors, First Selectmen and other chief elected officials to:

• Issue a public statement about the importance of bicycle and pedestrian safety
• Form a local action team to advance safety and accessibility goals
• Take local action through seven Challenge activities (listed below)

In Connecticut, the advocacy organization Bike Walk Connecticut is urging Connecticut's chief elected officials to participate in the challenge and engage their residents in carrying out the initiative’s objectives. They applauded Foxx, a former Mayor of Charlotte, N.C., for making “bicycle and pedestrian safety is his signature issue as the head of USDOT.”

The challenge activities, as outlined by USDOT, include:

• Take a Complete Streets approach
• Identify and address barriers to make streets safe and convenient for all road users, including people of all ages and abilities and those using assistive mobility devices
• Gather and track biking and walking data
• Use designs that are appropriate to the context of the street and its uses
• Take advantage of opportunities to create and complete ped-bike networks through maintenance
• Improve walking and biking safety laws and regulations
• Educate and enforce proper road use behavior by all

A total of 154 cities nationwide have signed on as of March 6, with the official kick-off later this week in Washington, D.C.  Additional municipalities in Connecticut and across the country are expected to add their names to the list of participating cities.  USDOT has invited Mayors' Challenge participants to attend the Mayors' Challenge Summit kick-off event at USDOT’s Headquarters’ office in the nation's capital on Thursday, March 12. The Summit will bring together participating cities to network and learn more about the Challenge activities, and USDOT staff members will share the resources and tools available to help cities with Challenge activities.

Federal officials note that the lack of systematic data collection related to walking and bicycling transportation, such as count data, travel survey data, and injury data, creates challenges for improving non-motorized transportation networks and safety. Communities that routinely collect walking and biking data, they point out, are better positioned to track trends and prioritize investments.

In advocating a “complete streets” approach, USDOT emphasizes that complete streets “make it safe and convenient for people of all ages and abilities to reach their destination whether by car, train, bike, or foot” and they call for “a policy commitment to prioritize and integrate all road users into every transportation project.”

Bike Walk Connecticut has reported that there were 49 bicycle or pedestrian fatalities in Connecticut in 2012, the most recent data available.  There were an additional 1,226 injuries to bicyclists or pedestrians.  In total, from 2006 to 2012, there were more than 10,000 injuries and nearly 300 fatalities from crashes involving pedestrians or bicyclists, according to the organization, based on federal and state data.

Connecticut Ranks #18 in Payroll to Population Ratio, Analysis Shows

Connecticut ranks #18 in the nation in a measure of Payroll to Population (P2P), based on an analysis of the nation’s 50 states by the Gallup organization. The P2P metric tracks the percentage of the adult population aged 18 and older who are employed full-time for an employer, for at least 30 hours per week.  The rankings cover calendar year 2014. North Dakota (54 percent) had the nation’s highest Payroll to Population employment rate. A cluster of states in the northern Great Plains and Rocky Mountain regions -- including Nebraska, Minnesota, Kansas, Wyoming, Utah, Colorado and Iowa -- all made the top 10 on this measure, according to Gallup. West Virginia (35.6 percent) had the lowest P2P rate of all the states for the second consecutive year.

Connecticut was tied with Vermont with a P2P level of 44.3 percent.  Among the New England states, Connecticut and Vermont ranked in the middle, with New Hampshire ranked at #10, Massachusetts at #15, Maine at #22, and Rhode Island at #34.

The year-long results are based on Gallup daily tracking interviews throughout 2014 with 353,736 U.S. adults. The payroll-employed data does not include adults who are self-employed, work fewer than 30 hours per week, who are unemployed, or are out of the workforce.

The differences in P2P rates across states may reflect several factors, Gallup points out, including the overall employment situation and the population's demographic composition. States with large older and retired populations, for example, can be expected to have a lower percentage of adults working full time. Connecticut has the 7th oldest population in the nation, which may influence the state’s overall ranking. The two states with the lowest P2P in 2014, West Virginia and Florida, have two of the largest proportions of residents aged 65 and older, at 17.3 percent and 16.9 percent, respectively.

Regardless of the underlying reason, Gallup indicates that the P2P rate provides “a good reflection of a state's economic vitality.”  Gallup also notes that P2P shows a stronger relationship than do unemployment rates with other important economic indicators, such as state GDP per capita.

In the overall rankings, Washington, D.C., had the highest P2P rate of any area in the country, at 56.4 percent, but Gallup points out that “it is unique in being the only entirely urban region in the survey, heavily dominated by the presence of the federal government, and with one of the lowest percentages of residents aged 65 and older (12.3 percent).”

Will Olympic Footprint Extend into Connecticut? State Officials Offer Possibilities to Planners; April 2 Public Forum in Springfield

Should Boston be selected in 2017 by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to host the 2024 Olympic Summer Games, Massachusetts may not be the only northeast city to host Olympic events. Published reports indicate that venues outside the Bay State are being actively considered, and Connecticut’s Capital Region Development Authority (CRDA) is among the organizations reaching out to express interest.  Network coverage of the 2024 Olympic Games would come from NBC Sports - which has facilities based in Stamford, Connecticut - under an agreement between the network and the IOC signed last year.  

The official Boston 2024 website indicates that “there may be opportunities for preliminary rounds of certain events in other states.” The Boston Globe has reported that bid organizers have “held high-level conversations” with cities in addition to Boston about hosting events, including New York and Washington.  There are no indications that talks with Connecticut officials are underway.

Connecticut officials – and residents – may have an opportunity to weigh in when Boston 2024 holds a community meeting in Springfield, MA, on April 2 - one of 20 such sessions being held around the state of Massachusetts over the next few months, and the nearest location to Connecticut.  The community meetings begin in Lowell on March 11.  There does not appear to be a requirement that speakers be Massachusetts residents.

Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo told the Associated Press earlier this month that she has spoken with Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker about collaborating and plans to put together her own team to explore how Rhode Island could benefit from Boston's bid.

CRDA, in a January letter to Boston 2024 officials, suggested that a number of Connecticut facilities “could serve for official events, whether preliminary or final; or for practice sites for teams and individuals competing in the Games.”  State officials suggested the Connecticut Convention Center and XL Center in Hartford, Rentschler Field in East Hartford, and the Connecticut Tennis Center in New Haven as facilities that could be considered by leaders of the Boston 2024 bid “as you advance your thinking and planning.”

The Globe recently reported that “by following the IOC’s guidelines and taking advantage of existing world-class facilities in other cities, Boston 2024 organizers believe they can avoid the white elephant venues and out-of-control costs that have plagued Olympic hosts for decades.”  Recently adopted IOC guidelines are aimed at reducing costs by host cities and are more amenable to having some events take place outside the immediate Olympic perimeter.

The Globe pointed out that at the most recent Summer Games in London, sailing was held 142 miles southwest of the host city and organizers staged mountain biking an hour’s drive from London. Soccer matches took place at stadiums in several cities, including Cardiff, Coventry, Glasgow, Manchester, and Newcastle, prior to finals in London.

The correspondence from CRDA Executive Director Michael Freimuth includes information about each of the Connecticut venues, and an invitation to “visit the facilities to assess them as a means to meet the demands of the Olympics.”  No word thus far on whether such a tour has been scheduled.  Possible sports at the Connecticut venues, as suggested by CRDA, include badminton, table tennis, wrestling, martial arts, and weightlifting.  Basketball, volleyball and soccer could be additional possibilities, along with tennis.   The Connecticut Tennis Center is described as the fourth largest tennis venue in the world, with seating capacity of 15,000.  Within the past week, options for major renovations or reconstruction of Hartford’s XL Center have been announced, with a decision on how to proceed due later this year.

The Boston 2024 website also notes that “many national Olympic and Paralympic teams will arrive months in advance of the Games to acclimate and train; they may lease facilities at high schools and colleges around the region.”

NBC owns the exclusive U.S. media rights for an unprecedented 11 consecutive Summer and Winter Olympics, a run which began with the 2000 Sydney Games and continues through the 2020 Summer Olympics.  In January 2013, the network opened a state-of-the-art 300,000 square foot facility headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut on a thirty-three acre campus. The facility brought NBC Sports, NBC Sports Network, NBC Olympics, NBC Sports Digital, and NBC Regional Networks all under one roof.  In May 2014, NBC Universal agreed to pay a reported $7.75 billion for the exclusive broadcast rights to the six Olympic Games from 2022 to 2032.

International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach, of Germany, called Boston’s 2024 Olympic bid “very strong” in an interview that aired during NBC’s Super Bowl XLIX pregame show earlier this month.  Boston could face formidable opposition from cities including Paris, Berlin, Rome and Hamburg and when the 102-member IOC votes to choose the host city. The deadline for cities to file bids is September 2015.

Connecticut's Mechanical Engineers Honored for Driving Innovation, Advancing Technology

A quick glance at the program book for the evening suggested this was not your typical awards ceremony.  The “detailed schedule” in the program featured a level of precision not often seen – the specific time that each speaker would reach the podium was listed… 8:17 Hartford Steam Boiler, 8:23 United Technologies Aerospace Systems, 8:34 Westinghouse Electric, and so on. This was the Awards Banquet of the Hartford Section of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) – a night highlighting Connecticut’s longstanding role as a state of innovation and preeminent engineering expertise, and the people on the front lines – so the exactness was understandable.

A standing-room-only gathering of engineers from some of the region’s largest corporate names, joined by nearly 50 engineering students from area colleges – honored lifelong achievement, recent initiatives to advance new technologies and significant contributions to the field.  The ceremonies were held at the Society Room in Hartford.

Among the corporations presenting awards were Alstom, Belcan Engineering, Firstlight and Power, Hartford Steam Boiler, Pratt & Whitney, United Technologies Aerospace Systems, Westinghouse Electric.  Awards were also given to four veteran engineering faculty members at Central Connecticut State University, University of Hartford and University of Connecticut.

Congresswoman Elizabeth Esty (D-5^th District), recalling that her father and grandfather were engineers, said in opening remarks that among the nation’s challenges is a “failure to invest consistently and robustly in research.”  Describing Connecticut as “the home of innovation in engineering,” Esty said that engineers provide “the inspiration to solve the world’s problems.”

The annual event, held days ahead of National Engineers Week, is part of an effort “to raise public awareness of the profession’s positive contributions to improving society and quality of life,” and highlight “the importance of a technical education and a high level of math, science and technology literacy.”

The Hartford Section of ASME, with approximately 800 members, is among the largest in the nation.  Connecticut has two other ASME sections, geographically focused in New Haven and Fairfield County.  The not-for-profit professional organization’s mission, in part, is to “serve diverse global communities by advancing, disseminating and applying engineering knowledge.”  That mission was evident as the work of each award recipient was highlighted.

Amy Ericson, Alstom U.S. Country President, noted that her company has 93,000 employees in 100 countries – and that Windsor, Connecticut is their largest U.S. location.  “We’re very committed to the United States, and to Connecticut,” she said.  The three Alstom honorees – Manager of Performance Design Engineering Danny Gelbar, Head of Global Performance Scott Herman and Consulting Engineer Rahul Terdalkar – recalled Alsom’s predecessors, ABB and Combustion Engineering, well-known names in Connecticut’s heritage.  They also looked ahead to the impact of innovations developed in Connecticut.  Alstom equipment can be found in one of every two U.S. power plants, 40 percent of all power grids and the nation’s busiest rail transportation systems.

Among the faculty award recipients was Dr. Alfred A. Gates, Professor of Engineering at Central Connecticut State University, whose two decades at the university have been a steady stream of technical innovation and teaching.  Gates noted that CCSU has just become the first university in the United States to receive a Certificate of Authorization (COA) from the Federal Aviation Administration  to “fly unmanned aircraft in the wire zone,” within feet of electric lines.  The FAA has closely regulated such authorizations to assure public safety, conducting a comprehensive operational and technical review on each application.  Approval, after a nearly year-long review, reflects Gates record of skill and accomplishment in engineering and testing such devices.

The University of Hartford’s Leo T. Smith, a member of the engineering faculty since 1978, and UConn School of Engineering professor Nejat Olgac, a faculty member since 1981, were also honored.  Each program highlighted its recent growth, with CCSU’s program increasing to 300 students in just under a decade.

State Rep. Lonnie Reed (D-Branford), co-chair of the state legislature’s Energy and Technology Committee, saluted the “sense of buoyancy and possibility” that engineers embody, and the “solution-oriented optimism” that they bring to technical challenges.  She recalled her years as a television news reporter and the inspiring excitement of covering NASA space shuttle missions and the “failure is not an option” approach that permeated the space program, noting Connecticut’s significant contributions to those initiatives.

Honorees included Shaila Kambli, Chief Engineer, Systems and Software Engineering, at Belcan; Peter A. Goodell, Supervisor Code Services at HSB Global Standards; Tadry Domagala, Chief Project Engineer at UTC Aerospace Systems; Edward Hathaway, Senior Engineer at First Light; and Michael Foster of Westinghouse.  The Pratt & Whitney award recipients were Jesse Boyer, Fellow, Additive Manufacturing; Christopher L. Dyer, Deputy Director, Cold Section Engineering; Matthew R. Feulner, Discipline Manager of Operability, Propulsion Systems Analysis; David P. Houston, Manager of Cor Structures, Mechanical Disciplines; Katherine A. Knapp Carney, CIPT Leader, Next Generation Product Family Programs; John P. Virtue, Jr., Discipline Chief for Aero Thermal Fluids, Compressor Heat Transfer; and Ryan Walsh, Validation Manager, PW1100G-JM Engine Program.  It was the 29th annual awards ceremony; the Engineer's Night chairman and emcee was Aaron Danenberg of Belcan Engineering.

http://youtu.be/iPmdZJhVUfk

More US Cities Seek to Join Stamford in Commitment to Energy, Water Usage Reductions in Commercial Buildings

Efforts are underway this year for seven additional cities, from Albuquerque to Ann Arbor, to follow Stamford and seven others across the nation, in making a long-term commitment to reduce energy and water consumption in commercial buildings and reduce emissions from transportation, while increasing competitiveness in the business environment and owners' returns on investment. The “2030 District” initiative began with Seattle in 2011, grew by two cities in 2012, to four in 2013, and then to eight in 2014 when Stamford joined Seattle, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Los Angeles, Denver, Dallas, and San Francisco as a 2030 District.  Now working towards the designation, in addition to Albuquerque and Ann Arbor, are Detroit, San Antonio, Ithaca, Toronto and Portland.

Across the United States and Canada, 2030 Districts are forming with greater frequency to meet incremental energy, water and vehicle emissions reduction targets for existing buildings and new construction called for by Architecture 2030 in the 2030 Challenge for Planning.  Districts are generally private/public partnerships that commit to dramatic reductions in water consumption and energy and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, as well as adaptation and resiliency actions that address projected climatic impacts.

The Stamford 2030 District – launched this past  November - is an interdisciplinary public-private-nonprofit collaborative working to create a groundbreaking high performance building district in downtown Stamford.  Leading the way in the Stamford 2030 District are the Business Council of Fairfield County and Connecticut Fund for the Environment. As Stamford is a coastal city, its 2030 District will also implement a proactive vision to ensure resiliency against projected sea-level rise and storm surge.

The Stamford 2030 District – the first in New England - began with 23 founding members, including 11 property owners and 12 prominent professional and community stakeholders committed to meeting the 2030 Districts goals and targets. High performance buildings have proven track records of simultaneously increasing business and property profitability, reducing environmental impacts, and improving occupant health.

Now in the process of assessing the District’s current building performance levels, one-on-one assistance is provided to property owners and managers in benchmarking their buildings.  In addition, a first-time webinar will be held this week, on Wednesday, February 18, with several founding members highlighting best practices and procedures:

• Jay Black of SL Green Realty/Reckson Properties will offer industry perspective through his experience with benchmarking buildings in both NY and CT.
• WegoWise will present an overview of their web-based software that is able to benchmark a portfolio and provide deeper analytics into a buildings’ energy performance to find savings opportunities.
• Steven Winter and Associates will demonstrate how to take benchmarking a step further with tools such as building energy audits to help identify opportunities within the building.
• New Neighborhoods, Inc. will serve as a case study project in Stamford that has contracted with WegoWise for their benchmarking and will share their experience.

Officials indicate that District Members develop realistic, measurable, and innovative strategies to assist district property owners, managers, and tenants in meeting aggressive goals that keep properties and businesses competitive while operating buildings more efficiently, reducing costs, and reducing the environmental impacts of facility construction, operation, and maintenance.

“These collective efforts will establish the Stamford 2030 District as an example of a financially viable, sustainability focused, multi-sector driven effort that maximizes profitability and prosperity for all involved. Through collaboration of diverse stakeholders, leveraging existing and developing new incentives and financing mechanisms, and creating and sharing joint resources, the Stamford 2030 District will prove the business case for healthy and high performing buildings.”

Property owners and managers are voluntarily committing their properties to Stamford 2030 District goals; they are not required to achieve the District goals through legislative mandates or as individuals.

“Stamford is already a business leader in Connecticut. The Stamford 2030 District will make the city a sustainability leader nationwide,” said Megan Saunders, Executive Director of the Stamford 2030 District. With over 170 million square feet of commercial building space (including 6 million thus far in Stamford), 2030 Districts are rapidly emerging as a new model for urban sustainability, officials indicate.

The Stamford 2030 District provides members a roadmap and the support they need to own, manage, and develop high performance buildings by leveraging Community and Professional Stakeholders, market resources, and by creating new tools, partnerships, and opportunities to overcome current market barriers. This type of collaborative action is not only a strategic undertaking to keep Stamford competitive in the year 2030, but also represents a major investment in Stamford's future and reflects the collaborative nature of our region.

CT Ranks Last in Job Creation, Poll of Workers in 50 States Reports

To say that the latest Gallup Poll on state-by-state job creation reflects little good news for Connecticut would be an understatement.  Connecticut ranked last in the survey for 2014, which is determined based on full- and part-time workers' reports of whether their employer is hiring and expanding the size of its workforce, not making changes, or letting people go and reducing its workforce. “Connecticut has consistently ranked in the bottom tier for job creation, and its position at the very bottom in 2014, along with continued low ratings of other New England states and neighboring New York, suggests that is unlikely to change in 2015,” the survey summary predicted.

It marked the second time this month that Gallup reported diminished economic rankings for Connecticut.  The national poll’s economic confidence report, based on Gallup Daily tracking interviews with 176,702 national adults conducted from January through December 2014, indicated that Connecticut dropped out of the top 10 and into the middle-of-the-pack among the nation’s 50 states.  Leading the nation in “economic confidence” were Minnesota, Maryland and California.    

The newly released 50-state survey on job creation placed Connecticut at the bottom of the pile, as workers reported the worst hiring climate, although still net positive.  All 50 states had positive net hiring scores, and all but three -- West Virginia, Alaska and New Mexico -- have markedly improved on this measure since these ratings hit their low point in 2009, according to Gallup’s survey.

Joining Connecticut in the bottom dozen were the New England states of Rhode Island, Vermont, and Maine, along with Neighboring New York and New Jersey, as well as Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi, West Virginia, New Mexico and Alaska.

North Dakota maintained its position at the top of Gallup's annual ranking, with employed North Dakota residents providing a strongly upbeat report on hiring conditions where they work -- the most positive of any state.   In North Dakota, 48 percent of workers in 2014 said their employer is hiring and 12 percent said their employer is letting workers go, resulting in a +36 Job Creation Index score.

By contrast, Connecticut's +16 index score reflects 33 percent of workers saying their employer is hiring and 17 percent letting go, the Gallup survey found.  Only two states – Vermont (31%) and Montana (33%) – had equal or lower percentages responding that their employer is hiring, expanding the workforce. Connecticut and Rhode Island tie for compiling the worst collective job creation scores since 2008 and are the only states to have ranked in the bottom 10 each year.

The 2014 state-level findings are drawn from 201,254 interviews with employed adults nationwide, conducted throughout the year as part of Gallup Daily tracking. In Connecticut, 2,503 individuals were interviewed, with one-third saying their employer was hiring, nearly half (43%) reported hiring was not changing, and 17 percent saying that their employer was reducing the workforce.

Beyond North Dakota, other top states were Texas, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Iowa and South Dakota.  Michigan's presence among the states with the highest Job Creation Index scores is notable because it represents one of the sharpest turnarounds of any state in the seven years Gallup has measured job creation, according to Gallup. Michigan was among the worst-performing states in 2008 and 2009, but with significant improvements in that state's economy, it rose to about average net hiring in 2010, and has ranked among the top-performing states in each of the past two years, Gallup pointed out.

The index was up year-over-year in most states, the Gallup survey revealed, but particularly in Oklahoma, Oregon and New Hampshire, where it rose nine points each. At the same time, net hiring failed to improve in a handful of states -- North Dakota, Alaska, Hawaii, Delaware, South Dakota, Minnesota, Tennessee and Connecticut -- where the index was basically flat in 2014, the report indicated.

http://youtu.be/fLPPLHDo2FU

West Hartford, North Haven Hearing Opposition to Native American Nicknames for School Athletics

West Hartford is the latest community to consider whether the time has come to change the name of its high school sports teams, in order to drop longstanding names that may be insensitive to Native American culture.  The town, which has two high schools – one nicknamed the Warriors, the other ncalled the Chieftans – will hold a public forum to discuss the mascots on Thursday, Feb. 12. Last month in North Haven, controversy erupted regarding the Indians name for its high school teams, with competing petitions urging a name change and retention of the name surfacing online.  The change.org petition urging a change has 728 signatures to date, with the goal of “formally get the attention of the North Haven Board of Education, allow for some serious discussion on this issue.”  The petition advocating continuing tradition and retention of “Indians” has amassed 2,067 signatures on-line.

The issue has come up sporadically around the state for more than a decade, and has intensified in West Hartford, North Haven and across the state as part of a wider national conversation about whether Native American symbols and mascots are inherently racist and therefore inappropriate.

West Hartford’s Hall High School has dropped the use of an American Indian head as its logo, though the warrior remains the school mascot, the Hartford Courant has reported. Conard's mascot is the chieftain, and although sports teams have gradually phased out use of the American Indian head logo, the image still exists elsewhere, such as the masthead of the student newspaper, "The PowWow." The student-led pep club at Hall is also named "The Reservation," and Conard's pep club is "The Tribe."  The website we-ha.com has reported that Conard students, teachers, coaches, and alumni have elicited the opinion of the Mohegan tribal leadership regarding the West Hartford high school’s mascot and name, and the name was discussed by students last December as part of a Human Rights Day program.

Derby High Schools’ teams continue to be known as the “Red Raiders,” using an arrowhead logo, and Killingly High School's teams are known as the Redmen.  In Torrington, the schools’ website refer to their teams as “Raiders” – not “Red Raiders.”   Promoting their 2014 Thanksgiving Day football rivalry, the Torrington website said “Come out to see the Raiders take on the Watertown Indians in the 49th renewal of this holiday classic. The Raiders have held off the Indian attack the past two seasons…”

Norwich Technical High School, continues to use the nickname Warriors for its baseball, track, tennis, volleyball and most other school teams.  In some instances, Norwich Tech has combined teams with other local high schools, resulting in students playing on the Crusaders (football) or Saints (wrestling).

Just six months ago, the New Haven Register reported that “at least 23 high school teams in the state have names associated with Native Americans that could be considered offensive.

Northwest Catholic High School in West Hartford told WFSB-TV last spring that the school’s teams no longer officially use the name “Indians,” but as of this week, the schools website continued to feature its parent booster club as the “Tomahawk Club.” At Glastonbury High School, the athletics teams are called the “Tomahawks.”

The Guilford Public Schools Student-Athlete and Parent Handbook for 2013-2014 includes the following explanation at the front of the book:  “Guilford High School is proud of its heritage and its friendly relations with the Native Americans that inhabited the land we now call Guilford. To demonstrate this pride, Guilford High School began to use Indian names and symbols for its yearbooks and athletic teams during the l940's. We believe it is our obligation as an educational institution to inform our public about the history of our community and the role the Native American played. The use of the Indian symbol is meant to serve as a reminder of our past and should be held in the highest regard at all times.”

The unofficial list of high school team nicknames that are receiving attention regarding their athletic team nicknames or mascots, in addition to those described above:

Canton High School (Warriors), Enfield High School (Raiders), Farmington High School (Indians), Guilford High School (Indians),  H.C. Wilcox Technical (Meriden) High School (Indians),Killingly High School (Redmen), Manchester High School (Indians), Montville High School (Indians), and Newington High School (Indians).  Also, the Nonnewaug (Woodbury) High School (Chiefs), North Haven Senior High School (Indians),  RHAM Junior Senior High School (Sachems), Valley Regional (Deep River) High School (Warriors), Wamogo (Litchfield) Regional High School (Warriors), Watertown High School (Indians), Wilcox Technical (Meriden) High School (Indians), Wilton High School (Warriors), Windsor High School (Warriors), Windsor Locks High School (Raiders).