New Interactive Tool Brings Focus to Cuts in State Funding of Children's Programs

If a picture is worth a thousand words, the impact of a series of interactive data visualization graphs must be, well, off the charts.  For Connecticut Voices for Children, the new online, interactive visualization tool has been designed to help the public and policymakers see how funding for children's programming in Connecticut has fallen through the years.  Coming on the brink of a new legislative session and an ever-tightening state budget, the hope is that more widespread understanding of  past trends will forestall further cuts. The new interactive tool, on the Connecticut Voices for Children website, enables visitors to track spending across nearly 100 children’s programs over 25 years.  Over the last two decades, spending on children’s programs has declined from 40% to 30% of the state budget, according to the advocacy organization.  Had the state not changed its budgeting priorities, it would have invested about $1.5 billion more each year in children’s programs—enough, for instance, to be the first state to implement a universal early care and education system, Voices points out.

The new interactive tool, created by Connecticut Voices for Children, enables users to create their own graphs of state budget trends and then embed the charts in social media, blog posts, news articles, and reports. Users, for instance, can compare the dip in state support for K-12 education to the even steeper drop in support for higher education.

Detailed budget visualizations for Fiscal Years 1990 through 2015 are available for the following areas:

• The overall Children's Budget (at right)
• Early Care and Education
• K-12 Education investments
• Children's Health and Human Services
• Debt and Fringe Benefits

In producing this resource, Connecticut Voices for Children seeks to draw attention to what they describe as "Connecticut’s long-term disinvestment in young people – a trend that is particularly troubling in a state with an aging and shrinking workforce that will result in an increasing demand for well educated, career ready young adults."

Regarding K-12 education, for example, the website points out "K-12 Education has declined substantially as a share of the General Fund since the early 1990s, from about one fifth to one seventh in the most recent budget. This decline is seen most clearly in Educational Equalization Grants, the state's main contribution to local school districts. State support for K-12 education in Connecticut is among the lowest of any state in the union. In Connecticut, we leave the large majority of education expenses up to towns, which have no major revenue source except the property tax, thus contributing to the state's high and inequitable property taxes."

The information used in creating the graphs is official appropriations data from the Connecticut legislature's non-partisan Office of Fiscal Analysis.

Connecticut Voices for Children's mission is to promote the well-being of all of Connecticut's children and families by identifying and advocating for strategic public investments and wise public policies. Connecticut Voices advances its mission through high quality research and analysis, policy development, strategic communications, and establishment of a sustainable and powerful voice for children.

Planning Underway for 2015 White House Conference on Aging; Connecticut Has 7th Oldest Population

Next year will be the 50th anniversary of Medicare, Medicaid, and the Older Americans Act, as well as the 80th anniversary of Social Security. It will also be the year when the White House will convene the 2015 White House Conference on Aging. The Conference will be of particular interest in Connecticut, currently the 7th oldest state in the nation based on median age.  The state is undergoing “a permanent and historic transformation in its demographics,” according to the state’s Legislative Commission on Aging (LCA).

The first White House Conference on Aging was held in 1961, with subsequent conferences in 1971, 1981, 1995, and 2005. These conferences have been widely viewed as catalysts for development of aging policy over the past 50 years.

The White House is “fully committed,” to conducting a 2015 conference, and is moving forward developing plans.  Officials intend to seek broad public engagement and work closely with stakeholders in developing the conference, viewed as “an opportunity to look ahead to the issues that will help shape the landscape for older Americans for the next decade.”

Given the advances in technology and social media in the past decade, the 2015 Conference is expected to use web tools and social media “to encourage as many older Americans as possible to participate,” according to White House officials.

Among the key issues likely to be included are: retirement security; healthy aging; long-term services and supports to help older adults remain in their communities; and preventing financial exploitation, abuse, and neglect of older adults.

According to the Connecticut for Livable Communities report, issued earlier this year by the LCA, the state’s 65 and older population is projected to grow by 57% between 2010 and 2040. During the same period, Connecticut’s 20- to 64-year-old population is projected to grow less than 2%.

“In 2010, there were 4.35 working-age people for each person age 65 and older in Connecticut,” according to the CLCA. “In 2030, there will be only 2.75.”  More than one-third of the Connecticut population is over the age of 50, according to the report, and that proportion continues to rise. Residents born in Connecticut today, the report indicates, can expect to live to be 80.8 years old—the third highest life expectancy in the nation.

Nationally in 2013, there were 44.7 million Americans aged 65 and over and 6 million aged 85 and over.  Over the next 50 years, the number of people aged 65 and older is expected to more than double to 92 million and the number of people aged 85 and older is expected to triple to 18 million.

Among the key areas expected to be highlighted during the Conference, according to the White House website:

• Retirement security - Financial security in retirement provides essential peace of mind for older Americans, but requires attention during our working lives to ensure that we are well prepared for retirement.
• Healthy aging will be all the more important as baby boomers age. As medical advances progress, the opportunities for older Americans to maintain their health and vitality should progress as well and community supports, including housing, are important tools to promote this vitality.
• Long-term services and supports - Older Americans overwhelmingly prefer to remain independent in the community as they age. They need supports to do so, including a caregiving network and well-supported workforce.
• Elder justice - Seniors, particularly the oldest older Americans, can be vulnerable to financial exploitation, abuse, and neglect. The Elder Justice Act was enacted as part of the Affordable Care Act, aimed at protecting seniors from scam artists and others seeking to take advantage of them.

In 2013, there were 75.9 million baby boomers (people born between 1946 and 1964) accounting for almost one-quarter of the population. Baby boomers began turning 65 years old in 2011.  Between 1980 and 2013, the centenarian population more than doubled from 32,194 in 1980 to 67,347 in 2013.

Between 1990 and 2013, the labor force participation rate of people age 65 and over increased from 12% to 19%.  Among the population age 65 and over, there are 128 women for every 100 men. At age 85 and over this ratio increases to 196 women for every 100 men.

Earlier this year, Cecilia Muñoz, Assistant to the President and Director of the Domestic Policy Council, announced that Nora Super will be leading this effort as the Executive Director of the 2015 White House Conference on Aging.

Additional information can be obtained by contacting: White House Conference on Aging, 200 Independence Avenue SW, Suite 637D, Hubert H. Humphrey Building, Washington, DC  20201, (202) 619-3636, info@whaging.gov. Individuals can also sign up for updates as plans develop, at https://public.govdelivery.com/accounts/USWHCA/subscriber/new?topic_id=USWHCA_1

Summer Olympics May Come to CT if Boston Bid for 2024 Succeeds

Boston is one of four cities being considered to be the United States entry in the international competition to host the 2024 Olympic Games.  If Boston's bid were to become a reality, at least one Olympics observer is suggesting that Connecticut may have an Olympic supporting role to play. Boston, San Francisco, Washington D.C. and Los Angeles have been selected to develop bids to be considered by the U.S. Olympic Committee, which would decide which  city - if any - to support and present to the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which will decide in 2017 on the host city for the 2024 Olympics.

Rosanna Garcia, associate professor of marketing in the D’Amore-McKim School of Business at Northeastern University in Boston, who has attended the past eight Summer Olympics, sees the city turning to Connecticut and Rhode Island to host some events.

“With more than 300 events that typically occur at the Olympics, many cities around Massachusetts, and even Rhode Island and Connecticut, will need to partner with the International Olympic Committee to host these events,” Garcia points out.

“Many preliminary competition events would need to take place outside of the main Olympic Park areas so events may occur as far away as Connecticut. This also is an opportunity for more people to get involved with the Olympic Spirit,” Garcia adds.

The Boston Globe has reported that the U.S. Olympic Committee is expected to decide early next year whether to enter a U.S. city in the international competition to host the 2024 Olympics.  That would be just after the IOC acts on recent recommendations to reform its selection process, which would take effect with the 2024 Summer Games host selection.  The IOC meets next month to consider the series of recommendations.

Members of the U.S. Olympic Committee were in Boston last week, meeting with representatives of the Boston bid and area colleges which would participate, potentially providing sports venues, dorms, and other support services.  Last month, a promotional video advocating a Boston bid was released, and a website was launched. With an eye toward innovation and efficiency, the video highlights Boston’s bid “to create a sustainable model for hosting the Olympic and Paralympic Games that can become the blueprint for future host cities.”

The Connecticut Convention & Sports Bureau, the state’s official meetings and sports event sales and marketing organization, "supports Boston’s bid for the 2024 Olympics," said Interim President H. Scott Phelps.  "Regardless of whether or not Boston wins the Olympics, the City’s bid has helped to elevate the Boston and other New England brands to sports event planners from all over the world."  Officials noted that if the Olympic Games decide to come to Boston, "it could be great for tourism in nearby Connecticut as well, as spectators and competitors would be encouraged to come visit our State’s attractions," adding that "there might be opportunities for our state to host pre-Olympic competitions and ... athletes."

The Globe noted that if the International Olympic Committee, meeting in Switzerland in December, decides that its preference is for compact venues, as is expected, Boston is seen as a strong candidate and could gain an advantage over Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Washington, whose plans offer less intimate settings, according to the Globe.  Supporters of the San Francisco bid have noted that the chairman of the U.S. Olympic Committee, Larry Probst, lives in nearby Burlingame, CA.  The San Francisco effort is being led by Larry Baer, the chief executive officer of baseball's World Series champion Giants, according to published reports.

It is the first time that Boston has prepared a bid to host the Games, and it is being led by an organization called the Boston 2024 Partnership, a nonprofit organization formed to prepare the bid materials. The group is governed by a 36-member executive committee, and has launched a series of subcommittees aimed at master planning, fundraising, outreach, and engagement. Organizers note that no tax dollars have been spent on Boston 2024, and tax dollars will not be used to build venues or pay for the operation of the Games. Public investment will be confined to roadway, transportation and infrastructure improvements, most of which are already planned and are needed with or without the Olympics.

An Olympic games in Boston would utilize existing sports venues of both professional teams and area colleges, which could reduce potential costs.  Infrastructure improvements, such as in transportation, are already on the drawing board, and could accelerate with a Boston bid.

The U.S. last hosted a Summer Olympiad in Atlanta in 1996; a Winter Olympics in 2002.  St. Louis hosted in 1904 and Los Angeles held the Games in both 1932 and 1984. In recent years, the unsuccessful U.S. bids to the IOC was to host the Summer Games were New York (2012) and Chicago (2016).  The 2016 Games will be held in Rio de Janeiro and the 2020 Summer Olympics are scheduled to be held in Tokyo, Japan.  Other potential contenders, according to published reports, include Paris, Rome,Doha, Istanbul and either Hamburg or Berlin in Germany.

“Holding the Games in the Boston area would serve as a catalyst for growth in the region,” said John Fish, CEO of Suffolk Construction and driving force in the initiative. “We are also excited for the chance to deliver something that is both powerful and meaningful for the worldwide Olympic and Paralympic movements that will also connect more youth to sport.”

Latino Vote Increasing Battleground in Connecticut, Nation

If you wondered why the Governor of Puerto Rico and the former Governor of Puerto Rico both visited Connecticut in the waning days of the gubernatorial campaign to support the Democratic and Republican candidates, respectively, the numbers tell the story. Connecticut’s population is 14 percent Hispanic, the 11th largest Hispanic statewide population share nationally, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the Pew Research Hispanic Trends Project.  There are 265,000 Hispanic eligible voters in Connecticut—the 16th largest Hispanic statewide eligible voter population nationally.

Hispanic eligible voters in Connecticut have a much different Hispanic origin profile than Hispanic eligible voters nationwide, the research indicates.  In Connecticut, 5 percent of Hispanic eligible voters are of Mexican origin, two-thirds (67 percent) are of Puerto Rican origin, and 28 percent claim other Hispanic origin. Among all Hispanic eligible voters nationwide, 59 percent are Mexican, 14 percent are Puerto Rican, and 27 percent are of some other Hispanic origin.

One-in-ten Connecticut eligible voters are Hispanic, the 10th largest Hispanic statewide eligible voter share nationally. (New Mexico ranks first with 40 percent.) Just over half of the Hispanics in Connecticut (52 percent) are eligible to vote, ranking Connecticut 12th nationwide in the share of the Hispanic population that is eligible to vote. By contrast, more than three-quarters (78 percent) of the state’s white population is eligible to vote.

A national exit poll taken last Tuesday in conjunction with NBC News, shows that Latinos made up an estimated 8 percent of voters this year.  Specific data on Connecticut was not available.   Nationwide, the share of Hispanics who voted remained unchanged from their estimated share in 2010 and 2006 despite the growing share of eligible voters (U.S. citizens ages 18 or older). This year, 11 percent of all eligible voters were Hispanic, up from 10.1 percent in 2010 and 8.6 percent in 2006.

In several states where exit polling data for Hispanic voters is available, according to Pew Research, Democrats generally won the Hispanic vote in Senate and gubernatorial races. But in some states, Republicans did well among Hispanics, securing as much as 40 percent or more of the vote. In congressional races nationally, Democrats won the Latino vote by a margin of 62 percent to 36 percent.

In Florida, Republican Gov. Rick Scott won re-election with 38 percent of the Latino vote, a significant drop from the 50 percent he won in 2010.  In other gubernatorial races, including Texas and Georgia, the Democratic candidate won the Latino vote but lost the election.  In California, Gov. Jerry Brown was re-elected, winning won 73 percent of the Latino vote according to exit polls, up from 64 percent four years ago.

25th Anniversary of Fall of Berlin Wall Is Focus of Forum at Southern

Today’s college students have known only one Germany in their lifetime, but those from previous generations recall the post-World War II nations of East Germany and West Germany – until the wall separating those countries dramatically came down. That event – 25 years ago this weekend – will be the focus of a special program at Southern Connecticut State University that will feature Nicholas Burns, a career U.S. diplomat who played a key role in how the Bush Administration dealt with the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Burns, who was involved in the discussions on Berlin and Germany before and during that pivotal time in history, will be the keynote speaker at a Monday, Nov. 10 forum on campus.  The program, “Remembering the Fall of the Berlin Wall: 25 Years Later,” is free and open to the public, and will run from Noon to 2 p.m. in the Michael J. Adanti Student Center.

Burns served in the United States government for twenty-seven years. Today, he is a professor of the practice of diplomacy and international politics at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. He is a member of Secretary of State John Kerry’s Foreign Affairs Policy Board at the U.S. Department of State. He also writes foreign policy columns for the Boston Globe and Global Post and is a noted lecturer on U.S. foreign policy.

On November 9, 1989, jubilant crowds gathered on both sides of the Berlin Wall to celebrate the opening of border crossings between eastern and western parts of the city – an act that seemed impossible for decades, but would within a year lead to the reunification of Germany for the first time since World War II.

A panel discussion will follow the keynote and is scheduled to include:

• Troy Paddock, chairman of the SCSU History Department and an expert on German history;
• Kevin Buterbaugh, SCSU professor of political science and an international relations specialist;
• Steven Breese, dean of the SCSU School of Arts & Sciences who lived in West Germany in 1989;
• Eileen Kane, assistant professor of history at Connecticut College, where she specializes in modern Soviet/Russian history.

Video clips of major historical milestones pertaining to the fall will be shown, and a question-and-answer period will follow the panel discussion.  The video will include a look at the construction of the wall, as well as clips from speeches at the wall by President John F. Kennedy ("Ich bin ein Berliner") and President Ronald W. Reagan (Tear down this wall!).

As a career Foreign Service Officer, Burns was Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs from 2005 to 2008; the State Department’s third-ranking official when he led negotiations on the U.S.–India Civil Nuclear Agreement; a long-term military assistance agreement with Israel; and was the lead U.S. negotiator on Iran’s nuclear program. In 1990, he was appointed by President George H.W. Bush to the National Security Council, a post he held until 1995, bridging the administrations of Bush and President Bill Clinton.

Burns was U.S. Ambassador to NATO (2001–2005), Ambassador to Greece (1997–2001) and State Department Spokesman (1995–1997).  He worked for five years (1990–1995) on the National Security Council at the White House where he was Senior Director for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia Affairs and Special Assistant to President Clinton and Director for Soviet Affairs in the Administration of President George H.W. Bush.

Assets and Income Taxes, Back to the Future

A generation ago in Connecticut the Republican gubernatorial candidate, a resident of Fairfield County, was criticized by her Democratic incumbent opponent for the disparity between family assets and income taxes paid.  To observers of this year’s Connecticut campaign for Governor, the exchange may have a familiar ring. As reported by The New York Times after the first gubernatorial debate of the 1986 campaign between Gov. William O'Neill and Republican challenger Julie Belaga, a veteran legislator from Westport:

“There was another exchange about the recent release of Mrs. Belaga's joint tax return, which showed that she and her husband, Myron, paid $110 in Federal income taxes last year because of losses incurred by an investment business being started by her husband. The couple reported total assets of $1.4 million.

Mrs. Belaga said she and her husband, a retired oil company executive, paid more than $500,000 in Federal income taxes in 1982 and that Mr. O'Neill seemed to be confusing the couple's assets with their income…  Mr. O'Neill said, ''When you have $1.4 million in assets and pay $110, and $257 the previous year, something tells me you're not quite the average taxpayer.'''

Belaga, the Deputy House Majority Leader, had won a three-way Republican primary to gain the Republican nomination to challenge O’Neill, then running for his second full term.  One of the two unsuccessful candidates in that Republican primary 28 years ago was former state Sen. Gerald Labriola, whose son is the current chairman of the Connecticut Republican Party.

O’Neill was re-elected and ultimately served as Governor for a decade; Belega subsequently served as New England Regional Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and a member of the Export-Import Bank of the United States.   (WFSB archive photos)

For 3rd Consecutive Year, Connecticut Resident Is Named White House Fellow

Lindsay Rodman, a Captain in the United States Marine Corps,  judge advocate, and foreign area officer (Latin America) from Kent, Connecticut, has been named as one of 15 White House Fellows for 2014-15. She is the only Connecticut resident named to the prestigious fellowship for the coming year, and the third state resident in the past three years.  The Fellows come from diverse backgrounds, varied professions, and have demonstrated a strong commitment to public service and leadership.

Rodman most recently served as Deputy Legal Counsel in the Office of the Legal Counsel to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, where her portfolio included military justice, space law and human rights law issues. Her placement during her service as a White House Fellow will be with the National Security Council.

Before moving to the Joint Staff, Lindsay was assigned to Judge Advocate Division, Headquarters Marine Corps. From 2010-2011, she was deployed to Afghanistan as an operational law attorney. She previously served as a defense counsel and legal assistance attorney in Okinawa, Japan.

Founded in 1964, the President’s Commission on White House Fellowships is one of America’s most prestigious programs for leadership and public service. White House Fellowships offer exceptional young men and women first-hand experience working at the highest levels of the Federal government.

Selected individuals typically spend a year working as a full-time, paid Fellow to senior White House Staff, Cabinet Secretaries and other top-ranking government officials. Fellows also participate in an education program consisting of roundtable discussions with renowned leaders from the private and public sectors, and trips to study U.S. policy in action both domestically and internationally. Fellowships are awarded on a strictly non-partisan basis.

Prior to joining the Marine Corps, Rodman worked as an associate at Arnold & Porter LLP in Washington, DC. In early 2014 she was selected as a Center for New American Security Next Generation National Security Leader. She has been a member of the Warlord Loop, and a term member at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Rodman graduated in 2003 from Duke University with an A.B. in Mathematics and in 2007 from Harvard Law School with a J.D. and the Kennedy School of Government with a Masters in Public Policy.  She has volunteered at the DC Rape Crisis Center, and authored an article on sexual assault in the military that was published in 2013 by the Wall Street Journal.

The class of White House Fellows for 2014-15 includes individuals from New York, San Diego, San Francisco, Woodside (CA), Naperville (IL), Miami, Norfolk (VA), Midland (MI), Missoula (MT), Los Angeles, Voorhees (NJ), Penn Valley (PA), McAllen (TX), and Irvine (CA).

It is the third consecutive year that Connecticut has had a resident appointed as a White House Fellow.  Last year, Justin Finnegan of Darien was selected, following Anne O’Connell of West Haven the preceding year.

The first class of White House Fellows, in 1965, included William R. Cotter, later elected to Congress representing Connecticut’s First District.  He was joined in that class by Robert E. Patricelli, who would go on to become one of Connecticut’s prominent health care entrepreneurs and business leaders.  The Patricelli Center for Social Entrepreneurship at Wesleyan University bears his name.

More information on the White House Fellows program is available at whitehousefellows@whf.eop.gov 

See White House Fellow video. 

CT Has 5th Largest Drop in State & Local Government Employment

The drop in state and local government employment in Connecticut was the 5^th largest in the nation between December 2007 and June 2014, according to data released by the Economic Policy Institute using data compiled by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Connecticut’s government employment levels dropped 5.8 percent during the period.  Larger decreases in local and state government employees came in Michigan, 8 percent drop; Louisiana, 7.6 percent; Rhode Island, 7.6 percent; and Nevada, 6.5 percent. Nationwide, 21 states saw a reduction in government employees, the remaining states had an increase in staffing during the six-and-a-half year period.

Among the states with the largest increases in public sector jobs were Utah, Colorado, North Carolina, Texas, Wyoming, West Virginia, Delaware and Kentucky.

While some state lawmakers attempted to preserve public-sector jobs—such as by raising taxes on the wealthy—too many chose to slash vital investments in the public sector, the Economic Policy Institute indicated, weakening the critical services provided by police, firefighters, teachers, and social workers.

Since the start of the Great Recession in December 2007, 28 states plus the District of Columbia have added state and local government jobs, while 22 states have cut public sector workers. (see chart)

The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank created in 1986 to  include the needs of low- and middle-income workers in economic policy discussions.  Washington, D.C.-based EPI conducts research and analysis on the economic status of working America.

Nationally, the state and local public sector had roughly 412,000 fewer jobs in July 2014 than it did in December 2007, and nearly 600,000 jobs fewer than at its peak in July 2008, the research found.

Remembering Connecticut's Enduring Loss on 9/11

“Jeff Gonski does not need a network television special or a commemorative newspaper edition to remember what he cannot forget: It has been 10 years since Amy Toyen, his 24-year-old fiancée, vanished in a cloud of toxic smoke and twisted steel at the tip of lower Manhattan. When American Airlines Flight 11 slammed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center, Amy was on the 106th floor preparing to make a presentation at a trade show for Boston-based Thomson Financial.” Boston magazine, in 2011, began its feature article with that stark recollection.  Legacy.com begins its remembrance by describing how that morning began.

“To catch her early flight on Sept. 11, Amy E. Toyen arose in Boston at 4 a.m. so she could arrive in New York City at 6:45 a.m., in plenty of time to attend the trade show in Windows on the World at 1 World Trade Center. Ms. Toyen, 24, was demonstrating a software product of her company, Thomson Financial in Boston, when her fiancé, Jeffrey Gonski, got a call at 8:58 a.m. — his caller ID showed it was her cellphone — but when he answered, no one was there.

Mr. Gonski had met Ms. Toyen, who grew up in Avon, Connecticut, at their alma mater, Bentley College in Waltham, Mass., and had managed to pull off an elaborate proposal.

"We had just ordered her wedding dress," recalled her father, Martin Toyen. "She was so happy in her life — a woman in love, who loved her job." The wedding was set for June 16, 2002.

Toyen had lost a coin flip among business colleagues to decide who made the trip on Sept. 11; the night before, her flight from Boston to New York was canceled due to bad weather – but she was able to book a flight out of Logan International Airport at 6:00 the next morning.

After her death, Toyen’s parents would reflect on the luck that placed her in the worst part of the 110-story skyscraper, at the worst possible moment, the website MassLive reported. “It’s as if fate was telling her not to go,” said her father, adding that his daughter’s diligence pushed her to rebook the flight to get to the twin towers on time.

Since 9/11, Amy Toyen is remembered by those who knew her and loved her, those whose paths crossed hers along life’s journey, and by countless others, in her hometown of Avon, her native state of Connecticut, and well beyond.

A life size sculpture of a young Amy, funded by the student government of Avon High School, sits in the garden of the Avon Public Library.   Canton artist Marilyn Parkinson Thrall designed and executed the 22-inch bronze statue depicting Amy, sitting cross-legged on a bench and cradling a teddy bear as she reads a book on her lap.  Amy’s family sorted through many pictures in order to help Thrall capture her essence, incorporating her favorite daisy-print dress, tiny sneakers, and ponytails tied with pompom rubber bands. The statue sits upon a granite bench with a plaque that tells the full story.

Amy Elizabeth Toyen is one of the 2,977 people whose lives were tragically and abruptly ended on September 11, 2001, and one of 153 individuals named on Connecticut’s official memorial at Sherwood Island at Long Island Sound.

When the viewer faces the inscription on the state’s memorial stone they are oriented across the Sound to the site of the former World Trade Center in New York City, which had been visible from that scenic location. The inscription reads, "The citizens of Connecticut dedicate this living memorial to the thousands of innocent lives lost on September 11, 2001 and to the families who loved them."

Danbury-Based Ethan Allen In Retail Industry’s Hot 100; Only CT Company Named

The lone Connecticut-based retailer to make the list of the Hot 100 Retailers produced by the National Retail Federation is Danbury-based Ethan Allen Interiors, sliding in at #97.  Data from the national advocacy organization indicates 5 percent growth and 208 locations nationwide for the chain. Ethan Allen Interiors Inc. (NYSE:ETH) is a leading interior design company and manufacturer and retailer of quality home furnishings. The company offers free interior design service to its clients and sells a full range of furniture products and decorative accessories through ethanallen.com and a network of approximately 300 Design Centers in the United States and abroad.

Ethan Allen owns and operates eight manufacturing facilities including five manufacturing plants and one sawmill in the United States plus one plant in each of Mexico and Honduras. Approximately seventy percent of its products are made in its North American plants. Chairman, President and CEO is M. Farooq Kathwari.He has been president since 1985 and Chairman and Chief Executive Officer since 1987.

The company website indicates that “Ethan Allen is full-service. We conceptualize, design, source, manufacture, market, advertise, style, sell, distribute, and install. That means at headquarters our horizons are ever broadening. But our job is surprisingly straightforward: that is, to raise the bar — in all aspects of the company every day.”

Overall in Connecticut, the Federation highlighted the importance of the retail industry on the state’s economy:

• Retail directly and indirectly supports 1 in 5 Connecticut jobs.
• Retail is directly and indirectly responsible for 16% of Connecticut's GDP.
• Retail directly and indirectly generates 15% of labor income in Connecticut.
• Retail supports 476,568 jobs in Connecticut. (see breakdown below)

Among Connecticut’s neighboring New England states, Boston-based Wayfair was the #2 retailer nationwide on the Hot 100; Jordan’s Furniture, based in Taunton, MA was ranked #24; C & J Clark, headquartered in Newton, MA was #29; and Framingham-based Cumberland Farms was ranked #62.  In addition, LL Bean (Freeport, Maine) was #94 and BJ’s Wholesale Club (Westborough, MA) rounded out the list at #100.

Breaking down Connecticut employment by retail sector, the Federation reported:

1. Retail trade (including food services and drinking places) 17.2%
2. Health care and social assistance 14.8%
3. Finance and insurance 9.8%
4. Manufacturing 9.4%
5. Professional, scientific, and technical services 8.2%
6. Other services, except public administration 5.8%
7. Construction 5.8%
8. Administrative and waste services 5.7%
9. Real estate and rental and licensing 5.6%
10. Education services 3.9%

Nationally, the top 10 leading the Hot 100 in sales growth were Albertsons (Boise, Idaho), Wayfair, Ascena Retail Group (Suffern, NY), Conn’s (The Woodlands, Texas), SpartanNash (GrandRapids, MI), Michael Kors Holdings (New York), Under Armour (Baltimore), Cardinal Health (Dublin, Ohio), Five Below (Philadelphia), and Amazon.com (Seattle).  Each of the top 10 companies had sales growth exceeding 25 percent from 2012 to 2013.

The data for the Hot 100 report was provided by Kantar Retail for the National Retail Federation.