Tech Impact Summit to Provide High-Level Focus on Corporate Information Security

Information security experts from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and InfraGard will keynote the Tech Impact Summit in Farmington on October 7, coordinated by The Walker Group, one of New England’s leading technology services firms. FBI Special Agent Judy Eide, a 25-year veteran currently assigned to the Bureau’s New Haven Division Computer Crime squad and a coordinator of the Connecticut Chapter of InfraGard, will be one of the speakers.  Also on the program is Mark Ramsey the Chief Information Security Officer for ASSA ABLOY – Americas and President of the Connecticut Chapter of InfraGard. Ramsey also teaches at Fairfield University, and previously held information security positions at Stanley Black & Decker and General Electric.

In addition to the keynote presentations, the event will focus on three top trends in technology: Cybersecurity, Cloud/Hybrid Cloud and Hyperconvergence.

Attendance at Tech Impact is expected to exceed 300 people, which organizers describe as one of the region’s most comprehensive gatherings of technology leadership this year. More than 30 of today’s most innovative technology companies will be represented, including RSA, Splunk, Zerto, Nutanix, Dell, EMC, Microsoft, VMWare, and Aruba Networks. The program includes panel discussions, hands-on exposure to the latest technology and giveaways for participants.

“We want this to be a must-attend event for anyone responsible for strategic technical decisions within their organization,” says Steven Bulmer, Walker’s vice president of professional services.  “Tech Impact is really a self-defining event based upon the intense interest and demand from our clients, especially for information security services.”

The summit is complimentary for information technology professionals responsible for the strategic planning and implementation of all technology-related decisions throughout an organization.

The event will also be used to celebrate a $10,000 Tech Impact Award, given in partnership with Hartford-based reSET, to a social entrepreneur in the technology space that has the potential to make a social or environmental impact.

“Combining the opportunity to learn about cutting-edge trends in technology with a celebration of what technology can do to help make the world a better place is a wonderful way to celebrate our commitment to our social enterprise model,” said Walker’s CEO, Kate Emery.

Tech Impact will run from 9am to 4pm at the Farmington Marriott.

E-Cigarettes Remain Controversial as New Federal Law, Yale Academic Study Weigh In

Even as new federal rules restricting the sale of e-cigarettes take effect, advocates in Connecticut continue to urge state lawmakers to impose tougher restrictions on electronic cigarettes and vapor products when they reconvene next year.  They warn that a growing number of young people are using these electronic delivery systems to "smoke" what could be harmful and addictive substances. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced rules earlier this year that will forbid e-cigarette shops nationwide from selling the products to people younger than 18 and will require staff to ask for identification that proves customers are old enough to buy.  The rules – which take effect this month - would also extend long-standing restrictions on traditional cigarettes to a host of other products, including e-cigarettes, hookah, pipe tobacco and nicotine gels. Minors would be banned from buying the products.

Teens who initially tried e-cigarettes because of their low cost had significantly stepped up their use of e-cigarettes by the time researchers checked in six months later, according to a study that senior researcher Suchitra Krishnan-Sarin, a professor of psychiatry at Yale University School of Medicine, told WebMD in an article published last week.  The low cost of the devices and the promise they can help teens quit smoking tobacco are the two strong predictors of continued use, she said.

In addition, teens who tried e-cigarettes to quit smoking were more than 14 times more likely to keep using e-cigarettes than those who did not consider this a reason to try the devices, the findings showed.  However, e-cigarettes didn't seem to help the kids quit. Four out of five teens who tried e-cigarettes to quit smoking were still puffing regular cigarettes six months later, the investigators found.

"Even though they said they were using e-cigarettes to quit smoking, it doesn't appear to have necessarily helped them," Krishnan-Sarin said.

Jennifer DeWitt, executive director of the Central Naugatuck Valley Regional Action Council, told members of the General Assembly's Public Health Committee this spring that every principal in the 12-town region her organization covers "has a desk drawer of these items that were confiscated from teens this year," including some retrofitted to smoke marijuana, the Associated Press reported.

"Tobacco is a success story for us in the overall picture of prevention. However, we will take a back-slide if electronic nicotine delivery devices continue to be available in the ways that they are currently," DeWitt said.  She said 7.2 percent of Connecticut high school students are e-cigarette users, marking a higher usage rate than all tobacco products combined.

According to the CDC, nationally, 7 out of 10 middle and high school students who currently use tobacco have used a flavored product. In addition:

• 63% of students who currently use e-cigarettes have used flavored e-cigarettes (1.6 million)
• 61% of students who currently use hookah have used flavored hookah (1 million)
• 64% of students who currently use cigars have used flavored cigars (910,000)

Beginning this month, retailers are prohibited from selling the tobacco products to those under 18, placing them in vending machines or distributing free samples, under the new FDA rules. While nearly all states already ban sales of e-cigarettes to minors, federal officials said they will be able to impose stiffer penalties and deploy more resources to enforce the law. The FDA action comes five years after the agency first announced its intent to regulate e-cigarettes and more than two years after it floated its initial proposal, according to published reports.

“Millions of kids are being introduced to nicotine every year, a new generation hooked on a highly addictive chemical” Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell said. “We cannot let the enormous progress we’ve made toward a tobacco-free generation be undermined by products that impact our health and economy in this way.”

The CDC indicated that in 2013, more than a quarter million middle and high school students who had never smoked regular cigarettes had used e-cigarettes, a number that had grown three-fold in just two years. A high proportion of middle and high school students saw e-cigarette advertisements (in 2014) from one or more of the following four sources: retail, Internet, TV/movies, and Magazines/newspapers. Overall, 66% of Middle School Students and 71% of High School Student.

The New Haven Register reported that Dr. Roy Herbst, chief of medical oncology at the Yale Cancer Center and Smilow Cancer Hospital, said state and federal policy-makers should do more to rein in the spread of the devices.

“It didn’t go as far as we would’ve liked but it’s a good step in the positive direction and allows for more research,” Herbst said of the new federal rule. “I think now that we finally have this regulation, it will begin to stem the rapid use of e-cigarette use that is running rampant in the United States and around the world.”

Distracted Driving Attracts Police Attention in CT

Five seconds is the average time your eyes are off the road while texting. When traveling at 55mph, that's enough time to cover the length of a football field blindfolded. That statistic underscores why Connecticut State Police and more than 50 local police departments across the state are participating in the “U Drive. U Text. U Pay” initiative, for the second time this year.  It is an effort to get the attention of motorists who choose to text, talk or otherwise distract themselves from the task of driving by using a hand-held mobile phone. The campaign began August 3 and runs through August 16, (a similar effort was conducted in April) with law enforcement agencies taking aim at distracted drivers—especially those on their phones. 

The state Department of Transportation observed a significant drop in hand-held mobile phone use at selected enforcement locations after a similar effort last year. The data demonstrated a decrease in distracted driving from 9.6 percent before April 2015 to 7.8 percent in August 2015, representing a 23 percent drop in phone use at the selected enforcement nationwide.

Under Connecticut’s cell phone and texting law, violations involve heavy fines, ranging from $150 for a first offense to $300 for a second violation and $500 for each subsequent violation.  In 2014, an estimated 3,179 people were killed (10 percent of all crash fatalities) and an additional 431,000 were injured (18 percent of all crash injuries) in motor vehicle crashes involving distracted.

“Crashes due to cell phone usage are preventable. Keep your eyes on the road and your hands on steering wheel all of the time that you are driving. That incoming text and outgoing phone call can wait. Nothing is more important than arriving at your destination safely,” said Commissioner Dora B. Schriro of Connecticut’s Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection.

At any given daylight moment across America, approximately 660,000 drivers are using cell phones or manipulating electronic devices while driving. Ten percent of all drivers 15 to 19 years old involved in fatal crashes were reported as distracted at the time of the crashes. This age group has the largest proportion of drivers who were distracted at the time of the crashes.

The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration points out that studies show that parents have a great influence on teen behavior. “While you may not think you have great influence, that’s it’s all about peer pressure, you’re still the greatest influence on your teen. Talk to your teen and set rules to keep your teens from driving while distracted. Know the facts and share it with them. Engage your teens in a dialogue about the problem.”  A national website, www.distraction.gov, has relevant information.

Connecticut remains the only state in the nation to receive special distracted driving prevention funds to create special patrols to identify, stop and cite drivers who choose to ignore distracted driving laws. Over $6.8 million dollars has been awarded to the state over the last three years to fund distracted driving prevention campaigns.

CCMC Study Brings Attention to Dramatic Increase in Trampoline Injuries Nationwide

As trampoline parks are becoming more common in Connecticut and across the United States, so are emergency department visits for injuries that occur at these facilities, a new national study led by physician researchers at Connecticut Children’s Medical Center (CCMC), has found. The study published this month in the journal Pediatrics, co-authored by CCMC emergency physicians Steven Rogers, MD, and Jesse Sturm, MD, and pediatric emergency medicine fellow Kathryn Kasmire, MD, came about after the physicians began noticing a sharp increase in trampoline injuries, including some that were serious.

For the study, the CCMC physicians analyzed emergency room reports from a national database to estimate the total number of trampoline-related injuries both from parks and trampolines at home. From 2010 to 2014, the average annual number of Emergency Department visits for trampoline injuries was close to 92,000.

The vast majority happened at home - but injuries at trampoline parks surged more than 10-fold during the study period. The study found that emergency room visits related to injuries at trampoline parks grew from 581 in 2010 to 6,932 in 2014, which was the latest year represented in the study. Patients injured at trampoline parks were more likely to be males, with an average age of 13.

The study concluded that “trampoline park injury patterns differed significantly from home trampoline injuries. Trampoline park injuries are an emerging concern; additional investigation and strategies are needed to prevent injury at trampoline parks.”

The number of trampoline parks in the United States also increased during that time frame from around 40 in 2011 to 280 in 2014. It is now estimated that nationwide, five to six new parks open each month. Over the last year alone, it is estimated that more than 50 million people visited trampoline parks in North America, according to the International Association of Trampoline Parks.

In Connecticut, trampoline parks are up and running in communities including Hartford, New Britain, Trumbull, Bethel, Stamford, Norwalk, Manchester, Milford, Danbury, New Milford, Ridgefield, Brookfield, Wallingford.  Another is expected soon in East Haven.

The state’s official tourism website, www.ctvisit.com, includes six trampoline parks among the places highlighted for “safe, family-friendly indoor recreation.”  The “Connecticut – Still Revolutionary” site features information about, and links to, Launch Trampoline Park in Hartford, Sky Zone in Bethel and Norwalk, Chelsea Piers in Stamford, Rockin’ Jump Trampoline Park in Trumbull and Flight Trampoline Park in New Britain.

The study found that the majority of trampoline-related accidents occur at home — rather than at a park — and these accidents did not increase significantly from 2010 to 2014, nor did overall trampoline injuries.

The International Association of Trampoline Parks (IATP) said the rise in injuries should be expected because of more parks in recent years. "We believe that the positives of youth recreational sports far outweigh the negatives, and we are actively engaged in programs aimed at promoting the safety and well-being of jumpers who visit our member parks," the organization said following publication of the study.

"I don't think trampoline park injuries are increasing because they are especially dangerous compared to home trampolines, but rather because of their growing popularity and the increasing number/availability of these facilities," said Kasmire, indicating that 1 in 11 children or young adults who went to the emergency room for park injuries was admitted to the hospital.

Most of the injuries were leg injuries, including strains and fractures. Children injured at trampoline parks were less likely to have head injuries than those injured on trampolines at home, but the severity of park-related injuries was concerning, the authors said.

In a published report, Kasmire said that parks generally have done a good job of ensuring that youngsters do not fall off trampolines, reducing the likelihood of head injuries, because the floors are covered with a bouncy surface. This floor, though, can increase the risk of other injuries if a person lands between two trampolines, she said.

The American Academy of Pediatrics advises against trampoline use for all children but says if children do use them, they should not do flips or have more than one jumper at a time on a trampoline. The academy said adult supervision is needed and that trampolines should also have proper padding.

The IATP indicated that the organization “welcomes studies like the one published” because they “provide a deeper understanding of safety issues and provide data on our sport allowing us to better educate parents, jumpers and parks so all can fully enjoy indoor trampoline park facilities.”

The trade organization also noted that “if the study reported Trampoline Park Injuries (TPIs) as a percentage, rather than a total, a more accurate industry picture would develop. As a point of reference, high school football players experience injuries at a rate of 3.87 per 1,000 exposures. The rate of reportable injury at a typical trampoline park is less than one per 10,000 jumpers.  Therefore, the rate at which injuries occur is a much more meaningful statistic than total number of injuries.”

The study in Pediatrics notes “adult supervision has been proposed to reduce trampoline injuries in children, although trampoline injuries often occur despite adult supervision.”  The study also states that “although only a fraction of trampoline-related injuries occurred at trampoline parks (11% in 2014), the trend is alarming.”

Policies Vary on Who Pays for Public Sidewalk Repairs; 38 Towns Report No Sidewalks At All

A survey of Connecticut’s 169 municipalities identified the party that is financially responsible for repairing public sidewalks, and discovered that policies vary from town to town - and there are 38 municipalities that indicate they don’t have any sidewalks. As for financial responsibility for repairs among those that do, it varies, according to a report by the Office of Legislative Research (OLR).  The survey found that 127 municipalities had sidewalk repair policies that were spelled out in ordinances or based on informal practices. Four municipalities, Burlington, Ledyard, Sterling, and Woodbridge, reported that they do not have a sidewalk repair policy.

Of the 127 municipalities with sidewalk repair policies, 74 (58%) are responsible for repairing sidewalks and 47 (37%) require abutting property owners to pay for sidewalk repairs, subject to certain exceptions, OLR reported. For example, many municipalities that require abutters to pay for sidewalk repairs exempt them from doing so if the damage was caused by the roots of municipally owned trees. Other municipalities exempt abutters in downtown areas or those whose sidewalks are used by children walking to school.

In other municipalities, abutters may be relieved of responsibility for sidewalks within the downtown area or used by children walking to school. And in municipalities where abutters are generally not responsible for sidewalk repairs, they may be responsible if they cause the damage, for example when doing construction work on their property, the OLR report explained.

Communities indicating they do not have sidewalks include Andover, Barkhamsted, Bethany, Bethlehem, Bolton, Bozrah, Bridgewater, Brookfield, Brooklyn, Canterbury, Chaplin, Colebrook, Columbia, Cornwall, Durham, Easton, Franklin, Goshen, Hampton, Hartland, Killingworth, Lebanon, Lyme, Middlefield and Morris.  Additionally, the towns of New Fairfield, North Stonington, Orange, Oxford, Pomfret, Preston, Prospect, Roxbury, Scotland, Union, Warren, Weston and Wolcott report no sidewalks in town.

Five municipalities have policies shifting the burden depending on whether the sidewalk is (1) state- or municipally-owned or (2) within the state or municipal right of way. One municipality reported that repairs are the state’s responsibility. In many municipalities, sidewalk repair policies are informal and based on past practice, the survey found.

The OLR Report, 2015-R-0213, was issued in December 2015 and highlighted by OLR last month.  Data was compiled through an email survey of municipal planning offices and chief elected officials. According to the report, nine municipalities shift the burden from abutters to themselves when damage is caused by tree roots, a snow plow, or other activities conducted by the municipality. And 14 municipalities make abutters responsible for repair costs if their actions gave rise to the needed repairs.  The sidewalk version of “you break it, you pay for it.”

Connecticut Among 11 States Upgrading to Next Generation 911

Connecticut is one of 11 states that have upgraded, or are in the process of upgrading, their Emergency 911 system to what’s called Next Generation 911, to allow the emergency notification system to respond to text messages and utilize a range of new technologies.  Connecticut’s upgrade began last year, and is expected to be fully operational later this year. The National Emergency Number Association (NENA), which represents government agencies and private firms involved in the emergency system, and the National 911 Program, housed in the U.S. Department of Transportation, are pushing states and localities to adopt what they call Next Generation 911, according to a published report in Governing magazine. 

The urgency driving the upgrade effort was highlighted in recent weeks. Like most 911 systems in the U.S., Orlando’s emergency communication center cannot receive text messages, photos or videos. Nor can most 911 systems tap into other mobile device features, like detailed location services, Governing points out.

The magazine, which focuses on state and local government operations, notes that texting 911 could be valuable in emergencies like the Orlando shooting or a domestic violence incident, where it is unsafe to make any noise let alone talk out loud about the danger at hand. And sending text messages to 911 could allow people who are deaf or have speech impairments to communicate without other special devices.

One day last month, a computer glitch knocked out portions of the statewide 911 system briefly in Connecticut.  The Hartford Courant is reporting today that state officials have determined the partially installed high-tech 911 emergency dispatch system  became overwhelmed by duplicate messages July 15, leading to a breakdown that failed to connect callers at about half the call centers.  The state has temporarily halted a $13.2 million upgrade of the system, William Youell, director of the Division of Statewide Emergency Telecommunications, told the Courant.

Connecticut’s Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection (formerly Emergency Management and Homeland Security) reports that The Next Generation 9-1-1 system is Internet Protocol based and will utilize the new Connecticut Public Safety Data Network to deliver 911 calls to Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs) in Connecticut.

The new system, according to the agency’s website, will provide the infrastructure to allow “Text to 9-1-1”, the ability to send images or video with a 9-1-1 call to a PSAP, and to call 9-1-1 directly via the Internet when telecommunication service providers make these features available to the public.

It has been estimated that full implementation of the system, which began in the spring of 2015, would take 18 months. Initial installation of the system call answering components first got underway at ten pilot PSAPs around the state in May 2015, in New Britain, Wilton, Enfield, Newington, Valley Shore (12 towns), Fairfield, Middletown, Mashantucket, Shelton, and Wolcott.  Training sessions for PSAP personnel have been held in New Haven, in collaboration with AT&T.

Four states — Indiana, Iowa, Maine and Vermont — already have moved to Next Generation 911, according to NENA. Another seven — Connecticut, Hawaii, Massachusetts, North Dakota, South Dakota, Tennessee and Virginia — are doing so, Governing points out. The goal is for there to be a nationwide changeover completed by 2020, as utility companies abandon old copper phone lines for fiber optic cables.

In at least five additional states — Florida, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio and Texas — city, county and local governments either have upgraded their systems or are in the process of doing so.  But in at least six states — Georgia, Missouri, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma and West Virginia — it is unclear if any preparations for the switch have been made at the state or local level, according to the Governing update.

The entire statewide system in Connecticut, purchased through A&T, cost $13.26 million with annual maintenance costs of about $3.2 million, Stephen Verbil, a telecommunications manager with the Division of the Statewide Emergency Communications, told the Day of New London last year.  The system uses Dell servers connected through a fiber optic network and is paid for through a surcharge on land lines and cellphones.

Finding callers who aren’t using landlines, which are registered to a physical address, has been a problem since cellphones became popular in the 1990s, Governing reported. Calls to 911 from cellphones are not routed based on the exact location of the caller, but on the location of the tower transmitting that call. This can lead to emergency calls getting answered by faraway call centers and make it hard for responders to locate the caller.  Next Generation 911 will be able to use technology like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth signals and geographic information systems to find mobile callers, Trey Forgety, government affairs director for NENA, told Governing.

Add a Teen Driver to Policy? Rates Double in CT, 8th Highest Increase in Nation

Adding a teen driver to the family automobile insurance policy drives up rates.  That’s true everywhere across the United States, and in Connecticut the increase is among the highest in the nation, almost doubling the policy's premium. A new survey reveals that the average premium increase in Connecticut when adding a teen driver to an existing policy is 96.3 percent, which is the 8^th highest increase in the U.S.  The only states with higher jumps in premiums are New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Arizona, Wyoming, Ohio, Oregon and Maine.

The study, by insuranceQuotes, found that the average increase in premiums across the country when a teen driver is added to an existing policy is 79 percent.  That is a slight improvement from a few years ago, when the increase nationwide averaged 84 percent.

The study also found that it costs more to add a young male driver than a female driver to an existing policy - adding a male teen to a married couple's policy results in a national average premium increase of 91 percent, compared to an increase of 67 percent for a female.  The difference is wider the younger the driver.  For 16 year old male driver is added, for example, the premium cost more than doubles on an existing policy.

Connecticut has consistently been ranked in the top ten, with among the highest increases when a teenage driver is added to an existing policy.  A year ago, Connecticut was ranked 7^th, with a 98.3 percent increase in insurance rates after adding a teen driver.  The previous year, Connecticut ranked 5^th in the annual survey, with an increase of 102.4 percent in the policy cost when a teen driver was added.

According to the data, the largest increases in Connecticut were in New Haven County, more than 11 percent higher than the statewide average.  Tolland, Windham, Middlesex and New London counties were slightly lower than the statewide average; Hartford and Fairfield counties slightly higher.

Laura Adams, senior insurance analyst at insuranceQuotes stressed that states differ considerably when it comes to the cost of insuring a teenage driver – noting that a teen added to a married adult's auto policy in New Hampshire results in an average annual premium increase of 125 percent, while in Hawaii the average increase is just 17 percent.  New Hampshire had the highest increase in each of the past three years.

"Insurance companies have pretty wide lattitude in many states in the reasons for raising rates, and in some states adding a teen really moves the needle," Adams told CT by the Numbers.  As for Connecticut, Adams said she doesn't see any reprieve anytime soon.  "Teen drivers are among the riskiest, and companies take advantage of the opportunity to raise rates."

Perhaps the most significant underlying factor is that each state regulates insurance differently, and those regulatory differences account for some of the variations in the study’s findings, according to insuranceQuotes.  For instance, Hawaii is the only state that doesn't allow insurance providers to consider age, gender or length of driving experience when determining premiums. That means that the cost for teens doesn't differ much from the cost for adults buying auto insurance.  This may also account for lower increases in states such as New York, Michigan and North Carolina, where insurance is regulated more strictly and rating factors are more stringent, insuranceQuotes points out.   The increases in those states when adding a teen to an existing policy were all below 60 percent, among the lowest increases in the nation.

Adams noted that people often notice the difference in rates when they move to another state.  "You are penalized for where you live.  States handle this very differently."

She added that "regardless of the costs to insure your teen driver, safety is the No. 1 priority. We suggest parents educate teens on the dangers of driving, especially when it comes to texting while driving, or driving under the influence.”

Kathy Bernstein, senior manager of the National Safety Council's Teen Driving Initiatives, told insuranceQuotes that the riskiness of teens behind the wheel may be "leveling off."  For instance, in 1978 there were nearly 10,000 teen driver deaths, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS). That number has dropped every year since then. In 2014, the number of teen driver deaths was about 2,600.  The percentage of teens on the road has steadily declined as well. According to a recent study from the University of Michigan, 69 percent of 17-year-old Americans had a license 30 years ago. Now, less than half have a license - 45 percent.

Adams indicated that as teen drivers get older and gain driving experience, rates tend to come down, unless, of course, they happen to have an accident in which they are at fault.  In those instances, "very high rates" result.

For the annual study, insuranceQuotes and Quadrant Information Services examined the economic impact of adding a driver between the ages of 16 and 19 to a family's existing car insurance policy.  The insuranceQuotes website provides consumers with a free, easy way to compare insurance quotes online for auto, home, health, life and business policies.

Putnam High School Student Earns Spot on National Student Advocacy Board

As many Connecticut students are honored with end-of -year school awards for community accomplishments, Putnam High School Junior Jozzlynn Lewis has earned a coveted spot on a national teen board. She has been selected by Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD) to join an advocacy-training program called SADD SPEAKs, the only youth from Connecticut to earn the distinction for the coming year. SADD state coordinator for Connecticut, the Governor’s Prevention Partnership, announced Lewis’ appointment:  “Jozzlynn was one of only 15 young people from across the country who was chosen. It is quite an honor!” said Jill Spineti, President & CEO, The Governor’s Prevention Partnership (The Partnership). “This is also significant for The Partnership because this is the first time in ten years that we have had a youth from Connecticut involved in a national SADD initiative.”

Lewis’ appointment to SADD Speaks was announced recently at the Partnership’s Annual Governor’s Residence Reception, a private event at the Governor’s home, which recognizes the organization’s top corporate investors.  She addressed CEOs, Commissioners and other high level officials at the event hosted by Governor Malloy and other members of the Partnership’s Board of Directors.

Lewis, 17, underwent a competitive selection process which focused on her experience, leadership qualities, public speaking ability, and other criteria, officials said. She was recognized as a dynamic student leader who has also been involved in her local substance abuse prevention coalition, Putnam PRIDE, for many years, along with her mother, Cheryl. Her interest in SADD stems from seeing alcohol and substance use in her own school.

“Sometimes kids come to class under the influence,” explains Lewis, who will begin her senior year in the fall. “This has a negative influence on all of the students, not just the ones who use.  I became involved in SADD in order to make a difference and do my part to make things better.”

Spineti notes that “More than 50 percent of Connecticut's youth continue to deal with issues of drug use, family alcoholism, bullying and child abuse. We partner with SADD and exemplary students such as Jozzlynn to help children avoid all substances to ensure a healthier future.”

Although progress has been made, Spineti stresses that efforts need to be intensified.  According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, nationally each month 26.4 percent of underage persons (ages 12-20) used alcohol, and binge drinking among the same age group was 17.4 percent. And nearly three quarters of students (72%) have consumed alcohol (more than just a few sips) by the end of high school, and more than a third (37%) have done so by eighth grade, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

New data released this month reflected some results from efforts to reduce underage drinking during the past decade – from 2005 to 2015, there was a 15.1 percent drop in reported use by high school students.  This is better than the national average for the same time period, which shows a 10.5 percent decrease in youth alcohol use (CDC’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey), officials said.

Lewis’ commitment and dedication impressed the judging panel.

“Jozzlynn is deserving of this high honor. Her deep desire to empower her peers and change her community will serve her well, as she works to implement policy change at the local, state, and national level,” said Dawn Teixeira, SADD president and chief executive officer. “Motivated young people are a true catalyst for social change.”

“I am so very proud of Jozzlynn and her dedication to SADD, as well as her commitment to wanting to make Putnam High School and our community a safer place to learn and live,” adds Lisa Mooney, School Social Worker and SADD Advisor at Putnam High School.

SADD SPEAKs (Students for Policy, Education, Advocacy, & Knowledge) is an initiative of SADD National, funded by State Farm, that focuses on addressing an impaired driving issue. The participants will have a positive and lasting effect on public policy, demonstrating the power of America’s young people to speak persuasively on critically important issues. They will be trained in coalition building, public speaking and advocacy skills.

This year’s SADD SPEAKs delegates will develop an advocacy plan to address an impaired driving issue (distracted, drowsy, drugged or underage drinking and driving). The group will then lead the national organization’s efforts on Capitol Hill and before their own state and local governments, as well as mobilize thousands of SADD students across the country.

The SADD National Conference, held later this month in Pittsburgh, will include some attendees from Connecticut – nearly a dozen students, teachers and officials from New London will be among those on hand.

At the Governor’s Residence, The Partnership also shared its new strategic plan with the attendees who generously support the non-profit organization. The plan is focused on The Partnership’s mission to equip and connect community groups, business leaders and families to prevent substance abuse, underage drinking and violence among youth.

Created in 1989, the Governor’s Prevention Partnership is a not-for-profit partnership between state government and business leaders with a mission to keep Connecticut’s youth, safe, successful, and drug-free.  The organization focuses on positive school climate, mentoring, and the prevention of underage drinking and substance abuse.

Founded as Students Against Driving Drunk in 1981 in Wayland, Massachusetts, SADD has grown to become the nation’s leading peer-to-peer youth education and prevention organization with thousands of chapters in middle schools, high schools and colleges. In 1997, in response to requests from SADD students themselves, SADD expanded its mission and name and now sponsors chapters called Students Against Destructive Decisions.

PHOTO: Jozzlynn Lewis, left, newly appointed to the National SADD teen advocacy board with Jill Spineti, President & CEO of The Governor’s Prevention Partnership.

67,000 CT Homes At Risk from Hurricane Storm Surges; State Ranks 14th Among States Under Threat

More than 6.8 million homes on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts are at potential risk of damage from hurricane storm surge inundation with a total reconstruction cost value of more than $1.5 trillion, according to a new analysis by CoreLogic.  Connecticut, which has felt the brunt of major east coast storms in recent years, ranks 14^th among the states in the potential damage from future storms, with more than 67,000 homes at risk of flood exposure. According to the analysis, nearly 7,000 Connecticut homes are at extreme risk from future storms, another 21,600 homes are at very high risk, and nearly 18,000 are at high risk, depending upon the severity of the storm.  In addition, just over 21,000 homes are seen as being of moderate risk.  In the analysis, a category 1-5 storm would place a structure at extreme risk, a category 2-5 storm at very high risk, a category 3-5 storm at high risk, and a category 4-5 storm would put a home at moderate risk.

Among neighboring states, Connecticut ranked behind Massachusetts, New York and New Jersey.

In addition to the number of homes at risk, the analysis also provides the reconstruction cost value (RCV), which is the cost to completely rebuild a property in case of damage, including labor and materials by geographic location, assuming a worst-case scenario at 100-percent destruction.  The analysis points out that the location of hurricanes that hit land is often a more important factor than the number of storms that may occur during the year.

At the state level, Texas and Florida, which have the longest coastal areas, consistently have more homes at risk than other states. Florida ranks first with 2.7 million at-risk homes across the five risk categories and Texas ranks third with 531,169 at-risk homes.  Since the number of homes at risk strongly correlates with the accompanying RCV, these two states rank first and fifth, respectively for having the largest RCV, according to the analysis.

The states with the most at-risk homes are Florida, Louisiana, Texas, New Jersey, New York, Virginia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Massachusetts, Georgia, Maryland, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Delaware.

Rhode Island, Maine and New Hampshire ranked 17^th, 18^th and 19^th respectively.

The CoreLogic storm surge analysis, officials say, complements Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) flood zone information to provide a snapshot of potential damage exposure at the property level since many properties located outside designated FEMA flood zones are still at risk for storm surge damage.  The analysis examines risk from hurricane-driven storm surge for homes along the Atlantic and Gulf coastlines across 19 states and the District of Columbia, as well as for 88 metro areas.

“Using more granular-level data has given us an even clearer picture of which homes are at risk of storm surge damage,” said Dr. Tom Jeffery, senior hazard risk scientist for CoreLogic. “Despite the overall increases in risk, we were glad to see that the number and value of homes in the most extreme, and dangerous, category actually declined.”

At the regional level, the Atlantic Coast has just under 3.9 million homes at risk of storm surge with an RCV of $953 billion, and the Gulf Coast has just over 2.9 million homes at risk with $592 billion in potential exposure to total destruction damage.

When the states are ranked by the anticipated reconstruction cost value of the homes at risk, Connecticut ranks 12^th.

Among the nation’s major metropolitan areas, those with the most homes potentially affected by all categories of hurricane are Miami, New York Tampa, New Orleans, Virginia beach, Cape Coral, Houston, Bradenton, Naples, Jacksonville, Philadelphia, Charleston, Boston, Myrtle Beach and Lafayette.

CoreLogic is a leading global property information, analytics and data-enabled services provider. The company’s combined data from public, contributory and proprietary sources includes over 4.5 billion records spanning more than 50 years.

The official hurricane season extends from June-November each year, but hurricanes are not limited to that timeframe.  The report indicates that most preseason forecasts to date have predicted an increase in both the total number of storms and the number of hurricanes in 2016, compared with the last three years. The storm predictions from Tropical Storm Risk, for example, show a 35 percent chance of this year being an above average season.

More Rapes Reported at UConn Than Other Colleges in U.S.; New Study Finds Attitudes Toward Women Key In Higher Rates of Sexual Assault By College Athletes

Whether the number is interpreted as reflecting growing confidence in university adjudication systems, or a growing problem, there were 43 rapes reported at the University of Connecticut in 2014.  Nearly 100 colleges and universities had at least 10 reports of rape on their main campuses, according to federal campus safety data for that year, with UConn and Brown University in Rhode Island  tied for the highest annual total — 43 each. The release of the data comes as:

• a new study suggests an alarming frequency of students – especially college athletes - coercing a partner into sex, and
• the sentencing in California of a student athlete to a six month jail term for sex-related crimes, a sentence widely criticized for its brevity.

An on-line survey of 379 college men found that more than half of athletes and a more than 38 percent of non-athletes admitted to coercing a partner into sex.  Researchers surveyed male college students from one large, public, Division I university in the Southeast and asked about a list of sexually coercive behaviors — including threatening partners into oral or anal sex — almost all of which met the legal definition of rape.

The study was published in the journal Violence Against Women last week, with the researchers analysis showing “significant differences between the responses of athletes and non-athletes.”

The UConn data was announced last fall; the comparison with other universities was made public this week.  In an editorial, the UConn Daily Campus, the student newspaper, said “If students made targets of sexual abuse and harassment feel they can come forward and at least somewhat trust their university’s administration to appropriately address their situations, that speaks volumes on the progress the school is making as a bureaucracy and, most paramount, as a culture.”

UConn spokeswoman Stephanie Reitz said the university “works very hard to cultivate a culture of forthrightness so this traditionally under-reported crime can be addressed and our students receive appropriate services and support.”

During the 2012-13 school year, UConn disclosed 13 reported rapes. That number increased to 18 the next year and to 43 last school year.  The number of reports of dating violence increased from eight in 2013-14 to 26 the following year, and the number of reports of stalking more than quadrupled, from 6 to 30.

New stories indicated that the highest number of reports occurred at Brown: 43; UConn: 43; Dartmouth College: 42; Wesleyan University: 37; and University of Virginia: 35. Yale had 13 reported rapes; Trinity had 12; SCSU had 9; Connecticut College had 8; Quinnipiac had 5; Fairfield had 4; University of New Haven had 4; University of Saint Joseph had 3; University of Bridgeport had 3; and WCSU, ECSU, CCSU and University of Hartford all had 1, according to published reports.

In April, UConn officials released the results of a survey designed to measure the problem of sexual violence on campus, and it indicated that students there feel safe, FOX61 reported. About 1,500 of 6,000 students responded to the anonymous survey, and 82 percent said they felt safe. Of the respondents, 5.5 percent said they'd been sexually assaulted.

UConn was pointedly criticized two years ago from a group of students who alleged their complaints of sexual assault were not handled properly. The university later paid $1.3 million to settle the lawsuit filed by those students and made numerous changes to improve how students are treated when they come forward.  At the time, UConn was one of 67 higher education institutions under review by the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights due to its handling of sexual assault cases.

Last week a former Stanford swimmer was sentenced to six months in jail and three years of probation for sexually assaulting a woman outside a fraternity party in 2015. The sentence, far more lenient than what prosecutors sought, provoked public outrage and drew renewed attention to an issue that in recent years has brought controversy and concern on campuses nationwide, including UConn.

The athletes included in the study were mostly those who play recreational, not intercollegiate, sports.  “What we see in this study speaks to a larger issue than just the high-profile and sensational reports we hear about,” Sarah Desmarais, an associate professor of psychology at North Carolina State University and the study’s co-author, told the publication. “There are some attitudes and beliefs prevalent among all kinds of male athletes that seem to be leading to high levels of sexually coercive behavior.”

For this study, the researchers surveyed online 379 male undergraduates: 191 non-athletes, 29 intercollegiate athletes and 159 recreational athletes. The study was conducted by researchers at NC State, the University of South Florida, Northern Arizona University and Emory University.

“We found that 54.3 percent of the intercollegiate and recreational athletes and 37.9 percent of non-athletes had engaged in sexually coercive behaviors – almost all of which met the legal definition of rape,” Desmarais said, in a published report on the NC State website.  “As high as these numbers are, they may actually under-represent the rates of sexual coercion, since the study relied on self-reported behavior,” Desmarais said.

The Washington Post and the Kaiser Family Foundation published in June 2015 a national poll that found one in five women who attended a residential college during a four-year span said they had been sexually assaulted. Those findings have been reinforced by surveys at several prominent research universities, the Post reported.