Digital Citizenship Summit, Born in CT, Grows on Twitter

A year ago, the first annual Digital Citizenship Summit was held in West Hartford, hosted by the University of Saint Joseph.  This Friday, the second annual Summit will be held in San Francisco, hosted by Twitter at their global headquarters.  The livestream is expected to reach 3.2 million people globally via Twitter Livestream. The mission of the initiative hasn’t changed as the reach has grown - to unite people, organizations, and companies around the world committed to the safe, savvy, and ethical use of social media and technology. The Digital Citizenship Summit, being held on October 28, is described as a global event, with speakers from Australia, Spain, England, Ireland, Canada, and Kenya.  Attendance can be in-person or virtual.

The event includes a diverse range of well-known and emerging voices with “quick and powerful” 10-minute talks, along with a range of panels covering the breadth of digital citizenship.  The three themes for the Summit are: Citizenship, Literacy, and Advocacy.

Organizers say “the Digital Citizenship Summit isn’t a conference, it is a movement - away from fear and distrust, and towards educating, empowering and engaging all groups.”  The Summit will share best practices and insights, and promote collaboration, bringing together educators, parents, students, organizations and industry.

The initiative was launched by West Hartford’s David Ryan Polgar and academician Marialice B.F.X. Curran.  Dr. Curran's teaching, scholarship and service focus on digital citizenship and social media in K-12 teacher education. She was named one of the Top 10 Digital Citizenship bloggers to follow in 2014 by Common Sense Media. Polgar, an attorney and college professor, is a frequent speaker (three-time TEDx) and tech commentator on television and in print, focusing on digital citizenship, creativity, cyber ethics, tech balance and humanizing the online experience.

“Millions of people are struggling with modeling safe, savvy and ethical behavior online.  Beneath the surface, there are major conflicts between parents, students, educators and administrators that span personal safety to politics.  The Digital Citizenship Summit bridges the gap between what we want to see online and how to actually be the digital change,” organizers point out.

The event will be emceed by Kelly Wallace, a digital correspondent and editor-at-large for CNN. It is also serving as the kick-off for US Media Literacy Week. The Digital Citizenship Summit will be livestreaming from Twitter headquarters from 9 AM PST to 5:00 PM PST. It can be seen on the Summit website or from Twitter's @Safety account. Individuals do not need to register in order to watch the live stream, but all registrants will receive post-event videos and resources, according to organizers.

Joining internationally renowned speakers, there will be student voices – “passionate voices from elementary school students to college-age advocates who are already leading us into the future as positive role models.”  Among the speakers is Jim Steyer, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Common Sense Media, the nation’s leading non-partisan organization dedicated to improving media and technology choices for kids and families. He is also the Co-Founder and Chairman of the Center for the Next Generation.

In addition to the annual flagship summit event, past digital summits have been held in Ireland and the United Kingdom, with plans for a summit in Australia later this year.

WTIC License Renewed by FCC Following Nearly 3-Year Odyssey

Concluding a process that dragged on for nearly three years, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has renewed the broadcast license of Hartford’s WTIC-AM. The FCC action, confirmed to CT by the Numbers, comes three months after a federal appeals court upheld former Gov. John G. Rowland’s conviction for violating federal campaign laws.  Just days after that ruling, the FCC lifted a years-long enforcement hold on the station’s license renewal, which then allowed the agency to consider the long-pending license renewal.

The station’s broadcast license expired 2 ½ years ago, on April 1, 2014.  In accordance with FCC procedures, the station filed a license renewal application on November 27, 2013.  By September 2014, the FCC’s enforcement division placed the renewal application on “enforcement hold.”  It remained on enforcement hold – which precluded consideration of the application – until June of this year.

The license was renewed  on September 13, 2016 for the customary period of eight years, retroactive to the expiration date of the previous broadcast license in 2014.  It comes at a time when CBS Radio, which owns WTIC-AM, is seeking to sell or spin off its radio holdings. The agency’s renewal of the WTIC-AM broadcast license is scheduled to expire on April 1, 2022.

“We’re pleased with the FCC’s decision to renew the station’s license and look forward to many more years of providing the Hartford community with local news and engaging talk radio,” WTIC-AM 1080 Program Director Jenneen Lee said.

At the time that Rowland was accused of secretly accepting pay as a political consultant, he was also an afternoon radio host on WTIC-AM. His use of the airwaves in order to favor the candidate, Lisa Wilson-Foley, whose spouse was paying Rowland at the time, was raised during his trial.  Rowland recently retained a new legal team and appears to be planning to pursue an appeal this fall at the U.S. Supreme Court.

The station could – and did - continue broadcasting while the FCC held the renewal application. Stations in such a status routinely continue to operate without any interruption until a decision on license renewal is made.  As the agency’s Enforcement Bureau considered “an alleged violation of FCC rules,” the agency’s Media Bureau could not proceed with a decision on whether or not to renew the station’s broadcast license.

FCC officials have indicated that most often enforcement holds are instituted due to a complaint being filed that requires investigation, but they would not confirm whether that was true in this instance.  That information is only made available to the licensee or their attorney, according to an FCC official.  Hartford Attorney Ken Krayeske filed an informal objection on October 1, 2014 to WTIC’s broadcast license renewal, alleging that the station “demonstrated serious malfeasance” and “helped conceal violations of federal law.”  The FCC confirmed the receipt of that objection.

Rowland resigned from his drive-time talk show on WTIC-AM in April 2014.  The station currently airs a locally-originated sports talk program in that time slot.

CBS Radio operates 117 radio stations in 26 U.S. markets, including Hartford’s WTIC-AM, WTIC-FM, WRCH-FM, and WZMX-FM.

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.

Three Connecticut Universities Among Best for Game Design Career

Quinnipiac University, Sacred Heart University and Fairfield University were Connecticut’s stand-outs when The Princeton Review determined the best undergraduate and graduate schools for students to study—and launch a career in—game design. The University of Utah captured the #1 spot on the undergraduate schools list and the University of Central Florida ranked #1 on the graduate schools list. Quinnipiac University was the top-ranked Connecticut undergraduate institution, ranking #39.  Sacred Hearth University was just three slots back, at #42.  Fairfield University was #21 on the list of graduate institutions.

At Quinnipiac, the bachelor of arts in game design and development is a pre-professional program that prepares students to enter the highly competitive industry of game design or to pursue studies at the graduate level. It is an applied, interdisciplinary major, which focuses on the meaningful application of game technologies beyond commercial entertainment by addressing serious topics regarding the environment, health care and education including STEM and STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and math) initiatives. Students receive a solid foundation in fundamental arts principles and concepts, and develop specialized technical skills and competence in design, according to the university.

"For students aspiring to work in game design, the 58 schools that made one or both of our 2016 lists offer extraordinary opportunities to learn and to hone one's talents for a successful career in this burgeoning field," said Robert Franek, The Princeton Review's Senior VP-Publisher. "The faculties at these schools are outstanding. Their facilities are awesome. And their alumni include legions of the industry's most prominent game designers, developers, artists, and entrepreneurs."

The Princeton Review chose the schools based on its 2015 survey of 150 institutions in the U.S., Canada and abroad offering game design degree programs or courses. The 40-question survey gathered data on everything from the schools' game design academic offerings and lab facilities to their graduates’ starting salaries and career achievements. More than 40 data points in four areas (academics, faculty, technology, and career) were analyzed to tally the lists.

The top 10 undergraduate schools to study game design were University of Utah (Salt Lake City, UT), University of Southern California (Los Angeles, CA), Rochester Institute of Technology (Rochester, NY), DigiPen Institute of Technology (Redmond, WA), Becker College (Worcester, MA), The Art Institute of Vancouver (Vancouver, British Columbia), Hampshire College (Amherst, MA), Michigan State University (East Lansing, MI), Drexel University (Philadelphia, PA) and New York University (Brooklyn, NY).

Undergrad and grad students enrolled in the schools that made the lists also gain valuable professional experience while in school, according to The Princeton Review. About 85 percent of their undergrad and/or grad game design students that graduated in their 2015 classes developed actionable plans to launch games while in school.  In addition, 49 percent of undergrads and 59 percent of grad students at these school programs worked on games that were shipped before they graduated.

The top 10 undergraduate schools to study game design were University of Utah (Salt Lake City, UT), University of Southern California (Los Angeles, CA), Rochester Institute of Technology (Rochester, NY), DigiPen Institute of Technology (Redmond, WA), Becker College (Worcester, MA), The Art Institute of Vancouver (Vancouver, British Columbia), Hampshire College (Amherst, MA), Michigan State University (East Lansing, MI), Drexel University (Philadelphia, PA) and New York University (Brooklyn, NY).

Among the top ranked graduate programs in game design, the only Connecticut school to rank among the top 25 was Fairfield University, which placed twenty-first.  The top 10 were: University of Central Florida (Orlando, FL), Southern Methodist University (Plano, TX), University of Utah (Salt Lake City, UT), University of Southern California (Los Angeles, CA), DigiPen Institute of Technology (Redmond, WA), New York University (Brooklyn, NY), Rochester Institute of Technology (Rochester, NY), Drexel University (Philadelphia, PA), The University of Texas at Dallas (Richardson, TX) and Michigan State University (East Lansing, MI).

CT's Strength in Aerospace, Engineering on Display at Upcoming Conference in Hartford

The three-day conference at the Connecticut Convention Center at the end of this month begins with technical tours of Sikorsky and UTC Aerospace Systems to provide industry experts with a first-hand look at their industry-leading innovations. It is the opening of what organizers describe as a conference “unlike other aerospace and defense events,” focusing on the “practical application and implementation of technology, and technology in development in commercial, military and general aviation -essential for the aerospace technical community, government, and research personnel.”

The SAE 2016 Aerospace Systems and Technology Conference (ASTC) is to be held  September 27-30.  SAE International is a global association of more than 128,000 engineers and related technical experts in the aerospace, automotive and commercial-vehicle industries.  The conference “combines the strength of the SAE Power Systems Conference (PSC), Aerospace Electronics and Avionics Systems Conference (AEAS) with tracks in unmanned systems and systems engineering. No other event provides the breadth and depth of technical presentations across these domains,” organizers stress.

Keynote speakers include Thomas W. Prete, Vice President of Engineering for Pratt & Whitney, Michael McQuade, Senior Vice President, Science and Technology, for United Technologies, Chris Van Buiten, Vice President of Sikorsky Innovations at Sikorsky Aircraft, and Peter Smith, Vice President, Engineering, at UTC Aerospace Systems.

The conference will offer an open technical forum for aerospace systems professionals, especially engineers working in a range of disciplines to gather valuable technical knowledge, insight, and information on emerging and applied technologies with respect to commercial, military, and unmanned aviation.

The technical sessions, developed by industry professionals to maximize relevance, are designed to allow industry members of all levels the opportunity to gather timely, relevant, and stimulating information to enhance skills and creativity

Overall, the event provides an invaluable opportunity for attendees to renew and develop important business relationships within the international aerospace industry and for engineering professionals to discover, collaborate, and engage with peers from around the globe.  Attendees will interact directly with the event organizers and technical leaders from Boeing, Airbus, GE, NASA, U.S. Air Force, Honeywell, Pratt & Whitney/UTAS, Rolls-Royce, Sikorsky, and many others.

The conference concludes on Sept. 30 with a day-long Transformative Vertical Flight Workshop.

Panels at the Hartford conference will bring industry experts together to discuss critical issues regarding the integration and application of technologies relevant to the solving emerging issues in the engineering and maintenance communities. The goal of the panels is to enhance the technical understanding of items critical to those participating in the audience via problem solving discussions and exchange of ideas. Topics will include innovations in Integrated Propulsion Systems & Aircraft Systems, Intelligent Aircraft Systems and Aircraft Systems Integration.

State’s Educational Technology Commission Plans to Consider Changes to It’s Scope and Purpose

The website of the Connecticut Commission for Educational Technology explains that “as require by law, the Commission “reports annually; on its activities and progress made in the attainment of the state-wide technology goals, and provides recommendations” to the state legislature. At the next Commission meeting, scheduled for next week, the Commission is expected to “take a look at any changes that Commission members feel should be addressed in terms of our scope and purpose.” Nine months ago, in December 2015, the Commission produced an “annual report’ covering the years 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015 – somewhat less frequent than “annual.”  The Commission has met twice this year, on March 7 and June 13, and plans to meet again before year’s end on September 12 and December 5.

The Commission for Educational Technology was established at the turn of the century.  In 1999, then Lt. Governor M. Jodi Rell submitted to Governor John Rowland the results of a three-month study that she led on computer readiness in Connecticut’s schools and libraries.  The Lt. Governor’s report made nineteen recommendations “to ensure Connecticut’s students and teachers are prepared to meet the information technology needs of the next century.”  Among them was the creation of the Connecticut Commission on Education Technology, which was proposed by Gov. Rowland and became law in 2000.  Lt. Gov. Rell convened the first meeting in August, sixteen years ago.

An independent group composed of twenty leaders from education, business, information technology, and government, the Commission is empowered by the General Assembly to envision, coordinate, and oversee the management and successful integration of technology in Connecticut's schools, libraries, colleges and universities, according to the organization’s website. Commission members include representatives from the University of Connecticut, Office of Consumer Counsel, Office of Policy and Management, Department of Economic and Community Development, State Library, Connecticut Board of Regents for Higher Education, Connecticut Library Association, Connecticut Conference of Independent Colleges, Connecticut Conference of Municipalities, and Connecticut Council of Small Towns.

As the state's principal educational technology advisor, the website explains, “the Commission works to ensure the effective and equitable use of resources, without duplication, and engender cooperation and collaboration in creating and maintaining technology-based tools for use by all the people of Connecticut.”

The Commission’s “long-range” strategic plan was adopted on December 19, 2002.  Goals and objectives included “communicate the promise and excitement of educational technology to the public,” “implement a development program to secure non-public support for educational technology initiatives,” and “provide educational equity and reduce the digital divide.”

Fourteen members were present at the June 2016 Commission meeting, when it was announced during a 90-minute session that the Connecticut Education Network funding was being reduced from just under $3 million to just over $1 million for fiscal year 2017.  Officials said they were “anticipating that we will ultimately generate enough revenue to match former funding levels.”  The website includes minutes of the meeting, as well as notes from the advisory councils that provide information to the Commission.

The Commission has four advisory councils:

• eLearning & Content - The eLearning & Content Advisory Council was established to provide to the Commission ideas and information about educational content and services that would benefit Connecticut learners.
• Professional Development - The Professional Development Advisory Council was established to provide the Commission with a description of options for best preparing teachers and faculty members to optimally use technology in a learning environment.
• iCONN - The Library Advisory Council provides the Commission with information and suggestions for enhancing iCONN, Connecticut's Digital Library.
• Network Infrastructure & Services - The Network Infrastructure & Services Advisory Council advises the Commission on matters relating to the Connecticut Education Network (CEN), and suggests technical services and enhancements that might benefit CEN users. Established in 2000, the Connecticut Education Network (CEN) is part of the State's secure "Nutmeg Network", whose purpose is to deliver reliable, high-speed internet access, data transport, and value added services to its members throughout Connecticut.

As part of the advisory council updates provided in June, Commission members heard about a new state law that will take effect on October 1, which imposes requirements on school districts regarding notification to parents about the use of student data, and includes provisions that govern contracts that schools enter into with education technology providers and consultants to ensure protection of student information, records and content.  The Commission also noted that it has established a Twitter account, listserv, and updated website.

The location of the scheduled Sept. 12 meeting is not yet available.

Two CT Companies Among Inc. 500 As Fastest Growing Private Businesses; 40 in State Reach List of 5,000

Two companies with Connecticut addresses are among the 500 fastest growing private companies in America, cited in the annual survey published by Inc. magazine in their September edition.  Saatva, which sells “America’s best priced luxury mattress” exclusively on-line, is ranked at #316 and Discover Video, a video hardware and software company that works across multiple industries, is ranked #428. They were the only two companies to earn a slot in the top 500.  An additional 38 Connecticut companies were listed on the Inc. 5000, also announced recently.

Wallingford-based Discover Video provides software and hardware to corporations and educational institutions that seek to improve their communications through the use of video. The company ranks #428 on the Inc. 500, is ranked #5 among America’s fastest growing media companies, and #2 in Connecticut. The company has grown 893 percent in the last three years.

“We are thrilled to be recognized” said Rich Mavrogeanes, Discover Video CEO. “We provide great products, love our customers, and have a fantastic team. Our customers take comfort in our financial stability and long term prospects, and this award certainly demonstrates that.”

Founded in 2009, Discover Video, LLC provides “powerful and affordable video streaming and digital media solutions to organizations of all sizes in three ways: Products, Services and Expertise,” according to the business website. Clients include the Emmy Awards, the National Association of Broadcasters and the White House, according to the company.

Ranked at #316 on the Inc. list, Saatva’s three year growth is 1,220.9 percent.  The company constructs and sells luxury mattresses.  The company’s administrative mailing address is Wright Street, in Westport; another administrative office is located in Austin, TX.  The online Inc. summary indicates they are a Connecticut company; the magazine’s print edition lists the company as based in New York City, where back-office logistics emanate.  The business has 18 factories around the country; the CEO is Ron Ruzdin.

The seven-year-old Saatva was named to Forbes Top 100 "America's Most Promising Companies" last year, and was ranked the 8th fastest growing e-tailer in the Top 500 Guide for 2015 by Internet Retailer.  The company sells exclusively online and does not have showrooms. Saatva provides “nationwide in-home delivery and set-up,” and highlights it’s mattresses’ “individually wrapped coils, edge & lumbar support, steel coil support base, organic cotton cover, and euro pillow top with a memory foam enhancement in the lumbar area.”

Also reaching the Inc. 5000 were Saffron Road Foods, a consumer products and services business (American Halal Company) based in Stamford, at #703; Votto Vines Importing, a food and beverage business in Hamden, at #786, and Continuity, a New Haven software company, at #955, launched in 2008.

Saffron Road is the culmination of Founder and CEO Adnan Durrani’s life’s work.  Right after the turn of the 2000 millennium, the natural food pioneer first envisioned a halal food brand which also embodied ethical consumerism: halal, sustainably farmed, authentic, anti-biotic free, and 100% vegetarian fed, all harvested on family-owned farms, the company’s website explains.

Votto Vines is a family-operated business focusing primarily on the importation and wholesale distribution of fine wines produced by leading boutique vineyards around the world as well as high-profile private label and wine licensing transactions.

Continuity provides a combination of technology, expertise and leadership “designed to make compliance a seamless part of how your institution does business,” providing compliance management solutions.  By combining regulatory expertise and cloud technology, Continuity provides a proven way to reduce regulatory burden and mitigate compliance risk. In addition to its New Haven headquarters, the company has an office in Boston.

Connecticut-based fast growing businesses on the first-half of the list of 5,000 nationwide also include HPC Wireless Services (#1,033), InterMerchant Services (#1,392), Charles IT (#1,631), Northeast Private Client Group (#1,786),eEuroparts.com (#1,912), Clarity Software Solutions (#,2108), Johnson Brunetti (#2,380), Square 9 Softworks (#2,387), and DGDean (#2,436).

The full list of Connecticut companies is at http://www.inc.com/inc5000/list/2016/state/ct/

Travelers Initiative Aims to Predict Chronic Pain from Workplace Injuries

Can chronic pain, often the lingering result of a workplace injury, be predicted? The Travelers Companies, Inc. believes the answer is yes.  The company has developed what it describes as the first predictive model designed to reverse a sharp rise in chronic pain caused by workplace injuries.

The Travelers Early Severity Predictor (patent pending) identifies the likelihood of an injured employee developing chronic pain so that they can avoid it in recovery and reduce the need to use opioids or other painkillers.

“Millions of American workers are injured on the job each year, and the number of cases in which chronic pain interferes with an employee’s recovery has risen from less than 10 percent a decade ago to more than half of all serious injuries today,” said Dr. Adam Seidner, the National Medical Director at Travelers, when the initiative was announced in April.

According to A.M. Best, Travelers is the largest workers compensation carrier in the United States. The company manages more than 250,000 workplace injury claims and 3.5 billion medical treatments per year.

“When someone develops chronic pain, they are prescribed opioids or other painkillers more than 90 percent of the time. Our goal is to work with injured employees and their doctors to eliminate or substantially reduce the need for painkillers that can slow their recovery or lead to devastating long-term addiction.”

The Travelers Early Severity Predictor has been applied in more than 20,000 cases since early 2015. Of those, more than 9,000 injured employees were identified as being at risk of developing chronic pain. These employees received a customized, sports medicine-like regimen of treatment precisely sequenced to aid and accelerate their recovery, the company explained.

Injured employees who participated in the program in the past year have, on average, recovered and returned to work more quickly, the company said. They were also far less likely to receive a prescription for opioids, and when they did, it was typically a lower dosage or only for short-term use. At the same time, medical expenses, which cost American employers an average of nearly $40,000 per injury, were reduced by as much as 50 percent.

In 2014, there were 107.1 cases of nonfatal occupational injuries or illnesses requiring an employee to miss work for every 100,000 full-time American workers, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the website IPWatchdog reported. Although this represented a decline from 2013’s workplace injury numbers, it still resulted in 1,157,410 days away from work among private, state government and local government employees. BLS statistics show that workplace injury incidence rates were highest in the industries of transportation and warehousing as well as health care and social assistance, according to the website.

Two patent applications published this year by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office cover technologies associated with the Early Severity Predictor project, IP Watchdog reported.

The Centers for Disease Control issued a guideline earlier this year, the Insurance Journal reported, for primary care physicians for treating chronic pain. The new CDC guideline aims to lessen opioid use disorder and overdose. When opioids are used, doctors should prescribe lowest possible effective dosage, according to the guideline. The CDC guideline also suggests increasing the use of other effective treatments available for chronic pain, such as non-opioid medications or non-pharmacologic therapies.

According to research into physician dispensing of opioids, the Workers Compensation Research Institute (WCRI) noted that three out of four injured workers with pain are prescribed opiods, with the amount per claim varying by state, the Insurance Journal reported.  Nearly 1 in 12 injured workers given narcotics are still on them 3 to 6 months later as few doctors appear to be following recommended treatment guidelines to prevent abuse, according to WCRI research in 2012.

A 2012 study in the Journal of Occupational & Environmental Medicine found that when long-acting opioid painkillers are prescribed, workers’ compensation claims are nearly four times more likely to turn into catastrophic claims with costs tallying more than $100,000.

“Helping employees avoid chronic pain and the slippery slope to possible opioid dependency is critical to reversing this disturbing and costly health crisis,” Seidner emphasized.

The Travelers Companies, Inc. is a leading provider of property casualty insurance for auto, home and business. The company’s main offices are in New York, Hartford and St. Paul.  A component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, Travelers has approximately 30,000 employees and generated revenues of approximately $27 billion in 2015.

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.