Category: Katerina Voutsina
Wilton Student Gets to Witness Presidential Turkey Pardoning
TURKEY
Norwalk Hour
Katerina Voutsina
Boston University Washington News Service
11/25/09
WASHINGTON – “Guess where I am going for Thanksgiving,” 10-year-old Riley Ann Wadehra of Wilton asked her classmates at Middlebrook School early Tuesday afternoon.
Riley’s plans included her grandparents but not their house. On Wednesday morning Riley was at the White House as one of 60 guests attending President Barack Obama’s first presidential turkey pardoning.
The event was better than expected, she said. “It was very relaxed. We were just five steps away from the President and it did not feel like we were so close to a president,” she said. “It was so casual.”
Wearing a purple dress, which she “picked for the occasion,” Riley entered the White House’s Southwest gate followed by her grandparents, Barbara and Tony Erena, and her uncle, Blake Thompson, all of High Falls, N.Y. They were guests of Joel Brandenberger, president of the National Turkey Federation.
The federation was responsible for delivering Courage, a 45-pound turkey from North Carolina, to the White House for the annual pardoning ceremony, which was first done by President George H.W. Bush.
Riley and her family waited for 20 minutes in the Main Foyer of the White House listening to live piano music and then joined the president and his daughters Sasha and Malia and the media under the North Portico for the ceremony.
“I’m told Presidents Eisenhower and Johnson actually ate their turkeys,” Obama said in his speech joking. “You can’t fault them for that; that’s a good-looking bird. Thanks to the interventions of Malia and Sasha – because I was planning to eat this sucker – Courage will also be spared this terrible and delicious fate.”
Immediately after the event, Riley said she got a chance to pat the turkey and take some pictures.
“Courage was very calm,” she said with a laugh.
Just in case Courage could not fulfill his duties, Walter Pelletier, the chairman of the National Turkey Federation, also brought Carolina as an alternate.
After the White House ceremony the birds were to fly first class to California where Courage will be grand marshal of the Disney Thanksgiving Day Parade. The turkeys will get to live out their days at Disneyland.
Riley, who kept asking her grandparents questions about the ceremony and the White House, said she “learned a lot today.”
After leaving the White House, Riley was anxious to call her mother, Jenn Wadehra, and have lunch and go sight-seeing with her grandparents.
“She was so excited that they got into the White House,” said Mrs. Wadehra in a phone interview.
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Green Jobs Training Grants for Connecticut Announced
GREEN JOBS
Norwalk Hour
Katerina Voutsina
Boston University Washington News Service
11/18/09
WASHINGTON – Federal grants of $130,000 to create “green” jobs in Connecticut, including $60,000 for The WorkPlace Inc., a private non-profit in Bridgeport, were announced Wednesday by U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis and U.S. Rep. Jim Himes, D-4.
The grants also include $4 million, authorized by this year’s stimulus law, for the Northeast Consortium—which Connecticut is a part of—for state labor market information improvement. The Northeast Consortium also includes Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont.
“The grant will allow this region to create an infrastructure to allow businesses and workers – who will employ, train or work in the fields of energy efficiency and renewable energy – to have access to reliable information to make career and employment choices,” Solis said during a conference call with Connecticut reporters.
WorkPlace Inc.’s goals are to help people prepare for careers and to strengthen the workforce for employers. Joseph M. Carbone, the group’s president and chief executive officer, said the Labor Department grant will allow the organization to coordinate construction job training and education to meet the needs of residents and employers in the 20 communities of the Valley-Bridgeport-Norwalk-Stamford region.
“This grant will enable us to build capacity in our region to offer opportunities in the green sector of the economy as a result of having the best trainers in the region that can respond as free markets develop opportunities in the green economy,” he added.
Carbone said the grant will pay for 20 students, 17- to 24 years-old, who are currently enrolled in the Youth Build project. It will also pay for the training of five local instructors by trainers from the Home Builders Institute.
This is an emerging and evolving sector of our economy, he said. “It is basically training people for where there are jobs.”
Himes, in the conference call with the Labor secretary, said, “This money comes at a really critical time. It is smart money, as much as it is also focused on developing the capacity in people to have the jobs of tomorrow. That is to say, green jobs.”
“It is important for Bridgeport because the unemployment rate is 12.1 percent,” Carbone said, adding that this is the official number and that “probably the real number is close to 18 percent. You are looking at a city that needs sort of an economic generator, like the green sector, to help us to transition people from being unemployed or underemployed into good, solid, high-wage jobs.”
Students in the training programs will learn and earn leadership in energy and environmental design, Solis said, expressing confidence that “successful completion of the program will qualify these graduates to enter apprenticeship programs in the Carpenters Union, Local 210, as a second-year apprentice.”
Jim Lohr, deputy director of that union’s labor-management program, which coordinates the Local 210 project for unemployed and underemployed 16- to 24-year-olds, said the unemployment rate in the area’s construction sector is now 20 to 25 percent.
“The timing couldn’t be better in terms of getting training in any job opportunities,” he said. “This is where we need the jobs.”
“Investments such as these in the workforce not only help to jump-start our economy but will lay the foundation for America’s long-term recovery,” Solis said. “The President and I strongly believe that green jobs will be a key driver behind America’s economic revitalization and sustain economic stability. At the Department of Labor, we are investing $500 million in projects that prepare workers for careers in energy efficiency and renewable energy industry.”
Carbone thanked Himes for helping obtain the grant. “If we needed an advocate to help us to develop this green economy in Bridgeport, you couldn’t have found any better person than Congressman Himes,” he said. “He has been with us every step of the way.”
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Himes: Mixed Message From Elections
Q&A HIMES
Norwalk Hour
Katerina Voutsina
Boston University Washington News Service
11/05/09
WASJHINGTON—Rep. Jim Himes, D-4, said Thursday that local elections this week showed that the Republican Party is clearly re-energized and that Democrats have adopted a “wait and see” attitude on the election results.
“The most important factor in local elections is always the local candidates and the local campaigns,” Himes said. “But I would also say that this created a tailwind for Republican candidates around Connecticut.”
Asked whether Washington politics affected this year’s races, Himes said that Republican Dick Moccia was reelected as mayor because citizens of Norwalk approve of his performance in office, not because of his opinion on Afghanistan.
“I was sent to Washington by my constituents to help restore the economy, to help health reform get done, to make progress in education,” Himes said. “A year from now, when I stand for election, I think the voters will judge me on those things.”
On the national level, Himes said, the message from Tuesday’s elections was mixed.
He noted that a Democrat was elected to the House from New York’s 23rd Congressional District, which he described as “hardcore Republican.” He said, “There are lessons for both parties that came out of this race.”
On health-care reform, Himes said, “I am not a very good political commentator, but I have a very good feeling about health care. I held 60 meetings in town halls attended by thousands of people, and it is clear to me that the substantial majority wants to see health care reformed.”
He added that he is confident that the majority of his constituents support health-care reform.
“I am pleased by the engagement of my constituents, even those who were opposed to it; I was thrilled that they came forward with their concerns.”
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Himes Insert for Wire Story on House Health Care Bill
BILL REACTION
Norwalk Hour
Katerina Voutsina
Boston University Washington News Service
10/29/2009
HIMES INSERT FOR WIRE STORY ON HOUSE HEALTH CARE BILL
Rep. Jim Himes, D-4, said the House bill significantly improves security and provides affordable health care choices to Americans. However, Himes said that the bill does not do enough to create incentives for Americans to become healthier.
“I support a public option that operates on a level playing field with insurance companies to increase competition and reduce costs in the health care system,” said Himes. “The public option in the new version of the health care bill meets those criteria.”
Himes said that the new bill is not going to add to the deficit but would reduce it. According to a Congressional Budget Office report the bill is estimated to reduce the deficit by $30 billion over first 10 years, Himes said.
He also said whether to include coverage for abortion is going to be debated. “Historically federal dollars have not been used to pay for abortion,” Himes said and he added that this principle probably won’t change.
Himes speculated that the bill could pass the House next week
LIEBERMAN INSERT FOR WIRE STORY ON HOUSE HEALTH CARE BILL
Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, I-Conn., could not be reached for comment. But Marshall Wittmann, the senator’s communications director, said Lieberman welcomes the debate and “hopes that Congress can adopt reform legislation that will lower costs, expand access and improve the economy.”
DODD
Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, D-Conn., could not be reached for a statement.
Norwalk Woman One of 30,000 Runners in Marine Corps Marathon
MARATHON
Norwalk Hour
Katerina Voutsina
Boston University Washington News Service
10/25/2009
WASHINGTON – Her bib number was 10449. His was 11801. She is a sales planner from Norwalk. He is a former Marine aviator in Vietnam.
For Kathryn Marie Laganza, 30, there was nothing more valuable than running the 34th Marine Corps Marathon on Sunday with her father, Joseph Charles Moosbrugger, 65.
“He lives in Long Island, I live in Connecticut, but we have been able to do some races in New York City through the Road Runners Association, so we have been able to meet on weekends,” Laganza said. “Sometimes I go home to my parents’ house and run with him.”
The morning breeze did not hamper the 30,000 runners who lined up at Arlington National Cemetery, the starting point for the race. Among them were 400 registered Connecticut runners – 141 women and 259 men – who participated in the marathon or one of the shorter races also held Sunday, said the marathon’s community relations coordinator, Tami Faram.
The 26.2-mile marathon route wound its way across the Potomac River into Washington, passing the Jefferson and Lincoln Memorials, the Washington Monument and the Capitol, among other landmarks before crossing the river again to the finish line at the Marine Corps Memorial.
Laganza, riding the Metro, arrived at Arlington National Cemetery at 6:50 a.m. accompanied by family friends and neighbors.
She was initially a bit concerned about her father’s leg. “My dad tripped on a metal garden box and gashed his lower leg and shin,” Laganza said. She said Moosbrugger spent a few hours in the emergency room Saturday night having stitches put in.
However, Moosbrugger who had also torn his hamstring in a water skiing accident two summers ago, was the one who finally supported Laganza until the finish line, especially after a stomach problem knocked her off her pace.
“For any father, there is nothing better than to be able to run with one of his children,” Moosbrugger said. “I couldn’t be more proud.”
Laganza said she feels it is an accomplishment for her as well.
“It was awesome. I couldn’t done it without him,” she said after the race. “It is very emotional. It is really nice to share together the fun.”
She had been in training for the race since July. “Basically it is running an average of five to six miles for four days a week and then have a long run on the weekends,” Laganza said.
She said she received some cheers along the way, but not as many as when she ran in the New York city marathon last year. She said running over the bridge across the Potomac at mile 20, where no fans were present, was the hardest point of the course.
“I just wanted to stop,” Laganza said. Nevertheless, she said, the experience justified 100 percent of her effort. “It is not my first marathon, but it is something that I can put on my bucket list with things that I have done. I am sure there will be more.”
For Lindsay Gordon, 19, of Darien, this was her first marathon.
“I think the Marine Corps Marathon is a good marathon to do as your first one, because it is not a particularly difficult course,” said Gordon, who studies international affairs at the George Washington University.
Washington, she said, “is familiar territory.” “The beginning was kind of rough, but running on M Street, so close to my university, transformed the whole area.”
Gordon said that as she approached the finish line, “I loved it when people put their hands out to high-five them…. That was great.” Her mother, Caroline Gordon, traveled from Darien to cheer for her daughter, holding a poster with the words “Let’s go Lin.”
First-time marathon runner John Mentzer of Kittery, Maine, a Navy lieutenant commander, finished in first place, at 2:21:47. Ethiopian Muliye Gurmu was the top female finisher, with a time of 2:49:48.
Beth Johnson, the marathon’s public relations coordinator, said the race is the world’s largest marathon by number of finishers that does not offer prize money to its winners, earning its nickname, she said, of “the people’s marathon.”
But the race is not without any rewards.
“I am really excited to go the runners’ village and get a free massage,” Gordon said.
“There are supposed to be 220 massage therapists [actually, 167] there. They want to break the world record.”
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Himes’ Amendment Would Make Local Solar Company Eligible for Federal Fund
GREEN CONN
Norwalk Hour
Katerina Voutsina
Boston University Washington News Service
10/22/2009
WASHINGTON — U.S. Rep. Jim Himes, D-4, proposed Thursday that local companies who design solar-concentrating products be given access to federal research and development funds.
“Through the 1990s no country on earth invested more in solar [technology] than we did,” Himes said on the House floor. “So, how is it that in 2009 only 5 percent of the world’s solar panels are made in America?”
Himes said that an investment in innovating technologies would create thousands of good, high-paying jobs for American workers such as roofers, electricians and construction workers and in the process restore America’s competitiveness “in one of the most important industries of the next century.”
Hines offered his proposal as an amendment to the Solar Technology Roadmap Act. That bill, sponsored by Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., would authorize the secretary of energy to appoint a “Roadmap Committee” to guide government-private spending of an authorized $2.25 billion for solar research and development.
“We are substantially lagging the Chinese in the production of solar technology,” Himes said in a phone interview, adding that his amendment would clarify the language for “very promising” solar-concentrating technology companies such as Shelton-based OPEL Solar Inc. to be eligible for the federal funds.
OPEL Solar is the only Connecticut-based solar technology manufacturer. It develops, designs and manufactures solar-concentrating products that range from solar farms for industrial-scale utilities to rooftop systems for commercial building applications.
“In simple English, photovoltaic solar technology is the ability to magnify the sun 500 to 600 times more than on a regular flat light panel,” Patricia Agudow, vice president of public relations and government relations for OPEL Solar said in a telephone interview.
If this bill passes, Agudow said, OPEL Solar expects to expand its clientele and grow 20 to 50 percent over the next year.
She said that OPEL’s photovoltaic panels, which employ dual-axis solar trackers and complex lenses to focus sunlight onto a photovoltaic surface are 20 to 40 percent more efficient than a standard photovoltaic cell.
Though such panels are costly, at $250 a watt, the technology still saves consumers many dollars, Agudow said, because the panels generate more power while using less equipment and taking up less land.
“We have 30 people that work for us, but we are in a growth mode,” Agudow said. “In this last six months, we have added about 10 positions.” She that the hiring has a “ripple effect” because the company does some local manufacturing, which would create more jobs.
Without Himes’ amendment, the bill would not include solar thermal and concentrating solar photovoltaic technologies.
“My amendment simply says that concentrated solar technology will be part of a research development that the secretary of energy is mandated to undertake,” Himes said.
If the bill becomes a law, it will authorize the Department of Energy to conduct at least 10 photovoltaic demonstration projects ranging from 1 to 3 megawatts in size and at least three but not more than five solar projects greater than 30 megawatts in size. The bill will also authorize $350 million to carry out these activities in 2011, rising to $550 million in 2015.
“The global race to a clean-energy economy is on and millions of new jobs are on the line,” Himes said. “We may have fallen behind a bit, but this is our chance to catch up.”
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Dodd Says Health Care Reform has to be Accomplished
DODD REACTION
Norwalk Hour
Katerina Voutsina
Boston University Washington News Service
10/14/2009
WASHINGTON – Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., expressed satisfaction Wednesday with the Senate Finance Committee’s approval of a health care reform bill.
“We have to get this done,” Dodd told reporters during his weekly conference call. He emphasized that passing a health care reform bill will be “significant for 100 percent of the American people.”
With support from Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine, the Finance Committee approved Tuesday a $829-billion, 10-year health care bill. That bill now must be merged with a bill that Dodd shepherded through the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee earlier this summer.
“It has been literally three months since we completed our work on July 15,” Dodd said. “It was the longest mark-up in the history of that committee.”
Later on Wednesday afternoon, Dodd met with Max Baucus, chairman of the Finance Committee, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, and White House officials to discuss merging the two bills. Dodd said he cannot predict what the final Senate bill will look like. Once the Senate bill is passed it will have to be reconciled with the House bill. Currently there are three House bills that must be merged into one.
Discussing the fact that the Finance Committee bill does not contain a public option, Dodd said he is “a huge advocate” of a government-run plan because he thinks that it would help reduce costs.
“Those costs cannot continue to escalate,” Dodd said. “We are watching too many people being unemployed in our state and when you lose your job, you lose your health care.” He said 28,000 people in Connecticut have lost health care over the last year.
Dodd also mentioned that the debate over health care does not focus any more on whether there should be a public option. “The question is which one works the best,” he said.
Dodd said Snowe, who was the only Republican to vote for the Finance Committee bill, is for a public option with a trigger that would bring in a public option if there was not competition.
“Now, there is a lot of room in what constitutes a good public option,” Dodd said. “I am still very optimistic that we can win that. It is important we do.”
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Connecticut Ranks Eighth in New State Health Care Scoreboard
HEALTHCARE SCOREBOARD
Norwalk Hour
Katerina Voutsina
Boston University Washington News Service
10/07/2009
WASHINGTON—Connecticut ranks eighth among the states in health care quality in a report released Thursday by the independent Commonwealth Fund.
The report, Aiming Higher: Results from the 2009 State Scoreboard on Health System Performance, is a follow-up to the commission’s 2007 State Scoreboard.
“The goal of the analysis is to examine how states have done, where they have set new benchmarks that we all can see that now are achievable, to spur action and focus on aiming higher in health industry,” said Cathy Schoen, the fund’s senior vice president, in a conference call Wednesday.
The 2009 scoreboard includes 38 indicators grouped into five dimensions of health care performance – access, prevention and treatment, avoidable hospital use and costs, equity and healthy lives.
According to the report, Connecticut ranks first in insurance coverage, having improved its position by three places since 2007.
“Insurance is also critical, because it is the way we pay for care,” Schoen said, adding that even in Connecticut there is still room for improvement, especially regarding the increasing numbers of uninsured adults in the state.
Connecticut also improved in the coverage of low-income adults, moving up 18 places since 2007 to 9th in 2009.
“We need hospitals to have all patients that come in their door be ’paying patients’ and pay in a similar way,” Schoen said. “Otherwise we try to run different care systems within the hospital to collect money.”
She added that the nation spends a lot of money on medical debt collection. “No other country has this, and it is a hidden cost of a very fragmented insurance system that has multiple people racing to catch up,” she said.
Connecticut ranked third in access to health care and healthy lives, sixth in equity, 11th in prevention and treatment and 32nd in avoidable hospital use and costs.
“Unless people are securely insured – meaning that they don’t lose their coverage on a frequent basis and they have coverage that covers their health care needs and protects them financially – they don’t stay in the health care system, they come in and out,” Schoen said.
New England states ranked high in the report. Vermont ranked at the top of the list and Maine, New Hampshire, Connecticut and Rhode Island are all in the top 25 percent. Mississippi is ranked last of all the states.
The fund is a private foundation that supports independent research on health policy reform and performance.
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Norwalk-Native Author Takes Part in National Book Festival
BOOKS KELLOGG
Norwalk Hour
Katerina Voutsina
Boston University Washington News Service
09/26/2009
WASHINGTON – The rainy weather Saturday did not stop more than 130,000 people from flocking to the National Mall in downtown Washington for the 9th annual National Book Festival. Adults and children pushed into the Children’s Pavilion where on the podium Steven Kellogg, 67, the author and illustrator of nearly 90 children’s books sketched quickly a strange creature on a paper board.
“It is a guy whose head is on his toes and he talks with his rear end,” Kellogg, who was born in Norwalk in 1941, explained. The crowd burst into laughter. Young kids giggled and flocked around him to see the drawing.
“And this guy is going to be in my story,” Kellogg said.
Kellogg’s gag was part of the presentation of the “Exquisite Corpse Adventure,” a serial story written online by children’s book authors and hosted at the website of the Library of Congress. Every two weeks a new episode will be added in the story by a different writer.
More than 70 authors and illustrators made appearances during the day at one of the six pavilions representing different categories of books and later autographed copies of their books at the book signing area. The festival, sponsored by the Library of Congress and held on the National Mall between the Capitol and the Washington Monument, was started in 2001 by First Lady Laura Bush.
A teacher from suburban Maryland stopped Kellogg as he was on his way to the book signing area and told him her students try to imitate his style. “Your illustrations are amazing,” she said.
Kellogg, in an interview later in the day, said that he left Norwalk at the age of seven when his parents moved to the town of Darien. Today, Kellogg lives in an old farmhouse at the town of Essex, N.Y., overlooking Lake Champlain. He said his studio is in the old barn behind his house.
“One of my warmest and most satisfying memories,” Kellogg said of his childhood, were the hours before bedtime when his parents and grandparents read aloud to him. He said he soon began creating his own stories and shared them with his sisters, Patti and Martha.
He remembers growing up always having a stack of paper on his lap scribbling illustrations. “It amuses me to look back over my life, because I realize that I made very little progress,” he said laughing. “I am still telling stories on paper and at the age of 67 I am having as much fun doing it now, as I did when I was six."
Kellogg said he loves drawing animals and was very much inspired by Beatrix Potter, the British artist and author best known for her Peter Rabbit character. He said he loves the intimacy of her writings and the gentle sense of her humor.
“The illustrations of Beatrix Potter were very naturalistic and very appealing to me,” Kellogg said. “Her writing was so accessible. It draws the young reader in.”
Kellogg, a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, said early in his career he started illustrating books written by other authors. He was living in Washington, D.C., teaching etching at American University and exhibiting his paintings at a gallery in Georgetown, when he started submitting a story idea to publishing houses every few months. But it took him a year to pitch his first full book to a publisher, he said.
Kellogg said that large children’s books – like his own – create a theater on your lap. “When you turn the page it is like you are raising the curtain; you introduce your children to a new world,” he said.
Kellogg—who married Helen Hill, a divorced mother of six children—said as the children were growing up he used their feedback when he was writing his stories. Kellogg said the children they raised together are now in their 40s and he has grandchildren. One of his grandsons lives in Washington and Kellogg said he planned to have dinner with him Saturday night.
The National Book Festival is a great opportunity, Kellogg said, “for parents, children, authors and publishers to celebrate the joy of reading.”
When autographing books, Kellogg said, it is very moving to see books that have been read many times. “You write the books, the audience absorbs them and bring them back to you. The cycle is complete.”
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Connecticut not Qualified for Unemployment Extension Under House Bill
UNEMPLOYMENT CONN
Norwalk Hour
Katerina Voutsina
Boston University Washington News Service
09/23/2009
WASHINGTON—Connecticut’s unemployed would not qualify at this time for extended unemployment benefits under a House-passed bill.
The bill, which the House approved, 331-83, on Tuesday, would extend benefits by 13 weeks to workers in states where the unemployment rate is 8.5 percent or higher. But Connecticut’s jobless rate in August was 8.1 percent.
“The simple fact is that many Connecticut families are struggling,” U.S. Rep. Jim Himes, D-4, who voted in favor of the bill, said in a statement.
“Before the economy gets better, we expect even more workers to lose their jobs,” he added. “The extension I voted for Tuesday will help to ensure that if the unemployment rate continues to rise, our state has necessary funds to help those workers and their families weather the storm while they get back on their feet.”
The bill still needs to pass the Senate before it can be sent to the president.
State Sen. Bob Duff, D-25, saying in a statement that “now it is the time to act,” added that “I will certainly convey my thoughts to the federal delegation and urge them to act accordingly” to include Connecticut in the legislation.
Jeffrey B. Wenger, associate professor of public administration and policy at the University of Georgia, said “the bill is fine. This is the nature of making policy. Are our unemployment benefits adequate? The answer is no.” He said the situation in Connecticut is bad but the situation is twice as bad in states like Michigan where the unemployment rate is 15.2 percent.
Donald L. Klepper-Smith, chief economist and director of research at DataCore Partners in New Haven, said that he expects Connecticut’s unemployment rate to top out at 9 percent. “That would be less than the national percent that may top out between 10 and 10.5 percent,” he said.
“The unemployment rate in Connecticut and nationally is going to rise because …activity is going to be weak and the labor force businesses are going to make do with the workforce that they have,” he added.
Jamey Bell, executive director of Connecticut Voices for Children, a research-based policy think tank, said the impact of the recession has been particularly severe in Connecticut.
“Unemployment in Connecticut is higher than at any time since 1977, and the number of jobs has fallen to the lowest point since 1998,” she said. “Connecticut’s job creation engine has stopped working for our families.”
The group’s annual report on The State of Working Connecticut finds that stagnating wages and racial and ethnic wage gaps reveal longer-term economic problems that threaten the ability of many families to weather the recession.
Bell said Connecticut has been losing jobs for which less than a high school diploma is required. “Connecticut workers need some longer unemployment benefits here,” she said. She added that the 13 extra weeks of unemployment benefits “would provide workers with the financial support they need to get employment or gain new skills.”
Duff, in his statement said: “My hope is that our congressional delegation will work to make sure Connecticut is included in the bill. If someone is unemployed they don’t care whether the unemployment rate is 4 percent or 10 percent. It is a stressful time for families, especially in such a high-cost-of-living area such as ours.”
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