Connecticut
Post posts about what is happening in the State of Connecticut.
CT News Wire at Two Weeks
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Tue, 03/31/2009 - 19:54Two weeks ago, I set up CT News Wire. Over this time, I’ve been trying to come up with as concise a statement about what CTNewsWire is and made efforts to get people to start using it.
CTNewsWire is a public mailing list for state and local agencies, elected officials, candidates and advocacy organizations in Connecticut to use to more effectively communicate with the constantly changing world of bloggers and citizen journalists.
There are 115 state agencies in Connecticut, 169 municipalities, 151 State Representatives, 36 State Senators and numerous advocacy agencies. Many of them send out press releases to what seems to be an ever-decreasing pool of traditional journalists. Their communications directors don’t have easy ways to find new people, such as bloggers and citizen journalists that might be interested in receiving their press releases, and new bloggers and citizen journalists can find it difficult to get on the media lists of all the groups they are interested in.
So, I set up a CTNewsWire Google Group that anyone can subscribe to, and anyone can send media advisories to. During the first few weeks, I forwarded some of the press releases I received to the group and started contacting communications directors and public information officers. I also started to slowly spread the word about CTNewsWire.
It is still just a small handful of bloggers and citizen journalists that subscribe to CTNewsWire, but the number is growing. More importantly, the number of communications directors starting to use CTNewsWire has grown.
With that, let me highlight three events coming up over the next few days that I found out about via CTNewsWire.
Beecher Road Students Lobby at State Capitol
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Tue, 03/31/2009 - 16:42I am back from accompanying Fiona’s class on a field trip to the State Capitol. This post will gather a few different snippets of the trip and later, I can hopefully find time to share some reflections.
First, came the bus ride up:
When we arrived at the capitol, we gathered in one of the conference rooms. As we were waiting for various speakers to arrive, the students suggested having a meeting, similar to the meetings that they have in school.
To give them a sense of how things worked, I acted as chair, and recognized various speakers, entertained a few motions which were voted on. As the meeting progressed, several guests arrived and spoke. Representative Gary Holder-Winfield did a great job of engaging the students in discussions about the legislative process. Rep. John Geragosian joined the discussion, as did Tom Swan, Executive Director of CCAG. House Majority Leader Denise Merrill addressed the students as did Representative Themis Klarides, who represents the district most of the kids were from.
I ‘Twittered’ much of the discussion. For those not used to Twitter, and for the general sake of readability, I changed the order of the messages, so that the first message below is the first message I sent. In addition, I regularly refer to @CT94dem, which is Rep. Holder-Winfield’s userid on Twitter.
At BRS getting ready to head up to Hartford for Fiona's class lobbying trip
@CT94Dem Addresses is addressing the class at BRS MAG Class about lobbying.
@Ct94Dem Rep. Holder-Winfield is talking about the importance of lobbyists in informing Reps and citizens
@CT94Dem is now talking about SB 182 - AN ACT CONCERNING THE PROTECTION OF WATERSHED LAND. which the students are interested in.
@ct94dem is joined by Rep. Geragosian to talk about lobbying, SB 182, and many other issues that the students have.
A New Haven student, who comes to Woodbridge asks @ct94dem about how to improve the New Haven Schools.
Rep. Geragosian talks about the constitutional responsibility to provide an equal educational opportunity to all students and Sheff v O’Neil
One of the students asks @ct94Dem about what the appropriations committee does. Another asks if Gary is a Rep. or Senator
@ct94dem is asked how long he has been doing the job and if he likes it. Yes, he likes the job, but hasn't been doing it very long.
@ct94dem talks about the importance of using the internet to help make government more transparent, such as Twitter and Facebook.
@ct94dem If Reps care about what people think, then they should encourage people to communicate with them.
A person asks @ct94dem if in the short period he has been working has he changed anything, Gary chuckles and says, this is government.
@ct94dem talks about using social networks to change the discussion, and in that sense, he thinks he has changed the discussion.
@tomswan is now talking about how he works lobbying for important bills that need to be passed, and those that they want to try and block
@tomswan talks about the long hard battle it was to pass the citizen election program.
@tomswan Been doing his job for 16 years, and you make a lot of enemies and a lot of friends.
A student asked if being a lobbyist is a good job. @tomswan responds "Yes!"
Rep. Merrill House Majority Leader address the class
Rep. Merrill is talking about how laws affect our daily lives, such as food safety.
Rep. Klarides is getting a great reception by the BRS Students.
Rep. Klarides talks about the importance of every person voting and how kids from school can also help shape laws as they get made
The kids just finished lobbying and are eating lunch.
You can also see various other pictures of the trip in the Flickr Set that I uploaded. Of note are pictures of some of the students in the ‘Wishing Chair’ made from the Charter Oak, and a couple State Representatives as they were being lobbied on SB 182.
It was a great day, and thanks go out to the students for doing so well, for the other chaperones, the teachers, the lobbyists, the legislative aides, the legislators, and anyone else I over looked who did such wonderful jobs in really bringing the legislative process alive.
Quick Updates
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Mon, 03/30/2009 - 11:01Well, it has been a very long weekend. First thing Saturday morning, I drove up to PodCamp Western Mass. I had some very interesting discussions there that I want to write about. However, upon getting back to Connecticut, I took a brief nap and then went out to see Rent at Amity High School. I’ve written my brief review of that, but I want to write more about my reaction about how it relates to the larger picture, which probably includes some of the discussions from PodCamp.
With that, I slept late Sunday morning. When I did get up, I found I was having problems with my hosting service. This has turned into a major nightmare, but also a good opportunity to clean up a bunch of my sites. I host a lot of sites for various groups and organizations, and currently many of them are down. As I get time to work through the issues, more and more of them will come back up. Please, drop me a note if there is something urgent I need to look at.
In the evening, I went to the fundraiser for Ed Sheehy for First Selectman in Woodbridge. Since Kim is a lobbyist and I am the spouse of a lobbyist, we are limited to the events we can attend. Basically, if the event is raising money for a candidate or committee that the new campaign finance laws apply to, I cannot contribute or attend. If this fundraiser had been for the Woodbridge Democratic Town Committee, I would not have been able to attend. But, since it was for a municipal election that has its own committee instead of relying on the local Democratic Town Committee, I could attend.
There is another caveat that I’m trying to work out. This would allow me to attend as a member of the press, but not contribute to fundraisers for committees that the new campaign finance law covers. More on that some other day.
At the fundraiser, I learned that the Woodbridge Country Club has agreed to the deal proposed by the town of Woodbridge. This is an important step forward, but there is still a lot of work to be done dealing with the Country Club.
Ned Lamont was the guest speaker. Many people are wondering if he will be running for office any time soon. He didn’t make any announcements. Instead, he talked about when he had lived in Woodbridge years ago and praised the Sheehy administration for what they have done in Woodbridge. He also spoke about A Blueprint for Connecticut's Future, an effort that he, former legislator, state budget chief and chancellor of the Connecticut State University system, William J. Cibes Jr. and others have been working on to address the budget issues for the State of Connecticut. Whether or not Ned decides to run for some office in the future, his work on getting a bipartisan team of real leaders to address budget issues in Connecticut is a great service that he is currently doing for the State of Connecticut.
With all of this, I have been way behind in visiting so many of the websites that I enjoy visiting from my blogrolls, RSS feed readers, and on EntreCard and Adgitize. This week looks like it will continue to be a long busy week. Tomorrow, Fiona’s class will be visiting the State Capitol, and will really learn how a bill becomes law. They will spend time lobbying for the bill Proposed S.B. No. 182, An Act Concerning The Protection of Watershed Land.
I will go up as a chaperone, and Kim has arranged a lobbyists perspective on how things really work in the legislature. Today, she spoke with the class and the students and the teachers are quite excited about the opportunity. It illustrates the hands on approach to learning that Beecher Road School, and particularly the Multi-Age Group program bring to learning, and I wish more students had opportunities to interact with the legislature the way Fiona’s class will tomorrow.
From Redding to Waterbury
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Fri, 03/27/2009 - 18:39It is a short ride from Redding to Waterbury, only about thirty miles, but it can be an interesting trip. You head out of a gated community on Mark Twain Lane and turn on to Diamond Hill Road. It is the beautiful bucolic Connecticut. You take Green Pasture Road and eventually end up on Church Hill Road before heading north on Poverty Hollow Road. You pass between Huntington State Park and Palestine. After Sugar Hill and a few more turns you are on I-84 heading into Waterbury.
Yet in many ways, these two municipalities are worlds apart. Jake DeSantis lives in Redding. Until recently, he was an Executive Vice President at AIG Financial Products. Yet with all the complaints about taxpayer money going to AIG Executives, Mr. DeSantis resigned from AIG and promised to give the after tax value of $742,000 of the bonus he received to charity, and complained about people being upset about the AIG Executives.
Back in the 06702 zipcode of Waterbury, the median household income is $11,913. In other words, this bonus that Mr. DeSantis can afford to give away, after quitting his job is equivalent to the median household income of over sixty-two households in Waterbury. Of course that’s not completely fair. That is comparing his after tax dollars with Waterbury residents’ pretax dollars. If you compare the pre-tax dollars to pre-tax dollars, the ratio is even more striking.
With the hundreds of homes in foreclosure in Waterbury, I suspect there aren’t many people that could afford to quit their jobs. Perhaps Mr. DeSantis can use some of his free time and volunteer at the St. Vincent DePaul Society Soup Kitchen or homeless shelter.
#followfriday – CT News Edition
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Fri, 03/27/2009 - 09:46@hartfordcourant @wherewelive @connpost @rep_am @CTNewsJunkie @hrtfordadvocate @NwHavenAdvocate @FairfieldWeekly
In last week’s #followfriday, I highlighted some of my friends from Connecticut that are on Twitter. This week, @joeCascio and @keachymama are doing CT Editions of #followfriday, so I decided to stay with it.
My list this week is of Connecticut media outlets on Twitter. I hope the list is obvious to everyone. The Hartford Courant. WNPR’s show, “Where We Live”. The Connecticut Post. The Waterbury Republican American, the great online site covering the State Capital, CTNewsJunkie, and the weekly entertainment alternatives the Hartford Advocate, the New Haven Advocate and the Fairfield Weekly.
Each of these are worth a follow to get information about what is happening in our state.
Am I missing any? Who else do you follow?
