Conn. firm’s Q-Collar may prevent concussions
Football players and other athletes in high-contact sports may soon have additional protection from concussions, thanks to a Westport company called Q30.
Developed originally by Cincinnati
Children’s Hospital and Medical Center researcher David Smith who took inspiration from the physiology of woodpeckers, the Q-Collar is designed in a horseshoe shape to be worn around the neck. The device compresses jugular veins to reduce the flow of blood slightly from the cranial cavity, creating an extra “cushion” of blood to reduce jostling from impacts that can damage brain tissue.
In field tests involving nearly 300 high school football players who had imaging scans before and after their sports seasons, Q30 reported that 77 percent of teen athletes who tested the Q-Collar had what it described as “no significant changes” in their deep brain tissue, versus only 27 percent of those not using the device.
The Food & Drug Administration
Stocks closed lower Wednesday as another rise in bond yields fueled concerns on Wall Street that higher inflation is on the way as the economy picks up.
The S&P 500 dropped 1.3 percent,shedding an early gain. The pullback is the benchmark index’s second straight loss after clocking its best day in nine months on Monday. Technology companies bore the brunt of the selling, pulling the S&P 500’s tech sector down 2.5 percent. Microsoft and Apple both fell more than 2 percent.
U.S. government bond yields rose after easing a day earlier. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note climbed to 1.47 percent from 1.41 percent.
When bond yields rise quickly, as they have in recent weeks, it forces Wall Street to rethink the value of stocks, making each $1 of profit that companies earn a little less valuable. Technology stocks are most vulnerable to this reassessment, in large part because their recent dominance left them looking even pricier than the rest of the market.
On the flipside, banks benefit when bond yields rise, because it allows them to charge higher rates on mortgages and many other kinds of loans. Financial sector stocks were among the biggest gainers Wednesday. Bank of America and Citigroup added more than 2 percent.
“The good news to remember is there are other groups taking the baton,” said Ryan Detrick, chief investment strategist for LPL Financial, referring to banks and energy companies benefiting from higher rates, even as tech stocks take a hit.
The S&P 500 dropped 50.57 points to 3,819.72. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 121.43 points, or 0.4 percent, to 31,270.09. The technology-heavy Nasdaq composite lost 361.04 points, or 2.7 percent, to 12,997.75.
Traders also sold off smaller company stocks, dragging down the Russell 2000 index 23.72 points, or 1.1 percent, to 2,207.79.
Wall Street continues to look to Washington, where economic data, comments out of the Federal Reserve and President Joe Biden’s stimulus package remain front and center. Treasury yields hit the psychologically important 1.50 percent mark last week as investors braced for stronger economic growth but also a possible increase in inflation.
“Some higher inflation at the beginning of a new economic expansion is perfectly normal,” Detrick said.
On Tuesday, Federal Reserve
Governor Lael Brainard sought to calm financial markets by emphasizing that the Fed, while generally optimistic about the economy, is still far from raising interest rates or reducing its $120 billion a month in asset purchases.
Federal Reserve Chair Jay Powell will speak Thursday on monetary policy. Investors heard from him last week when he testified in front of Congress, but the format — a question-and-answer session with The Wall Street Journal — is likely to be more illuminating than Powell’s calculated answers to politicians.
Investors are looking ahead to the February jobs report on Friday. Economists surveyed by FactSet expect employers created 225,000 jobs last month. The report also includes numbers for how much wages are rising across the economy, a key component of inflation.
Overall, the economic outlook has been brightening in recent weeks following a surprisingly strong retail sales report which showed that $600 stimulus payments approved in late December had translated into a January jump in retail sales that was the strongest since June.
With prospects rising for passaged of President Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package with $1,400 individual payments and good news on vaccine distribution, private forecasters have been busy revising upward their economic forecasts.
Many believe the economy this year could see a rebound with growth coming in at the strongest pace since 1984. That would mark a significant rebound from last year when the economy contracted by the largest amount since 1946.
As the academic year inches toward its conclusion, local elected officials are reiterating the importance of the expansion of Connecticut’s Open Choice Program, which allows comparatively underfunded and overcrowded school districts to send students to neighboring districts with more resources.
State Sen. Will Haskell, who represents both New Canaan and Wilton, was one of three senators to introduce a bill proposal earlier this year to “expand educational opportunities for Connecticut students by authorizing the Open Choice Program to place students from the Norwalk and Danbury school districts into neighboring school districts.”
The goals are simple: Promote diversity and inclusion in school communities while lessening the burden of overworked school districts struggling to provide equal resources to every student.
“The sending district typically is suffering from an overcrowding problem, and this is a way to address that problem,” Haskell said before detailing the benefit for the host school’s community. “Students can learn from others who have different lived experiences than them.”
Haskell said promoting inclusion at a younger age is key for understanding. In districts where the program is an option, such as New Haven and Hartford, parents of students as young as kindergarten and first grade are eligible to make the choice to sign up for an opportunity for their child to be taught in another district.
“Cities like Stamford have a real student population growth problem,” said state Rep. Tom O’Dea, who also represents New Canaan and Wilton. “They have problems finding a seat.”
He said if towns with ample resources have the availability, then opting in to this program would bode well for the students coming to the host district, the students attending both the host
and sending districts, and the schools themselves.
“New Canaan and Wilton have very good schools and programs. This could provide a choice for students in areas like Norwalk and Stamford to be in a better situation in a great schooling system,” O’Dea said.
The key, both elected officials said, is that this is indeed a choice.
In order for a student or group of students to change districts, all parties must be in agreement. The sending district, the host district and the parents all must consent for the switch to happen.
“Each year, (the host schools) have a choice as to how many seats they would like to fill,” Haskell said. Both school districts’ board of educations and superintendents would have to sign off on this decision.
For each student participating in the Open Choice Program, the host school receives an allotment of money promised by a grant from the state. According to statistics published by the Connecticut School Finance Project, per-pupil grant amounts range from $3,000 to $8,000 and are determined by the percentage of Open Choice Program students within the given host district’s total enrollment.
If New Canaan or Wilton schools were to participate, they would receive a grant of $3,000 for each student in the program, up to 2 percent of its total enrollment. That grant would go up to $4,000 per-pupil from 2 to 3 percent total enrollment, $6,000 per-pupil from 3 to 4 percent, and $8,000 perpupil for any number greater than 4 percent.
In a study done by the CSFP over the fiscal year 2018, 3,065 students participated in the program with an allocated sum of $16.5 million, meaning the perpupil grant average given to host districts in that sample size was $5,400.
At this point, O’Dea said he couldn’t see either New Canaan or Wilton bringing on any more than a few students each, if a region like Norwalk was to be deemed eligible for the program.
O’Dea, who spoke about the Open Choice Program at a virtual town hall last week, said some residents addressed fears of property taxes rising with the taking on of more students.
But Haskell said that they are based in “fear rather than fact.”
“If you are already paying for a teacher, a superintendent, a Board of Education, a SmartBoard, heating, air conditioning, all of that, you are already paying for your district. It would cost nothing to fill an already open seat,” he said. “I feel quite confident saying that so many others wouldn’t be enrolled and involved in the program if it raised their property taxes.”
O’Dea also argues that, while he believes the program to be of high importance, Education Cost Sharing state funds sent to schools each year should favor the host district, who carries the burden of the cost and the responsibility of educating the children coming from the sending district.
Haskell, however, said he thinks an even split is fair, as it would be “counterintuitive to take resources away” from the sending districts.
But both public servants agree this program needs to be expanded for the betterment of students across the state.
“Beyond passing legislation to help our residents’ mental and physical health during this pandemic, and helping our small businesses, this is the most important issue we are facing right now,” O’Dea said. “Supporting school choice for our youth, particularly in our cities, is a top priority.”
When her car started making a noise more than a year ago, Chinara Johnson parked the vehicle and hasn’t used it since.
As a New Haven mother of 5-year-old twin boys, one of whom is on the autism spectrum, and an 8-year-old daughter, Johnson doesn’t have the money to get the car running properly.
She also didn’t have money for child care as she underwent breast cancer treatments, including surgery and chemotherapy, and now is struggling with increased utility and food bills since the kids are home during the pandemic.
Over the past few years, Johnson has not been eligible for federal child tax credits because she doesn’t make enough money.
But under the American Family Act — sponsored by U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-3, and others — Johnson would qualify to receive direct payments of $3,600 each for the boys and $3,000 for her daughter in federal child tax credits.
For now the child tax credit expansion would be available only in the 2021 tax year as part of the pandemic relief bill approved by the U.S. House of Representatives on Saturday. Under the bill, the IRS would have until July to begin to process direct payments.
Nearly 11 million (one in seven) children in the United States live in poverty, according to the Center for American Progress. The proposal would lift nearly 5 million children out of poverty, the Columbia University Center on Poverty and Social Policy reports. That would cut the childhood poverty rate by 52 percent for Black children, 45 percent for Hispanic children, 61.5 percent for Native American children and 38.6 percent for white children.
The one-time expanded child tax credit would benefit 132,000 Connecticut children whose families make less than $23,000 per year, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. Overall, 721,300 Connecticut children in income brackets from the lowest to the highest would benefit, ITEP says. Nationally, families who make less than $21,300 per year would see a 37.4 percent boost in income due to the expanded child tax credit, the organization says.
The one-year version of the American Family Act is part of the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan before the U.S. Senate. The larger bill funds a wide range of programs to combat the COVID-19 pandemic and keep families and businesses afloat until the health crisis is under control.
DeLauro intends to make the expanded child tax credit program permanent.
For Johnson, expanding the child tax credit is a no-brainer.
“I know there are other parents who are going through a hard time,” she said. “Grocery bills have increased because the kids are home. There’s charging the kids’ remote devices. What about cleaning supplies? Where is all this extra money coming from?”
The payments would be a game-changer for the 38-year-old mother, who must find creative ways to purchase educational materials for her son since he hasn’t been in a classroom in a year.
“He had trouble writing, so they said it would benefit him if he had an easel,” Johnson said. “He gets services at school, but all that came to a halt when schools closed. I had to purchase the easel. I’m on a fixed income, but he needs soothing toys and other things that help him learn. I usually go without to make sure the kids have what they need.”
Johnson is hardly alone. According to a January Census Pulse Survey, about 874,000 Connecticut residents reported having difficulty covering household expenses, and 174,000 parents and guardians said their children aren’t eating enough because they can’t afford food.
“I think the data points show how much we need federal and state budgets that prioritize people and that prioritize equity,” said Emily Byrne, executive director of Connecticut Voices for Children. Byrne’s group supports DeLauro’s efforts to eradicate child poverty and recommends the state provide similar child tax credits.
For 18 years, DeLauro has championed the idea of expanding the child tax credits to include lowincome families as part of her “desire to harness the power of the federal government to provide for the least among us,” she said in an email.
But the plan didn’t gain traction until this year when several factors suddenly changed the political landscape, DeLauro said.
“I think part of the reason this is moving now is because there is data to back up the sweeping impact this policy would have on families across the country,” she said. “Additionally, the coronavirus pandemic did not just shine a light on child poverty, it exacerbated it, and amplified the need — and the urgency — for expanding and improving the Child Tax Credit.”
The proposal helps families by removing the income threshold required to benefit from the child tax credits, increasing the amount of the credits to $3,600 for children under age 6 and $3,000 for children 6 to 17, and putting the money in the hands of families through direct payments rather than a reduction of their tax bill.
Under the current child tax credit, families must meet an income threshold to receive the full benefit, and only $1,400 of the $2,000 credit can be returned as a tax refund. DeLauro’s bill would provide a tax credit for individuals with children making up to $150,000 per year and all married couples earning less than $200,000 per year.
“We are at a moment where passage is possible,” DeLauro said. “We have presidential leadership, strength in Congress, and the urgency of the pandemic demanding action. We can make permanent changes that would lift children out of poverty — this generation and those that follow.”
The direct payments would help people like Juana Islas, who, along with her husband, works one full-time job and one part-time to support their three children, ages 14, 11 and 9. Although she is an undocumented immigrant, Islas pays state and federal taxes but gets little in return, she said.
Her family does qualify for child tax credits because the children were born in New Haven, where they live. But she cried as she explained her living situation. “I have to work two jobs because I have three kids to support and no government assistance available to me because I am undocumented,” she said.
The entire family came down with COVID-19 because she and her husband had no choice but to go to work throughout the pandemic. “We didn’t have the option of staying home,” Islas said.
The family wasn’t eligible for stimulus checks or unemployment because of the couple’s immigration status. “Taxes are deducted from our paycheck, but the money isn’t returned to us for the safety net,” she said.
Islas hopes the child tax credits will be expanded so that she and her husband can work less. “With the situation we’re in, we are abandoning our children because we are working day and night,” she said. “We can’t help our kids with their homework or their online classes. We wouldn’t stop working if we had government support because we are hardworking people, but we would spend more time with our children.”
The one-time expanded child tax credit would benefit 132,000 Connecticut children whose families make less than $23,000 per year, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. Overall, 721,300 Connecticut children in income brackets from the lowest to the highest would benefit, ITEP says.