Thumbs up, thumbs down
Thumbs up to the Norwalk Citizens Traffic Safety Committee and founder Audrey Cozzarin for being proactive with a “Driving Mindfully” workshop Saturday designed to teach drivers focusing skills. As part of the event, Shubhada Dantal, from the Art of Living Foundation USA, offered meditation techniques for calmer driving. The goal is to reduce the number of traffic accidents and injuries.
Thumbs up to student standardized test scores improving to the best level in the five years since the start of this particular and more rigorous test. But much more needs to be done. Fewer than half of the students from grades three through eight are at grade level or better in math, for example. And the large difference in scores between white and Asian students and those of black and Hispanic students persists, even as overall the scores for each group have risen.
Thumbs up to Walmart taking a stronger stand for gun safety. The retailer announced plans to stop selling handguns and shortbarrel rifle ammunition while also asking customers not to openly carry firearms in its stores. A company memo said “the status quo is unacceptable.” Sadly, the status quo has been unacceptable for years, and it should not have taken a shooting in a Walmart store to initiate overdue actions from the chain.
Thumbs down to the ongoing debate, which includes an ongoing lawsuit, over the release of schoollevel vaccination data. This is important public information, and parents and students have a right to know their risk levels for dangerous, preventable diseases. Vaccines are proven and effective, and the state should eliminate all exemptions other than those that are necessary to protect a person’s health. And the state should continue to make all relevant data available to anyone who wants to see it.
Thumbs up to a survey from the Connecticut Business and Industry Association of 356 businesses that found that 70 percent turned a profit last year. But it was far from all good news, as 81 percent of business owners believe Connecticut’s business climate is declining, a big jump from last year. The state’s economy grew 1 percent in 2018, but that counts as good news since it was the first expansion since 2015. Though blame for the negativity tends to go to state lawmakers, it’s the high cost of living, the survey found, as much to blame as anything, and a majority of businesses surveyed have issues both finding and retaining young workers.
Thumbs up to spreading the word about Real ID. Thanks to a 2005 federal law, a standard driver’s license will not be enough to get on board a domestic flight after Oct. 1, 2020. State and federal officials have launched a marketing push urging state residents to obtain a Real ID before that deadline, and to date about 47 percent of the 2.6 million licenses in the state have been converted. That still leaves many people who could be in for an unpleasant surprise if they don’t make this change, making the marketing push an important step.
Thumbs down to a firm’s estimate that it is 95 percent certain that positive train control will be installed in time to meet the Dec. 31 federal deadline. We’ve heard such promised before, and haven’t forgotten that the last deadline of New Year’s Eve 2018 was missed. We hope the update is correct, but won’t believe it until the safety measure is completed along the line. The system, which can stop a train that is not traveling safely, was mandated more than a decade ago.