Who is saving the environment in Greenwich? The Green Team While many residents are involved in conservation and environmental issues, The Greenwich Citizen asked Denise Savageau, director of the Town's Conservation Commission, to identify some of the `movers and shakers' active in addressing these challenges -- what Greenwich Citizen is dubbing "The Green Team." Savageau's list includes Cheryl Dunson, president of the League of Women Voters of Connecticut and a founding board member of the Greenwich Tree Conservancy (GTC). Click here for the full article by Anne Semmes.  A founding board member of the Greenwich Tree Conservancy, Cheryl Dunson, is focused on programs "relating to preserving and enhancing the tree and forest resources of Greenwich." Dunson also is president of the League of Women Voters of Connecticut. Photo: Anne W. Semmes / CT In December, the New Haven Register introduced the “Citizens Agenda,” a voter-focused election project. The Register, along with its sister papers the Middletown Press, Register Citizen in Torrington and Litchfield County Times, has been polling readers about the issues that matter most to them, to ensure that candidates in Senate and congressional races address them during the 2012 election cycle. The League of Women Voters of Connecticut sent a representative, Jean Rabinow, to the Register's first public forum at the New Haven Free Public Library, held Jan. 25. The public is invited to the next public forum, which will take place at 6 p.m. Wednesday at the Margaret Egan Center, 35 Matthew St., Milford, CT. Poll respondents have identified the economy as the most important issue to date, followed by the unemployment rate, taxation, national debt, health care and financial industry/banking reform. Click here to read the full New Haven Register article by Angela Carter . Southern Fairfield County chapters of the League of Women Voters and tree-focused groups will sponsor an educational forum “Power Struggle: Balancing the Needs of People, Power and Trees” on Tuesday, February 28 from 7:00-9:00 PM at the Darien Town Hall (snow date March 7). The forum will consist of talks by five stakeholders:
All speakers will address from their perspectives this all- important issue of powers outages, past and future, and what can be done to reduce their frequency and duration. Audience Q&A will follow their presentations. The goal of this timely forum is to inform Connecticut residents on all aspects of this continuing problem that so profoundly affects us. The Connecticut General Assembly legislative session opens today and will be taking up legislation designed to address the reliability of our power supply. Residents will gain information and insight so that they can form educated opinions on the proposed solutions. Handouts will be available at the forum including contact information of state officials so the attendees, armed with accurate information, can voice their opinions and suggestions based on what they learned at the forum. This forum is sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Darien, Fairfield, Greenwich, New Canaan, Norwalk, and Stamford, and Greenwich Tree Conservancy, Fairfield Forestry Committee, Stamford Tree Foundation and the Tree Conservancy of Darien. We encourage all to attend so they can learn and influence the proposed solutions to these power outages. Sleep Key to School Start Time Change 02/01/2012
Lisa Bogan of the Connecticut League of Women Voters, recognized as an expert on school start times and a former vice-chairperson of the Wilton (CT) Board of Education, addressed a Barrington, RI audience on Jan. 26. Read the full Barrington Patch article here. 
Lisa Bogan, a school start time expert for the Connecticut League of Women Voters Credit: William Rupp
Coalition finds continuing problems with audit integrity – Provides calculations and official data on the web for public review and verification -download pdf- For Immediate Release: January 26, 2012 Contact: Luther Weeks, 860-918-2115 or luther@CTElectionAudit.org Hartford, Connecticut –Today, the Connecticut Citizen Election Audit Coalition released its report on the November 2011 post-election audits. Coalition spokesperson Luther Weeks stated, “For the first time, in the interest of public information and transparency, we are making all official municipal audit reports and the data we complied available for everyone to review on the web. Citizens can see the reports from their own town, other towns, and perform their own audit of the Coalition’s data entry and calculations based on those official reports” The report concluded:
discrepancies either to humans or to the voting machines. In many cases, these discrepancies are not thoroughly and reasonably explained. Without adherence to procedures, accurate random drawings, a reliable chain-of-custody, and transparent public follow-up, when discrepancies are reported, if there was ever a significant fraud or error it would not be recognized and corrected Cheryl Dunson, League of Women Voters of Connecticut’s President, noted, “We note little change in our observations and conclusions and little progress by officials in improving post-election audit integrity. Because of ongoing shortcomings in the performance of post-election audits, we continue to urge our state election officials to offer more guidance to local personnel and to require more consistency in the conduct of the audit.” This is the eighth major post-election audit observation report by the Coalition since the adoption of optical scanners and paper ballots statewide. Observers came from the membership ranks of the coalition partners -- The League of Women Voters of Connecticut, The Connecticut Citizen Action Group, Common Cause Connecticut, and Connecticut Voters Count. The coalition’s reports and data are available online at: http://www.CTElectionAudit.org. Help Put Super PACs Out of Business 01/19/2012
How can you fight back against the big money pouring into the political campaigns this year? Sign the petition on The White House website* urging President Obama to appoint new commissioners to the Federal Election Commission (FEC). The FEC is supposed to be the government agency that enforces campaign finance laws, but it isn’t working and hasn’t for a long time. Of the six commissioners at the agency, three of them simply refuse to enforce the law, and five of the six are serving despite the fact that their terms expired some time ago. It is time to clean house and President Obama is the one that needs to do something about it. Click here to urge President Obama to clean house at the Federal Election Commission (FEC). If you are tired of the millions of dollars flooding our political campaigns courtesy of SuperPACs,sign the petition and help us reach our goal of at least 25,000 signatures of support by February 10, 2012. Don’t just sign it yourself; post the petition on Facebook, Tweet about it and forward this note to all of your friends. Together, we can make sure that the votes of millions of Americans are more valuable to our elections than a big pile of money. * In order to successfully sign the petition, you will need to create an account on WhiteHouse.gov and respond to a confirmation email. If you need guidance on creating this account please use our helpful step-by-step guide to creating your account and signing the petition. The Connecticut Voter: Fall 2011 12/31/2011
The Fall 2011 edition of The Connecticut Voter is now available online. Click below to download your copy. 
HARTFORD, Conn. - Companies both big and small stand to gain from Gov. Dannel Malloy's jobs bill, which passed the state legislature with almost unanimous support. The $626 million in bond funding will support a variety of programs. The new law is expected to be among the topics at a League of Women Voters of Connecticut forum about workforce development on Dec. 3, to be held at the University of Connecticut School of Social Work, West Hartford. Catherine Smith, who heads the Department of Economic and Community Development, will be one of the speakers. Information on the forum, "Back in Business: Workforce Development for Connecticut's Economic Future," is available at www.lwvct.org/events.html. READ or LISTEN to the full Public News Service story here. How will Connecticut spur job growth? How can Connecticut develop a competitive workforce and reinvent itself for a 21st century economy? Find out the answers to these questions and more at an engaging discussion with a stellar panel of leaders from key economic sectors. You can register for our 2011 Conference online or by mail — follow the link below! When: Saturday December 3, 2011 from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon Where: University of Connecticut School of Social Work 1800 Asylum Avenue Zachs Community Room Greater Hartford Campus West Hartford, CT 06117-2659 Click here for details or to register online. Download our flyer with mail-in registration form. Symposium on International Relations 11/20/2011
Save the date: The 2012 SIR will focus on international media issues. It will be held at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield on Tuesday, May 15. |  NewsroomArchivesFebruary 2012 CategoriesAll | ||
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