Latest news with #Litchfield
Yahoo
31-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
CT road work projects getting underway in coming days. Here's what to know.
The Connecticut Department of Transportation has several projects on tap to start in early June. The agency says work will begin on the Route 254 bridge over Waterbury Road in Thomaston starting next week. The bridge will go from two lanes to alternating traffic on Waterbury Road from June 5 to July 14, according to DOT. Temporary traffic barriers and sand barrels have been installed as well as traffic control signing patterns and temporary traffic signals, according to DOT. The DOT asks motorists to maintain a safe speed when driving through this area. The project is part of metallizing 11 bridges in Thomaston and Litchfield. The work will be done by Blast All Inc. at a cost of $17.4 million and is scheduled to be completed by Nov. 30 this year. This project is administered by the Bureau of Engineering and Construction, Office of Construction, District 4 in Thomaston. Further, DOT says bridge deck repair work will be performed on Interstate 291 East and West between Exit 5 and 2B. The tentative dates for this project are June 2 to June 30. This project ensures the bridges remain in a state of good repair. This work will be performed by Mohawk Northeast, according to DOT. This in the South Windsor area. Motorists should expect nightly lane closures on I-291 East and West. The scheduled work hours for the project are 7:30 p.m. to 5:30 a.m., Sunday evening to Friday morning. Traffic control sign patterns will guide motorists through the work zone, according to the agency. Motorists should be aware that modifications or extensions to this schedule may become necessary due to weather delays or other unforeseen conditions and are advised to maintain a safe speed when driving in the area. Also starting this week, according to DOT, is the replacement of Bridge No. 02572 on U.S. Route 1, South Frontage Road, and the I-95 North Exit 83 ramp in New London. That project is scheduled to begin June 2 and be completed on Nov. 30, 2026. It 'consists of full replacement of the bridge superstructure and substructure, drainage improvements, roadway realignment and upgrades to traffic signals,' according to the agency. The project was awarded to ROTHA Contracting Company, Inc. at a cost of $14 million on March 26 and is administered by the Bureau of Engineering and Construction, Office of Construction, District 2 in Norwich, according to the agency. In Bethany, the agency said a milling and resurfacing project will be performed on Route 63. It is scheduled to begin on June 1 and be completed on June 23. It includes 'milling and resurfacing a 1.68-mile segment of Route 63 in Bethany from 0.52 miles south of the junction of Route 42 to the Naugatuck town line.' The milling segment of this project by Tilcon is scheduled to take place from June 1 to June 10. The resurfacing segment of this project by O & G is anticipated to begin on June 11 and finish June 23, according to DOT. The Bethany project is included in CTDOT's 2025 Vendor Resurfacing Program. 'Motorists can expect lane closures of Route 63 from 0.52 miles south of the junction of Route 42 to the Naugatuck town line in Bethany. Traffic control personnel and signing patterns will guide motorists through the work zone.' The work schedule for this project is from 7 p.m. to 5 a.m., Sunday night to Friday morning, DOT said. There are about 545 active capital projects planned for this year on state highways, bridges and roads. Two hundred of the projects are in the planning phase and 171 are under construction.
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
House panel endorses tougher school cellphone ban
An amended bill to institute a 'bell-to-bell' ban of cellphones in New Hampshire public schools narrowly cleared a key House committee Tuesday. Rep. Melissa Litchfield, R-Brentwood, brought forward the proposal to require that all school districts adopt policies to block cellphone use during the entire school day. Litchfield said a National Education Survey in 2024 found 83% of educators said they want cellphones to be inaccessible in public schools. 'Teachers are not asking us to become the police; they want us to pass this law,' Litchfield told colleagues on the House Education Policy and Administration Committee. 'After extremely compelling testimony from educators, parents, and students on how important it is to protect our children from cellphone use in schools, we are taking action to make sure that our schools remain places of education. We send children to school to learn, not browse Instagram and TikTok.' Rep. Loren Selig, D-Durham, said school boards should decide their own policies to fit their local needs. 'I think it is overly prescriptive and violates local control. Each district should be able to determine what their own needs are,' Selig said. The House panel approved Litchfield's amendment, 9-8, with Chairman Glenn Cordelli, R-Tuftonboro, breaking the tie. Litchfield's change would replace a more generic Senate-passed bill (SB 206) that simply requires school boards to 'develop a policy' for the use of these devices. Sen. Denise Ricciardi, R-Bedford, authored the Senate bill. Milder mandate already OK'd The House and Senate have already given final approval to a more permissive bill (HB 781) on school cellphone use. That bill, which has the support of Gov. Kelly Ayotte, would require boards to adopt policies to 'restrict the use' of cellphones. Ayotte had endorsed restrictions on cellphones as a candidate for governor and called for legislation during her inaugural address in January. Litchfield's latest amendment would allow for exceptions from the ban to include students with language barriers and those with 'special needs' or disabilities if cellphone use was specified in their individualized education programs. All Democrats on the panel opposed the amendment after the committee rejected an exception for 'teacher-directed' instruction by the same 9-8 vote. 'We need to have a reasonable solution in place for instructional time,' said Rep. Megan Murray, D-Amherst. Rep. Katy Peternel, R-Wolfeboro, countered that adding the teacher-directed exception could give an advantage to children from wealthier families. 'Are we creating a wedge between the haves and the have-nots by having a teacher-directed exception, since I would assume some students don't have cellphones,' Peternel asked. Several Democratic committee members objected to a reference in Litchfield's amendment to 'personal communication device.' They argued this could prevent students from bringing their own laptop computers to school because they work faster than a Chrome Book the school district might supply. +++ What's Next: The full House of Representatives will vote on the amended bill later this month. Prospects: This significant change at such a late stage of the legislative session raises the question as to whether the Senate would agree to it. klandrigan@
Yahoo
24-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
MSD's Gardasil sales slide further due to China constraints
A steep fall in demand from China drove a 41% decline in MSD Q1 2025 sales of its human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines Gardasil and Gardasil 9, marking a continued setback for the company's second-highest selling product. During MSD's Q1 2025 earnings call on 24 April, chief financial officer Caroline Litchfield said MSD does not expect to resume Gardasil shipments to China before mid-year, following a suspension announced back in February. Q1 2025 Gardasil sales totalled $1.3bn, down from $2.2bn in Q1 2024. Excluding the impact of foreign exchange, the decline was 40%. Despite the setback in China, the company said the revenue drop was partially offset by stronger demand in the US and Japan. Outside of China, Gardasil sales grew 14%, or 16% on a constant currency basis. Litchfield acknowledged that China would continue to be a hang heavy on the company's vaccine performance this year: 'As we look to Gardasil globally this year, we expect China to be a headwind…expect, given the current dynamics in China, that it is not so likely that we will ship further product in China.' The suspension in shipments came amidst a challenging environment in China, where a combination of regulatory scrutiny, growing local competition, and weaker discretionary spending hit foreign vaccine makers. MSD previously withdrew its $11bn Gardasil sales target in Q4 2024, citing the deteriorating outlook on the Chinese market. Despite the pullback, Litchfield reiterated the company's focus on long-term opportunities in China, including plans to expand access to the vaccine for males, and emphasised strong double-digit growth potential elsewhere. In January 2025, MSD secured approval for Gardasil for men aged 9 to 26, and on April 14, 2025, the Chinese regulator approved the more advanced Gardasil 9 shot for men aged 16 to 26. MSD CEO Robert Davis also addressed growing concerns about trade policy, as the US government moved forward with a Section 232 investigation into pharmaceutical imports – a precursor to potential industry-specific tariffs. Davis said the company is anticipating approximately $200m in tariff-related costs from existing duties involving the US, China, Canada, and Mexico. He emphasised that MSD is actively adapting its manufacturing strategy to mitigate future risks. Many large pharma companies like Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine (J&J) and Novartis have announced plans to increase manufacturing activity in the US against the backdrop of these tariff announcements, and MSD announced its own $1bn investment in the US in March 2025. 'Over the last few years, we've been evolving our supply chain strategy in an effort to better balance our manufacturing footprint, which aligns well with the new administration's efforts to regrow the US manufacturing base,' Davis said on an investor call. 'Since 2018 we've invested $12bn in US manufacturing, and we've committed to an additional $9bn plus for projects through 2028.' Davis added that MSD is well positioned in the short term due to healthy inventory levels, but is preparing to further shift production regionally: 'We've already started to identify where we can either reposition our own manufacturing, change the priorities of existing plants, bring on external manufacturing, in some cases,to bridge gaps, and then finally, to build internal manufacturing long term…we are aligned with what the administration is wanting to do.' While declining to speculate on possible tariff rates, Davis reiterated that MSD is not planning to use pricing as a lever to offset tariffs, focusing instead on supply chain optimisation. He also called for broader systemic reforms in the US pricing environment, including pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) reform: 'Over 50 cents of every dollar goes to somewhere in the middle…If we could find a way to bring more of that back to the patient at the pharmacy counter, that could meaningfully reduce prices in the US.' "MSD's Gardasil sales slide further due to China constraints" was originally created and published by Pharmaceutical Technology, a GlobalData owned brand. The information on this site has been included in good faith for general informational purposes only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely, and we give no representation, warranty or guarantee, whether express or implied as to its accuracy or completeness. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on our site. Sign in to access your portfolio
New York Times
11-04-2025
- New York Times
In a Snow Paradise, They Live in This Parking Lot
On the side of a highway leading to some of the most coveted slopes in the world, in a parking lot covered in snow, a form of affordable housing has emerged. Here in cars, trucks and vans, behind foggy windshields and zipped in sleeping bags, those who serve the vacationers who come to enjoy the snow tried to fall asleep on a recent night — two ski instructors, two snow plow drivers, a ski lift operator, an ice fishing guide, a dog sledding guide, the employee of a ski resort whose job includes scanning ski passes, two ER nurses who treat their injuries, a cashier at a drugstore, multiple servers at local restaurants, as well as Kristine Litchfield, who earns $24 an hour at a ski shop fitting people for their boots. At 6 a.m., the 62-year-old woke up under multiple blankets in the bunk bed she built in the back of her Ford T250 van. It was negative 8 degrees. 'It didn't feel chilly at all,' she joked. What Ms. Litchfield and the more than two dozen others sleeping in their vehicles that night really needed — the requirement for the right to sleep in the subzero cold in a landscape that looks like a snow globe — was a local pay stub. As homelessness soars to the highest level on record, parking lots like this one have opened from coast to coast, offering a refuge to those who no longer have a house to sleep in, but still have a car. But the backlash from neighbors has often been fierce, and to circumvent that, municipalities have imposed an ever greater number of rules on the parkers. The lot in the town of Frisco — a 30-minute commute to Vail, 14 minutes to Breckenridge and nine minutes to the powder of Copper Mountain, where the U.S. ski team trains — appears to be the only lot in the country that requires those who sleep there to prove that they are part of the local economy. In the public imagination, homelessness looks like the man in soiled clothes sleeping on top of a subway grate or the woman peering out of a tent from under a highway overpass. But in cities and towns that have the highest concentrations of homelessness, many — and sometimes a majority — of those who do not live in shelters are in cars, not on the streets, according to the annual census known as the 'point in time count.' In Los Angeles County, for example, two-thirds are living in vehicles. In San Mateo County, which includes part of Silicon Valley, its even more — 71 percent. 'The American dream of owning a home is dead unless you make a gazillion dollars,' says Ms. Litchfield, sitting in the front seat of her van. Her shift at the ski shop starts at 7:30 a.m. in a nearby strip mall. Customers are already queuing, hoping to hit the slopes of some of the most coveted runs in the world. The vacationers wait behind a cordon like in an airport line, then step onto a small platform towering over Ms. Litchfield who measures their feet and proposes a boot size. Ms. Litchfield spends another part of her seven-hour shift redoing a display of North Face jackets, then sells a customer hand warmers and a pair of goggles to another before heading back to the lot. Though she makes more than Colorado's minimum wage of $14.81 an hour, the $2,874 she earns each month is not enough to afford more than a windshield between herself and the majestic snow. According to Zillow, studios here rent for $2,500 a month — meaning that Ms. Litchfield would need to spend 87 percent of her income on rent, leaving too little to pay for her other needs. Homeownership is even further out of reach as the median sales price hovers near $1 million. 'We cannot afford to buy a home, and so people started to think, well, screw it,' she said. 'Why should I put myself in that much debt just to live in a house? And so that's how come people are here,' she said gesturing through the icy windshield at the snow-covered asphalt. 'This is the American dream. Living in a van. Living in your car,' she said. Affordable housing activists are being joined by employers in pushing for parking lots like the one where Ms. Litchfield lives. Local business owners struggle to hire and to retain workers in Summit County, where Frisco is and which was once ranked the sixth wealthiest county in the United States. Waitresses live three and four to an apartment, and at the ski resorts, J-1 visa holders, designed for guest workers from abroad, share bunk beds. Andrew Aerenson, a former board member of the Frisco Town Council sees the parking lot as having created affordable housing at virtually no cost to the city: 'We sit around and have constant conversations about work force housing,' says Mr. Aerenson, a retired lawyer and a ski instructor at Breckenridge, who estimates that it costs the town $150,000 in subsidies to build a single unit of affordable housing, a process that takes years even when the funds are available. 'This is a no-brainer for me,' he said of the parking lot where workers pay $75 a month to rent their spot, a fee that offsets costs including the portable restroom. 'We want these people here.' The lot here has been in existence for nearly six years, its location moving from a church to a marina to a library. Though its model has been copied elsewhere, other communities have not been as welcoming, and similar programs have failed after pushback from homeowners. After opposition by neighbors, two similar lots, one that opened in 2022 in a river-rafting town in Colorado, and the other that was scheduled to open in 2024 in a hiking destination in Arizona, were closed. Both lots required proof of employment. 'Imagine talking to your grandma about this thing that you want to do, and every single little fear that pops into her brain, suddenly you have to address,' said Salty Riggs, who helped create the lot in the river rafting town of Salida, Colo. The location next to a park with room for 15 vehicles was approved in 2022, and operated for two years before quietly closing, after the list of rules became so long and onerous that parkers began to feel unwelcome, she said. In Sedona, after the City Council approved a zoning change in the spring of 2024 that would have allowed homeless workers to park in a public lot, enraged residents organized a referendum that shut it down a few months later, before anyone parked there. 'Not Skid Row' To survive in Frisco, the organizers of the lot from a group called Unsheltered in Summit have treaded lightly and have tried to make sure the lot blends into the landscape. Its discretion is outlined in a PowerPoint presentation that the organizers whip out when necessary for elected leaders or members of the local rotary club. The first few slides show a drug addict collapsed on the pavement and a derelict van with boarded up windows. A subsequent slide shows one of the neat and tidy lots in Frisco. One of the areas used also serves as a parking lot for the town's utility vehicles, so a visitor happening across the lot would have a hard time distinguishing which cars are inhabited, and which are not. To the side is a portable toilet. A new, brightly painted dumpster has a combination lock. Parkers are given the code only if they are approved. Another slide makes the point that organizers most want to get across — the parking lot at midday is empty, because its residents are working. Paul Minjares, the 41-year-old guitarist, is working on organizing an 'open house' with members of the community. 'Basically, to show that it's not skid row,' he said. He makes additional money by working as the intake coordinator, whose duties include managing the lot and vetting applicants. He conducts a lengthy interview process, first by phone and then in person, looking for a red flag indicating that the person is not working. The applicant can provide a pay stub, or a letter of employment. Mr. Minjares has lived in the lot for three years, and like some of the other car dwellers, he said there is a newfound freedom in not having to pay rent, allowing him to save at the same time that he is able to live in a place of stunning alpine beauty. A nearby recreation center provides the parkers a place to shower, as well as multiple pools, a hot tub and a steam room. When he interviewed Ms. Litchfield two years ago, he sat in her van to get to know her, and she later provided an email from the ski shop indicating her start date. Before she goes to sleep, Ms. Litchfield blasts hot air into the van. A piece of Velcro across the ceiling of the van allows her to hang a curtain, trapping the heat in the back. 'I heat the van up, and then I was telling you about the cloth that I put up? So, it's right over your head, here. So that pulls down,' she said, explaining how she partitions the space. She puts on her fuzzy socks and multiple layers of clothes. 'Once I crawl up into my bunk, I close the curtains. So now you have all the hot air which rises in the back of the bunk with me in there and me with my sweats and my fuzzy blankets and a feather duvet and a fuzzy pillowcase and then if I get cold in the middle of night, let's say I woke up, it's three in the morning, and I'm like, 'Damn, it's really cold in here.' I just get up, drop the cloth, turn it on. Heat it up,' she said, explaining her nightly ritual. An Electric Blanket Beside her, Mr. Minjares is getting ready for bed too. An intricate contraption he has created using a hitch on the back of his RAV4 pumps hot air from a diesel heater, through a duct, into one of the windows of his car, cracked open just wide enough to let the duct through. It's toasty inside. But as the snow fell, he realizes that a woman in a pickup truck is struggling. The 45-year-old cashier at Target ended up in her Toyota Tacoma after her building was sold and her rent doubled. Now, Maegan DePriest crawls into the bed of the truck covered by a camper shell, its fiberglass skin the only barrier separating her from the howling wind outside. A small propane heater allows her to warm herself, but she is afraid to fall asleep with it on — could she be a victim of carbon monoxide poisoning? To get her through the night, Mr. Minjares lent her an electric blanket, which she plugged into a power strip, powered by a rechargeable battery. 'It helped a lot,' she explained. 'Like I said, it hasn't been easy.' The next morning, she wakes up to head to her job at Target, where she makes $22 an hour.
Yahoo
07-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
TALON and Litchfield partner on medical stop-loss insurance
TALON, a healthcare pricing specialist, has chosen Litchfield Underwriters for medical stop-loss insurance coverage. The collaboration will support the 'first deployment' of TALON's in-house negotiated rate calculation and pricing solution, Universally Acceptable Payment Amount (UAPA). UAPA employs machine learning (ML) to analyse and synthesise high volumes of healthcare pricing data, curating a 'single, evidence-based' rate. It replaces the concept of "network discount" with a price that reflects 'commercial acceptance'. UAPA's pricing is derived from actual commercial transactions involving more than 400 payers, resulting in an equitable midpoint rate that is neither artificially low nor high. TALON claims that this ensures providers receive a rate they recognise, while employers anticipate their healthcare spending and patients have access to 'ethical' pricing. The aim is to offer 'equitable' market rates for healthcare providers and patients. TALON CEO Mark Galvin stated: "The healthcare industry will experience a paradigm shift as a result of our development and deployment of UAPA. This shift means a more efficient, patient-centric, free-market driven financial environment for healthcare patients and providers. Litchfield Underwriters' extensive ability to craft solutions to match TALON's unique risk appetite and profile made our decision to work alongside them very easy." Litchfield principal and cofounder Michael Pastor said: "With the robust data leveraged by TALON to develop UAPA, we were excited to deploy our proprietary underwriting technologies to provide an innovative medical stop-loss reinsurance policy tailored to TALON's needs. By aligning price transparency and price equity, UAPA aligns with our vision for creating a more efficient and effective healthcare ecosystem for employers and their employees." Litchfield Underwriters' underwriting methodologies are designed to provide self-funded reinsurance solutions to both commercial clients and Welfare Funds. The methodologies are crafted for small to mid-sized employers, with workforces ranging from 50–500 employees, and offer a self-funded option as an alternative to conventional fully insured health plans. "TALON and Litchfield partner on medical stop-loss insurance " was originally created and published by Life Insurance International, a GlobalData owned brand. The information on this site has been included in good faith for general informational purposes only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely, and we give no representation, warranty or guarantee, whether express or implied as to its accuracy or completeness. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on our site. Sign in to access your portfolio
