Saturday Open Thread [5.25.13]
In case there is anyone taking a break from holiday festivities long enough to check in here, here’s an Open Thread for you!
Are you following the shenanigans going on between Wilmington’s Mayor and City Council? Basically, the City Council has re-discovered that it is a co-equal branch of the government and that it has some leverage in the face of a Mayor who essentially doesn’t speak to them. This is being played out over the City’s budget which needs to be in place by 1 June. After some back and forth, City Council is sticking to its defunding of a couple of positions in the Finance Department and in keeping the $250K it added to its own budget. The Mayor seems to think that the defunding of these positions reduces tax revenue — which may or may not be true — but it is his job to spend funds allocated to get the job done. I’m not crazy about the Council adding more to their own budget for reasons that aren’t clear (and apparently not auditable), either, but they have some right to do this. So the Mayor has vetoed the budget and called for a “special Meeting” on Tuesday. The President of City Council has said IxNay on the “Special Meeting”, they’ll meet as scheduled on 30 May to vote on overriding the budget veto. Andrew Staub at the NJ got former Mayor Baker to weigh in on this too. He thinks that Williams needs to find a path to working with City Council. What I’m hoping is the City Council finds a way to have a more functional place at the governing table and that Mayor Williams figures out how local government works, but quick.
ALSO — if you are on Facebook, Peaceful Rioters for Wilmington, DE is providing some interesting commentary on this and other city issues. LIKE them if you are interested in what goes on in Wilmington.
In other news, there are global marches against Monsanto and GMOs today. You can get updates on the activity here. No idea where the Delaware marches are, but if you have any details, please let us know in the comments.
Then there’s this:
What Do You Call 242 Republicans in One House?
What interests you today?
Check this out: http://www.delawareright.com/the-passion-of-the-christians/
Evan Q, Bill “Sheriff’s Posse” Christy, and Sandi “No Gay Bus Drivers” Minard, all tea baggers, are trying to get the Cape Henlopen School District to teach a “Bible Literacy” class. Maybe they can get their buddy Eric Bodenweiser to teach it, or Vance Phillips.
I’m so tired of the city politicians!
Poor Ernie. He’s peaking at age 36.
http://capegazette.villagesoup.com/p/lopez-named-to-future-majority-caucus/1003830#.UaD3XUpWKE8
Come now, City Politics are entertaining. Cassandra please put a link to this post on Peaceful Rioters for Wilmington.
Last night was interesting, first breaking news that the Mayor called a special meeting and the a bit later breaking news Council mixes idea. Great fun.
Oh, I’m definitely amused. Add to that the Fire Chief who was carrying for awhile and then he wasn’t. These folks are doing what they can to tell the world that Wilmington is the new South Bronx (70’s vintage). Bobby Marshall had a bill to get Wilmington its own independent auditor, which is looking even better to me right about now.
Update on the effort to weaken Dodd-Frank: the NYT has some detail on how — exactly — the banks are drafting the bills being put up for votes. They’ve gotten hold of a batch of emails that show how closely some of these bills track to what the banks wanted. And interestingly, how the banks are fundraising for some of the Dems on the right committees.
Mayor Williams and the 5 Stages of Grief — nicely done!
cassandra_m saw that. I agree with you.
We need full disclosure and transparency from companies involved in the over use of Roundup and other herbicides and pesticides in conjunction with genetically modified crops.
Sometimes I get the feeling that our technological knowhow mixed with an insufficient knowledge of how nature works, is just enough to get us in real trouble. Sort of like giving a monkey a shotgun.
There was supposed to be protests around the world this weekend concerning this matter, but I haven’t heard of anything in our area.