The Good:
10. Paltry minimum wage bill passes, is signed into law. (Jan) From DD:
To be fair, one week was cut short by both the Governor’s State of the State and a crippling blizzard, but we finally got some action last week when Senate Bill 6, the mimimum wage increase, passed.
Not to sound ungrateful, but I hereby call on someone in the General Assembly to introduce a new minimum wage increase bill immediately. Why? Well, President Obama is raising future federal contract minimum wages to $10.10 and called on the states and businesses to likewise act on their own without Congress to increase the minimum wage to $10.10. So now $8.25 effective NEXT year sounds quite paltry, even Scroogish. Hey business leaders and the vaunted Chamber of Commerce and all the state Democrats who are either paid off by the Chamber or live in fear of it, $10.10 is nothing. If the minimum wage kept pace with inflation since the 1960’s, do you know what the minimum wage would be today?
$22.00 an hour.
9. ‘Ban the Box’ passes. HB 167.
8. Bryan Townsend defeats the Christian Dominionist choice for State Senator, Dave Tackett, who manages to run one of the worst campaigns in recent memory. Surpassed, perhaps only, by the campaign of Sean Barney.
7. UD pulls plug on data center/power plant.
6. Matt Denn elected AG. Didja notice that he plans to be inaugurated at the PAL site at 37th & N. Market Street? I think that gives us a clue as to what’s at the top of his priority list.
5. Delaware passes one of the nation’s best human trafficking bills.
4. Bill requiring FOIA transparency for UD and Del State signed into law.
3. General Assembly and DNREC go around Sen. Harris McDowell to pass energy efficiency legislation. (June/July)
2. State does a great job of repairing and reopening I-495.
1. Chip Flowers and Jeff Christopher gone from elective office. Two people totally unsuited for public office are, or will soon be, out of office. Both done in by their brands of delusional narcissistic martyrdom. That self-same delusional narcissism is why I think they’ll both seek office again. At least we can hope that any future Flowers race takes place in a state other than Delaware. As long as Christopher stays in the backwater portions of Sussex County, he, at least, will be good for some laughs. Along with his supporters. We can only hope that delusional narcissist Karen Weldin Stewart meets the same fate in 2016.
The Bad:
10. Tom Carper Votes to Support Keystone Pipeline. Oh and despite casting the vote based on his warped vision of ‘bipartisanship’, his kindness has not yet been repaid by the Rethugs he’s so anxious to please. Worst. Delaware. Elected. Official. Ever.
9. Rep. Valerie Longhurst, former Rep. Dick Cathcart, and some other unsavory Delaware City types look to create an economic development project at the soon-to-be-underwater Ft. DuPont.
8. Sen. Nicole Poore lands lucrative position b/c she’s a Sen. With the phony job development program, Jobs For Delaware Graduates, no less.
7. Classroom Cowboys Markell and Murphy cram bad education policy down city schools’ throats.
6. Carper, Coons and Carney vote for ‘Fast Track Authority’ for Trans Pacific Partnership Trade Deal.
5. We learn that connected DuPont heir received no jail time after pleading guilty for raping his three-year-old daughter back in 2008. Per usual, no comment from the Beaudhisatva.
4. Tom Carper opposes $10.10 minimum wage, wants $9 instead. Refuses to vote to bring the bill to the floor.
3. Rep. Val Longhurst shoots down any House consideration of a gas tax increase to pay for infrastructure shortfall/utter refusal of General Assembly to even address a $70 mill roads shortfall. (Jan). Two quotes from Longhurst within three days tell the story:
“I’m going to keep an open mind. In order for us to get there, stir the economy and get people back to work, we have to have an open mind.”
“No gas tax. I won’t do it.”
I guess it’s tough for Longhurst to keep an open mind for more than 48 hours. Wait a minute, I’m not guessing, I know.
2. Chris Coons votes against releasing the nomination of Debo Adegbile to head the Civil Rights Division DESPITE the fact that Adegbile is perhaps the best-qualified person to challenge Rethug voter suppression.
The Ridiculous
10. Bethany Hall Long’s husband caught stealing signs.
9. Ashley Biden becomes new head of the Delaware Center for Justice. Ironic considering the REST of the story.
8. Wilmington City Council spends $1K to bring Mike Brown back from Fla. for key vote. Vote falls 2 short of passage.
7. Sheriff of Nuttingham costs SuxCo over $7 mill.
6. AG’s office goes after a tiny Facebook account that has dared to criticize the Bidens’ best friend, Tommy Gordon. (Jan)
5. Everything related to Hunter Biden this year.
4. The entire year-long ‘rope-a-dope’ from Beau Biden and his enablers; More; More; More;
3. The year-long Perils of Pauline antics of Chip Flowers; More; More; More; More; More.
2. The charade leading to making Mark Brainard the new President of Del-Tech.
1. The National Park that is not a national park.
Honorable Mentions?
Rebecca Walker’s ‘Now You See Her, Now You Don’t’ candidacy paves way for Pete’s guy and…an R pickup.
Kevin Wade Goes On Weeklong ‘Fact-Finding’ Trip to Israel