DL Open Thread: Tuesday, December 13, 2022

We’re back.  Didn’t know what happened to Jason–until I got that ‘Wish You Were Here’ postcard from Hawaii.  Did he win the lottery, or did he merely abscond with the Delaware Liberal treasury (which wouldn’t have gotten him as far as Marcus Hook)?  Anyway, he’s OK, but we’ve put him in ‘time-out’ for the day.

How Mexican Cartel Flooded Fentanyl Into Mormon Country.  A fascinating detective story.  My favorite reporting on America’s opiate epidemic remains Dreamland by Sam Quinones. Seriously, an absolute must-read.

A New ‘Source Of Bountiful Energy’ To Be Announced Today:

Scientists at a federal nuclear weapons facility have made a potentially significant advance in fusion research that could lead to a source of bountiful energy in the future, according to a government official.

The advance is expected to be announced Tuesday by the Department of Energy, which said a “major scientific breakthrough” was made at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California.

The Financial Times reported on Sunday that the scientific advance involves the National Ignition Facility, or NIF, which uses giant lasers to create conditions that briefly mimic the explosions of nuclear weapons.

I leave it to the on-line scientists to explain this to us mere mortals.

Man-n-n-n, This Elon Musk.  “I’m Rich, Bitch”.  Not as rich as he was yesterday, though. Twitter forecast to lose 32 million users in next two years.  Deep-sixes Twitter’s Trust And Safety Council:

In less than two months, Musk has undone years of investments in trust and safety at Twitter — dismissing key parts of the workforce and bringing back accounts that previously had been suspended. As the body unravels, Musk is tightening his grip on decisions about the future of content moderation at Twitter, with less input from outside experts.

The move is just throwing away “years of institutional memory that we on the council have brought” to the company, said one council member who spoke on the condition of anonymity due to concerns about harassment on the platform. “Getting external experts and advocates looking at your services makes you smarter.”

How fast can he self-destruct? And what will he take with him?

The Serial Polluter Who May Challenge Manchin.  Yes, he’s West Virginia’s richest man and the Governor. Coincidence? No way:

The owner of one of Birmingham, Alabama’s oldest industrial plants has agreed to pay a nearly $1 million fine after releasing excessive amounts of toxic air pollution into nearby historic Black neighborhoods, according to a proposed consent decree filed Friday in a Jefferson County court.

If the consent decree is approved by a judge, the Jefferson County Board of Health’s $925,000 penalty against Bluestone Coke would be the largest fine in the agency’s history. But it represents a small fraction of the more than $60 million in fines the company could have faced for its alleged violations. The consent decree would not require Bluestone to admit to wrongdoing.

The plant was the subject of a ProPublica investigation in September that revealed how Bluestone, owned by the family of West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice, repeatedly failed to make crucial repairs to the facility. The lack of timely maintenance accelerated the release of cancer-causing chemicals into the air that neighboring residents breathed.

$1 mill is not nearly enough.

Jim Gardner Faces Retirement.  Nice profile of Philly’s Reassuring Presence.

More Corporate Giveaways Funded By Your Tax Dollars.  At the very least, the General Assembly must eliminate the exemption from FOIA for this Delaware Way travesty:

The Delaware Prosperity Partnership, the state’s public-private economic development arm, brought City National and the rest of Monday’s grant applicants to the state’s Council on Development Finance, which decides whether to approve grant applications.

The council on Monday approved grants worth up to $5.7 million. Most of the money comes from the Delaware Strategic Fund, a pool of taxpayer dollars apportioned by the General Assembly to support business growth and retention. The council also approved two applications through the site readiness fund, a newer tool designed to help developers prepare infrastructure for future projects.

Details of the grant applications aren’t made public until the Council on Development Finance meetings. At the meetings, representatives from the Delaware Prosperity Partnership and the applicants give a presentation on their project moments before the council votes. Since the Delaware Prosperity Partnership’s founding in 2018, the Council on Development Finance has never rejected a grant application.

Shout-out to Brandon Holveck of the News-Journal for spelling out the modus operandi of these insiders.  Will anyone in the Delaware General Assembly do anything about it?

Tamika Mongomery-Reeves Approved To Federal Bench.  35 Rethugs voted no.:

Montgomery-Reeves spent almost three years on the Delaware Supreme Court, after serving as Vice Chancellor on the Delaware Chancery Court from 2015-2019.

The University of Mississippi and Georgia School of Law graduate served as a law clerk for Chancellor William Chandler on Chancery Court, and was a partner at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati before going into public service.

Hey, figured I’d end on a positive note.

What do you want to talk about?