DL Open Thread: Friday, November 17, 2023

Cris Barrish Is On The Case!: Finally, a great reporter lays bare the utterly pathetic state of BHL’s gubernatorial campaign.  There is so much astounding detail in this story that it must be read in its entirety.  A few choice excerpts:

Specifically, the sources said Hall-Long stalled for months before providing officials with the campaign bank records that formed the basis for the reports. When she did share the bank records, the sources said, several staffers and volunteers were alarmed to find several payments totaling more than $200,000 during that seven-year period to her husband Dana Long, her longtime campaign treasurer.

Those payments had not been disclosed in her campaign finance reports that are available to the public. Delaware law requires that all loans and repayments must be documented in campaign finance reports.

The sources said Hall-Long later told members of the 2024 team that she had loaned money to the campaign over the years, and had used her credit cards to pay campaign expenses. She said the undisclosed checks to her husband were repayments of those undisclosed loans, the sources said.

Two sources said several people involved in the campaign were unsatisfied with her explanations and urged her to quit the race. They said she initially agreed to step aside, but then decided to remain a candidate for governor.

The slow response in producing spending records, the payments to her husband, and the failure to disclose them and other expenses led campaign manager Brandon Cox and chief fundraiser Jennifer Mueller to abruptly quit along with several volunteers within days of her campaign launch at the Wilmington riverfront, the sources said.

To date, Hall-Long has not hired a new campaign manager or chief fundraiser for a race expected to cost far more than $1 million to win the job…

There’s so much more.  See if you can count up the number of times that Barrish reports that BHL refused to comment on anything in the article.

Coming soon: The Bethany-As-Victim Tour.  Not buying it.

NCC Council Approves Watered-Down Police Review Board.  Over the objection of, who else, the police.  Great reporting by Karl Baker.  In a perfect world, reporters and teachers would be valued based on their contributions to society.  BTW, this police chief should be on the chopping block:

The New Castle County Council on Tuesday voted to create a civilian-led police advisory board — a first for the county and the latest in a string of policy moves sparked three years ago by the nationwide protests that followed the police murder of George Floyd.

The vote followed a bitter debate at Tuesday’s council meeting that featured the police chief decrying mistrust of his officers, and a councilman calling a recent police shooting an “execution.”

Ultimately, councilmembers voted 10 to 0, with two abstaining, in favor of creating a 13-member advisory board that will hold public meetings and issue an annual report that reviews police actions and policies, and makes recommendations for changes.

The contentiousness continued on Tuesday with a surprise announcement from the county police chief, Colonel Joseph Bloch, that he opposed the ordinance, and with councilmembers debating whether to postpone the vote to a later date.

That suggestion prompted Councilman Jea Street – a longtime advocate for police reform – to issue a warning to his colleagues: Either pass the ordinance now, or “we’ll have to look to the courts to run the police department.”

At one point in the meeting, Council President Karen Hartley-Nagle said Street was out of order with his comments. Street retorted that “the police have been out of order for the whole 50 years that I have been playing in the arena.”

The makeup of the review board appeared to be the cause of Bloch’s opposition to the measure. In his testimony Tuesday, he said the board should not only include police as full members, but also should require that all nominees to the board take a police training course.

Presumably from that guy who goes around the country telling police that any police shooting is justified if they even THINK someone poses a threat.

Bloch’s opposition to the measure surprised many, including Cheyenne Miller from the NAACP, who helped to negotiate the final draft of the ordinance.

In testimony to the council on Tuesday, Miller urged the council not to delay the vote, even as she was dissatisfied that the compromise proposal lacked “power to hold officers accountable.”

“Community people are asking for accountability and you gave them an advisory board,” Miller said.

Yep.  It’s the only progress that can be achieved as long as the cops have as much political power as they do.

IBM To Musk: ‘We, Uh, Don’t Want Our Ads Appearing Right Next To Pro-Nazi Propaganda’:

IBM said Thursday it will stop advertising on X, formerly Twitter, after a report from a media watchdog organization found that its ads had appeared on the Elon Musk-owned social media site alongside pro-Nazi tweets.

“IBM has zero tolerance for hate speech and discrimination and we have immediately suspended all advertising on X while we investigate this entirely unacceptable situation,” the company said in a statement.

The pullback by IBM is the latest blow to X chief executive Linda Yaccarino’s push to lure back advertisers who have fled the site since Musk bought it a little more than a year ago. While Musk has succeeded in his bid to loosen the site’s restrictions on speech, slashing staff who used to moderate offensive content, its business has suffered, with a financial outlook that insiders have called dire.

Sad.

‘A Better-Looking Person Gets A Lighter Sentence’.  George Santos’ BOTOX doctor spills:

Dr. Mirza is no stranger to legal drama. Mirza reportedly had his New Jersey medical license suspended in 2021 over allegations that he had botched penile and breast enhancements, and that he allegedly performed medical procedures without a mask or gloves. Mirza also pleaded guilty this year to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud over a scheme to submit $1.3 million in false medical claims to Amtrak.

“Anybody going in the criminal justice system for a custodial sentence, assume you won’t be getting healthcare for some amount of time … and prepare it accordingly,” Dr. Mirza said. “The least thing that I would be concerned about going on a custodial sentence would be wrinkles on my forehead or deflated lips. I would either be more concerned about bonafide health conditions.”

Dr. Mirza also suggested taking care of aesthetics could help Santos as he stands trial.

“I think from a jury trial perspective, the way I look at it — and there are studies to back it up — is a better looking person gets a lighter sentence,” Dr. Mirza explained.

Dr. Nick Riviera was unavailable for comment.

NRA Too Liberal? Meet The Gun Owners Of America:

The GOA is an adamant enemy of gun control measures of all stripes, and proudly calls itself the “no compromise” gun lobby. Its surge in lobbying spending reflects one way it has capitalized on the financial and legal problems of the once 5 million-member NRA in the hopes of expanding the GOA’s political clout, say gun experts.

“The GOA was formed in the 1970s because they believed the NRA was too liberal,” said Robert Spitzer, the author of several books on guns and a professor emeritus at Suny Cortland in New York. “True to its creed, the GOA has opposed every manner of gun law and attacked the NRA at every turn.”

The GOA’s anti-gun control posture was underscored by its opposition to a bipartisan compromise gun control bill in 2022 that closed some gun law loopholes, including for prospective buyers under 21, and implemented gun violence prevention policies, becoming the first gun control bill enacted since 1994.

No compromise ever.  Why, they’re as bad as the cops.

What do you want to talk about?