DL Open Thread: Thursday, November 28, 2024

We hope you and your families and friends have a very happy Thanksgiving.  We’re so happy that we’re no longer hosting.  We’ve passed that tradition along to our oldest daughter and son-in-law.

In that spirit, please feel free to share your MVP’s (Most Valuable To The Progressive Cause) for 2024.  We’ve gotten a lot of nominations, but we haven’t hit the deadline yet.

“If An Open Thread Is Published On Thanksgiving, And Nobody’s There To Read It, Does It Make An Impact?”  We’re about to find out.  Not gonna just mail this one in.

Attention: Spiros And Kendra–Read This.  For the uninitiated, we’re talking Sen. Mantzavinos and Rep. Johnson.  They have done admirable work on nursing home reform.  Maine is addressing a huge gap in care, and I hope Delaware does the same:

In the first major update to assisted living and residential care regulations in more than 15 years, the Maine Department of Health and Human Services has proposed significantly increasing staffing requirements, among other changes.

The proposed updates follow an investigation by The Maine Monitor and ProPublica into the state’s largest residential care facilities. It found dozens of violations of resident rights, including incidents of abuse and neglect, as well as more than 100 cases in which residents wandered away from their facilities and hundreds of medication and treatment violations.

As part of the news organizations’ investigation, one facility owner called the current staffing requirement “scary,” “unsafe” and “completely inadequate.” Experts, advocates and providers said requiring higher staffing levels, better training and more nursing care would help address these problems.

During a public hearing this month, the department proposed doubling the number of direct care workers at residential care facilities overnight and setting stricter rules in memory care units that go beyond the state and federal staffing requirements at nursing homes. DHHS must present its proposed regulations to lawmakers by Jan. 10 in order for them to be considered in the upcoming legislative session.

Assisted living facilities, and certainly assisted living facilities in Delaware, have been serving residents who previously resided in long-term-care facilities.  Many of these residents have memory issues and are prone to wandering away from the facilities.  Yet, the level of staffing for assisted living facilities is not mandated.  For example, residents with Alzheimers and other memory issues don’t predictably sleep during the same hours as residents w/o those issues. Yet, there is next to no staffing required on the overnight shift. That defines the term ‘unsafe’.

So, Spiros and Kendra:  Keep on doing what you do.  And, thank you for doing it.

House Rethugs Facing Internecine Warfare Once More.  With late returns from Cali that flipped a couple of seats from R to D, it looks like the R majority in the House will be 220-215.  Except–with Gaetz gone and two House R’s nominated for posts with Trump, we’re looking at 217-215 starting in January.

The ‘Leguminati’ Are Coming For Your Steaks.  It’s actually a ‘good thing’.

“When you rediscover beans, it’s something we’ve all taken for granted, and then you realize—oh my God—these are really great; it’s like a secret,” says Steve Sando, the founder of the California-based bean company, Rancho Gordo, who is, for many, the godfather of this cult. “The secret’s been revealed to them and they tend not to be able to shut up about it, because they feel they’ve discovered the world.”

Beans are enjoying a culinary renaissance and, say their advocates, it is not a moment too soon. Long thought of as bland, fiddly to cook, or poverty food, in recent years there has been growing recognition that beans are not only delicious, but that eating more of them could help solve a host of planetary and human health problems.

Food production is a big cause of climate breakdown, amounting to about a quarter of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. Three-fifths of those emissions come from meat production, leading many to argue for a shift towards a plant-based diet.

Since we’re sort-of following a GoLo agenda, we’re enjoying more beans.  Yes, they’re really tasty, especially when Penzey’s Spices (one of the most socially-responsible companies in the world) are included in the mix.   One reason why legumes are more sustainable  (and one undesirable by-product):  “They can produce their own nitrogen.”

Can’t resist–been too long since a Sondheim reference, especially one that’s legume-appropriate:

It’s Unions Vs. Management On Hospital Cost Review Board:

The latest front in the battle features two opposing local lobbying forces – the Delaware Hospital Association and a coalition of public sector unions – who each have been pressuring Carney over whether he should or should not nominate members to the newly created state board.

In the lawsuit, ChristianaCare’s attorneys argued, in part, that the imposition of hospital price caps – one tool that the review board could employ – is “unlawful and discriminatory.”

Frazee’s letter cited the pending lawsuit, as well as its ongoing discussions with the next governor, as the reason Carney should defer nominations to Meyer.

“Please avoid potential confusion and uncertainty by enabling the next administration, legislative leaders and the courts to resolve the critical issue before appointments are made to this board,” the letter stated.

The statement bucked a longstanding Delaware Way practice by influential lobbies of resolving political disputes quietly and away from the public eye.

It also follows a massive failed lobbying effort from hospital boards and their administrators, who last spring flooded Dover wearing white coats in efforts to oppose House Bill 350, which created the board.

On Tuesday, in a response to Frazee’s letter, a coalition of public sector unions sent its own letter to Carney urging him to take what they called the “fundamental and basic step” of nominating members of the hospital cost review board.

In the letter, the group also pointed to Delaware’s high health care costs and asserted that large portions of the state government’s budget “are being devoured by unchecked health care costs that continue to rise faster than the rate of inflation.”

“House Bill 350 marked the first step in our collective effort to bring this unsustainable cost spiral under control,” the union letter stated.

This is also a key issue in the 5th Senatorial District Special Election, and the battlelines are clearly drawn.  We have not one, but two, candidates with close ties to Christiana Care:  former ChristianaCare executive/bean counter Ray Seigfried and Dr. Bryan Haimes.  Both have publicly stated their opposition to the hospital review board.  Both Jonathan Tate and Shay Frisby have long supported public sector unions, with Frisby having teamed with AFSCME to help organize on behalf of child care workers. I hope that potential electors in this race are paying attention.

Memo to Myself:  The Delaware journalists working in non-legacy media absolutely must be on the MVP List this year.

More Bold Vision-less Leadership From John Carney.  Probably took him less than five minutes to reach these decisions:

Wilmington Mayor-elect John Carney is reappointing the city’s police chief and fire chief to continue serving in the new administration.

Carney, who is wrapping up his second term as Governor, said this reaffirms the new administration’s dedication to public safety and community engagement.  (And his inability to think on his own.)

We close with this mini-dream I had last night.  We have a small patch of property near a creek that my wife has been turning into a native habitat with plantings that will attract bees, birds, butterflies and the like.  Native plants only.  In my dream, John Carney was supervising the dredging of the property so that a yacht basin could go in there.   Too small for port expansion, I guess.

What do you want to talk about?