It takes a person truly comfortable in their own skin to admit when they were wrong.
I was…I was…I was…
I’m working on it.
However, you (and some others who I respect who e-mailed me) have convinced me that my take on Greg Patterson’s nomination was….I can’t say it.
Here’s what I’ve taken away from your comments and added info: Patterson is a good choice at least in part because the new Secretary first needs to clean up after the disastrous reign of Shawn Garvin, who didn’t just suck on policy, but apparently didn’t ‘administrate’.
SweetLou’s (first time poster?) comment pretty much reflected the thoughts of several of you:
Don’t read too deeply into the ideological side of things with Patterson. DNREC has been spinning its tires under Garvin, and hemorrhaging people. Lots of experienced staffers and scientists threw in the towel during covid, and recruitment/retention of junior staff is terrible. I don’t have a dog in this fight, but I suspect Matt brought Gary in to address a leadership crisis that is actively impeding a lot of progressive environmental initiatives.
I will also add that, according to someone who I especially respect on environmental issues, Patterson not only supports the wind farm initiative, but was instrumental in getting key legislation through the General Assembly on its behalf.
So. I was…I was…taken hostage by alien beings who forced me to write negative things about Greg Patterson. Fortunately, it was almost their bedtime and they had to return to from whence they came. Which reminds me of a lyric and a song from ‘Guys And Dolls’:
Too much stream-of-consciousness on my part? Not while I’m writing it. But, I digress.
Musk Kills Budget Deal. Yes, we all live in BizarroWorld now:
Elon Musk, self-described “First Buddy” of President-elect Donald Trump, went all out to thwart a last-minute funding deal to avert a government shutdown. The move was a direct challenge to Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson, who rolled out the sweeping plan on Tuesday night.
Now, it appears Musk has successfully killed the stopgap measure in its cradle — before it was even brought to a vote.
In a manic posting spree on Wednesday, the world’s richest man bombarded his platform X, formerly Twitter, with attacks on a proposed funding bill, which would’ve kept the government funded through March 14 and had bipartisan support. He also amplified misinformation about what’s in the 1,500-page bill — as did his non-governmental commission, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which is recommending cuts to government spending and regulations to the incoming Trump administration.
Here’s What Happens If The Government Shuts Down:
Large parts of the federal government will close. Notable examples include the country’s national parks and federally-run museums. Other federal programs that provide critical access to food for vulnerable women and children are also impacted.
The impact of a shutdown extends into many facets of everyday life: In past shutdowns, inspection of chemical and water treatment plants halted, as did routine food safety inspections by the Food and Drug Administration.
Perhaps the most notable immediate impact:
TSA agents and air traffic controllers are considered essential employees and will not be furloughed, but they would be required to work without pay.
The Department of Homeland Security estimates about 72% of the agency’s workforce would be required to report for duty without pay. In previous shutdowns, large numbers of TSA agents called out of work under such circumstances, adding immense strain to an already extraordinarily busy travel time.
How Other States Initiated Student Funding Reform. Blueprints for Delaware?
The Public Education Funding Commission is slated to submit its first set of recommendations on Oct. 1, 2025. A wide array of Democratic and Republican states like Maryland and Tennessee have already made substantial changes to their public education funding formulas that could guide how Delaware proceeds.
For generations, Delaware has utilized a unit-count system for providing state funding to local school districts, providing the bulwark of its annual budgets. At its essence, Delaware takes an annual school enrollment count of students and computes how many teachers, support personnel and administrators are needed to serve them.
However, that formula doesn’t differentiate students with particular needs, such as those from low-income backgrounds, with learning disabilities or those who need to learn English. That has led many states in recent decades to ditch a unit-count system in favor of a weighted funding system, which would give greater funding support to the students who most need it.
Earlier this year, the state legislature formed the Public Education Funding Commission to study the question and provide a recommendation for how incoming Gov. Matt Meyer should address the question of education funding.
But not, at least, until late 2025. Unless Matt wants to bypass yet another Carney bureaucratic bungle. Hope he does.
Yet Another Carney Failure. Yes, this ‘article’ is actually from Clean Slate Delaware. Nevertheless, facts are facts:
On Aug. 1, 2024, Delaware’s Clean Slate law went into effect, promising access to a true second chance for more than 290,000 Delawareans eligible for automated expungement of their criminal records. Clean Slate brought hope of finally living free from endless barriers to education, employment, housing and more. It’s been over four months since implementation and more than three years since Clean Slate’s initial passage. What should have been a transformative step for Delaware’s criminal legal system has fallen disappointingly short of expectations.
As of Oct. 31, 2024, only 624 records have been cleared — fewer than 1% of those eligible for automated expungement — and little progress has been made toward creating an accessible pathway for Delawareans to learn if their record has been cleared.
What do you want to talk about?