DL Open Thread: Friday, December 20, 2024
Three Notable Trends From This Year:
1. The News-Journal is no longer an essential newspaper. While the paper broke a couple of stories, most of the big stories were reported by the likes of Spotlight Delaware, WHYY, Bay To Bay, and even the Cape Gazette. Our so-called newspaper became little more than that weekly shopper we used to get in our driveway every week. I had kept my subscription largely due to what I was writing here. My money is better spent supporting the real reporting going on out there. Same holds true for Philly.com, BTW. Don’t need it anymore.
2. The alarming influx of Third Party money into Delaware politics. Regardless of which side of the Governor’s race you were on, the sheer amount of money and the relentlessness of the barrage of ads does not strike me as the Democratic Ideal.
3. John Carney cemented himself as the Worst Governor In Delaware History. Recent Delaware history, at least. Screw-ups, cover-ups, ill-informed vetoes, missing money, you name it. You will see the Carney List Of Listlessness in our ‘2024: The Good, The Bad, The Ridiculous’ piece, coming on December 31. It, and he, are bad. Real bad.
Did you notice any other Delaware trends this year? Share ’em with us.
16 Hours And Counting–to a government shutdown engineered by Elon Musk:
Without new legislation, the government will shut down just after midnight on Saturday, shuttering federal agencies, furloughing hundreds of thousands of workers and forcing many others — including air traffic controllers, airport security agents and even military service members — to work without pay on the eve of the Christmas holiday.
“I pray that Speaker Johnson and Hakeem will convene [Friday] sometime, talk to each other about what we can do, what do we need to take out, what do we need to put in?” Rep. Steve Womack (R-Arkansas), a senior appropriator, said. “I’m guessing Hakeem is probably going to say, ‘You had it midweek, dust it off, bring it to the floor.’”
Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-New York) appeared to feel similarly.
“It’s a good thing the bill failed in the House, and now it’s time to go back to the bipartisan agreement we came to,” he said in a statement.
Hmmm, could the Trump-Musk bromance be in danger of collapsing? Or, is Trump just happy that all this is happening on Biden’s watch? That’s what he said:
If there is going to be a shutdown of government, let it begin now, under the Biden Administration, not after January 20th, under “TRUMP.” This is a Biden problem to solve, but if Republicans can help solve it, they will!
America’s Health Insurance Crisis In Six Charts. If you guessed that the health insurance industry wasn’t in crisis, you were correct:
Although the survey report says public options should be made available, the primary policy recommendations involve bolstering Medicaid, the federally funded public insurance program for low-income Americans (the incoming administration appears likely to do the opposite)—and protecting consumers from medical debt. (Ditto.) But the findings “show pretty clearly that commercial insurance is not enabling timely and affordable access to health care without fear of medical debt for millions of people,” one of the authors, Sara Collins, told me in an email.
You might want to scroll down to the final chart–the one titled ‘Insurance Profits Outpace Health Care Spending’, to see pretty much everything that’s wrong with our current system.
Jane Gruenebaum Just What Suxco Council Needs. Not to mention, she defeated Mark Schaeffer to win the seat:
The environment, and quality of life in Sussex County in general, will be among her primary concerns as she takes her oath of office Jan. 7 to begin a four-year term on Sussex County Council, she said.
Residential and commercial development have been booming for years in the county, prompting a growing backlash against the consequences of that growth on schools, traffic, emergency services and healthcare.
That public sentiment seemed evident in recent elections, when three candidates pressing for controls on that growth won all the council seats on the ballots, Gruenebaum said. The Democrat unseated incumbent Republican Mark Schaeffer in the District 3 general election. Winning in the Republican primary were Matt Lloyd over Council President Michael Vincent in District 1 and Steve McCarron over council member Cindy Green in District 2.
“If ever there was an election that sent a message, it was this one,” Gruenebaum said. “All of us ran with a similar message, that we need to handle development differently.”
The election results give those who want to place some limits on development a majority of like-minded people on the five-member council and a real chance to shape policy, she said.
The money quote?:
“In the past, developers drove development. We have to do a better job of driving the bus.”
Yo, Sussex Spies, is this change on Council as big a deal as it seems?
Also, Yo,Marcus, NCC Council: Ya payin’ attention?
What do you want to talk about?
TNJ is just not good these days. It’s all about what businesses are opening, some Delawarean who went viral on TikTok, and Aubrey Plaza. Their government coverage is just abysmal.
The quality of journalism here has just gone down even in the past decade.
There are outlets like Spotlight doing some good stuff, but it’s not enough, sadly.
My Leg Hall spies said that no TNJ reporter set foot inside Legislative Hall even once this year, not for State of the State, not for June 30th. Make of that what you will, but it’s kind of hard to “cover” state government solely via livestream and press releases.
This is not accurate. Get new spies. On the day of the State of the State address there were two (2!) News Journal reporters in Leg Hall. Lol
Ok, so even if you’re right, that’s one day out of 45. Not exactly a great batting average.
Great. I agree. Just say that. Don’t make stuff up.
There was a lot of “look the other way”. BHL was a prime example of that. There was also Dr. Naveed Baqir who STILL remains on the Board of Education for Christina School District despite not living in the fucking country for all but a few days this year (and that was at the beginning of January last year). Despite the fact he NEVER lived at the address he used to originally run. Despite the fact that he is under investigation for theft of federal funds during the pandemic with the Tarbiyah food drive. Despite the fact he tried to get money for the Tarbiyah school while holding influential positions within the district. My hope is something cracks on all this in 2025 but I will hold my breath.
Good one. There’s always been too much ‘look the other way’ here.
It’s a Delaware Way staple.
So, why do newly elected NCC Council members start immediately the day following the general election, but Sussex Council newbies do not? Did this impact the wind power vote earlier this week?
Each jurisdiction has its own rules.
One reason I hold out hope for the wind farm proposal is that the three new Suxco councilmembers ran against rampant development in the county.
Two of them are still Republicans. I have my doubts.