DL Open Thread: Friday, January 31, 2025
The Truth (Partially) Revealed–BHL Tried To Pack Port Board With Her Political Supporters. Take it from one horse’s ass’ mouth:
The spat between the legislative and executive branches came to a boil Thursday with Meyer demanding senators withdraw Hall-Long’s nominations – made one day before the governor’s inauguration – while threatening to go to the courts to determine whether the state Senate has the authority to accept her Port Board nominees.
Those nominees included former Secretary of State Jeffrey Bullock, former chair of the Board of Pilot Commissioners Robert Medd, and three prominent labor leaders: James Ascione, William Ashe and Curtis Linton.
The nominations by Hall-Long were widely perceived as a political repudiation of Meyer, who defeated Hall-Long to become the Democrats’ candidate for governor following a bitter primary election campaign.
Ashe, who has worked for the Port through the local International Longshoreman’s Association 1694 for nearly 50 years, said during the Senate committee hearing that it is critical to hold the confirmations because port improvements need to be made.
“If we don’t do things to move forward, we’re going to be left behind again,” the nominee said.
Linton, who is a business manager for Laborers’ International Union Local 199 and also a Hall-Long nominee, expressed frustration over Meyer’s stance on the appointments after the Senate committee hearing.
“He took it as if we went behind his back,” Linton said. “He’s had an issue with me since the primary. I backed another candidate. I’ve tried to work with him for the greater good of labor in Delaware, but I don’t think he’s gotten over the primary issue.”
Neither has Linton. He lost, he should just STFU and go home. Elections have consequences.
This whole sordid Delaware Way episode stinks. BHL lost. With the help of some in the Senate, she tried to pack this board. Can we now just let Meyer make his choices and proceed as if nothing had happened?
When asked for comment, Meyer’s Deputy Chief of Staff Nick Merlino said: “Today, President Pro Temp Sokola and Majority Leader Townsend decided to spend their morning name-calling Governor Meyer and attempting to change the subject instead of addressing the lack of transparency and self-dealing that is currently going on. Here are the facts: The terms of the majority of the seats in question on the Diamond State Port Board have expired since 2022. There has been no urgency to fill them until this moment. The timing of the proceedings and process intentionally denies Delawareans their legal right to control the port. Governor Meyer is committed to ensuring that when 100’s of millions of taxpayer dollars are on the line, a transparent process is in place, and every penny is accounted for. In these incredibly chaotic times, with President Trump threatening to cut federal funding nationwide, we must be extremely diligent with our dollars.”
Two thoughts: These seats could have been filled any time from 2022 to the present. Only BHL saw the urgency in filling them immediately before Meyer took office? I don’t THINK so.
Second thought: Nick Merlino is hardly the emissary Meyer should be using here. He’s a politico, and his one trick appears to be ‘putting out the fire with gasoline’.
The Senate and the Governor need a reset. Badly. One hopes it will happen during the six-week JFC break.
Air Traffic Tower Was Working Two People Short:
According to the report, described to The Washington Post, two people were handling the jobs of four among other colleagues inside National’s control tower at the time of the collision. The control tower staffing levels, the report concludes, were “not normal” for the time of day or the amount of air traffic over D.C., where an average of more than 100 helicopters a day zip around and underneath arriving and departing airline flights.
The day before, another plane had to abort a landing at National to avoid a crash with a helicopter.
Why, you may ask, are there so many helicopter flights in and around Reagan National? Here’s why:
According to a 2023 report to Congress, 50 entities operated roughly 88,000 helicopter flights within 30 miles of the airport between 2017 and 2019, based on FAA data. The largest percentage were tied to the military, but others included flights by medical operations, state and local law enforcement, and federal agencies. Some experts in aircraft safety raised questions about procedures and helicopter flight patterns.
The special helicopter routes are designed to give the military access to various military bases along the Potomac River, said Michael McCormick, an associate professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University who specializes in air traffic control. According to a person familiar with operations at the airport, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation, conflicts between helicopters and jets often occur but are resolved with the helicopter swerving away or by the airliner circling and attempting a new landing approach.
Paramount/CBS To Pay Ransom To Trump? Media capitulation a feature of our newly-established oligarchy:
When Donald J. Trump sued CBS for $10 billion days before the 2024 election, accusing the company of deceptively editing a “60 Minutes” interview with Vice President Kamala Harris, many legal experts dismissed the litigation as a far-fetched attempt to punish an out-of-favor news outlet.
Now Mr. Trump is back in the White House, and many executives at CBS’s parent company, Paramount, believe that settling the lawsuit would increase the odds that the Trump administration does not block or delay their planned multibillion-dollar merger with another company, according to several people with knowledge of the matter.
Settlement discussions between representatives of Paramount and Mr. Trump are now underway, according to three people with knowledge of the talks. There is no assurance, though, that they will result in a deal, and it is unclear what the terms of any such deal might include.
Shari Redstone, Paramount’s controlling shareholder, strongly supports the effort to settle, according to two people with knowledge of her thinking. Ms. Redstone stands to clear billions of dollars on the sale of Paramount, the media empire founded by her father Sumner Redstone, in a deal with Skydance, an entertainment company backed by the billionaire Larry Ellison and run by his son David.
Proving you can put a sale price on a free press.
Trump To Deport Wisconsin’s Dairy Industry?
Box by box, the Nicaraguans who milk the cows and clean the pens on Wisconsin’s dairy farms, who wash dishes at its restaurants and fill lines on its factory floors, are sending home their most prized possessions, bracing for the impact of President Donald Trump’s mass deportations.
In the contents of the boxes is a portrait of a community under pressure. The Nicaraguans are as consumed as everyone else by the unfolding of Trump 2.0, wondering whether the bluster about deporting millions of people, most of whom live quiet lives far from the southern border, is going to mean anything in the Wisconsin towns where they’ve settled. For now, many are staying in their homes, behind drawn curtains, trying to be as inconspicuous as possible as they travel to and from work or pick up their kids from school. Few have given up on their lives in America, but they’re realistic about what may be coming. Methodically, they have begun packing their most cherished belongings into boxes and barrels and shipping them to relatives back in Nicaragua, ahead of their own anticipated deportations.
“We don’t have much, but what we do have is important,” said Joaquín, the man with the love of western boots and sombreros. He’s 35 years old and has worked over the last three years as a cook at the restaurant below his apartment. “We have worked so hard and sacrificed so much in order to acquire these things,” he added.
What do you want to talk about?
The building trades were name calling Meyer and other candidates they didn’t support for months. Their social media feed under the direction of Maravelis was a complete and utter disgrace. There are screen shots, we remember. I don’t feel bad for these bullies at all. They should be cut out totally from any influence in Dover.
There is a glimmer of hope in SD1, I shall be casting my vote for Riley. Listen to her here:
https://www.patreon.com/posts/e331-new-bunker-121137845?utm_campaign=patron_engagement&utm_source=post_link&post_id=121137845&utm_id=d65b31c7-dc68-48ca-bf41-22542137113f&utm_medium=email
Hope comes in 2026.
Agree with the sentiment, though. I’ll be writing in Shay Frisby’s name in the SD 5 race. Especially since Ray Seigfried would be nothing but a rubber stamp for whatever BHL wants him to do.