Redding Consortium Proposes Merging Four NCC School Districts Into One Mega-District:
The state task force charged with drawing plans to redistrict Wilmington schools recommended combining Delaware’s four northernmost school districts – representing a seismic shift in public education in Delaware that could have far-reaching effects, if ultimately approved.
The affected districts would include the Brandywine, Christina, Colonial and Red Clay Consolidated school districts.
The Redding Consortium for Educational Equity, a 6-year-old group formed unanimously by statehouse legislators to seek solutions to decades-long educational inequality for Wilmington students, had three options on the table ahead of Tuesday night’s highly watched vote.
It ultimately chose the most radical option, which would create a school district with more than 45,000 students.
The final vote of Redding members was 19-2, with Brandywine Superintendent Lisa Lawson and Christina Superintendent Deirdra Joyner in opposition. Red Clay Superintendent Dorrell Green and Colonial Superintendent Jeffrey Menzer voted for the plan, but did express support for a less drastic model too.
The recommendation will now move to the Delaware State Board of Education – a group that rarely sparks public controversy – and finally the Delaware General Assembly and Gov. Matt Meyer, who was in attendance at Tuesday’s meeting and supported the plan known as the Northern New Castle County Consolidated School District.
Whether state legislators would be willing to approve such a radical shake-up of Wilmington’s school districts – especially in an election year – is unclear.
Redding Consortium co-chair State Sen. Elizabeth “Tizzy” Lockman (D-Wilmington) said she and the Consortium would not have passed the vote if they did not think it would pass through the General Assembly.
“I would have had a harder time if I truly believed that we did not have the capacity to seriously consider and pass such a plan,” she said.
How Did Jeffrey Epstein Get His Money? He was a scam artist from the very beginning, and was enabled by people who now regret enabling him:
Epstein was about to lose his teaching job at Manhattan’s prestigious Dalton School when he was invited by a student’s parent to an event at an art gallery, according to a document prepared by his lawyers and a recording of Epstein that we obtained. At the gallery, he met another Dalton parent, who connected him to Ace Greenberg, the future chief executive of Bear Stearns. This earliest part of Epstein’s rise has not previously been reported.
Greenberg took him under his wing and even seated Epstein next to his 20-year-old daughter at a dinner party, in what the daughter told us was probably a setup. Soon, Epstein was caught committing a series of flagrant offenses — falsely claiming he had graduated from college, abusing his expense account and giving a girlfriend privileged access to investment deals — which we are reporting in full for the first time. Yet the firm repeatedly gave him second chances.
Articles like this are why I keep my NYTimes subscription.
Mike Johnson: No Health Care Insurance For You! Rethugs in his caucus panic:
An infuriated Rep. Mike Lawler left a closed-door House Republican meeting Tuesday and sounded off on GOP leaders who are planning to allow key Obamacare subsidies to expire in two weeks.
“This is absolute bullshit,” the New York Republican said.
Lawler’s outburst came after Speaker Mike Johnson told his members in the closed-door meeting that he’s moving forward with a Wednesday vote on a GOP health care bill that would not extend the expiring Obamacare subsidies, according to four people in the room who were granted anonymity to describe the closed-door comments.
Lawler stood up in the meeting, two of the people said, to call Republican leaders’ decision to allow the expiration “a mistake.”
Johnson pushed back on the criticism from Lawler and allies such as Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) at a Tuesday news conference.
“Fitzpatrick and Lawler and the others are fighting tooth-an-nail for their constituents — I understand that as well as anyone, because I’m the one in their districts campaigning with them,” Johnson told reporters, adding that “the solution that is being sought by Democrats would further harm the system.”
‘Further harm the system’. What Johnson proposes, of course, won’t. Obamacare is exceedingly more popular than what people face come the New Year. This is cruelty, pure and simple. It’s also electoral suicide.
The unemployment rate rose to 4.6%, the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced on Tuesday, the highest level since September 2021 when the economy was still recovering from massive COVID-19 job losses.
“The US economy is in a hiring recession,” Heather Long, chief economist at the Navy Federal Credit Union, wrote in a post on X. “Almost no jobs have been added since April. Wage gains are slowing. 710,000 more people are unemployed now versus November 2024.”
Long blamed the hiring recession on “a combination of tariff impacts, AI, and cost cutting.Americans are feeling it.”
Even worse is that the BLS said nearly 1 million people are underemployed, working part-time jobs for economic reasons because they cannot find full-time work.
Layoffs have picked up in recent months, as companies contract due in part to Trump’s tariffs and the economic uncertainty they’ve unleashed. And prices are continuing to trend up, no matter how much Trump wants to claim that he’s brought costs down.
No More Confirmations For You–About damn time:
Senators Jeff Merkley of Oregon and Ben Ray Luján of New Mexico, who both sponsored the Epstein Files Transparency Act, said in a statement on Tuesday that “there can be no business as usual until justice is delivered for the victims of Jeffrey Epstein’s horrific crimes”.
Earlier this month, a group of lawmakers from both parties, including Luján and Merkley, called on Pam Bondi, the attorney general, to provide a briefing and status update on the department’s efforts to comply with the act , which requires it to release files related to disgraced financier by 19 December.
Guess What Else Is Being Withheld. Betcha you can:
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Tuesday that the Pentagon will not release the full, unedited video of the U.S. military’s September strike on an alleged drug boat, which killed 11 “narco-terrorists,” including two survivors in a follow-up strike.
“In keeping with long-standing Department of War policy … Department of Defense policy (I like that), of course, we’re not going to release a top secret full unedited video of that to the general public,” Hegseth told reporters after briefing senators on the U.S. military’s ongoing, lethal strikes against alleged drug-smuggling vessels in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific.
Senators were not shown the video during the Tuesday closed-door briefing.
Even Chris Coons made a modicum of sense here:
“It is hard to square the widespread routine prompt posting of detailed videos of every strike with a concern that posting a portion of the video of the first strike would violate a variety of classification concerns,” Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), who attended the briefing, told reporters on Capitol Hill.
Ay-yup.
No State Contracts For Avelo? Yes, please:
Delaware lawmakers announced Tuesday legislation aimed at discouraging state airport contracts with companies that work with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Sen. Ray Seigfried and Rep. Mara Gorman said the bills respond to recent contracts between Avelo Airlines, which operates out of Wilmington Airport, and ICE for charter flights transporting detainees.
“Week after week, headlines from across our country show families being torn apart and individuals denied due process before deportation,” Seigfried said. “Withholding the fuel tax exemption from companies involved in these deportations is one way we can hold them accountable.”
The legislation includes two measures: Senate Concurrent Resolution 123, which urges the Delaware River and Bay Authority (DRBA) to avoid agreements with businesses contracting with ICE, and Senate Bill 207, which would:
Prohibit the state Department of Transportation from contracting with airlines that transport ICE detainees without a valid judicial warrant or due process.
Remove the aviation jet fuel tax exemption for airlines that violate these standards.
“Delaware is a state where we support our neighbors, and real neighbors don’t look the other way when people’s rights are ignored,” Gorman said. “Our public dollars should reflect our values, and this legislation ensures they do.”
What do you want to talk about?