Marydel Fire Company–Exception, Or The Rule?:
A state audit investigating fraud within the volunteer fire company of a small, unincorporated town along the Delaware-Maryland border revealed tens of thousands of dollars of unaccounted spending. It also raised concerns among elected officials about lacking oversight for fire companies across the state.
In a report detailing the investigation, which looked into the Marydel Volunteer Fire Company’s spending between fiscal years 2021 and 2023, State Auditor Lydia York recommended a number of new regulatory and oversight measures be implemented by both the Marydel VFC and the State Fire Commission, which supervises the state’s roughly 60 volunteer fire companies.
In her report, York outlined the lack of clear oversight for volunteer companies across Delaware, a gap that leaves the more than $60 million they receive annually from the state largely unchecked, she said.
“Volunteer fire service is noble, and it has a rich cultural history,” York told Spotlight Delaware. “But the number of dollars that are involved now have gotten to the point where we really need to ask more questions about what they’re doing.”
All fire companies in the state are volunteer-run except for the Wilmington Fire Department, which has paid staff. The volunteer companies are funded through a mix of state grant-in-aid money and some other state funding sources, like a tax from the Department of Insurance, and county funding.
The state invested roughly $67 million, or an average of $1 million per company, into the volunteer fire companies last year, York said.
Lydia York is one elected official who deserves the monicker ‘public servant’.
Does Delaware Really Need Yet Another Expansion By Christiana Care? This time in Kent County:
ChristianaCare, Delaware’s largest hospital system, announced on Thursday it plans to build a $58.1 million health campus in Kent County, continuing its push into contested southern market areas. The hospital’s announcement also comes two months after it said it would build a campus in Georgetown.
The new 38,000‑square‑foot campus would open in Camden about a mile from the Walmart on U.S. Route 13. The healthcare giant also said in a statement the new campus would offer both emergency and inpatient beds, as well as primary care and outpatient services.
It hopes to open the facility by late 2028 or early 2029.
“We are investing in facilities that bring care closer to where people live,” outgoing ChristianaCare CEO Dr. Janice Nevin said in the statement. “This campus reflects our commitment to ensuring every Delawarean, no matter their ZIP code, can count on timely, compassionate, high-quality care close to home.”
ChristianaCare also said the new facility would bring 83 new jobs. As it has done with other recently announced ventures, ChristianaCare positioned its expansion as a means of supporting Delaware’s growing and aging population.
Two of southern Delaware’s largest health systems Beebe and TidalHealth did not respond to an immediate request for comment about ChristianaCare’s growing expansion into southern Delaware.
Kent County’s primary hospital system, Bayhealth, said in a statement it “remains focused” on providing care to its patients. But the hospital also said care should not be “fragmented.”
“We recognize that patients across Delaware are looking for faster access to care,” a spokesperson for the hospital said in an email. “Equally important is making sure that care is not fragmented and delivered in the right setting so patients receive what they need without unnecessary cost or complexity.”
This reminds me–remember SB 1? When, if ever, will this bill promoting ‘value-based’ health care get a floor vote in the Senate? I checked–won’t be Tuesday.
This Smell A Little Skeevy To You? Anything with Bud Freel’s name on it smells skeevy to me:
In 2024, Wilmington and state officials launched a long-term plan to turn Elbert-Palmer, a former-elementary school in the city’s Southbridge neighborhood, into affordable housing.
Two years later, city officials say they remain committed to the plan, but as they move forward with finding a contractor to build 30 townhomes, it remains to be seen what the final sale prices will be.
In an interview with Spotlight Delaware, Bud Freel, director of the Wilmington Land Bank, which is leading the project, estimated the cost to build each of the 30 houses at more than $300,000.
Freel said government dollars will allow the Land Bank – which is charged with redeveloping properties in the city – to sell the houses for less than the development cost. But the final listing price will depend on several factors, including the number of subsidies that officials are ultimately able to secure, and whether the city can reduce construction costs through its forthcoming building contract.
“As we sit here today, I cannot give you a number on what we’re going to be able to list these houses for,” Freel said.
There is also no set definition of “affordable” housing, he said, noting that multiple factors could be used for consideration, including the area’s income, the amount of down payment a buyer can put down, and the local housing market.
“There’s a number of things you look at, but there’s no set formula,” Freel said.
Oh.
BTW, three articles, all from Spotlight Delaware. Just thought I’d mention that.
Liberals AND Conservatives Hate Data Centers:
Early evidence suggests that Americans — once agnostic — are now souring on them. Last month, Maine became the first state to pass a moratorium on data centers — only to have the governor, a Democrat, to veto it — and similar measures have been introduced in at least 13 other states and dozens of municipalities.
In Virginia, a recent poll found the public had turned sharply against data centers. The same is true in Wisconsin, said Charles Franklin, director of the Marquette University Law School Poll, which found that around 70 percent of people now say the costs outweigh the benefits.
Even more interesting, he said, the state’s deep partisan divide seems to have vanished when it comes to data centers.
“There was stunningly little difference for our normally extremely polarized state,” Mr. Franklin said.
Or, as Charlie Berens, a Milwaukee-based comedian, put it recently at a meeting in Juneau, Wis., about a data center: “This is the most bipartisan issue since beer.”
That matches what is happening in Michigan, where citizens of all political stripes are filling once empty town meetings to voice their opposition. Republicans are strategizing with Democrats on Signal chats and Facebook pages. People are becoming experts at extracting government documents, gathering signatures and fund-raising to pay for lawyers. They are even writing songs for the cause.
Here’s one factoid to keep in mind:
“Just a reminder,” said a man in a black puffer vest, who identified himself as Larry. “An N.F.L. football field is 57,600 square feet. A 1.8-million-square-foot hyperscale data center is about 32 football fields.”
Surgeon General Choice, Part Troix (or is it trois?):
President Donald Trump has nominated yet another Fox News pundit for a major position in his administration.
He announced Thursday that he’s chosen Nicole Saphier as his pick to be surgeon general. Saphier distinguished herself at Fox as one of the biggest medical misinformers on COVID-19 and a shameless shill for Trump.
Saphier got the nod after Trump’s previous nominee, influencer Casey Means—who lacks a medical license—saw her nomination jammed up in the Senate.
“Nicole is a STAR physician who has spent her career guiding women facing breast cancer through their diagnosis and treatment while tirelessly advocating to increase early cancer detection and prevention, while at the same time working with men and women on all other forms of cancer diagnoses and treatments,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
If her nomination is successful, Saphier will join the ever-growing ranks of Fox characters who litter this administration—including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, and U.S. Attorney for Washington, D.C., Jeanine Pirro.
According to Media Matters for America, Saphier has made at least 640 appearances on Fox over the years. The right-wing propaganda network is obsessively watched by Trump and wields enormous influence over his actions.
Saphier’s primarily focuses on medical issues. Her stance, as expressed in her book “Make America Healthy Again,” is that people experience medical issues because of “lifestyle” choices.
“If Americans want to know why their health care is so costly and getting costlier, they need only look in the mirror,” she posits in the blurb for her book.
In this worldview, poor policy decisions, corporate greed, and other external factors play no role in ailments like cancer or heart disease. It remains to be seen how something like childhood cancer could stem from one’s “lifestyle.”
That sounds familiar. When I worked in Dover, the Republicans who were DuPont Company shills claimed that certain cancer clusters in the state were also due to ‘lifestyle choices’–smoking cigarettes, eating too many subs (I’m not making that up)–and not due to carcinogens emanating from DuPont plants and subsidiaries.
When Is 60 Days Not 60 Days? When Pete Hegseth says so?:
The Trump administration is arguing that the war in Iran has already ended because of the ceasefire that began in early April, an interpretation that would allow the White House to avoid the need to seek congressional approval.
The statement furthers an argument laid out by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth during testimony in the Senate earlier Thursday, when he said the ceasefire effectively paused the war. Under that rationale, the administration has not yet met the requirement mandated by a 1973 law to seek formal approval from Congress for military action that extends beyond 60 days.
A senior administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the administration’s position, said for purposes of that law, “the hostilities that began on Saturday, Feb. 28 have terminated.” The official said the U.S. military and Iran have not exchanged fire since the two-week ceasefire that began April 7.
While the ceasefire has since been extended, Iran maintains its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz, and the U.S. Navy is maintaining a blockade to prevent Iran’s oil tankers from getting out to sea.
Under the War Powers Resolution, the law that sought to constrain a president’s military powers, President Donald Trump had until Friday to seek congressional authorization or cease fighting. The law also allows an administration to extend that deadline by 30 days.
Ho-kay.
What do you want to talk about?