DL Open Thread: Wednesday, May 13, 2026

Appo & Red Clay Voters Sweep Out School Board Incumbents.  Including the presidents of each board:

Three prominent school board members will not return to their seats for next school year.

Appoquinimink School Board President Richard Forsten, who has served on the Appo panel since 2011, finished last (362) in a six-way race that was won by Britney Mumford (2,123) and Elena Brenner (1,955).

Mark Heck (1,752), Forsten’s fellow incumbent Nichelle DeWitt (787), Sean Brian Connally (378) also competed for the two at-large seats.

Red Clay’s Vic Leonard, the founder of the Beast of the East Wrestling Tournament in his first term as board president, fell to newcomer Jenny  Howard 1,095-726.

Christina’s lone contested seat went to its incumbent, as Celita Cherry (357) defeated Charlene “AMINA” Sams (183).

Dawn Green (280) earned a seat on the Colonial School Board, defeating Rasheeda Campbell (138).

Especially happy to see Forsten soundly rejected by the voters as he is a ‘Vote For The Laundry’ Rethug.

A ‘Top’ Headline From Today’s News-Journal:

When does McDonald’s stop serving breakfast? List of all end times.

Perhaps it’s just me, but they might get more clicks if the article read:  When does McDonald’s stop serving breakfast? List of all End Times.  I mean, that’s something people might want to know–for planning purposes.

Did anybody else see Kash Patel’s performance at that Senate hearing yesterday?  Of all of Trump’s patently-unqualified appointed officials, he’s at the top of my list after what I saw.

BTW, did you know that his full first name is ‘Kashyap’?  Some would argue that KA$hApp would be more appropriate.

Republican Control Of The Senate More In Doubt Today Than Yesterday:

Cindy Burbank won the Democratic Senate primary in Nebraska, NBC News projects, potentially clearing the way for independent Dan Osborn to take on GOP Sen. Pete Ricketts head-to-head in the fall.

Burbank defeated pastor William Forbes for the Democratic nomination, while Ricketts easily won his Republican primary.

Democrats have not won a Senate race in Nebraska since 2006. But Osborn has been gearing up for a run against Ricketts after he ran a surprisingly competitive first campaign as an independent in 2024. Osborn, a steamfitter and former union organizer, lost to GOP Sen. Deb Fischer by 7 points as Donald Trump carried the state by 20 points.

Burbank said in a phone interview last week that she would consider ending her campaign and backing Osborn if she does not have a clear path to victory. But she denied that she entered the Democratic primary with the intent to drop out.

“I will drop out when and if the time comes that I cannot win in November. And I think anybody with any dignity should do that,” she said, saying that she would evaluate her prospects based on polling and that she aims to decide in time to remove her name from the November ballot.

I think a lot of farmers and ranchers in Nebraska are not favorably disposed towards Trump any more.  Osborn has a real shot.  Now, of course he could become the next Joe Manchin…

Trump Fires FDA Head Because…:

…”It came down to the fruit-flavored vape issue,” according to a federal health official familiar with management of the agency but who wasn’t authorized to speak publicly. There was pressure on Makary from the White House to authorize the sales of flavored e-cigarettes earlier this month. “He is at peace with the decision [to leave]. And he’s in good spirits, I would say,” the official said.

Fentanyl Crisis Lessened By–China?  Signs point to ‘yes’:

As Donald Trump travels to Beijing this week, fentanyl – and China’s role in its supply chain – remains an enduring point of acrimony in bilateral relations.

At a UN meeting in March, the US again accused China of failing to stop its chemical industry selling the precursors required to make the potent synthetic opioid, while China suggested the US was shifting the blame for its domestic drug problem.

Yet there are growing signs that the US fentanyl crisis has turned a corner – and some experts believe that interventions made in China have played a key role.

“There was a supply shock: the purity of fentanyl fell,” said Keith Humphreys, a professor at Stanford University. “The question is why was there a supply shock. And most indicators point to China.”

On returning to the White House, Trump made fentanyl a foreign policy priority and quickly designated the criminal groups trafficking it as foreign terrorist organisations while slapping tariffs on countries involved in its supply chain – including China, the main source of fentanyl precursors, many of which are basic chemicals with legitimate uses.

But by the summer of 2023 – during the Biden administration – overdose deaths at the national level had already begun to fall. By November 2025, they were down by more than a third.

Investigators are still trying to unpick the factors behind the fall, but one theory put forward by Humphreys and his co-authors in a recent study published by Science links it to interventions in China that may have caused a long-lasting disruption to the fentanyl supply chain.

The authors point to a dramatic fall in the purity of fentanyl being seized by US law enforcement from May 2023 to the end of 2024 – the latest data publicly available – which correlates with the fall in overdose deaths.

Trump’s China Entourage:

You won’t believe who’s included in President Donald Trump’s corrupt caravan of CEOs headed for China.

Trump traveled to China Tuesday for a two-day summit with President Xi Jinping, accompanied by more than a dozen American entrepreneurs—including his own son—each hoping the president will clear the way for them to make even more money.

As executive vice president of development for the Trump Organization, Eric Trump has helped to net lucrative real estate deals across Europe and the Middle East that directly benefit his father. Eric and Don Jr. recently merged their publicly traded golf course holding company with Powerus, a Florida-based drone company, with the goal of filling the gaps left by the Trump administration’s ban on Chinese drones. They also recently won a government contract of an unknown value.

The Trump Organization does not currently have any upcoming real estate projects in China, but during Trump’s last term, China and its state-owned entities paid a whopping $5.5 million at vacation properties owned by the president’s family—far more than any other country.

Other CEOs who are planning to travel with Trump include Tesla’s Elon Musk, Apple’s Tim Cook, BlackRock’s Larry Fink, and Boeing’s Kelly Ortberg, as well as officials from Meta, Visa, Mastercard, Citi, Goldman Sachs, Blackstone, GE Aerospace, Cargill, and Illumina. The group also included CEOs from major semiconductor manufacturers Qualcomm, Micron, and Coherent.

As a precondition of their selection, each company was tasked with developing a “tangible ask” that promised a concrete outcome, one source familiar with the matter told Reuters. For example, Musk is reportedly looking to acquire $2.9 billion of equipment to build solar panels and regulatory clearance for Tesla’s self-driving assistance system in China, the world’s largest auto market.

Also included in Trump’s caravan is director Brett Ratner, who directed Melania’s Trump’s vanity-project documentary that turned into a box office flop. Ratner will spend his trip scouting locations for Rush Hour 4, which was greenlit at Trump’s demand, according to the New York Post.

Just in case you were wondering who really runs America.

What do you want to talk about?