How Your Bond Bill $$’s Have Been Allocated:
While Delaware’s two largest cities will receive roughly $23 million from the state’s omnibus capital budget this year, smaller municipalities will receive no money at all.
And that funding disparity is not abnormal.
A Spotlight Delaware analysis found that lawmakers in recent years have poured hundreds of millions of tax dollars into construction and redevelopment projects in Wilmington and Dover through Delaware’s bond bill, often allocating much less for initiatives in the state’s smaller communities.
Much of the money doled out to Delaware’s largest cities flows through public entities and private nonprofits like Wilmington’s Riverfront Development Corporation and the Downtown Dover Partnership — organizations working to revitalize the downtown cores of the state’s largest and capital cities, respectively, through multi-year master plans.
But money in the bond bill – the state’s annual budget to fund construction and development projects through the issuance of long-term debt – can also be allocated directly to local governments, along with nonprofits or corporations.
Over the past five years, the General Assembly has appropriated roughly $45 million to the Riverfront Development Corporation and $21 million to the Downtown Dover Partnership, according to the Controller General’s office, which oversees legislative finances.
Those distributions often come with relatively few stipulations as to how the funds can be spent.
In this year’s bond bill, Wilmington’s Riverfront Development Corporation received $11.5 million, and the Downtown Dover Partnership received $5 million — amounts that are on par with allocations in recent years.
Megan McGlinchey, director of Wilmington’s Riverfront Development Corporation, gave a presentation to the Joint Capital Improvement Committee in April to explain her organization’s funding request.
When asked by Spotlight Delaware how the corporation will spend its $11.5 million, McGlinchey said the sum will fund renovations at the Chase Convention Center, a new park next to a luxury apartment complex, beginnings of a new mixed use development project on the east side of the Christina River and updates to the Blue Rocks baseball stadium, among a laundry list of other projects.
The city of Wilmington was separately allocated $7.1 million for the opaque purpose of “city of Wilmington initiatives.”
A spokesperson for Mayor John Carney’s office said this will translate to $1 million for improvements to city-owned golf courses, $3 million for improvements to parks such as Brown Burton Winchester Park and HB Dupont Plaza, and $2 million to acquire vacant properties through the city’s land bank.
The Queen, a well-known concert venue in downtown Wilmington owned by the Buccini Pollin Group, was also given $1 million for building renovations through a so-called “Cultural Access Fund.” The bond bill describes the fund as aimed at enhancing the “quality and availability of Delaware’s recreational and cultural offerings.”
Call it what it is: An annual Delaware Way divvying up of the spoils.
What’s Up (With) Trump’s Butt? Can’t merely be super-sized Pampers. Here’s some responsible (all things being relative) speculation:
Is it some kind of pump or remote control? One wag thinks it’s a device to control Ankle Foot Orthosis (AFO).
Another thinks it’s a “LVAD (Left Ventricular Assist Device). It’s a surgically implanted external device that helps pump blood. It’s a box that has to be worn at around belt level.”
Or it could be a “CADD, (brand of Ambulatory Infusion Pump) to continuously deliver diuretics, because he has end-stage heart failure and fluids are no longer being managed by his start-of-month IV treatment. See: slurry speech and bloating towards end of month.”
Perhaps a walking exo-skeleton device? Or merely a tray he smuggled out of the catering container?
I am reminded of this sage quote from former Republican congressman Adam Kinzinger:
Now, an old clip of former Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger is resurfacing, where he described Trump’s alleged body odor in some very specific terms.
During an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Kinzinger claimed Trump smells like a combination of “armpits, ketchup, makeup and ass.”
The man truly has some junk in his trunk. And G-d has a sense of humor. As do you. What’s your theory?
Trump Wants Warships Redesigned Because He Watched ‘Victory At Sea’ When He Was A Kid.
The U.S. Navy is potentially redesigning incoming aircraft vessels to better align with President Trump’s preferred aesthetic.
The maritime branch is considering the shift on Ford-class ships to match the president’s preference for the new aircraft carriers to resemble the World War II-era fleet, according to a report from The Washington Post on Saturday.
The changes — including moving the multistory aircraft carrier’s command center tower to the ship’s middle — would cost billions and worsen chronic delays, sources said.
Officials also told The Washington Post that changing the command center to the middle would remove three key benefits: additional parking spaces, reduced launch time and lowered chances of turbulence during landing.
The White House released a national security memorandum Thursday that outlined other changes — such as equipping Ford-class aircraft carriers, like the USS Doris Miller which is currently under construction, with steam-powered catapults to replace EMALS — to “fix critical long-term issues in Navy shipbuilding.”
General Atomics, a California-based firm that secured a $1.2 billion contract to build the EMALS for the USS Doris Miller, said the decision not to proceed with EMALS on that ship “warrants careful reconsideration.”
“With nearly 50 percent of production complete, changing course now would introduce significant cost, schedule and integration risks,” the company said Thursday.
Bryan Clark, a senior fellow and director of the Center for Defense Concepts and Technology at the Hudson Institute, added that steam catapults are no longer in production and the Navy bought the last set 20 years ago.
The ‘Victory At Sea’ reference is not idle snark:
In a speech to military leaders last September, Mr. Trump cited the 1950s documentary television series “Victory at Sea,” which touted the role that battleships and other Navy vessels played in World War II.
“I think we should maybe start thinking about battleships,” the president said. “I used to watch ‘Victory at Sea.’ I love ‘Victory at Sea.’”
But battleships played a diminished role during battles in the Pacific during World War II as newer aircraft carriers proved more versatile and effective in fighting the Japanese at sea.
Since then, the Navy has sought to build smaller but far more capable warships that can carry out different kinds of missions.
For completists, the stirring theme music for ‘Victory At Sea’ was written by famed Broadway tunesmith Richard Rodgers.
Trump Remains, However, ‘Totally-Sane’, South Korea Edition:
Based on my very good relationship with Kim Jong Un, of North Korea, I am not happy with the fact that the United States has, long ago, agreed to participate in Joint Military Exercises with South Korea. These exercises are not only costly, with much of these costs paid for by the United States of America (as usual!), but send a signal that is totally inappropriate and hostile, to a Country that, as long as Donald J. Trump has been President, has been unthreatening and respectful. Therefore, and based on the fact that it is too late to cancel, I have instructed Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, to substantially reduce the Joint Military Exercises! While somewhat unrelated (?), I recently asked the President of South Korea if they would like to join us in the Denuclearization of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and they said, “No thanks!” Thank you for your attention to this matter. President DONALD J. TRUMP
Trump Remains, However, ‘Totally-Sane’, Oman Edition:
The US president delivered the threat of Monday as he struggles to draw the conflict to a conclusion, almost six months after it was launched.
While Trump has repeatedly claimed the war would end “soon”, and talked up the prospect of a lasting peace deal in recent months, such a breakthrough has yet to materialize.
The strait of Hormuz – a crucial chokepoint for global trade, through which about a fifth of the world’s seaborne oil supplies typically pass – has been all but closed since the US and Israel launched their war on Iran in February.
Iran is to the north of the strait. Oman is to the south. The two countries have been in talks over control of the strait.
“If Oman gets in the way, we’ll bomb the shit out of them,” Trump told Fox News on Monday. In a casual aside at a cabinet meeting in May, the president also threatened to “blow up” the country if it failed to “behave”.
It comes after Trump also threatened to declare the strait of Hormuz as “a territory of the United States” during a speech on Friday.
Perhaps it’s just me, but Trump seems to be tossing in a lot of ‘shit’ references lately. Is there something behind it–or him?
What do you want to talk about?
