Yet Another Lawsuit Against Port Project. Don’t know if this one has legs:
The Edgemoor Port expansion, a project backed by hundreds of millions of dollars in funding, faces another legal challenge – this time targeting the Diamond State Port Corporation and its private partner Enstructure.
The most recent suit, filed July 27, is brought by five Delaware taxpayers, who take issue with the port’s management over the last eight years. It claims that DSPC did not ask the general assembly for approval or update it with developments required under Delaware law. Darrell Baker filed the suit on behalf of the group. Baker is a lobbyist for the Philadelphia port operator, Holt. Holt does not appear to have a connection to this case.
I think the suit doesn’t have legs–or, a leg to stand on:
Instead of following this process, the claim alleges that DSPC “illegally” avoided those steps with language “hastily” added in the state’s fiscal year 2023 bond bill. The language overrode the DSPC process to enter or revise an agreement. Instead it required approval from the bond committee co-chairs, the Controller General, Senate President Pro Tem, and the Speaker of the House’s assent, rather than the full general assembly.
Perhaps I’m missing something, but the General Assembly’s passage of the Bond Bill seems likely to meet the legal standard for legislative approval. I’m no attorney, but this one seems like a nuisance lawsuit.
Friday News Dump: DOJ Dumps Phony Charges Against ‘Pool Vandal’:
Federal prosecutors on Friday said that contractors hired by the Trump administration had botched the renovation of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, leaving behind “widespread damage” in the pool’s new blue lining, and that the Interior Department had then falsely blamed that damage on vandals.
In an extraordinary motion filed Friday evening, the U.S. attorney in Washington, Jeanine Pirro, said she was seeking to dismiss a felony charge against David Hearn, a former Olympic canoeist who was accused of pulling up a piece of the pool’s lining two feet square.
In doing so, Ms. Pirro — a longtime ally of President Trump’s — directly contradicted the president’s repeated claim that the Reflecting Pool’s peeling liner was caused by people slashing its coating with knives. Instead, she said, “the damage was the result of a botched installation and not vandalism.”
Earlier this month, Ms. Pirro herself had echoed the president’s claims, calling a news conference to announce Mr. Hearn’s indictment on July 2. She said that she had “tremendous evidence” that Mr. Hearn had committed a felony, and noted that he faced up to 10 years in prison.
We now have ‘tremendous evidence’ that this was a phony Trumped-up prosecution. Will Pirro be sanctioned by the courts? Will David Hearn file suit? He should.
Think you’ll enjoy this interview with Maggie Haberman about Trump’s second term. A key takeaway–Trump is now more concerned about putting his name on various buildings and projects than on doing anything legislative. Plus, Trump’s obsession with Iran goes back a long way.
He Apparently Wants To Hurt As Many People As Possible As Part Of His Legacy:
The Trump administration is preparing a major rollback of federal requirements for Head Start, a change that supporters of the child care program fear could gut its longstanding antipoverty mission.
The proposed changes would remove most of Head Start’s 133 pages of requirements for math and literacy curriculums, class sizes, medical screenings, home visits and even a requirement that children brush their teeth after meals, according to three people with knowledge of the plan who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal deliberations.
Administration officials say the changes will streamline a heavily regulated program while giving states and cities more control over how it is run.
But Head Start advocates say that erasing regulations serves as a backdoor way to dismantle a program the administration does not like. The White House last year called Head Start “radical” and tried but failed to freeze spending on it.
Medicare’s Part D Premium Stabilization Demonstration, which helped lower prescription drug costs for millions of Americans, will end after this year. Created to cushion the impact of the Inflation Reduction Act’s new out-of-pocket drug spending cap, the program reduced average premiums for stand-alone plans. The Trump administration’s CMS is ending it for 2027, arguing insurers are now equipped to price plans without the $9.8 billion federal subsidy. While CMS predicts minimal premium increases, analysts warn beneficiaries in stand-alone Part D plans, especially traditional Medicare enrollees, could face significant cost hikes. Beneficiaries should review plan changes carefully during open enrollment starting Oct. 15, though the out-of-pocket cap and insulin price limits remain.
The CMS administrator, Mehmet Oz, framed the decision bluntly on social media, writing that the previous administration “gave BILLIONS of taxpayer money DIRECTLY to Big Insurance Companies.” Oz called the program a bailout that is no longer needed. A CMS official told The Wall Street Journal that the subsidies gave insurers an incentive to raise their rates, knowing the federal government would absorb the difference.
Independent analysts are less certain. Juliette Cubanski, Ph.D., who directs the Medicare policy program at the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health policy research organization, notes that the average stand-alone drug plan premium in 2026 is about $36 a month. So losing a $16 subsidy against a $36 premium is a large proportional change. She also cautions that nobody, including CMS, knows the plan-by-plan numbers yet.
Shower Cap’s Weekly Screed. I love me some Shower Cap:
“US government map of Africa mislabels every country at global conference”
Damn near any given map of Africa, in its natural state, is probably gonna label the countries right, y’know? It’s such a big part of why we make maps in the first place. Think about how far out of your way you have to go to create an inaccurate map.
This is the State Department, by the way. If your dentist has a mislabeled map of Africa on his wall, that’s weird and concerning, but at least it’s theoretically still possible he knows not to stick the drill up your nose.
Turns out entrusting foreign policy to drooling fuckwits who cannot successfully assemble Power Point slideshows is a good way to wind up bombing schoolyards en route to quagmires. Since we’ve already arrived at the point in the War-ish Iranscursion when the Pentagon is hiding causalities (I think I prefer causalities to casualties, even if it’s a typo) from the public while admitting, however accidentally, that winning is “not an option,” I think it’s fair to conclude that yet again, stupidity brought losing and death.
Gianni Infantino Is No Trump. Fans of futbol can breathe sighs of relief:
NYON, Switzerland (AP) — UEFA says it has lost confidence in FIFA President Gianni Infantino and that “no option should be off the table” as it will pursue a full review of his now abandoned plan to sell stakes of the World Cup to private equity investors.
Infantino was forced to scrap the plan early Saturday after his senior adviser who sat on a White House panel resigned and Asia’s soccer body joined Europe and North America in opposing it.
Infantino had proposed creating a $20 billion company to run the World Cup with private investors, but drew backlash that grew every day since Tuesday’s announcement.
“We must identify those responsible and hold them to account,” UEFA said on Saturday. “No option should be off the table. The current FIFA leadership has not only lost UEFA’s confidence but also that of many other members of the football family.”
The governing body of European soccer, headed by Aleksander Čeferin, issued its blistering statement hours after FIFA announced it was withdrawing its private equity plan.
“We cannot keep going on like this with secret schemes on fast-track timescales, cooked up by faceless individuals and of dubious benefit to the game,” UEFA said.
Remind you of anyone?
Why Elections Matter–Virginia Version:
Gov. Abigail Spanberger has restored voting and other civil rights to more than 60,000 Virginians since taking office in January, reversing the more restrictive restoration process adopted by her predecessor and reopening voting access for thousands of people with past felony convictions, her administration said Friday.
The 66,085 Virginians whose rights have been restored may now vote, serve on juries, run for public office and become notaries public. The announcement comes about seven weeks before early voting begins for the 2026 midterm elections, which include a constitutional referendum that could largely remove Virginia governors from the restoration process.
Virginia is one of just three states whose constitutions permanently disenfranchise people convicted of felonies unless the governor restores their rights. The state constitution gives governors broad discretion over both eligibility and the restoration process.
The referendum set to go before voters Nov. 3 would amend the state Constitution to automatically restore voting rights to people convicted of felonies once they are released from incarceration, largely removing governors from the restoration process.
The amendment cleared the General Assembly in two consecutive sessions, separated by the 2025 legislative election as required for constitutional changes. Lawmakers approved it for a second time during the 2026 legislative session, and Spanberger signed legislation in February, placing it and other proposed amendments on the November ballot.
Q: Why Are Dems Downplaying Climate Change?:
Research makes clear that global warming is making extreme weather events more frequent and severe. Yet the climate crisis has largely disappeared from the political agenda, with many Democrats who once described it as an existential threat now shying away from talking about it.
Now US activists are pushing back against this trend of “climate hushing”, arguing it is misguided. During the summer’s federal recess, during which lawmakers leave the nation’s capital to work directly within their home states or districts, demonstrators organized by the environmental advocacy coalition Climate Action Campaign are calling on representatives to put climate back on the political agenda.
“The long history of the climate movement proves that we move fastest when there’s real pressure from the grassroots,” said Bill McKibben, the environmental author and activist who co-founded climate non-profit 350.org, “All the evidence shows those grassroots are as worried about [the] climate crisis as they ever were.”
The activists’ campaign comes as new polling challenges the need for “climate hushing”, a trend that took off as some policy wonks argued that talking about global warming could alienate voters and distract from the message of affordability. July research from the University of California, Santa Barbara found that emphasizing climate change was neutral to beneficial for Democratic candidates, suggesting that talking more about the issue does not alienate voters and can even increase support in competitive races.
Though the Trump administration frequently derides climate policy as a “scam” and a “hoax”, polling indicates most Americans are not onboard with that view. Another July poll from Data for Progress found that 61% of likely voters believe extreme weather has become more frequent over the past five years, including nearly half of Republicans. And one month earlier, a Yale survey found that roughly two-thirds of Americans are worried about global warming.
“Smart politicians will grab on this issue,” said McKibben. “There’s perhaps no other question where the gulf between Maga and the general public is higher.”
A: Because they suck.
What do you want to talk about?
The prescription drug move is an attempt to push people toward Medicare (Dis)Advantage.