The Official Walter White Obituary

There's spoilers if you haven't seen the last episode yet. This is the creation of high school science teacher David Layman and members of the “Unofficial Breaking Bad Fan Tour” Facebook group who paid for it to appear in the ABQ Journal. Not sure this helps with closure for me, but hey.
In Which We Find Delmarva Power Using Ratepayers For Capital Financing

In Which We Find Delmarva Power Using Ratepayers For Capital Financing

Or, Delmarva wants its ratepayers to take on more of the risk of capital project construction while they retain the profits from the use of that project.  Via the NJ, they are touting this as an innovative rate approach -- one that will allow customers some stability in their bills for a few years:
Under Delmarva’s new plan, the utility and the PSC would agree upon Delmarva’s spending ahead of time, planning four years into the future. Delmarva officials call the plan innovative, saying they are unaware of any other arrangement like this at comparable electric utilities around the country. Delmarva officials say the plan would give regulators more input into the utility’s spending before it happens. “I think it’s a better process when you all work together on a plan,” said Glenn Moore, Delmarva’s regional vice president. The plan would reduce what the utility calls “regulatory lag” – the time between when Delmarva spends money, and when the PSC approves Delmarva getting the money back from customers, along with a profit margin.
So. Delmarva charges you more and puts the excess in the bank to fund some future capital spending project.
Foxtail Highlights Wilmington’s Ethics Problem

Foxtail Highlights Wilmington’s Ethics Problem

Monday night's marathon hearing of the City Council Joint Committees turned out to be the longest Council Meeting ever. You'll recall that this meeting was convened to probe how it happened that the City paid for WPD, WFD and Public Works resources used at the Foxtail Festival. I was there until about 10PM, so missed some of the later testimony. It was demoralizing sitting through this -- between the deflection attempts by Velda Jones-Potter, the disregard of the City's Ethics policy by pretty much everyone including members of City Council and the clear lack of command and control within the Administration. The meeting room was standing room only and many of them came sporting safety orange shirts. Not sure what the shirts were meant to do -- for a minute it looked like I had stumbled into a convention of the traffic safety folks that wave you through traffic at construction zones.

Welcome to the GOP Government Shutdown

As of today, the great government of the United States is shut down, but guess what? You can buy health insurance on the exchanges today, because it is the law today. This bit of stupidity is courtesy of the teajhadis in the House. The NYDN gives this just the right cover today:

Friday Open Thread

Are you watching the circular firing squad that is the GOP right now? Of course, all of this depends upon the Democrats holding firm and not seeing themselves as hostages here. A tall order. But so far, so good. Yesterday, Harry Reid tried to speed up the votes so that the Senate could be done that evening to send the CR back to the House with some time to spare. Carnival Cruz and his sidekick Lee were having none of that, so they worked pretty hard to make sure that the bill was delayed -- sparking this great smack back by Senator Bob Corker telling Cruz he was confused:
A Wilmingtonian’s Appeal to City Council President Theo Gregory

A Wilmingtonian’s Appeal to City Council President Theo Gregory

We've all read the NJ articles and listened to the WDEL reporting, and some of us actually sat through the Channel 28 debacle of former Mayoral Policy Advisor Velda Jones-Potter's "explanation" as to how City taxpayers ended up paying for 20 WPD officers and other city resources at the Foxtail concert on 14 September. Many of us (publicly and otherwise) have been calling for a full, impartial investigation by City Council -- an investigation where the parties involved provide sworn testimony and where any found wrongdoing is referred to the Attorney General. Mr. Gregory did promise a Special City Council meeting dedicated to looking into why taxpayer dollars were so badly mishandled and who would have authorized this. Monday, September October 30 is the date, but I want to ask -- again -- that Mr. Gregory make sure that this is a robust questioning and investigation. Wilmington already has a bad reputation for governing itself, and making sure that the tough questions get asked and making sure that unethical behavior has consequences would be a great beginning in changing that reputation.
A Small Request for County Councilwoman Lisa Diller

A Small Request for County Councilwoman Lisa Diller

Most of us have seen this grandstanding bit of business from Tom Gordon publicly calling for an apology from you for insisting on requests for information from the County Executive's Office be provided when requested. Ms. Diller's response here has been characterized as yelling -- which it might be, it certainly sounds as though she's frustrated with the lack of communication and the selective release of information to Councilmembers. If you listen to the audio of that meeting, (start around the 10 minute mark) you hear one Councilman talk about the Administration spending money on events and photo ops the County doesn't seem to have. The rest of this discussion is specifically about the refusal of Gordon and the County Attorney to provide a briefing in Executive Committee during that Finance Committee on the Pike Creek appeal.

Not Being Registered to Vote Is Malarkey

Literally Malarkey. So says the folks from MotivationalBiden.com (it's a Facebook page) to remind people that today is National Voter Registration Day. Most of the folks who read this are registered to vote, but it is worth it to ask around your family and friends to make sure that folks are signed up to participate in their Government. You can check here for the status of your registration. Click here to go to the State's Dpeartmnt of Elections to sign up.
Philly Blames Its Politicians, Not Teachers, For Its School Crisis

Philly Blames Its Politicians, Not Teachers, For Its School Crisis

Well sometimes the truth will out, right? The Pew Charitable Trusts surveyed Philly residents and found that the majority of them blame Tom Corbitt, Mayor Nutter and Philly City Council for their current funding crisis. Only 11% blame unions. They also think of Philly as a great place to get a college education and to live if you don't have kids. If you have kids, the survey says that a slight majority (48%)doesn't think that Philly is a good place to raise them. They also think that public schools are getting worse.