Zombie Casino Alert!

It's not quite the Zombie Apocalpyse (Casino Edition), but Delaware's casinos have formally asked for the state to make them healthy. Or, at least, healthier. According to this NJ article, Delaware's casinos will be asking for givebacks to the tune of $10M on licence fees as well as for the state to reduce the taxes on the games and slots.

How Not To Be Mayor

Let’s start with the announcement rollout on Monday by Charles Potter and Dennis Williams – as I noted in my Sunday post, the Williams announcement was expected sometime this week. Yet Monday afternoon, Potter sends an email to his list declaring for Williams’ Representative seat, clearly catching Williams off-guard (see Esteban Parra’s article here).

City of Wilmington Mayoral Cattle Call — Fall 2011 Edition

April 2010 was the last time we did this cattle call and there's been alot of movement in this list since then to report on. Or, at least, there has been strong rumor of a big change to the who'sin-who's out churn that has been going on the past year and so obsessing folks in Wilmington this weekend to revisit this list:

One Battle in the War on Women Won

Kathleen Sibelius and the Health and Human Services Department accepted the recommendations of the U.S. Institute of Medicine to expand the required women's wellness services offered by insurance companies. This decision affects private insurance only -- there aren't federal funds covering these new services. But this is a bit of good news, considering the organized onslaught women's rights are suffering at this moment.

Late Night Video — Emergency Default Crisis Rally

The American Dream Movement called for supporters to rally at the Congress last Thursday, that resulted in a few hundred folks who showed up to send a message to Congress asking for a debt deal that was fair for ordinary Americans -- no cuts fo Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. I noted in a comment recently that this rally was held on the same day that the teajadis also rallied -- with far fewer people (most accounts note that there was more press than ralliers), yet wall to wall coverage in the MSM.

In Which We Find the Media as Broken as the Republican Party

I wish I could stop being stunned at how badly our MSM can be in telling the public about the issues of the day. But I'm seeing more and more criticism of the coverage of this issue that I wonder if we aren't looking at a point somewhere in the next weeks or months where our media does some of the sheepish navel gazing that followed when it became really plain that the Iraq War was done on a very large bed of lies that the media did little (except for the McClatchy organization) to try to check up on.

Fear of a Black Republican

This is the name of a documentary movie by film maker Kevin Williams that is screening now at Theater N in Wilmington. I went to the 11Am screening of this movie, presented by the filmmaker and his co-producer wife in person -- both of them engaging the audience in a lively Q&A afterwards.

NJ Truthiness Watch — Women’s Health Is Too Expensive

This new bit of tone-deafness and just plain disinformation from the News Journal Editorial page on the possible inclusion of contraception for women as a must cover with no co-pay item (as part of a number of women's wellness services) inspired this collaborative post from Unstable Isotope, Pandora and me in response. Ground Zero of Delaware truthiness printed up an opinion piece today on the recommendation by the International Institute of Medicine that health insurance plans be required to include women's contraception as a basic part of their services and that contraception be provided with no co-pay. Titled Free birth control comes at a cost, the apparent point of this is to tell people that contraception costs money. And if it is required care and required to have no co-pay,then the entire cost gets covered by insurance.