Author Archives: El Somnambulo

DL Open Thread: Sunday, March 27, 2022

Fascinating Portrait Of Vladimir Putin. Why he is the way he is.  Well worth a NYTimes subscription.  Too much to even excerpt.  Read it online, or try to find a newspaper edition.  Basically, he hated being humiliated.  OK, just one excerpt:

In 1993, Mr. Yeltsin ordered the Parliament shelled to put down an insurgency; 147 people were killed. The West had to provide Russia with humanitarian aid, so dire was its economic collapse, so pervasive its extreme poverty, as large swaths of industry were sold off for a song to an emergent class of oligarchs. All this, to Mr. Putin, represented mayhem. It was humiliation.

“He hated what happened to Russia, hated the idea the West had to help it,” said Christoph Heusgen, the chief diplomatic adviser to former Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany between 2005 and 2017. Mr. Putin’s first political manifesto for the 2000 presidential campaign was all about reversing Western efforts to transfer power from the state to the marketplace. “For Russians,” he wrote, “a strong state is not an anomaly to fight against.” Quite the contrary, “it is the source and guarantor of order, the initiator and the main driving force of any change.”

But Mr. Putin was no Marxist, even if he reinstated the Stalin-era national anthem. He had seen the disaster of a centralized planned economy, both in Russia and East Germany, where he served as a K.G.B. agent between 1985 and 1990.

The new president would work with the oligarchs created by chaotic, free-market, crony capitalism — so long as they showed absolute fealty. Failing that, they would be expunged. If this was democracy, it was “sovereign democracy,” a phrase embraced by Mr. Putin’s top political strategists, stress on the first word.

One Way To Reduce Toxic Policing? Hire More Female Officers.  I like it:

Wrigley, 35, is one of a slew of female officers hired over the past year and a half in this suburb south of Omaha, part of a deliberate strategy by Police Chief Ken Clary to reduce the likelihood of misconduct and excess violence on the force.

Clary, a former Iowa state trooper, believes the research and his own experience, both of which tell him diversity makes for better policingand decreases the use of force against civilians, especially those who are Black. He’s rewritten the department’s rule book and promoted an officer to become head of recruiting, with an eye toward adding more women and police officers of color and making sure they stick around.

It’s too early to see significant changes in data generated by the 103-officer department. But officers say the personnel efforts have helped usher in a culture shift, which experts say is the key to long-lasting change.

Outsiders seem to be noticing. This winter, seeking to understand the police hiring climate in a post-George Floyd world, Nebraska Fraternal Order of Police President Jim Maguire asked the state’s 225 law enforcement entities whether recruiting was up or down. Each chief who responded said the number of applicants had shrunk dramatically. Except one: Clary. He told Maguire he had more applicants hoping to police the city of 53,000 than ever before, with officers transferring from departments as far as New Mexico. Many new arrivals were women.

Of course, in order to reduce toxic policing, one first has to admit that toxic policing takes place. That would sure be a welcome admission from any of those in power in police agencies throughout the state. New Castle County, maybe?  Matt, what do you think?  The asshole police don’t like you.  Help usher this in, and not only would policing improve, but receptivity to change, even among some police agencies would improve. Sure doesn’t look like the General Assembly is likely to help.

Which Reminds Me: Denver Protestors Awarded $14 Mill Due To Police Violence.  The police were the rioters, driven by, well, who knows what? Hatred? Machismo?  Yet, they were agents of the government:

In Denver, racial justice protesters were met with pepper spray and police projectiles, including a Kevlar bag filled with lead shot fired from a shotgun in the case of one plaintiff. The 12 protesters who sued the city were awarded between $750,000 and $4 million apiece.

Attorneys for the victims successfully argued police weren’t properly trained, leading to numerous injuries. Protester Zach Packard was hit in the head by the lead shot shotgun blast and ended up hospitalized, CBS News reported. Other injuries included a skull fracture, pepper spray used at close range on protesters’ eyes, and bruises and cuts from other projectiles.

Attorneys for the city failed to show evidence that the 12 plaintiffs acted violently during the protests.

What Is Trump’s Huge War Chest For?  Seems blatantly obvious to me:  For himself.  The rubes are his financial lifeline.

An Inspector General’s Office For Delaware?  It could happen, maybe this year.  I like the idea, but the Devil’s in the details.

What do you want to talk about?

DL Open Thread: Saturday, March 26, 2022

Rethug Congressman Found Guilty Of Lying About Illegal Campaign Contributions.  Poor guy, after his conviction, he read a letter from his daughter saying how much she loves him anyway:

A federal jury on Thursday convicted Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (R-Neb.) on three felony counts for lying to federal investigators about illegal campaign contributions from a foreign billionaire.

The charges stem from a2016 fundraiser held in Glendale, Calif., for the congressman’s reelection. There, Fortenberry received donations totaling $30,200 from Gilbert Chagoury, a wealthy Nigerian business executive of Lebanese descent who used other people as conduits to make the contributions, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California announced in October.

Foreign nationals are prohibited from donating to candidates running for federal office in the United States. It is also illegal to disguise a donor’s identity through third-party contributions.

My question? There’s so much legal dirty money sloshing around politics, he had to rely on this?

You Know Putin’s Losing His War When He Speechifies Against Cancel Culture, And Doesn’t Address Ukraine.  Hmmm, Bannon contracting out his services again?  Or was it Tucker?:

Beyond Ukraine, President Vladimir V. Putin is also fighting cultural battles.

In a speech on Friday from the nondescript, beige-walled office in which he has been conducting much of his public business this month, Mr. Putin made no mention of Ukraine. Instead, he expanded upon a personal obsession: “cancel culture.”

Western elites “canceled” the author J.K. Rowling because she “did not please fans of so-called gender freedoms,” Mr. Putin said in his nationally televised remarks, flanked by two Russian flags. Ms. Rowling was widely criticized in 2020 after voicing support for a researcher whose views on transgender people had been condemned by a court.

Japan, he claimed, “cynically decided to ‘cancel’” the fact that it was the United States that dropped nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II. And now, he said, the West is busy “canceling” Russia, “an entire thousand-year-old country, our people.”

That the Russian president delivered a disquisition on Western public discourse on Friday may seem odd at a time when Russia is fighting what some analysts believe to be its bloodiest war since the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in the 1980s. But it underscores how Mr. Putin tries to channel cultural grievances and common stereotypes for political gain — while using language that also allows him to speak directly to possible allies in the West.

Especially since the language is almost certainly crafted by his Allies in the West.

Truckers’ Lament.  Man, this ‘People’s Convoy’ around the Capitol (didn’t know it was still going on) is sad.  Some guy (Ricky Bobby, or so he says) tried to hijack it by promising ‘indoor bathrooms’. I demand more coverage of this.  Listen to that ‘Ricky Bobby’ clip.  You’ll thank me.

‘The Performance Of Governance’:  Ted Cruz frantically searching for Twitter replies to his disgusting broadsides against future Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson:

Jackson was often a bit character in someone else’s TV show. For politicos like Cruz and Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley, these hearings were less about advise-and-consent and more about performing—an opportunity to juice fundraising and drive engagement by play-acting as inquisitors. Cruz and Hawley, both of whom were recently on Trump’s Supreme Court shortlist, may never get the chance to sit in Jackson’s seat, but they still found a way to make a confirmation hearing about themselves. The Cruz photo is revealing not because it’s an aberration, but because it reflects the true nature of this work. Cruz, by searching for people talking about him talking about Jackson, was caught in the incriminating position of a Republican senator doing his job.

Turns Out I Wasn’t The Only One Who Didn’t Like ‘The Power Of The Dog’.  Which is not to deny the brilliance of the elements that went into the making of the picture.  But it didn’t come close to resonating with me.  What do y’all think?

Yet More Bullshit From Delaware Cops.  I can’t even muster a quote from this.  The cops and cop legislators/groupies wrote LEOBOR, giving cops almost unfettered ability to kill, maim, and threaten the citizens of this state without any prohibitions.  Now, even after the General Assembly cut the legs off of its own bill, that’s not enough for the cops? Legislators must come to them, hats in hand, begging for crumbs of civil liberties? No. What must happen is that cop enablers in the General Assembly must be challenged and defeated.  My message to legislators:  You can’t be halfway in on this, you’ll get run over. Just as you were.

What do you want to talk about?

Delaware Political Weekly: March 18-24, 2022

1. Whither SD 3?  I’ve pretty much got only questions.  I’m counting on you to provide information and/or speculation.  Following her destruction of police reform, can or will Sen. Lockman run for reelection?  I don’t think she can, but never underestimate the self-delusion of politicians.  Who will run for the seat?  I mean, you’ve got your normal opportunity-grabbers who will run for something merely because it’s available. First two names that come to mind are Jordan Hines, who ran last time with no raison d’etre other than it was a nice paycheck; and Sherry Dorsey Walker, who ran for this seat back in  2014, and almost won. Her lack of accomplishment in the House marks her as a distinct possibility.  However, I am certain that the progressive grassroots folks that were in their political infancy back in 2014 are already looking for someone who, you know, will work for meaningful change. I cannot overstate how important Wilmington D City Chairman Cassandra Marshall’s smackdown of Lockman is.  It’s refreshingly out of character for anybody in a D leadership position:

I know that Senator Lockman worked hard to get to SOMETHING, but I’m stunned at how bad this “reform” is. It basically does not exist. It undermines Wilmington’s Home Rule, leaves substantive oversight of bad behavior in the hands of the police, and still provides the public — the people who pay for this enterprise — quite in the dark. It’s also quite a remarkable back of the hand to the local D base that was pretty active in getting many of these folks elected. On a day where this body finds taking up the question of who gets to vaccinate ferrets, this bill is a genuine insult. Especially since a year ago, the Maryland GA did blow up their LEOBOR shield.

Cassandra and the people over at Blue Delaware, just like those of us here at Delaware Liberal, supported Lockman because she came across as a serious person who wanted to accomplish significant change in the Senate. While bloggers’ influence is limited, this disinheritance of Lockman from a key political power broker is something else altogether.

I’d imagine that Darius Brown is the happiest politician around.  He went from being in the crosshairs to an afterthought (he shouldn’t be) due to one of the most surprising political developments in quite awhile.

2.  Mamas With Machine Guns Set Their Sights On Colin Bonini.  The Mama Of All Armed Mamas being one Kim Petters. The head of the Womens Defense Coalition, which advocates an AK-47 in every woman’s kitchen.  These guys:

 

Not sure what beef she has with Bonini, but she’s an advocate for ‘fresh blood’, though presumably not that of Bonini pooling on the floor of a Kent County All-U-Can-Eat Buffet.  Yo, D’s, find a willing recruit here.  This could get ugly.
3. Credible (All Things Are Relative) R Files Against Sen. Walsh In SD 9.  Well, as credible as one can possibly be when picture after picture shows her attached at the hip to Lee (Go! Murph! Go!) Murphy. (Sorry, guys, I’m not joining Facebook.  I’m sure you can find the photos on your own.)  Hey, everybody has to have one Black friend, even if it’s just for political brochures.  Previously registered ‘unaffiliated’, Brenda Mennella has now cast her lot with the Looney Toons, and filed to run in that SD 9 contest.  Having said that, she’s a reading specialist in the Christina School District.  If her political views are/were mainstream, she could have been considered a worthy primary challenger to Walsh.  But running as an R in that district is a one-way ticket to political Palookaville.  Who knows what motivates people?
4.  Filings: Sen. Nicole Poore (D-SD 12); Rep. Sean Lynn (D-RD 31); NCC Councilmember Janet Kilpatrick (R-District 3);  Kent County Levy Court Commissioner Jeffrey Hall (D-District 2).
That’s all I’ve got. What’d I miss, and whaddayathink?

DL Open Thread: Friday, March 25, 2022

Money For Nothin’.  The coming-together of Carney’s brain-dead ‘budget-smoothing’, the lack of virtually any guardrails on that windfall of Federal money, and the cynicism of the Delaware General Assembly. Because there are apparently no problems that need addressing in Delaware.  We have the region’s dirtiest streams and rivers?  We’re overridden by pollutants?  We have too many people living in poverty?

Well, we certainly can’t grow the base of the budget. John Carney said so even though it’s not the law.  So let’s just give this money back to people. To those who need it and those who assuredly don’t need it.  That’s bipartisanship, bay-bee.  BTW, if you’re annoyed that gloryhound Val Longhurst was pretty much the only one quoted in the paper, fear not.  You can bet that there are a whole lot of other PO’d legislators.  Think I’ll send my legislators a note asking them to thank Val for getting me that money I don’t need.

Having said that, if you feel the need to fwow up, but just can’t quite muster that sufficient gag reflex, this should help:

“Delaware has always been a unique state, being the First State. We’ve always been able to work across party lines for the betterment of our state,” House Majority Leader Valerie Longhurst told WDEL. “We here in Delaware are a little bit smaller state, and we work together to make sure that Delawareans are taken care of, and we work well with our colleagues across the aisle. This isn’t a partisan piece of legislation. It’s definitely bipartisan.”

Yep. Giving away money you could have spent elsewhere is always bipartisan.  Also bipartisan: Requiring no means test.

There’s No Point In Even Asking What The Rethugs Would Do If Ginni Thomas Was Married To A D Supreme Court Justice And Looked Even The Tiniest Bit Political:

Virginia Thomas, a conservative activist married to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, repeatedly pressed White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows to pursue unrelenting efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election in a series of urgent text exchanges in the critical weeks after the vote, according to copies of the messages obtained by The Washington Post and CBS News.

The messages — 29 in all — reveal an extraordinary pipeline between Virginia Thomas, who goes by Ginni, and President Donald Trump’s top aide during a period when Trump and his allies were vowing to go to the Supreme Court in an effort to negate the election results.

On Nov. 10, after news organizations had projected Joe Biden the winner based on state vote totals, Thomas wrote to Meadows: “Help This Great President stand firm, Mark!!!…You are the leader, with him, who is standing for America’s constitutional governance at the precipice. The majority knows Biden and the Left is attempting the greatest Heist of our History.”

The messages, which do not directly reference Justice Thomas or the Supreme Court, show for the first time how Ginni Thomas used her access to Trump’s inner circle to promote and seek to guide the president’s strategy to overturn the election results — and how receptive and grateful Meadows said he was to receive her advice. Among Thomas’s stated goals in the messages was for lawyer Sidney Powell, who promoted incendiary and unsupported claims about the election, to be “the lead and the face” of Trump’s legal team.

In February 2021, when the Supreme Court rejected election challenges filed by Trump and his allies, Thomas wrote in a dissent that it was “baffling” and “inexplicable” that the majority had decided against hearing the cases because he believed the Supreme Court should provide states with guidance for future elections.

Latest Variant-Plus:  Call it anecdotal, but I have a well-placed source who just happens to maybe work in a pharmacy.  Positive tests of the latest variant are growing exponentially.  You might not want to mothball those masks just yet:

Luckily, we’re stopping mass testing and viral tracing so that we can pretend like there’s nothing wrong going on!

Even Clickbait Has Jumped The Shark. I know, I know, I ‘rank’ my 50 fave songs each year.  But, this?  Ex-Village Voice music critic had a perfect description for this: “Distinctions not cost-effective.”

Back later, after PT (my new hip is doing just fine, thanks, could be out lit-dropping in less than two weeks, and I will), with the Delaware Political Weekly.  I guarantee that it will be more interesting than last week’s Political Weekly.

What do you want to talk about?

General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Thursday, March 24, 2022

Wow, a good day! Much of it memorialized in the press, which always makes my job easier.

SS1/SB 101 (Townsend), which provides legal assistance to renters in landlord-tenant disputes, cleared the House Housing And Community Affairs Committee.  Huge shout-outs not only to Speaker Pete Schwartzkopf, Rep. Bud Freel, and committee chair Kendra Johnson, but also to the legislators and stakeholders who worked to make the bill more workable without sacrificing the bill’s legislative intent.  The amendment hasn’t been introduced yet, but look for it soon. Great legislating all around. Here is the WDEL story.  Here is by far my favorite line from the story:

Rep. Stephanie Bolden (D-Wilmington) said she was never informed during the bill’s hold of meetings taking place with either side’s stakeholders.

Why should she have been? She single-handedly scuttled consideration of the bill for 9 months. Although, it also speaks to how out-of-touch she is.  Didn’t know what was going on behind her back?  Primary her.  Y’know, I think that Haneef Salaam from Delaware ACLU does live in her district.  Hint, hint…

BTW, this Jeff Spiegelman character:

“Let me tell you what’s going to happen with this bill, because I already know, I’ve already seen it. I actually lost constituents to this bill. They moved away,” he said. “I very much feel for the people that you’re trying to help. Representative. I really do. And there are people out there who need help, which is why the advocate idea works. But for the sake of $3.6 million to provide a lawyer to one side of this in order to push out the other side that very practical application. That’s seriously troublesome.”

Hello? Is this mic on? The other side already has lawyers. This bill helps level the playing field. I mean, really.  Are heartless landlords fleeing his district? Good. Hope they flee Delaware as well.

The Charter School Moratorium also cleared committee. Looks like a rocky road ahead.

Rethugs’ Attack On Trans Athletes Failed In Committee.  Of course, their only intent is/was to build it into another red flag for the intolerant.  Mission accomplished.  The only time these assholes give two shits about women’s sports is when they’re trying to portray trans athletes as freaks.

Here is yesterday’s Legislative Activity Report.

Today’s Senate Agenda features SB 231 (Gay), which ‘prohibits the use of gender, gender identity, or sex as a rating factor in personal automobile insurance policies.’  I confess, this surprised me:

The Gender Disparities in Auto Insurance Pricing Report issued by the Delaware Department of Insurance and Consumer Federation of America shows that many insured Delaware women are charged more than men even when all other factors, including drivers’ history, are the same.

My admittedly-anecdotal experience has long made me consider women to be safer drivers.  Good bill.

Although the unintelligible synopsis doesn’t say it, SB 246 (Mantzavinos) appears to improve FOIA accessibility to Insurance Department documents.  I renew my plea to bill drafters:  Try to make synopses clear enough so that the average person can understand it.  Unless, of course, you’re trying to hide the bill’s true intentions.

Today’s House Agenda features two interesting House bills.

HB 259 (Lambert) ‘requires Delaware to use the Wireless Emergency Alert (“WEA”) system to notify the public of emergency alerts and requires that the emergency alert system be used when a catastrophic release occurs. A catastrophic release is a major uncontrolled emission, fire, or explosion that presents an imminent and substantial endangerment to public health. This Act also requires that emergency alerts be broadcast in Spanish, in addition to English, when possible.’  The bill will be amended to address some logistical concerns raised in committee, but the amendment does not weaken the bill.  BTW, whoever wrote the committee report for this bill deserves a shout-out.  Legislative staff rarely receive kudos for doing their jobs in exemplary fashion.  This report is an example of quality staff work.

HB 320 (Heffernan) permits ‘physician assistants and advanced practice registered nurses to prescribe medication for the termination of pregnancy including Mifeprex, Mifepristone, and Misoprostol.’  Physicians may already prescribe these medications.  Wonder if any R’s will vote for the bill…

The General Assembly will be out of session next week for Capital Improvements (Bond Bill) Committee meetings.  You might want to keep a close eye on how many $$’s Senate Vice-Chair Nicole Poore tries to funnel to her pet Ft. DuPont project.

DL Open Thread: Thursday, March 24, 2022

Looks Like The Manhattan DA Ran Interference For Trump: Trump ‘Guilty Of Multiple Felonies’:

The question, of course, is why did this Alvin Bragg pull the plug on the investigation?

One of the senior Manhattan prosecutors who investigated Donald J. Trump believed that the former president was “guilty of numerous felony violations” and that it was “a grave failure of justice” not to hold him accountable, according to a copy of his resignation letter.

The prosecutor, Mark F. Pomerantz, submitted his resignation last month after the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg, abruptly stopped pursuing an indictment of Mr. Trump.

“The team that has been investigating Mr. Trump harbors no doubt about whether he committed crimes — he did,” Mr. Pomerantz wrote.

Mr. Pomerantz and Mr. Dunne planned to charge Mr. Trump with falsifying business records, specifically his annual financial statements — a felony in New York State.

Mr. Bragg’s decision not to pursue charges then — and the resignations that followed — threw the fate of the long-running investigation into serious doubt. If the prosecutors had secured an indictment of Mr. Trump, it would have been the highest-profile case ever brought by the Manhattan district attorney’s office and would have made Mr. Trump the first American president to face criminal charges.

MacKenzie Scott Spends Money For The Greater Good.  I really admire her:

MacKenzie Scott has donated $436 million to Habitat for Humanity International and 84 of its U.S. affiliates — the largest publicly disclosed donation from the billionaire philanthropist since she pledged in 2019 to give away the majority of her wealth.

Scott, who is worth about $48 billion according to Forbes, has signed the Giving Pledge, through which many billionaires have promised to donate more than half their wealth. Aside from an occasional blog post, Scott, an author and philanthropist, doesn’t discuss her donations, which exceeded $8 billion in the past two years after her divorce from Jeff Bezos, the Amazon founder, who was then the richest person in the world. As part of the divorce settlement, Scott received 4% of Amazon’s shares.

In December, in hopes that she would reduce the attention she draws, Scott declined to announce how much or to whom she donated money. She said she would prefer to let the recipients announce her gifts, as Habitat for Humanity is expected to do on Tuesday. Last week, the Boys & Girls Clubs of America announced that they and 62 local Boys & Girls Clubs had received $281 million from Scott. On Monday, The Fortune Society, a New York-based group that helps the formerly incarcerated re-enter society, announced that Scott donated $10 million to them.

Hey, if I ever won the lottery, I’d do the exact same thing. Anyone want to help me rig it in my favor?

Doesn’t Look Like Manafort Will Reunite With His Oligarch Friends Any Time Soon.  Tried to board plane to UAE. Failed.

Uh-Oh. Clarence OK?  Cone Of Silence has descended over Thomas’ health situation.  I’m sure the Prayer Warriors will protect him:

The court said Sunday that the 73-year-old Thomas had been admitted to Sibley Memorial Hospital in Washington on Friday after experiencing “flu-like symptoms,” and he was diagnosed with an infection. His “symptoms are abating,” and he was expected to be released Monday or Tuesday, the court said in a statement at the time. But on Wednesday morning, court spokeswoman Patricia McCabe said she had no update to provide.

Thomas, a conservative and appointee of former President George H.W. Bush, has been on the court since 1991.

BTW, haven’t watched a second of the Rethugs’ ‘high-tech lynching’ of Ketanji Brown Jackson. Hear it’s exactly what you’d expect, with a dash of QAnon tossed in for good measure.  These people are lunatics.

Supreme Court Backs Rethugs’ Gerrymandered Maps In Wisconsin. ‘Unprecedented.’  Not for long. Look for more of the same.

News-Journal Turns Into Delaware Today.  The series on Delaware’s Most Influential is downright embarrassing.  Dentist office fodder.  I’ll stick with what I know. Politics.  Two elected state legislators, one of whom is Tizzy Lockman (hey, the article was likely written awhile back. They couldn’t have known.) The other of whom heads the legislative Black Caucus, but is in no way one of the most influential legislators down there.  9, count ’em, 9 lobbyists.  All smiling brightly in their photos.  Like I said, dentist office fodder.  Full of self-promoters who know how to get their names in the press.

What do you want to talk about?

General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Wednesday, March 23, 2022

False advertising.  At least for the most part.  I couldn’t shut off my brain following what happened with LEOBOR Reform yesterday.  I’m not sure my thoughts will make any more sense as I write them down, but I’m gonna try.  In one inexplicable regard, what Tizzy Lockman did yesterday is unprecedented when it comes to my years in the General Assembly.  Political self-immolation.

But, first, some brief legislative updates.  Here are today’s Committee meeting schedules.  House. Senate.  If things go as I hope they will, and if SS1/SB 101 is finally released from Stephanie Bolden’s evil clutches, it will give me great joy to send shout-outs to Speaker Pete and to Bud Freel.

I also thought you’d be fascinated by this fantastic ‘Inside Baseball’ story from Larry Nagengast.  It pertains to two Charter school bills bring considered in today’s House Education Committee.  My big takeaway:  This Kendall Massett, who is the executive director of the Delaware Charter Schools Network, is as out-of-control as, say, the head of the FOP:

“Legislators who benefited from school choice when it came to their own education and/or their children’s education have chosen to introduce legislation that would eliminate those choices for other families,” she wrote. That comment referred to State Rep. Madinah Wilson-Anton, (D-Bear) a graduate of the Charter School of Wilmington, and to Lockman, whose daughter graduated from the same school in 2021.

“H.B. 353 is not an ‘anti-charter bill,’ which it has been inaccurately and unfairly labeled as,” Wilson-Anton responded. “Delaware is fortunate to have some very strong charter schools … but we have also seen numerous charters close just years after opening their doors.”

Later in the email, Massett wrote: “Our charter leaders and educators need to be focused on moving our students forward, instead, they must spend their time fighting off attacks from those that hate our schools just because we are different.” Asked Tuesday to identify those who hate charter schools, she spoke broadly of officials and supporters of the Christina School District and three Democratic legislators – Reps. Kim Williams (D-Stanton), the chair of the House Education Committee; and John Kowalko (D-Newark) and Paul Baumbach (D-Newark).

“They are just not good people,” Massett said Tuesday. She claimed later that she was referring only to charter opponents in the Christina district, and not to the lawmakers.

Let me be clear: I support quality education in all its forms.  Those who know me and my family know that I am not opposed to quality charter schools and, in fact, celebrate schools and teachers who do great work.  It is also true that the Markell/Rodel ‘Charters R Us’ era was an unmitigated disaster, replete with fly-by-night schools and corrupt administrators.

Why this Kendall Massett has chosen to go scorched earth against some of Delaware’s best legislators is beyond me.  But I know that it will have the opposite effect from what she and her organization seek.

BTW, Larry Nagengast?  I think I first met him when I was umpiring Little League baseball.  I still feel bad about a blown call I made that cost his team a game.  But he’s a great journalist who has not mellowed with age.  If anything, his reporting is as sharp as ever. Read the piece in its entirety.

OK. I’ve been putting this off as long as I could.  I should have written this sometime around 1 a.m. because I couldn’t clear my brain of all the questions that arose from Sen. Lockman’s destruction of police reform.

Let me first say that I don’t believe I’ve ever encountered an analogous situation where someone decided to destroy an excellent bill that they sponsored, which the original SB 149 was, and destroy their own political career in the process. The original SB 149 apparently had the votes to pass the Senate,  with no significant changes required to ensure its passage. The prime sponsor of the bill, which presumably means that she was sufficiently comfortable with the bill to be the prime sponsor and to push for its passage, was Sen. Tizzie Lockman.  Lockman campaigned for her Senate seat with the issue of police accountability serving as a centerpiece of her campaign.  Her introduction of the bill led to a vibrant grassroots effort on its behalf.  A lot of people trusted her and were counting on her. And worked very hard for SB 149’s passage.

And, then…Lockman let it be known that she was going to introduce a substitute bill, and that she would seek input from the ‘stakeholders’.  Of course, the concerns of the stakeholders who had been disastrously impacted by LEOBOR had already been incorporated into SB 149. Stealing one of my comments from yesterday:

How many ‘stakeholders’, including community activists, impacted residents, and minorities who had traditionally been singled out by police, do you suppose took part in the creation of LEOBOR?  The answer is none.  This was a bill crafted by law enforcement, for law enforcement, and passed by the gaggle of law enforcement legislators/groupies who ruled the roost when the bill was passed.  The bill, and the people who crafted it, are/were the problem.

The stakeholders referenced by Lockman were the police.  Specifically, the top officials whose only interest was to destroy the bill.  Lockman betrayed everyone who had worked so hard for LEOBOR reform. The resulting substitute is unworthy of even being considered.  It’s that terrible.  Allow me to quote from former DL colleague and current chair of the Wilmington Democratic Party Cassandra Marshall:

I know that Senator Lockman worked hard to get to SOMETHING, but I’m stunned at how bad this “reform” is. It basically does not exist. It undermines Wilmington’s Home Rule, leaves substantive oversight of bad behavior in the hands of the police, and still provides the public — the people who pay for this enterprise — quite in the dark. It’s also quite a remarkable back of the hand to the local D base that was pretty active in getting many of these folks elected. On a day where this body finds taking up the question of who gets to vaccinate ferrets, this bill is a genuine insult. Especially since a year ago, the Maryland GA did blow up their LEOBOR shield.

Just-wow. As Cassandra points out, Maryland successfully reformed their LEOBOR bill last year.  Yet Lockman unilaterally sold out to the cops.  I suppose I’m less angry than most.  I never expected the House Kop Kabal, as currently constituted, to pass anything meaningful.  My hope was that the Senate would pass SB 149 with most of its provisions intact, the grassroots would mobilize over on the House side, the obstructionists would be outed for all to see, and we’d knock off enough of them to deep-six the Kop Kabal leadership once and for all.  (BTW, we can still do that.)  SB 149 will not be that vehicle for change, though.

I honestly don’t know what motivated Lockman to do this.  I’m certain that several of her colleagues were advising her against doing this.  Perhaps she genuinely believed that passing anything, regardless of how toothless, was worthwhile.  If so, she couldn’t have been more wrong.  The bill she introduced yesterday could literally have been written by the police. Perhaps it was.  I’ve been wracking my brain for an explanation.  All I can come up with is a question: Is her new husband a cop?

Regardless, her career in the Senate is over. If anything, her Senate District has a larger percentage of Black voters and a larger percentage of Latino voters than previously.  It goes without saying that she can’t get renominated based on hordes of cop contributions to the cause. I admit that I sorta feel bad for her.  I hope that wherever the road takes her, she will be able to make a meaningful contribution in the years ahead. As for LEOBOR reform, with so many supporters already abandoning the substitute bill, the Senate would do well to simply not bring it up for consideration.  Start over next year, with hopefully an honest senator in SD 3 and even more hopefully, a House Caucus not beholden to the police.

Meaningful LEOBOR Reform Was Dead As Soon As Sen. Lockman Took Charge

Talk about not learning from history.  Tizzy Lockman chose the same failed path that Val Longhurst, for example, tried with the NRA and the Delaware Sportsmen’s Association.  You know, involve ‘all the stakeholders’ in the conversation.  As if you can negotiate with legislative hostage takers.

Riddle me this, Batman. How many ‘stakeholders’, including community activists, impacted residents, and minorities who had traditionally been singled out by police, do you suppose took part in the creation of LEOBOR?  The answer is none.  This was a bill crafted by law enforcement, for law enforcement, and passed by the gaggle of law enforcement legislators/groupies who ruled the roost when the bill was passed.  The bill, and the people who crafted it, are/were the problem.  Given these circumstances, whatever possessed Sen. Lockman to decide that she needed sign-off from the police leadership in order to get a bill passed?  Their entire mission was to whittle the bill down to nothing, which is exactly what they accomplished.  This is one of the worst examples of bill management that I can ever recall.  Lockman should never be allowed anywhere near a police reform bill again.

Those of us who participated in her town halls where, despite the almost unanimous consensus that SB 149 be passed unamended, she made it clear that she wasn’t even listening to us.  She almost certainly had the votes in the Senate to pass the unamended version.  But her obsession to get even the slightest bit of buy-in from the cops overrode her common sense.  Hey, the House was gonna destroy the bill anyway.  Couldn’t she at least have gotten something respectable through the Senate?  No. No, she couldn’t. Nor wouldn’t.  Just–this.  Utterly pathetic.

I’m to the point where I’d welcome a primary challenger to her who has a genuine commitment to police reform.  I think she played us.

All this work, all this lobbying. For what?  Nothing.  Great work, Senator.

Delaware General Assembly Pre-Game Show: Tuesday, March 22, 2022

We’re in a legislative holding pattern. ‘Some’ would call it a slog. Passing nothing of any real importance while waiting (in vain) for them to consider something of importance.  Anybody remember police reform?  It likely won’t happen.  This session may well have peaked when Medical And Family Leave passed.

Ho-kay.  I’ll try to make this stuff as interesting as possible.  Today’s Senate Agenda features a bill designed to streamline voter registration requirements in most Delaware municipalities.  While most municipalities are on board, there are a couple of holdouts from downstate troglodytes.  Any ‘no’ votes on this bill will reflect that.

SB 205 (Gay) lowers the age range for students who must have access to feminine hygiene products. From 6th-graders to 4th graders.

HB 145 (Griffith) makes it easier for families to help children save for college.  Students with disabilities would especially benefit.  I would have preferred adding a means-testing component, but why quibble?

HB 271 (Heffernan) provides transition services for those aging out of foster care, specifically for those aged 21-23.  Reps. Ruth Briggs King, Rich Collins and Charles Postles thought this was a bad idea. Nobody else did.

Today’s House Agenda features, well, not much.  I honestly don’t know whether HB 270, which deals narrowly with charter school choice, is a good bill or not. When there are only two sponsors on a bill, I immediately think of the Longhurst/Poore ethical sewer. Looks like special interest legislation to me, but I am prepared to be disabused of that notion.

HB 301, which was appropriated by Val Longhurst for her very own sponsorship, ‘requir(es) the Department of Education, with the approval of the State Board of Education, to establish and implement statewide mental health educational programs for each grade, kindergarten through grade 12, in each school district and charter school in this State.  Good bill. Bad sponsor.

There are a (very few) committee meetings today.  Senate. House.  Most committee meetings are tomorrow.

I support SB 228 (Walsh), which ‘allows licensed veterinary technicians, as well as licensed veterinarians, to administer rabies vaccinations to dogs, cats, and ferrets.’  Ferrets?  Why ferrets and not, say, guinea pigs, hamsters and the like?  Can anyone ferret out the answer?  Senate Agriculture.

HB 311 (Griffith) largely brings Delaware law into conformity with the Americans With Disabilities Act. House Business Lapdog Committee.

HB 210 (M. Smith) ‘permits wine producers holding a valid license within this State or another state to obtain a license and ship wine directly to Delaware consumers so long as it is done through a common carrier with a carrier permit’. In addition to pointing out that the current law makes no sense, there are so many workarounds to this prohibition that the law is ineffective. A joke, really.  Might as well legalize it. Along with pot.  House Business Lapdog Committee.

Well, that’s about it for–WAIT! WHAT? A-oo-ga, a-oo-ga, ALERT! ALERT! ALERT! Just check out what has surfaced on Wednesday’s Housing & Community Affairs Committee Agenda. Yes, legal protection for tenants has risen from the ashes. It’s on the agenda.  With 7 D’s and 4 R’s (did Pete change the composition of the committee? Yes! He added Bud Freel to the committee, didn’t subtract anybody.  Bud was very good at going after absentee landlords with substandard properties.  I feel certain he will vote for the bill.), the bill should be released from committee even if Buccini/Pollin ups its ante to the hopelessly-corrupt Stephanie Bolden.   I don’t see any other no votes among the D’s on that committee.  Here are the committee members.  You know what to do. Do it:

Kendra Johnson

Stephanie T. Bolden

Kimberly Williams
Franklin D. Cooke
Larry Lambert
Sherae’a Moore
Michael Ramone
Bryan W. Shupe
Jeffrey N. Spiegelman
Kevin S Hensley
Charles “Bud” M. Freel
Well. Always nice to end on a positive note.

Townhouses Of Russian Oligarch Traced To Delaware Shell Corporations

One of Putin’s most notorious oligarchs–Oleg Derispaka.

He owns two Manhattan townhouses, or, more accurately, they are owned by two separate Delaware shell corporations.  Betcha they aren’t the only entanglements.

Is everybody OK with that?  Shouldn’t the General Assembly at least call the Secretary of State and its corporate enablers before a panel and ask them what the fuck is going on?  More importantly, ask them what they are gonna do to fix this?

The Delaware Department of State has always been the Third Rail of Delaware politics–everybody has known that its activities are marginally legal, but putatively in service to the Greater Good of low taxes.

Shouldn’t we draw a line at oligarchical activity that benefits Putin?  Shouldn’t someone in office at least ask?

Or is dealing with autocrats, kleptos, and murderers merely the cost of keeping our tax rates low?  You know, collective shrug.

Somebody, anybody?

The Most Blatantly-Corrupt Bill Of The Session

Of many sessions, actually.  For all involved, if you didn’t want your names besmirched in this piece, you never should have gotten involved, and stayed involved, in this grab of state land and money in order to line the pockets of some of the most unethical practitioners of the Delaware Way.  At the beginning, we’re talking Gov. Markell, disgraced former Rep. Dick Cathcart, Delaware City Mayor John Buechheit, Sen. Nicole ‘No Longer’ Poore and our PAL Val Longhurst, with assists from then-DNREC Secetary Collin O’Mara and Tom ‘Suspendered Disbelief’ Wagner.

Only two members of leadership who were predisposed to corruption could ever have gotten away with it.  They held levers of power over their members that others didn’t.  Especially Longhurst, who, along with Speaker Pete, ran (and run) the House D Caucus through intimidation.

Have I yet mentioned that we’re talking the Underground City Of Fort DuPont?  We are.

Which brings me to the most blatantly-corrupt bill of the session, featuring some relatively  new additions to the Rogue’s Gallery.  Including John Carney, DNREC Secretary Shawn Garvin, former State Rep. Bryon Short, and…no, we’ll save that one for a little later. A clue: A current state legislator who owes their current position to House leadership, and who has access to tons o’ funds.

Ladeez and gentlemen, allow me to present to you HB 355.  Sponsored, as has every single piece of legislation on behalf of this boondoggle, by Nicole Poore and Val Longhurst, and only Poore and Longhurst.  Gee, you’d think they’d at least try to get Mimi Minor-Brown on the bill since she will inherit this shit-show from Longhurst in November.  But, no.

The bill’s stated purpose is to ‘fortify the Declaration of Purpose for the Fort DuPont Complex’.  I suppose that’s  true–if the purpose of the Fort DuPont Complex is to just steal as much state money as possible without accountability.  Credit to Longhurst and Poore: They’re not even subtle about it.

Rip-Off # 1:  ‘The Board is composed of the following directors:…The Director of the Prosperity Partnership.

Got that?  They’re adding the director of the (they’re not a state agency, hence they’re immune from FOIA) of the quasi-public body that hands money to corporations with no accountability. There can only be one reason for this addition to the Board, and that’s to access more money.  I suppose I should point out that this scheme was hatched in 2014. Here we are in 2022, and the need for this money pit to steal from Delawareans is stronger than ever.  Even Val and Nicole introduced a bill last year basically saying that they could rip off the public for only one more year. It went nowhere.

The involvement of the ‘Prosperity Partnership’ is not coincidental.  Warning: Gory Delaware Way details ahead.  The Partnership was a John Carney wet dream designed to keep the prying eyes of the public away from all of these giveaways.  The prime sponsor of the bill in the House was Bryon Short.  You may remember him as the Father of the Business Lapdog Committee, and also the guy who made sure that minimum wage increases did not escape his committee. Oh, and as the guy who ran as the Chamber’s D candidate for US Rep.  Well, guess what Short is doing now. Give up? He’s the Chair of the Fort DuPont Redevelopment And Preservation Corporation.  Anyone wanna claim that it’s a mere coincidence that he’s in that position?  Oh, his post-legislative job?: He’s the Executive Director of the Delaware Contractors Association.  His job is to promote construction in all its forms.  There’s a shitload of construction going on at Ft. DuPont. Mere coincidence? Right.

The cynicism of the Grifter Sisters (shout-out to Mediawatch) shine here in all its corrupt glory.

Apparently that new revenue stream isn’t enough for the Grifter Sisters.  They have added (I’m not making this up) the Chair and Vice-Chair of the Capital Improvements Committee, aka the Bond Bill Committee).  Talk about skipping the middle men.  We’re talking direct access to the cash.

Who, you might ask, are these two chairs?  The Senate Chair is (I’m not making this up) Grifta Sista Nicole Poore.  Funny how that works.

The House Chair (Warning: Screed ahead) is Rep. Deb Heffernan. Deb Heffernan holds that position because, and only because, the Kop Kabal trusts her, and she will do anything they want.  Otherwise, she would no longer be in that position, especially with the autocratic leadership style of Schwartzkopf/Longhurst.  In other words, they can count on her to keep the money flowing, and to make sure that no nasty epilog language requiring an audit of this money pit be conducted.  News flash:  There has never been a legit audit conducted of this project since its inception. Nor will there be with the game fixed as it is now.

Now, let’s talk about Deb Heffernan.  I will say it right up front: Representative, if you disagree with the following assertions, you are welcome to come on here and respond.  In the interest of fairness, I will withhold critical reaction to your response.  We’ve had discussions, even amongst some progressives, as to why Heffernan deserves a strong primary challenge, which she is facing.  There are several reasons, but here is the one that’s germane to this piece: While Heffernan continues to shower her largesse on Val Longhurst and this corrupt project in Delaware City, she has openly threatened people right up here in Claymont and Brandywine Hundred that, if they don’t openly endorse her, she will put the kibosh on funding for vital projects.  In other words, Val Longhurst at her best/worst.  To me, that bespeaks someone unfit to hold public office.  At first, the feedback on this was a mere trickle.  Turns out she hasn’t hidden her intentions from anybody.  Which brings me to a story.

We used to have a friend, kind-of an amiable ne’er-do-well, who showed up on occasion to share some pot and brewskis.  He had a very kind wife, we always wondered what she saw in him.  One day, he just disappears (‘Got a wife and kid in Baltimore, Jack, I went out for a drive and I never came back’).  We don’t hear of him for years until I open the paper one morning, and see that he’s been arrested for an ill-considered jewelry heist in downtown Wilmington.  The quote from the police officer, which became the title of a mix-tape we made, and which kicked off with the aforementioned Springsteen song, was ’50 witnesses can’t be wrong’.

No, 50 witnesses haven’t corroborated Heffernan’s threats, but we’re far past the point of having sufficient confirmation. Deb: Floor’s yours.

I don’t know what will jolt the General Assembly into action, or to have our Governor wake up from his nap and at least ask for an audit.

But I know corrupt intent when I see it, and HB 355 is the Unchallenged Champeen Of Corruption For 2022.

DL Open Thread: Sunday, March 20, 2022

Putin’s Placing Blame.  Arresting advisors for failing to successfully carry out his war.  More from the NYTimes:

Signs of Russia’s challenges abound. Late last week, Russian news sources reported that Mr. Putin had put two of his top intelligence officials under house arrest. The officials, who run the Fifth Service of Russia’s main intelligence service, the FSB, were interrogated for providing poor intelligence ahead of the invasion, according to Andrei Soldatov, a Russian security services expert.

Oh, and generals are dropping like flies:

The news of the generals’ deaths is trickling out, first from Ukrainians, then confirmed by NATO officials, with one death acknowledged by Mr. Putin in a speech. They have been identified as Maj. Gen. Andrei Kolesnikov, a commander from Russia’s eastern military district; Maj. Gen. Vitaly Gerasimov, first deputy commander of the 41st Combined Arms Army; and Maj. Gen. Andrei Sukhovetsky, deputy commander of the 41st Combined Arms Army.

Western officials say that around 20 Russian generals were in Ukraine as part of the war effort, and that they may have pushed closer to the front to boost morale.

“Three generals already — that’s a shocking number,” Michael McFaul, the former United States ambassador to Russia, said in an interview.

On Wednesday, Ukrainian officials reported that a fourth general, Maj. Gen. Oleg Mityaev, the commander of the 150th motorized rifle division, had been killed in fighting.

Turns out the myth of Soviet military might couldn’t  stand up to the reality of Soviet military might.

Reich: Hit Big Oil With A Windfall Tax:

Big oil has hit a gusher. Even before Vladimir Putin’s war, oil prices had begun to rise due to the recovery in global demand and tight inventories.

Last year, when Americans were already struggling to pay their heating bills and fill up their gas tanks, the biggest oil companies (Shell, Chevron, BP, and Exxon) posted profits totaling $75bn. This year, courtesy of Putin, big oil is on the way to a far bigger bonanza.

How are the oil companies using this windfall? I can assure you they’re not investing in renewables. They’re not even increasing oil production.

As Chevron’s top executive, Mike Wirth, said in September, “We could afford to invest more” but “the equity market is not sending a signal that says they think we ought to be doing that.”

Translated: Wall Street says the way to maximize profits is to limit supply and push up prices instead.

What to do? Hit big oil with a windfall profits tax.

The European Union recently advised its members to seek a windfall profits tax on oil companies taking advantage of this very grave emergency to raise their prices.

Democrats just introduced similar legislation here in the US. The bill would tax the largest oil companies, which are recording their biggest profits in years, and use the money to provide quarterly checks to Americans facing sticker shock as inflation continues to soar.

No doubt President Manchin will stop this in its tracks.

Phillies To Conduct Fascinating Experiment This Year.  With the signings of offensive boppers Kyle Schwarber and Nick Castellanos, the Phils have put together a juggernaut of a lineup.  They also have a solid starting rotation.  Here’s the experiment, though: They have also put together a team that has the chance to be historically bad on defense. They were near the bottom last year, and they appear to have gotten worse.  Both Schwarber and Castellanos would be best suited to being the DH–which comes to the National League this year.  But only one can do it, the other has to play LF, and, perhaps other than Realmuto, their catcher, there isn’t a superior defensive player in the starting lineup.  Don’t get me wrong–I’m glad that they’ve finally exceeded the luxury tax to put together this lineup. But you might want to cover your eyes when they’re out in the field.

What do you want to talk about?

DL Open Thread: Saturday, March 19, 2022

Bitcoin Miners Came To Appalachia. Lied about the impact. Hmmm, sounds like a promising story line for the Justified reboot:

LIMESTONE, Tenn. — It started as a low hum one day last spring. Then it got louder, and soon some residents said the noise was like a jet engine idling on a nearby tarmac.

The unincorporated clutch of homes and churches at the base of the Appalachian Mountains offers expansive vistas of lush farmland, thick woods and towering ridges in all directions. Neighbors know one another. Most residents have family bonds spanning generations or moved to this tranquil patch to escape city noise.

Instead, the noise came to themin April last year when the Tennessee-based firm Red Dog Technologies opened a plant in Limestone to mine (or create) new bitcoin, the original and still-largest cryptocurrency.

The process relies on massive computers performing complex calculations — all while kept at a constant temperature by equally massive cooling fans — and that can get noisy.

The Limestone mine operates day and night, growing louder at night and on weekends when bitcoin’s electricity-hungry computers can take advantage of down time and lower prices on the electricity grid and ramp up their algorithmic-solving power.

The Tactics Employed By Big Oil’s Lawyers.  Let’s face it, the only thing that will stop Big Oil is the complete depletion of oil:

Desperate to avoid costly settlements, the fossil fuel industry relies on front organizations to discredit the litigation and sway public opinion in its favor. So nearly three years ago, the friends of big oil turned to Goldberg, a former Democratic congressional aide and self-described “committed environmentalist,” to persuade Americans that the companies responsible for the growing climate disaster are now the ones to fix the problem.

Though Goldberg heads an ostensibly independent initiative called the Manufacturers Accountability Project, much of its funding comes from some of the biggest names in the oil business.MAP hiredGoldberg to push back against litigation on the fossil fuel industry’s behalf, allowing oil companies to keep their hands clean in the process.

Goldberg is leading a charge in local media to discredit those suing the fossil fuel industry as a “fringe litigation movement” conspiracy of opportunistic politicians, environmental extremists, and money-grasping lawyers who pose a threat to the American way of life.

Cali To Fund Land Purchase By Indigenous Peoples?  I flat-out love this idea.  Hope the Governor can get it passed:

Governor Gavin Newsom on Friday proposed giving California’s Indigenous nations $100m so they can purchase and preserve their ancestral lands.

The proposal is part of his pledge to make sure nearly one-third of California’s land and coastal waters are preserved by 2030. But rather than have the government do all of that, Newsom said Indigenous leaders should have a say in what lands get preserved.

“We know that California Native peoples have always had an interdependent relations with land, waters, everything that makes up the state of California,” Newsom said. “Unfortunately we also know that the state has had a role in violently disrupting those relations.”

He added, “We heard loud and clear in our consultations with more than 70 different California Native American tribes a strong desire from tribal governments to play a leading role in restoration and conservation efforts that benefit tribal communities and honor their connections to the lands and waters.”

The proposal comes amid a growing Land Back movement to return Indigenous homelands to the descendants of those who lived there for millennia before European settlers arrived.

AG Jennings: Don’t Be Taken In By Scam Ukraine Charity Pitches.  Good advice.  Our readers are too smart to fall for this stuff, but not everybody is as tuned in.

How Wilmington Will Spend Pandemic Relief $$’s.  Well, at least what little information Mayor Mike will acknowledge.  What’s the over/under on how many more bucks end up in the pockets of Buccini/Pollin?:

Who will benefit from the $55 million in federal relief funds Wilmington received to help close deficits caused by the COVID-19 pandemic will be largely unknown until the money is spent.

“I’d like to think we are going to continue to announce everything we are doing as we do it. If we send out a check to somebody, it should get on the website,” Mayor Mike Purzycki said during a February interview about the process of spending the American Rescue Plan Act funds. “It’s subjective, and I don’t deny that for a moment, but we do our level best to inform (city) council to make sure they see who we are supporting. We mostly support those that are recommended and supported by council.”

Man, this process is almost completely non-transparent.  Not just in Wilmington, but across the country.

What do you want to talk about?