I largely agree with Gov. John Carney’s strategy to spread Delaware’s budget pain as far and as thin as he can, even if it ends up pissing off a number of constituents. I have a few minor quibbles about his plan, but where the governor and I really differ is on income taxes.
Another Shuttered Golf Course, More NIMBY. I’ve been around so long that I know both sides’ arguments by heart.
Wilmington Riverfront Part Deux?: I’m pretty encouraged by this–as long as it doesn’t lead to further gentrification, which it could well do.
Trump Stumps for Le Pen: I worry that he could be right.
So Does Vladimir Putin: More great investigative reporting from Pro Publica. You really should donate.
What Dow Wants for Its $1 Mill donation to Trump’s Inaugural: If you guessed a free pass to use a chemical proven to kill endangered species, you’d be correct. Gee, wonder if they’ll get it…
Trump Ultimatum: Pay For the Wall Or I’ll Screw the Poor Even More. And/or the government gets shut down.
Bill-o Gone-o: An In-Depth Analysis from the Atlantic. BTW, kids, and think this through. Isn’t replacing Sean Spicer with Bill O’Reilly the ultimate Trumpian move? I think it’s gonna happen. Whaddayathink?
Carney’s Marijuana Forum. Reading between the lines, I think Carney is doing this just for show. Prove me wrong, John.
Exxon Seeks Waiver for Russian Oil Deal From—ex-Exxon CEO and current Secretary of State Rex Tillerson: ‘Nobody could have predicted this would happen.’ Except everybody.
Over 21,000 Mass. Drug Convictions Tossed Out Due to Tainted Evidence. Kids, remember that, in Delaware, when it comes to evidence, the fox is guarding the henhouse. Both the police and the Medical Examiner work together, not independently. Under the ‘watchful’ eye of police groupie and ex-State Rep. Becky Walker. What could possibly go wrong? A major scandal waiting to happen.
Chaffetz: ‘Why Sleep on a Cot When I Could Make Zillions Lobbying for the Dark Side?’ OK, I made up the quote, but it fits. Like Darth Vader, he’ll be back. After he ‘fattens up the ol’ coffers.’
Has Anybody Here Seen Our Mighty Armada?
Has Anybody Here Seen the Federal Prosecutor…ANY Federal Prosecutor?
Dover City Elections: These are great bench building blocks. Is the Kent County or State D Party Engaged?
Shit Just Got Real. First DREAMer Deported. Illegally, It Seems.
Ivanka Dines With Chinese. Gets Trademark Deal: Was the Emoluments Clause Repealed? Oh, and There’s Trump and His Turkish Towers. What is it going to take?
Doesn’t get much scarier than this:
They were traveling on Brackenville Road in Hockessin in their family car when the tree fell over and totaled the vehicle. Neither were seriously injured, but Zach Denn was taken to Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children for treatment.
Wilmington has its gun problem. Hockessin has its tree problem.
BTW, earlier reports that two Corrections officers were found near the scene with a suspicious-looking chain saw have proven to be incorrect. I, uh, made up that last part.
DuPont Pays Lawyers Instead of Its Victims
Prison Guards Call Out Sick: Doesn’t Carney have a Task Force working on this, or something?
British PM Calls for Surprise Early Election: Don’t get too excited. Labour’s got nothing.
Bruce Langhorne, Who Created Memorable Riffs on Dylan’s ‘Bringing It All Back Home’, Dies: Gotta admit I’d never heard of him. But I knew his guitar, and it was great:
United Does It Again. Boots Newlyweds off Half-Full Plane
Trump Seeks and Receives Industry Advice on Gutting Environmental and Labor Protections
Delaware Nursing Homes Turn Backs on Medicaid Recipients
More Blatant Trump Fox Guarding Henhouse Appointees
Liar. Liar, Hair on Fire: Hair Forensic Analysis Not All That
It looks at least possible that the Governor is willing to consider marijuana legalization. Cynics might say that that’s b/c it’s just one more issue he hasn’t thought about. Even if that’s true, though, it means he could be persuaded. It’s better than the ‘over my dead body’ line in the sand drawn by Jack Markell, who is looking more and more like a failed governor with each passing day.
So, on Wednesday, Carney will hold a symposium at Del-Tech Wilmington at 4 pm. Six supporters of legalization, including bill sponsors Sen. Margaret Rose Henry and Rep. Helene Keeley, will speak about why they favor legalization.
If you were to address the governor, what would you say? Why do you support or oppose legalization?
I’ll start. I smoked pot in college and for at least 10 years, probably more like 15, after I graduated. I stopped enjoying it b/c it induced a sense of paranoia in me. However, if pot were legal, I’d probably use it. Not for recreation, but rather b/c my work has physical demands and I’m always aching when I get home. I would seek out a strain that is effective as a pain reducer. To the governor: It’s safer and less addicting than the opiates that are now the scourge of our country’s drug epidemic.
That’s mine. What’s yours?
Bob Tracy’s got a lot to prove.
Possibly more than any large city in the country, Chicago’s police force has been singled out for excessive force, institutional racism, and corruption. From this NYTimes article:
“C.P.D.’s own data gives validity to the widely held belief the police have no regard for the sanctity of life when it comes to people of color,” the task force wrote. “Stopped without justification, verbally and physically abused, and in some instances arrested, and then detained without counsel — that is what we heard about over and over again.”
The report reinforces complaints made for decades by African-American residents who have said they were unfairly singled out by officers without justification on a regular basis, then ignored when they raised complaints.
Yet, Wilmington has chosen an officer who left as part of the purge of those associated with CPD policies. In fact, he was a close ally of Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy. From the News-Journal story:
“I left just at a time that City Hall looked like they wanted to make changes,” he said. “I think it was probably time for a change. They were going in a new direction, and I figured, ‘let them go in that direction’ and move on to the private sector.”
Tracy was a ‘chief crime strategist’ in Chicago at a time that violent crime in the Windy City was growing exponentially.
Oh, and did I mention that Wilmington City Council, at the request of Mayor Purzycki, raised the salary of the incoming chief from $117, 073 to $160,000?
Look, none of this is to say that the newly installed police chief won’t be successful. But, Wilmington has hired someone who was a key player in a failed police department that set itself above the law, particularly when it came to violating the civil liberties of many of its citizens. As a strategist, he presided over a strategy that failed. And Wilmington’s taxpayers just raised the chief’s salary by $43,000 so that they could attract him.
I have to wonder just exactly what it was that convinced the Mayor that this guy was the perfect fit for Wilmington.
I wish him all the best. But we would do well to keep our eyes open and view his performance with at least a healthy dose of skepticism.
Chicago crime strategist named Wilmington police chief (link)
Auditor: Delaware oversight of federal aid program weak (link
Judgment day: 3 girls to learn their fates in Howard High School bathroom assault (link)
Sculptor of Wall Street’s bull wants Delaware artist’s ‘Fearless Girl’ moved (link)
Photograph of Fearless Girl by Shinya Suzuki (link)
Whoa. We all had a pretty good idea that Markell’s ‘torch’ wanted to burn public education in Delaware to the ground.
Here, in this New York Magazine blog, Delaware’s former Secretary of Education verifies what we thought. All of this in his own words:
Imagine if the teachers’ union was a gatekeeper for quality teaching: “We, the union, care deeply about high-quality teachers and we are going to do everything we can to ensure we have high-quality teachers,” instead of, “We’re going to spend our time defending teachers who do bad things, and negotiating for better health benefits and salary.” I’m not saying those things are unimportant; I actually tried to pay teachers more money, but I wanted to link the money to their responsibilities and their performance. But the teachers’ union doesn’t even want to talk about how one teacher is a lot better than another.
Well, you tried to quantitatively evaluate teachers by the performance of the schools where they taught. Ignoring, of course, the obvious correlation between economic disadvantage, family stability, and school performance. But don’t let me interrupt.
I tried to change the funding system. I couldn’t get that done. I tried to change how teachers were paid. Couldn’t get that done. Tried to change how we dealt with the lowest-performing schools. Couldn’t get that done. Each time you try to turn around a school, or you open or close a charter school, or disagree with the union, you punch another hole in the bucket and you start to drain out. You lose some political capital. Eventually, you’re out of water.
Especially when you rely on the highly-paid bean counters in your own Department and ignore people who understand what actually goes on in schools.
You’ll have to read the entire piece to see how he completely distorts what happened with the Wilmington schools. But, he betrays the real motive for this screed in the final graf:
I am really nervous that really great people are going to stop being willing to pursue public office because you get publicly and professionally assassinated in these jobs. The people who, day in and day out, are running our government — these are not bad people. They show up to these jobs because they care, and they take pay cuts to do it, and nobody thanks them. Very rarely do you get thanks.
That may or may not be true. But if the implication is that ‘really great people’ include people like Mark Murphy, it’s not true. When you look at it, this piece is every bit as self-serving as Jack Markell’s vanity piece in the Atlantic. And just as full of the false choices that Markell posited, in Markell’s case that we ‘need jobs, not populism’. In Murphy’s case, it is, and I quote, ‘Imagine if the teachers’ union was a gatekeeper for quality teaching…instead of, ‘We’re going to spend our time defending teachers who do bad things, and negotiating for better health benefits and salary’. False choices–one more thing that Markell and Murphy have in common. Along with the disingenuous nature that these two condescending elitists share.
