The Weekly Addresses

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President Obama The West Wing Week, with its focus on Delaware... Governor Markell hasn't posted a weekly message update on his YouTube channel (which is where I always check) in three weeks. Sussex Watcher informs me that he has hidden his weekly messages at part of his state website. So he been posting messages, just not publicly to his YouTube channel. So here is this week's update: And over the craziness of the last few weeks, I forgot to post this legislative wrap up from the House Democratic Caucus from Valerie Longhurst and Speaker Schwartzkopf. I do highly encourage the House and the Senate to continue these weekly messages from various lawmakers, even when the General Assembly is out of session. One of the travesties of our democracy is that everyone knows who the President is, but very few know who their local state representative and senator are, and those officials are the ones who are and are supposed to be most responsive to your needs and requests. Keep it up GA.

A Republican for the 9th? [Updated with my call with Speaker Schwartzkopf, and responses from Andye Daley]

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State Representative Rebecca Walker (D) has represented this district for four years, first elected in 2010. She has risen quickly in the committee structure of the House, chairing the House Judiciary Committee (and thus bottling up some more progressive legislation like death penalty repeal) in the last term. She has a reputation for being overly cautious politically (like not going for her rematch against the forever vulnerable former Republican Majority Leader Dick Cathcart in 2010, to whom she lost in 2008, until Cathcart dropped out) and not being an overly good campaigner. This year, while some of us expected her to retire and not run, she surprised us and refiled to run. And then, two days after the filing deadline, she announced she was withdrawing and not running for reelection. The reason she did this was to not allow the voters in her district any control or any voice over who their nominee was going to be. For you see, after the primary filing deadline passed on July 8, the RD Committee for the district gets to decide who the nominee is, usually under severe pressure from higherups in the party. Well, that is what is happening. The candidate being pushed directly by Speaker Pete Schwartzkopf is Jason Horitz.
Delaware Political Weekly: July 12-18, 2014

Delaware Political Weekly: July 12-18, 2014

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The Democratic Party endorses neither candidate for the State Treasurer primary. Kremlinologists no doubt will enjoy parsing the following sentence:
Given the Committee’s perception of quality both Democratic Treasurer candidates possess, the committee failed to reach consensus on the endorsement of either candidate.
Might I suggest that this is one endorsement that neither candidate really wanted? How could Chip run as the anti-establishment candidate if the establishment endorsed him, and how could Barney run as someone not beholden to the Carpers and Carneys of this world if he got the endorsement? My vote will ultimately come down to this: What can we least afford? A self-delusional narcissist who has had his hands effectively tied, or the next Carper or Carney?
Markell to Children: Drop Dead

Markell to Children: Drop Dead

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Don't look for gimlet-eyed Jack Markell to lift a finger to assist in the humanitarian crisis at the nation's borders.  Delaware Gov. Markell turned down a request from The US Department of Health & Social Services to even consider making any state resources available to stem the humanitarian crisis. He blames congressional 'dithering'. As if the kids placed in the middle of this crisis can do anything to overcome congressional dithering. From today's News-Journal story:
Markell, who is among a number of the nation’s governors who fielded federal requests for help, said there are no state facilities available that could properly accommodate the children while they await immigration hearings. But he said some Delaware faith-based organizations might be in a position to offer assistance. “I don’t really see the possibility of any state facilities housing these kids,” Markell said Monday. “I don’t think that exists. If private organizations choose to do so, that’ll be up to them.”
Cape Henlopen School Board: Banning Books And Emails

Cape Henlopen School Board: Banning Books And Emails

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I'm sure everyone is familiar with latest book banning drama from the Cape Henlopen School Board.  If not, here's the recap:
Cape Henlopen School District's decision to take a book off a summer reading list for incoming high school freshmen has drawn protests from librarians, some parents and teachers. The young-adult book, "The Miseducation of Cameron Post," which features a main character who is gay, was removed from the list by the school board in late June. The board majority cited foul language, not sexual orientation, as the reason for their action.
Which was followed by this:
Several Cape Henlopen School Board members indicated a willingness to reconsider their vote last month to remove a young adult novel from a freshman summer reading list at a Thursday meeting where librarians and a parent criticized them for it.
Now, this isn't the first time the Cape Henlopen School Board went after a book.  It's obviously a "thing" for this school board. But today's article in the Cape Gazzette brings a new tactic to the the table.
Expanding the Port of Wilmington

Expanding the Port of Wilmington

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You've probably seen this article in Sunday's NJ that spins out a vision by Tom Gordon to expand on the Port of Wilmington by building a new facility directly on the Delaware River capable of handling the larger ships coming through the world's seaways. This new facility would be south of the current port, just south of the Delaware Memorial Bridge. I give Tom Gordon some credit for thinking about capitalizing on the current Port asset. I wrote about this alot when I was writing about Kinder Morgan and I'm still surprised that this isn't higher up on the economic development agenda.