Delaware
![Saturday Daily Delawhere [10.12.13]](http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7384/10138546564_7faa93e983_z.jpg "Saturday Daily Delawhere [10.12.13]")
![Friday Daily Delawhere [10.11.13]](http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7317/10138546644_f32bef3113_z.jpg "Friday Daily Delawhere [10.11.13]")
![Thursday Daily Delawhere [10.10.13]](http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3768/10107393996_9ae88c5f10_z.jpg "Thursday Daily Delawhere [10.10.13]")
![Wednesday Daily Delawhere [10.9.13]](http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7321/10127867765_1d2387cab9_z.jpg "Wednesday Daily Delawhere [10.9.13]")
The 6th Most Dangerous State in America
That’s Delaware’s ranking in 24/7’s most recent ranking of violent states based upon FBI’s Uniform Crime Report (2012). They did this last year too, and we were 6th then. Even though violent crime has mostly been on the decline, that decline hasn’t hit all areas of the US evenly. They use the FBI’s definition of violent crime, which includes: violent crime includes murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault. Both Maryland and Delaware make both lists, even though they both have relatively high educational attainment and relatively low poverty. What makes both states outliers is the violent crime that persists in sections of our biggest cities — Baltimore in Maryland and Wilmington here in Delaware.
![Tuesday Daily Delawhere [10.8.13]](http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7434/10083002103_b26826d62d_z.jpg "Tuesday Daily Delawhere [10.8.13]")
![Monday Daily Delawhere [10.7.13]](http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7451/10083002243_32ae781716_z.jpg "Monday Daily Delawhere [10.7.13]")
Can Chip Flowers Manage His Department’s Budget? All Signs Point to No
In a bold act of *disclosure* this past Friday afternoon, at 4:30pm, State Treasurer Chip Flowers released his so-called “definitive and final report” on the problems his Agency has had with one employee in using her credit card in accordance with State regulations. This is a great example of the Friday afternoon data dump — in which you hope that members of the media won’t pay much attention and print your spin on this item. The Treasurer’s “report” was dumped so late on Friday afternoon, that the press release that came with this thing didn’t even get posted to the website yet. But perhaps this report was rushed out in an attempt to counterweight the News Journal article today that provides a big window into how mismanaged the expenses on Ms. Erika Benner’s state-issued credit card were.
![Sunday Daily Delawhere [10.6.13]](http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2814/10082948196_917368bf5e_z.jpg "Sunday Daily Delawhere [10.6.13]")
Comment Rescue — What Should Be Done To Make Wilmington a Healthy and Thriving City?
That is the core of this comment that Paul Calistro posted in the Daily Delaware thread. It is a good set of questions by someone who thinks about what is going on the city alot and by someone who cares a great deal about what happens here. Add your comments below and I hope Paul will check in and engage in a conversation here:
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.
Something I Hadn’t Noticed Until Now…
… but, where is Vice President Biden? He had been central to prior negotiations in 2011 with the Republican Default Crisis and with the 2012 Fiscal Cliff. In those deals, he was the peacemaker and dealmaker. He is being kept off canvas now, but not for the obvious reason: so that he could be brought in for another dealmaking opportunity. No, there is another reason….
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.
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