My Parental Dilemma

Last night over dinner my 11 year old daughter announced that her science teacher doesn’t like Joe Biden.  After exchanging a look with my husband I asked, “Why would you think that?”  She then proceeded to explain…

“When we were watching the Inauguration in class Mr. XXXX said that finally Delaware is rid of him.”

Now this isn’t the first time this science teacher has brought politics into the classroom, and I ignored his previous antics since I wasn’t sure what he said about this email – but I could guess.  But now I’m angry.  I’m also in a dilemma.

$606,000,000 in the Red

Markell's reality check is coming to a town near you. “Government can no longer pretend that it has all the answers,” Markell said during the briefing in the Tatnall Building…

SB 20 — Reapportionment of the General Assembly

Kudos to are due to Senator Blevins and Representative Kowalko and all of the co-sponsors of this bill to create an The Redistricting Commission for the State of Delaware — an independent commission to supervise the reapportionment of the GA after the next census. Really, this approach to reapportionment is all kinds of steps in the right direction.

This bill takes the work of redistricting out of the political hands of the Legislature and asks this commission to redraw the maps. The GA approves the maps by majority vote, with the Governor approving. In the event there is no agreement on the reapportionment by September 30 of the year the new census data is available from the US Government, there is a provision to hand the task off to the Chancellor of the State of Delaware and a Superior Court Judge, whose work product is binding when complete.

The Commission has eleven members — 10 appointed by GA leadership and the non-voting Chair of the Commission is selected and voted on by the appointed Commission. Each county and the City of Wilmington have to be represented. They are required to operate openly — they have the maintain a website, conduct all meetings in public, and be subject to FOIA. In addition, they may not be elected officials, party officials, may not be a lobbiest, may not run for office in the election following reapportionment and may not be recently retired from the legislature.

Eminent Domain: Nemski’s Letter and Denn’s Response

Dear Lt. Governor:

At the Delaware Liberal Inaugural Ball, you asked bloggers to help keep you honest, to keep your feet to the fire. Well, Mr. Denn, I am happy to oblige.

On Monday, you held a press conference with representatives of the Delaware State Chamber of Commerce as well as the AFL-CIO and you asked the General Assembly to proceed with caution. Let me stop there for a moment, business leaders and union leaders getting together and agreeing on something? Why does this make me a bit uneasy? Business and unions have been at odds for so long and now they agree that amendments are needed for the eminent domain legislation. But I digress and I don’t expect you to speak for business and union leaders.

However I imagine you can speak to what you said. You asked the General Assembly to take the extra time to shape a compromise (WDEL). What is that you don’t like about the current legislation? What type of amendment(s) do you and the leaders of business and unions want?

To the untrained political eye, it could seem that the office of the Lt. Governor might be representing developers and not representing the wishes of the people of Delaware. Please let me know why I am wrong.

Sincerely,

nemski

Below the fold is the Lt. Govenor’s response.

Mike Castle in the Spotlight Today

Reports of Mike Castle and the Rest of the House Republican Caucus’ meeting with President Obama to talk about the economic recovery plan will start to filter out soon.

I wonder if Mike will side with the corrupt to the core Radical Republicans who call the shots in the caucus, or if his apology was sincere and he will instead side with working Delawareans?