Tag: Featured
Wilmington Breaks Its Shootings Record
Over the past several days, Wilmington lived through another rash of shootings resulting in a new shootings record: 147, surpassing the 2010 record of 142. On Monday, I returned home from seeing The Godfather on the big screen at Penn Cinema to multiple flashing red lights at 6th and Madison Sts — 2 women had been shot sitting on their porch earlier that evening. Earlier on Monday, the WPD reported arresting a man carrying an illegal gun not far from this spot — on the 500 block of W 5th — and credited the community with reporting this guy. On Friday, a man was shot in the 600 blk of W 6th St. Other shootings up on Lea Blvd AND at the Riverfront made this a heartbreaker of a Thanksgiving weekend for Wilmington.
Now Accepting 2013 MVP Nominees!
Yes, the 2013 MVP (Most Valuable to the Progressive Cause in Delaware) list is coming soon. As soon as I write it, in fact.
This Top Ten list reflects those Delawareans who most contributed to the advancement of progressive causes in the year-gone-by.
Those on the list don’t even have to be progressives (Tony DeLuca and John Sigler have made it, and that doesn’t even include the 2010 winner…) , but they have to have made at least one signature contribution to the cause.
Once again, I seek your nominees. Several of your suggestions have made it onto previous lists.
John Carney’s Friendship Initiative – A Scorecard
John Carney decided to establish his street cred in Congress by building friendships with Republicans. It was the very heart of his brand-building first term. A daring strategy, and as it turned out, a stupid one.
Why Is Delaware Risking Faulty Elections?
I was thrilled last spring to move to a Blue state. Still am, except for one major deficiency here. Our voting machine systems. Most of the rest of the free world, at least here in the good old U.S. of A., has discovered the flaws and huge risks present with DRE voting machines.
You Be The Judge In A Mental Health Court
“A person may be dangerous to self and others when he or she have recently threatened or attempted suicide or some serious bodily injury. He or she may have demonstrated danger of substantial and imminent harm to himself and/ or others through some recent act, attempt or threat of the same.”
Now, I’d welcome your interpretation of this legal definition of a mentally ill person’s status in a court in a crisis center or public psychiatric hospital whose family members or colleagues trying to get an involuntary assessment of their mental health/competence to make their own decisions. Pay particular attention to the words “dangerous”, “threatened”, “recently”, “substantial”, “imminent” or “harm”.
What conduct, voiced statements or behaviors would lead you to your decision to either release the person to society or have them confined temporarily for psychiatric assessment and further action?
The 62 Project: #’s 24 & 38
Kim Williams is among three newcomers who have displayed extraordinary promise during the 2013 legislative session. Consider the number 24 as merely a placeholder as it reflects her lack of time in Dover. She’s moving higher. Not only does she have the right profile for a citizen-legislator, she has demonstrated that conscience and effectiveness are not mutually exclusive.
Trey Paradee has been the single greatest disappointment to progressives among the 2012 newcomers. Despite expressing support for equal rights for same sex couples back in 2008, Paradee voted against marriage equality. He largely opposed most gun control measures. He has helped to bury a minimum wage increase in the House Business Lapdog Committee. Now, while he technically did not ‘go back on his word’ on gay marriage (the initial comments dealing with civil unions), he diligently ‘worked the refs’ to create at least a sense of good will from progressives, including me. He convinced me that this district was not the stereotypical Kent County district of 20 years ago, and then voted as if it was. Fool me once…
Red Clay School District Bucks The Class Size Law
So this happened:
Parents and educators have fought for years to keep class sizes small. But as school populations grow, those efforts run into physical and financial barriers. Sometimes schools run out of space and face difficult decisions. In most cases, there are two solutions: Build more classroom space and hire more teachers (which usually means raising taxes or moving money from other priorities) or approve a waiver allowing more students in classes than the law says is ideal. In the past few years, most Delaware districts have asked their school boards to approve waivers – and boards have always agreed. That changed last week when the Red Clay School Board rejected its district’s request, deadlocking in a 3-3 vote.
Color me surprised. And while I completely understand the difficulties districts face following this law, it is a law. An unfunded, feel good law, but a law nonetheless. That said… I like what the RCCD board did.
Another Year and We Are Still Not Close to Fixing Wilmington’s Violence Problems
This Sunday featured one more Special Report from the NJ on the current state of violence in Wilmington: A Legacy of Crime Threatens Wilmington’s Progress; Wilmington Mayor Wants to Overhaul Police Force to Reverse City’s Crime Trend; and Florida City’s Police Force Gets Out From Behind Desks is the reporting package on offer. There’s alot to think about here and I’m not sure that I can do one more piece on using the policing assets we have better. But I have a few random thoughts:
In Which We Find Chip Flowers Changing the Credit Cards Story AGAIN
Delaware State News reports on the Chip Flowers’ travel document dump, and we find that that the State Treasurer still can’t quite wrap his mind around the escalating mismanagement of these credit card issues. For one (and the most jawdropping to me), we find that Flowers wants us to know that he lost all of those receipts because the corporate world he came from has differing standards:
Not keeping the original receipts was a mistake that Mr. Flowers acknowledged, and he attributed the discarded receipts to following the general policies of corporate business during his transition to public office in 2011.
Anybody Else Longing For Single Payer?
Ok, now I am more than totally befuddled about our so called health care reform. Today the President announced that if you liked your piece of shit so called catastrophic health policy that covers practically nothing and leads you to bankruptcy court, you can keep it. If only the insurance companies will willingly volunteer to restore their pieces of shit policies. In the name of good citizenship.
UPDATE: The Chip Flowers’ Travel Expenses Data Dump
State Treasurer Chip Flowers had his news conference this AM that preceded the release of travel documents from his office. You can see a clip of the news conference at WDEL plus their story. The NJ also has some video and a story. Both stories highlight the apology (from WDEL):
O’Keefe At It Again
The infamous conservative James O’Keefe has now set his sites on Obamacare Navigators with video clips of their allegedly misinforming, or misleading or encouraging abuse of a federal program.
The 62 Project: #’s 25 & 37
Mike Mulrooney is a salt-of-the-earth legislator, and I mean that as a compliment. While he doesn’t make splashes as a prime sponsor on much legislation, he is a quietly-effective supporter of (mostly) progressive legislation. He meandered from the fold on one gun bill, but that’s about it.
Rep. Don Blakey is a mild disappointment to me. He is a largely-moderate African-American who could be a bit more like Mike Ramonewithout harming his electoral position, IMHO. Especially within the R House caucus. While he doesn’t vote in lockstep with leadership, he does so far too much to warrant a higher ranking. For example, why would he stand with the obstructionist elements in his caucus in not supporting ‘no-excuses absentee balloting’? There’s, um, no excuse for that. All it does is help disenfranchise many of his constituents, some of whom work at the Dover Air Force Base. Why did he vote against gay marriage? Why does he oppose criminal background checks for private weapons purchases?
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