So which stories / topics / issues interest you this weekend?
Wilmington continues its soul-searching over the spate of shootings. Predictably, some mayoral candidates and other city politicians call for more police--community interaction; establishing a homicide division within the Wilmington Police Department and/or collaboration with the homicide divisions in the New Castle County police department and the Delaware State Police. Of course, that addresses these crimes AFTER they're committed.
Legislation defining the powers of sheriffs in Delaware (no authority to arrest or investigate crimes) has cleared both legislative chambers (although more narrowly in the state Senate) and will get Governor Markell's signature.
But, predictably, Sussex County Jeff Cristopher - navigating an alternate universe - says the legislation doesn't mesh with the way he interprets the Delaware Constitution. He believes the state Constitution DOES confer arrest powers to his office. Georgetown's police chief says it'll be the law and Cristopher will be subject to arrest if he does something out of line. This could get very interesting!
Speaking of Sussex County, the intrigue is boiling over in Delaware's southernmost county: Allegations contained in an anonymous letter sent to every Delaware House member that a Sussex County councilman got involved with a 17-year-old female during the 2010 campaign. This may have contributed to a physical confrontation between this councilman and Sheriff Christopher. Prominent Sussex County Republicans are in the thick of it. A certain plane crash in Virginia some months ago may or may not be necessarily related to this. Stay tuned.
After three decades without a "regular" movie theater, ground has been broken for the Penn Cinema along the Riverfront in Wilmington... a 14-screen cinema that would be Delaware's first IMAX theater. The theater will also be one of the first in the country to offer a high-speed projection system -- 48 frames per second -- which should make movies feel all the more realistic.
Personally, IMAX and 3-D tend to make me dizzy. But I'm probably the minority as I tend to get motion sickness very easily. Can't read stuff in a moving car, for example. Even the shadow of a ceiling fan in a restaurant twirling around can make me nauseous.
The prosecution is wrapping up the Jerry Sandusky case. The big question: Will the former Penn State assistant coach take the witness stand?
Chad Livengood, the former NEWS-JOURNAL reporter now at the DETROIT NEWS, reports Michigan House Republicans tried to silence two female Democratic lawmakers Thursday for floor outbursts the previous day referencing male sterilization and a female internal reproductive organ.
From Livengood's account: "The majority party prohibited state Rep. Lisa Brown from speaking on the floor Thursday after she ended a speech the day before against a bill restricting abortions by referencing her female anatomy. 'I'm flattered that you're all so interested in my vagina, but no means no', said Brown, D-West Bloomfield. State Rep. Barb Byrum, D-Onondaga, also wasn't recognized to speak Thursday for a disturbance she caused on the House floor Wednesday when the GOP majority wouldn't allow her to propose a ban on men getting a vasectomy unless the sterilization procedure was necessary to save a man's life."
Here's a link to the entire story in The DETROIT NEWS---
Interesting stats about immigrants in the United States: A report from the New York-based, Fiscal Policy Institute, finds California is the top state for immigrant entrepreneurship. Immigrants own 33% of California's small businesses, the highest share in the United States, and make up 27% of that state's population.
More and more economists hint at a double-dip recession here in the United States. What happens in Greece this weekend could determine whether we see a Eurozone break-up.
The WASHINGTON POST has been running a fascinating series on U.S. spy operations in sub-Saharan Africa. The WASHINGTON POST's Craig Whitlock reports on how the military is trying to cover its tracks: Outsourcing much of the spy operation to U.S. contractors. "The contractors supply the aircraft as well as the pilots, mechanics, and other personnel to help process electronic intelligence collected from the airspace over Uganda, Congo, South Sudan, and the Central African Republic."
Later in the article: "The previously unreported practice of hiring private companies to spy on huge expanses of African territory - in this region and in North Africa, where a similar surveillance program is aimed at an al-Qaeda affiliate - has been a cornerstone of the U.S. military's secret activities on the continent. Unlike uniformed troops, plainclothes contractors are less likely to draw attention. But because the arms-length arrangement exists outside traditional channels, there is virtually no public scrutiny or oversight. And if something goes wrong, the U.S. government and its partners acknowledge that the contractors are largely on their own."
Egypt seems to be reverting to totalitarian rule: Egypt's Supreme Constitutional Court ruled the Muslim Brotherhood-dominated parliament must be dissolved and that former officials from the Hosni Mubarak government be allowed to hold political office. Some are calling this a "coup" by the judiciary. Unrest - or worse - could come to Cairo. Indeed, the main parliamentary power-brokers - the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafi Nour Party - may refuse to dissolve.
From The NEW YORK TIMES: "They toppled a pharaoh, but now the small circle of liberals, leftists, and Islamists who orchestrated Egypt's revolution say they realize they failed to uproot the networks of power that Hosni Mubarak nurtured for nearly three decades. They were naive, they say, strung along by the generals who seized power in their name..."
Something in Presidential politics that caught my eye:
With four-and-a-half months before our Presidential election, Gallup puts President Obama's overall approval at 50.4% How would this compare to other recent Presidents at about the same time?
Year President Approval Result
1956 Eisenhower 73% Won
1967 Johnson 48% Didn't run
1972 Nixon 59% Won
1980 Carter 32% Lost
1984 Reagan 54% Won
1992 Bush 37% Lost
1996 Clinton 58% Won
2004 Bush 48% Won
2012 Obama 50% ???
With the European sword of Damocles about to drop, and such great economic uncertainty - not to mention so many global trouble-spots simmering, perhaps ready to explode - plus a volatile 24/7 news cycle and "new media" - I'm not sure it matters at all what the polls say four-and-a-half months out.
Posted at 9:47am on June 15, 2012 by Allan Loudell
Maybe Wilmington and New Castle County should team up this one time and try the Guiliani plan that worked so well in NYC; enforce all the little laws and clean up our city and county. Make it such a hassle for those drug dealers and distributors from out-of-state to do any business in Wilmington or New Castle County that they take their operations to another state along the I-95 corridor.
Let's face facts, just like prostitution they're never going to get rid of the drug-dealings UNLESS it is made legal which doesn't seem likely anytime soon.
Delaware has some of the toughest prostitution laws in the nation and that has helped to cut down on that problem along the US 13, US40, and Rt 9 corridors.
So let's do the Guiliani thing and clean up this city / county of the little petty law-breaking, al la Guiliani, while we make life for those evil people unbearable and they move on to some other locale. IF only the city does the crackdown then more of that violence and drug dealing, etc, will simply move to the suburbs. So it has to be a "joint" - no pun intended - effort by both city/county to rid this area of all the gun violence that is plaguing Wilmington which is due to the drug turf wars, etc. Time to take the turf away from these evil folks permanently.
Another topic.
According to that chart on the Presidents above, Obama's can and could win re-election in November. That's why IF Mitt Romney wants to win, he needs to not bad mouth Obama, he's got plenty of right wing knuckleheads to do that in the media each day. Mitt needs to be giving folks a reason to vote FOR him. WHAT will he do the fix the economy and get legal Americans back to work. No broad pie-in-the-sky stuff, details man. Romney needs to remember that the Bush Jr. policies got us into this mess and Obama is reminding folks of that and is also saying that a vote for Romney is a vote to go back to those same Bush Jr. policies. So come on Mitt, kick it into gear and start laying out some real plans that people can get excited about, thus giving them a reason to vote for the businessman turn governor from Mass. Obama is weak and vulnerable. He can be beaten, but it won't be easy, so get with it.
He also needs to re-assure folks like me who in a couple of years will be going on Social Security that he won't mess with our plans, sure for the 20 somethings changing things would work, but this is a fear that many of us have as Bush Jr wanted to do just that during his term, but Iraq and Afghanistan kept him busy so he never got around to it. So some assurance that a vote for Mitt isn't going to be a vote to stick it to ourselves in having Social Security and Medicare there for us in a couple of years.
All I'm hearing Mitt saying now is protect the wealthiest and too bad for the little guy. THAT's not going to win him the election. He talks about how Ohio is hurting, but they'd be far worse off IF the auto industry went belly-up, so Obama saved all those jobs IN Ohio, like it or not, so many folks in Ohio who are in any way affiliated with the auto industry will be supporting the DEM in November. How about the rest of us? Give us little people a reason to believe you'll have our interests at heart and not just your rich buddies. Perception is a major player and if the little guy perceives Mitt as favoring his rich pals and not giving a hoot about us, their votes will go to Obama. This is going to be a close election.
So far the GOP has picked the best candidate to win out of the choices they had during the primary season, but now they've got to show the working class people that the GOP isn't just a party for the wealthy Rush Limbaugh, Wall Street Business Exec types, but for the guy who's working and barely making ends meet. The guy who lost his/her job in the crash and has been busting his butt to find another job that pays more than unemployment and have not been successful. These people need to hear some real specifics that Romney plans on doing IF he's Prez.
This thing in Europe sure doesn't help things. This could hurt what little good news the US has had in its economy.
Here's something that all of us who call Jesus, Lord and Savior should be doing, no matter what your political view or party: Each of us should be praying FOR our Prez (who today is Obama), and the Congress, that they'd seek God's face and seek his direction for this nation so they'd make the best honorable decisions they can.
We also should be praying that God will have his way in the election and whomever HE prefers to win would be the next Prez, even IF that means Obama. If that happens to be God's will than it doesn't matter whether or not we like him, agree with him, etc. Same with Mitt Romney. If Mitt is God's choice and will for our nation, then whether we like him, his Mormonism, etc., doesn't matter. These things all of us Christians should be praying for between now and November.
President Lincoln said well, when one of his generals said he hoped God was on our side in the Civil War. Mr. Lincoln replied, that it's more important that we be on God's side. THAT's the bottom line. God's side IS the Standard.
Mike from Delaware
Fri, Jun 15, 2012 11:19am
Here is a news item about Obama going around Congress to allow some Illegal Aliens to remain in US.
I'm starting to think that Wilmington may soon be worse than Chicago.
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