Presser ~ New Student Assessment Meetings Start Thursday In Kent

Lt. Governor Denn, Secretary of Education Lowery Hold Public Meetings on

New Student Assessment
Meetings will discuss replacing the DSTP

DOVER - Beginning Thursday night, Lieutenant Governor Matthew Denn and Delaware Secretary of Education Lillian Lowery will hold a series of public meetings to discuss with the public the new student testing procedures that Delaware is seeking to implement in place of the Delaware State Testing Program. Secretary Lowery and Lieutenant Governor Denn will explain the new testing regimen that the state will pursue if the Delaware General Assembly gives its consent, and will answer questions from the public and take suggestions about the new testing procedures.

The meeting schedule is as follows:
Kent County - April 9, 6:30 p.m. John Bassett Moore School, Smyrna SD (enter through South Street entrance)
New Castle County – April 13 at 6:30 p.m., Gunning Bedford Auditorium, Colonial SD
Sussex County - April 16 at 6:30 p.m. DTCC Owens Campus,
Wm Carter Partnership Cntr Rm 529
----
Dana Rohrbough
Chief of Staff to Lt. Governor Matt Denn
(302) 577-8787 office
(302) 547-3763 cell
dana.rohrbough@state.de.us

God Speed Carl Cantera

My long-time neighbor, Carl Cantera, has passed on. A truer gentleman and a cooler guy couldn't be found in this county and he'll be missed by the friends and family who hold him dear. My family sends our love and condolences to Betty, Dick, Carolyn, Steve and Jill and their families.

I often write about the 'builders and developers' in a certain "light". But every time I do, the Canteras come to mind as the example that beats the rule. They are just as powerful and rich as anyone going, but they never crossed that 'certain line'; not once.

God bless you, Carl!

(Image by John Hark)

Bobby Byrd, Lobbyist For PSE & G, To Give A Presentation On Nuclear Power - State House Energy Committee, 4PM

Nuclear Power is on the docket for a presentation to the House Energy Committee tomorrow at 4:00 p.m. if anyone is interested. I don't have a laptop so I can't live-blog it. I do, however, have a new camera and will provide some color in my write-up.

Let's Have Sports Betting At The Racinos AND At Ten Existing Locations Across The State

Newark Post -

Legislation drops plans for new casinos in Delaware - Legislation that would authorize sports betting and "kick the can down the road" on a controversial plan to add new casinos and betting parlors has been introduced. The casino expansion had drawn fierce opposition from casino workers and owners. Suggested sites for the casinos included Wilmington and Sussex County.

Yikes, the racino monopoly shouldn't be allowed to be the only 'game in town'.
Bring sports betting to outlets in Wilmington and other munis across the state if the legis is not willing to bring more casino competition. OTB [Off Track Betting] 'parlors', perhaps licensed in existing locations, should be considered.

Launch of Newark Business Network - "The World According to BRAC & the Future of the Newark Chrysler Plant

TO RSVP please contact Paul Bauernschmidt via email at paul@farmersmith.com or by calling (302) 450-8314

PROFESSIONAL NETWORK CONNECTIONS
Newark Business Network
Meeting Notice
Thursday, April 16th
11:30 a.m. – 1:00 .m.

Meeting Location
Deerfield Golf and Tennis Club
507 Thompson Station Road, Newark, DE

EDUCATIONAL TOPIC
The World According to BRAC
How BRAC will affect Newark.
What is the future of the Chrysler Site?

Honorable Paul Pomeroy
Newark City Councilman

RSVP required by Wednesday, April 15th
(Please RSVP by return email or by calling Paul Bauernschmidt at 302-450-8314)

Next Meeting: May 7th, Deerfield Golf and Tennis Club, 11:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.

Go to www.pnconnections.org for additional information about Professional Network Connections.
Professional Network Connections
P.O. Box 713
Mauldin, SC 29662
864-990-3273
www.pnconnections.org
DebbieGriffith Brown, CEO & Founder

Knob Creek Kentucky Machine Gun Shooters And The Politics That "Brought 'Em"

There is no doubt that militia-addled wingnut is an American element that's here to stay.
The percentage that may cross the line into violence is also indubitably catalyzed by rabid RNC contagions like Limbaugh, Beck and Bachmann.
Culpability is nigh.
Rights in a democracy aren't first defended by "revolution".
Hello! The right wing lost the last two elections.
As a minority, they have to exercize some respect for the will of the country and if the only way they can see to garnering seats in our halls of government is to blow shit up, they will find themselves further marginalized.

Where the boys are? The Washington Independent's David Weigel says:

I spent Saturday at the bi-annual Knob Creek Machine Gun Shoot, right outside of Louisville, Ky. Gun enthusiasts of all stripes were there — from the National Rifle Association and sportsmen to militia members to white supremacists and Obama birthers.
(via First Draft)

Global Economy Calls For World-Sized Solutions

O'Geithner is getting the message? -

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said he’s prepared to oust the senior management and boards of directors at banks that require “exceptional” assistance from the U.S. government.

This problem is global, after all, and it looks like Obama is finding the support he will need -

At the summit, the world leaders called for tougher oversight of hedge funds, executive pay, credit-rating firms and derivatives trading. They also boosted funding for the International Monetary Fund, increasing its resources to $1 trillion. Obama called the event “historic” and predicted it will be a “turning point” for economic recovery across the world.

Geithner is pushing for an overhaul of financial rules that calls for putting big hedge funds and private-equity funds under stricter federal supervision, as well as regulating derivatives markets. He’s also seeking new powers for the government to seize and wind down nonbank financial companies whose size poses threats to the stability of the financial system.

Breaking - John Carney To Run For Congress!

I heard it first on Community Crossfire!
Actually I was busy writing and half-heard Norman Oliver say that John Carney is running for Congress. May we assume he will be challenging Mr. Castle and may we further guess that Mike will bow out? OUCH.
Knowing how tightly Castle and Carper are joined at the hip, would Carney even do this without the Delaware Way having had its way already? [Translated: Mike isn't running again].

Rich Abbott Likely To Help Save The Carousel Ponies

The Wilmington News Journal's Pet Blogger, Jill Fredel, scoops -

Draper is scheduled to meet with Michael Svaby, acting general manager for the county's Special Services Department, on Monday. And she'll likely have Rich Abbott, a former County Councilman and attorney, along with her to make her case. Abbott offered to represent Personal Ponies pro bono.

Personal Ponies is a national group with chapters in nearly every state and abroad. At Carousel Park and at public and private events, the ponies are there for kids - sick, disabled and abled - to pet, groom, feed, lead and even nuzzle - or be nuzzled, as Glory did to Henry Kuratle V in the 2006 photo (above) by Fred Comegys.

Watch The Nation's C-SPAN Forum On The Economic Meltdown

This is some good teevee - A discussion forum on the downturn in the financial system, based on The Nation's coverage of economic events for 20 years featuring Joseph Stiglitz, Jeff Madrick, Barbara Ehrenreich, Bill Fletcher, Jr. and Christopher L. Hayes. Unfortunately it's rerun time is 6:15 tomorrow morning!
Meltdown: How Greed and Corruption Shattered Our Financial System and How We Can Recover by Katrina Vanden Heuvel and contributors.

County Update - Audits And Ponies And A Friends Of Carousel Park Petition

New Castle County reversed itself by reinstating the money our county auditor requested for help with his workload. I can see George Smiley's way-red face sneering in disapproval....oh wait! The vote was unanimous not only to refund the auditor's staff but to also keep Wasserbach at his office in County's County Hall. Jesse Chadderdon writes -

Some on council feared housing the auditor in their suite could lead some to question his impartiality. "The independence of the auditor function has much greater value than the...savings we realize on paper," said Councilman Penrose Hollins (D-Wilmington North).

Members of the Civic League for New Castle County have been working hard to think up some county savings (March Newsletter pdf) that includes the suggestion that Council buddy up on dedicated aides saying "We note that State legislators share aides; perhaps similar leveraging can be done in the county. They also note that Coons' Dept. of Administration has 23 positions. hmmmmm. [One DEWAY reader wants me to FOIA information about staff receiving comp time and Paul Clark's out-of-whack spending on aides so I will be sending that letter out tomorrow].
Another item in this month's CLNCC News is about Carousel Farms horses.
Titled "So Much For Transparency", this account is rather disturbing -

I thought about going horseback riding as something for our guests to do. A call to Carousel Stables led to surprise upon surprise. The County owns 60 horses, I was told, but none are available for riding - unless you sign up for an 8-week course. Some 150 riders of all ages are currently riding 52 of the horses, with 8 of the horses reserved for use by the county police.
Curious about the cost of acquiring and maintaining 60 horses, I looked at the current county budget. Surprise #1 was discovering the county has that may horses. Surprise #2 was the challenge of learning the costs of owning and caring for them.
Somewhere it must be written down what the horse operation costs and what revenue the riding lessons produce. Perhaps happily, a profit is even being made for the county - which a bit of transparency would conveniently reveal.

The Community News covered the squabble going on over ponies at Carousel-

"Though we respect and admire the work of Patty Draper and the Personal Ponies organization, the guidelines for use of the stables have been disregarded on several occasions," he said.
He did offer Draper a glimmer of hope, however, saying County Executive Chris Coons would personally review the eviction decision. McLeod left the door open for some reconciliation.
Draper said she has tried to tend to the ponies during the appropriate times and said she's frustrated with what she perceives as a lack of communication on the part of Merrill. She said she's asked on multiple occasions to be notified via email when park hours change, but said she has never received such correspondence.
"I'd say 99.5 percent of the time we're here feeding the ponies prior to the staff leaving," Draper said. "So I kind of feel I was set up for eviction. And it's a shame because its so difficult to find a location within our community that is this accessible for families and children."
The program is separate from the county's therapeutic riding program, which is also located at Carousel, but Draper said they complement each other well.
She said she expects many of the organizations that use the ponies - from the Easter Seals Foundation to the Autism Foundation to Delaware Children's Hospice - to petition Coons to reverse Merrill's decision.

Comment rescue -

The Friends Of Carousel Park would like to see these Ponies stay. We care for all the horses, ponies as well as the staff at the park. And the Mounted police unit also. Cararousel Park is a very important part of our community. There were several times during bad thunderstorms where I was tempted to go over and check on the horses at the park myself. The Friends Of Carousel Park petition that these Ponies stay. Please let us know what we can do to keep the ponies at the park. The benefits to the children can not be measured. After all, it is our tax dollars that keep the park going.

I will have to find out how we can sign on to the Save The Ponies Petition.

Will New Jersey's Brownfields Get Their Due Scrubbing Now?

I emailed this article around to a few people this morning. One person responded -

This idea was heavily pushed on Markell's transition team. I'd be surprised if Jack doesn't endorse a version of it, since he says he wants government to get smaller and he says he wants to "streamline" the brownfields process. One could say that since brownfields in Delaware already don't get cleaned up, how much difference can it make......

Governor Corzine wrote it and New Jersey's Legislature approved the legislation that would allow the parties responsible for cleaning up polluted sites to hire licensed consultants to determine how to remediate the sites and then certify that they are safe. Oh dirty, dirty, conflicted New Jersey -

The bill calls for a 13-member board to issue licenses to the remediation professionals and would give the board the power to discipline them, such as by revoking their licenses. Six members are to be licensed site professionals, and a seventh would represent industry. Critics say a board majority would be working for the responsible parties. The result, environmentalists say, is legislation that relies too heavily on the good intentions of the polluters and the consultants they hire. "I think it will result in a lot of private engineers making a lot of money contributing to a lot of Democrats' campaigns and a real serious risk of more Kiddie Kolleges and EnCaps putting the public at risk," Pringle said.

....Critics also say the bill lacks many measures that were suggested to protect the environment and public safety. Some of those measures were included in earlier drafts but edited out. "Each version of the bill got worse," said Dave Pringle, campaign director for the New Jersey Environmental Federation. Among the critics' concerns:

No brainer - business LOVES the idea -

David Brogan, vice president of environmental policy at the New Jersey Business and Industry Association, said: "The only viable solution is to basically harness the power of the private sector and provide more authority for them to process those sites."

Others with some facts behind the rhetoric don't like it much -

But Richard Katz, an environmental consultant who works on remediation projects and worked for the DEP for 13 years, called the proposal "inherently unworkable." "It attempts to squeeze the square peg of the Massachusetts model into the round hole of the New Jersey regulatory structure," Katz said. "There are simply too many differences between the two frameworks for the program to be an effective solution." Massachusetts officials say their program has vastly improved the efficiency of site remediations. Janine Commerford, an assistant commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, said most licensed site professionals there were "very, very good at what they do."
But Mike Pisauro, legislative director for the New Jersey Environmental Lobby, said Massachusetts should serve as a warning rather than a model. One study of the program found that audits indicate consultants "routinely permit deviations from state regulations, sometimes creating serious risks to health and the environment," Pisauro said. According to the study, one level of audits found violations at 75 percent of sites.

Sen. Bill Baroni (R., Mercer), who voted against the bill, said cleaning up the sites was a "critical responsibility" of government. "We're talking about our drinking water, the health of our families," he said. "To turn that over to the very entities that may have caused the problem and let them decide whether the cleanup is good enough and clean enough? It's unprecedented in New Jersey environmental history."

If O'Mara and Markell want this for Delaware, I'd suggest that all law-makers take a gander first at the early drafts of the Jersey legislation.

Colonial School Board Candidate Gary Bennett, Writes: Voter Education in School Board Elections

Update: I wrote Gary back to ask his opinion on HB 117 - to put all elections on one day. I have heard it may be dead in committee. Many think that putting school board elections on election day will politicize the boards. Others feel that it will increase participation.
He replied:

I agree that the school board elections should be moved to the same day as the general election day, for three reasons.

First, politicizing the boards would make the elections morecompetitive and would force candidates to communicate their position to their constituents before the race. And after they were elected they would need to be held more accountable for any decisions they make. This means we would get better qualified candidates. I don't agree that politicizing is a bad thing. It is an elected position. Also, local politicians are involved with school issues all the time, and they need to have good working relationships with board members. Developing working relationships during the campaign process and leveraging each other's knowledge and resources would bring about better school boards.

Secondly, increasing voter participation is clearly needed. Having the elections the same day as other elections would raise the importance of school boards in the voter's mind. Today everyone knows elections are in November. Ask anyone when the school board elections are and they most likely do not know. This has made it too easy to get on a school board. 4 of the 7 board current board members ran unopposed in Colonial. Which means they did not need to work for the position and the community had no idea who they are or why they want to be on the board. With such low voter turnout these elections are not an election but a popularity contest.

Thirdly, it will save the state money.

BTW, this bill HB 117 is sponsored by my friend and neighbor state representative Valerie Longhurst.

Gary

~~~~~
Hi Nancy, I found your blog, and found a lot of interesting information about politics. Here is some information you will find shocking.

In Colonial School District there are approximately 30,000 eligible voters. Yet on average only 156 votes are cast.

You can find the details on the Department of Elections for New Castle County's web site : http://electionsncc.delaware.gov/Colonial/co_mbr.shtml

I'm running for the School Board in May and found that people are not educated about when, or there eligibility to vote in the school board elections.

Anything you can do to spread the word would be appreciated. Find out my agenda HERE

Thanks, Gary Bennett
gpbennett@comcast.net

http://changingminds.us/wordpress/

Channel 28 Program From 12 to 1 PM on Sunday, April 5th

Floyd McDowell writes ~

Charles Brittingham of the NAACP has asked me to be on his program to discuss our Coalition's Delaware Crime Prevention and Rehabilitation Act which will be introduced in our State Legislature by Senator Henry. Attached is an article that was submitted to the Delaware State News which gives an overview of the Act. A Delaware Voice article is supposed to be in tomorrow's News Journal authored by our Coalition Chairperson, Mrs. Heather Smith-Chandler of Dover.

NEEDED DELAWARE CRIME PREVENTION AND REHABILITATION ACT
By Mrs. Heather Smith-Chandler and Dr. Floyd E. McDowell, Sr.

This desperately needed, sensible program and cost effective Act will be introduced in our State Legislature by Senator Margaret Rose Henry. For citizens with internet access to become informed about this Act, visit the Justice Reform page on our nonprofit, nonpartisan deinformedvoters.org web site. Citizens without internet can receive a copy of the Act via postal mail by requesting this from either of the two authors of this article at the contact information given below. We urge citizens and their organizations to become competently informed and then become an active member of our Delaware Crime Prevention and Rehabilitation Coalition by contacting Mrs. Heather Smith-Chandler whose contact information is given at the end of this article.
The overall goal of this comprehensive Act is to help our State Correction Department and prison system return to their original purpose and responsibility which are expressed as follows in the Delaware Code: "To provide treatment, rehabilitation and restoration of offenders as useful, law-abiding citizens within the community." The Delaware Criminal Justice Council has been in existence for 25 years and their web site expresses the following as their reasons for being: "Dedicated to make positive changes throughout Delaware's criminal justice system. We continually strive for an effective criminal justice system which is fair, efficient and accountable." In the Act and in this article, we present factual program and cost information which shows those statements of purpose are about 180 degrees from the reality this Act will reverse. Correction Department Commissioner Carl Danberg is not at fault for this disgraceful system as he inherited it. But today is the first day of the rest of our lives and the Commissioner and all public and private officials, agencies, organizations and citizens should become informed about this Act's common sense provisions and support its enactment and implementation. Governor Markell has shown interest and action on improving our criminal justice system. This Act meets all the recommendations of private organizations trying to improve the system and meets all of the recommendations and pleas presented at the two Re-Entry Public Hearings conducted in New Castle County and attended by over 250 citizens. We sincerely request that anyone opposed to this Act send us in writing her/his reason or reasons for not supporting it.

Facts Supporting the Need for this Act

The Act contains the following information supporting the need for this program and cost effective comprehensive Act:

. Ninety seven percent of all incarcerated prisoners will eventually be released back into our communities;
. We have 7,200 incarcerated in our prisons which are over-crowded by approximately 500 prisoners;
. There is a planned prison expansion project on the agenda for 900 beds at a 2007 projected cost of $368 million and that 2009 cost is over $400 million or well over $400,000 per bed;
The annual incarceration cost per prisoner in 2008 was $33,000 and we're approaching $3,000 per month;
Our nation incarcerates over 5 times the prisoners of the average of all other nations and Delaware is among the states with the highest rate of incarceration. As the gates close behind each prisoner, they should emit a loud cash register sound for taxpayers and the prison/industrialist complex;
The rate of recidivism or return to prison is between 67% and 80% within three years after being released. This means additional crimes being committed in our communities and with additional costs including arrest, pretrial, trial and to victims and property;
. Approximately 80% of our state's offender population have a substance abuse problem and without proper treatment, 70% become repeat offenders;
. Approximately 25% of convicted offenders have a mental health need that requires treatment;
. Studies show that approximately 20% of released prisoners expect to go to homeless shelters;
. A startling statstic is that 85% of Delaware's youth in correctional facilities will go on to enter the adult criminal system; and
. A nationwide research study by the national Legal Action Council showed that Delaware is ranked 47th among the 50 states in prisoner re-entry efforts.

Act's Program and Cost Effective Reforms

The Act will provide the following program and cost effective changes in a coordinated, orchestrated manner:

. Abolishes all mandatory sentencing laws and returns sentencing discretion to our Judges who are ranked among the most competent in the nation. "One size fits all" is not good policy in criminal justice, public schooling or any civic/political issue area;
. Eliminates all fines that follow released prisoners as economic survival is their key challenge and fines are a barrier to rehabilitation;
. Establishes certification standards and staff qualifications for the comprehensive county-based Rehabilitation Centers who will provide or obtain needed services and programs in the community. These requirements will be developed by the State Department of Health and Social Services who will supervise these Centers. All grant proposals that are state funded or approved will have to meet these standards;
. Provides all prisoners to be released (97%) with an individualized comprehensive treatment/rehabilitation plan and program;
. The Act expands the current Drug Courts into broader Rehabilitation Courts and our Drug Treatment Centers into county-based Rehabilitation Centers;
. As in the very successful but more limited similar California Act, the Delaware Act requires that all non-violent drug offenders be treated as a health problem and not be incarcerated but placed on probation and provided a court-ordered drug treatment and other individualized rehabilitation programming in a Rehabilitation Center. The research-proven results in California include serving these non-violent offenders at 10% of the cost of incarceration and reducing the prison population to where a womens' prison was closed and a new mens' prison was eliminated from the planning board.
. As in the California Act, establishes a Research Office at the University of Delaware to continuously accomplish statewide program and cost effective research on all aspects of the Act's reform provisions. This office will also have a grant writing staff;
. Provides an array of treatment and rehabilitation components in both prisons and the Rehabilitation Centers that will include the following: all needed drug treatment, physical and mental health services, education, job counseling, training and placement, family connections and counseling, mentoring and transitional support for up to a year for those who need housing and other economic support; all at a much lower cost that the near $3,000 cost per month for incarceration;
. Act enables non-violent offenders, as does the California Act, to petition the court to expunge their records after successfully completing their court-ordered treatment/rehabilitation program;
. Act provides the same rehabilitation opportunity for released prisoners to petition the court to have their records expunged if for 3 years after release they can prove they're useful, law-abiding citizens. After they've paid their dues and then proven they're rehabilitated and restored as useful, law-abiding citizens, credible rehabilitation belief supports removing the yokes they now wear around their necks.

Even in our state's dire economic straits, we still have funds and grants available to start up what this Act proposes for both prisons and county-based Rehabilitation Centers if our elected political representatives want a program and cost effective criminal justice system. If they don't bother to become informed or represent special interests benefitting status quo, then they have no right to be in positions that waste taxpayers funds and continues an unjust and inhuman public system. One important grant source is the federal Second Chance Act of 2007: Community Safety Through Recidivism Prevention which includes grant funds for every treatment and rehabilitation component covered in our Act. This valuable federal Act was developed and enacted under the leadership of former Senator Joseph Biden, Jr.

Mrs. Heather Smith-Chandler of Dover is Chairperson, Delaware Crime Prevention and Rehabilitation Coalition. She can be reached at HmsChandler@yahoo.com and (302)
420-8738. Dr. Floyd McDowell, Sr.of Bear is Overall Facilitator, Delaware Unified Civic/Political Association. He can be contacted at flydmcdwll@comcast.net and (302) 832-2799.

US Senate Has Voted Against Real Progress On Climate Change

Peter Jesson writes from Chadds Ford ~
Urge Obama to Move Ahead

What to do now the Senate has voted against real progress on climate change

Representatives of the coal, utility and auto industries in the Senate have refused to exercise leadership on climate change. It's time for President Obama to use his executive power through the Environmental Protection
Agency and take action on global warming.

On Wednesday, 26 Democrats joined Republicans in the Senate and voted to ensurethat the filibuster will be used to block any meaningful climate legislation this year. The rule passed prohibits Congress from using the budget reconciliation process to pass real action on climate.

Any truly effective bill will surely suffer death by filibuster because there are more than 40 Senators committed to deferring any real action on climate change that would threaten the coal, oil, and auto industries.

This betrayal by Democrats on one of the most important issues of our time, is deeply disappointing. However, President Obama doesn't need Congress' help to take a very important step: Regulating carbon.

Fortunately, on March 20 the Obama Administration's EPA finally submitted a long-awaited "endangerment finding" to the White House. Now with this finding, President Obama can order the EPA to reduce carbon emissions, including those from coal burning utilities.

With Congress dragging its feet on progress, the time for President Obama to act is now. Sign this petition today to ask President Obama to approve the EPA endangerment finding and reduce carbon emissions now.

I just took action to ask President Obama to approve the endangerment finding and regulate carbon emissions now. I hope you will, too.

Please have a look and take action:

Click Here

Thanks!

The Poetry Of New Irrational Exuberance

From the pithiest guy on the intertubes:

A Cunning Plan
We can solve a problem caused by large financial institutions trading leveraged assets with each other at inflated prices by encouraging them to trade leveraged assets with each other at inflated prices.

'Healthy Delawareans Today & Tomorrow' - Relief For Uninsured Delawareans

WDEL reports ~ Awareness campaign for uninsured kicks off

A new push is on to make sure the 100,000 people in Delaware who don't have health insurance get the care they need. WDEL's Mellany Armstrong reports.

Video Here A coalition of 20 public and private organizations calling themselves 'Healthy Delawareans Today & Tomorrow' kicked off "Cover the Uninsured Month." The campaign will feature events and other grassroots efforts. The Henrietta Johnson Medical Center in Wilmington has seen a 12 percent rise in the number of unisured people they care for. And they are seeing a new trend. The toll-free Delaware Helpline is another resource at 1-800-464-HELP. So far the coalition has helped 13-thousand uninsured people with referrals to services.

Side Letters? aaaaaack!

If you read nothing else today, read Ian Welsh ~

There’s an interesting article going around which notes the widespread use of side-letters in the insurance industry. Side letters were used to say “even though you’ve said that you’ll take on X amount of risk on this insurance policy, we won’t hold you to that.”

...Insurers have to have enough assets on book to cover their liabilities—policies they may have to pay off on. If somene else is going to pay off on that risk because you bought reinsurance from them, you don’t need that capital. So buying reinsurance frees up capital. As for the seller of reinsurance, they get money in exchange for no risk, if there’s a side letter. Win, win.

The article goes on to suggest that many Credit Default Swaps (CDSs) AIG sold may have had similiar side letters, which since AIG was never seized, may have been destroyed. I don’t know if such side letters existed, but my take is that neither side, in many cases, expected to every have to collect on CDSs, or pay on them.

But when everything went to hell, they certainly tried to. The key fishy problem with AIG wasn’t the bonuses, it was that counterparties were getting paid 100% of the value of CDSs with government money, something they had no right to expect from what amounts to a bankrupt company. In such a case, either as AIG or the counterparty, why would you bring up the side letters, if they exist? The counterparties are getting money and AIG is paying out with money that isn’t theirs anyway

(via Corrente)

A Stronger, Safer, Sweeter World?

G-20 and
Hugs all around.
"It was a mutual and spontaneous display of affection,"..."We don't issue instructions on not touching the queen." - Buckingham Palace on the impromptu PDA between the Queen and Michelle Obama.

ADDS FULL LIST OF NAMES TO LEADERS SEEN ** G20 leaders gathered in London, Wednesday, April 1, 2009, are picturedwith Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, center, at London's Buckingham Palace. Back from left: Mr Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund; Ban Ki moon, Secretary General of the United Nations; Pascal Lamy, Director General of the World Trade Organisation; Abhisit Vejjajiva, Chair of ASEAN and Prime Minister of Thailand; Silvio Berlusconi, Prime Minister of Italy; Taro Aso, Prime
Minister of Japan; Mirek Topolanek, President of the European Council;Professor Mario Draghi, Chairman of the Financial Stability Forum; Robert Zoellick, President of the World Bank. Middle from left: Kevin Rudd, Prime Minister of Australia; Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada; Angela Merkel, Chancellor
of Germany; Jose Luis Zapatero, Prime Minister of Spain; Jan Peter Balkenende, Prime Minister of the Netherlands; Kgalema Motlanthe, President of South Africa; Barack Obama, President of the United States of America; Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Prime Minister of Turkey; Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister of India; Jose Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission; Meles Zenawi Chair of NEPAD and Prime Minister of Ethiopia). Front from left: Lee Myung-bak, President of Korea; Nicolas Sarkozy, President of France; King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia; Hu Jintao, President of China; Gordon Brown, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom; Queen Elizabeth II; Luiz Innacio Lula da Silva, President of Brazil; Susilo, Bambang Yudhoyono, President of Indonesia; Felipe Calderon, President of Mexico; Cristina Kirchner, President of Argentina; Dmitry A Medvedev, President of Russia.

(AP Photo/John Stillwell/pool)

Summers Presided Over "Guestimates Economics" With Harvard's Endowment; Whistleblower Fired

Hiring Wall Street's own players to solve the problems they created? How's that workin' for ya, Prez?

TPM reports: Derivatives Whiz Fired For Emailing Larry Summers About "Frightening" Trades?
By Moe Tkacik -

A former quantitative analyst at Harvard Management Company, the university's once-vaunted endowment manager, tells the Harvard Crimson she was fired for voicing concern to then-university president Larry Summers' chief of staff about the money manager's risky use of derivatives the traders didn't understand.
The episode dates back to 2002, when analyst Iris Mack, whose website identifies her as the second African American woman to earn a Harvard PhD. in applied math (and someone who likes primary colors) joined the much-venerated Harvard Management Company, which invests the university's then $18 billion endowment, to find what she termed a "frightening" state of affairs.

"The group I was working for had no background whatsoever to be working on
[derivatives]," Mack says, adding that, to her knowledge, several of her colleagues were not licensed securities traders. "Sometimes the ways they handled even basic Black-Scholes models [widely used to price stock options] were puzzling." So Mack took inventory of the abuses -- high employee turnover, lax risk management practices and a "low level of productivity in the workplace" were among others, and detailed them in an email to Marne Levine, Summers' chief of staff and a Treasury staffer on the Obama Transition Team. (Summers was the only person to whom Meyers reported, and according to a recent Forbes story he personally ordered the university's biggest derivatives trade, a purchase of interest rate swaps that cost the university billions this year.)

A month after sending her email, Mack was fired after a meeting in which the endowment fund's then-chief furnished her the emails and castigated her for making "baseless accusations." She later sued for wrongful termination and settled
out-of-court with the university. But she claims the practices "shocked" her,
and -- the punchline is -- she had joined the company from Enron. Which is also to say, lest you dismiss Mack as an opportunistic snitch capitalizing on Summers fateful opposition to regulating the derivatives that wreaked havoc on the financial system, she had a pretty valid reason to believe in the importance of whistleblowing.

(via Corrente)

Frieda Berryhill Writes: More No Nuke News

Nuclear Information and Resource Service
Help Stop Pro-Nuke Budget Amendments NOW!
March 31, 2009
They're at it again! And we have to act again--now!
The U.S. Senate is currently debating President Obama's FY 2010 budget on the Senate floor.
A small group of Senators, led by Sens. John McCain (R-AZ) and Lindsay Graham (R-SC), is preparing to introduce a number of pro-nuclear amendments

intended to support still more subsidies to the nuclear industry.

Other Senators involved are Crapo, Brownback, Voinovich, and Vitter.
One amendment we've seen would allow money to be shifted around in the budget if the nuclear industry can get $50 billion in new loan guarantees later. Another would allow money to be shifted around if pro-nuclear boosters are successful in getting more R&D money for Generation IV reactors. Another would do the same if construction of a reprocessing facility were authorized. These amendments are intended to make it easier for nuclear backers to try again to boost nuclear spending once the budget bill is enacted.
Please call your Senators--NOW--and urge them to vote against any and all amendments to the budget bill that would pave the way for additional nuclear subsidies.

Capitol Switchboard: 202-224-3121.
And please send your Senators an e-mail on these amendments by clicking here.
And please help us pay for this ongoing campaign by making your donation here. Your contributions of any size are gratefully appreciated, and enable us to continue doing this work.
Spread the word--post this Alert everywhere!
Thanks for all you do,
Michael Mariotte, Nuclear Information and Resource Service
www.nirs.org
nirsnet@nirs.org

~~~~~

Another reason why nuclear power is not safe ~
Oh yes, There is...the Waste problem, the many accidents called “close calls” the constant leaks and breakdowns . But there is one problem the industry does not want to talk about , namely the persecution of whistleblowers. Many Engineers who protested unsafe procedures at nuclear power plants had their careers destroyed.
From the very beginning Dr.John Gofman on his trip to Europe , to present his findings was fired when he refused to change the text of his presentation. (he and Dr.Tamplin were sacked) They said: "Dr. Tamplin and I hereby challenge the entire National Committee on Radiation Protection to a complete debate, including every minute facet of the evidence, before a jury of eminent peers who have no atomic energy ax to grind, preferably in public view."

It never stopped . Truth was always the enemy of nuclear power.
Roger Wensil was Americas first nationally known whistleblower at a nuclear facility. ( Savannah River ) . After exposing serious safety defects They warned: “the powerful corporation will follow him to the end of the Earth and ruin him financially".

Then there is the TIME cover of May 4 1996 of George Galatis, Nuclear Whistleblower
Nothing has changed. Attempts have been made to protect whistle blowers, he problem is, they still need a cadre of lawyers to proceed

This is of course not confined to the US
Sergei Kharitonov, who worked at the Leningrad Nuclear power plant (LNPP) for 27 years and was sacked for whistleblowing after exposing numerous hazards at the power station and a long legal battle to have his firing declared illegal, has applied for asylum in Finland.

There are too many to mention. Very little has changed over the years I was concerned about this problem but then I met Dr.Kymn Harvin and I realized that my own friendly neighborhood nukers at Salem did the same thing and my concern turned to worry. Real worry. I would like to tell you about Dr.Harvin, but rense in this short little story tells it so well.

One Way To Beat The Lobby-Lovin' Centrists?

From FDL - Progressives in Congress are caucusing for health care.
Jane Hamisher writes ~

Healthcare: Will Progressive Senators Form Block to Demand Public Plan?

...The assumption was that since the Republicans were against everything and the Progressives were for anything, the insurance lobby would control the final bill through the "centrists." It would be great if progressive Senators did stick together and shake up that equation.

The New York Times says that "the serious negotiations are being conducted in a secretive process" and no doubt the situation is in flux. Health care lobbyists are discussing a compromise whereby a public plan would be created "only if certain conditions were met — if, for example, private insurers failed to rein in health costs by a certain amount after several years. Such a condition would serve as a strong incentive for insurers to ratchet down payments to doctors and hospitals."

House Passing HB 17 Is A Great Indication Of Things To Come

Delaware House passes the HB #17 voting rights law. Good for Hazel Plant and Helene Keeley and those Assembly members who would leave the courts to work the punishment end of the law.

Energy News

Wind farms, small business and wind turbine manufacturing ~

WALLED LAKE, Mich. — Michael and Sharon Medwid did what other family businesses are trying around the country: They invested in a new shop and machinery to build parts for wind turbines and to reap the benefits of America's expansion of wind energy. Then the recession clobbered them. Now they're
running lean to survive until credit flows again and they can be part of a wind energy initiative to reach a national goal of doubling renewable energy in three years.
The recession has slowed down the whole wind industry this year, from materials to final assembly of turbines. Experts say that getting it up to speed to produce the number of turbines needed to generate large amounts of renewable energy will require more government support and innovation to make the parts lighter, stronger and cheaper.
Despite the hurdles, manufacturers in the wind business sense opportunity.
"We're creating an industry we can manufacture here," said Michael Medwid , 63, who started as a 19-year-old apprentice to his uncle's tool and die business and began his own company in Detroit in 1971 supplying the auto industry.

Delawareans are anxiously awaiting some word about how we will be faring. Is the Denn-Merconi Stimulus team going for turbine manufacturing jobs, perhaps at the old Chrysler manufacturing facility along the railroad tracks in Newark?

"I know our energy policy and our climate change policy will work if we focus on jobs," Stabenow said Thursday at a hearing of the Senate Energy Committee .
...Wind turbine companies haven't been able to find enough suppliers, Radomski said. Wind is a mechanical system, much like an automobile, he said. Michigan has lost thousands of auto jobs and has hit 11.6 percent unemployment, the highest in the country.
"Knowing that they were desperately trying to line up suppliers and we had a very hungry manufacturing base here in Michigan , we set out to go to the next level, to get the two groups connected," he said.
He said that Vestas of Denmark and other turbine-assembly companies were looking for U.S. suppliers to save on transportation, exchange-rate swings and import duties. Partnerships make logistics easier, too.
Some Michigan companies say they can take American engineering and business ingenuity — and some of the manufacturing techniques from making auto parts — and do a better job than wind turbine manufacturing so far.

and this

WASHINGTON — Democrats in the House of Representatives on Tuesday announced a sweeping plan to change how the nation produces and uses energy in order to reduce the risk of dangerous climate change.
No environmental legislation in America has ever attempted such wide-reaching changes. The bill — an incomplete draft that will evolve in the months ahead — would provide incentives to boost wind, solar and other renewable energy, would improve efficiency so that homes and businesses need less fuel and would support the development of cars that run on biofuels and electricity.
It also would make using fossil fuels more expensive — and that will be the central issue of debate in Congress , with armies of lobbyists on both sides.
The measure contains a variety of terms intended to help businesses survive the energy transition, but it leaves open for debate the central question: how revenues from pollution permits would be used. That means the question of how consumers would be helped also remains to be worked out.
The plan calls for a system to limit for the first time the amount of global warming pollution — mainly carbon dioxide from coal and oil combustion _that's permitted from utilities, oil companies and large-scale industries, which make up 85 percent of the U.S. economy. They'd have to buy permits for each ton of emissions.

Tom Friedman Coins “Market to Mother Nature Accounting"

Comment Rescue from Eschaton~

Tom Friedman discovered negative externalities today, and
doesn't like them:

Just as A.I.G. sold insurance derivatives at prices that did not reflect the real costs and the real risks of massive defaults (for which we the taxpayers ended up paying the difference), oil companies, coal companies and electric utilities today are selling energy products at prices that do not reflect the real costs to the environment and real risks of disruptive climate change (so future taxpayers will end up paying the difference).
Whenever products are mispriced and do not reflect the real costs and risks associated with their usage, people go to excess. And that is exactly what happened in the financial marketplace and in the energy/environmental marketplace during the credit bubble.

More Friedman ~

That’s what “Market to Mother Nature” accounting is all about. It begins with the premise that the distinction between the G-20 and the Copenhagen climate change negotiations is totally artificial. They are just flip sides of the same global problem — how we as a world keep raising standards of living for more and more people in ways that will not, as a byproduct, have both the Market and Mother Nature producing huge amounts of toxic assets.

The old system, which has reached its financial and environmental limits, worked like this: We built more and more stores in America to sell more and more stuff, that earned more and more dollars to buy more and more U.S. T-bills that got recycled back to America in the form of cheap credit to build more and more stores and more and more houses that gave rise to more and more Chinese factories. ...

This system was a powerful engine of wealth creation and lifted millions out of poverty, but it relied upon the risks to the Market and to Mother Nature being underpriced and to profits being privatized in good times and losses socialized in bad times. This capitalist engine doesn’t need to be discarded; it needs some fixes. For starters, we need to get back to basics — accountable lending, prudent saving, reasonable leverage and, most important, more engineering of goods than just financial products.

Reid Takes Nuclear Option, Seats Al Franken?

What I would like to think would happen is that Reid would just say “Screw it” and trigger the nuclear option.

April Fools!