The House last week passed House Bill 253S by a vote of 34-0-7. The bill requires health insurance companies, including State employee/retiree health plans and Medicaid, to cover annual mammograms for the purpose of early detection for a woman 40 years of age or older, with or without referral from the woman’s health care provider. It also prohibits mammography facilities from requiring that women, 40 years of age or older, provide the facility with the name of a healthcare provider in order to receive an annual screening mammogram. The bill is primarily sponsored by State Representative Kim W ..read more

This is the 4th post in the “The Privatization of Public Land” series by Jack Guerin, concerning the saga of  the Fort DuPont Redevelopment and Preservation Corporation (FDRPC). Jack Guerin is an anti-corruption advocate with FightDECorruption.com. This series currently consists of 10 posts, and may grow to more. A post will be published every day Monday through Friday over the next two weeks (April 22, 2024 to May 3, 2022). Click Here for access to all published posts. The photo above is of the Pine Haven Camp Ground in Lincoln, Delaware that is owned by Blue Water. The photo i ..read more

On Tuesday, the House unanimously passed Representative Paul Baumbach’s House Bill 318, which “increases the exemption in bankruptcy and other debt proceedings for a debtor’s personal residence from $125,000 to $200,000 [and] also increases the exemption for tools of the trade and for a vehicle to $25,000 from $15,000.” The House has some substantive bills on the Agenda today, including bills to require insurance coverage of prostate cancer screenings and to create the Diamond State Hospital Cost Review Board as a means to lower medical costs in the state. HOUSE AGENDA – The House will re ..read more

A new Bloomberg News/Morning Consult poll found Joe Biden is ahead in just one of the seven states most likely to determine the outcome of his matchup with Donald Trump, leading Michigan by 2 percentage points. Biden trails the presumptive GOP nominee slightly in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, and his deficit in Georgia, Arizona, Nevada and North Carolina is larger. Biden camp not sweating political fallout from latest round of campus protests https://t.co/tDzP8Nzpaq — POLITICO (@politico) April 24, 2024 Playbook: “More broadly, the Biden political brain trust just isn’t stressing o ..read more

The U.S. Senate overwhelmingly passed a $95 billion aid package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, 79 to 18, sending it to President Biden’s desk, the New York Times reports. “The vote reflected resounding bipartisan support for the measure, which passed the House on Saturday by lopsided margins after a tortured journey on Capitol Hill, where it was nearly derailed by right-wing resistance.” “And it capped an extraordinary political saga that raised questions about whether the United States would continue to play a leading role in upholding the international order and projecting its val ..read more

Fenwick Island. Photo from 302 Life ..read more

The House last week passed House Bill 293 unanimously. This bill requires that the Department of Elections ensure that polling places selected for elections are accessible to voters with disabilities and elderly voters. While Federal and Delaware law protect the right to vote and the rights of individuals with disabilities to have equal access to voting places and public facilities, it appears that a substantial number of polling places in Delaware are either inaccessible to persons with disabilities or lack accessible parking, infringing on the right of all eligible persons to vote in this St ..read more

The Senate last week passed three Affordable Housing Agenda bills which were part of the bipartisan seven-bill package that will help address Delaware’s ongoing housing crisis by incentivizing public and private investments in new construction, bolster existing state programs that help struggling families stay in their homes, and create new opportunities for higher density development in Delaware’s cities and towns. The first bill passed was Senate Bill 25, co-sponsored by Rep. Paul Baumbach, which would lower the cost of building new affordable housing projects statewide by fully ex ..read more

The Senate last week passed Senate Bill 216 unanimously. The bill would increase the civil penalties that can be imposed against long-term care facilities, regardless of whether the violations pose a serious threat to the health and safety of residents. Those fines have not been adjusted since 2000. Under SB 216, all fines levied against long-term care facilities would be doubled to account for inflation over the last 24 years. Senate Bill 215 – Increasing In Person Inspections Currrent Status – Senate Passed 21-0. Sent to the House. House Sponsors – Johnson, Bolden, Cooke, Grif ..read more

The House last month unanimoulsy passed House Bill 263. The bill prohibits local education agencies and charter schools from prohibiting a student from participating in a school sponsored extracurricular activity on the basis the student has an outstanding debt for unpaid school meals. Think about how cruel that is, punishing the child for the parent’s debt. This bill will put a stop to that. The bill is sponsorsed by Representative Sherry Dorsey Walker and Senator Laura Sturgeon. The bill is out of committee in the Senate and waiting on a vote on the Senate floor. House Bill 263 – PROHIBIT ..read more