New Castle County is giving residents three more weeks to pay sewer bills that it says were delayed in the mail. “When our office was alerted that residents had not received their annual sewer bills as expected, we immediately investigated the situation and learned that the delay had been caused by operational changes at the United States Postal Service, County …
Victims’ rights task force given dozens of updating ideas
Making sure crime victims have access to police body camera footage is one of the recommendations made Monday for revising Delaware’s Victims’ Bill of Rights. Other recommendations include an amendment to allow people to submit an impact statement during sentencing whether or not they make a statement during an investigation; eliminating the current $6 million rollover cap on compensation fund; …
New legislation looks to protect beach economy and nature
Two Delaware Republicans are working on a resolution to protect the state’s beach economy and environment. Senate Republican Leader Gerald Hocker, R-Ocean View, and Rep. Ron Gray, R-Selbyville, announced legislation Friday that would require irrevocable pre-construction decommissioning bonds be posted. RELATED: US Wind offers Delaware beach towns $2 million each Their resolution would also mandate that wind farm developers commit …
Victims’ Rights task force to hear updating, funding ideas
A task evaluating the Delaware’s Victims’ Bill of Rights for the first time since it was established in 1992 will hear recommendations about how to improve it Monday, Feb. 12. The current document is an unwieldy, jumbled mess because of all the hands that have been in the code since then, said Scott Goss, communications director for the Senate Democrats. …
Marijuana laws come with price tag for 2 state departments
This story has been updated to correct tax and licensing information. Marijuana – and the implications of its legalization in Delaware on certain state agencies – was part of the discussion in Wednesday’s Joint Finance Committee hearings. The Department of Safety and Homeland Security is set to receive a little over $5 million of the total request is specifically in …
Bill would block insurance companies from using genetic tests
For decades, public health officials have fretted about insurance companies having access to genetic testing and using the results to deny coverage or set higher rates for people likely to get certain diseases. That was true even before people could casually send in a swab to a company like 23andme, AncestryDNA or Family TreeDNA, to be tested. Those results end …
Dover committee will look at ways to help city’s homeless
The mention of a small homeless encampment on Delaware State University property has led to the launch of a Dover committee assigned to find ways to help solve the problem in Delaware’s capital. The first meeting of Dover’s Unsheltered Working Group will be at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 7, at the Dover Public Library. Its creation came about during last …
Cost of weight-loss drugs for state employees hits taxpayers
When Gov. John Carney announced last week that his Fiscal Year 2025 budget proposal included more than $93 million in additional spending for health care plan costs for state employees and retirees, he didn’t mention that a significant portion of that is attributed to an exploding issue: weight-loss drugs. Delaware officials budgeted about $2 million in the current fiscal year …
As stripers arrive earlier, commercial fishing season to shift
With striped bass coming into the Delaware River and bay earlier in the year as the weather warms up earlier, DNREC plans to adjust their commercial fishing seasons. The Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control will accept written comments on the proposed changes through Feb. 14. Stripers, as the fish are commonly called, have been coming in earlier than …
Proposed law offers look at another ‘natural’ burial method
Delaware’s lawmakers are ironing out the details of an increasingly popular way Americans have dealt with death: allowing the body to naturally return to the soil. It’s one of a variety of ways to deal with bodies other than the modern, and costly, traditional services involving embalming and burial in a big casket. Eco-friendly methods of burial are becoming more …