Wednesday Open Thread [2.26.14]

Filed in Delaware, Open Thread by on February 26, 2014

Delaware is not sharing its salt with Pennsylvania or New Jersey.

Salt-strapped New Jersey had asked Delaware to share its salt earlier this week, and Delaware said it has enough to last a few more storms, but isn’t willing to share. When asked again if they’d share with neighboring states, {DelDOT Jim] Westhoff told WDEL, “No way.”

LOL. A story about a responsible squirrel and his acorns comes to mind.

President Obama will propose a four-year, $302 billion transportation program today to repair and rebuild roads, bridges and transit systems.

The program would include funding from $150 billion in revenue raised through “pro-growth business tax reform”, said the White House. The initial announcement said this would include “closing unfair tax loopholes, lowering tax rates, and making the system more fair,” though it included few specific details. Infrastructure in the United States has deteriorated in recent years, and the American Society of Civil Engineers gave the country’s roads, ports, bridges and other infrastructure an overall grade of D+ last year in its annual rating program. The Associated Press found last year that 65,605 bridges in the federal National Bridge Inventory were classified as “structurally deficient.”

The entire stretch of I-95 from Philadelphia south to Delaware needs to be rebuilt. Not just repaved. Rebuilt.

No matter how much conservatives make fun of First Lady Michelle Obama and her focus on exercise and healthy food habits for children, there is now evidence that… guess what… it’s working! Childhood obesity levels have fallen 43%!!

Experts point to several possible explanations for the fall, but say a full understanding remains elusive. Children now consume fewer calories from sugary beverages than they did in 1999. More women are breast-feeding, which can lead to a healthier range of weight gain for young children. Federal researchers have also chronicled a drop in overall calories for children in the past decade, down by 7 percent for boys and 4 percent for girls, but health experts said those declines were too small to make much difference.

Another explanation is that some combination of state, local and federal policies aimed at reducing obesity is starting to have an effect. Michelle Obama has led a push to change young children’s eating and exercise habits and 10,000 child care centers across the country have signed on. Many scientists doubt that anti-obesity programs actually work, but proponents of the programs say a broad set of policies applied systematically over a period of time can affect behavior.

A new New York Times/CBS News poll finds 82% of Democrats say they want Hillary Clinton to run for president in 2016, “showing a level of interest in her that no other potential candidates – Democrat or Republican – come close to matching among their party’s voters.” Yeah, good luck in finding an alternative to Hillary, to those dead-enders out there.

PENNSYLVANIA–GOVERNOR–Quinnipiac: 55% of PA say that Governor Tom Corbett (R) does not deserve reelection. 34% say he does.

PENNSYLVANIA–GOVERNOR–Quinnipiac: Tom Wolf (D) 52, Corbett 33; Rep. Allyson Schwartz (D) 44, Corbett 38;

Said pollster Tim Malloy: “Tom Wolf springs out of the pack to seize the lead from other Democrats snapping at the heels of Tom Corbett. We have eight months and change and we don’t know what kind of damage Democrats will inflict on each other in a primary campaign, but Wolf is the man of the hour.”

It’s because he is the only up with ads right now, and those ads are impressive. A new Franklin & Marshall College Poll shows Wolf topping Schwartz 36% to 9%.

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  1. Jason330 says:

    I like the Wolf ads. Hopefully this will be a friendly primary so the Dems can concentrate on getting rid of the execrable Corbett

  2. X Stryker says:

    The News Journal asked on Facebook for responses to the question of whether Wilmington has “too many Democrats or too few Republicans”. It has neither, but clearly Wilmington lacks a quality newspaper.

  3. MikeM2784 says:

    Careful – Christie will shut down the bridges from NJ heading into this state and close down his ports to the ferry. lol.