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August 2016

How Gendered Is Firefighter Culture in Delaware?

Who doesn’t love fire fighters? The brave men and women who risk their lives to put out raging fires, risking painful injuries or a horrendous death for the good of others – and in Delaware they volunteer to do it.

So I was stunned to read in the Washington Post this morning that systemic misogyny exists in many fire companies, and it got so bad in Fairfax that a young woman, who gave up a promising career in IT to pursue her dream job, killed herself because of the cyberbullying, sexism, and harassment she received from her male colleagues in the Fairfax County Fire Department.

She was friends with my spouse.Read More »How Gendered Is Firefighter Culture in Delaware?

What will it take to move a democracy reform agenda forward in Delaware?

Yesterday, I drafted an email to Common Cause Delaware members about our legislative accomplishments during the 2016 session. We did have some big wins. We helped pass a number of bills – rescission of all calls for a constitutional convention, removing financial barriers to the restoration of voting rights to people returning from prison, reducing the waiting period for municipal voting, and a couple relatively minor transparency bills. And we beat back two more attempts to increase the amount of money in Delaware politics. (Add that to the two similar bills we killed in 2015.)Read More »What will it take to move a democracy reform agenda forward in Delaware?

Let’s Ban Gifts from Lobbyists to Legislators

Margie Fishman recently published an expose in the News Journal of a “private” meeting that took place “behind closed doors” during the Democratic National Convention, at which “lobbyists and their well-heeled clients” treated Delaware politicians to food and an open bar — and did so in a way that allowed them to avoid disclosure. Read More »Let’s Ban Gifts from Lobbyists to Legislators