Do you have a problem younger driver in your household? Do you cringe every time you had him/her the car keys? Do you worry about your teen’s safety and the safety of others while your teen is behind the wheel?

A new LOCAL Web Site wants to help you keep an eye on your kids even when you’re not in the car with them.

Myyoungdriver.com “because you can’t always be in the passenger seat” wants you to apply online for a sticker to place on your young driver’s car. Other motorists who then witness your child talking on the cell phone, text messaging, hanging out the window, playing mailbox baseball or robbing a liquor store can then go online, fill out some information and report your child’s good or bad driving behavior.

MyYoungDriver.com was created to encourage safe and responsible driving.  There are more distractions than ever before for a young driver on the road today.  While we teach our young drivers good driving habits, we can’t always be there to watch.  Cell-phones, text messaging, ipods, blackberries, portable DVD players and other hand-held devices all contribute to non-attentive driving.  By purchasing and placing a MyYoungDriver.com decal on your car, you can rest assured that there will be thousands of eyes on your young driver, and an outlet for other drivers to let you know should they observe negative or positive driving behavior.Our goal at MyYoungDriver.com is simple: “We wish to encourage the inexperienced driver to drive safely and responsibly; our hope is to get every driver to their destination safely.”  By applying for an ID to your registered vehicle, the driver might be inclined to not engage in reckless behavior that could lead to losing their license or being involved in an accident that could result in injury or death.

How would your kid’s feel when you plaster this sticker all over their brand new Dodge Viper? Is it a good idea? Maybe. Anything would help in terms of protecting our children. But, I echo the sentiments of callers to this morning’s radio program. The parent still ultimately has to have good enough judgment to sift through the phony claims.

Will it help or is it just wishful thinking. Check it out for yourself and let me know what you think. www.Myyoungdriver.com 

    

This is the Indian River Power Plant, Delaware’s worst polluter. Two of the units, built in the 1950s, have never had pollution controls installed. Yummy, what’s for dinner?
Thanks to photographer Gary Cooke for the photograph that I zoomed in on.

There was some dispute this weekend when I was on the air about whether or not Sussex County would suffer power outages if one of the units at the Indian River Power Plant shut down. I have the answer to that question from both Delmarva Power and Light and the Delaware Electric Cooperative.

I spoke with the CEO of the Delaware Electric Cooperative, Bill Andrew, and DP & L spokesperson Matt Likovich, and they answered the question, “If Indian River shut down a unit, would Sussex County see any outages?”

According to Bill Andrew, “Just one shouldn’t cause blackouts or rolling blackouts on 95% of the days.” But he did have a reminder about an outage in 1999.

“In July of 1999 we lost 3 units and we had rolling blackouts.” - Bill Andrew, CEO, Delaware Electric Cooperative

Matt Likovich’s answer was, “Not necessarily,” and he pointed out that units at plants shut down for routine maintenance without power outages. He also went on to explain about “The Grid.” Yes, The Grid.

“We’re connected to the PJM Grid that serves the Mid Atlantic region for 51 million people, 13 states and DC…PJM keeps the grid stable and there are fail-safes and backups, there is reserve capacity…You can feel confortable knowing you’re being serviced by the model grid in the US.” - Matt Likovich, spokesperson DP&L

Likovich also explained that if there was a major problem with a plant that, “PJM would ask other utilities to put more units online and conservation would be advised.”

You can read more about the PJM Mid Atlantic grid HERE, on their website. Likovich noted that PJM is the “oldest grid in the US.”

And we’ll see for sure in 2010 and 2011, when NRG Energy will be shutting down the two oldest units at Indian River as part of their current deal with DNREC. This deal was reached after NRG Energy appealed the 2009 deadline to curb harmful emissions set by DNREC last year.

Todd McCabe owns his own school bus, and is contracted to drive students in the Indian River School District.  Wednesday he took his bus to the inspection lane of DMV.  His bus was deemed safe and in good working order with one exception;  he could not pass his DMV inspection because he had an American flag sticker on the back of his bus. He had to get razor blades and scrape off the 5” x 8” sticker before he could pass at the DMV.  This is a revolting moment for freedom and liberty in the United States.  The DMV explained that Ron Love of the Department of Education dictated that stickers including the American flag should not be allowed on the bus.  Ron Love explains that “administrative code” limits lettering or symbols on busses, although no specific rule prohibits flags, no rule allows it, so it is not allowed.  Follow?  Mr. Love of the DOE admits that flags, and “support our troops” ribbons have been allowed “temporarily” since 9/11, but that time is up.  Sadly Todd McCabe has had his rights trampled on, and sadder still is the trampling of America by the Delaware bureaucrats. I urge Delawareans and all Americans to call Governor Ruth Ann Minner and ask if she supports her Department of Education and DMV removing American Flags from our school children’s busses!   Call Ruth Ann and ask her to stop the trashing of our flag, 1-800-292-9570.

Delaware blogger Hube at The Colossus of Rhodey, does a great job dissecting the News Journal’s ridiculous policy of withholding race descriptions of wanted criminals.  One of my favorite soap box topics.  Read it here. 

Mike Protack’s quest to be the Delaware GOP’s 2008 Gubernatorial nominee is off to an interesting start against a candidate who hasn’t even announced his intent to run.

You can LISTEN to the audio of the Protack camp’s phone poll HERE. It was conducted by “Protack for Governor-2008,” and clearly references the other, yet undeclared, potential 2008 GOP Gubernatorial hopeful, Alan Levin, and Levin’s past contributions to the campaigns of Democratic Senators from Delaware Joe Biden and Tom Carper. Now, I didn’t get the first few seconds of the call, and the audio is pretty bad, but the message is clear.

“I think we can keep our country safe and strong and follow the constitution and the law and have an Attorney General once again we can be proud of, and that will be my standard.” - Hillary Clinton

It’s always fun to see what people running for the Oval Office have to say about current events. Let’s do a quick check at the response so far to the resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales:

Hillary Clinton:

“I think we should set a standard that the next Attorney General cares about the rule of law more than he cares about protecting the president. That the next attorney general….when he takes an oath to uphold the constitution, he actually means it, understands it, and will protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. When it comes to issues like torture and surveillance, the military commissions, the firing of U.S. attorneys because they wouldn’t pursue a partisan political agenda, we need to be especially vigilant and strong in making sure whoever the president appoints will work with the congress to bring us back from this precipice that this administration has put us on.

“We have lost our moral standing in the world, we have seen contempt for the separation of powers and checks and balances, and yes, I think we can keep our country safe and strong and follow the constitution and the law and have an Attorney General once again we can be proud of, and that will be my standard.”

John Edwards:

“Better late than never.”

Senator Joe Biden:

“As I’ve said before, Attorney General Gonzales has lost the confidence of the vast majority of the American people and the Congress. His resignation is long overdue.

“When I voted against Attorney General Gonzales’ confirmation, I voiced concern about his ability to go from being the President’s lawyer to the people’s lawyer. I expressed doubts then about his judgment in light of his track record, and role as an architect of policies attempting to place the President above the law.

“My skepticism was confirmed by his conduct, and his failure to put protecting the American people over protecting the President. The next Attorney General should not make the same mistake.”

Senator John McCain:

“I have said for a long time that I thought the president would be best served if the attorney general resigned so I think it’s the right thing to do.”

Governor Bill Richardson:

“The resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is long overdue. The President must nominate an Attorney General who is a lawyer for the American people not a political arm of the White House.”

Senator Christopher Dodd:

“Mr. Gonzales’ Justice Department became a political wing of the Bush Administration and his resignation is long overdue. I will only vote to confirm a nominee for Attorney General who is truly independent and who will guarantee reforms that restore and uphold the Constitution.”

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’ resignation is expected to be announced this morning. President Bush, according to reports, isn’t thrilled about it:

The official who disclosed the resignation today said that the decision was Mr. Gonzales’s and that the president accepted it grudgingly. At the same time, the official acknowledged that the turmoil over Mr. Gonzales had made his continuing as attorney general difficult.

Gonzales has been under the big heater for the firing of 8 US Attorneys in 2006, Attorneys that serve at the pleasure of the President and the executive branch has the power to can them any time and for any reason. Despite that fact, Congress has spent untold amounts of time and money investigating what happened and trying to catch Gonzales committing perjury while testifying in front of Congress over and over again about the firings.

We have speculation, wishful thinking, and supposition in the air when talking about Sussex County politics.  Here I am conjuring up all the secret and not so secret information using my magic “old time” microphone.

State Representative George Carey retires and Sussex County Councilman Lynn Rogers runs for his seat against the “heir to the throne” Dale Carey. Advantage: Rogers.

The seat vacated by Rogers makes Judson Bennett salivate for another shot at the County Council seat, but will he face a republican primary from Recorder of Deeds John Brady?  Maybe; it depends of what happens with Pete Schwartzkopf’s bid to be chosen by Jack Markell to run as Lieutenant Governor.  See, if Schwartzkopf runs for LG Brady will want the 14the district seat.  Advantage: Judson.  Disadvantage: Brady. Even: Pete Schwartzkopf.  (It looks like he’ll stay put as State Rep., the field is too thick for Lt. Gov) 

Brady wants Insurance Commissioner when Matt Denn runs for Lieutenant Governor and Clerk of the Peace George Parrish runs for State Treasure when Markell jumps to Governor.

State Senator George Bunting will step down after a great career and State Representative Gerald Hocker will jump to take his seat.  A lot of “wanna-be’s” will want to be State Rep replacing Gerald.  The rumor list includes mortgage broker Walt Lydic, the queen of the inland bays Shirley Price, and even an ex radio host.  (All Democrats we presume)

 

Whew, so much more to tell, but I’m getting a headache.  More later…..

You might know someone who blames the weatherman for some of the harsh weather that people have experienced. Others say, “When are they ever right?” Well, more complaints are likely to surface about the weatherman’s predictions considering the delay in declaring Delaware as an agricultural “disaster area.” One caller to WGMD wanted to know why Delaware waited so long after Maryland declared. Here is Delaware Agriculture Secretary Michael Scuse’s explanation as to why that was the case.

“Maryland didn’t start the process until a couple of weeks prior to Delaware starting. The week they started, we were supposed to get significant rainfall that week. Had we got the rain that was predicted, they did not believe they would reach the economic threshold of a loss of 30% or greater to be able to request the disaster declaration. When we did not get those rains that week as predicted, then they realized that the corn crop in all probability would be lost, and that is when the request was made for the Farm Service Agency to start collecting the data.”

Should they just wait and see if the weatherman’s predictions come true? Or should they start the process right away in case? Either way farmers impacted by the drought can now receive assistance, and I am sure they are quite relieved!