hello florida

What year did Delaware begin using voting machines instead of paper ballots?

edison fears hidden perils of the x-rays

How, exactly, do we find out things like when it was discovered that x-rays were bad for us? Are we losing invaluable resources by letting old newspapers disappear in landfill sites? The story Edison Fears Hidden Perils of the X-Rays is a New York World article from 1903, brought to us online from the American Newspaper Repository. (via metafilter)

corporate accountability law

What impact will the corporate accountability law signed by President Bush last week have on incorporations in Delaware? That's a question some people around the First State are asking. Will the auditing requirements be the first step towards a national incorporation system? Will Congress act again to preempt other areas of the law that have traditionally been controlled by the states? A nationwide system is unlikely for a number of reasons, including that many large businesses would be against such a system, and it would be a nightmare to administrate a transfer from state control to federal supervision. But, it does have us asking some serious questions here in Delaware.

delawarean in baseball

It wasn't too long ago that Kevin Mench was sending baseballs into orbit from Delaware. Now he is raising a ruckas in Texas. There are a few major leaguers from Delaware, but none of them have caught the attention of fans in quite they way that Kevin Mench has in Arlington.

Maybe I'm being selfish, and want to see a Delawarean succeed the way the Kevin Mench is beginning to for the Rangers, but I'm hoping that the daily talks scheduled next week between players representatives and owners can keep a strike from happening, and give this Delaware native the chance to turn Texas into a launching pad.

a history of the fbi

American Heritage magazine takes a look at what they call the Most Dangerous Institution, from its formation in 1908 as the Bureau of Investigation to these post-September 11th days. I especially like their sidebar "FBI Turning Points: 10 Critical Cases" which discusses investigations that have shaped the FBI into the organization it is today. An excerpt from the article:

With fewer than 400 agents in 1934, the FBI could hardly police the whole country. That wasn’t the point. What FDR wanted was theater, and Hoover obliged. He selected cases that guaranteed publicity. The slaying of Dillinger and the hunt for various “public enemies” —Pretty Boy Floyd, Baby Face Nelson, the Barker gang—made the Bureau famous (after several name changes, it finally became the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 1935). As movies and magazines trumpeted the G-man myth, newspapers proclaimed Hoover “Public Hero Number One.”

The FBI's web site has more details about their 94 year history online. And, yes, the story of John Dillinger does make for pretty good theatre.

a look at clarence thomas

It's been a long 11 years since his confirmation hearing, but perhaps that public proceeding has affected people's perceptions of him more than anything he has done since then. The Washington Post paints a portrait of Clarence Thomas and his life in Washington, D.C., in an article called Supreme Discomfort.

protecting widlife and diversity

Environmental problems often transcend state boundaries. The federal government doesn't always share the same interests in monitoring and protecting the environment that state government does. What has been needed is a forum where the different states could have their representatives get together and communicate. It looks like one has just been formed.

That conduit of information exchange is a new organization, with membership from 46 states, called the Natural Resources Leadership Council of the States (NRLCS). Its membership consists of representatives from the state agencies that administrate programs involving "conservation, resource management and outdoor recreation." Delaware's Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC) issued a press release this last Wednesday offering more details on the bipartisan organization and their involvement with it. The Conservation Fund was instrumental in helping the states form the NRLCS.