Sex Offenders In Your Neighborhood?

For the past few years, the State of Delaware has maintained a webpage listing the names, addresses, and photos of registered sex offenders in Delaware. Now, a new website has combined this information with a mapping feature to allow users to find registered sex offenders by address. Check out mapsexoffenders.com to find out scary information about your own neighborhood. If you click on the little red arrows, a picture of the person pops up with their street address. The site currently has 38 states available, including Delaware and offers safety tips for people that may live near a registered sex offender.

Thanks to Michael O'Rourke for the link.

Celebrity Jury Duty

Most people dread jury duty. You have to take the day (or week or longer) off from work. You have to find a place to park downtown. You have to sit and listen to some expert witness talk about minute details of something that has never affected your life in any meaningful way. Then you have the pressure of deciding someone's fate.

Most adults will be called for jury duty at some point in their lives, even celebrities. Oprah Winfrey made the news when she sat on a Chicago jury this past summer. Now, Yahoo! News is reporting that Michael Jackson has been summoned for jury service in California. Although the King of Pop has spent plenty of time in courtrooms over the past year, it is unlikely that he will serve on a California jury because he is now a permanent resident of Bahrain. It seems likely to me that most attorneys would move to have him stricken as a juror anyway because his level of celebrity would probably distract from the court process.

So, the next time that you are dreading an upcoming jury service, remember that you may have a celebrity encounter in the courthouse (although the prospect is much less likely in Delaware than California, New York, or Chicago).

Cutting the Medicaid budget by 10 Billion Dollars

Our federal lawmakers are reportedly wrangling over cutting the Medicaid budget by 10 Billion dollars over the next 10 years. Some legislators want the full Katrina bill to come from the Medicaid budget. Others, say that this is just an excuse to gut Medicaid now, when previous efforts to do this were unsuccessful.

Many folks are confused about "what Medicaid is". It is a needs based medical assistance program.

It will be interesting to track the flow of this money... from the medical needs of the poor... into the pockets of favored mega-contractors. Truly a reverse Robin Hood scenario.

The reality is that money for our government spending... since they are intent on spending... must come from somewhere. Deciding who pays for what is a major part of the political process. What a messy job our government makes of it. Perhaps it would be less messy if we wasted less? I found a pork cutter site that looks interesting.

Traditions

This has been a weekend of traditions for me... and a very nice one.

There's a number of downstate traditions dealing with food. One I have a particular fondness for is the oyster fry fundraiser. I like to always attend the one in Camden-Wyoming, in February (at Caesar Rodney High School). This weekend we added some variety by chowing down in Marydel at an oyster-fry/chicken-and-dumpling combo dinner (at the Immaculate Conception Church). Nice.

Today we walked for cancer research. It is a wonderful tradition. There were thousands of men, women, children, and pets attending at the Wilmington Riverfront. It was a beautiful walk for a great cause.

I hope that cancer research continues to progress until that one day when this tradition will no longer be necessary. Maybe then we can still walk that pleasant route, but just for exercise and pleasure.

Welcome Delaware Watch

I guess I was asleep at the wheel and didn't notice that my old friend Dana Garrett joined the blogiverse. The more the merrier I say! And with some variety of insights and opinions, I suspect that Delaware Watch will spring to the top quickly.

Isn't It Ironic?

I find it to be ironic that on Wednesday morning of last week I wrote the "Anonymity and Social Responsibility" blog entry without knowing that the Cahill v. John Doe case would hit the street on that very afternoon... dealing with that same topic. Just a coincidence though.

Sad Smyrna Saga

The dispute underlying the Blog case, and the people underlying the dispute, make for yet another Delaware small town feud, as reported by Al Mascitti, of the Wilmington News Journal.