There is a lot of misunderstanding around the recent Ebola outbreak. There is reason to feel safe from the disease based upon its prevalence or density in our population. There is also good reason to be concerned about the disease and act proactively, due to the extremely high death rate associated with the Ebola virus. It kills approximately 70% of those infected and is nearly impossible to treat large populations of people. In these cases of historically dangerous epidemics

As the surcharge for the 30 megawatt Bloom Project with Delmarva Power kicks in at over three times the expected cost to consumers questions persist about how this project got through the system. It is really a story of how rules were bent for a risky start up business that promised a lot of jobs in return for a very large financial guarantee.                As Director of the Caesar Rodney Institute’s Center for Energy Competitiveness I regularly work with the legislature an

9/20/2012   The on-going analysis of the Transparent Delaware data on state payroll continues to raise puzzling results. For this round, CRI compared the total compensation of state employees in 2008 and 2010 and found that some state employees are treated far more generously than others with regard to supplemental pay.    For each individual employee, the state records the annual salary, overtime pay and “other” pay. Together, overtime pay and “other” pay are considered supp

The court decision giving victory to the citizens of Delaware over the power hungry bureaucrats at DnRec

The national base realignment and closure program (BRAC) is transforming the Aberdeen Proving Ground into a major center for high tech research and development. Employment at Aberdeen will hit about 22,000 by late 2011. The bulk of these employees will be civilians in occupations such as computer science, IT, engineering, physics, chemistry, and mathematics. Will Delaware benefit from the Aberdeen explosion? The BRAC effect Will the tremendous expansion at the Aberdeen Provin

It was very helpful to receive the comments in the News Journal of Delaware OMB director, Ann S. Visalli, regarding the unfunded retiree benefits of government employees. My response follows.   First, Ms. Visalli is correct that the state’s pension fund is 94% funded. The data that the Pew Foundation had at the time of their analysis was 92%. So that is positive change. Based upon the Pew analysis, however, that leaves a dollar amount of unfunded pension obligations ranging f

The passage of New Castle County’s 1998 Uniform Development Code (UDC) swiftly halted—and continues to harm-- economic growth and development. Within just a few years employment in the County had flat-lined, more people were moving out of NCC than were moving in, residential permits shrunk while shifting to southern Delaware and NCC’s incorporated areas, and transfer payments outstripped wages as the prime source of personal income. New Castle County now ranks last in contrib

When Paul Ryan proposed Medicare entitlement reform, there were advertisements showing him dumping an elderly woman out of a wheelchair over a cliff. These were run by the Democratic National Committee to demonize the efforts of the Republicans to salvage the Medicare program by modifying age eligibility in the future for someone under the current age of 55. When the Affordable Care Act, known as "Obamacare" was proposed, most honest analyses of the bill concluded it was unaf

When we started the Delaware Small Business Development Center (SBDC) at the University of Delaware, Bill Wyer was the president of the Delaware State Chamber of Commerce (DSCC). Bill was a junk yard dog for business in Delaware. Under his leadership the DSCC fought against any tax increases and invasive regulations, and the encroachment of government into the marketplace. With Bill at the helm, the DSCC was skeptical that a government subsidized service such as the SBDC woul

If you were paying attention to the news this week you know a video of MIT professor Jonathan Gruber, one of the most important authors of tha Affordable Care Act openly admitted in a video recorded in 2013 that the passage of ACA was dependent upon fooling both the CBO and Congress and the inherent stupidity of the American voter. While the deception and politicizing of the law by Congress and the CBO is to be expected, the "Buyer Beware" philosophy, it is the sheer arroganc