Charles Megginson June 10, 2022 Government, Headlines
A bill passed by the Delaware Senate Thursday would ban styrofoam food containers, among other things. (Getty Images)
The Delaware Senate on Thursday passed a bill to effectively ban restaurants from offering single-use plastic straws and styrofoam food and beverage containers.
Senate Substitute 1 for Senate Bill 134, sponsored by Sen. Trey Paradee, D-Dover, also prohibits food establishments from providing customers with plastic coffee stirrers, cocktail picks and sandwich picks.
Under the bill, food establishments would only be permitted to offer single-use plastic straws upon request.
“The point of this legislation is to remove — to the greatest extent possible — these types of products from our environment and obviously we’re not going to remove it all,” Paradee said. “I think this is one of those bills where Delaware needs to step up and set the example.”
Plasticware and styrofoam often end up in Delaware’s landfills, on its beaches, and in its coastal waters, Paradee said.
Polystyrene foam, commonly referred to as styrofoam, is not biodegradable and in many cases, styrofoam food and beverage containers break down into microscopic particles called microplastics which are nearly impossible to remove from the environment.
Microplastics can easily find their way into Delaware’s food chain and water supply, Paradee said.
Five states have passed statewide bans on the sale and distribution of foam or polystyrene products, including Maine, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, and Vermont.
The bill passed 12 to 8 against the objections of every Republican and two Democrats as well as the Delaware Restaurant Association, the trade organization that represents Delaware’s foodservice industry.
Sen. Nicole Poore, D-Delaware City, said the bill will have a detrimental impact on DART, the maker of the red Solo cup, which opened a manufacturing facility in Delaware City in 2020.
The company “manufactures more than 3,000 packaging products for the foodservice industry, including cups, plates, containers and lids,” Poore said. “Some of these items have been in high demand, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic where many restaurants have been dependent on takeout.”
Poore said the company, which employs roughly 80 people at its Delaware City location, told her it would likely have to shut its doors if SB 134 passes.
Sen. Gerald Hocker, R-Ocean View, said his convenience store and two supermarkets would have no choice but to pass the additional cost of paper and hard plastic containers onto customers.
“I went to Sysco who supplies most of my paper products and asked about the substitutes and how much more they are,” Hocker said. “And the answer I got was, probably double or a little more, and I’m talking about styrofoam coffee cups that we use, styrofoam sandwich trays that we use in the stores, styrofoam soup containers that we use.”
That additional cost, he said, inevitably gets passed on to his customers.
Hocker said many of the customers at his G&E Hocker’s Supermarket and Hocker’s Super Center are on a fixed income and cannot stand any more price increases, especially considering rising prices on nearly everything else, including gasoline.
“Of everybody in here, I’m probably the only one that this is going to have an additional expense to my business,” Hocker said. “My district is made up of an awful lot of people on fixed income and Social Security, and you try living on that today. And we just keep passing things and passing things that put additional expenses on them that they cannot afford.”
Sen. Colin Bonini, R-Dover, joked that he should be considered an expert witness on junk food and, “paper straws don’t work with junk food.”
“You know, there are some restaurants still in business in Delaware — let’s see we can finish them off,” Bonini said sarcastically. “I mean, we didn’t get them with COVID. Let’s see if we can get them with regulations.”
Rather than imposing additional regulatory and financial burdens on businesses, Bonini said, the Senate should be taking steps to help businesses save money.
Carrie Leishman, president of the Delaware Restaurant Association, said her member restaurants want to have a meaningful conversation about recycling and environmental issues — not waste valuable time debating about sandwich picks.
“We are proud that a majority of our members have begun moving away from single-use plasticware, and as a result of the pandemic many operators are favoring to-go packaging focused on quality multi-use and reusable consumer options,” Leishman said.
“Supporting restaurants with grants to encourage more bulk purchasing of environmentally-friendly products which have been nearly impossible to source due to supply chain problems should be the priority of the legislature.”
While focusing on cocktail picks allows for a great headline, Leishman said, it doesn’t make a meaningful impact on Delaware’s landfills.
She said if lawmakers wanted to create meaningful reform, they should be talking about the largest contributor of waste in America: food waste.
“40% of food is wasted which has irreversible environmental and socioeconomic effects,” Leishman said. “Simply stated — throwing food out wastes water, energy and creates additional food insecurity.”
She noted that Delaware has closed two food waste recycling facilities in the past decade.
That happened at a “pivotal time when Delaware restaurants were leading the country with a massive voluntary effort to reduce the state’s food waste problem,” Leishman said.
She added that she would be willing to work with Paradee on a standalone bill to ban polystyrene foam.
Paradee emphasized that the bill does not prevent grocery stores from selling the types of products detailed in the bill. It also won’t affect the styrofoam packaging of electronics, he said.
“It does not affect prepackaged food items,” Paradee said. “A great example would be Cup Noodles. The last thing I would want to do is deprive Delaware children of the opportunity to eat Cup Noodles.”
Paradee added that Delaware is a coastal state whose second largest industry is tourism.
“For those reasons, I think it is just important that we step up and say ‘Hey, our environment is important, the condition of our beaches is important, the cleanliness of our drinking water is important to our children and to anyone who visits here.’”
Charlie Megginson covers government and politics for Town Square LIVE News. Reach him at (302) 344-8293 or [email protected] Follow him on Twitter @cmegginson4.
In a tradition that dates nearly 40 years, the secretary of education at the Delaware Department of Education has published a list of Secretary Scholars. This year, Secretary of Education Mark Holodick honored 89 high school seniors across the state with the award. In a press release, he called the students the kind of leaders the state needs and said he was impressed with what the students achieved through all the COVID-19 pandemic challenges. “During their high school careers they have persevered through school building closures, remote learning, hybrid learning and the transition back to full-time face-to-face instruction,” he said in the press release. “Not only have they earned high academic accolades, they are leaders in their schools, athletic teams and communities. Many have balanced impressive class schedules and extracurricular calendars with part-time jobs and volunteer service.” Scholars who have performed exceptionally academically while also leaving their footprint on their community are selected by each high school for Holodick to honor. Here are this year’s Secretary Scholars: Appoquinimink High School Courtney Candy Jodie Li Krisha Parekh Brandywine High School Elyse Hunt Joshua Smith Caesar Rodney High School Mason Bush Madison Crossley Anna Dai Emma Higgins Cab Calloway School of the Arts Ashley Bao Nicole Wang Cape Henlopen High School Madison Costello Quinlyn Long Brayden Rochester Charter School of Wilmington Jack Wu David Yan Christiana High School Deeya Patel Angeline Preske Concord High School Adhya Anilkumar Esther Chung Conrad Schools of Science Matthew Metzler Arya Mittal Delaware Military Academy Joshua Gutzmirtl Sara Sobocinski Delcastle Technical High School Dylan Blevins Nevina Bradley Alaina McPherson Delmar High School Jacob Adkins Nandi Patel Dickinson (John) School Lillian Hill Paulina Lopez-Gomez Dover High School Tyasia Cannon Laura Garcia Ayden Hayes Alexis I. duPont High School Faeghan Falconi Eileena Mathews Early College High School at Del State Benjamin Church First State Military Academy Kyndall Wyngaard Freire School Esunge Ntiege Glasgow High School Abigail Adeneye Jada Turner Howard High School of Technology Ayanna Harris Briana Hernandez-Cuevas Hodgson Vocational Technical High School Ailyn Lopez Jamie Pacheco Indian River High School Reagan Hockenbrock Brynn McCabe Lake Forest High School Kylie Chargaris Jenna Troyer Laurel Senior High School Dakota Hickerson Ashlynn Toppin McKean (Thomas) High School Helen Gomes Taneille Jordan Middletown High School Adrianna Castro Won Jang Jasnoor Saini Milford Senior High School Victoria Nikolaeva Nathan Wolhar MOT Charter School Araf Jahin Oluwaseun Ogundimu Mount Pleasant High School Jessica Bennett Kathryn Farabaugh Newark Charter School Raphael Kim Natalie Yang Newark High School Jasleen Kaur Odyssey Charter School Diya Dudhia Penn (William) High School Alexander Daix Sheyenne Faircloth Evan Freund Alexandria Thomas POLYTECH High School Emma Coleman Megan Popp Positive Outcomes Charter School Kayla Jones Seaford High School Ciera Holmes Yeraldin Torres-Landeros Smyrna High School Sarah-Ashley Dinsmore Robert Mace Ryan Malone St. Georges Technical High School Vincent Helms Imani Wulff-Cochrane Sussex Academy Samantha Oliver Sussex Central High School Violette Blackham Kalyn Pusey Laicie Terry Sussex Technical High School Abby Fowler Kaitlyn Vogel Woodbridge High School Bethany Knutsen Anjolie Suberro
Middletown Boys Basketball photo by Nick Halliday The DIAA State Indoor Track Meet is scheduled for next Saturday (19th), but Friday night in Middletown, the 9th ranked Cavaliers and Woodbridge provided their own brand of “a track sprinting event” in boys basketball. The two teams raced up and down the court playing the 1st half in barely 30 minutes of real time and went into the locker room separated by a single point at 28-27 in favor of the Cavs. Ultimately, the depth of Middletown was too much for the Blue Raiders starting five, as the Cavaliers out-scored Woodbridge 44-29 in the second half for a 72-56 win. The first two quarters were very entertaining as neither team led by more than 6 points. Freshman Isaiah Giles banked a 3-pointer from the left corner at the buzzer to cut the Cavs advantage to 28-27 at the break. It would be his only basket of the game as most of the Blue Raiders offense this season funnels through the other four starters. Emmanuel McRea-Mosely, Kenny Newtown, Bruce Mosely and Ci-Atrick Stones are those four starters, and along with Giles, predominantly play the entire game for head coach Julius Cannon. They are “fearless”, constantly attacking the rim while using their quickness to force turnovers. Middletown head coach Azeez Ali, countered with the depth of his team – staying fresh and matching the intensity of the visiting Blue Raiders. Woodbridge started fast to open the 3rd quarter, scoring four straight points on baskets by Newton and Bruce Mosely to grab their first lead of the night at 31-28. Undaunted, the Cavs regained the lead as Christion Simms drained a long-range jumper and Ty Hynson made a bucket for a 33-31 turnaround. The two battled neck-and-neck for the next two minutes until Middletown went on an 8-0 run to push the lead to 44-35. That spurt, plus foul trouble proved to be the difference, as the visiting team would get no closer than 7 points in the 4th quarter. Two starters fouled out (Stones and McRea-Mosely) as the Cavaliers built a double-digit lead early in the final quarter and “coasted” from there. Middletown’s balanced attack was led by Hynson with 21 points and 6 rebounds. Jaden Rogers added 12 points – 6 boards – 5 assists, while Simms made three 3’s and ended with 11 points. The Cavaliers improved to 11-5 and will host Mount Pleasant next Tuesday. McRea Mosely scored a game-high 28 points (5-3’s) for Woodbridge. Newton added 11, while Bruce Mosely contributed with 9 points. The Blue Raiders fall to 9-4.
The number of new COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations continued to decline this week in Delaware. As of Thursday, Jan. 27, the Delaware Division of Public Health said the state has had a 57% decrease in the seven-day average of new positive cases reported since the peak of the surge on Jan. 12, 2022. It also reported: The total number of new cases since March 11, 2020 is 246,037 . The 7-day average of new positive cases is 1448.9, down 683.2 from last week. The 7-day average for the percentage of total positive tests is 21.6%, down 6 points from last week. Hospitalizations dropped to 453, down 168 from last week. Of those, 47 were critically ill, down 21 from last week. COVID-19 deaths are 2,498, including 48 in the last week. The percent of Delawareans who are fully vaccinated according to the Centers for Disease Control, is 66.1%. 85% of Delawareans 5+ have received at least one vaccine dose. 90.2% of Delawareans 12+ have received at least one vaccine dose. 92.1% of Delawareans 18+ have received at least one vaccine dose. There have been 18,698 breakthrough, or 3.2% of fully vaccinated individuals . Of those, 208 were hospitalized and there were 191 deaths. Omicron variant represented 97.4% of cases sequenced the week of Jan. 7 – Jan. 13, which is the most recent data. DMV testing closed The Delaware City DMV testing site closed for good Thursday. It originally planned to be open the first week of February, but as COVID-19 cases have declined, so has the demand for testing from the post Christmas peak. The site was seeing several hundred tests done per day. Gov. John Carney announced Tuesday during his weekly COVID-19 press briefing that it w0uld close Sunday, but the approaching snow storm closed it even earlier. A wide number of places remain to get free testing in Delaware. Find them at https://coronavirus.delaware.gov/testing/ Flu Update There were 12 laboratory-confirmed cases reported the week of Jan. 16 – Jan. 22. As of Jan. 22, 2022, the most recent date for which flu statistics are available, there have been 607 laboratory-confirmed cases for the current season. The cases involved 423 individuals from New Castle County, 79 from Kent County and 105 from Sussex County. This number reflects only the number of lab-confirmed cases; the actual number of cases circulating statewide is much higher because not all people with the flu seek treatment and most of those are not confirmed in a lab.
Rep. Gerald L. Brady Democratic State Rep. Gerald Brady will not seek re-election in 2022, he announced Monday. Brady has represented the 4th district, which includes Greenville, in the House of Representatives since 2007. His statement comes a week after he was caught using a racist slur to refer to women of Asian descent. He said in a statement Monday that there was no excuse for him to use that language and that having done so would make it impossible for him to be effective. Brady had sent a message from his state email June 27 in response to a plea from an out-of-state advocate to consider decriminalizing prostitution. Intending to forward the email to a friend, Brady accidentally replied to the advocate, saying, “Is the dude basically saying, if we provide free Blowjobs for Uncle Pervie there will be few rapes and few chink broads will be shipped in CONEX containers to the Port of Wilmington??” Brady was swiftly admonished by his own party in an open letter sent by House speaker Pete Schwartzkopf, D-Rehoboth, majority leader Valerie Longhurst, D-Delaware City, and majority whip Larry Mitchell, D-Elsmere. “Our country has seen anti-Asian hatred grow exponentially during this past year, fueled by reckless political figures and talking heads who have spewed rhetoric and lies,” the letter read. “Asian Americans have experienced increased verbal harassment and violence. The March 2021 killing of six Asian women in Atlanta was rooted in the same racism, sexism and misogyny as your email.” Several groups lashed out and called for his resignation, including Delaware Republican Party Chairwoman Jane Brady. The two are not related. On Monday, she said, ““I’m glad to see that he made the right choice for himself and for the state.” Last week, she said, “What Rep. Gerald Brady did was wrong in so many ways. First, he felt comfortable sharing a comment about a sex act with someone who is a staffer in his office. Second, he spoke about women in a way that made them objects, not people or individuals to be respected. And third, he demeaned the proud culture of Asian Pacific women by presuming that they are involved in the sex trafficking trade.” In Gerald Brady’s Monday statement announcing he would not seek re-election, the legislator said, “My recent actions – using a deeply offensive anti-Asian slur and attempting to make a crass joke about human trafficking – make it more difficult to effectively provide the kind of representation all residents of the 4th District expect and deserve. “There can be no excuse for my actions, and after careful reflection these past several days, I have decided that I will not seek re-election when my term ends. I cannot in good conscience ask the voters to put their faith in me again after I betrayed theirs. I can only humbly and unequivocally apologize again for my actions, for which I am solely responsible.” Brady said in his statement he would complete the sensitivity training that his party leadership asked him to attend and will do his best to make amends with the Asian American community. Shortly after he released his announcement, the House Democratic leadership issued their own statement. “Rep. Brady’s comments were reprehensible, racist, sexist and indefensible, and each of us expressed that message to him during this past week,” It said. “After several very frank conversations with him these past few days, we are grateful that he has reached this decision today. We know that it cannot absolve his actions, but we hope it is a first step toward healing and addressing this situation.” The Democratic leadership directly addressed Delaware’s Asian American community, saying, “We truly apologize for the hurt, anger and mistrust this past week has caused you. We are keenly aware of the growth in anti-Asian hatred during this past year, and the last thing anyone should have to experience on top of that is one of their elected representatives dehumanizing them as a joke. It’s appalling, and we must expect better.” Sensitivity training will be made available to all members of the Democratic caucus, the leadership statement said, so the group is able to “learn of any microaggressions or other attitudes or actions that negatively impact the Asian American community.” Brady vowed to “continue to work tirelessly to address the issues impacting my constituents as well as the citizens of Delaware.” Just a few days before the email was revealed by The News Journal/DelawareOnline, he was being hailed for helping pass the bill that will raise Delaware’s minimum wage to $15.
Citizens for a Pro-Business Delaware will announce that it is rebranding during a Tuesday rally designed to pressure Gov. John Carney to appoint a Black justice to Chancery Court. The group’s name will change to Citizens for Judicial Fairness, to reflect its growth into an organization with a national focus in highlighting gaps in representation and fighting for equity and transparency in U.S. courts and the legal system. “This is a major milestone for our movement in Delaware and nationwide as we focus our efforts on fighting for fairness, equity and transparency in our judiciary and legal industry,” said Chris Coffey, campaign manager for the group, in a press release. “Since our founding nearly six years ago, we’ve been constantly amazed by the enthusiastic grassroots response from thousands of citizens in Delaware and beyond who are sick and tired of courts that don’t look like them or live like them making far-reaching decisions that affect their livelihoods,” Coffey said. “We are proud to have given those citizens a voice and an outlet to demand better from their leaders, and are excited to continue that work for the long-haul.” The Delaware Courts did not respond to a request for comment on the change. The pro-business group rose in the wake of the Transperfect case decided by the Delaware Chancery Court, which many considered the best place for businesses to resolve internal conflicts. One of the parties in any suit there must be a company incorporated in Delaware. In the Transperfect case, the Shawe family that owned the language translation company were angry over the court’s order that it must be sold, which it was to owner Phil Shawe. Since then, members of the Shawe family and the Citizens for a Pro-Business Delaware have worked against Gov. John Carney’s election, been critical of the Chancery Court and have the lack of minority judges. The organization has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars lobbying for changes and protesting the $3.9 million in fees that Custodian Robert Pincus’ and Skadden Arps — a vast American international law firm — charged during the court battle. The Rev. Al Sharpton will appear at the 11:30 a.m. rally Tuesday, May 24, outside the Delaware State Capitol in Dover. The group wants a Black judge appointed to the vacancy on Delaware’s Chancery Court. The last was Delaware Supreme Court Justice Tamika R. Montgomery-Reeves, who was elevated to the State Supreme Court in 2019. “As we enter this new phase of our advocacy, we are committed to doubling down on our role as the leading voice for judicial diversity and equity in Delaware,” Coffey said. “We’ve said for years that we’re here to stay in Delaware and we meant it – our new brand and name represent that commitment and we couldn’t be more excited to keep working alongside our partners and supporters to create lasting positive change in Delaware.”
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