Parker Campaign Hits The Ground Running

Democrat Eddy Parker’s campaign made an appearance in Laurel’s Independence Day Parade. Parker was just selected Wednesday night, July 1st to run in the special election for Delaware’s 19th Senatorial seat.

All the electoral paraphernalia and volunteers you need to get the word out.

Independence Day 2009 in Photos

There are a number of photos I took and posted on Photobucket. I got to meet several people yesterday, including the world-famous blogger from Delmar, DE:

He’s resting here comfortably with his wife awaiting the parade. He has his own post covering the parade here.

Also, I got to meet Shirley from The Delaware Curmudgeon and Dan Shortridge, a reporter with the News Journal. Dan interviewed me for an article back during the 2008 election. Author James Diehl had a booth set up, doing Sussex County trivia and selling his book Remembering Sussex County: From Zwaanendael to King Chicken (website). During our conversation, I discovered that I knew his father. Then again, if you grew up in Sussex County, you probably know everyone through someone else.

Our son Justin was playing the bass guitar on the float with the LHS Jazz Band:

Some other notables, and it’s not an election year:

The couple in picture #2 and #4 were very nice to pose for me. Hopefully they brought a smile to some child’s face.

Independence Day 2009 in Laurel, DE (final)

This post will contain everything I know about Laurel’s Fourth of July events.

This year every major event will happen on July 4th. With that in mind, here are the day’s events:

• 7:30am – Prayer Breakfast at Georgia House, Delaware Ave. Pastor Tim Dukes will be the speaker for the morning with musical ministry by Bruce and Nancy Willey
• 8:30am – 5K Run/Walk – registration begins at 7:30am at the North Laurel Elementary School. (entry)
• 9:00am-3pm Car Show, Georgia House parking lot
• 10:00am – Red, White, and Blue Parade. Line up starts at 8:30am on Evergreen Drive. Central Avenue will be shut down from Oak Lane Drive to Five Points during the parade. (register for the parade by July 1)
• 10:30am-until the start of fireworks – Carnival, next to The Insurance Mart on N. Central Ave
• 12:00pm-12:30pm – Announcement of the winners of the Red, White, and Blue Parade and 5K Run.
• 1:00pm-2:30pm – Talent Show
• 2:30pm-3:00pm – Pie Eating Contest
• 3:00pm-4:00pm – local entertainment
• 4:00pm-4:30pm – Best Pie and Cake Contest
• 4:30pm-6:00pm – local entertainment
• 6:00pm-8:00pm – Bruce & Nancy Willey and the Gospel Cafe Band
• dusk – fireworks (rain date will be July 5)

The carnival is set up next to The Insurance Mart on N. Central Ave. Its schedule is as follows:

• June 30 to July 3, open 6-10pm, wristband nights $15 – ride all night.
• July 4, open 10:30am until the start of fireworks.
• Kids and adults rides

There is a dunking booth which apparently is all day. I would love to know who is on the “dunkee” list.

County Councilman Vance Phillips will be having a Watermelon Eating Contest. I have no information on the time of the event.

It’s safe to say that all the events and times are subject to change. Also, this is not an official list. It is merely what I have learned from the newspapers. If there are any updates, they will be added at the end of this post.

Visit the Laurel Chamber of Commerce’s web site for applications for the various events.

UPDATE:  The Laurel Police Department asked that all vehicles be removed off of Central Avenue by 8:00 am Saturday morning.
Any vehicles left parked on the parade route will be towed.

Elvis and Michael Jackson

From my head to yours:

Elvis Presley was the King of Rock & Roll. Michael Jackson was the King of Pop.

People were surprised when they heard Elvis died. It looks like most people were surprised to hear that Michael Jackson died.

As I remember, the news media was saturated with news about the death of Elvis. Ditto for Michael Jackson times 10. If the Internet was publicly used like it is today, the reporting on Elvis’ death might have been just as bad.

Elvis died early at 42. Michael Jackson died early at 50.

Elvis died from a heart attack more than likely brought on by prescription drugs. Michael Jackson is thought to have died from a heart attack possibly brought on by prescription drugs. We will know for sure probably 4-6 weeks from now.

Elvis has impersonators. Michael Jackson has people that think they can do the moonwalk.

Some people believe that Elvis is still alive. Just wait a few weeks or months for some people to believe the same about Michael Jackson.

Finding Candidates For The 19th District

After Thurman Adams passed away this week, his 19th district state senate seat was vacated requiring a special election to occur. In an email sent out tonight, Eric “Bodie” Bodenweiser notified potential supporters that he is being interviewed by GOP leadership as a potential candidate in that special election. Bodie is currently the honorary chaplain of SCCOR. He is one of what I’m sure is a group of people interested in running. That list of names isn’t published, but I would guess at least one person that might run for that seat. That person’s win would lead to another special election, and so the cycle goes.

No doubt there will be a Democrat on the ballot. I’m aware that there is a possible minor party candidate. This will all shake out soon enough, giving everyone an interesting summertime election.

(crossposted to DelawarePolitics.net)

UPDATE: Someone left this comment over at DelawarePolitics.net:

For Senator Adams and his families sake, can we please have this discussion after his funeral? Eric’s email has upset some on the eve of the good Senators burial.

Here is my reply:

I wrestled with this very issue after I had posted the information. It is no surprise that political organizations are already considering their options regarding the special election. At the same time, it almost seem disrespectful openly discussing these matters, to a degree like driving by a funeral procession instead of pulling off the road to show respect. If posting this information brought any sorrow to the family, please accept my apology.

UPDATE 2:

Due to some misunderstandings I would like to amend this post. As I stated in the first paragraph, an email was sent out to potential Bodenweiser supporters asking for their help with his potential campaign. From the content of the email, I perceived that circulating this information via the blogs would be OK. As it has turned out sending out this information has become an offense to family and friends. It was not my intention to show any disrespect to Senator Adams by reporting this information.

On a day when his life is celebrated, he certainly should be honored in all that he has done to help Bridgeville and the state of Delaware. I am sure that every one of us has directly or indirectly been touched by the work of his hands in service to his community. His legacy will live on not only through his work in Dover but through his children and his children’s children.

This matter was a misunderstanding. There was absolutely no direct request by Mr. Bodenweiser or his supporters to post this information on any blog. To reiterate what I posted in the comments section, if posting this information brought any sorrow to the family or friends, please accept my apology.

Friday Links

Here’s a list of the top three posts for the last seven days.

There’s an interest in upcoming events: number one.

This old post has been getting a lot of hits over the past month and a half, and I’m not exactly sure why: number two.

This post could smell really bad: number three.

Laurel PD Improves Communication With Community

The Laurel Police Department just issued this press release:

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On July 1st 2009 The Laurel Police Department is launching a new Community Information Service designed to deliver important and timely information to residents in our area using the latest technology.

This service, created by Nixle, LLC delivers trustworthy and important neighborhood-level public safety and community event notifications by web, e-mail, and cell phone.

Residents of Laurel can now take advantage of Nixle! Nixle is a community information service that alerts you to public safety threats and community events via web, e-mail, and cell phone. Sign up at www.nixle.com to register.

Nixle is a new community information service provider built exclusively to provide secure and reliable communications. Its authenticated service connects municipal agencies and community organizations to residents in real time, delivering information to geographically targeted consumers over their cell phones (via text messages), through e-mails and through Web access.

For now, Laurel residents will be able to receive police-related information and municipal government information via Nixle. Channels providing other kinds of information are expected to be introduced in the future.

Craig Mitnick, the founder and CEO of Nixle, said Nixle differs from current services such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter, which provide unauthenticated platforms for connections. Nixle solves that problem by providing a single standardized service for consumers to receive immediate and credible neighborhood-level public safety and community information.

“Nixle is a first-of-its-kind tool for communities that need to provide critical information to their residents,” said Craig Mitnick, founder and CEO.  “When it comes to public safety information, you have to trust the source. Residents of Laurel can rest easy that the local messages they receive are authentic.”

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I signed up for the service ahead of time. It appears that this will be a good way to be aware of emergency situations.

UPDATE: I received an alert today on the system. It reported about the heat advisory. So far so good. Have you signed up yet?