Salon.com > Randall Chase

Delaware to legalize gay marriage

Tue, 07 May 2013 21:46:00 +0000

DOVER, Del. (AP) — A divided Delaware state Senate voted Tuesday to make their state the 11th in the nation to allow same-sex marriage, after hearing hours of passionate testimony from supporters and opponents.

The Senate's 12-9 vote sends the bill to Democratic Gov. Jack Markell, who supports the measure and planned to sign it later in the day. It would go into effect July 1.

"I think this is the right thing for Delaware," the governor said after the vote, while posing for pictures with supporters outside his legislative office. "It took an incredible team effort."

Gay rights activists and their supporters in the chamber erupted in cheers and applause following the Senate vote.

Delaware's same-sex marriage bill was introduced in the Democrat-controlled legislature last month, barely a year after the state began recognizing same-sex civil unions. The bill won passage two weeks ago in the state House on a 23-18 vote.

While it doesn't give same-sex couples any more rights or benefits under Delaware law than those they have in civil unions, supporters argued same-sex couples deserve the dignity and respect of married couples. They also noted that if the U.S. Supreme Court strikes down the Defense of Marriage Act, which bars married gay couples from receiving federal benefits, civil unions would not provide protections or tax benefits under federal law to same-sex couples in Delaware.

O’Donnell threatens to sue station over video

Wed, 27 Oct 2010 21:32:00 +0000

Republican Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell's campaign threatened to crush a radio station with a lawsuit if it posted video of an interview with the tea party favorite on the Internet.

During the interview Tuesday on WDEL-AM, O'Donnell snapped her fingers and beckoned a spokesman to her side after the host of "The Rick Jensen Show" pressed her on how she would have handled the New Castle County budget differently from her Democratic opponent Chris Coons, who is the executive of the state's largest county.

Jensen told The Associated Press that O'Donnell said after the interview that she would sue if the video was released. O'Donnell campaign manager Matt Moran then called WDEL general manager Michael Reath, demanding the station turn over the video and threatening to crush the station with a lawsuit if it did not comply.

"He accused us of creating a story to garner ratings because we must be hurting since the (Philadelphia) Phillies were no longer on the air," Reath said, adding that Moran accused Jensen of "grandstanding."

After viewing the video, which the station provided to the campaign before posting it Tuesday night, O'Donnell's campaign attorney called WDEL's attorney and was very apologetic, Reath said.

Christine O’Donnell: A long strange TV run

Sat, 02 Oct 2010 16:30:00 +0000

Ever since Christine O'Donnell as a college student had a chance meeting with a television producer at the 1992 Republican national convention, she has never been too far from the cameras.

Long before the tea party upstart burst onto the political scene last month to win the Republican Senate nomination in Delaware, she regularly appeared as a commentator on TV news programs, representing her own Christian organization and speaking for other conservative advocacy groups. And she wasn't shy about expressing her views, whether about sex, religion, AIDS or even witchcraft.

"It all started during the 1992 convention when I did my first TV interview with CNN," O'Donnell told The Associated Press. "I was a Bush-Quayle youth leader, happened to talk to the producer of CNN on the convention floor, and she liked what I happened to say."

After that, O'Donnell said, she and a couple of other college students met with the CNN producer every afternoon to offer their perspectives on the convention.

"I guess from there your name gets circulated," said O'Donnell, who went on to appear on Fox's "O'Reilly Factor," "Hannity & Colmes" and C-SPAN. She also was a regular conservative foil on comedian Bill Maher's "Politically Incorrect," appearing 22 times, according to Maher.

Joe Biden’s son has mild stroke

Tue, 11 May 2010 21:05:00 +0000

Vice President Joe Biden's oldest son had a mild stroke Tuesday but is expected to recover, his doctor said.

Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden, 41, was admitted to Christiana Hospital on Tuesday morning.

"He is in good spirits and talking with his family at the hospital," Dr. Timothy Gardner said in a statement issued through the White House later in the day. "He is fully alert, in stable condition and has full motor and speech skills."

Jason Miller, Beau Biden's spokesman, had no immediate comment.

The vice president's office said Gardner would not comment beyond the statement and would not take questions.

A state trooper was stationed at the main entrance of the hospital and several black SUVs and men in suits with earpieces were nearby.

Joe Biden's wife, Jill, was seen leaving the hospital about 4 p.m. An Associated Press reporter asked how Beau Biden was doing, but security team members whisked her away before she could respond.

The vice president had traveled to Delaware on Monday afternoon for a previously scheduled trip. He did a round of morning show interviews from Wilmington Tuesday morning, and was supposed to return to Washington later in the day for his weekly lunch with President Barack Obama and a series of meetings on Afghanistan.

Doctor indicted in serial child abuse scandal

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 13:38:12 +0000

Prosecutors expect to add more counts to a lengthy indictment against a Delaware pediatrician charged with serial molestation of 103 children as investigators urge former patients and parents to come forward.

A grand jury returned a 160-page indictment Monday against Dr. Earl Bradley of Lewes with 471 counts of sexual crimes.

The case has shocked the close-knit coastal community of Lewes and the central Delaware town of Milford, where Bradley closed an office in 2005 after police investigated him.

Bradley's attorney, Eugene Maurer, said he would seek to move the trial out of Sussex County. But he said the "real battleground" in the case will be Bradley's mental state, not what is seen on videotapes seized from Bradley's home and office or alleged in the indictment.

Announcing the grand jury's indictment, Attorney General Beau Biden said all of the alleged victims, mainly girls but including one boy, were caught on more than 13 hours of video recordings, some dating to 1998.

"The charges in this indictment are unique in the history of the state of Delaware, as far as I can tell," he said.

The charges against Bradley include rape, sexual exploitation of a child, unlawful sexual contact, continuous sexual abuse of a child, assault and reckless endangering.

Vice President Biden’s mother, Jean, dies at 92

Fri, 08 Jan 2010 21:47:00 +0000

Jean Biden, who raised her son Vice President Joe Biden to believe in what he called "America's creed ... everyone is your equal," died Friday after falling seriously ill in recent days. She was 92.

In a statement, the vice president said she died in Wilmington surrounded by her family and loved ones. She had suffered a broken hip in a fall in March 2009.

"Together with my father, her husband of 61 years who passed away in 2002, we learned the dignity of hard work and that you are defined by your sense of honor," he said in the statement. "Her strength, which was immeasurable, will live on in all of us."

Joe Biden Jr. was first elected to the Senate in 1972, shortly before his 30th birthday. His mother helped out by organizing coffee klatches -- part of a family effort that also included Biden's father, sister and brothers.

"Those of you who have met my mom, you know she's fairly politically astute, and she still runs the show," the vice president quipped shortly after she fell last year.

"You think I'm joking? I'm not," he said.

The former Catherine Eugenia Finnegan was born July 7, 1917, in Scranton, Pa. In 1941, she married businessman Joseph Biden Sr., with whom she had four children. The couple moved from Scranton to Claymont, Del., in 1953, when their eldest son, Joe, was 10 years old. Joseph Biden Sr. died in 2002 at age 86.