DART’s seven resort season bus routes returned Thursday and will operate 7 days a week from 7 am until 1 am. The routes provide service between beach resorts from Lewes to Ocean City Maryland, and as far west as Long Neck.

Officials highlight the benefits of DART’s Resort Transit bus service.

Officials highlight the benefits of DART’s Resort Transit bus service.

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DART CEO Lauren Skiver says using mass transit can make a trip to Delaware’s beaches easier.

“When you’re in your car, fighting with your cooler and your beach chairs and the kids in the back, trying to get to the beach and find a place to park, it’s stressful. It can start a day out in a more negative way than transit. You can relax in an air-conditioned vehicle and be driven to the beach,” said Skiver.

“It’s also affordable,” she added. “Just getting from the outskirts of town – in the traffic – is going to cost more in the gallons of gas you burn.”

Skiver notes the Route 1 Park & Ride near the entrance to Rehoboth Avenue costs $8 and includes up to 4 daily bus passes.

DART also resumes its weekend and holiday route from Wilmington to Rehoboth Beach Friday. That costs less than $15 round-trip and offers a variety stops between Wilmington’s Amtrak Station and Rehoboth.

Carol Everhart of the Rehoboth Beach-Dewey Beach Chamber of Commerce says while the bus service eases traffic on the roads, it also builds the kind of traffic the resorts want to see.

“The more feet on the street, the better for business,” said Everhart. “Our job as the Chamber of Commerce is to serve the visitor. This type of transit does that. Our other job is to get as many feet on the street for our business community.”

Heath Gherke, Director of operations for the Cape May-Lewes Ferry, agrees that more people equals more business.

“The shuttle and DART are a way to get more people to the town and on the ferry than we could otherwise and that’s good for everybody. That’s economic development, that’s spending, that’s what we need”

All DART busses are handicapped friendly and provide bike racks.

“If you’re a bike rider and you want to come down here and have your bike available to go to far-reaching places of the beach are you can do that,” says Skiver.

“If you have a disability and mobility is a challenge for you,” she adds, “we have the availability with wheelchair lifts for our vehicles.”

“I think it really opens up the opportunities for the community to come down here and enjoy the beach.”

This month, the city joined Bethany Beach, Fenwick Island and Delaware’s state parks in banning the practice along the water.

Dewey Beach Mayor Diane Hanson says most people support the new law, which also prohibits smoking on adjacent dunes and municipal parks. But she adds not everyone was pleased.

“I was accused by one [resident] as being a member of the Taliban because I’m putting too many rules in,” Hanson noted with a laugh. “But you get used to that sort of thing. The opposition has been extremely far and few between and in mostly small groups who feel it is an infringement on their rights. But they may have a right to smoke, but other people have a right to breathe fresh air as well.”

Hanson adds while a violation carries a fine of $50 dollars along with a $50 court fee, she expects most beach goers will be self-policing.

“If someone is smoking on the beach, I would hope that someone — a property owner or a tourist who’s familiar with the law, or a lifeguard — would go over and say ‘I’m sorry ma’am or sir, but are you aware there’s a smoking ban’ and in most cases a reasonable person under those circumstances would put it out,” Hanson said.

Hanson adds that littering cigarette butts also comes with a $100 fine. She says the city enacted the law to improve the air quality for visitors and reduce litter in the sand.

Dewey Beach is the third municipality along the Delaware coast to ban smoking on its beach, the dune area and crossovers.

DelDOT Spokesperson Sandy Roumillat advises beach-goers to expect delays on major roadways, especially Route 1 and I-95.

“The busiest days are Friday and then the return trips on Monday. We monitor the traffic counts at our toll plazas and those are always the busiest days,” said Roumillat.

During the Memorial Day weekend last year, more than 100,000 drivers passed through the I-95 Newark Toll Plaza on both Friday and Monday. AAA estimates nearly 100 thousand Delawareans will travel 50 miles or more from home this weekend, about 10 percent of the population.

Roumillat says real-time travel information is available online at DelDOT dot ORG. In addition, she says DelDOT has launched a smartphone app available for iPhones, Androids and tablets.

“As always it’s going to be a struggle, but it’s just a longer commute time, but certainly it’s very doable. You’ll get to your destination. It may take a little bit longer but you will get there and hopefully by checking the realtime traffic information you’ll be able to get there without any incident,” said Roumillat.

DelDOT has suspended road closures on Route 1, I-95 and Route 202 during the weekend.

To further ease traffic, DART begins its seasonal resort transit service this Thursday, with routes through 8 beach communities.

A DNREC Wildlife biologist noticed the nest late last week with 3 eggs.

The half mile stretch of beach between the Observation Towers and the Herring Point crossover was closed Tuesday to keep visitors from disturbing the tiny endangered shorebirds. The area will remain closed until the last of the plover chicks are able to fly – which usually happens in late August.

On the Point at Cape Henlopen, a total of five nesting pairs of piping plovers have been seen. DNREC officials note that one of the nests has failed, but four others have parents incubating eggs.

Piping Plovers were plentiful at the turn of the last century until their populations diminished to threatening levels in 1991. Critical nesting habitats are now being protected during the breeding season to help the population grow.

An additional $21.7 million was added to the revenue estimate by the Delaware Economic and Financial Advisory Council (DEFAC). $7.2 million of those dollars are headed for programs under the Department of Education.

Joint Finance Committee (JFC) members earmarked $300,000 for grants to schools developing accelerated learning curriculum, even though two bills creating the grant programs haven’t been approved yet.

The state’s Deputy Budget Director Brian Maxwell says the move is necessary now, otherwise it could be too late to fund the grants in the FY 2014 budget.

“If we don’t put a placeholder in for it, then the money would get spent,” said Maxwell. “This is a priority of the administration, so we’re putting it out there to say, ‘Hey, this is where we think we should be appropriating funds.’”

The committee also created a similar, $2 million line item to fund charter school expansions that also requires additional legislative authorization.

The JFC has quickly adopted most of Governor Jack Markell’s proposed $3.7 billion budget during its first two days of work.

In addition to the funds for education, committee members addressed other requests earlier this week, including about half of a $3.2 million project to improve security at the New Castle County Courthouse and other courthouses around the state.

State Deputy Budget Director Brian Maxwell says most of the extra projected revenue is now spoken for, but notes some wiggle room remains.

“The Controller General’s office handed out a list that actually [had] us below the governor’s recommended budget as to what was voted in [before the extra requests], but we’ve run through all of the agencies once now. So, we’re pretty much close or above the governor’s recommended budget as we stand now,” said Maxwell.

Issues that garnered much attention during early budget hearings like funding for open space programs and state employee raises haven’t yet been addressed.

JFC will continue crafting the budget next week, following a break for the Memorial Day weekend.

As part of National Safe Boating Week, DNREC is reminding those out heading on the water of some important rules.

All boaters born after January 1st 1978 must undergo a safe boating class, which covers required equipment, basic navigation rules, and how to identify buoys, lights, and rules of the road.

DNREC’s boating education coordinator Sergeant Gregory Rhodes notes that jet skis also have basic requirements for operation.

“Not only do you have to take a safe boating class to operate a jet ski, but you have to be at least 16 years old to operate one by yourself,” Rhodes said.

Sgt. Rhodes adds that teens between 14 and 16 can operate a jet ski as long as a parent is on board the watercraft with them so they can have immediate control if needed.

Sgt. Rhodes says wearing a life jacket is recommended but not mandatory for adults, however all children must wear one onboard any boat or water vehicle.

“Delaware has a mandatory law for children under the age of 13 they have to wear a life jacket all the time. Accident statistics are glaringly obvious. most of the people that die in boat accidents wouldn’t die if they had a life jacket on,” said Rhodes.

Sgt Rhodes also reminds boat operators to drink responsibly, or better yet, designate a driver. The same alcohol consumption laws apply to boating as the do for driving.

The proposal earmarks $200,000 for State Police to run the initiative.

Republican Senator Dave Lawson (R-Marydel) objected to the funding, calling the program ineffective.

“The guns that they get when they do this are simply the ones that have either come in from out of state or from under someone’s bed that they have no idea what to do with a gun to start with. So it doesn’t reduce crime,” Lawson said. “There’s nothing, coming from years of law enforcement, there’s no documentation out there that proves this.”

Lawson says the program is not a good way to spend taxpayer money.

“It doesn’t reduce crime,” Lawson said. “It’s a waste of taxpayer money when no one sitting on that [committee] would be willing to invest personally in that same thing. So I kind of take it personally that if I wouldn’t invest in it as a good way to spend money, why on earth would I spend taxpayers’ money to do that.”

The measure later passed in a 7-5 vote.

Senator Robert Marshall (D- Wilmington West) proposed the program during the last General Assembly, but the Senate defeated the bill at that time.

Another budget line item that Senator Karen Peterson (D-Stanton) initially objected to involved vague plans to update security measures at the New Castle County Courthouse and other courtrooms around the state at a price tag of nearly $3.2 million. The JFC was seeking to fund about half of the total project in 2014.

February’s shooting in the building that left two women and the alleged gunman dead prompted Delaware’s Homeland Security office and other state agencies to seek security upgrades at the facility.

Peterson argued that the Carvel State Office Building, which houses offices of the governor and other high-level officials, is in greater need of security upgrades than the courthouse.

She later agreed to the proposal after learning the state would need federal approval to release specifics of the plan.

JFC members will continue to finalize the budget through next week. The full legislature must approve the spending plan by June 30.

County leaders unveiled their proposed budget Tuesday including reduced sewer fees and a property tax rate which hasn’t changed in 24 years.

The $117-million budget proposal is about $3 million less than this year’s, due largely to reductions in sewer assessment rates as long-term debt payments for the systems come to an end.

County Finance Director Gina Jennings says that’s allowing Sussex County to set aside a half million dollar fund for capital improvements for the first time since the economic recession in 2008

“We’ve always done a pay as you go basis for capital projects in the general fund so that we don’t have any general fund debt. We’re starting again this year to start putting that money aside so that we can keep doing that and see the debt in the future,” said Jennings.

Realty transfer taxes are projected to be up 3 million dollars from 2013, thanks to an uptick in the local housing market. County Administrator Todd Lawson says though the county is expecting $18 million from the taxes next year, the budget plans only to spend 16 million.

“So that $2 million is basically our cushion. If we come in at $2 million then we’re two million to the good, but we are only going to spend $16 million, or that’s what we have budgeted for,” said Lawson.

The Council has not included a cost-of-living increases for county employees, opting instead for a one-time 2 percent bonus.

A public hearing for the budget is set for June 18th. By law, the County’s five-person council must adopt a budget by June 30.

Lawrence Myslewski filed a federal lawsuit Monday over the system that requires residents and non-residents with motorized scooters to purchase a $40 seasonal permit to park in non-metered areas.

Myslewski’s suit argues that’s unconstitutional because residents are not required to pay for permits to park cars or other motorized vehicles.

City officials told WDDE earlier this year the permit system was created in response to merchant complaints about scooters and mopeds parking on sidewalks and using bike racks.

The city planned to use $40 fee to create 180 parking spaces for scooters-only throughout Rehoboth.

A scooter decal is not required to use metered parking, and all vehicles, permit or not, are required to pay for meter spots.

General Electric Aviation plans to pour $27 million into its Newark facility over the next 5 years to expand production of engine parts made from ceramic matrix composites (CMC). CMC parts are in demand for the next generation of aircraft engines because they strong, lightweight and highly heat resistant.

GE Aviation’s new LEAP engine is fueling the demand for the parts. That engine is expected to enter service in 2016 in the Airbus A320neo, Boeing MAX, and COMAC C919 made in China. The parts are also expected to be used in the GE9X engine that is still under development.

GE’s Ceramic Composite Products Operations Manager Jeffery Wessels says making he parts is labor intensive and to meet the growing demand they’ll add 70 jobs in Newark.

“In order to meet the demand for the engines we have coming up, we have to industrialize that technology,” said Wessels. “We are setting up the production equipment now, we’ve developed the process, and now it’s putting enough equipment and enough people in place so that we can meet the demand for the business.”

Wessels adds that the new jobs will be in a various parts of the operation.

“The biggest area will be in what we call the pre-preg layup area, where you take the composite laminate and you lay one piece over the over another piece to form a part. There also is a big demand for machinists and then engineers. We need more engineers to do all the planning and evaluations and the analysis necessary to make this stuff work.”

The new jobs are expected to pay well. Wessels says a starting engineer’s salary is between $50,000 to 75,000 while the technician positions start at about $20 per hour.

Governor Jack Markell (D) says the expansion is welcome news for the state economy.

“When General Electric had choices all over the world, they decided to invest and expand here in Delaware, ” said Markell. “It’s an incredible validation of the quality of the work force.”

The plant currently employees 80 workers and expects to increase its output five-fold with this expansion.

Part of the investment is development of a “Lean Lab” at the Newark facility which allows engineers and manufacturers to work together to fine tune a part’s manufacturing process before mass producing it.

“(Lean Labs) are for something that is new to the business overall, but has to be developed in order to make it production worthy and be very consistent at making parts day after day,” said Wessels.

GE’s aviation division, worth over $18 billion, is the company’s most profitable venture, according to company officials who estimate that every two seconds an aircraft taks off with a GE engine or engine parts.

Diplomas were handed out Monday night at Del Tech’s Terry campus in Dover. Graduates at the Owens campus in Georgetown have their commencement ceremony Tuesday night while the Wilmington and Stanton campus hold a combined ceremony at the University of Delaware’s Carpenter Center Wednesday night.

Over 95 percent of the Class of 2013 are Delawareans. 64 percent of the 1,861 graduates are women and 30 percent are minorities.

With this year’s class, Delaware Tech has now handed out diploma, degrees or certificates to over 41,000 students in its 46-year history.

State officials Monday touted the initial efforts of REPLENISH, a recycling project developed by Delmarva Wellnet Foundation’s EDEN Delmarva program. REPLENISH takes restaurant food waste ranging from fruits and vegetables to coffee grinds and filters, as well as other compostable materials, and turns them into nutrient-rich compost. That compost, produced by Blue Hen Organics, is then made available to area farmers who sell their produce to the area restaurants.

Since launching in 2011, REPLENISH has kept over 500 tons of organic materials out of landfills while producing 200 tons of compost.
Delaware’s Secretary of Agriculture Ed Kee says that makes a difference in a variety of ways.

“It’s a good complete circle. Produce comes in from Delaware farms and is consumed. The resulting waste is then recycled and composted into something useful back on the farms. Compost can do a lot to build the fertility and the soil health of our farming fields,” said Kee. “And by not sending [the watse] to landfills it is expanding capacity at landfills.”

Program Director Kim Furtado adds the program is also good for a restaurant’s bottom line.

“Landfill drop off fees are going to be much higher. They’re already at 82 dollars a ton and so as that grows it becomes more economically advantaged to divert it away from that space because it’s too expensive.”

In 2012, 30 Lewes-Rehoboth area restaurants participated in the program. They sent 245 tons of their scraps to the program, saving each restaurant about $1,000 on its trash bill. The nearly 100 tons of compost created kept more than 500 tons of carbon dioxide and nearly 25 tons of methane out of the air.

Hobo’s Restaurant and Bar in Rehoboth Beach is among the participating restaurants. It’s executive chef, Gretchen Hanson, said they tried to recycle food waste on their own before the program, but it was not easy.

“[I was] trying to haul our food waste to farms and get farmers to come pick it up, and there would be times I would have three 50 gallon bins of food waste waiting for farmers to pick up that they may or may not get to,” said Hanson. “Having the consistency of Blue Hen Organics coming to pick up twice a week is fantastic. I do have to pay for it, where before it was free, but that’s OK because its part of the service to the environment that they’re doing, and they’re getting it out again elsewhere, as well.”"

REPLENISH officials announced Monday their plans to expand the program into Northern Delaware.

“We see seasonal differences in business practice, Replenish in Rehoboth doesn’t get a lot of new sign-ups after Memorial Day because of that, but up north we’ll get lots. We’ll have more attention from those [waste] generators to work on getting them started in the program,” said Furtado

Furtado notes REPLENISH is partnering with Peninsula Compost Company in Wilmington to work with larger food generators, truck farmers and poultry growers.

“[We are] going to be signing up more restaurants and we also have funding to include large food generators as well,” said Futado.

The 2013 KIDS COUNT Delaware fact book released Monday is titled ‘Place Matters” since the data indicates that well-being of Delaware’s children is often linked to the communities where they live. The fact book reports on the conditions and statistical trends involving Delaware’s families.

Delaware’s KIDS COUNT director Janice Barlow says community influence reaches across the various stages and areas of a child’s life.

“Families of course are the most important structure for a child but the community that a family resides in is going to impact their ability to provide for the child, the safety, the environment that the child is in,” said Barlow

The report also indicates that teen pregnancy, youth incarceration, and unemployment are all decreasing. However, it notes families and communities continue to struggle with some lingering effects of the recession, including increasing rates of poverty.

Barlow says that poverty is a factor that influences almost every other factor in a child’s life.

“It’s actually to the point now where poverty is a better predictor of a child’s outcome than race,” said Barlow. “If they live in a neighborhood of means they do benefit from safe streets and quality schools, but poverty does still affect their individual outcomes.”

KIDS COUNT in Delaware is one of 53 similar projects throughout the country funded by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. The project has been active for 18 years and is partnered with both the State of Delaware and the University of Delaware. Copies of the 2013 Fact Book are available at their website www.dekidscount.org.

The Delaware Economic and Financial Advisory Council (DEFAC) added $21.7 million to the state’s bottom line in its May projection of state revenues Monday afternoon.

Finance Secretary Tom Cook says a spike in corporate income tax revenue accounted for most of the new revenue.

“Corporate profits are up, there’s no doubt about it, and that’s reflected in our numbers,” noted Cook. “But part of that is also some one-time [money] that comes from our ability to collect some back taxes that were piggybacked off some federal [tax] audits.”

Based on the new DEFAC revenue estimate, the state is expected to have just over $3.8 billion available for its fiscal year 2014 budget.

The General Assembly’s budget writing Joint Finance Committee begins work on crafting the final 2014 budget Tuesday with that additional $21.7 to work with in its deliberations.

Cook says the extra dollars are welcome, but emphasizes they are not substantial when compared to the total budget

“That’s a quarter of one percent [of the total budget]. So, it’s really not a whole lot if money. I think it’s important as we’ve done in previous years not to build into the base of the budget ongoing costs that you can’t afford in future years.”

But Cook realizes there will be plenty of suggestions where to allocate the additional money.

“Whether it’s the Joint Finance Committee or the Bond Bill committee, there’s certainly a lot of demands out there with respect to court security, after school programs, [and] initiatives creating jobs. So, there are a lot of tough decisions still left,” said Cook.

Representative Melanie George-Smith, the JFC chair, told WDDE last week that if there were additional funds available that the committee would look at requests they’ve received to fund school and public safety initiatives, including courthouse safety.

There will be one more revenue estimate in June before legislators vote on the budget plan.

Biden says the program allowed law enforcement to shutdown a property in the Garfield Park area that was home to a steady stream of criminal activity.

Since Fall 2009 police were dispatched to the house at 21 Memorial Drive 177 times and arrested 40 different people for a variety of crimes, including prostitution and drug offenses. The county also used its disorderly premises ordinance to cite the property’s owner, 68 year-old Paul Bembry, for illegal conduct five times since 2011. This proved ineffective as a recent spike in reports of illegal activities on the property. Those reports prompted the use of the Nuisance Abatement Program.

“The owner of this property had a clear choice. They [could] either be responsible with their property, shut down the criminal activity that was clearly taking place there, or we’re going to come after them. And that’s what we are doing, we’re coming after them,” said Biden.

Biden added there are no set conditions that trigger use of the Nuisance Abatement Program. Decisions, he noted, are made on a case-by-case basis.

The owner of the property is, in certain cases, separated from their property,” said Biden. “The damages we seek are equivalent to the amount of the value of their home so in certain cases the deed has been turned over to not-for-profits to actually do something positive with (the property).”

Although the owner of 21 Memorial Drive property has been removed, Biden is uncertain what will ultimately happen to the property.

Since an enhancement in 2007, The Nuisance Abatement Program has been used to address 125 properties deemed nuisances to their neighborhoods throughout the state. The majority of those interventions were done with cooperation from the property owner.

AAA Mid-Atlantic reports the average price for a gallon of regular in Delaware rose four cents over the last seven days from $3.45 to $3.49. It’s jumped 13 cents over the last three weeks.

But the rise in prices at the pump in the First State has not been as drastic as elsewhere on the country. The national average jumped 7 cents last week to $3.65, and is up 13 cents in the last two weeks

Delaware drivers can also take some consolation that prices here are still about 13 cents cheaper than they were a year ago when the average price stood at $3.62.

AAA Mid-Atlantic officials maintain that even though price may rise again this week in anticipation of the Memorial Day weekend- they still expect summer gas prices to be at their lowest level since the recession ended.

Delawaregasprices.com reports the cheapest prices for in the First State over the weekend were downstate when many stations were still offering a gallon of regular for under $3.40 a gallon.

The Delaware Economic and Financial Advisory Council (DEFAC) offers its May projection of state revenues Monday afternoon.

That number will help guide the JFC as it begins two weeks of budget mark-up Tuesday.

The revenue forecast has remained fairly flat since Governor Jack Markell offered his proposed budget in January.

Representative Melanie George-Smith (D-Bear), the JFC chair, says if that trend holds there won’t much haggle over as they draft the 2014 spending plan.

“At this point, there’s not really a lot of additional revenue. There’s 1.9 million dollars from the last DEFAC meeting that we have for next year’s budget which is not a lot of money to do all the wonderful things we need to look at doing,” said Smith. “Right now, if there’s no additional revenue or it remains flat, we’re not going to have a whole lot that we’re going to be able to do.”

Should DEFAC add a significant amount to the state’s bottom line, Smith says budget writers have some idea where the additional funds would go.

“We’re hopefully going to see an uptick in revenue. If that’s the case, then I think we’ll be able to start to look at some of the requests that have come in to us – everything from schools to public safety, court security – all kinds of issues. If we have a little extra money from Monday’s DEFAC meeting, then we’ll have an opportunity to look at how we can prioritize that in spending,” said George.

The state is expect to have about $3.7 billion available for its Fiscal Year 2014 budget.

There is one more revenue estimate in June before legislators vote on the budget plan.

NASA’s top administrator Charles Frank Bolden Jr. provided the keynote address as part of the 2013 ceremony at Alumni Stadium.

“Dream big dreams; do what you want to do. Don’t listen to anyone who tells you that you can’t do something or you don’t belong. Do your job and do it very well, and don’t let the opportunity to make a difference pass you by,” said Bolden.

The first African American to lead the space agency noted that advances in both civil rights and technology give those graduating Historically Black Colleges and Universities like DSU opportunities unavailable to previous graduates. He added that Del State’s emphasis on Science, Technology, Engineering and Math or STEM education position many of them to take advantage of those opportunities.

“For those of you with STEM backgrounds, our nation’s space program needs you. America’s technology industries need you. And thanks to the education you received here many of you are fully prepared for those jobs,”Bolden said. “A new world is yours today. The programs and mission I preside over at NASA today would have been science fiction when I was growing up back in Columbia, South Carolina.

Bolden told the Class of 2013 that in addition to long range goals of missions to asteroids and Mars – NASA expects to resume U-S manned cargo missions within four years. The U.S. currently pays Russia to handle those missions.

Sunday’s graduates combined with the 197 who earned diplomas in December gives Delaware State a school record 677 graduates in the 2012-2013 academic year.

Track officials and the state’s horsemen’s association agreed last month to cut the schedule from 100 days to 81. The cutback is in response to a shortage of horses to fill fields, and an effort to avoid cutting race purses.

Del Park’s executive director of racing John Mooney says it’s a move the track probably should have made sooner. He adds it may be a few weeks before fans see an impact on the size of field running.

“We will be competing [for horses] for the first couple of weeks with Pimlico in Maryland. Last year, Pimlico close following Preakness weekend. So, there will be more competition in the next two weeks than we had last year. But I think this reduced schedule will help us and it certainly will through the summer,” said Mooney.

There is good news for Delaware Park’s signature event, the Delaware Handicap. That race has been upgraded to a Grade I stakes race for the first time since 1989. Delaware Park’s executive director of racing John Mooney says it’s about time the race was moved up.

“I thought it should have come years ago. The last two years we’ve had the champion filly and mare in the United States win it. They’ve gone on to win Eclipse Awards. So, it certainly is deserving in my opinion and we’re all thrilled about it.”

Royal Delta, winner of last year’s Eclipse Award for top handicap mare, won the 2012 DelCap. In 2011, the reigning three-year-old filly champion Blind Luck defeated Havre de Grace, which went on to me named Horse of the Year.

This year’s $750,000 Delaware Handicap is July 20th.

Post-time for Saturday’s first day of racing is 1:15. Race days this year will be on Saturday, Monday, Wednesday and Thursday each week with the exception of this Thursday, May 23rd.

The national jobless rate for April was 7.5 percent.

On the county level, some areas in Delaware are faring better than others. Sussex County’s non-seasonally adjusted rate has plummeted since January, sliding from 8.9 to 7.3 percent for April.

Meanwhile, 5.7 percent of Newark’s workforce went without work, and in Wilmington 10 percent of the workforce was out of a job last month.

The Labor Department reports that Delaware workers on average clocked in for 32 and a half hours each week in April. Compared to March 2012, average hourly earnings for private sector workers were up about almost 40 cents to $22.48 per hour.

Ticket sales have pushed the grand prize to $600 million – the biggest Powerball jackpot ever. That breaks the previous record of nearly $587.5 million for a drawing last November. A winner taking the one-time cash option on Saturday’s prize would take home nearly $377 million before taxes.

The ballooning jakpot is thanks, in part, to California now participating in the game.

Delaware Lottery Director Vernon Kirk explains since millions of Golden State residents began playing last month, the jackpot has swelled quickly.

“One of the bigger factors is that California is now a member of the Powerball group and that’s quite an addition to the customer base, if you will. So, with their sales added in, plus the [change to a] two-dollar ticket price in January, we’re seeing these go up more rapidly than before,” said Kirk.

Kirk adds the massive sum is coaxing more First State residents to test their luck.

“This run started March 27 and in Delaware alone we’ve sold $4.8 million worth of tickets to this point and usually the last day — the day of the draw – sales really spike so that number’s going to go way up,” said Kirk.

The jackpot has jumped 240 million dollars since the Wednesday night’s drawing. A Wilmington woman matched five out of six numbers to win 2 million dollars in that drawing.

Delaware’s last Powerball grand prizewinner came last October when a Wilmington couple won $50 million. The couple, which chose to remain anonymous, were the first Delawareans to win the top prize since 2009.

Saturday night’s winning numbers will be drawn at 10:59.

There is also a large MegaMillions jackpot drawing Friday for $190 million with a $140 million cash value.

Lottery officials say the combined $790 million jackpots are the biggest ever to be played for on a single weekend.

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Governor Markell used his weekly address to highlight efforts to address ongoing job training as Delaware seeks to maintain a competitive workforce.

Markell says the state must have a hand in creating a system that delivers the training workers need to qualify for the jobs that are available.

On Monday, Governor Markell attended the opening of the state’s first permanent job training facility in Newark. The 15,000 square foot training center will offer over 50 accreditation programs and skills training courses.

He touted the facility as one way the state is answering the growing demand for evolving skills in its workers.

“The skill demand of today’s jobs are rapidly evolving and the days of one employer, one career are over for most workers. Lifetime learning is no longer an aspiration, it’s a necessity, because workers throughout their careers need to upgrade their skills to remain competitive,” said Markell.

Full text of Governor Jack Markell’s weekly message

We are passionately focused on ensuring Delaware has a world class education system, but we also know learning does not end on graduation day.

The skill demands of today’s jobs are rapidly evolving and the days of one employer, one career are over for most workers.

Lifetime learning is no longer an aspiration – it’s a necessity, because workers throughout their careers need to upgrade their skills to remain competitive. That also means we need a workforce system that delivers the training workers need to qualify for the jobs employers are seeking to fill.

Earlier this week, I joined with elected officials, representatives of the Laborers’ International Union of North America and local union representatives to cut the ribbon on a multi-million dollar training center here in Delaware that will help apprentices improve and add to their skills, advance their careers and gain a competitive advantage in a tough marketplace.

Thursday, I joined the Department of Labor and more than 200 representatives from the business community at a conference focused on how we can best serve businesses and help give entrepreneurs a fair opportunity to thrive, for a company at the idea stage or one that employs thousands of people.

By creating this lifelong educational pathway for Delawareans – from birth through graduation and beyond – and supporting businesses who want to ensure they have access to the best workforce possible, we strengthen the economy, enhance our overall quality of life and keep Delaware moving forward.

USA Cycling has designated the seven-year-old event a Tier 1 criterium race. It’s one of only ten races in the country in that top tier.

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WDDE News Director Tom Byrne's interview with Wilmington Grand Prix event manager Jerry DuPhilly.

Event manager Jerry DuPhilly says Wilmington Grand Prix has slowly built itself into a premier event.

“We’ve had good competition. We’ve had good support. It’s been a good, challenging course. A lot of people come out. Cyclists like to ride in front of big crowds and we have some of the biggest crowds in the country that come out for a [criterium] race. They’ve all been the components to making this thing successful,” said DuPhilly.

That designation has helped the Grand Prix draw its strongest field of criterium competitors ever, according to DuPhilly.

“We have the top three men’s teams in the country as they are currently ranked [by USA Cycling] coming out. And there are the four individual top ranked riders that will all be racing here this weekend. On the women’s side, four of the top five racers will be here led by Erica Allar and three-time Grand Prix winner Laura Van Gilder, who was the points champion last year. So we have a star-studded cast,” said DuPhilly.

The weekend of racing gets underway Friday afternoon at 4 with the the Monkey Hill time trial which challenges the riders with a ride up the cobblestones on Monkey Hill in Wilmington’s Brandywine Park.

Saturday’s full slate of racing begins at 8am. The women’s pro race is at 2:15. The men’s pro race starts at 4pm.

State senators approved the measure in a 16-2 vote on Thursday.

Previously, pharmacists had to keep detailed records of whom they sold hypodermic needles to. They also needed a prescription from a licensed physician to make the sale.

House lawmakers will take up the bill after returning from a two-week legislative break.

House lawmakers approved a measure on Thursday that would establish stricter college entry and graduation requirements for would-be educators.

While Senators easily passed the bill earlier this month, a handful of Representatives spoke out against it.

Reps. Charles Potter Jr. (D- Wilmington North) and John Kowalko (D-Newark South) tried to amend the bill to cut out minimum grade point average standards required for acceptance into a program.

Kowalko says it’s not the legislature’s place to mandate these kinds of benchmarks from universities.

“I know that there’s hope that the better product we get going in, the better product we get going out,” he said. “But we can’t ignore the products that are not as highly polished at that moment in time, which is what we’re doing by law.”

Rep. Paul Baumbach (D-Newark) put forth an amendment to strike a provision requiring the state to track the progress of graduates for five years.

He calls it government overreach and a waste of the state’s resources. “It introduces a dangerous direction of micromanaging our colleges and universities by our state Department of Education that should be focusing on our public schools,” he said.

Rep. Darryl Scott (D- Dover) disagrees. He argues that there are alternatives built into the provision.

“We’re trying to use research-based information to drive the improvements that we’re recommending in this bill and although it requires annual evaluation, it doesn’t require the state-based system, but rather they can use something that includes components. But they have a little bit of flexibility in that respect,” Scott explained.

Both amendments failed to muster sufficient support in the House. The bill later passed with only a few lawmakers voting against it.

Governor Jack Markell (D) touted the idea during his State of the State speech in January.

In a written statement after the vote, Gov. Markell thanked lawmakers for recognizing the need for new teachers “prepared to make a difference on their first day in the classroom.”

“The single most important school factor in a child’s academic success is teacher quality,” he said. “We want to attract the best candidates into the teaching profession because our state’s success in the future is dependent on how well we educate our children today.”

The National Council on Teacher Quality has given Delaware’s efforts to improve teacher preparation a “D-minus.” That puts it in the bottom eight states nationwide for addressing the issue.

Gov. Markell is expected to sign the bill into law.