A potpourri of miscellaneous news SCRIBBLED IN A REPORTER'S NOTEBOOK

Governor Ruth Ann Minner left no doubt she doesn't intend to compromise on the controversial new law banning smoking in restaurant, bars and other indoor public places.

During  her 'State of the State' address to the General Assembly, she introduced 10-year-old Kimberly Eagle, who was diagnosed with cancer at age six. Kimberly had written to the governor to thank her for the ban because restaurant smoke "hurt my lungs a lot." Minner asked the legislators, in effect, to reject pleas for relatively wide exemptions from the pioneering law from the 'loud detractors" and heed the views of the "quiet majority grateful for clean air." The governor holds a trump card if the expected emotional Assembly debate results in a close vote on amending legislation. There is little doubt she will exercise her seldom-used executive veto power.

Not one to inject levity into a serious presentation, Minner included only one laugh-seeker in her talk. But it was a zinger. Referring to proposed measures to deal with future droughts like the one a long dry spell caused last summer, she ad libed to the effect that, in Delaware, the lieutenant governor has responsibility for the weather. Lieutenant Governor John Carney was seated behind her on the rostrum, presiding over the joint session. As it happened, she had just announced her appointment of retired judge William Quillen to head a taskforce to come up with ways to deal with happenings like the Metachem environmental problem. Quillen is Carney's father-in-law. Click here to read the full text of her speech.

We can't help but wonder why governors and the President of the United States refer to their annual presentations as  reports on the 'state of the state (or Union).' All but a few words at most  deal with the executives' legislative programs with barely a hint of how things are going in the neighborhood.

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IT HAS BEEN QUITE A WHILE:

The Brandywine (above) and Christina haven't frozen up like this for several years -- and winter is just a little more than a third of the way through.

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ETHICS COMMITTEE SOON TO BE WHOLE: New Castle County Council probably will fill the seventh and final vacancy on the Ethics Commission at its Jan. 28 meeting, according to Council President Christopher Coons. He told Council's Executive Committee that County Executive Tom Gordon has submitted the nomination of John Molitor. Pending a special meeting of the committee that afternoon, the nomination should be ready for confirmation that evening. Coons said that will clear the way for the reconstituted commission to meet with council and the Gordon administration to define new operating procedures and other matters.

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APPROPRIATE NAME?: Six Paupers is the tentative name for a 200 plus-seat restaurant and bar to be opened in May or early June in the former Shields Lumber warehouse in Hockessin. According to Michael Lucey, who will own and operate the establishment with his brother, Steve, the name has nothing to do with current trends on Wall Street.. Long before Hockessin acquired its image as a mecca for young professionals, a 1761 census found among its residents six severely economically challenged men, he said. The Luceys have a way with names. Their other establishment, on Union Street in the Little Italy section of Wilmington, honors Dead Presidents.

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THE WAY IT WAS:
Union National Bank stood at Eighth and Market Streets. This post card, published by MdIntire & Co., around the turn of the 20th Century, feature mostly the Eighth Street side of the building as does the current photo below.
This is another in a series of 'then and now' views of Wilmington. It draws on the extensive collection of local picture post cards accumulated by Terry Craig, owner and president of Print Marketing Solutions Inc., on West Eighth Street. Current views of the same scenes are Delaforum digital photos. See previous views in this series.

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