The Green

Listen to this edition of The Green or individual segments below:

The Wilmington-based biopharmaceutical company Incyte is set to begin clinical trials for a drug that may be able to treat patients with severe cases of COVID-19.

The drug Jakafi, or more commonly Ruxolitinib, is used to treat blood cancers among other things and made Incyte almost $1.7 billion last year.

Delaware Public Media’s Nick Ciolino recently spoke with Incyte Vice President of Oncology Targeted Therapeutics Peter Langmuir about how it may fit in with the list of different therapies being tested and used to treat the virus.

Nationwide protests over police brutality have renewed outrage over the 2015 killing of wheelchair-user Jeremy McDole by Wilmington police. 

Time is running out to reconsider charging the officers involved. 

We return this week to Brandywine Creek for another update on a story we’ve been following all year.

In January, contributor Jon Hurdle reported on how a series of dams along the Brandywine dating back some 200 years were targeted for removal or modification - hoping to allow American shad to their ancestral spawning grounds again for the first time in two centuries. 

In May, Jon told us initial evidence showed the effort is paying off. Now he reports there’s even more good news this summer.

The upcoming 2020 Mid-Atlantic Teaching Artist Virtual Retreat brings arts educators together from across the region to build a network of qualified teaching artists.

The Delaware Alliance for Nonprofit Advancement (DANA) holds a conference later this month to help nonprofits connect, especially as they seek ways to overcome the COVID-19 crisis and address racial equity issues.

Listen to this edition of The Green or individual segments below:

Delaware has been in Phase 2 of its reopening plan for over a month – with no firm indication when it could move to Phase 3.

That uncertainty means many Delaware businesses are seeing their recovery efforts stall as they also wrestle with how to navigate a post-COVID world.

The Delaware State Chamber of Commerce hosted a virtual conference this week addressing these issues and contributor Jon Hurdle sat in on it.

Most of the talk about the upcoming school year is understandably centered on whether school buildings and college campuses will reopen – even partially – or will kids start the new year as they ended the last – learning remotely at home.

But that uncertainty has implications beyond what learning will look like.

This is normally back-to-school shopping season. But what does that look like if you don’t know whether your kid is going to a school building or learning from home? And is this yet another potential hit for retailers already reeling from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic?

Contributor Eileen Dallabrida examines these issues.

We take some time again this week to focus on our latest collaboration with the Delaware State News - Building Bridges - conversations with Delawareans working in the community on social justice and furthering racial equality.

Over the past two weeks, we’ve brought you interviews done by Delaware Public Media's Sophia Schmidt for this project.  But there are many more available from Delaware State News reporters.

This week we are joined by one of those reporters, Katie Redefer, who produced pieces on Southern Delaware Alliance for Racial Justice chairwoman Charlotte King and Delaware Division of Human Relations director Romona Fullman.

The Brandywine River Museum of Art re-opened this month after its forced coronavirus closure. 

And two exhibits planned earlier for this year are finally on display.

Listen to this edition of The Green or individual segments below:

Police violence has come under renewed scrutiny this year as a result of the nationwide protests sparked by the killing of George Floyd.

Delaware has had its own police killings. Perhaps most well-known is the 2015 shooting of wheel-chair user Jeremy McDole by four Wilmington police officers.

Nearly five years after the incident, Jeremy’s sister, Keandra, is leading efforts to reopen the investigation into his death.

Delaware Public Media’s Sophia Schmidt talks with Wilmington resident and activist Keandra McDole about her journey seeking justice for her brother — and systemic change in our latest Building Bridges conversation. 

Building Bridges is a collaboration with the Delaware State News, offering conversations with Delawareans working in the community on social justice and furthering racial equality.

Economic development efforts in Delaware often focus on bringing new businesses to the First State.  But attracting a workforce is also important – and a new effort to do that is getting started this summer.

It’s called Intern Delaware, and is focused building the pool of entry-level professionals in the state.

Contributor Larry Nagengast offers a closer look at the program this week.

In a world with Facebook, Twitter, 24/7 news channels, talk radio, citizen journalism, fake news, real news, audiences are drowning in an overwhelming overload of information.  Clearly a guidepost is needed to identify what is a trustworthy and a reliable source of news and information.

Delaware Humanities' podcast– A Matter of Facts – delves into this topic as part of its mission is to engage, educate, and inspire all Delawareans through cultural programming. In season 2 of the podcast, it examines more closely popular sources of news and information.

This week on The Green, we bring you the third episode in season 2 of A Matter of Facts  – featuring a conversation about the crisis in local news coverage with ProPublica’s deputy managing editor Charlie Ornstein.

Listen to this edition of The Green or individual segments below:

In most years July offers educators a bit of a break. Not this year.

Their task at hand is figuring out if school buildings can reopen, and if so, how best to balance learning and safety as the COVID-19 pandemic continues.

State Education Secretary Susan Bunting is scheduled next week to offer recommendations from 3 working groups that are supposed to offer guidance.

Contributor Larry Nagengast examines what these recommendations may look like, and the challenges districts and charters will face even with this guidance. 

This week, we feature our latest collaboration with the Delaware State News.  Building Bridges offers conversations with Delawareans working in the community on social justice and furthering racial equality.

This conversation is with Red Clay School District Superintendent Dorrell Green.

Red Clay has ramped up its work around equity in recent years, hiring the state’s first district equity officer and offering trainings by the ACLU on fair school discipline practices.  And this summer its board considered, but ultimately tossed out, the idea of removing School Resource Officers from its buildings.

In this Building Bridges’ conversation, Delaware Public Media’s Sophia Schmidt talks with Green about his journey in the field of education, and the role K-12 schools play in racial justice.

Health care systems around the country - including here in Delaware - have been coping with the coronavirus pandemic for months now.

And while the case level here in the First State has not taxed hospital capacity as it has elsewhere,  health care systems here are navigating a number of issues and challenges.

We recently sat down with Nemours CEO Dr. Larry Moss to discuss some of those issues and challenges,  and some of the opportunities found in the new normal created by the pandemic.

Listen to this edition of The Green or individual segments below:

Educators face a unique challenge this summer.

They’re not only tasked with combating the usual summer learning loss, but they now need to address learning progress stunted by the pandemic – a so-called  “Covid Slide.”

Contributor Larry Nagengast took a closer look at initiatives  attempting to meet these challenges.

Another concert series recently became a coronavirus casualty.

The Riverfront Development Corporation recently canceled its Summer Concert Series.

But there is good news - something is coming to replace it.

In a world with Facebook, Twitter, 24/7 news channels, talk radio, citizen journalism, fake news, real news, audiences are drowning in an overwhelming overload of information.  Clearly a guidepost is needed to identify what is a trustworthy and a reliable source of news and information.

Delaware Humanities' podcast– A Matter of Facts – delves into this topic as part of its mission is to engage, educate, and inspire all Delawareans through cultural programming. In season 2 of the podcast, it examines more closely popular sources of news and information.

This week on The Green, we bring you the second episode of season 2 of A Matter of Facts  – featuring a conversation about Facebook with University of Delaware Associate Communications professor Lindsay Hoffman.

Listen to this edition of The Green or individual segments below:

The 2019-2020 school year is in the books – a year thrown into disarray in March by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

School buildings closed forcing teachers and administrators across the board to rapidly ramp up remote learning strategies to keep teaching while kids stayed home.  

Earlier this spring, contributor Larry Nagengast reported on those efforts – and the initial successes and challenges that came with them.

This week, he checks back in with teachers around the state to see how what students learned – and what they learned.

Delaware’s Department of Correction recently announced in-person visitation at state prisons can resume at the end of the month.

Visitation was suspended in March as a precaution to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

But after an outbreak resulted in 148 cases and seven deaths among inmates, the state says only one inmate is still testing positive for the virus.

Delaware Public Media’s Nick Ciolino recently spoke with DOC Commissioner Claire DeMatteis about the steps taken to contain the virus in prisons, and preparations for a possible second wave of cases.

The Ladybug Music Festival is doing something different this year due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. It’s going virtual.

Gable Music Ventures is taking the all-female festival, which started in Wilmington in 2012 and then added a second event in Milford in 2018, completely online.

Annual Juneteenth celebrations in Delaware are being recognized in new ways this year — with the state and several city governments closing to observe it. Celebrations are also adapting to the pandemic. 

Listen to this edition of The Green or individual segments below: