Governor Jack Markell unveiled a fiscal year 2013 budget proposal that features little overall growth in spending but significantly expands spending in certain areas. The governor offered his FY 2013 plan in Dover Thursday. Gov. Markell’s budget plan is balanced without any increased or additional taxes or fees. “This budget is very much like what I talked about in the State of the State speech last week,” stated Markell. The $3.55 billion proposed general operating fund budget is a 1 percent increase over the $3.51 billion FY12 budget.

In his State of the State Address, Governor Jack Markell indicated the state needs to make continued strides toward more transparency, in part by developing online tools that inform citizens who is lobbying in Dover and what they are lobbying for. During the early working days of the Delaware General Assembly in 2012, legislators are getting the opportunity to deal with other issues related to openness in government and the Freedom of Information Act.

In 1995, six months after starting her own business, Renee Ridenour joined a local chamber. But after nearly 17 years of attending the chamber’s networking meetings and events, she became disenchanted. “None of the existing chambers were meeting my needs as a small business owner,” said Ridenour, president of Pine Mountain Springs in Wilmington. She wasn’t alone and that frustration helped give birth to Delaware Small Business Chamber of Commerce - which launched in December 2011.

As America commemorates the sesquicentennial of the Civil War, we look at the Delaware Historical Society's collection of wartime envelopes and stationery. Long before soldiers could text and phone their families back home, boys in blue and gray put their thoughts and feelings into letters, some decorated with elaborate and, at times, politically incendiary artwork and cartoons. The now-valuable collection of some 250 artifacts provides a unique perspective on the war and on political communication then and now.

More than seven million injuries every year in the U.S. are sports-and recreation-related and more than half of those 7 million injuries involved people age 5 to 24, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Among 12-17-year-olds, sports-related injuries are the leading cause of emergency room visits. At the Center for Sports Medicine at Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children, staff not only wants to help young athletes heal after injury, but to educate athletes, parents and coaches on how to avoid injuries in the first place.

As more and more Wilmington children are exposed to violence and the trauma that comes with it, police, counselors, community-based organizations, and schools are boosting their efforts to guide those children to physical and emotional safety. Police and counselors work hand-in-hand; out-of-school programs provide safe havens. This report, the final part of a three-part investigation, examines the numerous organizations that provide safety and support when gun violence in Wilmington leaves children traumatized, grieving, and lonely.