(DOVER, Del.—April 5, 2016)—Lewes, Del.’s Zwaanendael Museum is currently featuring a new exhibit entitled “Wine and Spirits in Delaware: Producing, Preserving, and Presenting” which utilizes graphics as well as historical objects from the collections of the State of Delaware to tell the story of Delaware’s wine and spirits trade from the time of European settlement to the present day. Historical items on display include bottles, jugs and flasks used as containers for wine, spirits and mixers; decanters, goblets and glasses used for serving these beverages; and accessories including a liquor chest, trays, trivets, corks, corkscrews and a bitters shaker.

Highlights from the exhibit include displays on distillers from the past including Levy & Glosking of Dover which produced fruit brandies and rye whiskey from the late-19th century to the beginning of Prohibition in 1920, Diamond State Distilling Co. of Cheswold which produced apple jack from 1933 to 1948 and William Brown Distiller of Fruit Brandies from west of Felton which operated from the early-20th century to 1920. Present day spirits-manufacturers featured in the exhibit include Dogfish Head of Milton and Rehoboth Beach, Painted Stave Distilling Co. of Smyrna, Delaware Distilling Co. of Rehoboth Beach and Beach Time Distilling of Lewes.

Research has produced no evidence of Delaware wine-making for commercial purposes until the 1993 opening of Nassau Valley Vineyards located near Lewes. The exhibit includes information on that vineyard as well as other present-day Delaware wineries including Pizzadili Vineyard and Winery in Felton, Harvest Ridge Winery in Marydel and Fenwick Wine Cellars in Selbyville.

“Wine and Spirits in Delaware: Producing, Preserving, and Presenting” will be on display through Dec. 31, 2016 at the Zwaanendael Museum, located at 102 Kings Highway in Lewes, Del. Museum operating-hours from April 1 to Oct. 31 are Tuesdays through Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.; and Sundays, 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. From Nov. 1 through March 31, museum operating-hours are Wednesdays through Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Admission is free and open to the public. For additional information, call 302-645-1148.

The Zwaanendael Museum was built in 1931 to commemorate the 300th anniversary of the state’s first European colony, Swanendael, established by the Dutch along Hoorn Kill (present-day Lewes-Rehoboth Canal) in 1631. Designed by E. William Martin (architect of Legislative Hall and the Hall of Records in Dover), the museum is modeled after the town hall in Hoorn, the Netherlands, and features a stepped facade gable with carved stonework and decorated shutters. The museum’s exhibits and presentations provide a showcase for Lewes-area maritime, military and social history.

-End-

Contact:
Jim Yurasek
Delaware Division of Historical and Cultural Affairs
Phone: 302-736-7413
E-mail: Jim.Yurasek@delaware.gov
Web: http://history.delaware.gov

We live in a rapidly changing world with an economy that’s been forever altered by global competition and new technology, and these changes have meant new challenges but also tremendous opportunities if we ensure that our people have access to the opportunities. To support our businesses, especially our smaller ones, that means giving them the chance to enter new global markets.

Over the next 15 years billions of new middle class consumers will be added globally, creating trillions of dollars of new wealth outside of the United States and companies that are involved in global trade are twenty percent more efficient and do twenty-five percent more business than those who don’t.

It’s a challenge to get started for small businesses with limited resources. That’s why we launched our Global Delaware initiative to ensure we’re doing all that we can to give companies their fair share – or more – of business opportunities available around the world. They’re companies like Solar Unlimited, a new exporter of hot water heating systems from Lewes that’s projecting one million dollars in sales in Mexico thanks to the state’s export initiatives. Recently, we’ve taken about a dozen companies to Canada and Mexico to help them connect with new business opportunities, and Global Delaware has planned trade missions to South Korea and Germany in the coming months.

I encourage entrepreneurs to visit Global.Delaware.Gov to learn more, connect with others who have taken advantage of these trips, and to reach out to our team for assistance. We help companies prepare for trips and we help them follow through with new opportunities upon their return. By competing in a global economy, we ensure that Delaware’s companies have more opportunities to succeed while strengthening our local economy – and that will keep Delaware moving forward.

The Federal Trade Commission and consumer protection agencies from all 50 states, including the Delaware Department of Justice, have obtained a permanent injunction to dissolve two nationwide sham cancer charities and ban their president from profiting from any charity fundraising in the future under a settlement filed in court today.

Cancer Fund of America Inc. (CFA), Cancer Support Services Inc. (CSS) and their leader, James Reynolds, Sr., agreed to settle charges that CFA and CSS claimed to help cancer patients, but instead, spent the overwhelming majority of donations on their operators, families and friends, and fundraisers. The injunction was entered Wednesday in United States District Court for the District of Arizona.

The complaint, filed in May 2015, targeted four sham charities run by Reynolds and his family members that allegedly bilked more than $187 million from donors. CFA and CSS were responsible for more than $75 million of that amount. The other two sham charities settled in May 2015. The settlement announced today concludes the largest joint enforcement action ever undertaken by the FTC and state charity regulators.

Under the settlement order, CFA and CSS will be permanently closed and their assets liquidated. Reynolds is banned from profiting from charity fundraising and nonprofit work, and from serving as a charity’s director or trustee or otherwise managing charitable assets.

The order imposes a judgment against CFA, CSS, and Reynolds, jointly and severally, of $75,825,653, the amount consumers donated to CFA and CSS between 2008 and 2012. The judgment against CFA and CSS will be partially satisfied via liquidation of their assets. The judgment against Reynolds will be suspended upon surrender of certain artwork, two pistols, and sale of a pontoon boat. The full judgment will become due immediately if he is found to have misrepresented his financial condition.

The other defendants in the case were CFA’s and CSS’s chief financial officer and CSS’s former president, Kyle Effler; Children’s Cancer Fund of America Inc. (CCFOA) and its president and executive director, Rose Perkins; and The Breast Cancer Society Inc. (BCS) and its executive director and former president, James Reynolds II. Under the respective settlement orders, Effler, Perkins and Reynolds II were banned from fundraising, charity management, and oversight of charitable assets, and CCFOA and BCS are in receivership and will be dissolved after their assets are liquidated.

“There are so many charities that do such good work that it is important to weed out those that are essentially money-making operations for a few greedy individuals,” Attorney General Matt Denn said. “The Consumer Protection Unit of the Delaware Department of Justice participated in this important case and I thank Deputy Attorney General Gillian Andrews for serving as part of the national executive committee of this multistate effort to shut down these sham charities.”

Delaware’s Consumer Protection Unit recommends that consumers do some research before donating to a charity to confirm that it is a legitimate charity, and pay special attention to the percentage of funds collected that are actually being used for charity. For more information about charities, consumers can visit www.guidestar.org or www.charitynavigator.org to obtain a charity’s Form 990 and can ensure that an organization is tax-exempt by checking the IRS Exempt Organizations Division’s Select Check database.

Those who have been the victim of charities fraud or received a fraudulent solicitation by mail, email or telephone are encouraged to file a consumer complaint with the Consumer Protection Unit. Consumers can obtain a consumer complaint form and other consumer protection information by visiting the Attorney General’s website.

With tax season upon us, the Consumer Protection Unit of the Delaware Department of Justice is receiving a high volume of consumer complaints relating to IRS phone scams.

In a typical IRS phone scam, a caller pretends to work for the Internal Revenue Service (or sometimes the U.S. Treasury Department), and tells the intended victim that the IRS will imminently be filing suit against the victim, or threatens the intended victim with arrest or some other kind of punishment, and the only way to avoid the lawsuit or arrest is to immediately pay a sum of money, usually via a pre-paid debit card or a money order.

“These scammers claim that the person answering the call has unpaid taxes that must be paid immediately to avoid a lawsuit or arrest,” says Attorney General Matt Denn. “They use aggressive language and threaten dire consequences—such as jail time, loss of employment, or deportation—if the victim doesn’t immediately pay up.”

The Internal Revenue Service says that these scammers often spoof the telephone number to disguise where they are calling from, and they sometimes manipulate the caller ID information so it seems like the call is coming from the IRS. They may even give out a fake IRS badge number, and may even know the last four digits of a victim’s Social Security number and try to use that information to gain a victim’s trust.

As a reminder, the IRS will never reach out to a taxpayer with an initial contact by telephone, nor will the IRS demand credit or debit card payment over the telephone, or demand that you pay a tax bill in a specific manner.
Earlier this month, the U.S. Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (“TIGTA”) announced that it had received reports of more than one million IRS phone scam calls since October 2013, and is aware of more than 5,500 victims who have collectively paid approximately $29 million to these scammers.

Attorney General Denn urges consumers to ignore these calls and not return voicemail messages. Consumers should instead do the following:

• If you are worried that the call might be real, because you owe federal taxes, or think you might owe federal taxes, hang up and call the IRS directly at 1-800-829-1040. IRS workers there will be able to help you with any payment questions.

• Report the scam to federal authorities: fill out the “IRS Impersonation scam” form on TIGTA’s website, or call TIGTA at 800-366-4484, and also consider filing a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (add “IRS Telephone Scam” to the comments in your complaint).

We should strive every day to ensure everyone has access to opportunities to make the most of their own abilities. It’s a moral imperative, but it’s also a fact that we only achieve our potential as a state when we tap into the talents of all of our people.

Too often certain groups of individuals are left behind including those people with disabilities. A quarter century after the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, less than 30 percent of the 54 million Americans living with disability are in the workforce.

But we are making great progress in our state through the efforts of many committed advocates like The Ability Network of Delaware. Thanks to its partnership with community service providers, 600 Delawareans with disabilities have found employment. That helped Eric Rayfield, who has a severe heart and lung disease, earn a position as a Food Service Supervisor at Governor Bacon Health Center.

Together these employment opportunities have saved the state nearly $1.4 million through a reduced dependence on public benefit. And thanks to companies like SAP, who hosted forum this week to focus on growing employee autism programs and CAI have committed to hiring more people with autism—these employers and others have realized that when given a chance, individuals with disabilities can excel in the workplace.

We must continue to bring business leaders and advocates together to highlight the benefits of employing people with autism, and other disabilities. It’s good for the bottom line of companies, and it strengthens our workforce. We’ll continue to build on those efforts to ensure that all Delawareans have the opportunity to realize their full potential through meaningful work—and that, will keep Delaware moving forward.