WILMINGTON – You can now see Delaware like never before with a breathtaking virtual tour of the state’s endless discoveries.

At Nemours Estate Monday, as part of National Travel and Tourism Week (May 6-12), Governor John Carney, Secretary of State Jeffrey Bullock and Delaware Tourism Director Liz Keller showcased the experience that takes visitors on a sweeping, 360-degree journey of Delaware.

The virtual reality tour includes the experience of canoeing through Trap Pond State Park, strolling the Rehoboth Beach boardwalk and walking the lavish grounds of Nemours Estate.

The tour is another exciting tool for the Delaware Tourism Office to introduce Delaware to potential out-of-state visitors. It is available to view at VisitDelaware.com to spark travelers’ inspiration as they plan their trips.

“With the launch of this new virtual tour, the Delaware Tourism Office is embracing new technologies when marketing the state’s ‘Endless Discoveries’ at time when, as a state, we are working to grow innovation and the high-tech sector to move the economy forward,” said Gov. Carney.

“The tourism industry is vitally important to Delaware,” Sec. Bullock said. “The sector employs almost 43,000 people thanks in large part to the hard work and ingenuity of small business owners and entrepreneurs, who are a backbone of the state’s economy and who help make the visitor experience here so incredible.”

A record 9 million people visited Delaware in 2016, contributing a record $3.3 billion to the state’s economy, according to the latest Value of Tourism report.

“One of the most important ways the state tourism office works to drive out-of-state visitation to Delaware is by keeping on top of the changing landscape of technology,” Delaware Tourism Director Liz Keller said. “Staying at the forefront means adopting new technologies, listening to customers and engaging with them.”

Nemours Estate expects that being featured in the tourism office’s first-ever virtual tour will help continue the tremendous growth in visitation it has seen recently. The number of visitors grew to 25,000 in 2017, up from 15,000 in 2016.

“The virtual tour will introduce people, who may not yet be familiar with Nemours Estate, to the beauty of our mansion, gardens and grounds,” said John Rumm, executive director of Nemours Estate. “We’re confident that once people see us on a virtual tour they will want to visit us in person.”

Travelers stopping at the Delaware Welcome Center Travel Plaza on I-95 Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. have the chance to put on the headset for themselves to take the tour in celebration of National Travel and Tourism Week.

The Delaware Tourism Office, 99 Kings Highway in Dover, part of the Delaware Division of Small Business, promotes tourism and economic growth in Delaware. For more information, visit the official Delaware Tourism website at http://www.visitdelaware.com or call toll-free at (866) 284-7483.

Media Contact
Gary Haber
Communications Manager
Delaware Division of Small Business
Gary.Haber@delaware.gov
(302) 577-8471 (office)
(302) 222-7114 (cell phone)

DOVER – Secretary of State Jeffrey Bullock has suspended the Delaware medical license and controlled substance privileges of Gregory Villabona, in light of allegations of unprofessional conduct related to the prescription and distribution of opioid medications.

In making this determination, Secretary Bullock considered the findings of two parallel complaints filed by the Delaware Department of Justice, which alleged that Mr. Villabona prescribed opioids to patients with little or no required documentation, failed to maintain effective controls against diversion of controlled substances, and exchanged guns and weapons with patients.

“The facts presented to me in this case demonstrate an immediate danger to public safety, which is the standard that an emergency suspension of this nature must meet,” said Secretary Bullock.

The order suspending Mr. Villabona’s medical license was signed by the secretary today with the concurrence of the president of the Board of Medical Licensure and Discipline. Secretary Bullock also signed a separate order suspending Mr. Villabona’s Delaware controlled substance registration.

Mr. Villabona is a psychiatrist with a practice in Dover and was previously disciplined by state licensing authorities in 2003 for unprofessional conduct arising from sex offenses in Maryland to which Mr. Villabona plead guilty. He was disciplined again in 2007 for violating the terms of a 2005 order, which, in part, prohibited Mr. Villabona from treating minor patients in unsupervised settings. In 2008, Mr. Villabona entered into a consent agreement with the state that placed certain permanent restrictions on his medical license, including limiting his practice to male patients over the age of 18.

Delaware Code Title 24 enables a temporary suspension pending a hearing to be issued upon the written order of the Secretary of State, if the activity of the licensee presents a clear and immediate danger to public health, safety or welfare.

The suspension of Mr. Villabona will remain in effect for a period of 60 days, during which time disciplinary hearings will be held or the final disposition for this individual will take place. As the result of a hearing, the Board of Medical Licensure and Discipline has the authority to impose disciplinary sanctions up to and including revocation of a practitioner’s license or certification.

The licensure status of Mr. Villabona will soon be updated on the Division of Professional Regulation’s online license verification service. Documentation of previous actions against Mr. Villabona’s medical license may also be viewed at this site.

DOVER – Citizen coders and civic technologists from across Delaware are set to take on the state’s second annual Open Data Challenge, harnessing the power of public datasets to come up with new solutions to big statewide problems.

Coordinated by Open Data Delaware and the Department of State’s Government Information Center, ODC18 is a series of events and workshops that will allow participants to review and analyze information hosted on the state’s Open Data Portal, then design new apps, websites or programs that will put the data to good use. Teams with the best ideas and the most promising prototypes will be eligible for grant funding to allow them to continue their work.

“The Challenge is designed to get people to think differently about solving problems in our communities,” said Secretary of State Jeff Bullock. “We’re encouraging a new way of approaching citizen engagement, collaboration and innovation based on the public data collected by state government.”

For ODC18, two of the state’s largest public agencies, the Department of Transportation and the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control, have posed a simple question: How can we make sure that all Delawareans have full access to our state’s public forests, beaches and parks – and that they know which roads, buses, trails and bike routes can take them there?

“Delaware has so many recreational options across the state, and we want to make sure everyone who has a desire to visit these destinations has the ability to do so,” said Secretary of Transportation Jennifer Cohan. “Partnering with DNREC and Open Data Delaware, we can harness the creative energy of anyone who would like to participate and offer their ideas.”

“We use the Open Data Portal to share data and information about the natural resources the Department manages,” said DNREC Secretary Shawn M. Garvin. “We are excited to join DelDOT and other partners in this challenge and take the next step toward full public use of our data. We can learn more about how people enjoy Delaware’s great outdoors and our outstanding recreational opportunities. We will find new partners, in and outside of government, and we will gain new perspectives that will help us do our jobs better.”

Examples of the datasets that ODC18 participants could use for their projects include traffic counts and bus schedules, and maps of bike routes, public lands and nature preserves – all available via the state’s Open Data Portal at data.delaware.gov or the GIS Mapping Tool, firstmap.delaware.gov.

The launch of this year’s Challenge was coupled with Gov. John Carney’s signing of Executive Order 18, which gives executive branch agencies until Sept. 30 to deliver an inventory of new data sets that can be added to the portal.

The first major event in the ODC18 series is an “Ideation Session” scheduled for Sunday, Feb. 25, hosted by the Horn Program in Entrepreneurship at the University of Delaware. The Challenge culminates in May after a month-long Data Jam where teams will take what they’ve learned from Delaware’s data and design prototype solutions to address the challenge prompt.

Challenge teams will be eligible for a total of $32,000 in grant funding, contributed by DelDOT and DNREC, including a top prize of $20,000 for any prototype that combines data from both agencies and serves to advance each of their missions. Tech Impact, a nationwide nonprofit that helps community groups develop and use technology, will administer the grant awards.

“Last year I saw firsthand the social innovation that was unlocked by the use of these data sets,” said Patrick Callahan, executive director of Tech Impact. “Gov. Carney’s recent executive order to expand the data sets, coupled with this year’s Open Data Challenge, will surely allow that innovation to continue. It will be really exciting to watch as this year’s competition focuses on using some of the new data to focus on developing civic solutions.”

For more information on the 2018 Open Data Challenge watch this short video and visit opendatachallenge.com.

Dover, DE – The clock is ticking for Delaware companies that may wish to convert their abandoned and unclaimed property audits to a Voluntary Disclosure Agreement offered by the Secretary of State.

Eligible firms have until Dec. 11, 2017 to choose a VDA conversion.

Companies that elect to enter into a VDA participate in a collaborative settlement process whereby the holder and the state agree upon a quantification methodology and an amount to be reported by the holder. The VDA allows holders to leverage audit work that has already been performed and incorporate it into the agreement to ensure efficiency. A Delaware VDA also provides indemnification against future unclaimed property proceedings by other states.

“The VDA program is a rigorous but fair process,” said Delaware Secretary of State Jeff Bullock. “For hundreds of companies it’s proven the fastest and easiest way to come into compliance with Delaware law, and remain in compliance going forward.”

Since its inception in 2012, more than 850 companies have enrolled in the VDA program and approximately 450 settlements have been reached to date.

Earlier this year, Gov. John Carney signed into law significant changes to Delaware’s unclaimed property law. These changes created a more streamlined statute that is more consistent with other states’ unclaimed property laws. One key revision grants unclaimed property holders under examination by the Delaware Department of Finance the opportunity to participate in the Secretary of State’s Voluntary Disclosure Agreement program.

Conversion documents must be received by the Secretary of State by Dec. 11, 2017 to be eligible for participation in the VDA program.

Visit https://vda.delaware.gov/ for more information. Further questions may be directed to VDA Administrator Alison Iavarone at alison.iavarone@delaware.gov or 302-577-8959.

DOVER – Delaware will not comply with a request from the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity to provide the panel with sensitive voter registration information including personal identification details for hundreds of thousands of Delawareans.

“Releasing this information to the White House would not serve the mission of safeguarding the fairness and integrity of elections in Delaware and would not be in the best interests of Delaware voters,” said State Election Commissioner Elaine Manlove.

“Delaware has a long history of running fair and efficient elections open to all qualified voters. We should not be a part of any effort to turn back the clock on the progress we have made,” said Secretary of State Jeffrey Bullock. “Delaware will not be a party to this disingenuous and inappropriate campaign against one of the nation’s foundational institutions.”

A letter requesting the voter information was received by Secretary Bullock and forwarded to Commissioner Manlove. Unlike many states, elections in Delaware are not administered by the secretary of state. The election commissioner is an independent, non-partisan official appointed by the governor to a 10-year term and confirmed by the state Senate. The commissioner is the primary overseer of all state and local elections in Delaware, and is the custodian of the state’s voter rolls.

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Contact: Elaine Manlove
Office of the State Election Commissioner
elaine.manlove@delaware.gov
302-739-4277