The afternoon roll call for the ninth district bicycle cops happened in Rittenhouse Square, where pedestrians, bicycles and cars often compete for space on narrow roads and pavements.

The send off took place in full view of some of the city's most rugged cyclists — bicycle messengers like David Sellers.

Sellers: If the bike lane stays open and its just made for busses and bikes, then cars that are in the bike lane, they need to be pulled over and they need to get a ticket just as much as us. If we get a ticket for $300 dollars for riding on the pavement, cars should get a ticket for $500 dollars for riding in the bikelane.

In fact, the current fine for both motorists and bikers who run red lights, ride the wrong way down a one-way street, and don't yield to pedestrians is $119.50.

Police say they will be handing out both warnings and tickets to bikers. Motorists caught driving in the bike lanes along Spruce and Pine streets will also face fines.

It's not just jocks and exercise fanatics who run marathons, says Dr. Matthew DeCaro, a cardiologist at Thomas Jefferson University.

He says a national campaign to get fit has pushed a wider variety of people to run marathons.

DeCaro: Some of these people may have risk factors from the congenital perspective that make them higher risk for developing complications but especially now that the spectrum is shifting toward an older population of patients, many of whom would never have been active like this before, they've been brewing problems under the hood and just did not know it. So they're at risk for having this come out during that heavy exertion.

A Philadelphia Marathon spokesperson says no special medical precautions are being taken this year, because officials believe they already have a strong medical support system in place.

The jury now must decide whether John Lewis deserves the death penalty.

Sandra Schultz Newman is a retired Pennsylvania state Supreme Court Justice who now practices law across the region. She says the jury could hear testimony from witnesses, family members and arguments from the lawyers about mitigating and aggravating circumstances.

Schultz: An aggravator might be the kind of weapon that was used and how painful the murder was…And the mitigators would be: was there some history in their relationship? You can bring in the childhood .. to show the person had a tough childhood and they were exposed to child abuse and drugs and everything else.

If the jury does not vote unanimously for the death penalty, then John Lewis will receive a sentence of life without parole.

Steward Farrell, director of the Coastal Research Center at Richard Stockton College says the beach replenishment projects are worth the expense.

Farrell: It's extremely important if we want to continue living right at the oceanfront and deriving the income and benefits from the fact that people come to the shore to spend time, recreate, and enjoy it.

But Tim Dillingham, executive director of the American Littoral Society, says it's time to reconsider beach replenishment.

Dillingham: The sand very rarely stays on the beach after the storms and requires investment of millions of dollars of public monies every couple years to make sure that the houses will remain protected.

Dillingham says a better long term solution would be for the government to buy those beach front homes, move them back from the coast, and restore wetlands which serve as buffers against storms.

Valero officials cite poor economic conditions paired with significant capital spending requirements and high operating costs as reasons for the closure.

"The decision to permanently close the Delaware City refinery was a very difficult one,” said Valero Chairman and CEO Bill Klesse in a written statement. "We have spent the last year diligently trying to avoid this situation, and I have worked closely with Gov. Markell in an effort to find a different outcome. Earlier this fall, we shut down the gasifier and coking operations in an attempt to improve reliability and financial performance, but the refinery’s profitability did not improve enough. Additionally, we have sought a buyer for the refinery, but feasible opportunities have not materialized. At this point, we have exhausted all viable options."

Valero started informing employees of the decision today and is negotiating with union officials at the plant to determine severance terms.  Valero will begin the process of shutting down the plant, which had been producing 210,000 barrels per day, immediately.  It expects closing the refinery will save the company approximately 450 million dollars next year.

Governor Jack Markell says the state will move quickly to address the closure.  He's directed the Departments of Labor and Health and Social Services to assist workers effected by putting together rapid response teams similar to the ones used earlier this year when the GM Boxwood Road plant closed.

"We need to help those hundreds of dedicated workers put their time and talents to work in a way that helps them and their families." said Markell.

Governor Markell is also asking the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control to identify any environmental issues at the facility and work with Valero to catalogue issues the company has responsibility to resolve.

"To protect the health and safety of everyone who lives near the facility, we need to ensure accountability for environmental issues that come from closing a refinery, and we will," Markell said.

DNREC secretary Collin O'Mara has assembled a team of environmental scientists and engineers to over see the shutdown.

"We have been working with the refinery on issues associated with a planned maintenance shutdown of the entire refinery for weeks  and are prepared for it." said O'Mara.  "The orderly shutdown of  the equipment has already begun with the shutdown in October of one of the refinery's major processing units.  the remaining units have been operating at reduced rates and will be taken offline in a manner portective of health, safety and the environment."

Test the Bump

Delaware's lone Congressman Mike Castle may not be a believer in the bump.  Castle appeared on the program in a taped segment that aired November 9.  (Click here to see the interview.)  By coincidence, the very next day the Susquehanna Polling and Research firm started a poll of the U.S. Senate race in which Castle is running.  Fate had established a perfect method of putting the "bump" to the test, or as it turns out, put it to rest.  According to the poll, Castle trails Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden by five percentage points.  That's a drop of 26 points since the last Susquehanna poll in April.  If Colbert had the impact he claims, Castle's numbers should have gone up, especially against a candidate who may or may not be in the running.  (Biden says he's "very seriously considering" running for the Senate, but he doesn't have timetable on when he'll decide.)

Party Foul?

Maybe the problem isn't that the Colbert bump doesn't exist, maybe it just doesn't work for Republican candidates.  Maybe the Colbert bump is partisan.  Colbert plays a conservative commentator on TV, but usually ends up mocking many Republican ideals, which could play more favorably with D's than R's.

University of California-San Diego political science professor James Fowler examined this idea in a report published in a journal of the American Political Science Association.  His research found that Democrats saw an increase in fund raising following an appearance with Colbert, while Republicans saw a drop in campaign donations.  "Republicans, if anything, the evidence sort of suggested that they might be harmed by going on this show," says Fowler.  "There almost appears to be a 'Colbert bust' for Republicans who go on the show."  Fowler says it's more difficult to isolate the impact of the 'bump' on an individual candidate.  That's because to get real results, you would have to compare Castle's result from going on the show to another candidate in a similar situation against a possible high profile candidate who did not go on the show.  "So if somebody from the Kennedy clan announced that they are running against someone who went on The Colbert Report, that might be a good comparison.  In this case, it's just hard to know."

The president of Susquehanna Polling Jim Lee attributes Castle's poor showing in the poll not so much to the lack of a "bump", but rather due to his vote against health care reform on the Saturday night before the poll started and before the interview aired.  "I think that some of the media attention on that vote certainly was captured in this survey, since we started this poll literally two or three days following that vote."  Lee says, from what he's read, the coverage of Castle's 'no' vote seemed to be slightly negative.  "One of the reasons why Biden is doing better in this poll among Democrats than back in the spring, is because of that no vote," says Lee.  He says while Castle's vote may have hurt his numbers with Democrats, which have a good majority in registered voters in the state, it may have helped his standing among Republican voters.

First Bump

(WARNING: Self-promotion ahead)  The Colbert Bump may not have helped Castle, but could it be that his possible opponent got a bump of his own?  Beau Biden appeared in an interview on WHYY's Delaware news magazine First (Video here) before the vote and before Castle's appearance on cable.  According to the poll, not only did Castle's numbers fall by 15%, but Biden's numbers shot up by 11%.

Listen:

Hundreds of union workers rallied in the shadow of Pier 98, which is nothing more than a run down remnant of what was the past of the shipping business in Philadelphia. State Representative Bill Keller is a dredging supporter. He says environmentalists who are against the deepening of the river channel need to know research shows the work won't cause any problems.

Keller: There's 12,000 pieces of paper that say this dredge is safe, it's good for the economics it create jobs and has zero environmental impact. There's 12,000 pieces of paper that say that. Science says that. What do they say they want one more piece of paper, it's all bull *bleep*.

Union officials say the dredging could provide thousands of jobs and revitalize the port and the region's economy.

New Castle County still has the highest regional unemployment rate in the state at 8.7%.  Unemployment in both Kent and Sussex County is at8.3%.  For Sussex, unemployment jumped a full percentage point from September to October.  Wilmington's unemployment rate is now up to 13.3%, up from last month's rate of 13%.

Since October 2008, more than 18,000 Delawareans have lost their jobs.  The biggest losses in over the last year were in professional and business services, which were down 4,600.  Wholesale and retail trade lost 3,600 jobs, while the manufacturing sector lost 3,400 jobs.

The national unemployment rate now stands at 10.2%, up from 9.8% last month.

For this unemployed single mother of two, the 30 pound box symbolized survival. "It's really hard to pay my bills right now," Foster says, "I'm thankful for being here."

Foster joined hundreds of others anxiously awaiting the kick-off of Delaware Does More, the second annual winter-long giving campaign. The effort, sponsored by the Food Bank of Delaware and United Way of Delaware, aimed to address the increasing number of Delawareans in need of food assistance.

Food Bank President and CEO Patricia Beebe says the number of Delawareans in need has increased by 30 percent since 2008. "When we did the food drive last year, we knew there would be an upswing of people in need," Beebe says, "but in reality, this year is going to be even worse."

Click on image to view a slideshow.

To combat the growing number of people in need this year, the goal for meal donations was increased to 400,000 pounds, a 100,000 pound jump from last year. It's a boost that the residents of Northeast Wilmington are thrilled about.

Antonio Jones of Wilmington was unsure how he was going to come up with the money for this year's Thanksgiving meal.

The only forms of income in his household are the unemployment checks sent to him and his unemployed wife. "There are a lot of cutbacks, a lot of things we had to let go of," Jones said. One of those cutbacks was on quality of food. He says his family will occasionally eat food from damaged cans bought at a discounted price. "It's real hard but that's how we're making it," Jones says.

Now, Jones says he is relieved to be bringing home dinner for the holidays. "This box means hope, it's a blessing," he says with a smile.

While the Food Bank of Delaware has been flooded with increased demand, Beebe says the organization is still fortunate despite hard times. The amount of food being donated has increased this year, in addition to a growing number of volunteers. However, Beebe says she is also seeing a spike in the number of volunteers in need of assistance this holiday season.

Since the origination of Delaware Does More, more than 1.8 million pounds of food and $377,000 have been collected for Delawareans affected by the economic downturn.

The mobile food pantry will be delivering meal boxes to underserved areas in Delaware throughout the winter season. Find out more information about Delaware Does More.

Listen:

This week on What Are We Thinking:
- Do Americans think that cancer or swine flu is the nation's most urgent health problem? You'll be surprised.

- Obesity is increasing and so is the the cost to treat it. But just how many Americans really think that they are overweight? and how many are trying to lose weight?

– The nation's retailers are worried about Holiday shopping .What's the latest spending estimate this year?