Today the Delaware state Senate passed a marriage equality bill (HB75) on a 12 to 9 vote, positioning Delaware to become the eleventh state to legalize civil marriage for same-sex couples.

Delaware’s marriage equality bill (HB75) seems close to final passage, with a floor vote scheduled in the Senate on Tuesday, May 7. The House has already passed the bill and Governor Jack Markell, who introduced the it in early April, has promised to sign it into law.

National Organization for Marriage has apparently expected to lose the marriage equality debate in Delaware all along, since it has done little in the state to oppose passage of the bill. NOM’s sometimes-collaborator MassResistance reports on who has and who hasn’t been making a difference in Delaware:

“To our LGBT family members, friends, and neighbors: at long last, you are free to marry the person you love.“ With these words, Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee signed the Rhode Island marriage equality bill into law on Thursday evening.

Tuesday, April 23 promises to be an exciting day for the freedom to marry movement. Two U.S. states and France are scheduled to take key votes on marriage equality bills. Already this year, marriage equality has been realized in several Brazilian states, the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians, Uruguay and New Zealand.

MoveOn.org has sent a finding of fact to the Public Integrity Section of the Justice Department, asking that they initiate an investigation into whether Mitt Romney lied on a federal financial disclosure form.

This is an issue that arose back in July, during the debate over precisely when Romney left his job at Bain Capital.

Adorable dumbmuffin Christine O’Donnell is having a “thought” about reapplying for that job she didn’t get back in 2010 because apparently there are some people in Delaware who are willing to give her money so that she can stay in hotels and eat at restaurants while “campaigning” instead of sleeping on a friends couch and living on Hot Pockets and RC Cola.

Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden has settled his lawsuit with Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, or MERS. This is one of the lawsuits that was preserved in the aftermath of the foreclosure fraud settlement. To date, none of those lawsuits which were preserved have produced very much in the way of tangible success.

Residents of Wilmington, Delaware were distressed today to witness their bumbling mayor humiliate himself and his city with his loose-cannon rhetoric. The members of Occupy Delaware empathize with the distressed city residents and wish to apologize for the mayor’s boorish behavior.

A suit by Eric Schneiderman against MERS and three banks who used MERS was supposed to be carved out the larger settlement. It was unclear how you could allege the banks’ deceptive use of MERS led to the creation of false documents, and still release the banks on foreclosure fraud claims. You can’t. Schneiderman just settled the MERS suit with the three banks and two others, for a measly $25 million. And the Delaware and Massachusetts suits against MERS were folded into it as well.

You might have seen the post from Jane Hamsher inviting folks to the Tent Party on Saturday at Occupy Delaware. Here’s a slideshow from the event, plus updates and pictures from Occupy Buffalo, Newark, Monterey, Littleton, Tampa and more.