Delaware State Police arrested 36-year-old Ryan Doneker, from Harbeson, Delaware, for drug and weapon charges following a vehicle pursuit Saturday afternoon in Harbeson.

On October 18, 2025, at approximately 2:00 p.m., troopers responded to a business complex in the 22,000 block of Dozer Lane in Harbeson, for a report of a man potentially under the influence of an illegal substance or experiencing a medical issue. Upon arrival, troopers located a man, later identified as Doneker, seated in the driver’s seat of a Honda CR-V. As troopers approached to check on his well-being, Doneker fled, driving through a grass field. Troopers activated their emergency lights to stop Doneker, however he fled southbound on Indian Mission Road.

Troopers pursued Doneker as he drove erratically and committed multiple traffic offenses on several area roads. As Doneker drove southbound on Gravel Hill Road, troopers successfully deployed stop sticks and deflated one of the Honda’s tires. Doneker eventually stopped on Gravel Hill Road, near Doc Frame Road.

Doneker exited the Honda holding what appeared to be a tan handgun, but he immediately dropped it at troopers’ command. Doneker was taken into custody, and troopers discovered the tan handgun was a non-lethal pepperball gun. A search of Doneker revealed .11 grams of cocaine, an icepick, and approximately $4,700 of suspected drug proceeds. Troopers also observed signs of impairment during their interaction with Doneker.

Doneker was taken to Troop 4 where he was charged with the below offenses, arraigned by Justice of the Peace Court 3, and committed to the Sussex Correctional Institution on a $24,401 secured bond.

• Possession of a Deadly Weapon During the Commission of a Felony (Felony)
• Possession with Intent to Deliver Controlled Substance (Felony)
• Disregarding a Police Officer Signal (Felony)
• Carrying a Concealed Deady Weapon (Felony)
• Resisting Arrest
• Malicious Mischief by a Motor Vehicle
• Driving Under the Influence of Drug
• Numerous Traffic Offenses

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Disclaimer: Any individual charged in this release is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

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When New Jersey suddenly came down hard on business, neighbouring Delaware decided to rewrite its rulebook to scoop up companies fleeing the state. It created a simple registration system, stripped away corporate bureaucracy, and invited the nation’s companies to call it home. Hoping to attract steam engines and gunpowder manufacturers, Delaware’s leaders could scarcely have imagined that, a century later, the ‘Delaware Inc’ model would serve as the foundation for smartphones, search engines and electric cars. In other words, it would become the corporate vehicle that underpinned the world’s most valuable and transformative businesses.

Europe needs its own Delaware. While the continent has shown itself more than capable of producing extraordinary entrepreneurs and breakout global companies like Adyen, Spotify and Revolut, its founders must still overcome huge barriers to scaling compared with the U.S. The numbers tell a sobering story, as MIT’s principal research scientist Andrew McAfee has pointed out. Publicly traded companies started from scratch in Europe in the past 50 years are collectively valued at around $420 billion, while their U.S. counterparts approach $30 trillion – almost 70 times as much. All six U.S. companies with a market cap over $1 trillion have been set up in the past half century; not a single EU equivalent has.

This chasm exposes the fragmentation that’s holding back European innovation. A startup with a Delaware Inc. can raise capital and expand from coast to coast across the US without breaking its stride. Investors know the structure. Deals and hiring happen fast, and the company’s momentum compounds. Meanwhile, a founder scaling across Europe must incorporate separate entities in each country, untangle regulatory and employment codes in multiple languages and markets, and explain to engineers in Munich why their stock options are treated differently to their colleagues’ in Madrid.

The European single market doesn’t extend to startups

The reality is that when it comes to startups, there is no European single market, only 27 different countries. The consequences are stark: stifled momentum, unrealized potential, and an artificial limit on startups’ chances of success. A year ago, Mario Draghi, former Italian Prime Minister and President of the European Central Bank, published a landmark report that sounded the alarm on EU competitiveness and called for an additional €800 billion per year in investment. Draghi noted that Europe captures just 5% of global venture capital funds, while the US commands 52%. This means VC investment in the EU is just 0.05% of GDP, nearly six times lower than in the US at 0.32%. More than 60% of European companies cite regulation as an obstacle to investment, and most see it as their biggest challenge overall.

This is a crisis for Europe unfolding in real time. The continent that invented and spun out the internet from its first-class research institutions now risks standing by as US founders scale with ease.

But there’s a way forward and close the gap. Momentum is building behind the idea of ‘EU–INC’ – not a carbon copy of the Delaware model, but a fresh, pan-European corporate entity that will set a new global standard for business formation. If EU Inc is realized, it will allow founders to launch, raise capital, hire and grow seamlessly across Europe. A founder in Stockholm could incorporate in minutes, access standardized investment documents recognized from Berlin to Barcelona, implement EU-wide employee stock options, and scale across 450 million consumers. 

The grassroots movement behind EU–INC has garnered over 18,000 signatories and support from Europe’s most successful entrepreneurs and investors, including leaders from Mistral, DeepMind, Stripe, Supercell, Index Ventures and Y Combinator. The major EU decisionmaking institutions have expressed approval, and EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has committed to reform.

The bad news is that there are already murmurs in Brussels about piecemeal, incremental measures – harmonizing certain national laws, creating yet another framework for EU member states to fuss over and interpret. This is folly. The problem of fragmentation must be fixed at the heart of Europe. Half measures will not solve founders’ problems, nor will they create the competitive advantage that Europe so desperately needs.

Delaware’s 1913 gamble helped spark a century of American dynamism. Creating an EU–INC could make Europe the undisputed seedbed of innovation – the best place in the world to found, fund and scale a company. Europe doesn’t need another directive or committee. It needs its Delaware, and it needs it now.

More information is available at eu-inc.org.

The opinions expressed in Fortune.com commentary pieces are solely the views of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of Fortune.

Delaware Gov. Matt Meyer has joined 14 fellow Democratic leaders in announcing the creation of the Governors’ Public Health Alliance on Oct. 15. 

This new coalition was developed to support state leaders in protecting the health and well-being of their residents, seemingly in critique of recent shifts in federal health guidance.

That work will include providing communication, sharing data centered on public health policy and guidance, emergency planning, “health threat detection” and consulting experts, according to a press release issued the same day.

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This effort is also supported by the nonprofit platform GovAct, an initiative designed to support gubernatorial leaders in defending freedoms like access to public health. 

Joining this group comes a little over a month after Meyer announced Delaware would also be part of a Northeastern regional public health coalition – which, in turn, came as reaction to the governors of California, Oregon and Washington reporting they would launch a West Coast Alliance. 

The new coalition also intends to continue providing state leaders and their teams with resources and appropriate briefings regarding “major policy developments” related to public health, share coordinated plans ahead of significant events and provide opportunities to discuss issues surrounding health security.   

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“This alliance is a commitment to transparency, preparedness, and coordination so that no state faces health threats alone,” Meyer said in a statement that same day. “By working together, governors can share data, resources, and lessons learned to strengthen our preparedness for the next public health challenge.” 

The new alliance includes Democratic governors from Maryland, Washington, Hawaii, New York, Oregon, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Jersey, California, Colorado, Illinois, North Carolina and Massachusetts, as well as the U.S. territory of Guam.

Olivia Montes covers state government and community impact for Delaware Online/The News Journal. If you have a tip or a story idea, reach out to her at omontes@delawareonline.com.