DL Open Thread: Tuesday, July 29, 2025

Trump Sets Non-Profit Organizations In His Sights:

President Trump’s actions targeting law firms, judges, media organizations, universities and labor unions have demonstrated a norm-shattering zeal for retribution and punishment of anyone who may disagree with his policies. Now, nonprofit organizations are up.

An executive order directed every federal agency to send the White House targets for investigation that include large nonprofit corporations or associations and foundations with assets of $500 million or more. The Department of Government Efficiency tried to assign a team to an independent nonprofit organization that had criticized the Trump administration’s mass deportation policies. Last month, a congressional committee launched a probe into over 200 nonprofit organizations, including the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and dozens of religious institutions, without basis or evidence of wrongdoing. And over the last few weeks, the president’s allies in the House have held multiple hearings with such titles as “Public Funds, Private Agendas: NGOs Gone Wild.” These hearings protested the work of organizations that provide services to vulnerable communities and seek to uphold the Constitution and the rule of law.

All of this suggests a bigger, more fundamental goal: to shut down debate, cut off services to disfavored communities and dismantle civil society. These actions are unconstitutional, un-American and harm us all.

Submitted w/o Comment.  OXFAM:

Israel’s genocide has thrown Gaza into the final chaotic stages of a full-blown human catastrophe. Today’s warning of an unfolding famine – one created entirely by Israel’s murderous siege – must finally rouse the international community to act with a clarity and resolve that has so far been beyond it.

World leaders have been variously divided, complicit, uncaring, and collectively ineffectual in stopping Israel’s campaign of erasure. In failing to protect the Palestinian people, they have no more excuses left. Ending Israel’s genocide of Gaza is a test not only of our world order but of our collective humanity.

Air drops, and brief pauses for relative crumbs of aid, is nowhere near enough to prevent human death at an unimaginable scale. We need urgent forceful diplomacy and whatever restrictive measures are necessary in order to achieve an immediate and unconditional ceasefire, break Israel’s siege and allow humanitarian aid to flow freely and safely throughout Gaza. The hostages and unlawfully detained prisoners must be released.

Were Delaware Prison Whistleblowers Punished?

During a June heat wave, Joshua Chattin, a 32-year-old man confined to Delaware’s largest prison, initiated a public outreach campaign with an assist from his mother about the lack of air-conditioning in his building.

The outreach involved media interviews, social media posts, and many calls to local politicians about the living conditions in W Building. The campaign eventually caught the ear of Gov. Matt Meyer, whose office then successfully lobbied lawmakers to add some $2 million to the state’s spending plan that same month to bring climate control to the building at James T. Vaughn Correctional Center near Smyrna. 

Now, Chattin says the Department of Correction has turned the heat on him: shipping him and his prison allies to facilities on the far sides of the state and barring him from speaking to his mother on the phone. 

In a written statement, a spokesperson for the Delaware Department of Correction did not directly address why the men were moved from the Vaughn prison and specifically, W Building, a minimum-security portion of the prison that generally houses inmates with jobs and positive disciplinary records.

“These movement decisions were made in accordance with established protocols to help maintain a safe and secure environment for the incarcerated population, staff, and visitors,” prison spokesperson Jason Miller wrote, adding the department moves people regularly for various reasons and doesn’t discuss individual decisions to relocate people.

That last statement is complete and utter bullshit.  Yes, they were punished for calling out inhumane conditions.  Those who helped create said conditions and then lied about them should be the ones being sanctioned.

Diamond State Port Corporation Commits To Transparency Following Closed Executive Session.  Gee, anyone else see the irony here?:

Leaders of the Edgemoor Port expansion project continue to discuss federal permit updates out of the public eye but say more transparency efforts are underway.

Necessary permits for the $635 million Port of Wilmington expansion project were revoked by a federal judge in October, and little information around the status of reobtaining those permits has been made available to the public.

The Diamond State Port Corporation (DSPC) Board entered executive session for close to an hour at their Monday meeting, but when they returned to the public session, only updates around a state-level permit were provided.

DSPC Board Member David Burt says he is cognizant of the community’s perception that there is a lack of transparency (Translation: ‘We’re not being transparent with the public.’) within the board, but is hopeful that gap can be bridged moving forward.

Secretary of State Charuni Patibanda-Sanchez wrapped up the meeting with comments reiterating the DSPC Board’s commitment to more community engagement moving forward.

“I think Mr. Burt gave a very appropriate statement today that more can be done to engage with the community. I think that was heard loud and clear, and this board is going to be working toward making sure that we can alleviate some of the concerns because obviously misinformation can spread much faster than we can even get the truth out, but that is something that we need to work on and and it’s something that we plan to do,” Secretary Patibanda-Sanchez said.

Need I point out that words are merely words until tangible action takes place?

General Assembly To Call Special Session On Statewide Tax Reassessments.  The reason?  The disparity of rate changes between homeowners and businesses:

The somewhat bipartisan charge is likely to coalesce around one of the largest issues at play right now: school taxes and residential tax burden.

After the reassessment process finished earlier this year, every one of Delaware’s school districts had to adjust school tax rates. In New Castle County, rates had to “reset” with average taxable values ballooning by nearly 400%, while code allowed schools to realize gains in tax revenue up to 10% over the previous year.

largest county managed to thrust a much heavier tax burden onto residents. That’s homeowners, condo owners, land owners, the like.

Their property values “skyrocketed” in reassessments by Tyler Technologies, while non-residential values — say commercial property, large companies or other utilities — increased at a much lower rate on average. That means many, but not all, businesses actually saw tax bills go down. Various factors apparently led to this, some within the control of local governments, with most based on “revenue” reassessment methodology applied to commercial parcels and economic changes since 1983.

In New Castle County, residents’ share of tax burden stood to balloon from 66% to about 75% in initial figures, as County CFO Jill Floore explained to council. For Wilmington alone, officials estimated residents would make up 57% of the new tax base, while businesses and commercial properties made up 29%.

What do you want to talk about?