DL Open Thread: Friday, March 20, 2026

Wilmington Senior Center Closes.  Won’t Say Why:

Days after posting their March lunch menu onto social media, officials from the Wilmington Senior Center closed the doors of the 70-year-old facility.

According to multiple sources, including residents and elected officials, the senior center’s abrupt closure is now sparking conversations in Delaware’s largest city about what led to the decision and whether the center plans to reopen. As of Wednesday, the center remained closed during what would have been its normal operating hours.

Wilmington Senior Center officials have not made any public statements about the closure nor did they respond to questions from Spotlight Delaware.

The news comes about four months after the Senior Center ended its Friday operations and laid off a third of its staff, amid ongoing funding shortfalls. At that time, the center’s executive director, Sam Nussbaum, told Spotlight Delaware that it needed to make up 70% of its budget for the year.

“I need to save this agency,” Nussbaum told Spotlight last October. “We don’t have money coming in.”

According to government records, the Wilmington Senior Center received $3 million in state funding between the fiscal years 2018 and 2026. Most of that money came from Delaware’s legislative program, called grant-in-aid, that distributes taxpayer dollars to various organizations that serve the public.

In the most recent fiscal year of 2026, the Wilmington Senior Center received over $160,000 from the state.

Depending on who you talk to, the Senior Center may, or may not, reopen:

Rep. Stephanie T. Bolden (D-Wilmington) said she met with senior center leaders who said the center closed temporarily because Nussbaum had been “dismissed” and replaced.

“They may have been closed for a couple of days to reorganize, but they have not shut down the Senior Center,” she said.

But other local government officials say they’ve heard differently. Wilmington City Council President Trippi Congo said he received calls from residents and Senior Center employees last week and learned that a reopening may be uncertain because of funding challenges.

The report also covers the failure of the center to file tax returns.  Was The Other Mike Smith advising them?

I love Brianna Hill’s reporting.  Mainly because she asks all the questions that a good reporter should ask.  And, if the response is unsatisfactory or unresponsive, she reports it.

No Intelligence From Intelligence Agency.  Helmed by Tulsi Gabbard:

Intelligence officials endured a second day of shellacking during a House Select Intelligence Committee hearing on global threats Thursday, with Democrats highlighting the inconsistencies in President Donald Trump’s justifications for his war in Iran.

Rep. Joaquin Castro of Texas questioned National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe on why Israel hasn’t listened to Trump’s warnings about attacking Iran’s oil infrastructure.

“I don’t know the answer to that,” Gabbard said. I don’t know Israel’s position on that.”

“I wouldn’t speak for Israel,” Ratcliffe added.

“What do you guys know? We’re at war. What do you guys know?” Castro pressed.

Things escalated when Rep. Jimmy Gomez of California challenged Gabbard’s equivocations regarding her prior assessment that Iran wasn’t rebuilding a nuclear program before Trump launched his war.

“It’s an easy answer,” Gomez said. “You either stand by what you said last year or not.”

“It is a serious question that requires the totality of the information available—” Gabbard began.

“When President Trump was asked about your testimony, he said you were wrong,” Gomez interrupted. “Were you lying or not?”

“I stand by the intelligence community’s complete assessment,” Gabbard replied.

BTW, a great album with one of my fave album covers of all time.  But I digress.

Trump Seeks To Lower Energy Costs By…Wait…What?:

It was business as usual this week for Iran’s oil industry despite daily airstrikes by the United States and Israel including the recent targeted bombing of the country’s main export hub.

Newsweek reported this week that suspected Iranian tankers were seen loading fuel at the Kharg Island oil terminal off Iran’s southern coast, days after President Donald Trump ordered U.S. forces to hit military sites on the island last Friday.

This week, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the U.S. was permitting tankers laden with sanctioned Iranian fuel to exit the strait unchallenged in order to keep global oil prices down. “The Iranian ships have been getting out already, and we’ve let that happen to supply the rest of the world,” Bessent told CNBC on Monday.

I, uh, thought we were at war with these guys.  Live and learn, I guess.

More Serial Lawbreaking From ICE:

In surprise testimony in federal court Thursday, an immigration officer revealed that more than 100 asylum seekers were wrongfully deported in violation of a court-ordered settlement agreement in a long-running case that has gotten national attention.

Before today, the number of wrongfully deported asylum seekers in the case was thought to be less than a dozen. But under persistent questioning from plaintiff’s counsel, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services asylum officer Kimberly Sicard testified that in the past three to four weeks it had come to her attention that more than 100 asylum seekers covered by the settlement agreement have been removed. She put the number in the “low 100s.”

Asked how the additional removals had come to her attention, Sicard said she wasn’t sure of the exact process but that officials had “queried systems.” As part of the process of notifying ICE of the wrongful removals, the matter went to the office of chief counsel at USCIS three to four weeks ago, Sicard said.

In a statement to TPM after the hearing, Mendez said: “We are concerned that these removals are just the tip of the iceberg.”

Gallagher called the revelation of the more than 100 wrongful removals “extremely troubling to the court.”

The revelation was the pinnacle of a day of frustration for Gallagher. She had listed in her order calling the hearing five topics on which she expected the Trump administration to produce witnesses “with personal knowledge” to testify. The government failed to produce such witnesses.

Vlad Impaled?  Anybody seen Putin lately?:  Far be it for me to engage in rumor-mongering (he lied), but I think there’s more than a little something to this.

What do you want to talk about?