DL Open Thread: Tuesday, April 14, 2026

Will Nobody Stop BPG?

The Buccini Pollin Group takes over management of the Sports at the Beach complex in Georgetown.

BPG Sports Senior Vice President and General Manager Steve Cavalier says this is a partnership, not an acquisition.

The partnership means BPG will now operate the facility, which typically sees its peak usage during the spring baseball tournament season.

BPG’s role is to manage the facility, not own it. If Sports at the Beach ever chooses to sell, BPG would get the right of first refusal as part of the terms of the partnership.

Cavalier says BPG Sports was interested in Sports on the Beach because of how it handled its events. All tournaments at the facility are run by Sports on the Beach themselves, as opposed to simply renting the facility out to external operators.

“That’s appealing to us- it gives us a lot of opportunity to run the events, make them how we want to make them. And, if we do decide to bring some outside [operators], maybe one or two, it would change a little bit. But that was really the main driver, they run all their own events.” he told DPM.

Hmmm, 16 baseball diamonds?  You know what’s coming next:

Cavalier says other improvements, like replacing the fields with turf and new scoreboard installments, are being discussed by BPG, but nothing has been fully outlined yet.

Cancer–it’s not just for soccer any more.

Dover Fires Dave Hugg.  I feel bad about this–always liked David Hugg.  Thought he did a great job in Smyrna:

The Dover City Council officially ousted Dave Hugg from his position as city manager Monday night, ending a standoff between elected officials and the top administrative employee in Delaware’s capital city.

Council members voted to fire Hugg nearly a month after Spotlight Delaware first reported about city council’s move to place the manager on paid leave — and the long-simmering tensions between him and council members that had finally boiled over.

Elected officials pointed to responsibilities not being carried out in a timely manner, such as failing to communicate constituent concerns efficiently, and Hugg’s alleged violation of executive session privacy rules as reasons for his termination.

Five council members voted in favor of firing Hugg. One councilwoman, Donyale Hall, abstained from voting. Two councilmen — Andre Boggerty and Roy Sudler — did not attend Monday’s meeting.

The vote came after a first-of-its-kind public hearing for the city of Dover. Hugg — and the lawyer he hired to represent him — conducted an hours-long, trial-like display to make the case that the former city manager should keep his job.

Anthony Delcollo, Hugg’s lawyer, made statements, provided documents and called in a list of witnesses that included state lawmakers and Dover Mayor Robin Christiansen to testify about Hugg’s character and job performance.

No council members spoke during the hearing, but Dover City Solicitor Dan Griffith interjected periodically to correct what he described as inaccuracies in Delcollo’s arguments.

“I want to express my very deep disappointment that allegations were made about my performance that I was never consulted about, I had no chance to defend against, and that resulted in council somehow being convinced that the only answer was to basically tell me where the door was,” Hugg said during his testimony.

For what it’s worth, Hugg has my respect as an outstanding career public servant.  I hope he has a long and satisfying retirement.

Immigrants No Longer Trust The IRS–To The Detriment Of The US Treasury:

Their fears, shared by many of the millions of undocumented people who file tax returns, are rooted in the decision last year by the Internal Revenue Service to give immigration officials the addresses of people subject to deportation — a break with the tax agency’s longstanding practices.

The shift sent shock waves through the I.R.S., where taxpayer privacy has been an article of faith, and through immigrant communities, where filing tax returns was seen as a way for people in the country illegally to show that they were complying with tax laws.

The federal treasury could take a hit. Many undocumented immigrants have taxes withheld in every paycheck, but experts worry some could shift into under-the-table jobs. Others with less formal earnings may now skip filing a tax return — and therefore not pay federal taxes at all. The Yale Budget Lab, a nonpartisan research center, projected lost tax revenue of about $300 billion over a decade.

The fallout from the I.R.S. agreement with Immigration and Customs Enforcement is becoming clearer as the annual tax deadline nears, according to several organizations that assist immigrants with filing their tax returns.

John Koskinen, who was the I.R.S. commissioner from 2013 to 2017, said the potential consequences of sharing tax data with D.H.S. were evident.

“Our job was to collect taxes owed, not enforce immigration laws,” said Mr. Koskinen. “That was the job of D.H.S. And it was clear to me that, if immigrants thought their information was going to be shared, many of them would quit filing their tax returns.”

The Other Carney Secures Majority In Canada.  He owes this win to Donald Trump:

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney secured a parliamentary majority for his Liberal government on Monday, a win that he has said will help him deal more effectively with the trade war started by U.S. President Donald Trump.

It will also likely mean Carney, who took office with no political experience and has earned global praise for his efforts to band middle-power nations together, won’t have to worry about an election for years.

Capping off an extraordinary few months in Canada when several opposition members joined Carney’s Liberals, his party said on X that it had secured two districts – known as ridings – in Ontario in special elections.

Those were the ridings of University-Rosedale and Scarborough Southwest which have long voted Liberal. The results of a third election are still being counted.

The win takes Carney’s Liberals to 173 seats in the 343-seat House of Commons.

“He will be able to pass legislation without having to go to the opposition to secure enough votes,” said Andrew McDougall, assistant professor in Canadian politics at the University of Toronto.

Which reminds me–Canada is not the only country pushing back against Trump’s bullying:

For months and months, President Donald Trump has bullied other countries on everything from trade to how they govern themselves.

In just the last few days, however, a handful of global players have defied him, showing the limits of his influence.

Iran’s Islamist leaders abandoned peace talks with the U.S., choosing to keep waging war instead. Hungary’s voters tossed out one of Trump’s closest European allies, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. Then there’s Pope Leo, who presumably answers to a higher power, saying he has “no fear” of Trump after the president taunted him.

Trump and his aides often appear to operate as if most other people on the planet are “non-player characters” in a video game. They believe, with few exceptions, that America can use threats, economic muscle and military action to bend other capitals to its will.

But foreign policy has some basic laws. One of them, similar to physics, is that every action has a reaction. It may not be equal or opposite, but it also may not be what the Trump team wants.

So far, the Trump administration does not appear to be adjusting well to the reality that more international players are willing to buck the American superpower.

“If there were an appreciation that bullying was no longer a likely to succeed tactic you’d see a move away from it,” but there’s no real sign that Trump is doing so, said Richard Haass, a former president of the Council on Foreign Relations.

More than ever, I’m hearing concerns from foreign officials that critical information about geopolitical dynamics is simply not reaching the president because his aides won’t tell him hard truths. A New York Times rundown of his decision to go to war with Iran has fueled this worry.

Garbage in, garbage out.

What do you want to talk about?