When you’re driving on roads in Delaware, there’s a decent chance a pole-mounted camera is snapping photos of your car and zeroing in on your license plate.
The devices, equipped with artificial intelligence software, are the silent agents of several police agencies and others with properties to protect. They’re automated license plate readers, known as ALPRs.
The cops in Delaware have dozens, perhaps hundreds of them, to help investigate crimes such as carjackings, vehicle thefts and hit-and-runs, as well as missing persons cases. Some unidentified businesses and neighborhood associations have them too.
But in recent months the cameras and their best-known maker — Atlanta-based Flock Safety — have come under heavy fire in Delaware and across the nation.
Privacy advocates in Delaware warn that ALPRs constitute warrantless mass surveillance of law-abiding people. They argue that agencies share the data with federal agents and local law enforcement officials outside of their own jurisdictions.
No legislative guardrails have been put in place in Delaware, as they have in other states. Nationally, however, two Republican congressmen have announced bills specifically targeting Flock Safety at the federal level.
OK, I’ve read enough. By the end of January, 2027, the General Assembly should have enacted legislation putting an end to this. It is massive warrantless surveillance. Ask any and every candidate for public office for their position on this. One more thing–I’ve generally supported the job that AG Jennings has done. But, why hasn’t she taken a stand on this? Or, for that matter, on the following story? Or, for that matter, on LEOBOR? Pretty much made up my mind–I’m voting for Dwayne Bensing.
A Wilmington police officer pepper-sprayed a protester in her face on Friday during a protest on Interstate 95 against the police killing of Kadir Skinner, according to video of the incident.
The woman who was pepper-sprayed said it occurred after she had followed orders by police to back up. Video of the incident shows a line of police facing a group of protesters who back up several steps, then come to stop. The woman, who asked not to be named, was at the front of the group with her arms reaching outward to her side.
She told Spotlight Delaware that she had stood in between the police and a group of many Black protestors to act as a kind of “human shield.”
“As white women, that’s our role,” she said. “I’d rather it be me than anyone else.”
The video then shows one officer spraying a chemical irritant into her face and neck.
VIDEO COURTESY OF THE DELAWARE CALL
Caroline Klinger, spokeswoman for Wilmington Mayor John Carney, declined to comment.
A spokesman for the Wilmington Police Department did not respond to a request for comment.
Todd Blanche’s nomination to become attorney general stalled Wednesday as lawmakers scrapped a planned committee vote after key Republicans demanded more assurances about the settlement of President Donald Trump’s lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service.
A spokesperson for the committee said in a statement Wednesday night that the vote would be postponed “as work continues to secure sufficient support.” The delay came after hours of negotiations between the Justice Department and Republican Sens. John Cornyn and Thom Tillis over the controversial settlement that afforded Trump and members of his family protection from tax audits.
At the center of the fight is the resolution of Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS. It included a deal to drop tax claims against the president and a now-scrapped plan to create a $1.776 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” to compensate people who believe they were wronged by the Justice Department. The department said in June that it was no longer moving forward with the “Anti-Weaponization Fund” amid bipartisan outrage, but officials have said the audit immunity agreement remains in place.
Cornyn and Tillis have demanded additional assurances in writing that the “Anti-Weaponization Fund” is dead and have pressed for clarification on the scope of the tax immunity deal. Cornyn has said he wants the administration to modify that piece of the settlement to make clear that it covers only existing audits and does not protect the president from examination of future tax filings.
Stating the obvious–by any objective measure, Blanche is totally unfit to be AG. He has filed more revenge lawsuits on behalf of Trump than I can count. I suspect he’s already broken records for the number of prosecutions tossed out of court. Yet, this is what’s holding up his nomination?
El-Sayed has all the Bernie/progressive positions. He’s run a campaign that places a heavy emphasis on the Israel-Palestine issue. And he’s centered AIPAC in his campaign in a way that even for many longtime critics and haters of AIPAC (including myself here) has a distinct whiff of antisemitic conspiracy theories. To wit, yes, AIPAC sucks. They’re a blight. They are functionally a Republican operation these days. But they are not the secret hand guiding things in the background every time there’s a bad news story or reverse of fortune for some progressive candidate, which is basically the role they’re playing in El-Sayed’s campaign. (Oh, really, Josh?)
Generally speaking, El-Sayed is the kind of candidate you’d expect to see running in a blue state or district. Michigan is not that. It’s a definitional swing state, a bit bluer than Wisconsin perhaps, maybe a touch redder than Pennsylvania. It also has an absolutely must-win Senate race. No room for error. You’ve got to win this seat (currently held by the retiring Democrat Gary Peters).
I’ve watched El-Sayed in a handful of podcast interviews. He’s really good. That’s the only way I can describe it. He has that basic mix of presence, charisma and directness which is the mark of a very strong candidate. I’ve been in contact with a number of TPM readers over the last couple months who I’d describe broadly as white, generally normie Michigan grandmothers who are … strong supporters of El-Sayed. In other words, they’re not at all what you’d expect as the stereotypical supporter of a left-wing, insurgent, Palestine-centric candidate. And the reason is always the same: his rhetoric and attitude fit the stakes of the national crisis and Stevens’ do not.
In many ways, this mirrors what I’ve been arguing for months. You need to pry apart the ideology and fight. You need candidates across the Democratic ideological spectrum operating in the fight lane. Candidates who are not in that lane strike far too many voters as wildly out of touch or irrelevant to the moment we’re living in — like an EMT arriving at the scene of a horrific auto accident with some aspirin, salves and maybe a pillow.
This may make a caricature of Stevens. But she’s been tepid on some key issues where Democrats have a big opening to demonstrate their fight bona fides — issues like ICE. This is revealing to me inasmuch as opposing ICE, wanting to dismantle ICE is not just the right position on the merits. It’s also a more or less free shot on goal for Democratic candidates. ICE’s brutal mass deportation campaign around the country is really, really unpopular. You can go full-bore on ICE and still support more restrictive border policies than many Democrats have been comfortable with. Indeed, this might be the balance of gravity for public opinion in 2026: Tighten the border; fuck ICE. Beyond the merits, it’s an open and fertile ground to demonstrate which lane they’re in. And Stevens hasn’t done that.
I would call myself highly worried about these developments. This isn’t because I’m so dead set against El-Sayed as a candidate. It’s because I’m skeptical his candidacy is viable in a swing state like Michigan. The progressive electability argument often amounts to: These establishment candidates you say are so electable lose about half the time. So how are they so electable? This isn’t a strong argument if you value logical reasoning. That said, I’m also eager to see my skepticism proven wrong. I practice what I preach about partisan elections. Every congressional election is a zero-sum proposition between the forces of Trumpism and the opposition to the same. Full stop. If he’s the nominee, it will be critical to prove my skepticism wrong. Because Democrats absolutely need to win that seat.
Who is more likely to galvanize a jaded electorate? A Hillary-bot who would probably enjoy dining with Chris Coons and that McCormick guy from Pennsylvania? Or a real fighter? We’ve been told for the past 20 years or so by centrist D’s that we have to make the safe choice. That’s how we got Hillary. I think the safer choice is El-Sayed. I know he’s the better choice.
FBI Director Kash Patel’s lawsuit against a man who called him a “googly-eyed Kremlin bitch” and “blatantly incompetent chud” was thrown out by a federal judge on Tuesday.
In an order granting defendant Jim Stewartson’s motion to dismiss, Nevada Chief District Judge Andrew Gordon determined he did not have jurisdiction over Patel’s initial $10 million defamation complaint, thus voiding a previous default judgment against the self-described “anti-disinformation activist.”
Patel first sued Stewartson back in June 2023 over tweets calling him a “blatantly incompetent chud” who had “attempted to overthrow the government” and was “guilty of sedition” as part of a premeditated plot to incite the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection on the Capitol.
Stewartson did not respond to the suit, resulting in a $250,000 default judgment in Patel’s favor in August 2025.
The blogger and podcaster challenged the decision on the grounds he had no meaningful ties to Nevada as a California resident whose posts were not aimed at residents of the Silver State.
Taunting Patel as a “googly-eyed Kremlin bitch” online, Stewartson said he was ready to “explain in full detail” why he was “dead serious” when he called the FBI director a “chud.”
After the insult made it into a footnote of Judge Gordon’s Tuesday order, Stewartson shared an X post saying, “PSA: Now that my case is settled, you are free to refer to @FBIDirectorKash as a ‘chud,’ a ‘googly-eyed Kremlin bitch,’ and a ‘traitor’ without fear of legal repercussions!”
What makes the Michigan Senate choice difficult is that polls show Stevens performing better than El-Sayed in the general.