DL Open Thread: Thursday, September 3, 2026

Mike Kozikowski Tried To Bribe Dave Tackett Off The Ballot?  Sure sounds like it:

When Mike Kozikowski, the New Castle County recorder of deeds, invited potential challenger David Tackett to lunch on June 24, Tackett decided to record their meeting.

Tackett, a county councilman, told WHYY News he wanted to document what Kozikowski said because he had been tipped off that the six-term incumbent was going to offer him a job in exchange for him not running against Kozikowski in the Sept. 15 Democratic primary.

Kozikowski had plenty to say while the two sat in a booth for nearly 90 minutes at Cosmos Restaurant near Newport, according to the audiotape, which WHYY News recently obtained.

But mostly, Kozikowski kept offering Tackett a job if he agreed to stay out of the race.

If Tackett didn’t enter the primary, Kozikowski told him that the two could forge an alliance in the office that maintains deeds from real estate sales, mortgage documents, government liens and other property records for the county of about 590,000 people.

The job Kozikowski offered, which he had created and upgraded from a vacant post, paid $76,295 a year and would only require Tackett to go into the office up to three times a week, the incumbent said repeatedly during the meeting.

Kozikowski made the offer of the appointed position even though state law forbids County Council members from holding “any other county office” during their term, or any appointed county job for one year after their term ends.

Seems to me that Kozikowski was just too lazy to campaign, so he tried to buy off his opponent.   I don’t see any way that this is not illegal.  Even Delaware Way insiders will have no choice but to oust Kozikowski if he wins, and it sure appears that criminal charges could be forthcoming.  As if we needed more proof, this is as good an argument for eliminating this as an elective position as we’re gonna get.

Just, wow.

Rob Bahnsen’s latest mailer is perhaps the best I’ve seen this cycle.  On one side, Krista Griffith and her literally dozens of corporate PAC contributors (could be as many as 100).  On Rob’s side, the word ‘None’.  What more need be said?  Starting to think he wins this one…

ICE Recruits–‘An Unprecedented Lowering Of Standards‘:

In the wake of a hiring surge last summer, an official in charge of evaluating new recruits to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement issued a dire warning.

The Trump administration, he wrote in a memo, was cutting corners, violating the law and fast-tracking unqualified, “improperly vetted” candidates into ICE’s ranks, part of a dangerous move that exposed the agency — and its law enforcement operations — to “grave national security risks.”

Citing an “unprecedented lowering of standards,” the career ICE official said that “systemic breakdowns” had allowed applicants to receive job offers before they had passed basic fingerprint, identity or credit checks in a preliminary vetting process. Political appointees had unjustly skirted background investigations and received national security eligibility.

The official, a unit chief who directly oversaw more than 100 employees who evaluated thousands of ICE applicants, was so troubled by what he saw that he outlined these concerns not to his superiors, but in a formal whistle-blower complaint to the Office of Inspector General in the Department of Homeland Security.

The whistle-blower complaint was obtained via a public records request. The concerns within it broadly mirror those made by other current and former ICE employees who said that the agency had abandoned best practices as it rapidly scaled up. An ICE lawyer who worked at the agency’s training center resigned earlier this year and went public as a whistle-blower, citing concerns about a “deficient, defective and broken” training program.

DOJ Blocks Prosecution Of ICE Agent/Shooter:

Over the “strongest possible” objections from the federal prosecutor handling the case, leaders at the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., quashed plans to bring civil rights charges against an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent accused of shooting a Venezuelan immigrant and then lying about it.

The agent, 52-year-old Christian Castro, allegedly shot Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis in the leg in Minneapolis this January during Operation Metro Surge, the Trump administration’s immigration blitz that sent thousands of federal agents into the state. The incident was one of three shootings by immigration agents in the city, the other two of which were fatal.

Federal prosecutors in Minnesota had been preparing to charge Castro with deprivation of rights under color of law for the shooting of Sosa-Celis, according to several people familiar with the case. Those charges are similar to the ones leveled against Minneapolis police officers accused in George Floyd’s killing and can carry hefty prison sentences.

Late on Tuesday, Matthew Evans, the assistant U.S. attorney in Minnesota in charge of the case, told lawyers for Sosa-Celis and other victims to prepare for Castro to be charged “only with False Statements,” according to an email that was reviewed by ProPublica.

That charge would likely carry a far less severe punishment if he were convicted.

“This is being directed by the Main Justice and the US Attorney,” Evans wrote in a remarkably candid account of internal deliberations. “I objected in the strongest possible terms and fought it as hard as I could. It wasn’t enough.”

Can An Attorneys’ Army Free Kids From Immigration Custody?  They’re trying:

Around 1,900 kids who arrived in the US unaccompanied by a parent or guardian were under the federal government’s control across the country as of the end of August. From babies to teenagers, children have spent an average of 183 days – roughly six months – in shelters or long-term foster care, according to the government’s own data, despite many of them having family members in the United States anxiously awaiting their release as their legal cases proceed through the immigration system.

Now, more than 50 legal organizations, firms and law offices have mobilized to join a mission they are calling the Children’s Due Process Project, where lawyers working pro bono head to federal courts to argue case-by-case that these kids are being detained unlawfully.

The immediate goal is to use highly effective habeas corpus petitions to force federal officials to justify their actions in keeping the children in their custody or let them go, the Guardian has exclusively learned.

“This is the most immediate way to help the kids who are currently being harmed,” said Becky Wolozin, senior attorney at the California-based National Center for Youth Law. Her group is co-managing the project, which started quietly this summer and has built up over recent months.

Righteous work.

R.I.P.: Gloria Steinem.  There is no doubt that women are in a better position today thanks to her unstinting efforts:

Gloria Steinem, a trailblazing journalist and activist who devoted her life to fighting for women’s rights, died on Wednesday. She was 92.

Starting in the 1960s, at a time when women were largely limited to domestic roles, Steinem challenged gender stereotypes and championed feminist ideals like equality, sisterhood and reproductive freedom. In doing so, she inspired generations of women to do the same. Today, she’s a household name that is synonymous with the women’s rights movement.

“Because of her work, across America and around the world, more women are afforded the respect and opportunities that they deserve,” then-President Barack Obama said when he awarded Steinem the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her commitment to activism in 2013. “She also changed how women thought about themselves.”

Beyond journalism, Steinem was an activist and political organizer. In 1971, months before she established Ms. magazine, Steinem helped form the National Women’s Political Caucus, which focuses on recruiting, training and endorsing more women in politics.

“Women have been running the political campaigns in this country for generations. But by running means that they’ve been doing all the menial work, you know, addressing envelopes and driving cars and having fundraisings,” Steinem told NPR in 1971. “We’re not going to do that anymore. Let the male candidates do their own typing.”

What do you want to talk about?