DL Open Thread: Monday, July 6, 2026

No More Legislative Junkets Without Transparency.  They were always required to report them, they just claimed ignorance of the law.  No more:

Delaware lawmakers have moved swiftly to address an issue WHYY News exposed this spring: the practice of members taking free trips to Taiwan and Israel without reporting them as gifts in their annual financial reports.

The state House and Senate voted without any dissent in recent days to explicitly require all “travel expenses” of $250 or more paid for by a third party to be disclosed to the state’s Public Integrity Commission. Travel costs include transportation, lodging, entertainment, food and beverages.

WHYY News reported in April that since about 2010, a revolving group of roughly five lawmakers has traveled to Taiwan every year on weeklong trips, with the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the United States footing the bill. None of the lawmakers ever reported the free travel, however, according to reports dating back to 2020 that WHYY reviewed, and interviews with participants.

Some cited advice from the commission that the trips did not have to be reported as “gifts” in the annual financial report but none could produce documentation of such guidance. Instead, they said they simply followed the advice of fellow lawmakers in deciding not to disclose what many called a fact-finding mission to the home of a U.S. ally.

In addition, one of five lawmakers who went on a free trip to Israel last year, courtesy of the Consulate General of Israel in New York, didn’t report the $6,500 gift until after WHYY News inquired about his nondisclosure.  (That wasn’t a fact-finding mission, that was propaganda in defense of genocide, just so we’re clear.)

Nor did Attorney General Kathleen Jennings report free trips since 2022 to South Africa, Colorado and Arizona that a legal trade group paid for, WHYY News reported last year. The commission had advised her that the free trips didn’t have to be reported.  (The AG didn’t know the law? Really?)

Under longstanding Delaware law, Delaware’s 62 lawmakers and about 300 other state government officials, including judges, must disclose any gift worth more than $250.

The updated law, however, removes any wiggle room for lawmakers and other state officials when it comes to travel paid for by any entity except for the state government.

State Rep. Madinah Wilson-Anton, a Bear Democrat who sponsored the bill, said she’s gratified fellow lawmakers voted in favor of more transparency.

“Your voters and constituents deserve to know who’s covering your travel, what countries you’re going to, what excursions” state officials are taking, Wilson-Anton said. “So I think it’s reasonable. I think it’s good government and I’m glad that it passed.”

The “travel expenses” provision, proposed by Rep. Jeffrey Spiegelman, a Middletown Republican who didn’t disclose his own two free trips to Taiwan, was added to Wilson-Anton’s bill that requires the financial reports to be posted on the commission’s website for anyone to view. Currently, someone who wants to inspect a financial report would have to file a Delaware Freedom of Information Act request to get it and wait up to 15 days to obtain it.

“People have a right to know who is gifting their legislators money, trips, gifts. And it should be easily accessible,” Wilson-Anton said.

Amen.

Trump Manages To Corrupt The World Cup.  Well, Trump and the FIFA President had corrupted the process from the start.  Or, have you forgotten?:

For FIFA and its president, it is the latest instance of questions being raised over his relationship with Trump. According to FIFA’s statutes, its participants must abide by political neutrality and political interference is not permitted in its processes.

Most famously, Infantino personally invented a FIFA Peace Prize to award to Trump at the World Cup group-stage draw in December, after he had been overlooked after campaigning to win the Nobel Peace Prize.

FIFA opened an office in Trump Tower in Manhattan, New York City, meaning that the organization is paying rent on premises owned by the Trump family.

That is mere foreplay to what just happened:

President Donald Trump has been an elusive figure throughout this World Cup.

Or he was until the middle of last week, when he picked up the phone to call Gianni Infantino, the FIFA president, to ask for a review of the one-game suspension facing United States striker Folarin Balogun after his red card for fouling Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Tarik Muharemovic in the co-hosts’ 2-0 round of 32 win.

On Sunday, The Athletic exclusively revealed Balogun will now be available for the USMNT’s round of 16 tie against Belgium on Monday (early Tuesday in the UK), after FIFA’s independent disciplinary committee decided to suspend his ban.

President Trump was quick to react to the extraordinary development on Truth Social, thanking FIFA “for doing what was right, and reversing a great injustice!”, before it then emerged that he had discussed the Balogun matter with Infantino earlier in the week, as first reported by the Associated Press and The New York Times. A source familiar with the situation confirmed to The Athletic that a call did take place.

Trump’s phone call to Infantino was not the only intervention in the affair from the U.S. government.

Lawyers were recruited by the administration, in tandem with Howard Lutnick, the commerce secretary, and Scott Goodwin, a donor to U.S. Soccer and hedge fund manager. As first reported by the journalist Clay Travis on X, these legal materials were sent on to U.S. Soccer.

Lutnick had been seated beside Infantino during the Bosnia match, while the FIFA president, who posted a photo with Lutnick to his Instagram page last month, has visited his office in D.C. and dined with him in recent months.

Andrew Giuliani (??!!), the executive director of the White House Task Force for the World Cup, was actively engaged in the process, working with the lawyers and seeking updates from FIFA and U.S. Soccer.

It is the latest in a developing pattern where FIFA stands accused of finding ways to get the sport’s biggest stars on the field, ahead of the conventional implementation of its widely understood regulations.

“I have to be honest, it was a big mistake by FIFA. This is not a great conclusion to what happened,” Stale Solbakken, Norway’s head coach, said after his team knocked out Brazil in the round of 16 on Sunday.

“He got a red card. The VAR concluded it was a red, and he was sent off. That means you are meant to be suspended for one game. It’s a bad, bad, bad, bad decision. I feel sorry for the USA. If they win, this decision will be in the background. It’s not good for the sport.”

Wayne Rooney, the former Manchester United and England captain, speaking in his role as a pundit on the BBC, described it as an “absolute disgrace”.

“But to suspend it for a year? It’s an absolute disgrace. Infantino should be ashamed of this. The sportsmanship of this game is in question here,” Rooney added.

Pretty much the entire world of futbol agrees.

‘Set A Fire.  Collect Your Winnings.’  I can’t even…:

Sylvie Andrews and her partner didn’t just lose the new house they’d helped build when the Eaton Fire ripped through Altadena, California, in January 2025. They lost an entire decade’s worth of sacrifices they’d made to put down roots in their hometown, and the community they’d created. “We put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into it,” Andrews said. “That’s what we lost in the fire.”

That fire, along with the Palisades Fire to the west, destroyed over 16,000 structures and killed 31 people. But while Andrews and thousands of Angelinos were racing to evacuate, other people saw a financial opportunity. Using Polymarket, the world’s largest prediction market platform, they made bets on the fires—how they would grow, how long they would last and how much they would destroy.

Prediction markets are essentially gambling websites where people bet on the outcome of events, including elections, sports, the weather and more. Anything is fair game, from oil prices and the spread of infectious diseases to international incidents. Markets usually frame questions in a “yes” or “no” fashion, with the price of a “contract” fluctuating between $0 and $1. A price of 50 cents on a “yes” contract means that the people doing the betting collectively believe the event has a 50 percent chance of happening. Market hosts make money by charging a fee on wagers.

In January 2025, Polymarket listed almost 20 questions, created by the platform’s “markets team,” related to the wildfires burning up Southern California. How many acres will the Palisades Fire burn by Friday, three days after it ignited on a Tuesday? Will the Palisades Fire reach Santa Monica by Sunday? When will the Palisades fire be 50 percent contained? Will the Palisades and Eaton fires be contained before February?

As prediction markets boom and a new wildfire season begins, fire survivors and ethicists say that the betting encourages and rewards callous thinking—and dangerous behavior, too.

One major concern stemming from wildfire prediction markets is arson. “That’s what has me nervous,” Sherman said. Theoretically, making a bet could give someone the perverse incentive to start a fire, or help one grow. Unlike other disasters, such as hurricanes, flooding or extreme heat, a fire can be manipulated in minutes by just one person. “Systems that tie financial gain to wildfire outcomes risk encouraging misuse, including arson, and are not compatible with our mission,” a spokesperson for the US Forest Service said.  (Uh, is the spokesperson aware of who the President is?)

What do you want to talk about?