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One of the most notable bills to pass in the General Assembly this year was Senate Bill 9 — the Wetlands Stewardship Act. Once signed by Gov. Matt Meyer, this law will protect half of Delaware's freshwater wetlands that were previously shielded from development by the federal governmentThis week, Delaware Public Media contributor Jon Hurdle took a closer look at the bill, how it got to the finish line and its expected impact. He joined Tom Byrne this week to discuss his reporting.
As we move closer to the end of July, an uncomfortable reality starts to set in for kids and their families. Summer break is slowly slipping away, and a new school year looms on the horizon. That means families need to start thinking about what gear and clothes they want and need in the fall.Yes, it's back to school shopping season. And whether you are getting a college student ready to go back to campus or are checking off your K-12 student's supply list, one thing is clear. You'll need to dig deeper into your wallet this year.This week, contributor Eileen Dallabrida conducted her annual review of the back-to-school shopping landscape and she joined Tom Byrne earlier this week to let us know what to expect.
OperaDelaware kicks off its new season in October, coming off a successful week hosting a national opera conference in spring 2026 and with a new general director, Eric Einhorn at the helm.On this week's Arts Playlist, Delaware Public Media's Martin Matheny talked to Einhorn about his vision for OperaDelaware, the future of its innovative Company Artist program, and the challenges of creating new opera lovers.
OperaDelaware kicks off its new season in October, coming off a successful week hosting a national opera conference in spring 2026 and with a new general director, Eric Einhorn at the helm.On this week's Arts Playlist, Delaware Public Media's Martin Matheny talked to Einhorn about his vision for OperaDelaware, the future of its innovative Company Artist program, and the challenges of creating new opera lovers.
A new study by ChristianaCare looked at how AI-generated avatars could help patients be more prepared for cancer treatment visits.The patients engage with an avatar of the actual doctor they will meet with, to help them be more comfortable when actually meeting the doctor for the first time.In this edition of Enlighten Me, Delaware Public Media's Joe Irizarry discussed this new way of helping patients and the study looking at the program, with Adam Raben, M.D., Chair of Radiation Oncology at ChristianaCare's Helen F. Graham Cancer Center & Research Institute.
High electricity bills remain a front-burner issue for many Delawareans, who face rising bills with no end in sight.Just last week, the state's Public Service Commission approved a small interim rate increase for Delmarva Power that goes into effect this month while the PSC considered Delmarva's full rate increase request.This came on the heels of lawmakers passing a bill that sought to cap what Delmarva Power could recover for nonessential infrastructure spending, limit interim rate increases and require regular audits of Delmarva, and other utilities.Gov. Meyer hasn't signed that bill yet, but signaled he would. And Meyer has called out Delmarva throughout 2026 for being concerned more about profits than its customers.This week, Tom Byrne sat down with Delmarva Power Delaware Region President Marcus Beal to discuss these issues and the utility's response.
In this week's Enlighten Me, we take another opportunity to highlight work from a student journalist at the University of Delaware.This time — as the nation celebrated its 250th birthday here in 2026 — recent UD grad Delaney Lowe took a deep dive into the political climate in the U.S., a climate that felt tremendously polarized.And during a semester-long look at this political divide, Lowe reported the divide seemed to be widening, even impacting even our closest relationships.
In the 1930s, with the US in the throes of the Great Depression, President Franklin Roosevelt offered a sweeping job creation agenda. That included jobs for artists, and New Deal programs produced some of the most memorable American art in history.40 years later, another president, Richard Nixon, signed the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act. And like in the New Deal, artists were included and were successful in ushering a new era for public art.An exhibition at the Delaware Art Museum — "Citizen Artist" — celebrates those two eras. In this edition of Arts Playlist, Delaware Public Media's Martin Matheny spoke with the museum's Head Curator and Curator of Contemporary Art Margaret Winslow, and Lynn Herrick Sharp Curatorial Fellow Dorothy Fisher to learn more about it.
This weekend marks the 250th anniversary of the United States of America. While many fire up their grills and set off fireworks this weekend to mark the occasion, many others have been hosting or attending events across the state throughout May and June.Delaware Public Media reporters attended several of these events to give you a flavor for these events - and find out what this anniversary means to different people and groups.
Ross Mansion in Seaford is home to Delaware's lone remaining dwelling that was once inhabited by enslaved people.The number of these dwellings nationwide is dwindling in part because they were made with shoddy materials and in part because there has been little effort to preserve them until recent years.But historians say these spaces are incredibly valuable as they provide a window into enslaved people's inner lives, which is often neglected or difficult to learn about.In this edition of History Matters, Delaware Public Media's Abigail Lee traveled to Ross Mansion and the John Dickinson Plantation in Dover to see these spaces and speak with experts on the lasting significance of them.
This week's Arts Playlist is just that - a playlist. To mark America's 250th birthday, Delaware Public Media's Martin Matheny reached out to some of the musicians he talks to for Arts Playlist throughout the year and asked them to choose one piece of American classical music for this - our America 250 playlist.Here's what Martin and some of the First State's top musicians assembled.
All the 2026 World Cup's games are in North America, with the United States – including Philadelphia - getting their share of matches featuring teams from all over the world. On top of that, The US men's national team is playing well in the event, adding even more excitement.This week, Delaware Public Media's Isreal Hale sat down with John Allgood, a Sports Management instructor in the University of Delaware's Lerner College of Business & Economics to discuss how the US hosting of the World Cup might affect youth interest in soccer here.
Fireworks... you either love them or hate them. And the approaching July 4th holiday is centered around them. Add to that 2026 being the nation's 250th anniversary, and the upcoming Independence Day will likely see massive displays including some “unofficial” displays.But there are laws in Delaware to ensure safety and lessen fireworks' health and environmental impact. As a matter of fact, just this week the General Assembly passed a bill that clarifies and bolsters existing fireworks regulations. It awaits Gov. Meyer's signature.In preparation for the upcoming holiday weekend, Assistant State Fire Marshall and Chief of Investigations B. Scott Bullock joined Delaware Public Media's Jay Shah to walk us through fireworks dos and don'ts.
The Winterthur Museum, Garden, and Library opened an ambitious and wide-ranging exhibit telling the stories of its land and buildings, and the site's evolution from a private home to a center for scholarship and conservation.Called "At Home at Winterthur," the five-year exhibit brought together rarely seen objects from the site's centuries of history to mark Winterthur's 75th anniversary as a museum.And on this week's Arts Playlist, DPM's Martin Matheny spoke to Alexandra Deutsch, Winterthur's John L. and Marjorie P. McGraw Director of Collections.
In this week's Enlighten Me, we headed back to the University of Delaware to highlight more work from student journalists. These pieces were produced by UD Communications students for a class taught by Nancy Karibjanian, a long-time First State journalist, Director of UD's Journalism Program, and one of the founders of Delaware Public Media.
Earlier this year, the state of Delaware offered an updated plan to address so-called ‘forever chemicals' in drinking water, soil and air.But mitigating the presence of PFAS chemicals is complicated and costly effort. And under the Trump Administration, the federal government's support for that effort is something of a mixed bag. While the EPA recently announced it will spend $1 billion nationwide and $10 million in Delaware to help, the agency is at the same time its rolling back Biden-era regulations to manage PFAS.This week, contributor Jon Hurdle takes a closer look at how the EPA's actions affect the First State.
When the new Claymont Transportation Center opened in December 2024, it completed some two decades of work to bring a new train station to Claymont, and was hailed as a foundational piece in the effort to redevelop the former Claymont Steel site and surrounding community.But a year and a half year later, the facility was largely underutilized, sparking a new effort to make the Claymont Transportation Center the kind of hub it was intended to be.The Claymont-PHL Connector initiative seeks to bring a regional shuttle service connecting the Claymont Transportation Center to Philadelphia International Airport and more in the Philadelphia area.Among those behind the initiative is Tony Benson of EpiMind Consulting who joined Tom Byrne this week to discuss that effort.
"The Thomas Crown Affair," "How to Steal a Million," "Ocean's 12" - art heists are a popular subject for films, TV, and books. A talk on Thursday, June 25, presented by the Biggs Museum of American Art brings two experts to Dover's Schwartz Center for the Arts to talk about real-life art crimes.One of those experts is Robert Wittman, a former FBI special agent who founded the bureau's Art Crimes Team, and during his career helped recover hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of stolen art.On this week's Arts Playlist, Delaware Public Media's Martin Matheny spoke with Wittman about the real world of art crime and his career.
In this week's Enlighten Me, we headed to the University of Delaware to highlight work from student journalists – pieces produced by UD Communications students for a class taught by Nancy Karibjanian, a long-time First State journalist, Director of UD's Journalism Program, and one of the founders of Delaware Public Media.
A Superior Court judge recently ruled the town of Fenwick Island's policy allowing artificial entities like LLCs to vote in its municipal elections is legal, rejecting an ACLU lawsuit against the small coastal town challenging the practice.Although it was a lower court ruling that didn't set policy or precedent for the state, the decision attracted attention from national media outlets.And a leading House Democrat is seeking to amend Delaware's constitution, to end the practice of these entities voting in Delaware elections.This week, Delaware Public Media state politics reporter Bente Bouthier delved into this issue with Lawrence Cunningham, Director of University of Delaware's John L. Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance.
The Trump administration has prioritized an overhaul of longstanding immigration laws such as the removal of temporary protection status.The latest attempt was a memo released in May 2026, placing restrictions on “adjustment of status” applications, more commonly known as green card applications. This meant people applying for lawful permanent residence in the USA would be required to leave the country for their application unless they were in “extraordinary circumstances.”The memo seemed vague and confusing. So, this week we sat down with Rick Hogan, an immigration attorney and founding partner at Hogan and Vandenberg in Wilmington, to help us understand what this memo meant for new applicants going forward.We also chatted with ACLU of Delaware Executive Director Mike Brickner about the overall impact this change could have.
Summertime at Rehoboth Beach means a lot of things - a stroll on the boardwalk, a day enjoying the surf and sand, and the chance to see dozens of free concerts at the city's bandstand.To find out more about this summer's shows, DPM's Martin Matheny spoke to Rehoboth Bandstand Director Corey Groll on this week's Arts Playlist.
Delaware State University made history on the wrestling mat in 2026, fielding a team of all women, the first ever Division I women's wrestling program at an HBCU.And a short documentary, “First to the Mat,” by DSU students Tia Jarvis and Sanaiyah Baines-Butler highlights the program's first-ever home dual meet where the Hornets easily defeated Wilkes and McDaniel.On this edition of Enlighten Me, Delaware Public Media's Joe Irizarry spoke with Tia Jarvis about the documentary and the perspectives it presented.
State lawmakers are taking a swing at delivering a more comprehensive approach to how large load electricity users – specifically data centers – are regulated going forward. The new legislation was introduced late last month with the hope of getting it through the General Assembly before the current session ends June 30th.Delaware Public Media contributor Jon Hurdle took a closer look at the new bill and reaction to it in his latest piece, and he joined Tom Byrne to discuss his reporting.
ChristianaCare researchers identified a developmental genetic pattern that showed how colorectal cancer develops. The findings revealed that certain types of genes drive cancer growth and resistance, and how the precise timing of how they develop is linked to colon cancer formation.The research team's work also showed the genes can predict survival in colorectal cancer patients, indicating it can be a marker of disease behavior and a target for future therapies.This week, Delaware Public Media's Joe Irizarry sat down with Bruce Boman, M.D., senior author of the study and senior researcher at ChristianaCare's Helen F. Graham Cancer Center & Research Institute to discuss this colorectal cancer research.
Each June, Delawareans celebrate Separation Day - the day the First State stopped being part of Pennsylvania and became its own entity.This year's Separation Day celebrations have added significance, occurring in the leadup to the celebration of the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States.In this edition of History Matters, Delaware Public Media's Martin Matheny learned more about how the state is marking Separation Day and the nation's 250th birthday from two people closely involved with planning the events, beginning with Erik Raser-Schramm, director of Delaware 250 and then Delaware Division of Historical and Cultural Affairs Historic Sites Team director Daniel Citron.
The 2026 Atlantic hurricane season officially begins on June 1st.NOAA's National Hurricane Center predicts a below normal season with 8-14 named storms, of which 3-6 are hurricanes, including 1-3 major hurricanes (category 3, 4 or 5 with winds of 111 mph or higher). An average season has 14 named storms with seven hurricanes, including three major hurricanes.But predicting and tracking hurricane activity is only one part of the equation. When storms hit, they can do major damage. With that in mind, research at the University of Delaware is trying to improve work to model what damage from a storm could look like.Thomas Florio – who graduated from UD last week with his degree in Meteorology & Climate Science – has been working with assistant professor of meteorology and climate science Shuai Wang to improve hurricane damage simulations. And Florio recently joined host Tom Byrne to discuss his work and its implications.
This week, Delawareans in the city of Wilmington and throughout the state bid farewell to former Wilmington mayor Mike Purzycki. Purzycki died last week at the age of 80 and in the days following his death and at his funeral this week, much of the discussion about his impact understandably focused on his two terms as mayor and his 10 years spent shaping the massive development of Wilmington's Riverfront as Executive Director of the Riverfront Development.But there is more to Purzycki's legacy that those two things. Among them is his work on the Wilmington Hope Commission, which has focused on re-entry services and recidivism. And it's that part of Purzycki's story that three people who worked with him on the Hope Commission focused on in a piece they co-authored last week after his death.This week, host Tom Byrne sat down with those three people – Delaware State Univ. President Tony Allen, who served with Purzycki as the group's founding co-chairs, former Hope Commission Executive Director Charles Madden and Darryl "Wolfie" Chambers, founder of the Center for Structural Equity, and a volunteer and advisor to the Commission – to discuss their piece “He Was “Enough”: Remembering Mike Purzycki."
Delaware sometimes seems to live in the cultural shadow cast by our neighbors - places like Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington DC. And, sometimes the state gets a certain reputation - small, boring, the kind of place where nothing happens.But Paul Campagna and Chris Haug are pushing back on that with a new and growing project - the Delaware Music History Archive. It's an ambitious undertaking, involving thousands of newspaper clippings and hundreds of concert flyers and photos tracking more than eight decades of the state's surprisingly rich musical history. And that collection is growing every day.On this week's Arts Playlist, DPM's Martin Matheny learns more about the project, an upcoming talk Chris and Paul are participating in in Dover, and why you shouldn't sleep on the First State's role in American music history.
State lawmakers voted last year to create a new position - an independent Inspector General - designed to detect fraud, waste and abuse in state government.Gov. Matt Meyer signed that bill into law last August and last month, he nominated Robert Storch to be the state's first IG. Storch previously served as inspector general in the federal government with the Department of Defense and National Security Agency - as well as holding senior positions with the Dept. of Justice.Storch was confirmed by the State Senate this month and is now getting down to the business of building the office from the ground upAnd this week he sat down with Delaware Public Media political reporter Bente Bouthier to discuss delivering an Office of Inspector General to the First State.
This week is Delaware's first Heat Awareness Week. And it seems especially well-timed.This week saw higher than average temperatures for this time of year. Maximum temperatures this week averaged over 80 degrees with the first three days seeing highs over 90 degrees, including record breaking highs in Wilmington and Georgetown.The creation of Heat Awareness Week in Delaware is the culmination of an effort by a group of University of Delaware students in a class taught by Vaishnavi Tripuraneni, Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography and Spatial Sciences. Two of them - Katherine Turner and Jennifer Barbour - joined Delaware Public Media's Jay Shah to explain why heat awareness matters and efforts to address heat-related issues.
The Wilmington Drama League closes out its current season with a musical adaptation of the hit movie "Sister Act."On this week's Arts Playlist, Delaware Public Media's Martin Matheny speaks to two people involved with the production - Patrick Murray, the show's director and choreographer, and Kathy Buterbaugh, a cast member and the Wilmington Drama League's production manager.
A University of Delaware graduate student created a new belly binding garment for postpartum mothers using expertise across multiple disciplines.Belly binding for postpartum mothers has been used for centuries across different cultures. It involves wrapping the abdomen with specialized bands or long strips of fabric after childbirth to support shifting organs, stabilize the pelvis and relieve lower back pain while core muscles naturally heal.Casey Tyler is a master's student in Fashion and Apparel Studies in UD's College of Arts and Science, and they used their experience with help from an assistant professor, a doula and a spacesuit designer to create an updated version of this garment to improve its form and functionOn this edition of Enlighten Me, Delaware Public Media's Joe Irizarry chats with Tyler about the new garment, the knotted belly bind.
A 2011 study published by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's National Wetlands Inventory found that 25% of Delaware is wetlands. Some of those are considered freshwater or nontidal wetlands - and are located further inland.Although they're vital to the ecosystem, Delaware does not have any statewide regulations to protect these habitats.A new bill aims to change that. Senate Bill 9 would fill gaps left by federal laws governing what humans can or can't do in protected areas.This week, Delaware Public Media's Jay Shah sat down with the bill's sponsor, State Senator Stephanie Hansen and Emily Knearl, Director of Public Policy at The Nature Conservancy to understand what this legislation would do and why it matters.
National Train Day was last Saturday - May 9th. To mark the occasion, the Lewes Junction Railroad & Bridge Association unveiled its newest arrival- an early 1900s steam engine.And Delaware Public Media's Isreal Hale was on hand for that event for this edition of History Matters.
Clear Space Theatre in Rehoboth Beach presents two modern shows this month, both looking at life lessons through very different lenses.On this week's Arts Playlist, Delaware Public Media's Martin Matheny spoke to Joe Gfaller, director of "Dear Evan Hansen," and Fay Jacobs, director of "The Legend of Georgia McBride."
We occasionally take time on The Green to highlight work by student journalists. This week, we offer a piece produced by Delaware State Univ. senior and Delaware Public Media intern Joyce KasiamaFor this week's Enlighten Me, Joyce takes a closer look at one way the First State honors female leadership – the Delaware Women's Hall of Fame – by spending time with some of those previously recognized by the Hall of Fame.
Several fixtures in Delaware state politics have announced they won't seek reelection this year, some after decades in their seat. Their decisions to step aside leave room for new faces and the possibility a seat could flip to the other party.Incumbents opting to leave has become a bit of a trend in the First State. In both 2022 and 2024, multiple incumbents didn't pursue their seats in the General Assembly again.This week, Delaware Public Media political reporter Bente Bouthier dove into this trend and implications of this round of retirements with University of Delaware professor Paul Brewer - who specializes in political communication and public opinion.
Concerns about electric grid capacity remain in the headlines as surging demand, fueled in part by A.I and data centers, stress the system and contribute to rising electricity costs.But what if your car could be part of the solution. It may be, if you have an electric car.Vehicle to grid technology - developed by Univ. of Delaware Professor Willett Kempton - has been around for 30 years but, the timing may finally be right for it to make its mark.This week, contributor Jon Hurdle took a closer look at where V2G tech stands and why it may be ready to take off. And he joined Tom Byrne this week to discuss what he learned.
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Delaware is considering changes to state code meant to help it adapt to a growing digital money market.Recently introduced bills will make it easier for financial transactions across state lines and Delaware companies conducting business out of state while establishing a licensing framework for stablecoin - a type of cryptocurrency.The package of bills come from one of General Assembly's leaders in banking and business policy, State Senator Spiros Mantzavinos. He says they'll be important to Delaware retaining its reputation for being business friendly and attracting corporations to the First State.This week, Delaware Public Media State Politics Reporter - Bente Bouthier sits down with Mantzavinos to delve more deeply into what these bills will do.
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