Delaware had recently seen a Department of Correction shakeup with the closure of Wilmington’s Plummer Community Corrections Center in March.Plummer housed men in a work release program that allowed them to stay close to family in northern New Castle County and find work in their community.Now, those who would have gone to Plummer are sent to a facility in Smyrna, a move that’s faced some backlash.Delaware Public Media’s Abigail Lee met with work release participants, advocates and the Department of Correction Commissioner to see what work release programs look like now that Plummer is gone.

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.

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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."

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.

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.

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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.