Seafood lovers, take note.

The first-ever Inland Bays Oyster Week at the Delaware beaches, featuring a slate of events that culminate in the Delaware Seafood Festival in Millsboro on Saturday, kicks off Monday.

Inland Bays Oyster Week is the result of “a decade of efforts to bring locally grown oysters to raw bars and dinner tables,” a news release from Southern Delaware Tourism said. Southern Delaware Tourism is organizing and sponsoring the week alongside the Delaware Sea Grant at the University of Delaware.

Here’s a rundown of oyster-themed events Aug. 5-10.

Sip ‘n Slurp: Meet the Grower

Big Oyster Brewery, 6152 S. Rehoboth Blvd., Milford, 3-6 p.m., Monday, Aug. 5.

Enjoy a taste of a “Southern Delaware Delicacy,” featuring Nancy James Oysters from Rehoboth Bay, and learn more about aquaculture operations from owner/grower Jordan Nally. Attendees must be age 21 or older. Tickets are not required.

Inland Bays Oyster Experience Eco-Tour

Boat departs from the public dock at 511 Rehoboth Ave., Rehoboth Beach, 10:30 a.m., Tuesday, Aug. 6.

This Cape Water Tours and Taxi boat tour will feature a visit to one of the open-water shellfish lease areas in Rehoboth Bay, where participants will have a chance to learn about the growing process. The 1.5-hour event is open to all ages. Tickets are $14 per person and can be purchased at capewatertaxi.com.

Wine ‘n Brine: Meet the Grower

Lewes Oyster House, 108 2nd St., Lewes, 3-5 p.m., Tuesday, Aug. 6.

Enjoy Arrowhead Point Oysters from Rehoboth Bay and learn more about aquaculture operations from the owner/operators. Attendees must be age 21 or older. Tickets are not required.

The Science of Aquaculture

University of Delaware Cannon Lab, Room 203, 700 Pilottown Road, Lewes, 1-2 p.m., Wednesday, Aug. 7.

Join Ed Hale, University of Delaware assistant professor and Delaware Sea Grant aquaculture and fisheries specialist, for a look at the “how’s” and “why’s” behind Inland Bays oysters. This is an all-ages event and tickets are not required.

Oyster Hatchery Tour

University of Delaware Cannon Lab, Room 203, 700 Pilottown Road, Lewes, Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2:30 – 3:30 p.m.

Take a tour of Delaware Sea Grant’s oyster hatchery in the Delaware Bay and learn what it takes to spawn and grow oysters. This is an all-ages event. Reservations are required.

Arts on the Half-Shell

Delaware Center for the Inland Bays, Delaware Seashore State Park, 39375 Inlet Road, Rehoboth Beach, 6-8:30 p.m., Thursday, Aug. 8.

“An unforgettable evening of culinary and visual arts inspired by the oyster” featuring celebrated local chefs including Hari Cameron, culinary director for The Chef’s Table at Touch of Italy; Lewes Oyster House chef Sean Corea; chef Ted Deptula, La Vida Hospitality Culinary director; and Taco Reho chef Billy Lucas. Together, they will create an array of small plates featuring fresh Inland Bays oysters. The evening will also feature a signature gin-based cocktail, and Baltimore-based artist Sherry Insley will present portions of two exhibits.

Tickets are $150 per person. All proceeds from the event will support the James Farm Ecological Preserve education campus project.

More: The artificial Redbird Reef, popular Delaware fishing spot, gets 2 more boats

Delaware Seafood Festival

American Legion Post 28, 31767 Legion Road, Millsboro, 10 a.m.-7 p.m., Saturday, Aug. 10.

This all-ages festival will feature live music, vendors, food trucks, beer, a cornhole tournament, a kid’s zone, a shrimp-eating contest, an oyster-shucking contest, and of course, lots of seafood. A portion of the proceeds will support American Legion Post 28. Tickets are $5, with free admission for children younger than 12. Tickets can be purchased at the event or at delawareseafoodfestival.com.

Shannon Marvel McNaught reports on southern Delaware and beyond. Reach her at smcnaught@gannett.com or on Twitter @MarvelMcNaught.

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Delaware Senate Republicans continue to call for legislative hearings despite a new report from Gov. John Carney administration giving additional details on last year’s theft of taxpayer funding by a former state employee.

The document, which the administration only gave to Senate and House leadership, was circulated to all legislators and made available to the public by top lawmakers.

The report confirmed an exclusive report by WHYY News in May, which revealed former unemployment insurance administrator, Michael Brittingham, stole more than $181,000 from the state’s unemployment insurance trust fund in 2023. The state did not reveal the theft publicly until officials were contacted by WHYY News, following a tip that money had been stolen from the trust fund.

Brittingham took his own life the day he was placed on administrative leave after a supervisor with the Employer Contribution Office informed the Department of Labor’s Human Resources that Brittingham had his assistant, a contractor, issue checks to his LLC, which had the same address as a warrant issued for his arrest. Brittingham, who had been hired by DOL in February 2019, pleaded guilty to stealing nearly $42,890 from the Chimney Hill Homeowners Association in Felton. He underwent a background check shortly after being hired, which is required for people with access to federal tax information.

DOL and the Department of Finance say in the report the investigation ended in August 2023, but the heads of those departments did not report the embezzlement to state lawmakers or the public.

“They answered a lot of questions that nobody asked,” said John Flaherty, spokesperson for the Delaware Coalition for Open Government. “The two questions that we had asked, they ignored, about why they did not report this embezzlement in a timely fashion, why the news media is the one that reported it and whether there are any other instances of embezzlement that they haven’t reported.”

Senate Minority Whip Brian Pettyjohn said there wasn’t a lot of new information in the report and hearings were needed to determine why the embezzlement wasn’t disclosed to lawmakers when it was discovered.

“There are probably still some questions that some members have. There may be questions that, if we announced the hearings, the public ends up contacting us with that we can ask the departments,” he said. “But I think we have a duty as that equal branch of government … to engage in a dialogue and have these questions answered to our satisfaction.”

The Delaware Supreme Court has agreed with two lower courts that dismissed lawsuits filed by two pastors seeking to prevent the state’s governor from imposing future restrictions on religious worship.

In its opinion issued Thursday, the court said freedom of religion is an essential tenet of democracy and restrictions on religious worship must be viewed with a great deal of skepticism. But the judiciary is not the forum to debate and resolve hypothetical questions regarding the constitutionality of restrictions that were lifted long before any legal action was filed.

“Moreover, public officials who act under emergent conditions and make careful, discretionary decisions based on the best information available are immune from personal liability if those actions are later determined to be contrary to the law,” the five justices said in the opinion. “For those reasons, we agree with our trial courts that the appellants’ claims could not proceed.”

Gov. John Carney’s office did not respond to a Thursday email seeking comment. Lawyers at the Neuberger Firm, one of the firms representing the pastors, said they were still digesting the ruling.

“We have 90 days to look into that which may be an error in an area not often before our state courts,” Attorney Thomas S. Neuberger said.

What the lawsuits argued

The Rev. Alan Hines, of Townsend Free Will Baptist Church in Townsend, and the Rev. David Landow, of Emmanuel Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Wilmington, filed the lawsuits in late 2021 seeking an injunction against future emergency orders that place restrictions on houses of worship such as those imposed by Carney in 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic spread.

The pastors had sought a declaration that Carney’s emergency orders were illegal, including:

• Prohibiting in-person Sunday religious services
• Preventing indoor preaching.
• Banning singing.
• Barring the elderly from church.
• Prohibiting Baptism.
• Prohibiting the Lord’s Supper.
• Favoring Jewish circumcisions over Christian baptisms.

More: Lawsuits ask that governors’ emergency orders keep their ‘hands off’ houses of worship

The pastors’ lawsuits claimed Carney’s emergency orders early in the pandemic denied them their “absolute religious freedoms.”

Through their lawsuits, the pastors asked Carney and future Delaware governors to keep their “hands off” the church in future emergencies, regardless of any pretense they may offer.

In Carney’s motion to dismiss the case, his attorneys argued the governor is immune from damages for the alleged violations. They also argued for dismissal because the pastors’ violations of rights were “past exposure,” which is “insufficient to demonstrate that there is a current case or controversy entitling them to declaratory relief.”

On Thursday, the state Supreme Court said all the restrictions challenged by the pastors were lifted by June 2020 — more than 18 months before the pastors filed suit in the Chancery Court. That action, seeking injunctive relief against restrictions that no longer were in effect, was dismissed by Vice Chancellor J. Travis Laster after he concluded Chancery Court lacked subject matter jurisdiction.

More: Why a Delaware judge dismissed a lawsuit challenging future COVID-19 restrictions

The Supreme Court then pointed out the pastors transferred the lawsuit to state Superior Court, where Judge Meghan A. Adams also dismissed the action, saying the pastors’ claims for declaratory relief were not capable of being decided by legal principles or by a court of justice. Adams also concluded the governor was immune from being sued for the damages claims.

More: Why a second judge dismissed lawsuits to stop Delaware governor from restricting worship

In a 45-page opinion, the state Supreme Court agreed with both lower courts.

While the case might appear to be done for now, Neuberger’s firm said the state’s highest court made it clear that governors can never issue such orders again and referred to the final page of the opinion where justices wrote:

“Case law that has developed since the Challenged Restrictions were lifted support the view that the restrictions violated Appellants’ rights. Well after the Challenged Restrictions were lifted, the United States Supreme Court issued its opinion in Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn v. Cuomo, in which the Court held that a church and synagogue established that they would likely prevail in proving that occupancy limitations at public places of worship violated the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment. A future governor confronted with a future public-health emergency would have the benefit of that precedent, but it was not available at the time Appellee made the decisions at issue.”

Send tips or story ideas to Esteban Parra at (302) 324-2299 or eparra@delawareonline.com.