Good morning. Again with the winds this morning. We’ll see a high around 63. Rain and more gusts overnight, with a low near 54.
Sports this weekend: The Wizards host Cleveland tonight in NBA Cup action and will host the Dallas Mavericks Saturday in a regular season game. The Washington Spirit kick off their playoff campaign at Audi Field Saturday with a match against Racing Louisville FC. (Here’s our preview of the playoffs.) The Capitals visit Tampa Bay Saturday. The Commanders host Detroit on Sunday.
You can find me on Bluesky, I’m @abeaujon.87 on Signal, and there’s a link to my email address below. This roundup is available as a morning email newsletter. Sign up here.
I can’t stop listening to:
M.D.C., “John Wayne Was a Nazi.” A pick from Washingtonian Today’s hot-concerts consultant John Rickman, who writes in: “Political punk legends M.D.C. were contemporaries of Bad Brains and Teen Idles and just as fierce. And they’re still thrashing away!” (As I drive around Orange County visiting family, I often hum this song when I see signs for the airport.) M.D.C. plays Pie Shop Sunday with Mortal Ground, Rabid City, and Saafewaay.
Take Washingtonian Today with you! I’ve made a playlist on Spotify and on Apple Music of my daily music recommendations this year.
Here’s some administration news you might have blocked out:
Shutshow: The longest government shutdown in US history will bring the American public a weekend full of pain. The Justice Department said the administration of President Trump will appeal a judge’s order yesterday to fully fund the nation’s food stamp program, stoking “fears that the poorest Americans would not receive their full benefits to purchase groceries this month.” (NYT) Airlines are preemptively canceling flights as FAA restrictions kick in at 40 airports—including National Airport, Dulles, and BWI—guaranteeing chaos for travelers as Thanksgiving travel grows ever closer. (Washington Post) The city of Denver offered to pay air traffic controllers itself, a proposal that the FAA would need to approve. (Politico) And the broader economy is looking not so robust: “Layoffs accelerated in October, pushing 2025 job cuts to levels typically seen in recessions.” (Washington Post) Trump touted the lower price of Walmart’s Thanksgiving meal package as proof that his vision for the economy is working—without noting that Walmart’s bundle is smaller than last year’s. (NBC News)
Meanwhile, on Capitol Hill: Democrats in the US Senate seem to be coalescing around the idea that they’d be crazy to fold now that Republicans are reeling from off-year election losses. (Permanent caveat: I write a weekday-morning newsletter for a regional lifestyle magazine and only know what I read in the trades.) A vote planned for today in which GOP leadership dangles “a new funding patch, likely into January, along with full-year funding for veterans programs, food aid and more” is unlikely to pass—progressives are “aghast at the idea of surrendering without a health care deal, especially after Tuesday’s elections.” (Politico) The Election Day thumping is “proof that people like it when Democrats stand up for what they believe in,” US Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut said. (The Atlantic) Republicans have also floated the idea of reversing Trump’s layoffs of federal workers to make a deal. (Politico) US Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland noted that those layoffs are currently being blocked by a court. (Government Executive) Not now, suspected foreign actors: Just when you thought things couldn’t get worse, the Congressional Budget Office g0t hacked. (Washington Post)
Trump’s war on Chicago: US District Judge Sara Ellis said federal immigration authorities lied about supposed threats that occasioned their often-shocking uses of force during an immigration crackdown in Chicago in which people have been “tear-gassed ‘indiscriminately,’ beaten and tackled by agents and struck in the face with pepper-spray balls.” She ordered an immediate curtailment of such actions. Border Patrol honcho Gregory Bovino lied about being hit in the head by a rock before unleashing tear gas on a crowd, prosecutors said. (Chicago Tribune) “Video captured by body-worn cameras recorded one agent [who] mocked the crowd as tear gas was deployed, saying twice, ‘have fun!'” (WTTW) Nonetheless, Bovino led a caravan through the city’s Southwest Side Thursday. (Chicago Sun-Times) They fired pepper balls at a vehicle. (Tribune) ICE alleged that it had no choice but to send armed agents to arrest a daycare teacher in front of her class because, it claimed, she had crossed into the US illegally. (Tribune) Footage from the drunk-driving arrest of an ICE agent who drove into a hedge after leaving an immigration facility in Broadview shows he said, “This doesn’t look good” after being stopped by cops. “He said ‘W’ followed ‘R’ in the alphabet when asked to recite it.” (Sun-Times) Two bishops criticized how federal immigration officials have treated detained people and said Catholics were being denied access to sacraments. (NYT)
Banh’d in DC: A DC jury acquitted Sean Dunn, aka “Sandwich Guy,” of federal misdemeanor assault charges yesterday. (Washingtonian) Dunn’s “acquittal following a two-day trial amounts to a rebuke of President Donald Trump’s immigration and crime crackdown in Washington, as well as another embarrassing legal setback for Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for D.C., whom he appointed.” (HuffPost) Pirro had said Dunn chucked a “sandwich at a federal officer at point-blank range,” which, if you think about how a sandwich, which is not a lethal weapon, works, would mean that he pressed a sub against an officer, which would be weird, but anyway that’s not what happened. (Washington Post) “Both sides want to make an example of Sandwich Guy.” (Lawfare) Dunn said he was grateful for Washingtonians’ support but felt uncomfortable being known as a “hero.” (NBC News)
Administration perambulation: Trump held a spectacularly weird press conference yesterday where he announced a deal to lower the cost of GLP-1s. He gave the wrong website address for a government prescription-drug exchange website named for himself and stared into the camera, motionless, as a pharmaceutical executive fainted nearby. The wire-service photo is one for the ages. (Gizmodo) The US killed three more people in a boat in the Caribbean, claiming they were smuggling drugs to the US. (CNN) The Supreme Court allowed the administration “to enforce a policy blocking transgender and nonbinary people from choosing passport sex markers that align with their gender identity.” (AP) Trump “pardoned the disgraced former Speaker of the Tennessee House, Glen Casada, and one of his co-conspirators after their corruption convictions and sentencing.” (WSMV) Apparently we have a trade deal with Uzbekistan, which exports a lot of gold. (Reuters) FBI Director Kash Patel has a habit of taking private planes on the public dime to see his girlfriend in Nashville. (The Bulwark) Things just keep getting worse at the Heritage Foundation, where the staff is in “open revolt” after its president, Kevin Roberts, defended Tucker Carlson‘s interview of white supremacist Nick Fuentes. (Washington Post) A task force set up to fight antisemitism at the think tank severed ties with Heritage. (NYT) A federal court dismissed a private individual’s lawsuit against pollster Ann Selzer yesterday; Trump has also sued her over a poll. (KCRG) Coast Guard exchanges are selling Trump-branded wine. (Forbes) This Nancy Mace story is very complicated and I suggest you get a cup of coffee first. (NY Post)
Hidden Eats, by Ike Allen:
At Las Hermanas, a little Honduran cafe that opened in the Square food hall this summer, sisters Keren and Nataly Moreno serve lovely coffee-shop staples like croissant bread pudding and matcha lattes. But their soulful Central American cooking is what stands out most on corporate K Street. Try a hearty desayuno típico—a breakfast of eggs, black beans, cheese, chorizo, plantains, and sliced avocado—or for lunch, an order of freshly fried chicken flautas topped with minced cabbage and chimol, a zippier Honduran version of pico de gallo. (1850 K Street, Northwest)
Recently on Washingtonian dot com:
• A lot of our neighbors are going to need help this Thanksgiving. Here are nine ways you can pitch in.
• Aisha Bowe told us how her childhood love of science fiction helped her realize she could do things that seemed impossible—like become is one of the few Black women to go into space.
• It’s Hot List o’clock! From swanky sushi in McLean to a WNY-themed wing joint, these are the ten restaurants our food critics are most excited about right now.
• There are our picks for the best-looking open houses this weekend.
Local news links:
What the actual…: “Federal prosecutors have opened a corruption investigation” into DC Mayor Muriel Bowser, the NYT reported Thursday evening, “examining a foreign trip she took with members of her staff that was paid for by Qatar.” (NYT) But maybe not? A senior administration official says Bowser is not a target. (Axios) It’s possible the Trump administration would like to avoid questions about exchanges of value with Qatar, I guess?
• A bunch of people at JBAB were sickened after a package of white powder was delivered to the base. (CNN)
• Maryland sued the administration over its cancellation of the FBI’s planned move to Greenbelt. (NBC4 Washington)
• Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee claim George Mason University’s president, Gregory Washington, lied to Congress during testimony about DEI policies at the Fairfax school, and the committee “is likely to send a criminal referral about its allegations against Washington to the Justice Department.” (Washington Post)
• A self-driving car from Amazon’s self-driving car company Zoox has been spotted in DC. The Washington Post editorial board might want to go for a ride, I suppose. (PoPville)
• Abby Zwerner was awarded $10 million in her lawsuit against a former assistant principal in Newport News who Zwerner accused of ignoring warnings about a child with a gun who shot Zwerner. (NBC4 Washington)
• A man claiming to be a sheriff’s deputy scammed an Alexandria woman out of thousands of dollars, cops say. (ALXnow)
• Is Janeese Lewis George running for mayor, too? Sure looks like it. (Axios D.C.)
• Cops in Alexandria say a man shot during a robbery last month probably shot himself by mistake. (ALXnow)
• Washington City Paper’s annual “People Issue” is out. (WCP)
• Joe Biden sang “Happy Birthday” to an Arlington student at a Virginia Square restaurant last weekend. (ARLnow)
Weekend event picks:
Friday: Catch the DC band Color Palette at Pie Shop.
Saturday: Iliza Shlesinger will bring the house down at DAR Constitution Hall.
Sunday: It’s your last chance to root, root, root for Arena Stage’s revival of “Damn Yankees.”
See lots more picks for the weekend, including the DC Beer Festival Saturday, from Briana Thomas, who writes our essential Things to Do newsletter.
Andrew Beaujon joined Washingtonian in late 2014. He was previously with the Poynter Institute, TBD.com, and Washington City Paper. He lives in Del Ray.
