Good morning. Happy Veterans Day, and if you serve, have served, or are family to someone who has served our country, thank you. Cold and breezy today with a high around just 46. A low near 34 overnight. The Capitals are at Carolina this evening. You can find me on Bluesky, I’m @abeaujon.87 on Signal, and there’s a link to my email address below.
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I can’t stop listening to:
Flock of Dimes, “Keep Me in the Dark.” Gosh, this is a swell tune from Wye Oak guitarist Jenn Wasner’s third solo album. Flock of Dimes plays the Atlantis tonight with Natalie Jane Hill.
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 US Senate passed a measure last night that could end the 42-day-long government shutdown. Seven Democrats and one independent joined Republicans to put the deal over the finish line. One GOP senator, Rand Paul of Kentucky, voted no. President Trump is likely to sign the bill once it gets through the House of Representatives, which will return to work tomorrow. (Washington Post) Even with Trump’s support, it’ll be a big lift to muscle any deal through the House. (Punchbowl News) US Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia, a key breakaway vote, insisted on a “moratorium on mischief”—Trump’s RIFs and cuts—as the price of his vote. (Politico) At least in the short term, Trump’s unprecedented pressure tactics, which included cutting food aid to SNAP recipients, worked. (NYT) Most Democrats are fuming over the deal, which does not include their stated goal of extending Obamacare subsidies. Some called for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer‘s ouster. (NBC News) Schumer talked moderates in the Senate out of a previous deal to reopen the government in September. (Axios) Democrats who thought Republicans might at least consider extending the subsidies will find that their GOP colleagues are “now feeling like they have the blessing of President Donald Trump to pursue alternative solutions to spiking insurance premiums.” (Politico) Trump threatened air traffic controllers who “did nothing but complain” about being forced to work without pay for more than a month and said SNAP benefits shouldn’t go to “able-bodied people.” (NBC News) The deal the Senate passed would allow senators to sue the government over phone searches conducted during the US investigation into the deadly January 6, 2021, riot at the US Capitol by Trump supporters. (NYT)
The war on Chicago: Federal agents, led by Border Patrol honcho Gregory Bovino, gathered at Chicago’s famous “Bean” statue for a photo op in the snow yesterday. They shouted “Little Village”—the neighborhood they tear-gassed repeatedly—instead of “Cheese.” (Block Club Chicago) Trump’s immigration crackdown in the city appears to be winding down. (Chicago Tribune)
Pardoner’s world: Trump quietly pardoned Robert Harshbarger Jr., the husband of a congressional ally, last week. (NYT) Another of the January 6 rioters Trump pardoned faces new criminal charges: John Banuelos, who allegedly fired a gun during the attack on the Capitol, was charged with sexually assaulting and kidnapping a woman in Utah. (CBS News) Jonathan Braun, whose sentence Trump commuted at the end of his first term, was sentenced to more than two years in prison Monday after a judge found he had violated the terms of his release via what prosecutors said were violent acts and usury. (NYT)
Administration perambulation: Trump asked the Supreme Court to dismiss his guilty verdict in a civil case brought by E. Jean Carroll. A jury found Trump sexually abused her in the 1990s, and an appeals court upheld the verdict. (AP) The Supreme Court declined to hear a case that could have overturned the 2015 Obergefell ruling that legalized same-sex marriage in the US. (AP) White House staffers are said to be livid at Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte for giving Trump the idea of promoting 50-year mortgages via a graphic that compared him to FDR. (Politico) Related: Don’t spend your $2,000 tariff refund check just yet. (Washington Post) Jason Reding Quiñones, the US Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, who’s investigating what Trump considers to be a conspiracy that should lead to the arrest of former President Obama and others, called a meeting of his division after two prosecutors resigned following subpoenas being issued in a non-standard way. (MSNBC) Here’s a headline for the 2025 time capsule: “USDA official who roiled Capitol Hill with his erotica now one of Rollins’ closest advisers.” (Politico) Plot twist: Theranos fraudster Elizabeth Holmes is becoming a MAHA hero. (Politico Magazine)
How to get “Wicked,” by Daniella Byck
I’m desperately hungry for the next movie monoculture moment, something like “Barbie” fever (and the oxymoron of “Barbenheimer“) in summer 2023. The “Wicked” movies, with their strange and ubiquitous press tour, offer some satisfaction. “Wicked: For Good,” the second half of the Broadway show turned movie musical, opens later this month, but there’s plenty to do in anticipation. Capitol Hill shop Relume will hold a bag charm session with pink and green accoutrements on November 12. Barrel House on 14th Street will host a few events, from a brunch with cabaret singers on November 15 to themed trivia on November 18. Once you’ve had a chance to see the movie, head to Shipgarten in McLean for a kid-friendly festival with magic shows, face painting, and a live performance.
There are also special screenings. On November 20, Regal locations around DC, Maryland, and Virginia will show “Wicked” double features at 11 AM. Hold space to hunker down in Oz for two hours and 57 minutes of screen time. Alamo Drafthouse theaters in DC and Crystal City have a few seats left in the front rows of interactive screenings on November 22. (The front rows recline further back than the rest of the theater, so this is more comfortable than you might assume.) Come in costume for a competition.
Recently on Washingtonian dot com:
• Find out why Silver Spring’s El Viejo Central American Kitchen is one of the “least pretentious and most affordable restaurants” our roving eater Ike Allen has visited lately.
• Former Bon Appétit editor Elazar Sontag is the Washington Post’s new food critic—and he won’t be anonymous.
• A brief history of how previous shutdowns have ended.
Local news links:
• One of Dulles’s “people movers” hit a dock yesterday afternoon, injuring more than a dozen people. (Washington Post) Flashback: Why do we still have these things? (Washingtonian)
• Ibraheem Samirah, the former Virginia delegate who famously interrupted a Trump speech in 2019, was convicted of fraud in the matter of a PPP loan he took in 2020 for his dental practice. (Washington Post) Flashback: I profiled Samirah after the 2019 incident. (Washingtonian)
• There was snow in Western Maryland overnight. (DC News Now)
• Montgomery County rushed a change to its ban on gas-powered leaf blowers, removing, over concerns about Trump’s immigration crackdown, a requirement that photographic evidence be submitted by the type of person who submits photographic evidence of someone using a leaf blower. (WUSA9)
• A Maryland task force recommended that state legislators move ahead with steps to decriminalize natural psychedelics like psilocybin and DMT. (Maryland Matters)
• A 12-year-old girl was arrested and charged with two robberies that took place last month. (Washington Post)
• Arlington prosecutor Parisa Dehghani-Tafti is clashing with outgoing Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares over a cell-phone search warrant in the matter of local activist Barbara Wien, who is accused of harassing Trump adviser Stephen Miller and his family. (ARLnow)
• Police in Prince George’s County say DNA evidence shows Edward Watts, who died in 2019, raped and murdered Sherry Crandell in 1998. (WTOP)
• DC Attorney General Brian Schwalb got a $41 million judgment against the owners of Langston Views, the troubled apartment complex that used to be known as Marbury Plaza. (The Washington Informer)
• Carr properties bought a vacant office building on Virginia Avenue that it plans to turn into multi-family housing. (WBJ)
• Is it too much to ask that rats stay out of my trunk? (PoPville)
Tuesday’s event picks:
• See military bands perform at the Memorial Amphitheater at Arlington National Cemetery
• Playboi Carti performs at Capitol One Arena.
• Watch veterans lay wreaths at the Freedom Wall at the WWII Memorial.
See more picks from Briana Thomas, who writes our 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.
