Good morning. Sunny and unseasonably warm today, with highs near 58. Skies should stay clear overnight but temps will drop to 32. The Capitals will host the Dallas Stars tonight, and the Wizards are visiting the 76ers in Philly.
You can find me on Bluesky, I’m kmcorliss.19 on Signal, and there’s a link to my email address below. This roundup is available as a morning email newsletter. Sign up here.
A great book on my nightstand:
“Small Game” by Blair Braverman. This fast-paced novel follows a rugged wilderness expert, Mara, as she competes on a survival reality competition show. What Mara anticipates will be a straightforward effort to win some life-changing prize money quickly turns into something much more sinister, thanks to seedy producers and nature’s bottomless bag of tricks.
Here’s some administration news you might have blocked out:
The latest on Venezuela: President Trump announced on social media last night that Venezuela’s interim government will turn over 30 to 50 million barrels of oil to the US, which he wrote will be sold at market price “and that money will be controlled by me, as President of the United States of America, to ensure it is used to benefit the people of Venezuela and the United States!” (CNBC) American oil executives—including representatives from ConocoPhillips, Exxon Mobil, and Chevron, which is the only US oil company operating in Venezuela—will meet with the president at the White House on Friday to discuss potentially billions of dollars’ worth of investments in Venezuela’s oil sector. (WSJ) Russia has dispatched naval assets to escort an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela that the US Coast Guard has been pursuing for weeks now. “Although the ship is empty, the U.S. Coast Guard has pursued it into the Atlantic in a bid to crack down on a fleet of tankers that ferry illicit oil around the world, including black-market oil sold by Russia.” (WBJ)
Manifest perplexity: Secretary of State Marco Rubio reportedly told lawmakers during a closed briefing Monday that the Trump administration is aiming to buy Greenland from our NATO ally Denmark. But White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt did not rule out a forceful occupation of the island, saying that officials are “discussing a range of options to pursue this important foreign policy goal, and of course, utilizing the U.S. military is always an option at the commander in chief’s disposal.” (WSJ) Well, for his part, Senate Majority Leader John Thune says he doesn’t “see military action being an option there.” (The Hill) Democratic senator Ruben Gallego of Arizona plans to force a vote on a war powers resolution concerning Greenland, which would allow Congress to check the president’s ability to utilize the military if passed. (Politico)
GOPlease: Trump told House Republicans at a policy retreat yesterday that they’d better win the midterms or else “I’ll get impeached.” (NBC News) He urged them to be “flexible” on the Hyde Amendment, a longstanding policy that prohibits federal spending on abortion services, as they negotiate a deal to cut health insurance costs. (Axios) A number of conservative lawmakers and anti-abortion interest groups did not appreciate that advice. (Politico) The pressure is on as Congress mourns 65-year-old Representative Doug LaMalfa of California, whose death narrows Republicans’ majority in the House to 218-213 with four vacancies. (NYT)
January 6, five years and one day later: Trump might have pardoned the man accused of planting pipe bombs outside the DNC and RNC headquarters on January 5, 2021—which is awkward, because the Justice Department recently urged a judge to keep him in custody before his trial. (Politico) A new panel led by House Republicans, set to investigate the “security failures” of January 6, which include the pipe bomb incident, will meet for the first time next week. (Politico) The White House launched a website yesterday titled “January 6: A Date Which Will Live in Infamy.” It accuses Democrats of “[staging] the real insurrection by certifying a fraud-ridden election,” says a Capitol Police officer “murdered” Ashli Babbitt “in cold blood,” and calls Mike Pence‘s certification of the 2020 election results an “act of cowardice and sabotage.” (Axios)
Administration perambulation: A federal judge has ordered Lindsey Halligan, the MAGA prosecutor who a judge previously concluded had been illegally appointed by Trump as the US attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, to explain “why she has continued to serve in the job, despite a ruling disqualifying her from performing it.” (NYT) The administration has frozen $10 billion in child care funding for five states pending a “thorough review” into “the potential for” systemic fraud. (Axios) Wyoming’s Supreme Court struck down what would have been the nation’s first explicit ban on abortion pills yesterday. (AP) Infamous CIA turncoat Aldrich Ames has died in prison at the age of 84. (NYT) Trump says the First Lady finds his dancing “unpresidential.” (USA Today)
Recently on Washingtonian dot com:
• A Virginia man with a troubled past went missing in April of last year. Was he suffering from AI psychosis?
• Our food team dishes on what they’re most looking forward to at DC-area restaurants this year—and which trends they’d like to leave in 2025.
• A new DC wine shop is selling this bougie bottle for HOW MUCH?
• Check out this lovely hydrangea-adorned Hay-Adams wedding.
Local news links:
• Trent Holbrook, senior legal counsel for Eleanor Holmes Norton, is running for the congressional delegate’s seat. (Washington Post)
• Grammy Award-winning banjo player Béla Fleck has backed out of three concerts planned at the Kennedy Center, saying performances at the venue have “become charged and political, at an institution where the focus should be on the music.” (NYT)
• Ubiquitous local coffee purveyor Compass Coffee filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy yesterday, amid ongoing lawsuits and dwindling sales at formerly lucrative downtown locations. According to co-founder and chief executive Michael Haft, the company plans to close 11 of its 26 cafes and “emerge from bankruptcy without those 11 properties unless the company can renegotiate leases for the spaces.” (Washington Post)
• The Discovery space shuttle will remain at the Udvar-Hazy Center’s Air and Space Museum in Chatilly, at least for now. (Fox 5 DC)
• A proposed bill in Virginia would allow Commonwealth lawmakers to review any federal deployment of the state’s National Guard. (WTOP)
• Miami real-estate developer Atlantic Pacific Cos. will spearhead a $140 million mixed-use project at the Capitol Heights Metro station. The plan includes 320 affordable housing units and 10,000 square feet of street-level retail. (Washington Business Journal)
• A father and son from Prince William County won $1.6 million on NBC game show The Wall. (Northern Virginia Magazine)
• Two baby sloths were born at the National Zoo last month, marking the zoo’s first sloth bear births since 2013. A warning based on personal experience: The photo in this article might make you cry hysterically. (Smithsonian Magazine)
