Good morning. Another very cold, very windy day awaits you, with a high around 21 that the wind will knock down to values as low as -2. A low near 7 overnight that, again with the wind, will feel as col as -5. Here’s WTOP’s list of closings and delays as the region continues to dig out from last weekend’s storm.
Sports this weekend: The Wizards host the Lakers Friday and Sacramento on Sunday. The Capitals host Carolina on Saturday.
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:
Stacey Pullen, “Side2Step.” A recommendation from Washingtonian Today’s music consultant John Rickman, who writes in: “Detroit house and techno heads take note: The legendary Motor City DJ and producer Stacey Pullen mans the decks at Flash Saturday.”
Take Washingtonian Today with you! I’ve made a playlist on Spotify and on Apple Music of last year’s music recommendations. I’ll make one for 2026 soon.
Here’s some administration news you might have blocked out:
Shut it down: Many businesses will close around the country as Americans protest ICE and President Trump‘s immigration crackdown. (WUSA9) They may not be the only entities to close: The US government will run out of money at midnight tonight if Congress can’t pass a spending deal. A plan backed by Trump and Senate Democrats who want reforms to ICE before they vote to fund the Department of Homeland Security hit a wall last night. (Politico) US Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina “emerged as the primary obstacle” to a deal, objecting to provision in the spending deal that the House backed that would undo a law that would allow senators to sue about their phone records being seized during Jack Smith‘s investigation of Trump’s election interference. (Punchbowl News) And then the measure will have to get through the House somehow. (Punchbowl News)
Reeling Minnesota: Trump’s border czar Tom Homan said the administration is working on easing Trump’s crackdown in Minnesota. (Washington Post) Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said she was “using the best information we had at the time” when she incorrectly called Alex Pretti, the protester two federal agents killed Sunday, a “domestic terrorist”—in Trump world, this is almost an apology. (Politico) Minnesota Governor Tim Walz said Trump in a phone call compared his operation in Minnesota to his operation to remove Nicolás Maduro from power in Venezuela. (MS Now)
Meanwhile: ICE on Thursday seized two more children from the same elementary school as five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos. (MPR News) The feds charged Anthony Kazmierczak with assault after authorities say he sprayed US Representative Ilhan Omar with liquid at a town hall in Minneapolis. Trump has suggested Omar “probably had herself sprayed.” (AP) ICE has begun to purchase warehouses it plans to turn into jails, including one in Hagerstown. (Bloomberg) A Border Patrol employee was charged with DUI in St. Paul yesterday after he was found “passed out in a car Tuesday morning ‘covered in vomit.'” (Sahan Journal)
Money minute: Trump is expected, by people who expect things like this, to name Kevin Warsh as the next Federal Reserve chair. Warsh was one of the available Kevins. (NYT) Trump sued the Treasury and the IRS for $10 billion over the leak by a contractor of his tax returns. Wonder if they’ll settle! (NBC News)
Administration perambulation: Administration officials met with separatists from Alberta, prompting Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney to say he expected the US to “respect Canadian sovereignty.” (CBC) Trump floated a 50% tariff on Canadian aircraft, his latest threat to our largest trading partner after Carney dared to push back on Trump’s so-far ill-fated plan to buy Greenland. (AP) Trump posted a bunch of nonsense about the 2020 election. (ABC News) US Attorney General Pam Bondi placed St. Louis prosecutor Thomas Albus in charge of Trump’s “investigation” of the 2020 election in Fulton County, Georgia. (Bloomberg Law) Photos from the step-and-repeat at last night’s Kennedy Center premiere of the Amazon-funded documentary “Melania.” (NYT)
Correction: In yesterday’s newsletter I mischaracterized a link by saying the Supreme Court would “hear Trump’s appeal of the verdict in E. Jean Carroll case next month.” That wasn’t an accurate summary, as a reader was kind enough to point out. Here’s a better explanation, which is to say, not one I wrote!
One snazzy open house this weekend:
This newly built six bedroom/six bathroom estate in Clarksville sits on nearly three acres dotted with fruit trees. It boasts vaulted ceilings, a 72-square-foot kitchen island, and a four-car garage. It’s listed at $3.5 million, and you can see it Sunday. Read about our other picks for open houses this weekend.
Recently on Washingtonian dot com:
• Your cultural diary for February includes Klaus Mäkelä and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at Strathmore, “Stereophonic” at the National Theatre, and Nine Inch Nails at Capital One.
• Eebee’s, a dive-y bar in Shaw, has become DC’s hottest drinking hole.
• DC photographer Jared Soares talks about his work ending up in the National Portrait Gallery.
• The feds say a former DOJ contractor stole and resold thousands of cell phones.
• A new exhibit of portraits is part of an effort to create a museum at the Watergate.
• This winter wedding featured a late-night ramen wall.
Local news links:
• No sewage from a burst pipeline spilled into the Potomac yesterday for the first time since January 19. (WUSA9)
• On the stand yesterday, Brendan Banfield claimed prosecutors have it all wrong and that he didn’t murder his wife. (AP)
• Police say that a man found dead in a bush in Cathedral Heights may have cut his neck while trying to break into a house. (NBC4 Washington)
• Fire crews freed a Lab named Shelby from an “icy embankment” in Dumfries. (WUSA9)
• There’s more to the story of the “bat-wielding tenant.” (WCP)
• Where will DC put snow after RFK is rebuilt? (WUSA9)
Weekend event picks:
Friday: Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater opens a nine-day residency at the Warner Theatre.
Saturday: Ramy Youssef is at the Lincoln Theatre.
Sunday: Start Black History Month with a matinee screening of the documentary “We Were Here–The Untold History of Black Africans in Renaissance Europe” at the Folger Shakespeare Library.
See lots more picks for the weekend from Briana Thomas, who writes our great 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.
