Good morning. Mostly sunny with a high around 89 today. A low near 72 overnight. The Nationals host Colorado again this evening.
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I can’t stop listening to:
Dolly Parton,“My Tennessee Mountain Home.” One of the best from one of the best. RIP, Dolly.
Take Washingtonian Today with you! I keep ridiculously long playlists on Apple Music and on Spotify of this year’s music recommendations. Here are 2025’s songs (Apple, Spotify), too.
Here’s some administration news you might have blocked out:
Line of duties: Canada released its list of US-made products on which it will impose retaliatory tariffs, some targeted at red states, as a once-improbable trade war spurred by a dispute with President Trump‘s administration heated up. (NYT) Affected products include seafood, motorcycles, and toilet paper. (AP) A Canadian official said the government hopes to protect its industries rather than raise revenue. (Politico) A short profile of Doug Ford, the Ontario premier who’s become a Trump antagonist and an unlikely ally to Prime Minister Mark Carney. (WSJ) For his part, Trump claimed he would consider renaming Lake Ontario as “Lake America.” So things are clearly going well. (CBC)
Mail bonding: A federal judge in Massachusetts barred the US Postal Service from implementing an administration rule that would make big changes to mail-in voting. (Axios) Trump’s efforts to limit mail-in voting haven’t been terribly successful so far. (Washington Post) But! The confusing saga has “bolstered his longstanding efforts to seed doubt about the voting process” and “will likely alarm and confuse the public” ahead of this fall’s midterms. (NYT)
Quite a Reach? The administration’s lawyers argued that the Kennedy Center might need to be demolished if Trump’s plans to close it for two-year renovations get blocked. (NYT) The administration portrays the center as failing and decrepit before Trump took it over, but in fact its financial health plummeted after its board voted to slap his name on the building, repelling audiences and donations. (Washington Post)
Administration peramulation: Two people, both unvaccinated, died of measles in Pennsylvania. In the US, “More cases have been recorded in the past year and a half than there have been in the last 25 years combined.” (Politico) The US Secret Service said it was aware of a video broadcast on Iranian state television that “discussed a potential plot to assassinate Barron Trump.” (Reuters) Three officials in the Secret Service’s communications office, including spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi, are being investigated for unspecified allegations of misconduct. (CNN) CIA Director John Ratcliffe made a surprise visit to Moscow Tuesday. It’s not clear what was discussed or why he went. (Washington Post) Senior military officials urged Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth not to cut a Pentagon office that focused on reducing harm to civilians. He did it anyway. (ProPublica) The State Department paused visa appointments worldwide for what it said is a training effort. (Reuters) Deloitte will pay $21.5 million to settle a federal claim about its DEI efforts. (Business Insider)
Recently on Washingtonian dot com:
• Last week, an arbitrator ordered the Washington Post to rehire opinion columnist Karen Attiah. The Post has more or less stayed mum ever since.
• Fourteen restaurant openings this fall that have our critics abuzz.
• DC teen Alexander Jacoby is making a big name for himself in international endurance racing.
• Sweetgreen has opened a drive-thru window at a McLean location.
• This wedding in Middleburg featured an epic dance floor, signature cocktails—and a llama that helped set the scene.
Local news links:
• US Capitol Police arrested a man who parked his pickup with a guillotine in its bed near the Capitol yesterday. (NBC News)
• A group called the Legal Accountability Center has filed bar complaints in New York and Virginia against US Attorney for DC Jeanine Pirro and two other lawyers in her office over their failed indictments against Democratic lawmakers. (AP)
• If the National Guard troops Trump has sent to mill about in DC are in fact lowering crime, then why are their efforts so difficult to spot in crime data? (WAMU)
• A woman in North Bethesda who “pranked” her husband by claiming a man had broken in and sent him an AI-generated image of a stranger on their couch agreed to donate $1,000 to the Montgomery County police after her alarmed spouse called 911. (DC News Now)
• Did you see a “space jellyfish” in the sky yesterday morning? Unless you were on mushrooms (no judgment, life can be tough), it was probably a SpaceX launch heading skyward from Cape Canaveral. (Capital Weather)
Wednesday’s event picks:
• Take a sound bath at the National Arboretum.
• Learn to spot birds at Oxon Run Park.
• Enjoy some time away from your phone at this social experience.
See more picks for this week and weekend 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.
