Good morning. Rain this morning yields to windy weather and a high around 73. A low of 49 overnight as cooler weather approaches.🚦Fleece vest traffic control system🚦: (A new fall feature on Washingtonian Today where our proprietary algorithm issues a green, yellow, or red light to your hopes to wear a fleece vest) Today is a 🔴 day. It’s too muggy this morning. Drier air is on its way, though, and tomorrow is looking like classic vest weather. The Capitals open their regular season tonight with a home game against Boston. 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:
Protect-U, “Lunar Note.” There are so many wonderful acts playing this week’s Speaking in Tongues festival, which culminates Saturday with a reunion show by organizers Black Eyes. Tonight’s show at Rhizome kicks things off with sets by Sensor Ghost, Luke Stewart, and erstwhile Washingtonian Aaron Leitko, one half of beloved local duo Protect-U.
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:
Shoot the hostages: The White House floated an innovative interpretation of the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act of 2019, a bill President Trump signed during his first term that guarantees federal workers will receive back pay after government shutdowns like the 35-day-long one he caused (also, it achieved nothing). A close reading of the law, the administration claims, “means money for those workers needs to be specifically appropriated by Congress.” Legal experts were not especially swayed. (Axios) Trump went on to claim that he could determine which workers will receive back pay, saying “There are some people that really don’t deserve to be taken care of.” Others in the GOP, however, “suggested the back pay issue was settled law.” (Government Executive) In a statement, American Federation of Government Employees National President Everett Kelley called the argument “frivolous” and sent along a copy of guidance OPM issued last month to federal employees, which reads, “After the lapse in appropriations has ended, employees who were required to perform excepted work during the lapse will receive retroactive pay for those work periods.”
Thank you for your attention to this matter: Troops—including the National Guard soldiers Trump has sent to multiple US cities—will miss a paycheck if this shutdown goes past October 15. (Punchbowl News) A “wide range of budget experts, legal scholars and union officials” say the mass layoffs Trump has also threatened unless Democrats accede to GOP demands to reopen the government without making concessions on Obamacare subsidies are “clearly unlawful.” (NYT) FWIW, Trump hasn’t followed through on his shutdown threats. (Washington Post)
Tactical magic: Trump’s avant-garde negotiation techniques are becoming a headache for Congressional Republicans (and unfortunately, the President recently went after Tylenol, too), suggesting “the White House and Hill Republicans have been crosswise on strategy and seemingly not communicating in advance about their key moves.” (Politico) Democrats and Republicans in Congress said feds should get paid. (Axios) Lawmakers are wary of appearing “gleeful about people losing their jobs,” one Republican said. (CNN) Pain from the shutdown is beginning to appear in everyday life: Air travel in major US cities, and also in Philadelphia, was disrupted yesterday. (NBC News) The White House said yesterday it would use money from tariffs to keep the WIC program running. (Axios) With regard to healthcare subsidies, US Senator Roger Marshall of Kansas “conceded that winning the public relations battle over the issue was ‘very challenging.'” (The Hill) US Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, Republican of Georgia, said “my party has no solution” to healthcare woes. House Speaker Mike Johnson replied that Greene isn’t on any relevant committees. (NBC News) Meanwhile, the US Senate confirmed Herschel Walker as the US’s new ambassador to the Bahamas, one of more than 100 nominations the GOP muscled through yesterday. (Fox News)
Illinois becomes central: Guard troops from Texas are now outside Chicago. (ABC News) Illinois Governor JB Pritzker said Trump is “suffering dementia” and “unfortunately, he has the power of the military, the power of the federal government to do his bidding.” (Chicago Tribune) Pritzker also said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth blew off Illinois officials over the weekend to help set a pushups record. (Chicago Sun-Times) Clergy members and religious leaders have been increasingly present at protests in Chicago. Several say they’ve been hit by pepper balls. (Religion News Service)
Department of Justice Department: Attorney General Pam Bondi faced questions from US senators yesterday, where she asked Senator Adam Schiff, whom Trump has called on her to prosecute, whether he would “apologize to Donald Trump for trying to impeach him?” (Politico) The FBI shuttered a corruption task force, saying it “weaponized law enforcement against the American people.” (Axios) Trump did, however, ask FBI employees to “immediately search their workstations and digital media for any records pertaining to the disappearance of Amelia Earhart,” a recent fixation of his. (CNN) Former FBI Director James Comey will make his first court appearance today in Virginia, in what appears to be an “exceptionally weak” case DOJ filed against him at Trump’s behest. (Playbook)
Administration perambulation: “Starving children screaming for food as US aid cuts unleash devastation and death across Myanmar” is a gulp-inducing headline, and the reporting in this story backs it up. (AP) The White House has “has quietly ended support for a program that helped poor people access federal disability benefits — and prevented homelessness.” (Axios) Neil Jacobs, just confirmed by the Senate to be the head of NOAA, had a role in the very weird Sharpiegate scandal of Trump’s first term. (NBC News) Pope Leo instructed bishops in the US to “firmly address how immigrants are being treated by President Donald Trump’s hardline policies.” (Reuters) US Senator Ted Cruz of Texas hopes the Jimmy Kimmel affair will win support for his legislation “that would codify protections against government-driven censorship.” (WSJ)
Recently on Washingtonian dot com:
• A 130-year-old firehouse is for sale in Truxton Circle, but the pole doesn’t convey.
• Tom Sietsema announced yesterday that he’d step down as the Washington Post’s food critic.
Local news links:
Virginia election: The Republican Governors Association will spend an additional $1.5 million to bolster the election hopes of Virginia Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earle-Sears, who faces daunting polls. (Politico) Earle-Sears’s financial disclosures show a “pattern of omissions and inconsistencies” including an odd $12,000 gift from a a pro-Trump group and travel paid for by others that appears to be accounted for late if at all. (Virginia Mercury) Meanwhile, Democratic attorney general candidate Jay Jones canceled a fundraiser planned for tomorrow as controversy about text messages he sent in 2022 continues. (Axios)
• DCPS placed a teacher aide on leave while it investigates a report that the aide put hot sauce in the mouth of an autistic boy as a punishment. (Washington Post)
• Fairfax County moved the deadline for car-tax payments to help relieve financial strain on federal workers. (WTOP)
• The Republic of Ireland has moved its embassy to 17th Street, across from the White House. It hopes to sell its old embassy on Massachusetts Avenue and a townhouse next door. (WBJ)
• Three people were shot and killed in the District over the weekend, “an uptick in killings after weeks of substantial decline.” (Washington Post)
• Is Jack Evans…running? (Martin Austermuhle/X)
• The flagship South Arlington Goodwill will close later this month. It will reopen after its current building is torn down and rebuilt as a mixed-use development with 128 affordable homes. (NBC4 Washington)
• The Maryland Renaissance Festival is going after ticket scalpers, who it says doth charge lordes and ladies much coin of the realm to enter ye olde kingdom. (Fox 5 DC)
Wednesday’s event picks:
• Chris Brown brings “Breezy Bowl XX” to Nationals Park.
• “Fremont Ave.” opens at Arena Stage.
• Cory Doctorow discusses “Enshittification” at Politics and Prose at the Wharf.
See more picks from Briana Thomas, who writes our Things to Do newsletter.
We’re seeking nominations for our 500 Most Influential People list. Get ‘em to us by December 5!
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.
