Good morning. It’s Bike to Work Day. Scattered showers with thunderstorms possible after 5 PM today. The high temperature will be around 80. More rain chances overnight, with a low around 66. The Capitals will face Carolina tonight in Game 5 of this Stanley Cup playoff series. They’re behind three games to one and desperately need to come up with an answer to the Hurricanes. 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:
MJ Lenderman, “Wristwatch.” Few releases last year prompted the excitement I’ve seen around Lenderman’s album “Manning Fireworks.” This tune may explain why. MJ Lenderman & the Wind will play 9:30 tonight and tomorrow with This Is Lorelei (which is not the DC indie band Lorelei).
Here’s some administration news you might have blocked out:
Fresh health: Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told Congress, “I don’t think people should be taking medical advice from me.” (NBC News) US Senator Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland asked Kennedy about the Safe to Sleep program, the SIDS prevention program Kennedy’s agency stopped participating in. When she asked him which office leads the campaign, he guessed incorrectly several times. It’s the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. (USA Today) Ben Cohen, the co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s, was arrested while protesting the hearing. (Axios) There were 300,000 fewer deaths from drug overdoses last year than the year before. The administration has cut federal programs that fought the drug crisis. (NYT)
Intel inside: Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has moved production of the Presidential Daily Brief to ODNI from CIA. Some CIA personnel who work on the briefing “were looking for new assignments to avoid moving to Ms. Gabbard’s office,” sources told the New York Times. (NYT) Gabbard’s purge of top officials at the National Intelligence Council followed the release of a report that contradicted President Trump‘s claims about gang membership among Venezuelan nationals without due process. (Washington Post) “It’s clearly a signal to tell analysts throughout the intelligence community,” former CIA director John Brennan said. (NBC News)
Immigration: A federal judge ordered the release of Georgetown University scholar Badar Khan Suri. (Politico) “What’s happening is not American,” Suri told supporters outside Dulles after he was freed. (Washington Post) Meanwhile, the administration announced it would pursue smuggling charges against Kseniia Petrova, a researcher at Harvard it detained three months ago. Her case “has no apparent basis in any political activism.” (NYT) The US Supreme Court will consider the administration’s campaign against birthright citizenship today, which is based on an unusual and once obscure theory of constitutional law. (NYT) The factors that led to Trump’s embrace of white South Africans. (NYT) Charl Kleinhaus, one of the South Africans the administration admitted as refugees to the US, has a history of antisemitic social media posts. (The Bulwark)
Meanwhile: The administration appears to have made some kind of a deal with El Chapo‘s son Ovidio Guzman Lopez. (AP) Griselda López Pérez, Chapo’s ex-wife, was among the family members who entered the US. (Fox News)
Administration perambulation: US Attorney General Pam Bondi sold more than $1 million in Trump Media shares before the President unveiled his “Liberation Day” tariffs. (ProPublica) Paul Ingrassia, Rachel Cauley, and Kingsley Wilson are among the Trump officials NPR reports have “close ties to antisemitic extremists.” (NPR) Trump blinked on tariffs because aides warned him they’d hurt his voters. (Washington Post) A Trump family luxury development in Serbia is on ice after an official admitted he’d forged a document key to the project. (NYT) After layoffs and voluntary separations thinned their ranks, Social Security employees were asked to work harder by the administration. (HuffPost) Jamie Mannina, a former FBI agent, sued James O’Keefe, saying the right-wing provocateur deceptively edited footage of a “sting” operation in which an undercover O’Keefe associate recorded Mannina criticizing Trump. (AP) O’Keefe says the suit is an “attack against the First Amendment.” (O’Keefe Media Group) In a rare instance of this newsletter author’s personal interests intersecting with his work duties, Julie Robbins, the CEO of the completely awesome guitar pedal company Earthquaker Devices, testified before Congress about the impact of tariffs on her business. (Reddit, Ed Markey)
Hidden Eats, by Ike Allen
The casual Dominican lunch counter, with a steam table full of rice, beans, plantains, and stewed meats, is a staple in the New York area. But Punta Cana Tropical Grill, which opened in December on a noisy stretch of Georgia Avenue near the Beltway, is one of very few in the DMV. Its modern beach-y decor and the phrase “create-your-own bowls” make the place feel a bit like a sleek fast-casual chain. Of course, there is mofongo—a made-to-order pile of fried plantain mash topped with shrimp, chicken, or maduros (sweet plantains)—but also mofonguitos, the same mash formed into cupcake-sized shells that hold meaty fillings. The best thing on offer here may be Punta Cana’s chicharron, small chunks of pork belly fried into crystalline shells and topped with a squeeze of lime. You can try it alongside tostones (flattened fried plantains) or rice. But on a recent visit, one diner told me she’s made a habit of taking the leftover pork home and serving it with steamed sweet potatoes. Good idea! (9324 Georgia Ave., Silver Spring)
An excellent way to help your neighbors, by Eric Wills
On any given day, a Silver Spring nonprofit called A Wider Circle welcomes ten or 15 area families to its furniture warehouse, where those in need can pick out free dressers, beds, mattresses, and other essentials for their home. Last week, the organization went a step further, organizing its second annual Home Reimagined event. Area architects, builders, interior decorators, and other members of the design community volunteered to furnish and decorate a home for a family in need.
The designers met with their clients (who had applied to be a part of the program), assessed their needs, and then sketched out designs using furniture and other furnishings almost entirely supplied by a Wider Circle. Last Thursday was installation day, when the furniture was delivered and the volunteers assembled and unveiled their designs. In total, they overhauled about 35 homes in the greater DC region.
“It’s very important to get people under a roof, but a lot of times that’s where the thought stops,” says Lara Gagrica, the program’s director. The cost of furniture and other home furnishings can add up. And by making sure children have access to a bed, say, a Wider Circle can help foster a ”sense of stability and belonging,” Gagrica says.
Catherine Fowlkes, one of the principals of the DC architecture firm Fowlkes Studio, has long volunteered with her family at the organization and participated in the Home Reimagined event this year. She designed an apartment in Northeast DC for a mother and her two boys. “It’s so wonderful,” she says of the program, “but there’s also pressure, because you’re like, Oh my gosh, I want these kids to feel so special.”
Gagrica hopes to build on the momentum of this year’s event and remodel about 50 homes next year. For more information about how to donate items, click here.
Recently on Washingtonian dot com:
• “Deep private” listings. Safe rooms. NDAs. Inside the secret world of ultra-luxe real estate in the DC area.
• Seven ways to refresh your outdoor space.
• Area restaurants are on edge after an immigration crackdown.
• Five new galleries will open at Air & Space in July.
Local news links:
Ed hunting: Former interim US Attorney for DC Ed Martin said the DC Office of Disciplinary Counsel was investigating him over an ethics complaint. (Reuters) Martin, who will head DOJ’s “Weaponization Working Group” after Republicans balked at his nomination for the permanent job, asked a DC judge to discipline Hamilton “Phil” Fox, the attorney investigating the complaint. (NBC News) In an interview with former DC resident Tucker Carlson, Martin claimed that 650,000 of DC’s residents live in poverty. That number, if true, would represent 90 percent of the District’s population. (Martin Austermuhle) Martin’s replacement as interim US Attorney for DC, Fox News host Jeanine Pirro, started yesterday. Her appointment as interim US Attorney for DC may not be legal, and if it’s successfully challenged, “any criminal convictions her office wins during her tenure might be thrown out.” (Washington Post)
• Authorities in Virginia said they found the body of a 12-year-old boy who was swept away by floodwaters Tuesday. (Washington Post)
• A hotline between National Airport and the Defense Department hasn’t worked since the month when Will Smith slapped Chris Rock. (Washington Post)
• Maryland’s credit rating has gone down; Moody’s, which also recently downgraded DC’s rating, says the state is at great risk due to federal cuts. (Maryland Matters) Maryland officials called the move a “Trump downgrade.” (Washington Post)
• A giant banner showing Trump’s face went up at the USDA. (Washingtonian Problems)
• A giant “trans quilt” will go on display on the Mall on May 17. (WCP)
• The Bitcoin firm Strategy wants to place a 940-square-foot sign atop its Tysons HQ. (WBJ)
• The next great Alexandria controversy: Should Episcopal High School, which will be a training ground for the World Cup next year, be permitted to install more light poles on its athletic fields than neighbors expected? (Alexandria Times)
Know someone we should consider for our Tech Titans feature this year? Nominate them here. Did you miss our 100 Very Best Restaurants List? It’s here.
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.
