Good morning. Sunny today and, believe it or not, muggy! Highs near 91, with some refreshing, gentle winds to find us in the afternoon. The Nationals will play the Detroit Tigers at home tonight. Tomorrow is the Nats’ annual Independence Day matinee game—they’ll play the Boston Red Sox, but I’m not going to let my status as a New England transplant infect this newsletter (GO SOX). The Washington Mystics will face the Minnesota Lynx in Minneapolis tonight.
Programming note: Washingtonian Today will be off tomorrow, July 4, eating a hot dog in Asbury Park. If you miss me, you can find me on Bluesky, I’m @kmcorliss.19 on Signal, and there’s a link to my email address below. Otherwise, see you Monday! Enjoy your holiday weekend.
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A great book on my nightstand:
“Pomegranate” by Helen Elaine Lee. After her release from a yearslong prison sentence for opioid possession, endlessly sympathetic protagonist Ranita resolves to maintain her sobriety, regain custody of her kids, and start her life anew. Lee’s prose is gorgeous, but still straightforward enough to absorb quickly—a heavy beach read for a holiday that feels especially heavy this year.
Here’s some administration news you might have blocked out:
Bill me up, buttercup: House Republicans are expected to pass Trump’s big, beautiful bill today. (Politico) House Speaker Mike Johnson reportedly managed to secure the necessary votes overnight. (NBC News) “In a dramatic—and unusual—moment, Johnson convened the group of GOP holdouts on the floor and the group prayed together shortly before the vote closed.” (The Hill) This timeline lays out when key bill provisions would take effect, should it pass. (NYT) A hyperlocal look at how the legislation could impact DC-area residents. (WJLA)
Immigration latest: A federal judge in DC struck down Trump’s ban on asylum seekers at the Mexico border. (Washington Post) A six-year-old boy who legally entered the country with his family, seeking asylum from Honduras, has been stuck in immigration detention since May; he has leukemia. (USA Today) Kilmar Abrego Garcia was beaten, deprived of sleep, and otherwise tortured in the El Salvador prison he was mistakenly deported to in March, according to court papers that his lawyers filed last night. (NYT) A new bill in Congress would prohibit ICE agents from covering their faces. (LA Times) ICEBlock, an app that allows users to anonymously report ICE agent sightings, has surged in popularity. (TechCrunch) Pictures and videos show flooding at the administration’s so-called “Alligator Alcatraz” detention center in Florida, which opened Tuesday. (Daily Beast)
Administration perambulation: Top Republicans and other administration allies were reportedly blindsided by the Pentagon’s stoppage of weapons shipments to Ukraine. (Politico) In his longest remarks since revealing his prostate cancer diagnosis, Joe Biden warned that Trump is undoing his administration’s foreign policy achievements. (WSJ) Trump has turned what he apparently calls the White House’s “Monica Lewinsky room” into a gift shop. (Intelligencer) Virginia Army National Guard pilot Jo Ellis, who is suing a far-right influencer over his false claims that she flew the Blackhawk chopper involved in the January 29 air disaster over the Potomac, is fighting MAGA’s scapegoating of trans people. (Wired) Big Firework says America’s semiquincentennial next year will be awfully dark without tariff relief. (Axios)
Hidden Eats, by Ike Allen:
Anyone can enjoy Roadhouse Momo, a friendly Nepalese grill in far-flung Ashburn where the titular momos are tasty, and huge flatscreens play first-person Youtube footage of hiking in the Himalayas and the Rockies. But if you come in with an open mind and go straight to the “Nepali Delight” subheading of the menu, you’ll enjoy it more. On the samaybaji, the traditional platter of Nepal’s Newari community, nearly every preparation was unfamiliar and exciting to me: chiura (flattened crispy rice), cold chicken choila, raw spicy soybeans, mustard-slicked potatoes, curry made from black-eyed peas and bamboo shoots, a black lentil pancake topped with fried small fish and egg, and funky bean achar (pickle) with sesame seeds.
Recently on Washingtonian dot com:
• These beach getaways are just a drive away from DC. Perhaps you’ll make the trip tomorrow?
• Veggie-forward NYC restaurant Westville will open its first DMV location in Clarendon later this month.
Local news links:
• Eric Tarpinian-Jachym, a 21-year-old intern for Representative Ron Estes and a rising senior at UMass Amherst, was killed in a shooting outside the Walter E. Washington Convention Center last night. (Washington Post)
• A rundown of Independence Day road closures and Metro schedule changes. (WTOP)
• Meet the candidates running for Trayon White’s former DC Council seat in Ward 8 (including Trayon White). (Washington Informer)
• The iconic Georgia Brown’s will close after more than 30 years in business. (Washington Business Journal)
• Trump’s megabill could send the Discovery space shuttle from the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum to Houston. (Washington Post)
• A Virginia court has partially walked back the state’s 2020 ban on conversion therapy for minors. (Axios)
• Longtime Washington Post editor Virginia Hamill dies at 81. (Washington Post)
Thursday’s event picks:
• An interactive parkour installation opens at the National Building Museum. Read more about it here.
• Catch some early fireworks at Nationals Park after tonight’s ballgame.
• Shahzia Sikander’s video artwork The Last Post, which explores British colonialism in Asia, arrives at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
See more picks from Briana Thomas, who writes our Things to Do newsletter.
We’re now taking suggestions for this year’s “Most Powerful Women” list. You can nominate someone here. Know someone we should consider for our Tech Titans feature this year? Put their name forward here. Did you miss our 100 Very Best Restaurants List? It’s here.
