Good morning. The Capital Weather Gang has officially declared the end of summer in DC—it’s the earliest they’ve ever made this call. That’s the kind of good news I needed this week. Accordingly, today will be mostly sunny with a nice breeze. Highs near 80, followed by delicious nighttime lows around 51.
Sports this weekend: The Nats will host the Tampa Bay Rays all weekend. The Mystics will visit the Golden State Valkyries Saturday night and then the Los Angeles Sparks on Sunday. DC United will visit New York City Saturday night. The Spirit will play a Pride Night match at home against the Chicago Stars on Sunday.
Andrew Beaujon is off today. Both he and Washingtonian Today will return to your inbox on Tuesday. Enjoy your Labor Day weekend! You can find me on Bluesky, I’m @kmcorliss.19 on Signal, and there’s a link to my email address below.
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A great book on my nightstand:
“My Monticello” by Jocelyn Nicole Johnson. The title novella that anchors this collection of short fiction is set in a dystopian near-future, where protagonist Da’Naisha—a University of Virginia student who descends from Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings, an enslaved woman who he repeatedly impregnated—is driven from her Charlottesville home by a white supremacist militia. She and her neighbors hide out at Jefferson’s plantation, which turns out to represent a twisted sort of homecoming for her and her sick grandmother. Thanks to its survivalist nature and short page count, the plot moves quickly, but Johnson’s exacting prose and the book’s basis in historical reference add great weight.
Here’s some administration news you might have blocked out:
What a healthy workplace environment: The White House tapped Jim O’Neill, the deputy secretary at the Department of Health and Human Services, to be the interim leader of the CDC—he’ll replace Susan Monarez, also a Trump appointee, who was ousted for refusing to sign off on RFK Jr.‘s new vaccine policy. (Washington Post) O’Neill, a former employee of Peter Thiel, pushed Covid conspiracy theories during the pandemic. (The Guardian) In response to Monarez’s firing, multiple career CDC officials quit their jobs. Read their resignation letters. (Inside Medicine) Employees at the agency’s Atlanta headquarters organized a walkout yesterday in support of the departing scientists. (MSNBC)
DC takeover: FBI Director Kash Patel says federal agents have made more than 1,200 arrests as part of their mission to clean up DC. (WJLA) A closer look at the arrests suggests that officers are focusing on low-level offenses such as traffic violations and open containers. (NYT) More than half of US adults find it “unacceptable” for the federal government to seize control of local police departments, according to a new AP-NORC poll—still, amid his DC takeover, 53 percent of Americans say they approve of how the president handles crime, and his overall approval rating has jumped to 45 percent this month. (AP) Neil Young debuted a new song, “Big Crime,” to protest Trump for, among other things, his takeover of DC; “Don’t want soldiers on our streets,” he sings. “There’s big crime in DC at the White House.” (Rolling Stone) That’s brutal: Trump has signed an executive order requiring all federal construction projects in DC to be built in the Greco-Roman architectural style—he is “making federal architecture beautiful again.” (NYT) Home of the Brave, a DC-based anti-Trump group that counts George Conway and former MPD officer Michael Fanone among its board members, has spent an undisclosed six-figure sum to plaster the city with flyers urging federal agents to take off their masks. (Home of the Brave) Federal prosecutors have slapped Sandwich Guy Sean Dunn with misdemeanor assault after a grand jury refused to indict him on a felony charge for throwing a sammy at a Customs and Border Protection officer on U Street earlier this month. (WJLA)
Administration perambulation: Trump is moving to cancel $5 billion in foreign aid spending that has already been approved by Congress—a “pocket rescission,” if you will. (New York Post) The Air Force has offered a full military funeral to Ashli Babbitt, a January 6 rioter who was fatally shot by police when she stormed the Capitol in 2021. (NBC) The Department of Justice has dropped charges against another client represented by Brad Bondi, who is the brother of Attorney General Pam Bondi; the defendant was accused of felony wire fraud. (ABC) Attorneys for Kilmar Abrego Garcia asked a federal judge to impose a gag order on Pam Bondi and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem: “The government’s ongoing barrage of prejudicial statements severely threaten—and perhaps have already irrevocably impaired—the ability to try this case at all—in any venue.” (Politico) A federal judge in DC blocked Kari Lake from firing Voice of America director Michael Abramowitz. (Washington Post) RFK Jr. made an unsubstantiated claim that antidepressant medication could have played a role in the mass shooting that took place at a Minnesota school earlier this week. (Axios) The Pentagon is reinstalling a portrait of Confederate General Robert E. Lee at the West Point library. (NYT) House Republicans are investigating Wikipedia for allegedly operating with a woke bias. (The Hill) The Navy is reportedly hoping to cheer Trump up after his less-than-spectacular Army anniversary parade with a 250th birthday bash of their own this fall. (Intelligencer)
One swanky open house this weekend:
These contemporary Falls Church digs, designed by Porter Ridge Homes, boast a well-appointed kitchen, a finished basement with a guest suite, and a rooftop deck. The house is listed just shy of $2.16 million, and you can see it on Saturday or Sunday. Check out more of our weekend open house picks here.
Recently on Washingtonian dot com:
• Checking in on DC Police Union chair Gregg Pemberton and his support for Trump’s DC takeover.
• Here are 45 cool things to do around DC in September.
• Our monthly fictional dinner guest list.
• Introducing the 2025 Washington Residential Design Award winners. Go on, look at some pretty architecture!
Local news links:
• The US Park Police are quickly onboarding at least 100 employees to address a “critical shortage” in their ranks. (WTOP)
• The Department of Transportation has reclaimed management of DC’s Union Station—here’s what that means. (NPR)
• DC teachers are worried about truancy and standardized test scores as the school year kicks off. (The 51st)
• DC Attorney General Brian Schwalb is suing the developers of a new apartment building in Northeast who allegedly leased units before passing important safety inspections. (Washington Post)
• What’s open and what’s closed in the area this Labor Day. (WTOP)
• Look at this dog in a backpack. (PoPville)
Weekend event picks:
Friday: Catch a free screening of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off in Union Market.
Saturday: Join Hill Family Biking for a peddle and a block party in Capitol Hill.
Sunday: It’s the last day of Summer Restaurant Week—for real this time! Here are some deals at more than 30 of our favorite DC restaurants.
