Good morning. Increasingly cloudy with a high around 66 today. A low near 53 overnight.🚦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. Today’s weather welcomes your vest with open, and unsleeved, arms.
Sports this weekend: The Capitals will visit the Islanders on Saturday. The Washington Spirit will visit the North Carolina Courage on Saturday. Loudoun United FC will visit Detroit City FC Saturday. The Wizards’ preseason begins Sunday with a visit from the Toronto Raptors. The Commanders are off till Monday night, when they’ll host Chicago.
You can find me on Bluesky, I’m @abeaujon.87 on Signal, and there’s a link to my email address below. This roundup is available as a morning email newsletter. Sign up here.
I can’t stop listening to:
The Rapture, “House of Jealous Lovers.” The world didn’t end last month, but the Rapture will come to DC tonight anyway when these reunited dance punks play 9:30 with the Cribs.
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:
Nobel Peace Prize awarded: Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado is the recipient of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize. (Washington Post) It’s a tough break for President Trump, who “has been fixated on the prize, and for months, domestic supporters and international leaders seeking his favor have joined him in a vociferous campaign.” There’s always next year. (WSJ) Norwegians are bracing themselves for Trump’s wrath. (The Guardian)
Shutshow: Senators left town last night without finding a solution to the government shutdown, now in its tenth day. A brief glimmer of hope that Republicans and Democrats could arrive at a deal to fund the federal government was quickly extinguished yesterday. Civilian federal workers will not get paid today. Servicemembers could miss their paycheck this coming Wednesday unless something changes—and US Senator Ruben Gallego of Arizona said he “thinks the shutdown will last until at least Nov. 1, when open enrollment begins.” (Punchbowl News) Pain spreads: Workers at the Social Security Administration “say they are unable to provide benefit verification letters to people calling in to request them.” (NPR) The EPA began to furlough employees after keeping them on the job with funds carried over from previous years. A union official said distribution of furloughs has been “scattershot and seemingly random.” (Federal News Network) Smithsonian museums and the National Zoo will close after this weekend. (Axios D.C.) Trump claimed he planned that as a result of the shutdown, he would cut “very popular Democrat programs that aren’t popular with Republicans, frankly.” He did not elaborate. (CNBC) So far, he has not exactly followed through on the threats he’s made during this shutdown. (Washington Post) Meanwhile: The IRS deleted emails it sent to employees with guidance for the shutdown. The missives said employees would receive back pay when the government reopens thanks to a law Trump signed in 2019, but the President has nonetheless claimed they may not. (Government Executive)
Indict like hell: The Department of Justice indicted New York Attorney General Letitia James in Alexandria yesterday at Trump’s direction. Trump accidentally posted what was intended to be a private message to US Attorney General Pam Bondi last month that ordered her to speed up prosecutions of his foes, including James, US Senator Adam Schiff, and former FBI Director James Comey, who was indicted last week. (AP) James said the charges are “baseless.” (NYT) Lindsey Halligan, who Trump installed as the top prosecutor in Virginia’s Eastern District after the position’s previous occupant declined to pursue what he reportedly viewed as weak charges against Comey, brought the case herself, an atypical move. (Politico)
Trump’s troops in Chicago and Portland: A federal judge stopped Trump, temporarily at least, from deploying troops in and around Chicago, “saying she had no faith in the government’s claims of out-of-control violence.” The administration will appeal. (Chicago Tribune) In a separate legal matter, another federal district judge “barred federal agents from using force or threatening to arrest journalists in Chicago.” (Politico) Judge Sara Ellis said the feds may not use “riot control weapons including pepper-spray bullets and tear gas against journalists and protesters who don’t pose a serious threat to law enforcement officers or others.” (Block Club Chicago) That suit was brought by a coalition of press outlets, unions, and protesters. The head of the Illinois Press Association, Don Craven, resigned after his organization’s board objected to joining the suit. (Local News Initiative) Meanwhile, in Oregon, “a federal appeals court panel seemed poised to permit Trump to deploy the guard.” (Politico) Jack Dickinson, who wears a chicken suit to protests outside an ICE facility in Portland, says “It feels like we’re winning this” and that the social-media-content-hungry administration isn’t “getting the footage they’re looking for.” (Willamette Week) That’s apparently the case in Illinois, as well: The White House posted purported video from Chicago that included shots of palm trees, “which are not known to grow in Chicago.” (Daily Beast) Here’s a fact-check of some of Trump’s bogus claims about Portland. (The Oregonian) Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt said residents of his state “would lose their mind if [Governor JB Pritzker] in Illinois sent troops down to Oklahoma during the Biden administration.” (NYT) Meanwhile: Mark Bray, a Rutgers professor who has studied Antifa, plans to leave the US for Spain after pressure from online right-wing activists convinced he’s a member of the nebulous group. (AP)
Administration perambulation: Paul Ingrassia, Trump’s nominee to run the Office of Special Counsel, faces allegations of sexual harassment. Ingrassia, who received his law degree in 2022, also faces GOP “concerns about his background and amount of experience, as well as possible antisemitism, which the administration has disputed.” (Politico) The US will bail out Argentina, whose president, Javier Milei, is “an enthusiastic supporter of President Donald Trump.” (Washington Post) The administration canceled a massive solar energy project planned for Nevada. (Heatmap News) Plot twist: Dominion Voting Systems “has been sold to a Missouri-based company run by a former Republican election official.” (Axios)
Local news links:
Virginia election: Gubernatorial nominees Abigail Spanberger and Winsome Earle-Sears met in a debate Thursday night, where they “clashed sharply over violence, abortion, taxes, and immigration in an often heated exchange.” (Virginia Mercury) The debate was notable due to Earle-Sears “interrupting almost every Spanberger response and talking over her so insistently that moderators had to repeat several questions to hear the answers.” (Washington Post) Spanberger called text messages sent by Democratic attorney general nominee Jay Jones in 2022 “abhorrent,” a subject Earl-Sears returned to frequently. (Politico)
• Trump, who deployed troops and federal agents to the District, claiming it was unsafe, plans to dramatically cut federal funds that emergency response agencies in the area use to respond to terrorist attacks and emergencies. (Washington Post) Troops out: Officials in West Virginia, Mississippi, Georgia, Ohio, and South Carolina plan to withdraw National Guard troops from DC this fall. (AP/NBC4 Washington)
• Federal employees will pay more for health insurance next year. (Government Executive)
• Campaign finance consultant Katherine Buchanan was sentenced to a year and a day in prison. She pleaded guilty in June to embezzling from campaigns and PACs. (Alexandria Times)
• US Senator Ted Cruz of Texas wants the Interior Department to clean up Columbus Circle and restart the flow of water to its fountain. (Axios) Flashback: The feds dismantled an anti-Trump encampment there last Friday. (Washingtonian)
• The Army Ten-Miler race will take place as planned this weekend despite the shutdown. (ARLnow)
• The star-crossed DC streetcar will shut down next March. (Washington Post)
Weekend event picks:
Friday: “Real Housewives of Potomac” star Ashley Darby performs at Mr. Henry’s.
Saturday: Snallygaster, the annual beer festival, takes over Pennsylvania Avenue.
Sunday: It’s the last day of the Mount Vernon Fall Wine Festival.
See lots more picks for the weekend from Briana Thomas, who writes our fabulous 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.
