Good morning. Sunny today with a high around 37. Snow showers possible overnight with a low near 32.
Sports this weekend: The Wizards visit Sacramento tonight and Denver on Saturday. The Capitals host the Florida Panthers Saturday. The Capital City Go-Go host Raptors 905 on Saturday.
Have a good long weekend. 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:
Dr. Octagon, “Blue Flowers.” Indie rapper Kool Keith’s Dr. Octagon character has died and been reborn more often than HBO Max, but I will always treasure this entheogenic rap from the ’90s. Perhaps the good doctor will make his rounds Sunday when Keith plays 9:30 alongside Atmosphere, Sage Francis, R.A. the Rugged Man, and MR Dibbs.
Take Washingtonian Today with you! I’ve made a playlist on Spotify and on Apple Music of last year’s music recommendations. I’ll make one for 2026 soon.
Here’s some administration news you might have blocked out:
Reeling Minnesota: President Trump threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act in Minnesota yesterday, claiming protests against his violent and massive deployment of immigration agents in the state allow him to send in the US military. (Washington Post) Masked federal agents smashed the car window of a woman on her way to a doctor’s appointment and dragged her out of her car yesterday. (AP) Three children were hospitalized after their family got caught between immigration officers and protesters Wednesday night at the site of another ICE shooting. (KMSP) It appears the administration is preparing similar efforts in California and New York. (Wired)
The ICE storm: The medical examiner’s office in El Paso is likely to rule the January 3 death of Geraldo Lunas Campos in ICE custody as a homicide. Lunas Campos, an immigrant from Cuba, had been detained at a “colossal makeshift tent encampment on the Mexican border.” (Washington Post) Even some Republicans have begun to suggest that ICE agents could use more training. (Politico) The administration has “provided tacit approval for more aggressive tactics” despite department guidelines. (NYT) A CBS News report that cited two anonymous administration officials claiming that ICE agent Jonathan Ross suffered “internal bleeding” when he shot and killed Renee Good in Minneapolis caused “big internal dissension” in the newsroom. The network’s recently installed top editor, Bari Weiss, “expressed a high level of interest in the story.” (The Guardian) Palantir is building a tool for ICE that “populates a map with potential deportation targets, brings up a dossier on each person, and provides a ‘confidence score’ on the person’s current address.” (404 Media) The administration, which recently suggested Americans could get a good meal together for $3, offered a $100,000 reward for information on people who damaged feds’ vehicles in Minneapolis. (Star Tribune)
Medal health challenge: Trump accepted María Corina Machado‘s gift of her Nobel Peace Prize medal yesterday, but the Venezuelan opposition leader “emerged with no public backing” from the President. (WSJ) As he did with a “peace prize” presented to him by the comically corrupt organization FIFA last month, Trump basked in the fake honor, which he intends to keep. (NOTUS) The prize is not transferrable. (Norwegian Nobel Committee) The US’s first sale of oil from Venezuela was to a company controlled by John Addison, who donated $6 million to the Trump’s reelection campaign. (FT) The money from that sale is being held in a Qatari bank. (CNN) Here’s a list of people and entities likely to profit from the US’s sales of Venezuelan oil. (Washington Post)
Administration perambulation: A federal judge in Boston called the administration’s deportation of pro-Palestinian activists an “unconstitutional conspiracy to pick off certain people.” (Politico) The Pentagon will strip the newspaper Stars and Stripes of the editorial independence it has held for decades. (Washington Post) The US troops who read the paper “have earned the right to the press freedoms of the First Amendment,” Stars and Stripes’ editor-in-chief, Erik Slavin, said. (Stars and Stripes) The administration admitted it mistakenly deported college student Any Lucia López Belloza to Honduras when she attempted to fly home to Texas over Thanksgiving. It does not appear to have any plans to drop its case against her, however. (NYT) Majorities of Americans disapprove of Trump’s signature policies. (Axios) A lawsuit, which is really worth reading, accuses former US Senator Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona of “willful and wanton conduct” that led to the end of the marriage of a security aide. (NYT) Former US Representative Billy Long, whom Trump nominated to be the US ambassador to Iceland, apologized for “joking” that the country would become the “52nd state.” (Politico) The FDA removed web pages that said cell phone radiation isn’t dangerous. Health Secretary RFK Jr. has moved to “study” the non-issue. (WSJ)
Recently on Washingtonian dot com:
• DaBo Burger, from Mélange and Doro Soul Food chef Elias Taddesse, opened yesterday.
• The most expensive home sales last month, including the sale of TJ Oshie‘s old mansion.
• Here are six ways to celebrate and honor Martin Luther King Jr. on Monday.
• Flowers draped the piano at this luxe wedding.
Local news links:
• Abigail Spanberger will be inaugurated as Virginia’s governor this weekend. (WTOP) Flashback: Here’s our interview with her from last fall. (Washingtonian)
• Commanders owner Joshua Harris purchased Georgetown’s Halcyon House for $28 million. (WSJ)
• Here’s what the team’s new stadium will look like. (WUSA9)
• Anthony B. Coleman will step down as CEO of Cedar Hill Regional Medical Center, less than a year after the hospital opened in Southeast DC. (Washington Post)
• Elissa Silverman plans to run for DC Council. (Elissa’s City Politics Substack)
• Arlington ultramarathoner Michael Wardian plans to run “seven back-to-back 50K races on all seven continents” beginning at the end of this month. (ARLnow)
Weekend event picks:
Friday: “At the Vanguard,” a new exhibition about HBCUs, opens at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.
Saturday: Glitterer helps raise money for We Are Family at St. Stephen’s.
Sunday: The Montreal Victoire take on the New York Sirens when the Professional Women’s Hockey League takes over Capital One Arena.
Monday: US Senator Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland keynotes the annual wreath-laying ceremony at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial.
See more picks for the weekend from Briana Thomas, who writes our Things to Do newsletter.
The post Trump Basks in Another Fake Honor, Pentagon Plans to Neuter Stars and Stripes, and Commanders Owner Buys Halcyon House first appeared on Washingtonian.
