Good morning. Light snow this morning, with a high around 34. Here’s a list of school closings and delays. A low near 25 overnight. Sports this weekend: The Capitals visit Anaheim tonight and host Columbus on Sunday. The Wizards host Atlanta on Saturday. The Commanders visit the Vikings on Sunday. 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: Portugal. The Man, “Feel It Still.” Kick it like it’s 1986 tonight when Portugal. The Man plays the Anthem with La Luz. 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: Life is court: Some significant events occurred in the nation’s courtrooms yesterday. In DC, the US Supreme Court’s conservative majority allowed Texas’s gerrymandered congressional map to stand for next year’s midterms, which could hand Republicans up to five new seats in the House. (NYT) The US Court of Appeals for DC also blocked an order that would have banned the Trump administration from keeping National Guard troops in the District while the White House appeals a lower court’s decision that they must go. (Law Dork) In Norfolk, Virginia, a grand jury declined to indict New York Attorney General Letitia James, the latest defeat for Trump’s revenge campaign against his perceived enemies. The DOJ may try the flimsy charges a third time. (Washington Post) In Albany, a federal judge appeared likely to disqualify John Sarcone III, yet another acting US Attorney the administration has appointed in a manner designed to avoid Senate confirmation. (Politico) Back to J6: The FBI arrested Brian J. Cole Jr. yesterday and charged the Woodbridge resident with planting pipe bombs at Republican and Democratic party headquarters on Capitol Hill on January 6, 2021, a major development in a case that had baffled law enforcement and inspired conspiracy theories for years. (AP) Cole’s lawyers may be able to argue that Trump’s broad pardons for people charged or convicted regarding “offenses related to events that occurred at or near the United States Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021” could apply to their client. (NYT) We don’t know too much about Cole yet, but that’s likely to change. (NBC News) Meanwhile: Police in Takoma Park say pardoned January 6 rioter Taylor Taranto showed up near US Representative Jamie Raskin‘s house Tuesday. (Axios) Taranto has already been in hot water for allegedly showing up with weapons in former President Obama‘s neighborhood and live-streaming “a threat to blow up the National Institute of Standards and Technology.” (Politico) Boater fraud: The survivors of a September US attack on a boat the administration considered to be carrying cocaine to the US couldn’t have radioed for help, Admiral Frank M. Bradley told Congress yesterday. Bradley said he ordered a second strike on them because what was left of their boat could have held cocaine. (CNN) The question of whether that second strike constituted a war crime clouds a larger question: “whether Mr. Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have caused the military to commit crimes in a score of attacks.” (NYT) The US killed four more people in a boat yesterday in an attack Hegseth trumpeted to a Turning Point USA staffer online. (CNN) Hegseth’s claim that an IG report into his sloppy use of Signal exonerated him conveniently ignores the report’s damning contents. (Washington Post) Administration perambulation: A big weekend awaits Trump, who will be inescapable during today’s World Cup draw at the Kennedy Center and will receive a “peace prize” from comically corrupt organizers FIFA. On Sunday, he’ll host the Kennedy Center Honors, a Nero-like turn that promises to be deeply weird. (Washington Post) Meanwhile, Trump’s DOJ plans to weaken rules that protected “transgender, intersex and gender-nonconforming people from sexual violence” in prison. (NPR) The National Park Service will no longer allow free admission on Martin Luther King Jr.‘s birthday or Juneteenth, but it will allow free admission on Flag Day, which happens to be Trump’s birthday. (SF Gate) FBI Director Kash Patel has on multiple occasions ordered a security detail for his girlfriend, Alexis Wilkins, to accompany her friends home after they partied in Nashville, sources say. (MS Now) The administration uncharacteristically quietly released its national security strategy yesterday, revealing a “unusually heavy focus on the Western Hemisphere.” (Politico) Trump welcomed the presidents of Congo and Rwanda to Washington yesterday to sign a peace deal. (AP) The administration will vet H1-B visa applicants to see whether they’ve engaged in online “censorship”—and its definition of that includes fact-checking. (Reuters) Defense attorneys for people charged with conspiracy for protesting outside a Chicago-area ICE facility, including congressional candidate Kat Abughazaleh, have asked to see White House communications regarding their case. The move could signal another once-rare selective-prosecution defense. (Chicago Sun-Times) Trump fired the architect for the massive White House ballroom he tore down the East Wing to build and plans to name for himself and hired Shalom Baranes instead. (Washington Post) Trump’s approval rating has dipped, especially among independents. (NYT) One snazzy open house this weekend: Photograph courtesy of Vista Media. This mid-century five bedroom, four bathroom house in Bethesda’s Carderock Springs includes an office, gym, screened porch, and multiple fireplaces; an addition houses the primary suite and ensuite bathroom—soaking tub included. It’s listed at $1.349 million, and you can see it this weekend, along with our other picks for the best open houses in the area. Recently on Washingtonian dot com: • The United States Institute of Peace building was once just a cartoonish structure that architectural critics hated. Now it’s become an unlikely canvas for Trump’s unquenchable ego. Local news links: • Maryland House Speaker Adrienne A. Jones, the first Black woman to hold that position, announced she would step down to make way for younger leaders. (Washington Post) • Eight police officers at Dulles resigned or were canned after the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority investigated allegations of kickbacks from ride-share or limo drivers. (NBC4 Washington) • Two people were rescued after a window-washing basket malfunctioned in Tysons, leaving them dangling on the side of a tall building. (DC News Now) • 80 percent of immigrants arrested by feds during Trump’s DC crime crackdown—which was actually another of his immigration crackdowns—had no criminal records. (Washington Post) • Firefighters in Alexandria rescued a man who was trapped in a sewer. (ALXnow) • The NWSL players’ union filed a grievance over the organization’s veto of an offer that would keep Trinity Rodman at the Washington Spirit. (ESPN) • The tipped minimum wage could join Klingle Road, the McMillan Sand Filtration Site, and the SunTrust Plaza as subjects of interminable District controversies. (Martin Austermuhle/X) • RIP Alexandria historian McArthur Myers, who died yesterday at age 73. (ALXnow) • The Virginia ABC has created three cocktail recipes inspired by the raccoon who made world news by breaking into a central Virginia ABC store. (DC News Now) Weekend event picks: Friday: “Step Afrika!’s Magical Musical Holiday Step Show” opens at Arena Stage. Saturday: Take in a holiday boat parade at the Wharf or in Old Town. Sunday: It’s the last day of Heurich House Museum’s Christmas Markt. See lots more picks for the weekend from Briana Thomas, who writes our Things to Do newsletter.The post Trump’s Latest Attempt to Prosecute Letitia James Fails Spectacularly, His FIFA Adventure Begins, and an Alexandria Man Was Rescued From a Sewer first appeared on Washingtonian. ...read more read less