Good morning. Happy Earth Day. Showers are likely this morning, but cloudy skies will yield to sun this afternoon with a high around 72. Clear overnight, with a low near 55. The Nationals host Atlanta again today. D.C. United visits the NY Red Bulls. 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: Lucy Wijnands Quintet, “Witchcraft.” Wijnands celebrates Ella Fitzgerald’s 99th birthday a few days early with two shows at Blues Alley tonight. Take Washingtonian Today with you! I keep ridiculously long playlists on Apple Music and on Spotify of this year’s music recommendations. Here are 2025’s songs (Apple, Spotify), too. Here’s some administration news you might have blocked out: War news: Iran seized two ships in the Strait of Hormuz. (Washington Post) Earlier, it fired on one of the ships and appears to have attacked the other, a sign the country’s “leaders appear poised to drive a harder bargain with American negotiators this time.” (AP) President Trump backtracked on earlier statements promising to resume hostilities after he set a deadline of this evening for a ceasefire to expire—that was itself a gloss; it was actually set to expire last night—and said he’d extend the ceasefire indefinitely. The two nations have not yet set a date for a second round of negotiations to end the war Trump started nearly two months ago, and Trump’s U-turn “had the effect of handing the initiative to Tehran.” (Washington Post) Trump is now poised to “wind up accepting terms little better than the ones Mr. Obama secured more than a decade ago” in the 2015 nuclear deal Trump criticized relentlessly. (NYT) Trump said the US military blockade of the strait that Iran closed will continue. (Axios) The US boarded a ship that carried Iranian oil yesterday. (NYT) In other military news: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth got rid of the Pentagon’s requirement that troops receive an annual flu vaccine, calling the requirement “absurd.” (Washington Post) New dominion: Voters in Virginia narrowly approved a redistricting referendum that could add four seats to Democrats’ numbers in the House of Representatives this fall. (Virginia Mercury) Trump, who kicked off a national redistricting battle when he backed similar efforts that favor Republicans in other states, called the referendum a “blatant partisan power grab that nobody’s really ever seen anything like it” in a last minute phone rally. (Hill) House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries oversaw the effort, whose success shows “the House majority is there for Democrats to take.” (Punchbowl News) The referendum’s tight margins are a rare bright spot for Republicans, who pledged court challenges. (AP) Fingers are pointing. (Politico) Democrats’ hard-line tactics lately are a sign party leaders have decided to “reverse their opposition to political tactics they once considered bad governance.” (NYT) A new target: The Department of Justice charged the Southern Poverty Law Center with financial crimes, claiming the civil rights nonprofit loathed by many conservatives engaged in wire fraud and money laundering. (NYT) At issue are payments the SPLC made to informants in racist organizations like the Ku Klux Klan, which FBI Director Kash Patel claimed “fueled the hatred” the group fights. Bryan Fair, the group’s interim CEO, denied the charges and noted the program has been discontinued. (Politico) A closer look at the indictment reveals some problems—such as DOJ’s claim donors weren’t aware of the program, which started in 1980. (Law Dork) Administration perambulation: “I’ve never been intoxicated on the job,” Patel said in a press conference yesterday where he blasted “the fake news mafia” about the Atlantic’s recent report that “excessive drinking” was affecting his ability to do his job. (Politico) Prosecutors withdrew subpoenas in the case they’re attempting to make against former CIA Director John Brennan, another of Trump’s perceived enemies upon whom he has unleashed lawfare, “a shaky start for a new phase of the investigation.” (NYT) Kevin Warsh, Trump’s nominee to run the Federal Reserve, avoided a question of who won the 2020 election that Trump lost to Joe Biden during a confirmation hearing yesterday. (WSJ) Senate Majority Leader John Thune is urging the White House to end the investigation of current Fed boss Jerome Powell that Trump dialed up; US Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina says he won’t vote for Warsh while it continues. (Axios) Trump is “in talks” to send Afghans who helped US forces to the Democratic Republic of Congo. (NYT) Florida Governor Ron DeSantis “is ‘begging’ for a job in Trump’s administration,” perhaps as US Attorney General. (Axios) US Senator Rick Scott of Florida is holding up Coast Guard promotions “as he tries to resolve a dispute involving a shipbuilder in his home state.” (Politico) Perambulation, continued: US Representative Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick resigned from Congress yesterday before the House Ethics Committee could punish her in the matter of federal Covid funds that ended up in her campaign accounts. (NOTUS) US Representative Cory Mills of Florida said he wouldn’t leave the body despite a separate ethics investigation. (NBC News) Devin Nunes is out as CEO of Trump’s media company. (Politico) Former US Capitol Police Officer Shauni Kerkhoff sued the Blaze yesterday, saying a retracted report that purported to analyze the cop’s “gait” led to an FBI raid. (Bulwark) Tucker Carlson apologized for supporting Trump. (NBC News) Health Secretary RFK Jr. claimed he’s “never been anti-vaccine” in testimony before Congress yesterday. (HuffPost) The secretary snapped at a lawmaker who said he wished he’d spend “less time talking about whale heads, bear heads and raccoon parts.” In fact, Kennedy hasn’t talked much about his apparent fascination with dead animals, though journalists have taken notice. (Hill) Recently on Washingtonian dot com: • “A great asset in journalism is being underestimated”: Sylvie McNamara writes about how TMZ’s DC journalists are playing this town like a fiddle. • Ox Olive is, yes, yet another steakhouse. But the soon-to-open Georgetown spot from Jônt and Bresca chef Ryan Ratino promises a cheffy, if straightforward, destination for meat-lovers. • Twenty-two ways to celebrate Earth Day around the area. Local news links: • Sandy Marks, a Democrat, easily won a special election for Alexandria’s city council yesterday. It was the fifth contest held in the small city over the last four months. (ALXnow) • A federal judge blocked the administration’s planned removal of a bike lane near the Tidal Basin, siding with the Washington Area Bicyclist Association. (NYT) • Washington Commanders co-owner Mitchell Rales will donate $116 million to the National Gallery of Art. (Washington Post) • Massachusetts museum honcho Lynda Roscoe Hartigan will run the Smithsonian American Art Museum. (NYT) • The DC Council took the first of two votes that could lead to a summer-long curfew for teens. (WUSA9) • Authorities in Prince George’s County charged a suspect in last week’s deadly pipe attack at the Addison Road Metro station. Stanley Hutchinson III, 61, was killed in what authorities say was a random attack. (NBC4 Washington) • A WMATA work vehicle hit a stationary Metrorail train last night at Metro Center, injuring 11. Commuters can expect delays this morning. (WUSA9) • American University student Sophia Gagliardi has “uncovered a potential biological link between long COVID symptoms and gender, a discovery that could lead to a treatment for the disease.” (Eagle) • An 18-year-old convicted of groping fellow students at Fairfax County High School was sentenced to a year in prison. (WTOP) • Three people were shot in Southeast DC Tuesday evening. (WUSA9) • Longtime Washington Post journalist Dan Eggen died yesterday. He was 60. (Washington Post) • The Alexandria Library Board expelled a board member who voted to advance a plan to bring the library system fully under city control. (ALXnow) • A new east-west bus service debuted in Virginia Monday. The Tidewater Current will connect Virginia Beach with Harrisonburg, with stops in Richmond, Staunton, and other destinations along the six-hour journey. (Virginia Mercury) • A long-broken payphone in Adams Morgan got removed. (PoPville) Wednesday’s event picks: • The Smithsonian Craft Show opens at the National Building Museum. • Maddie plays DC9. • Get crafty in the Heurich House Museum’s biergarten. See more picks from Briana Thomas, who writes our Things to Do newsletter.The post Virginia Referendum Win Could Help Democrats Take House, Kash Patel Says He’s Never Been Drunk at Work, and Commanders Co-Owner Donates $116 Million to National Gallery of Art first appeared on Washingtonian. ...read more read less