Good morning. Mostly sunny today with a high around 68. Clouds increase overnight with a chance of showers, mostly after 10 PM. Sports this weekend: The Nationals host Milwaukee tonight, Saturday, and Sunday. DC Power FC host Dallas Trinity FC at Audi Field tonight. The Washington Spirit visit the O rlando Pride Saturday. The DC Defenders host the Dallas Renegades at Audi Field on Saturday. Loudoun United FC host Oakland Roots SC at Segra Field on Saturday.  D.C. United visit New York City FC on Sunday. Old Glory DC visit the Chicago Hounds 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: Queensrÿche, “Silent Lucidity.” The version of Queensrÿche you’ll see at this weekend’s M3 hair-metal festival at Merriweather doesn’t include original singer Geoff Tate, but that’s not really the point of this sort of event. It’s that you raise your phone during the power ballads and dance around to the hits that lit up your youth without anyone—your kids, perhaps—judging you. Queensrÿche plays Merriweather Post Pavilion Saturday alongside Cinderella’s Tom Keifer, Buckcherry, White Lion, Barry Goudreau’s Engine Room, Faster Pussycat, Trixter, and Soundcheck Rock Academy. 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: Good-bye for now, DH-mess: The House of Representatives finally passed a bill to fund most of the Department of Homeland Security, ending a shutdown that lasted more than ten weeks. President Trump signed the measure. (Politico) Democrats refused to fund the department without changes to Trump’s immigration-enforcement tactics, and Republicans in the House resisted a bipartisan compromise bill, which House Speaker Mike Johnson had called a “joke” before eventually passing it. (AP) The measure is a “major win for Democrats.” (CNN) Meanwhile: FEMA has “begun calling disaster workers who were let go in January to offer them their jobs back,” the latest sign DHS is reversing some of the changes made to the agency by fired former secretary Kristi Noem. (NYT) Some of the people coming back are whistleblowers who signed a letter protesting changes Noem made. (NBC News) War games: Today marks 60 days since Trump’s war in Iran began. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said yesterday that the ceasefire between the US and Iran has paused the clock on the conflict, arguing that Congress is not required under the 1973 War Powers Act to approve a continuing war. (Washington Post) An unnamed administration official further argued that the war ended with the ceasefire. (AP) Many Republicans were swayed by the argument about the unpopular war. (AP) Some lawmakers, though, were perplexed by the gambit, which apparently does not take into account the US Navy’s active blockade of Iranian ports, the still-blocked Strait of Hormuz, or Trump’s threats to resume hostilities. (WSJ) Iran threatened “long and painful strikes” against the US if it resumed strikes. (Reuters) Two Republicans in the Senate, Susan Collins of Maine and Rand Paul of Kentucky, joined Democrats on another failed vote to end the war. (Politico) Nays and Means: Trump withdrew his nomination of Casey Means to be US surgeon general. Means was a favorite of the Make America Healthy Again movement, but faced opposition on the Hill, especially among some Republicans. Trump blamed Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana when he announced the move. (Washington Post) His new pick is Nicole Saphier, a radiologist and frequent Fox News guest who isn’t apparently part of the MAHA thing but wrote a book called “Make America Healthy Again.” (NYT) Means blamed Alaska Republican Lisa Murkowski‘s opposition. (Politico) Battle lines: GOP leaders are urging Southern states to redraw electoral districts ahead of this fall’s midterm elections following a Supreme Court decision that took a sledgehammer to the Voting Rights Act. (WSJ) Democrats, too, plan aggressive gerrymanders in blue states. (Politico) Louisiana suspended primaries planned for May while state lawmakers scramble to draw new district lines. (Washington Post) Administration perambulation: The Department of Justice is pursuing even more charges against former FBI director James Comey. (Bloomberg Law) Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche “is now all in on fast-tracking one or more prosecutions of Mr. Comey,” a signal that he understood the subtext of Trump’s firing of his predecessor, Pam Bondi. (NYT) A company Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump invested in last year has won a $1.6 billion contract with the US to extract tungsten from Kazakhstan. (FT) The administration suddenly yanked federal funding for fentanyl test strips, confounding public health experts. (CBS News) Trump blindsided Pentagon officials with a call to move troops out of Germany after its chancellor, Friedrich Merz, said Iran had “humiliated” the US. (Politico) Remember the border wall? An effort to expand it just ruined a “rare Native American archaeological site in the Arizona desert.” (Washington Post) US Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina and Justice Department official Ed Martin feuded on social media. (Politico) One cool real estate listing this weekend, by Amy Moeller: Photograph courtesy of Denise Briggs, Redfin. This five-bedroom, four-full-bath and two-half-bath Victorian house is about 15 minutes west of Frederick in the historic district of Middletown. It features a “painted lady” facade, an updated kitchen, a pool, and a sunroom. It’s listed at $775,000, and you can see it this weekend—and look at more photos of the house right now. Recently on Washingtonian dot com: • Ari Lennox, “West Side Story,” and the UK band Dry Cleaning: Our culture picks for May are here. • You’re not imagining things: This year’s allergy season is really bad. • Embassies around DC will open their doors to visitors this weekend. Here are 12 you’ll enjoy seeing. • Party photographer Dan Swartz rounds up March’s best galas and swanky events. Local news links: • Britain’s King Charles III and Queen Camilla visited Front Royal, Virginia, yesterday, where they met a beekeeper and a Little League team. (Washington Post) They laid a wreath at Arlington National Cemetery. (NYT) • Ben’s Chili Bowl will reopen on U Street, Northwest, today with a celebration that begins at 11 AM. (Ben’s Chili Bowl) • Investigators for DC’s police force have “sustained accusations against at least 15 high-ranking police officials” while they probe whether the department juked crime stats. (WCP) • The NYT simulated Trump’s planned victory arch near Arlington Cemetery so you can see how it will affect views of the city from Memorial Circle. (NYT) • Former Washington Wizard John Wall will be Howard University’s president of basketball operations. (ESPN) • 29-year-old Keon Jones died, apparently after injuries sustained in a fight in Southwest DC. (ABC 7) • Police were dispatched to Rosslyn yesterday after a concerned citizen mistook the sounds of confetti poppers at an office party for gunfire. (ARLnow) • Police in College Park are looking for someone who’s been looking into windows and touching doorknobs. (WUSA9) • The “Pan Am Blackbirds,” a group of women who became the airline’s first Black flight attendants in the late ’60s, will reunite in DC. (NBC4 Washington) • An Ebisu Life Store will celebrate its opening at Seven Corners this weekend. I’ve always wanted to visit a Japanese department store. (Northern Virginia Magazine) Weekend event picks: Friday: Passport DC kicks off, with a month of embassy-related fun around town ahead. Saturday: Spring PorchFest lights up Adams Morgan. Sunday: Bruno Mars plays the second of two shows at Northwest Stadium. See lots more picks for the weekend from Briana Thomas, who writes our Things to Do newsletter.The post Casey Means MA-HAs Left the Building, DHS Shutdown Finally Ends, and Confetti Poppers Draw Cops to Rosslyn Office Party first appeared on Washingtonian. ...read more read less