Good morning. We might get above freezing at some point today—it’ll be sunny with a high around 33, but our old friend the wind could make the air feel pretty cold anyway. A low near 17 overnight. The Capitals host the Islanders tonight. 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 Dismemberment Plan, “The Ice of Boston.” It’s Groundhog Day, so let’s celebrate a local group that took its name from the movie of the same name. The Plan aren’t playing in town tonight, unless you host a dance party in your house, which is not the worst idea you’ll hear from me today. Take Washingtonian Today with you! I made a playlist on Spotify and on Apple Music of last year’s music recommendations. I’ll make one soon for 2026. Here’s some administration news you might have blocked out: Smear madness: Declaring the Kennedy Center “tired, broken, and dilapidated,” President Trump announced last night that he would close the arts complex for a two-year renovation as of July 4. As usual, details are scant, but despite the President’s purported motivations, the fact is that performers and audiences have fled from the Kennedy Center—not least because he slapped his name on the front of the building—under the stewardship he forced upon it. (Washington Post) What will this mean for employees? For the NSO? Who will pay for this renovation and what will it entail? Will Congress finally step in? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯  (NYT) The center is among the many local landmarks Trump plans to put his characteristic stamp on. One hopes Dulles won’t have to close as well. (AP) Related: Here’s a list of Trump’s business failures, including Trump Mortgage, Trump Steaks, and the Trump Shuttle. (LAT) Shutshow, part deux: The federal government is in the midst of a partial shutdown while Congress flails about funding the Department of Homeland Security. (AP) Here’s OPM’s guidance. (OPM) House Speaker Mike Johnson said he thinks his chamber will have business wrapped up by tomorrow. (Axios) Hmm, that may be optimistic. (Punchbowl News) The ICE storm: Federal records identify immigration officers Jesus Ochoa and Raymundo Gutierrez as the people who fatally shot Alex Pretti in Minneapolis last month. (ProPublica) The Department of Justice did a U-turn Friday and said it would open a civil rights investigation into Pretti’s death—the same day Trump called Pretti an “agitator and, perhaps, insurrectionist.” (Politico) Prosecutors who worked on Capitol riot cases and had a 100 percent conviction rate in jury trials wrote a four-page memo that draws a roadmap for how Congress could investigate the deaths of Pretti and Renee Good. (CBS News) Five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos, who has become another symbol of the administration’s heavy-handed immigration operation in Minnesota, returned home this weekend after a judge ordered him and his father to be released. (NBC News) Also released: Don Lemon and Georgia Fort, the journalists the feds had arrested for covering a protest in a church in Minnesota. (NPR) My friends at the Poynter Institute made a list of questions journalists should have answers to in this climate. (Poynter) Meanwhile: A measles outbreak (funny how you keep hearing those two words lately) has struck the center in Texas where Liam was held. (San Antonio Current) Portland, Oregon, Mayor Keith Wilson demanded that ICE leave his city after agents tear-gassed protesters, including children, over the weekend. (AP) Epstein, Epstein, Epstein: Britain’s former ambassador to the US Peter Mandelson resigned from the Labour Party after the DOJ released millions of its records on the disgraced, deceased financier Friday. Some of those documents showed Mandelson received $75K from Epstein, which he says he does not recall and believes “to be false.” (BBC News) He’s not the only Briton whose weekend was impacted by the release: Photos from the release show Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, now the former Prince Andrew, “on all fours, leaning over a woman or girl lying on the floor.” (CNN) Here’s a list of some of the bold-faced names in the files in various ways, including Elon Musk and “Melania” director Brett Ratner.  (AP) Also appearing more than five thousand times in the files: Trump, though that list includes unverified accusations. (NYT) The release showed the care and attention to detail we’ve come to expect from this crew: The names of 43 victims were left unredacted. (WSJ) Oh, and they included “dozens of unredacted nude images on its website, showing young women or possibly teenagers.” (NYT) Administration perambulation: Trump has, through various entities, hundreds of millions of dollars to spend on the midterms. (Politico) A UAE firm with ties to the country’s government took a major stake in Trump’s family’s crypto thing. (WSJ) Are we going to war with Iran? (NBC News) The “Melania” doc reviews are brutal. (Metacritic) The doc did better than expected box office over the weekend as conservatives rallied to support it. It’ll take a lot more of that to earn back what Amazon spent on the film. (The Hollywood Reporter) The Best Thing I Ate Last Week, by Ann Limpert: During this icebound week—no school, no alley-plowing—I didn’t do much dining out. And I craved a recipe I used to make all the time (like, weekly) but hadn’t touched in about a decade: Ruth Reichl’s “sort-of Thai noodles,” which appeared in her sparkly memoir “Garlic and Sapphires.” It’s as easy as making a batch of fried rice: you soak rice noodles—I like vermicelli for this one—then sauté up some ground pork and garlic in a skillet (the recipe calls for shrimp, too, but I usually skip). Add the noodles, and douse the whole pan in a mix of fish sauce, lime juice, and sugar. It’s comfort food, but it also zings with acid. Add a fried egg and some Sriracha, and you’ve got lunch for days. Recently on Washingtonian dot com: • It’s been a rough year in the DC area. Here’s how your neighbors have been coming to the aid of one another—and how you can help out, too. • Some DC residents have banded together to get alleys and streets plowed during these days of “snowcrete.” • January’s Potomac sewage spill has been contained, but only after 300 million gallons stuff you don’t want to think about flowed into the waterway. What will this mean going forward? • Meet Coalie, the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement’s not-at-all-bizarre new mascot. • Want to get away? Here are this month’s travel deals for our readers. • Newly opened fitness studios in the area. • Our monthly list of people with whom we’d like to meet up. Local news links: Snowcrete jungle: Some of the people running to replace DC Mayor Muriel Bowser say they would have handled cleanup from our recent storm differently. (Axios DC) Bowser asked National Guard members to help out. (NBC4 Washington) There was no Courthouse farmers market in Arlington this weekend—too much snowcrete. (DC News Now) Arlington’s Megan Moos Detweiler has shoveled out dozens of vehicles in the Fairlington neighborhood to raise money to help immigrant families in Minneapolis. (ARLnow) An unnamed man and a dog named Lyla were rescued in Dumfries this weekend after they got stuck at the bottom of an icy hill. (DC News Now) Fairfax is looking for people to volunteer to shovel out fire hydrants. (WTOP) • Trump would like to build a 250-foot-high triumphal arch in Memorial Circle, obliterating views of the Lincoln Memorial. (Washington Post) • Someone set off firecrackers at the Montgomery Mall food court. No one was injured. (WUSA) • Someone with measles traveled through Dulles on January 24. (Fox5) Correction: This post originally mixed up Portland’s mayor with the name of a former reporter. The post Trump’s Kennedy Center Takeover Is Going So Well That He’s Closing It, Shutdown Returns, Snowcrete Remains first appeared on Washingtonian. ...read more read less