Good morning. Sunny and gusty today, with a high around 39. A low near 24 overnight. 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: Mdou Moct ar, “Funeral for Justice (Injustice Version).” Last year, the Nigerien guitarist and singer Mdou Moctar released “Tears of Injustice,” an acoustic reimagining of 2024’s “Funeral for Justice” recorded when he and his band were stuck in the US during the 2023 coup d’etat back home. He’ll play a solo show at the Atlantis tonight, and I can’t recommend enough that you see him live. 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. Where do you like to go? Typically, we’re the ones giving readers travel recommendations. But this year, we’re asking you to share your opinions too. Nominate your favorite place to stay in our travel survey. Your picks could end up in the May issue. Here’s some administration news you might have blocked out: Frickin’ laser beams: The FAA’s extraordinary closure of airspace over El Paso yesterday came in response to Customs and Border Patrol officials using a laser beam near Fort Bliss to shoot down what turned out to be a party balloon. [I just paused to take in that sentence. Okay, let’s move on.] Administration officials repeatedly claimed they had fired upon a drone operated by Mexican cartels. Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, said her government hadn’t observed cartels flying drones at the border, contrary to frequent claims by administration officials. (NYT) The FAA didn’t alert the White House before shutting down flights to and from El Paso. Travel resumed after furor from local officials. (CBS News) Meanwhile in federal law enforcement news: The Department of Homeland Security placed the CBP agent who shot Chicagoan Marimar Martinez five times last October on leave. (Chicago Sun-Times) Newly released evidence in Martinez’s case appears to contradict the administration’s accounts of why Charles Exum opened fire on her. (NBC News) The IRS improperly shared the tax data of tens of thousands of people with DHS, which claims it needs the data for immigration enforcement. President Trump is suing the IRS, which he oversees, over a contractor’s illegal release of his tax records. (Washington Post) An immigration court judge in Chicago, acting on what he said was information presented by DHS lawyers, ordered a man cleared of charges last month that he plotted to kill onetime CPB commander Gregory Bovino to remain in detention. (Chicago Sun-Times) The government claimed it lost three hard drives onto which a court had ordered it to copy surveillance footage from an immigration facility near Chicago. (404 Media) DHS is probably headed toward a shutdown after a White House proposal for reforms to immigration enforcement appeared not to impress congressional Democrats. (Punchbowl News) General disorder: Attorney General Pam Bondi refused to answer Democrats’ questions during a wild hearing in the House yesterday. Bondi said she was “not going to put up” with attacks on Trump, pointed to the stock market when asked about DOJ’s handling of files regarding the deceased, disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, and said US Representative Jamie Raskin was “not even a lawyer.” (Raskin is in fact a lawyer and taught Constitutional law for decades.) (AP) Bondi refused to acknowledge Epstein survivors at the hearing. (CNBC) She also refused to discuss connections (which her department recently disclosed) between Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Epstein. (Politico) Bondi, formerly Florida’s AG, “dropped the ball on investigating Epstein and his abuse of children in Florida a long time ago.” (The Epstein Files by Julie K. Brown) Newly released documents show Bondi gave a bogus explanation last year about why a minute of video disappeared from surveillance footage from the night Epstein died in jail. (CBS News) More from Congress: The House passed a “largely symbolic” rebuke of Trump’s tariffs against Canada, with six GOP representatives joining Democrats. (Washington Post) Democrats plan more votes that will likely “force many Republicans to choose between protecting their tariff-hit districts and pleasing their MAGA voter bases.” (Politico) The House also passed a voter-ID bill that has no chance in the Senate. (NYT) Administration perambulation: The administration quietly withdrew federalized National Guard troops from LA, Chicago, and Portland, Oregon. But they’ll stick around in DC, where they’re “under a nonfederal status.” (Washington Post) Gallup said it would stop measuring presidential approval. Trump’s approval rating was 37 percent in December. (The Hill) Not a single grand juror in DC voted to indict six Democratic lawmakers, the latest courthouse failure of Trump’s retribution campaign. (NBC News) One of the prosecutors in that case, Steven Vandervelden, has no prosecutorial experience and runs a dance-photography studio. (Bloomberg Law) The administration fired a US Attorney in New York’s Northern District after judges installed him; the previous Trump-installed occupant, courts found, was in the job illegally. (NYT) The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau fired an employee who confronted workers from Elon Musk‘s DOGE project during an incursion into her agency last year. (Bloomberg) Andrew Paul Johnson, a January 6 rioter Trump pardoned, “has been convicted of multiple state charges of child molestation and exposing himself to children” in Florida. (NPR) Trump re-invited Democratic governors to a White House meeting planned for tomorrow. It’s kind of hard to summarize the verbal gymnastics involved. (NYT) Hidden Eats, by Ike Allen: Photo by Ike Allen. Celery is a workhorse, but it usually stays out of the spotlight. The stalwart stalk gets to star in at least one dish, though: the traditional Persian stew called khoresh karafs. A rich, mildly tart rendition, with braised lengths of celery bobbing beside tender cubes of beef, was a special item one recent evening at Gourmet Bazaar, a smorgasbord of a new Iranian supermarket in Rockville. Freshly roasted nuts, dried fruits, house-baked breads, herbs, and blocks of feta in brine are reason enough to shop here, but the hot food counter also serves an exciting range of Persian dishes beyond the kabob. Also tasty: ash reshteh (a springy soup of beans, greens, and noodles), ghormeh sabzi (herb-and-bean stew), and sosis bandari (a sub sandwich filled with tomatoey chopped sausage links). (736-A Rockville Pike, Rockville.) Recently on Washingtonian dot com: • In so many ways, Elon Musk’s doomed “hyperloop” project was a harbinger of his time in Washington years later. • A short history of how Black History Month sprang from an idea hatched in DC by Carter G. Woodson 100 years ago this month. • The Washington Post, which instituted massive layoffs last week, says it “inadvertently” re-ran a months-old story in print yesterday. • Raw sewage is still flowing into the Potomac. A region-wide potty break during halftime of the Super Bowl did not help matters. • Civic, a new cafe and bar on Capitol Hill, aims to be the same type of clubhouse to the left that Butterworth’s is to the right. Local news links: • Congress passed a measure yesterday that’s likely to cost the District $600 million in anticipated tax revenue. Like many US states did, DC had opted out of certain Trump tax cuts. (WTOP) The move will cause chaos, DC Council Chairman Phil Mendelson told lawmakers, including forcing TurboTax to rewrite software for DC residents. (Martin Austermuhle/X) • The Kennedy Center revamp is going well: The administration sidelined top Kennedy Center fundraiser Lisa Dale, a close friend of Kari Lake whose lackluster results and reportedly weird performance in the job “compounds problems for an already struggling institution.” (Politico) Kennedy Center President Ric Grenell warned staffers of job cuts should the center close for two-year-long renovations in July, as Trump plans. (Washington Post) The inside story of the Washington National Opera’s split with the center. (Washington Post) • Now former Washington Post CEO Will Lewis appears to have made $3 million a year in the job. (The Gene Pool) • The teen accused of shooting a fellow student inside Wootton High School ran home afterward and tried to hide a gun in his backyard, prosecutors said. (Washington Post) The 16-year-old is being held in an adult facility without bond; his lawyers say he was “not the initial aggressor.” (WUSA9) • A member of the US Marshals Service shot and killed a man in Northeast DC yesterday. Authorities say the deceased person was suspected of robbing a convenience store and pointed a gun at cops. (Washington Post) • A shooting in Glover Park yesterday claimed the life of a woman and injured her 12-year-old daughter. The suspect was found dead later—at his own hand, police say. (DC News Now) The suspect’s three-year-old son was found later in Maryland. (Fox Baltimore) • A driver cops say was fumbling for an EZ-Pass drove onto a ramp made by snowcrete and was propelled through the air onto Metro tracks near the Dunn Loring station. (WTOP) • How Compass Coffee’s dream of becoming the next Starbucks hit the rocks. (Washington Post) • Former federal prosecutor and Jack Smith deputy J.P. Cooney will run for Congress as a Democrat in one of Virginia’s likely to be redrawn new districts. (Washington Post) • Convicted squatter Tamieka Goode has reportedly returned to the Bethesda mansion where her legal odyssey began. (Fox Baltimore) • RIP William Newman Jr., the first Black member of Arlington’s County Board, a retired judge, and Wakefield High School alumnus. (ARLnow) • J. Cole was apparently driving around Silver Spring last night playing new music for people he picked up. (J. Cole/X) Thursday’s event picks: • National Gallery Nights returns. • Dende plays Pearl Street Warehouse. See more picks for this week and weekend from Briana Thomas, who writes our Things to Do newsletter.The post Congress Blows Up DC’s Tax Season, the Kennedy Center Is in Chaos, and Frickin’ Laser Beams Are in the News first appeared on Washingtonian. ...read more read less