Good morning. March once again reminds us it’s in charge today: Rainy and windy this morning, with a high around 61 that will drop to around 40 later in the day. Gusty overnight, with a low near 33. In better news, the cherry blossoms at the Tidal Basin have reached the peduncle elongation stage. 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: Lady Gaga, “Paparazzi.” Well, good luck getting this one out of your head today. Lady Gaga plays the first of two shows at Capital One Arena 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: President Trump backed off a threat to bomb Iran’s power plants, saying his administration had had “productive” talks with Tehran. (WSJ) Iran on Monday threatened to strike energy facilities throughout the Middle East if Trump carried through with his threat, which he conditioned on Iran opening the Strait of Hormuz. It also said it would mine the Persian Gulf if US and Israeli forces attempted any ground warfare. (AP) The Pentagon said Friday it would send thousands of Marines to the region. (WSJ) Iran on Friday struck the US-UK base Diego Garcia, in the Indian Ocean, with ICBMs that could reach Europe. (WSJ) Stock futures fell and oil prices rose due to Trump’s threats. (CNBC) The average price of a gallon of gas in the US rose to $3.956. (AAA) The war is now in its fourth week. Despite heavy bombardment from the US and Israel, Iran’s regime has leveraged its dominion over the strait to remain in power. (Washington Post) With regard to the strait, Trump’s “erratic strategy has fueled criticism that he is grasping for answers after going to war without a clear exit plan.” (AP) US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent argued yesterday that Americans are “beginning to understand” that higher gas prices for the next couple of months are a reasonable price to pay for Trump’s war. (New York Post) ICE to see you: ICE personnel will appear in US airports today, purportedly to help with TSA operations as the Department of Homeland Security remains shut down. (NYT) Trump ordered the move to put pressure on Democrats, who want reforms to ICE before they’ll fund the department. His announcement, made via his social media site, “caught officials at ICE off guard and they have been scrambling to come up with a plan to enforce it.” (CBS News) Trump also ordered Republicans not to make a deal with Democrats. (Punchbowl News) Nonetheless, negotiations continued last week, and lawmakers face a potential bad look if they leave town this Friday for the Passover and Easter recess without making a deal on DHS. (Politico) US Senator Markwayne Mullin‘s nomination to lead DHS proceeded yesterday via a Senate vote. (Axios) Related: When he ran DHS alongside now-fired Trump loyalist Kristi Noem, Corey Lewandowski “used his perch to build an expansive portfolio in which he had wide influence over personnel, contracts and the department’s operations on the ground.” (NYT) Mueller dies: Former FBI Director Robert Mueller died Friday. He was 81. (AP) Trump posted a typically classy reaction: “Good, I’m glad he’s dead.” (NYT) Former Washingtonian Editor Garrett Graff remembers Mueller, who he’d interviewed extensively. (Doomsday Scenario) Administration perambulation: Trump installed a statue of Christopher Columbus outside the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. (Washington Post) He offered administration jobs to a Colorado Republican candidate and her husband on the condition that they drop out of the race and support US Representative Jeff Hurd, whose reelection Trump previously opposed. (CNN) The US Supreme Court will take up mail-in voting, a particular obsession of Trump’s, today. (NBC News) Related: Chad Bianco, a GOP candidate for governor in California and the sheriff of Riverside County, seized hundreds of thousands of ballots from a special election last fall for what he characterized as a “fact-finding mission.” (AP) Some of the names of police officers who helped defend the US Capitol from a riot by Trump’s fans on January 6, 2021, are missing from a plaque GOP leadership grudgingly installed in the complex. (Washington Post) A federal judge in DC ruled that the Pentagon’s new rules for press coverage are illegal. DOD plans to appeal. (AP) A survey shows that under Trump, federal employees have become “disengaged, demoralized and less effective at serving the public.” (Partnership for Public Service) Kennedy Center board member Paolo Zampolli told ICE his ex-girlfriend, with whom he was locked in a custody battle, was in the US illegally. She was deported. (NYT) Remember North Carolina gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson? He admitted that it was, indeed, him who posted on porn message boards. (CNN) The administration sued Harvard Friday, claiming the university hadn’t adequately addressed antisemitism on campus. (Politico) Daniel Flickinger, one of DOJ’s lawyers on the case, resigned from an Alabama law firm after a weird post he made on Facebook, apparently about George Floyd, came to light. (Law Dork) FEMA official Gregg Phillips claimed he can teleport, a skill he used to visit a Waffle House. (Mirror) The Best Thing I Ate Last Week, by Ann Limpert: Photograph by Tim Robison. The interior of Chai Pani, the hyper-color Indian hotspot at Union Market, is about as maximalist as it gets. And so is its rendition of bhel puri, the ubiquitous puffed-rice-based chaat (here, they call it “disco bhel”). Crunch comes in many forms—corn flakes, bits of fried bread, chickpea noodles and crisps, and peanuts—and everything is tossed with vibrant tamarind and minty green chutney. It’s a riot of flavor, and yet so cohesive it almost eats like a palate cleanser. (1325 Fifth St, NE.) Recently on Washingtonian dot com: • Friday night’s opening of Polymarket’s bar the Situation Room didn’t exactly go according to plan: power and internet issues meant there wasn’t a lot of situation monitoring to be done. • The guitarist Island Styles, who was raised in this area, told us about his new Oscar. • Megan Wilkerson, DC’s “Bug Lady,” talks about making entomology fun. • Embrace the season and take a cherry blossom tour. Local news links: The street hereafter: The administration ordered the removal of a protected bike lane on 15th Street, Northwest, near the National Mall, enraging local cyclists. Work will begin today. (The 51st) Since the lanes were installed in 2021, they dramatically reduced crashes for all users and “bicycle injury crashes decreased by 91 percent.” (Washington Post) Cyclists protested over the weekend. (DC News Now) The Washington Area Bicyclist Association has filed a lawsuit. There’s another rally planned at noon today. (WABA) DC doesn’t have jurisdiction over that stretch of road. Mayor Muriel Bowser said their removal would “place more pressure on already crowded sidewalks and roadways.” • Police in Prince George’s County found and disabled “five suspicious devices resembling pipe bombs” in Fort Washington Park. (Fox 5) • Police in Fairfax say Rodney Johnson led them on a chase, then assaulted officers with bear spray. (WTOP) • Schools in DC and Prince George’s named for Cesar Chavez may change their names. (WTOP) • Arlington’s water may taste weird this week. (ARLnow) • Alex Ovechkin scored his 1,000th career goal yesterday. (Fox 5)The post Trump Takes a DC Bike Lane, Chickens Out of Bombing Iranian Power Plants, Installs Statue of Columbus first appeared on Washingtonian. ...read more read less