Good morning. Peak bloom is here. Even Stumpy’s clones are flowering. It’ll be sunny and gusty at times today with a high around 78. Rain is possible overnight, with a low near 52. Play ball! The Washington Nationals kick off their new season with a visit to the Cubs. DC Power FC host Tampa Bay Sun FC at Audi Field. The Capitals visit the Utah Mammoth. 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: Ladysmith Black Mambazo, “Sadumela Intozabanye.” The famous South African group plays Strathmore 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: Call them Schrödinger’s talks, maybe? President Trump said last night that Iran is talking to the US and wants to make a peace deal “but they’re afraid to say it.” (USA Today) Also last night, Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said, “No negotiations have happened with the enemy until now, and we do not plan on any negotiations.” (AP) Araghchi said Iran had reviewed messages passed to it by intermediaries but that doing so “is not called negotiation or dialogue.” (Reuters) Someone who does want an end to the war, apparently, is Trump, who reportedly told “an associate” that the war he started “was distracting from his other priorities.” (WSJ) US allies in Europe say Trump’s shifting statements about the war are “so confusing that any effort to help in reopening the Strait of Hormuz remains deadlocked.” (Politico) It’s not just Europeans who aren’t that into this war. Two more polls show that the administration has failed to convince most Americans that the war is necessary. 58 percent of people polled by Fox News oppose the war. (Fox News) Quinnipiac found that 54 percent of Americans oppose it. (Quinnipiac) US Representative Mike Rogers of Alabama, a Republican who chairs the House Armed Services Committee, said Congress is “just not getting enough answers” from the administration about war aims and options. (Politico) Republican lawmakers criticized the administration for pausing sanctions on Russian and Iranian oil. (NYT) D’oh! J: The Department of Justice is in the news today. US Representative Jamie Raskin of Maryland said DOJ may have accidentally released to Congress a memo by former special counsel Jack Smith that alleged Trump showed a highly classified map to passengers on his plane in 2022. (Washington Post) Some of the other documents Trump took from the White House after his 2020 loss to Joe Biden were “pertinent to his business interests,” Smith wrote. (NBC News) Republicans in Congress voted to release classified transcripts DOJ requested for its probe of former CIA Director John Brennan, “a move that signals the Trump administration is advancing a possible criminal case” against one of Trump’s perceived enemies. (Washington Examiner) Despite previous attempts to prosecute New York Attorney General Letitia James going kerblooey, Federal Housing Finance Agency director Bill Pulte asked federal prosecutors in Florida and Illinois to look into mortgage fraud allegations against her made on social media. (MS Now) Finally, DOJ has settled a lawsuit by Trump ally Michael Flynn for $1.2 million. (AP) Outside the lines: The Department of Homeland Security remains shut down, and airport travelers are seeing the “highest wait times in TSA history,” TSA Administrator Ha Nguyen McNeill told Congress yesterday. (USA Today) ICE personnel are now checking IDs at some airports. (NYT) Talks on the Hill to reopen the department went nowhere yesterday, and US senators “badly want to leave town for a scheduled two-week recess.” (Punchbowl News) “An overwhelming sense of frustration and despair has overtaken Congress” regarding the situation. (Politico) GOP bigs are “at a loss over how to end the 40-day-long impasse.” (NOTUS) Republicans are also beginning to acknowledge that the SAVE America Act, a voter-ID bill that Trump wants, won’t happen and may try to tie some of its provisions to a DHS funding deal. (NYT) Administration perambulation: The US Postal Service will impose an 8 percent fuel-cost-related surcharge on packages beginning next month. (WSJ) Federal prosecutors said in court this week that they had “erroneously relied on an ICE memo to justify arrests at immigration courthouses.” (NBC News) Florida Republicans are getting nervous about gerrymandering the state following two Democratic flips. (Politico) The White House has delayed naming a leader for the CDC because it’s having trouble “finding a nominee who aligns with” Health Secretary RFK Jr.‘s MAHA thing. (NYT) Speaking of MAHA, Casey Means, Trump’s nominee to be surgeon general, doesn’t have enough Republican votes in the Senate to get confirmed. (WSJ) Remember the Mark Twain humor prize the White House said Bill Maher wouldn’t get? The Kennedy Center, which Trump controls and slapped his name on, will announce today that he’ll receive it after all. (Politico) DOJ Civil Rights Division chief Harmeet Dhillon tweeted a photo of herself signing a letter that appears to tell an Ohio medical school it’s under investigation, something the department has yet to announce. (Democracy Docket) Hidden Eats, by Ike Allen: Photo by Ike Allen. Sharing a Fairfax strip mall with the excellent Chinese supermarket 99 Ranch is WOW Nepal, a welcoming new Himalayan restaurant. Pungent, spicy grilled meat dishes like choila and sekuwa are served in big steel woks with Nepali pickles, sliced raw veggies, peanuts, and chiura (flat-pounded toasted rice flakes). Mix them all together for one perfect, crunchy bite. Recently on Washingtonian dot com: • Ramen, oysters, tapas: Here are the best places to eat and drink near the National Mall—and the only spot actually on the Mall where you can enjoy a glass of wine. Local news links: • The House passed a bill yesterday that would extend Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops in DC until the end of his term, which Siri tells me is 1,031 days and many hundreds of editions of this newsletter from today. (Washington Post) • Charging documents say a US Park Police officer was shot in DC while following someone who had been arrested for drug possession and released. (WTOP) The shooting suspects are brothers Asheile Foster and Darren Foster. (NBC4 Washington) Investigators say a camera caught the shooting. (WUSA9) • Professional cornhole player and quadruple amputee Dayton James Webber “got into a heated argument” with a passenger in his Tesla before he shot him twice in the head, according to court documents. (WUSA9) • Fairfax police accuse an area family of selling illegal marijuana, synthetic urine, and magic mushrooms through vape shops up and down the East Coast. (NBC4 Washington) • GSA sold an office building in Southwest DC to a local developer. (WTOP) • Police in Fauquier County arrested family members of a Warrenton Town Council member who they say stole campaign signs. The signs promoted a recall initiative against the council member, and their owners say they put AirTags inside the signs after the were repeatedly nicked. (Fox 5) • People listed as contributors to the DC Council campaign of Khalil Lee say they never donated to the candidate. (WAMU) • The city of Alexandria has abandoned plans for a pump house to mitigate flooding after the National Park Service scotched a plan to build one. (Alexandria Times) • Bang mi? Someone reportedly left a grenade in the Eden Center’s parking lot yesterday. (DC News Now) • DC Water will inspect the troubled Potomac Interceptor pipe via drone today. (WTOP) Thursday’s event picks: • The musical “Young John Lewis: Prodigy of Protest” opens at Mosaic Theater. • The Pink Beats electronic music festival embarks upon its maiden voyage at Water Park in National Landing. • Celebrate the cherry blossoms at the Riggs Hotel’s Pink White Party. See more picks from Briana Thomas, who writes our Things to Do newsletter.The post Peak Bloom Is Here; Are We in Talks With Iran? Who Knows; AirTags Reportedly Foil Sign-Stealing Caper first appeared on Washingtonian. ...read more read less