Last year Congress blew a $1.1 billion hole in DC's budget. Now they're trying to do it again. Two new bills are attempting to take away nearly $700M of DC's own local tax money. They're anti-democratic, anti-family, and wrong. Here are four ways you can help stop them: freedcproject.org/money

Mayor Bowser presents: an incessant, irritating noise emanating from the city’s center

NEW: Howard Lutnick, the billionaire who serves as President Trump’s commerce secretary, planned a visit to Epstein’s island in 2012. Lutnick previously claimed that he was so revolted by Epstein that he had cut ties with him years earlier. 1/6 www.nytimes.com/2026/01/30/u...

For nearly a century, the @washingtonpost’s foreign correspondents have been on the ground for the world’s most pressing stories. Now, our desk is facing potential steep cuts. Washington needs us. The world needs us. If you read us and need us, please watch this video and share.

Wait why do his statements use that typeface? I thought I could look forward to the typeface going away

It seems quaint to recognize the obvious Hatch Act problem: the U.S. pardon attorney tweeted a photo from his government account, then retweeted it from his personal account with a call to buy his (disgraced) friend’s book. This isn’t clever! Don’t use your position to sell products!

In which experienced front-line staff bypass their malicious management and plead with an ignorant owner to please not destroy the ruins of this company.

Between September and November, the District lost 19,000 jobs, bringing total employment to 739,200. Despite these losses, District residents didn’t fare as badly as resident employment remains 1.8% above pre-pandemic levels. Read more about the latest job report: ora-cfo.dc.gov/blog/what-do...

Deploying troops in our communities threatens our civil rights and safety. Tell your Senators to support the Military in Law Enforcement Accountability Act at aclu.org/troops-not_police

There's a city snowplow stuck in the snow at 28th and cathedral. The driver spun wheels for 40 minutes and has now abandoned the vehicle (and snowbound residents). Presumably until the spring thaw. Street is impassable.

It’s weird to see on this list Janna Levin, the black hole physicist. Sure, black hole physics offers a new perspective for network news, but what a bleak message to viewers: You are an arrangement of massive particles that may one day be destroyed by the overwhelming force of a black hole.

“Plowed” means a street is marked as such on a map, but it also means the street is passable. We have a gap between results and expectations. And we have junk-grade data that cannot account for the difference. In fairness, we also have a hellish mess of weather to clean up. Got to learn from it.

NEW: A Texas county medical examiner found that Geraldo Lunas Campos was choked to death by a guard while he was held in ICE custody earlier this month. Geraldo is the sixth person to die in ICE detention this year.

Real, "You can't kill us all" energy on display here. (Also, weird, I was told using a vehicle as a weapon was cause for summary execution!)

Deplorable stenography from the Post today. The dateline says this was written from Minneapolis, but the story lacks evidence of any on-the-ground reporting. It reads more like a summary of viral video and press statements. No insight or news judgment. For the vaunted news side, this is a low.

Worth noting that one reason you’re benefitting so fully from the Star-Tribune’s timely, extensive coverage of unfolding events is that it’s a metro newspaper that hasn’t been systematically starved to further enrich shareholders and executives.

You did not bear the shame. You resisted. You bestowed the eternally vigilant symbol of change by sacrificing your impassioned lives for freedom, justice and honour. — The German Resistance Memorial in Berlin

Here are DC’s Snow Emergency Routes. Do not park your car here after 12pm on Saturday. You will block snow plows, and your vehicle will be ticketed and towed at your own expense. ❄️⛔️

“The whole thing is fucking senseless." A DC National Guard member is speaking out against President Trump’s domestic military deployments, saying they are dangerous for both service members and the communities they're deployed in. Troops have no place policing our streets.

Even amid public media cuts and political setbacks, state-level support for local news is growing. New tax credits and funding programs show momentum is shifting closer to home. From @dankennedy.net via @poynterinstitute.bsky.social: www.poynter.org/business-wor...

GAO report finds use of Coast Guard in crackdown on migrants hurt its ability to intercept illegal drugs being smuggled into country. www.tampabay.com/news/florida... via @tampabaytimes.bsky.social

In a long, scathing interview, a member of the DC National Guard accuses the Trump administration of "parading [us] around to intimidate people." He talks candidly about what his deployment has been like.

New affront to DC home rule just dropped. Attention-seeking Republican Congresswoman—no, not that one, and not that other one either—introduces federal legislation to ban ex-offenders from working for DC as employees or contractors. So much for violence interrupters, second chances, and local govt

Judge Novak rules that Lindsay Halligan is too inexperienced to be referred to the bar for attorney discipline. I think this is deeply wrong. Lawyers have an ethical duty of competence. Inexperience cannot be an excuse. Trump’s lackeys are fucking up, but the legal profession is failing.

“Imagine the chaos.”

Minnesotans having fun in the snow. Fuck ICE!

I come from a family that taught me to make a way out of no way. It’s a grit rooted in family, in faith, and in being from DC.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

Dessin de Michael de Adder pour The Globe and Mail

It’s all right there in the kicker:

This will require starting over. We will need a new birth as a country, a new origin story providing a basis for multiracial liberal democracy. Time to break free of the past. Obviously, we must first escape from this nightmarish present.

My verdict: Reggie Jackson (the Hall of Fame baseball player) gets a pass for still being on Xitter, simply because his handle there is “MrOctober”. Now about that bitmoji…

Interested in a response to this from - well - the entire economics profession, who lined up to say that whatever else happened, the tariffs would be highly inflationary. And then when that inflation didn't materialise, that it was coming, it was just going to take a while. Where is it?

"Cities are bidding more and more billions of dollars to secure stadium deals" is pretty obvious in the wake of the Chiefs and Commanders deals; "cities need to bid more and more billions of dollars to secure stadium deals" is a very different thing.

Remember when public figures would deliver carefully worded statements, and an equally thoughtful audience would parse the statements to assess the intended meaning?

DC Housing Authority does not have: ❌ a CFO (she quit) ❌ an internal auditor (she was put on leave after recommending a forensic audit) ❌ “$6 million of cash recorded in the general ledger that did not exist at the bank” ❌ financial statements on which independent auditors will give an opinion 😵 😵 😵

DCHA placed its internal auditor on leave after months of conflict with leadership. She alleges retaliation in a whistleblower lawsuit; DCHA sources cite alleged threats and mistreatment of employees. Full story:

Weird to be commemorating the 250th anniversary of the Am Rev while living under a government that has a) sent armed troops to occupy cities perceived to be too rebellious, b) rendered largely irrelevant the representative branch of government, and c) claimed imperial right to rule other countries.

So a CBS Evening News reporter actually did a pretty solid breakdown of the ICE murder video, talking to a former agent who details all the ways Ross messed up. And yet: It didn’t air on the actual show tonight. CBS did post it to YouTube—and it has nearly 800k views already youtu.be/6ywLEESFDu0?...

Trump plans to make his ballroom addition as tall as the White House itself

Reporters with @nytimes.com challenged Trump on his recent claims that there's been no homicides in D.C. in recent months, but he pleaded ignorance on homicides that are regularly reported by the press and MPD.

The National Capital Planning Commission will receive a presentation about the Epstein Ballroom today. Meeting starts at 1PM EST. Based on the length of the agenda, I'd expect the ballroom discussion to begin at 3PM. The commission will not vote on the project and so there is no public comment.

sign of the times D.C. Bar Legal Ethics Opinion 391: Lawyers and Law Firms That Contemplate Agreeing with Governments to Conditions That May Limit or Shape Their Law Practices

Regarding today’s shooting in Minneapolis, recall that in mid-October a federal agent shot and almost killed D.C. driver Phillip Brown under similar circumstances. The agent claimed Brown was driving towards him as he tried to flee from a police stop.

The “prosecute the former regime at every level” candidate has my vote in 2028.

a central claimed animating premise of the ICE roundups is that this is a nation of laws and the law must be enforced. Why is ICE itself above the law?

Creator of ‘Housing First’ model for homeless says DC’s version misses the mark buff.ly/LMYfiXW

Tony Dokoupil says: “Florida, once an American punchline, has become a leader on the world stage.” Fact check: true! Florida leads on a world stage being gradually engulfed by a rising sea, while hungry alligators stalk human prey from backwards-flowing sewers. A paradise, and still a punchline.

Our Local Reporting Network is open again for proposals! We're looking for accountability journalism projects from around the country. We cover your salary (up to $80k plus a stipend for benefits) plus provide editing and other support. Apply here:

Grabbing Bluesky with both hands and shaking it like a vending machine until the good news which is apparently stuck inside somewhere drops out the chute