Reading archive 2026-10-02

Proposed 110-foot parking garages draw scrutiny at RFK planning meeting

Why Is Russia Manufacturing a Story About NATO Preparing to Blockade Kaliningrad? - "Months ago, I warned that if Russia decides to attack NATO, it likely wouldn’t begin with a direct attack. Moscow would need a pretext, and Russia is more than capable of manufacturing an attack on its own territory, playing the victim, and claiming it was forced to respond. This is their decades-long playbook. Now Moscow is building a story that NATO is preparing to blockade Russian territory, while European intelligence agencies are warning about possible false flags and military incursions. We don’t know what comes next, but we may be watching Russia write the narrative and prime the information space."

A Western Mass. lesbian bar required KN-95 masks. When it changed the rules, all hell broke loose.: Last Ditch Bar in Greenfield wanted to build community. They got a firestorm instead.

The D.C. Housing Authority faces a major budget gap. A $52 million error could make it worse: The public housing agency is considering cost-cutting measures that could lead to major changes for the 20,000 residents it serves.

Metropolitan Branch Trail Closure for Resurfacing Between Brookland and Fort Totten

The THAAD Delusion: The story of a missile system placed in a role for which it was never intended illuminates the broader challenges facing the U.S. military. - "But the war with Iran has exposed the flaw in this scheme. The THAAD was never designed to protect an entire country. As capable as the system might be, it was created with a narrow mission in mind: to protect U.S. troops in combat for an extremely limited time. The Army, which oversaw air-defense systems like the THAAD, had wanted a system that could fend off an initial wave of missile attacks long enough for U.S. fighter jets and naval destroyers to fully respond. 'What you needed to do was just survive the first salvo, right? Protect your high-value military deployments, the ports, right from the initial salvo, and then we just go destroy them, and the war's over,' John Ferrari, a retired Army major general who supervised the THAAD system when he was the commander of the White Sands Missile Range, told me.

"In the war with Iran, the THAAD has worked precisely as designed-but not at all as promised. The system performed well in the early days of the conflict, intercepting Iranian ballistic missiles with impressive accuracy. But the U.S. has not destroyed many of Iran's missile launchers, and the war is far from over. And despite planning for just such a conflict for two decades, the U.S. failed to take the steps necessary to convert the THAAD into a system that could provide protection for as long as it would be relied upon to do so."

Reading archive 2026-10-01

Mississippi Democrats dare to wonder whether Senate seat is in reach: A Democrat hasn’t won a Senate race in the state since 1982, but a young district attorney has a message for party officials and donors: “If we try, we win these voters.”

Cyclists renew call for bike lanes on Connecticut Ave. in DC: WABA says the lack of protected bike lanes along Connecticut Avenue is a missing piece to the city's cycling infrastructure.

Lost in daydreams? Enraged by chewing sounds? Psychiatry is taking a closer look.: Maladaptive daydreaming, obsessional jealousy and misophonia are now topics of study as social media trends force psychiatrists to rethink their diagnostic “bible.”

Trump’s playing his greatest hits. They don’t work as well as they used to.: With midterm elections a month away, the president is turning the audacity up to 11 as he labors to reverse his party’s decline in the polls.

DC awards new contract to Lyft for Capital Bikeshare operations

D.C. Could Start Issuing a Lot More Parking Tickets Under New Proposal: The bill would let groups hire off-duty DPW officers to issue parking tickets.

Council, WMATA Still at Odds Over Metro for New RFK Stadium: Councilmember Charles Allen worries if transit concerns go unheeded, they may never get addressed.

How D.C. Made Lime Bikes Into a Menace: Micromobility platforms are reforming. It should never have gotten this far. - "To operate in the District, Lime and its competitors have been required to provide poorer customers with unlimited 30-minute rides for a low monthly fee. It’s a well-meaning initiative. But because the services’ age and ID checks have been so porous, it has almost certainly allowed teens and tweens to borrow accounts from their parents, older friends and relatives, then tear through streets for hours on end at no cost."

Trump is taking on D.C.’s mosquitoes: The bloodsuckers have pained city residents for decades. The president announced plans for reducing the population.

How to Destroy a Lesbian Bar: The scourge of COVID led to drive-by whinings disguised as activism. - "This was the moment when I realized that social media had empowered drive-by whinings by sociopaths, and that progressive politics had allowed them to cloak themselves in righteousness. What might once have been recognized as narcissism, jealousy, the result of a personality disorder - or just plain boredom - was now transfigured into 'calling out' those who had erred. The people pointing fingers usually did nothing themselves, apart from complaining, which had the happy side effect that they could never be accused of committing an impure act."