Reading archive 2026-06-08

Trump’s plan for golf course threatens pillar of D.C. cycling culture: For more than three decades, an eclectic mix of bikers has been gathering daily for the “Noon Ride.” Now they worry it could end.

Yet More Damning Revelations About Graham Platner: Voters may be questioning the Senate candidate’s claims that he is a changed man.

Maine Has a Graham Platner Problem: Are we really going to do this again?

Reading archive 2026-04-24

The Post Tries to Regroup: After announcing major cuts, the paper is delaying layoffs and attempting to hire back former staffers.

Trump Started a War With D.C.'s Cyclists. It’s Part of a Bigger Car-Centric Agenda.: The portion of the bike lane is safe for now thanks to court intervention, but it’s emblematic of a broader push against bike infrastructure across the country.

After a GOP loss in Virginia, a push to make D.C. square again: On the heels of a redistricting referendum, a Georgia congressman proposed a bill to return parts of Northern Virginia to the District.

Elon Musk’s near-daily online posts about race are turning off some fans: The billionaire posted 850 times on the topic in recent months, almost triple the rate for the previous two years.

What the Michael Jackson movie leaves out: “Michael” was reshot to exclude scenes that would have addressed the 1993 sexual abuse allegations against Jackson.

Reading archive 2026-04-22

Trump got his regime change in Canada. Now he may regret it.: Canada's prime minister secures a parliamentary majority and a stronger political hand. - "There’s the costly need to satisfy Quebeckers, brilliantly leveraging their inextinguishable separatist inclinations for more and more privilege, and historically standing in the way of an oil pipeline to the east. Add, now, Alberta’s malcontents, a minority (for the time being) that, wishing for a pipeline to anywhere, is pushing its own separatist cause. And, too, the Indigenous who, like Quebeckers, must constantly and expensively be placated but who, note, also play a vital role of opposition in a way that no party in Parliament actually can. First Nations here are able to challenge laws about resources, the environment and, most problematically, property title on the basis of treaties not respected and Indigenous rights that Canada is legally obliged to respect."

Scoop: NSA using Anthropic's Mythos despite blacklist

The Tech Oligarch's Republic: A look at the Palantir manifesto, a logical conclusion of the War on Terror - "You will notice the summarized thesis of The Technological Republic is one that will line Palantir's pockets while presenting that fleecing as a strategic imperative, even a moral one. That much is par for the course for the military-industrial complex. But because Palantir is talking about AI dominance, embracing its perspective creates a national-security dependency on AI purveyors and on the providers of the interfacing tier between the government and AI, like Palantir's Maven Smart System. That is not par for the course for the military-industrial complex, which has for seven decades operated as a self-dealing partnership, not a dominance battle. The February clash between Anthropic and the Defense Department is the result of the discomfort that goes along with the dawning AI dependency."

D.C. lawmakers punt another vote to extend emergency youth curfew: While council members advanced a long-term version of a youth curfew, they couldn’t reach consensus on an emergency measure that would allow it to take effect immediately.

DC Council passes permanent youth curfew on first vote, sets second vote: An 11 p.m. curfew for those under 18 passed 8-5 in the first vote. It still requires a second vote and congressional review to become law.

2-year-old boy found safe after mother is shot to death in Northwest DC: The child was reported missing after his mother was shot to death in an alley during an argument.

Federal judge’s order allows popular D.C. bike lanes to remain: The Federal Highway Administration argued that the 15th Street lanes should be removed to improve traffic in preparation for celebrations of America’s 250th anniversary.

Is having separate bank accounts hurting your marriage?: Joint accounts are becoming less common. But couples who don’t pool their resources can end up erecting a wall in their relationship.

You’re probably washing your pants wrong. Here’s how to do it right.: Air-drying pants or using a no- or low-heat dryer setting is the best way to make sure they keep looking good and last a long time.

Before cutting off a family member, ask yourself these 9 questions: For some, distance is necessary. For others, the harder — and sometimes more meaningful — work is figuring out how to stay.

Why these treatments for one of the deadliest cancers are stirring such hope: Pancreatic cancer has stymied treatment advances for decades. Data from new clinical trials shows promise.

Campus dinners aim to repair Black-Jewish alliance, frayed by the Gaza war: At the Unity Dinners, students engage in word games and frank talk. Pittsburgh will host a dinner this week, with a tour of civil rights sites also on the menu.

Campus dinners aim to repair Black-Jewish alliance, frayed by the Gaza war: At the Unity Dinners, students engage in word games and frank talk. Pittsburgh will host a dinner this week, with a tour of civil rights sites also on the menu.

Reading archive 2024-12-11

Bike lanes are consuming our streets and parking spaces: Readers push back against pesky bike lanes in D.C. and around the country.

Bikes deserve just as much of a place in the road as cars: Readers contest Marc Fisher’s column about the real purpose for D.C.’s new bike lanes.

Bowser, GOP lawmakers forge unlikely alliance over return-to-office mandate: Bowser’s first test before emboldened GOP representatives focused on federal workers and funding for inauguration security.

Luigi Mangione ‘had so much to offer’ — now, he is a murder suspect: “As I knew him, he was a creator, not a taker of life,” one former classmate said of the man charged in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

Severe pain shaped UnitedHealth CEO murder suspect’s view of health system: Luigi Mangione described his struggles with back issues on Reddit and vented frustration over health-care industry.

Footage shows Mark Gastineau still prickly with Brett Favre over sack: The matter arose in an ESPN documentary, prompting the former quarterback to say “there was no malice on my part” toward the Jets lineman.

Trump’s fake-it-till-you-make-it autocracy: Get rid of all permitting? Unwind birthright citizenship? Easy-peasy, if you pretend the myriad laws preventing such moves don’t exist.

Foster advocacy group disputes that arrested member assaulted Rep. Nancy Mace: The foster advocacy group says the man simply shook hands with the congresswoman.

Progress on inflation stalled in November as prices rose: Prices rose by 2.7 percent annually in November, up slightly from earlier in the fall.

All the light we would rather not see: Light pollution is bad for our health and the environment. But turning off a few switches can help.

The upcoming housing battle that could roil mortgage costs even more: The first Trump administration tried to remove two mortgage giants, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, from government control. The second one might finish the job.

There’s something scarier than rising costs behind Trump’s victory: A broader dissatisfaction with liberal market democracy is churning up authoritarianism around the world. - "The economic interpretation of voters’ embrace of Trump is suspect not just because it is so narrow. For all the polls demonstrating Americans’ grim assessment of the economy, consumers have kept up spending as if they have few worries in the world. For all the gripes about the cost of living, real wages for typical American workers have been rising faster than inflation."

EPA Issues Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to Protect Salmon from Chemical Used in Rubber Products: EPA advances process under Toxic Substances Control Act in response to Tribal petition - "For example, there are data showing that 6PPD-quinone is toxic to fish, with coho salmon being the most sensitive species studied to date. However, there are still uncertainties about the potential impacts of 6PPD-quinone on human health, as well as the potential for exposure from other sources of 6PPD-quinone."

RFK Jr. wants fluoride out of drinking water. Oregon shows what’s coming.

How Trump’s tariffs could spark a trade war and ‘Europe’s worst economic nightmare’: European countries could be among those hardest hit if Trump follows through on tariffs. The European Union says it wants to negotiate but is prepared to retaliate.

Ukraine races to develop its own long-range weapons to counter Russia: Troops have demonstrated their skill with long-range drones by hitting deep inside Russia, but experts say they need the punch and power of ballistic missiles, as well.

Afghan blast kills key minister, shocking Taliban: Khalil Haqqani was the acting minister for refugees and a key member of the notorious Haqqani network.

CIA official Asif Rahman pleads not guilty in leak of secret files on Israel: U.S. District Judge Patricia Tolliver Giles ordered pretrial detention for Rahman, 34, finding that he posed a risk to national security.

Report finds ‘substantial evidence’ Trayon White violated D.C. code of conduct: Council members will meet Monday to consider sanctioning White based on the findings — which could result in White’s expulsion from the council.

Susan Smith, who drowned her sons in 1994, is denied parole. Here’s what to know.: Smith spent 30 years in prison for murdering her two sons by driving them into a lake in a case that drew worldwide attention.

Reading archive 2024-11-20

Gays Who Lived Through Anne-Imelda Radice's Tenure as NEA "Decency Czar" Aren't Celebrating Her Gay Wedding

Bill to give D.C. control over RFK site passes key milestone in Senate: For D.C. to offer the Commanders a stadium deal in the city, Congress must act soon.

Head of elite D.C. preschool arrested on child sex charge in FBI sting: James S. Carroll of National Child Research Center is accused of instructing an online undercover officer in how to abuse a young child

Mouth taping may help with snoring and sleep apnea. Here’s how to do it.: Sealing the mouth with tape has made its way across Instagram and TikTok, and into season 7 of the popular reality show “Love is Blind.”

Opinion The truth about bike lanes: They’re not about the bikes D.C. is building miles of bike lanes, though fewer people are biking to work.

Opinion Sometimes, Donald Trump tells the truth: His agenda is ideologically confusing but, as his Cabinet nominees show, he means it this time. - "Third, we’re going to need a new way of talking about parties and ideologies, because there’s really nothing conservative about what Trump is doing. Taken together, Trump’s roster of appointees represents a government that is contemptuous of military brass, intelligence agencies and federal law enforcement; that believes America is too bellicose and should negotiate with foreign dictators; that wants to stamp out the influence of pharmaceutical and agricultural companies; and that plans to protect American industries with sweeping new tariffs. 

"Not so long ago, that’s what we would have recognized as a radical leftist agenda — the very nightmare that Ronald Reagan warned about. Perhaps it’s not surprising that both Kennedy and Gabbard were recently anti-establishment Democrats; in some ways, this iteration of Trumpism is verging much closer to Dennis Kucinich or Bernie Sanders than to the Bushes or Cheneys. Trump might, in the end, get us closer to the dreams of the leftist fringe than any Democratic leader in our lifetime."

Reading archive 2024-08-30

Biking in the District is for normies—that’s a good thing

Covid associated with increased risk for hearing loss in young adults: The incidences of hearing loss and sudden deafness were higher for people who had covid than those who did not, a new study reports

D.C. officer used metal device to reach gun in drain when it discharged, officials say: Wayne David was fatally shot when a gun he was trying to retrieve “went off.” Officials say he was trying to reach it with a device used to unlock cars.

Trump, Vance take a new tone on abortion, riling some on the right: Recent comments from the Republican presidential ticket suggest the campaign is eyeing the importance of pro-abortion-rights voters in swing states.

Israel strikes aid convoy organized by U.S. nonprofit, killing 4 Palestinians: The Anera convoy was carrying medical supplies and fuel to a hospital in Rafah, and its route was coordinated in advance with the IDF.

Trump’s mixed record on vaccines in spotlight after RFK Jr. endorsement: Trump vows to defund schools with vaccine mandates. But, as president, he has also embraced vaccines, championing the development of the coronavirus vaccine. - "A Trump campaign official told The Washington Post that Trump is referring solely to coronavirus vaccine mandates in publicly funded schools — not vaccinations against other diseases on the childhood immunization schedule — in his threat to defund schools. But Trump has yet to publicly clarify what he means, and his campaign did not respond to questions about his position on childhood immunizations, whether he believes they contribute to autism and whether his views on vaccines align with Kennedy’s."

Selling America: The Army’s fight to find recruits in a mistrustful, divided nation: Recruiters are contending with a confounding array of political, social and economic crises that have made it harder than ever to find citizens willing to serve

Woman charged in Bay Bridge crash was on probation for drunken driving: The 48-year-old is a former Maryland state employee in the Department of Human Services, an official said.

D.C. reviewing violence-intervention contracts after Trayon White’s arrest: D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser’s administration and the D.C. Council are launching probes related to the case. - "The organizations have contracts with ONSE, while DYRS runs a similar youth-oriented program called Credible Messengers. (The D.C. Attorney General’s Office has its own violence-intervention program, Cure the Streets, that did not come up in White’s case.)" [ed. note: plus Zachary Parker's North Capital project, there's too many individual groups]

Reading archive 2024-05-16

D.C. scrapped plan for Connecticut Ave. bike lane. Lawmakers want it back.: D.C. Council’s transportation committee criticized the mayor’s office for ditching the plan.

A congressman spared prison as a teen tells D.C. to be tough on youth: Rep. Byron Donalds sponsored a bill to prohibit the District’s council from legislating crime sentencing. - "After getting a second chance on the drug charge thanks to a pretrial diversion program, he caught a bribery charge three years later. He got both records expunged and proved flexible sentencing can open doors to young people who make mistakes."

US stats show violent crime dramatically falling, so why is there a rising clash with perception?: "I don't believe the statistics," said Auriol Sonia Morris, a Trump supporter. - "But a Stanford University study published in July titled "The mythical tie between immigration and crime," found immigrants are 30% less likely to be incarcerated than are U.S.-born white individuals. When expanded to include Black Americans -- whose incarceration rate is estimated to be five times higher than whites -- the likelihood of an immigrant being incarcerated is 60% lower than of people born in the United States, according to the study."

Reading archive 2024-05-14

Should our future food be genetically engineered?: Genetically modified crops can help cut carbon emissions, research shows — but they still face major hurdles.

Orcas again sink yacht near Strait of Gibraltar as high-risk season looms: Two people were rescued after orcas hit the roughly 50-foot Alboran Cognac 14 miles off the coast of Morocco, the 26th orca encounter in the region this year.

Why you should embrace using cold water, almost all the time: Heating water gobbles energy, leading to higher utility bills and more planet-warming emissions.

Hammerhead Sharks Are Back in the Caribbean: “I Could Not Believe It”

Biden once nearly died of an aneurysm. Risky surgery changed his life.: Decades ago, Biden’s condition was misdiagnosed as a pinched nerve. His survival helps explain the 81-year-old’s motivations today.

‘Spacey Unmasked’ surfaces new allegations: Kevin Spacey has battled a number of accusations, but a two-part docuseries on Max features more accounts of alleged assault.

The wacky, grueling bike race that captivates a Midwest college town: The Little 500 has been a mainstay at Indiana University for decades, inspiring a movie and the entire campus. Here’s how this year’s dramatic race unfolded.

Opinion  What cellphone data tells us is really happening in cities: People aren’t eager to return to offices, but they’re venturing downtown after hours and on weekends.

The next global crisis could come from the sun. We should prepare now.

U.S. threats led to rupture of vital military ties, Nigerien leader says: In an exclusive interview, Prime Minister Zeine blamed the U.S. for the breakdown in bilateral relations, culminating with the planned ouster of American troops.

Why Clouds Are the Key to New Troubling Projections on Warming

Second Russian invasion is worse than the first, Kharkiv region evacuees say: Thousands of Ukrainians have fled border towns and villages in the northeast Kharkiv region as Russian troops advance in a new attack.

Why you should become a volunteer urban biodiversity scientist: Next time you pick up your phone to snap a seflie, try grabbing a photo of the life around you.

Senator will block RFK site bill unless team honors family of logo creator: Steve Daines (R-Mont.) is calling for Commanders officials “to properly honor the history of the logo and heritage of our tribal nations.”

Gallery Place Chinatown Presentation

Reading archive 2024-04-11

Inside the cheating scandal rocking D.C.’s trivia scene: Q: Why would someone cheat at pub trivia? A: Oh boy ...

D.C. nixes plan for Connecticut Avenue bike lane

Reading archive 2024-01-16

The sermon where MLK spoke candidly on the Arab-Israeli conflict

Winter in Belgium: Fries, beer … and elite cyclists racing in the mud

U.S. forces recovered Iranian warheads in Navy SEAL mission gone awry: The U.S. military said the arms shipment, intercepted off the coast of Somalia, was destined for militants in Yemen blamed for attacks in the Red Sea

Opinion  The last remnants of the Republican Party died in Iowa - "Adding to the surreal environment, longtime Republican pollster Frank Luntz rose, praising Ramaswamy’s handling of the demonstrators and asking: 'How do we get civility? How do we get decency?' This from the man who, as Newt Gingrich’s wordsmith, was widely credited with persuading Republicans to label Democrats 'traitors,' 'sick' and 'corrupt.'"

Are induction stoves that much safer than gas? We tested them.: Scientists’ best answer, at the moment, to whether you should ditch your gas stove is: We’re not sure yet

Va. officials warn of possible measles exposure at Dulles, Reagan

First they tackled plastic bags. Now they’re taking aim at bottles.: Environmental activists are pressing for legislation that would allow people to return plastic bottles for a deposit.