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The Nats, the Blown Saves Record, and Unforeseen Expectations

Jesse Dougherty — Wed, 09 Sep 2026 11:13:40 GMT

Clayton Beeter and the Nationals' bullpen have had a rough time this season. Chris Arjoon/Icon Sportswire/AP

For the Nationals, unwanted history looked a lot like the slow and painful march to it. When the eighth inning began in San Diego on Tuesday night, they had a three-run lead. When it ended, they trailed by a run in an eventual 5-4 loss to the Padres. In between, they blew a save for the 38th time this season, an MLB record that speaks for itself, both loudly and plainly.

This bullpen has not been good at doing the basic job of a bullpen, which is to take leads at some point in the middle to late inning and ferry them into the win column. And this blown save, like many before it, was a team effort, starting when Jared Simpson, a 26-year-old lefty, walked the bases loaded with no outs. Those were the only three batters he faced. Behind him, Erik Tolman, a 27-year-old lefty, allowed a sacrifice fly, then a soft single up the middle — a hit that floated just past his glove — that brought in the two runs that tied the score.

That was No. 38, which felt all too predictable once Simpson couldn’t find the strike zone. How the Nats got here … well, you lived it. There was that eight-run lead that evaporated in San Francisco. There were those crushing games against the Phillies in June, back when the season still had juice. Then, fatefully, there was Tuesday night. The relievers for the 2024 White Sox, the team that lost the most games in modern history, are officially off the hook. Tolman, Clatyon Beeter, Mitchell Parker, Orlando Ribalta, Richard Lovelady, Tom Cosgrove, Brad Lord, Cole Henry, Yovanny Cruz, PJ Poulin, Gus Varland, Matt Krook, Ken Waldichuk, Riley Cornelio, Paxton Schultz and Max Kranick have the watch now.

That’s every reliever who’s blown a save for Washington this season. There are, of course, other ways to illustrate what this Nationals season has dissolved into. After the loss to the Padres on Tuesday, the Nats have dropped six in a row. They have also lost 20 of their last 22 road games. The blown saves, though, have become the billboard for everything wrong with the Nationals in 2026. I get it, too, given that it’s a stat that shows how often a glaring team weakness has directly contributed to losses.

But the blown saves are not a 2-D story, no matter how simple it’s felt whenever the thin wall between dread and hope has collapsed. Case in point: Now that the Nationals have set the record, it will be tempting to refer to their bullpen as historically bad. But as it stands, their bullpen ERA — 5.09 through Tuesday— is a half run better than where it settled last season (5.59). The 2025 team, however, finished with just 20 blown saves, which was mostly because it had far fewer leads to protect. And this is where the emotional calculus of this year’s pen gets a third dimension, if not a fourth and fifth.

It was immediately clear that in the first year under Paul Toboni, the club’s new president of baseball operations, the bats were way, way ahead of the arms. The blown saves have been the most on-the-nose example of that. They’ve also shown how the Nats’ early, unexpected success has warped the experience of following a team that wasn’t initially penciled in for so many late leads.

In spite of trades and recent injuries to key hitters, the Nationals’ offense still ranks second in runs and homers, a contrast to the team’s record of 67-80. The bullpen, then, has been the heaviest counterweight while pitching the second-most relief innings in the league. Between personnel decisions, in-game strategy and player development, dissecting the team’s pitching process should be a major focus of the offseason, which is to say nothing of the need to spend more across the roster, not just on relievers, to compete more in 2027.

But in the moment, the blown saves feel, at least in part, like a wonky blip of an interrupted growth curve. It was as if the Nats were gifted a fancy grill — stick with me, that’s the offense — while living in an apartment with no outdoor space. (Ownership choosing to live in said apartment for another year is a story for a different day.)

None of that’s to say this Nats bullpen is misunderstood or something. It is perfectly understood as downright abysmal. And what’s that prescient George Orwell bit from 1984? The one that goes … “The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.” A bit heavy-handed for baseball, maybe, but the point is it’s just not what we’re doing here. That is someone else’s job.

But if the blown saves are to explain what ultimately felled the Nationals’ season, it feels useful — important, even — to point out how so many happened. The biggest reason is that the team’s relievers have struggled with two central goals of pitching: throwing strikes and limiting hard contact. A close second, though, is all those leads existing in the first place. Again, taken together, it’s another way to describe how the first four months of 2026 could shape the entire public perception of the Toboni-Blake Butera era (or at least the start of it). The team wasn’t built to win, then the offense raked enough to hang on the edge of the playoff race through mid-July. But because it wasn’t built to win, the Nats spent no money on the bullpen over the winter, which slowed the whole thing down until the wheels fell off.

If, as a fan, you knew a season was lost from the beginning — if that were somehow a guarantee — you might sign up for a lower bullpen ERA with a higher number of blown saves. The latter, you might figure, would be arbitrary in the grand scheme. But a lower ERA, even by half a run, would maybe portend better for future years, when your team finally spends on its roster again. (That’s just never a guarantee, either, which you know if you live in D.C.)

This summer, though, because of James Wood, CJ Abrams, Luis García Jr. and Curtis Mead, among others, rational and dispassionate started mixing with emotional and reactionary. That’s never not tricky for a fan base, especially when it comes ahead of schedule. If you live in D.C., you also know that to be true now. Because on one hand, many of the rotating bullpen arms, guys like Krook, Kranick and Cosgrove, were always more likely to be trivia answers than actual solutions. This was by design, too, at least in the sense that the front office didn’t expect to have one of the league’s best offenses. But once that offense kept mashing, the blown saves were the worst possible outcome, no matter if another form of torture would have painted an even bleaker statistical picture.

The real question, then, has little to do with blown saves or ERA or (fill in your advanced pitching analytic of choice). It’s whether a problem born of unforeseen expectations is better or worse than having no immediate problems at all.

New Name, Same Local Flavor

Martin Austermuhle, Zara Norman, Kendall Staton — Wed, 09 Sep 2026 10:31:00 GMT

Wed, 09 Sep 2026 10:31:00 GMT https://washingtonsun.com/metro-newsletter/new-name-same-local-flavor

What was once NOTUS is now The Washington Sun. (Mark Alfred/The Sun)

Good morning. This is The Washington Sun Metro newsletter for Sept. 9, 2026. You can get it in your inbox every day by signing up here — it’s free!

What was once NOTUS is now The Washington Sun! While the name may have changed, what remains the same is our commitment to covering the District the way it deserves to be covered. That means sports stories from Northwest Stadium to high school gyms; local politics coverage from the streets of D.C. to the halls of the Wilson Building; food writing from Tom Sietsema; an eye on the sky from Capital Weather; and the kind of entertaining, illuminating coverage you can’t find anywhere else. We’re excited to have you along for the ride.

In today’s newsletter: A trip to D.C.’s lost and found, the best meals under $25 and Thomas Boswell on Jayden Daniels.

Today’s Daily Digit: 6/10. Some spots have a shot at 90 degrees. But September heat isn't as harsh as midsummer, and humidity is still relatively tame. Full forecast from Capital Weather.

THE LATEST

D.C. has its own municipal lost and found, and we got a peek inside. A D.C. office known as the Unclaimed Property Unit serves as the city’s official depository of people’s lost stuff, collecting everything from millions of dollars worth of misdelivered checks to family heirlooms left in forgotten safe-deposit boxes.

As The Sun’s Martin Austermuhle reports, the unit’s staff collects and catalogues what it can, auctioning off items such as rare coins and jewelry while endeavoring to reunite personal belongings with their owners. And yes, sometimes they find strange things: gold teeth, locks of hair, a diaper and even state secrets.

“We get teeth all the time,” one worker told us, sounding none too pleased.

DEEP DIVE

DC0A3355 copy.jpg (8192x5462, AR: 1.50)

It can be hard to find good food on a budget. Tom Sietsema, The Sun’s food correspondent, believes that the best values come from restaurants where “the experience exceeds what you’re paying.”

At a time when many locals have cut down on dining out, Sietsema shares his five favorite dinners in D.C. that go for $25 or less. The list includes a perfect plate of spaghetti and meatballs at Caruso’s Grocery in Hill East and some finger-lickin’ fried chicken at The Hitching Post in Petworth.

FROM THE DISTRICT

Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch will retire at the end of this year, The Sun’s Torrie Herrington reports. His departure comes after months of criticism from the Trump administration, though he said the White House did not pressure him to leave.

Rise of the machines: Food delivery robots have become increasingly popular in the District, offering contactless delivery from some restaurants in Bloomingdale, Dupont Circle and Logan Circle, The Washington Post reports.

Should D.C. keep its public pools open after Labor Day? At-Large council member Elissa Silverman certainly thinks so. With steamy summer temperatures often extending deep into September, plenty of residents would probably agree. It wouldn’t be a first: Back in 2023, Mayor Muriel Bowser kept two pools and a number of spray parks open past Labor Day, largely due to high temperatures.

City officials say the challenge is both in funding and staffing. Many lifeguards are students who have already returned to school in September. At least our canine friends are set: The annual Doggie Day Swim will take place at four D.C. pools on Saturday.

FROM MARYLAND

Will Jawando, a Montgomery County Council member and the Democratic nominee for county executive, suffered a heart attack Saturday morning during his weekly pickup basketball game, his office said on social media. Jawando is expected to make a full recovery.

FROM VIRGINIA

The Trump administration removed language criticizing a Confederate monument that previously stood at Arlington National Cemetery, The Sun’s Kendall Staton reports. The statue is set to be reinstalled next year.

PLAN YOUR WEEKEND

Philadelphia Ballet (5053x2868, AR: 1.76)

For balletomanes: Philadelphia Ballet at Wolf Trap, Thursday.

For “Succession” fans: Brian Cox in “The Score” at Shakespeare Theatre, Friday through Oct. 25.

For something a little different: Adams Morgan Day, Sunday.

For more info on this weekend’s events, read our weekly culture calendar here.

SPORTS

It’s been a long time since Washington has had a franchise quarterback. The Sun’s Thomas Boswell estimates the drought has lasted more than 50 years. But Jayden Daniels has that kind of talent, Boswell writes. So the team’s main objective this season should be pretty simple: Protect him at all costs.

There is no doubt that Daniels is Washington’s most important player. The Sun’s Martenzie Johnson ranked the 10 Commanders who could swing this season, and Daniels was a shoo-in for No. 1. Others on the list: a rookie kicker, an expensive edge rusher and a much-discussed center.

What to Watch Today

MLB: Nationals at Padres, 4:10 p.m. (MLB.TV)

NFL opener: Patriots at Seahawks, 8:20 p.m. (NBC)

Thank you for reading! If you liked this newsletter, please forward it to a friend. If someone shared it with you, please sign up — it’s free! Got a tip or comments to share? Email us at metro@washsun.com.]]>

Sunrise

Evan McMorris-Santoro, Jasmine Wright — Wed, 09 Sep 2026 10:01:00 GMT

Wed, 09 Sep 2026 10:01:00 GMT https://washingtonsun.com/newsletters/sunrise

The sun rising behind the Capitol in Washington. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Today’s notice: Check out our new duds. Democrats sound the money alarm. OpenAI’s government stake plan may have been a hallucination. And:

THE LATEST

A new Sun over the horizon. What you’re reading right now is the first edition of The Washington Sun’s flagship daily newsletter. What you’re also reading is another edition of the daily newsletter we have been honored to build with you these past couple years. We’re something different today, but also continue to be the thing we hope you’ve come to count on. New name, same great taste.

Why The Sun? Editor-in-Chief Tim Grieve explains: “You can choose your metaphor: We’re shining a light on Washington. Everything is clearer in daylight. And we’d rather light a big candle than keep on cursing the darkness. We cover politics and policy and the people who shape life in Washington — not just at the White House and in Congress, but at the Wilson Building, at Northwest Stadium and in the neighborhoods where we live.”

What this means, by the numbers: We’ve more than doubled the size of our newsroom in just six months, adding top talent up and down the masthead. If you live in the D.C. area or care about people who do, we now have incredible local reporting, restaurant and events coverage, weather forecasts from what used to be called the Capital Weather Gang and more local sports coverage than anyone else in the DMV.

If you live outside the city — or just don’t particularly care if it’s going to rain tomorrow — we have also added top-flight reporters covering national politics and policy, going where the story is and regularly bringing new insights to the conversation.

What it means for you, and us. On our end, we’re very excited for this next chapter. We love good stories as much as you, and there are gonna be a lot more good stories now. On your side of the screen: keep talking to us, telling us what you like and what you don’t. We’re going to be here tomorrow just like always — and you should be, too.

More: Sununu to Face Pappas in New Hampshire Senate Race • Challenge to Abortion Drug Heads Back to Court Ahead of Midterm Elections • U.S. Strikes Iranian Tankers in Retaliation for Attacks on Navy Vessels • Duffy Scolds Ford Over Deals With China in Urging More American Manufacturing

Open tabs:

FROM THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL

Democrats’ money problems: “The money has been slower than anyone anticipated,” Bradley Beychok, co-founder of the Democratic super PAC American Bridge, told The Sun as the fall general-election spending season kicks off in earnest. Our Elena Schneider and Alex Roarty report that outside money groups backing Democrats are desperate for funds, even as polling and other data point to a great environment for their candidates. Just about everyone agrees a blue wave is possible, Elena and Alex write, but no one is sure if Democrats will have the money to help make it happen.

THE BIG ONE

Have AI explain this one to you: For months, OpenAI has been connected to the idea that it’s interested in voluntarily ceding shares to the government. The Sun’s Jeff Stein first broke that story in June.

That was then. Today, Jeff reports OpenAI CEO Sam Altman privately told a group of conservative economists on July 29 that he did not support having the government take shares in the company. To those present, Altman appeared confused why anyone could think he wanted the government to own part of the company.

Altman said that he supports some version of redistributing company shares to the American public, according to multiple sources who attended the event. “I had the sense that he did not see as big of a difference between individual Americans owning shares and the government owning shares as there is in reality,” one attendee said.

What Altman does support: A “government-administered public wealth fund,” which in a statement, OpenAI distinguished from one in which the government took a “controlling or ownership stake in AI companies, which we would not support.” Experts have a hard time understanding exactly what that means, or how it would work.

PERSPECTIVES

Today The Washington Sun rises — and with it a belief that we can reimagine the traditional newspaper for the digital age, writes Dana Milbank.

NEW ON THE WASHINGTON SUN

Paleontologists vs. the White House: Donald Trump shrank the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument by more than 90% in July, removing almost 900,000 acres of geologic layers home to unusually complete dinosaur fossils. The move came as a great relief to many Republican lawmakers in Utah, The Sun’s Anna Kramer reports, and a great horror to the state’s dinosaur hunters.

These are some of the world’s greatest dino deposits. The most recent “Jurassic World” featured dinosaurs only known to scientists because of excavations there, Anna writes. But they’re also lands with potentially very valuable minerals underneath that have been locked out of development since the national monument was declared.

In a very deep dive spanning millions of years, Anna carefully scrapes away the politics around dinosaurs, energy extraction and government land protection.

More: Mega Millions-Winning Congressman Violates the STOCK Act • Central Command Says American Drone Captured by Iran ‘Malfunctioned’ • New Grand Jury Subpoenas Sent in Trump-Russia Conspiracy Probe • Air Force Base to Allow Religious Greetings After Hegseth Vowed to Intervene

NOT US

Kennedy Promised Children’s Health Reforms. Here’s How He Did. By Dani Blum and Alice Callahan for The New York Times
As Social Security fund runs dry, some Republicans say it’s time to raise taxes, by Steve Thompson for The Washington Post
Why House Republicans are pulling money from a key swing seat, by Andrew Solender for Axios

BE SOCIAL

IYKYK

https://x.com/joeperticone/status/2097361785514770837

Thank you for reading! If you liked this edition of The Washington Sun Newsletter, please forward it to a friend. If this newsletter was shared with you, please sign up — it’s free! Have a tip? Email us at tips@washsun.com. And as always, we’d love to hear your thoughts at newsletters@washsun.com.

The newsletter was produced by Thomas Burr and Andrew Burton.]]>

Democrats See a Wave. Can They Afford to Ride It?

Elena Schneider, Alex Roarty — Wed, 09 Sep 2026 09:53:00 GMT

“We continue to just get very, very bullish polling results,” said one senior Democratic operative. (Francis Chung/POLITICO via AP)

Democrats see a wave building. They’ve identified paths to House and Senate majorities that seemed laughable not even a year ago courtesy of an unpopular president, a cost-of-living crisis and a prolonged conflict in Iran.

They also see a potential catastrophic problem in their campaign accounts.

Interviews with two dozen top Democratic and Republican campaign strategists, party officials and donor advisers described an electoral map, eight weeks before Election Day, as teetering between a district-by-district, state-by-state knife fight and a Democratic landslide. But even the most optimistic Democrats said it's not clear they'll have the cash to pull it off.

"The money has been slower than anyone anticipated. It's not at all slow on the candidates’ side, which is maybe the bright spot, but the outside money is not what people expected,” said Bradley Beychok, co-founder of American Bridge, a Democratic super PAC that’s pledged to spend $50 million this cycle. “The money is a five-alarm fire, and the fire starts in September, when the spending gets going, and people are worried."

Mike Smith, who leads the flagship Democratic House super PAC, said, “We all wish that more people were stepping up and doing larger checks. And would that have a material effect on the battlefield? Yes.”

A major Democratic outside group made its own private plea to more than 300 donors and operatives last month. “The next four weeks will determine if we can take advantage of these opportunities, but it requires us to double down on resources now,” according to a copy of the memo, obtained by The Washington Sun.

Those concerns — Republicans swamping Democrats with cash and blunting their momentum this fall — only intensified last week, with the start of spending from Elon Musk and MAGA Inc., where President Donald Trump has $400 million stashed. And even though Democratic candidates have held their own in fundraising against GOP counterparts, Republicans hold a significant combined advantage across outside groups and party committees.

"You can be a shitty candidate and have a shitty campaign and bad environment, and still win by one instead of nine,” said Corry Bliss, a national GOP consultant who led the party’s premier super PAC in 2018. “Of course people are pissed off, but you only have to win by one in these red states,” and red-leaning districts, “so there’s some wiggle room,” he added.

For all the Democratic enthusiasm about expanding their map of targeted races, Republicans started the cycle by shaving down the size of an already shrunken map of competitive seats. The GOP’s historic mid-decade redistricting delivered them a cushion by potentially extracting additional seats from North Carolina, Florida and Texas. The Missouri Supreme Court did grant House Democrats a reprieve last week, denying a Republican effort to eliminate another Democratic incumbent there, though the state has appealed that decision to the Supreme Court.

Both parties agree on the result: The House battlefield is smaller, which will likely yield small margins even if there is a wave, while the Senate map is far larger than either expected last year.

“The president’s job approval is around 38 right now, and that doesn’t bode well for Republicans’ fortunes in the House or the Senate,” said Whit Ayres, a longtime GOP pollster. “In this environment, anything can happen.”

The Democratic case

More than a dozen Democratic strategists and operatives, many of whom were granted anonymity to speak candidly, said this year’s political environment is stronger for their party than it was in 2018.

That belief alone is staggering: The 2018 election was Trump’s first midterm, and his party lost 41 House seats. It’s likely impossible for Democrats to flip that many districts this year given the map, but the party operatives say the backlash to the president is deeper and less ambivalent now than it was then.

Multiple strategists told The Sun that the party’s internal polling in recent months was the best they had ever seen.

“We continue to just get very, very bullish polling results, even out of districts the president won by 12, 13, 14 points,” said one senior Democratic operative, granted anonymity to speak candidly. “It’s really striking.”
House Dems 11/12/25 (7592x5061, AR: 1.50)In Alabama’s 2nd Congressional District, for instance, an internal HMP poll obtained by The Sun found that Democratic Rep. Shomari Figures was tied with Republican nominee Rhett Marques, 47% to 47%, despite the fact that Trump won the district by 14 points in 2024.

Another HMP survey obtained by The Sun found the Democratic nominee in Florida’s 22nd Congressional District, Pia Dandiya, leading Republican opponent Casey Askar 46% to 44%. Trump won the district by over 10 points.

Both polls were conducted during the last week of August among likely voters

The surveys are just two of the many internal polls HMP has released in recent months that Republicans dismiss as skewed nonsense but Democrats insist is a genuine reflection of their data.

Party officials say they’re especially heartened by a trend in their internal polling that shows better results in head-to-head matchups with named candidates than in generic ballot tests. They hope that’s proof that most of their candidates can transcend the party’s otherwise dismal image and help it reach further into GOP turf than the national generic ballot suggests is possible.

“We have a bunch of Trump plus 9 to 13 seats. Which of those are gonna come online?” said Smith, HMP’s president. “I think that's a big unknown at this point, but we believe there will be many that do."

The reason the environment is stronger for Democrats now than in 2018 is simple, Democrats say: Trump is less popular overall now than he was then, and voters are less impressed with his management of the economy.

Nationally, Trump’s approval stands at about 38% among adults, according to the Silver Bulletin; exit polls from the 2018 election found his approval rating was at 45% among those who voted.

HMP’s internal polls have found that in the 50 most competitive House districts — where on average Trump won by 5 to 6 points in 2024 —Trump’s approval numbers are underwater on average by 11 points. His statewide numbers are no better: One Democratic strategist familiar with the party’s internal data said the president’s approval is also underwater across Iowa, which has three competitive House races. Trump won the state by 13 points two years ago; he’s now down double digits, the strategist said.

"In 2018, voters didn't like Trump's tweets but they still liked him on the economy,” said Jesse Ferguson, a longtime Democratic strategist. “In 2026, they don't like the tweets or the economy. They're not sold on the Dem brand either — but we spent two years making the case against Republicans and it stuck."

In interviews, top Democratic strategists characterized the map as on the verge of shifting from one contested primarily in purple states and districts to one fought mostly on very red terrain, including Senate races in Kansas and South Carolina.

House operatives touted positive polling in places like Texas 35th Congressional District, a district redrawn last year to be a safe Republican hold, and expressed deep confidence that Democratic nominee Jamie Ager would win North Carolina’s conservative-leaning 11th Congressional District, even after disgraced Republican Rep. Chuck Edwards was forced from the race. They outlined an extensive wish list of the districts they believed could emerge in the race’s final weeks, including Indiana’s 5th Congressional District, Ohio’s 10th and 15th Districts, Kentucky’s 6th District and South Carolina’s 1st District.
Election 2026 House Democrats (4000x2667, AR: 1.50)Except for North Carolina’s 11th District, each of those races is currently rated as likely or solidly Republican by the Cook Political Report.

But even as they say that they’ve laid the groundwork to push deep into Republican territory, party strategists say they aren’t about to start shifting party resources en masse outside their existing core battlefield.

The environment could shift belatedly in Trump’s favor, or a White House that aggressively masterminded a series of redistricting processes could deploy another roadblock for Democrats in the final weeks. And even after extensive efforts to correct their polling after misses in 2016 and 2020, Democrats still have some lingering doubts about their accuracy. The landscape is competitive enough that even a minor misjudgment about the environment could be costly, strategist say

“Some of this stuff comes back and it’s like, what am I to make of a survey showing a lead in a district that Donald Trump won by 15?” said the senior Democratic operative. “Those are real, but doesn’t it make you want to check your math twice?”

And even if their polling is correct at the moment, they worry that Republican-leaning voters will eventually return home to the GOP by Election Day, especially after an expected ad blitz depicting Democratic candidates as radical socialists.

"I think a lot of the paid media kicks off now, and that's where you see vote movement, right?” said Will Van Nuys, the deputy executive director of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. “You see debates and a lot of more oppo and earned media hits. You see a lot more in terms of where money is going, right, and a lot of folks starting to say, ‘OK, are Republicans actually going to keep the House, or are they not?’”

Money remains the biggest stumbling block.

“Us winning a lot of races means winning a lot of races by very small margins,” Smith said. “If you're putting in two, three, four, five million in outside money into one of those places, that can have the impact to sway an election, for sure.”

The Republican case

Republican strategists know they’ve got the wind in their face. But their path to a better-than-expected November improved over the last year, after banking easy pickups through mid-decade redistricting. To pull it off, more has to break their way: Swamping the other side in campaign spending through the fall; disqualifying Democratic candidates as too crazy; and amping base turnout across the country.

“I can easily paint a picture where this is a state-by-state, district-by-district fight. Or, I can see a picture where Republicans are about to get smoked,” said a national Republican consultant. “The difference between those two pictures is Republican turnout.”

Trump’s promise to return to the campaign trail may be a welcome strategy for some GOP members, particularly those in redder districts. Though others, including some swing seat incumbents, are putting some distance between themselves and the president, including by opting out of appearing at Trump’s midterms convention in Dallas this week.

“We do have an enthusiasm problem, and he’s the only one who can get people to vote, so we need him out there,” said a top Republican strategist who works on congressional races. “We have the money to then go talk to the middle.”

Even some Democrats privately acknowledge that a handful of their candidates will make their jobs harder.

Take Michigan’s 7th District, where a pair of moderate Democratic candidates split the primary vote and set up a win for William Lawrence, a co-founder of the Sunrise Movement. Some Democrats fear Lawrence won’t be able to flip this evenly divided seat. The same is true in Colorado’s 8th District, where state Rep. Manny Rutinel dispatched a more moderate state legislator in his primary. There, too, Democrats privately complain about Rutinel’s progressive track record — he’s “got a lot of baggage,” said a Colorado Democratic strategist.

New Hampshire’s Senate race is also raising concerns for Democratic operatives, two of whom pointed to recent public polling that shows Rep. Chris Pappas trailing Republican John Sununu. The Michigan Senate race is also causing some heartburn for Democrats, as Abdul El-Sayed has stumbled into controversies.
Abdul El-Sayed (4561x3041, AR: 1.50)Republicans say they’ve been preparing since the election cycle began to defy history and hold the House and Senate this year, pouring resources into an all-of-party effort to boost turnout that traditionally sags in midterm elections. Some of them suggested the public boasts from Democrats about expanding the map this fall are more a strategic effort to put Republicans on the defensive, rather than a sincere expression of where they think the election stands.

“There’s a lot more money, in a smaller playing field. That’s why they’re trying to draw us in,” said one senior GOP strategist, who thought Democrats would ultimately spend more defending an incumbent like Rep. Tom Suozzi in New York than in some of the reach districts they say they’re targeting.

In a statement, National Republican Campaign Committee spokesman Mike Marinella reiterated the party’s perceived advantages: “a more favorable map with historic fundraising, stronger candidates, and a commonsense agenda.” Democrats, he said, are meanwhile “saddled with a deeply unpopular agenda and radical socialist nominees hijacking the must-win districts they need to take the majority.”

Nonetheless, Republicans know they’re staring down a tough year. They see that gas is averaging $4.15 a gallon, while diesel climbs even higher. The generic ballot hovers just below a 6-point advantage for Democrats, just a point or two south of what one GOP pollster said would “not be survivable” for his party.

“If you go up to Democrats plus seven, eight, then you can add dozens more seats to the battlefield,” the person added. “I’m glad today isn’t Election Day.”

The battleground map — what is seen as competitive versus what is out of reach — is already showing signs of reshaping. Last week, CLF cut its first offensive target, canceling spending on behalf of state Sen. Peter Oberacker, who is challenging Rep. Josh Riley (D-New York).

Rare Coins, State Secrets and Gold Teeth: Inside D.C.’s Lost and Found

Martin Austermuhle — Wed, 09 Sep 2026 09:52:00 GMT

“We get teeth all the time,” gold and otherwise, says Blair Spear, an unclaimed property specialist. (Kainaz Amaria/The Washington Sun)

Lynn Hall wasn’t having it.

“You cannot go into the vault,” she somewhat sternly told me, shutting down my journalistic impulse to enter any type of room referred to as, well, a vault.

This vault, though, wasn’t full of money, nor was it located in the basement of an ornate bank named after a wealthy owner from yesteryear. Instead, the vault is in an easy-to-miss D.C. government building in Southwest — and it’s packed with people’s stuff.

In official government lingo, it’s unclaimed property. And Lynn Hall is its keeper.

Sign up for The Washington Sun Metro newsletter for essential coverage of the D.C. region.

Hall runs the unit within the city’s Office of the Chief Financial Officer that’s responsible for reuniting people with their stuff. Call it D.C.’s municipal version of the lost and found — and it’s not just pennies we’re talking about.

Hall estimates that her office has more than $760 million worth of people’s money in the form of unclaimed refunds, misdelivered paychecks and bank accounts that someone may have just forgotten they had. (You can check if any of it is yours here.)

But the unit also deals in physical belongings. Once a year banks release the contents of safe deposit boxes that are delinquent on rent payments, at which point the city government assumes the responsibility of reuniting the items with their owners or any surviving relatives. Hall’s staff will catalog what comes in, have it formally appraised, and if the original owners or their families can’t be found within a certain time frame, eventually auction it off.
DC0A0776 copy.jpg (9854x4869, AR: 2.02)In most cases it’s jewelry or coins. One recent auction for a $20 gold coin from 1924 started around $2,500 and approached $3,000 toward the end of the 10-day bidding period. A lot of 27 Morgan silver dollar coins, minted in 1883, was set to fetch more than $1,100. A single Confederate $5 bill went for just over $30. An appraiser recently estimated that a gold $20 coin from 1907 could get between $15,000 and $20,000.

The goal isn’t to pad the city’s coffers, though; it’s to set aside the proceeds for any claims that a rightful owner may eventually make. “Every dollar we get, they get,” she says.

And it’s plenty of dollars: Between the checks, refunds and money made from auctions, Hall’s unit returns some $35 million to their owners every year.

Some of the items Hall deals with lean toward the more quixotic. There’s a Vest-Pocket Webster’s Dictionary — “for Constant Use” — from 1899. A bottle of Champagne that can’t be sold (“We don’t have a liquor license,” she says). There’s the occasional gun, knife or illegal drugs. (D.C. police gets those.) Hall once found a diaper, and there have even been locks of hair and umbilical cords.
DC0A1182 copy.jpg (8144x8144, AR: 1.00)“We get teeth all the time,” gold and otherwise, says Blair Spear, an unclaimed property specialist, sounding none too pleased.

The unit will often deal with family keepsakes like military medals, manuscripts, plays, patents for interesting devices and old photos. Those they try to reunite with their owners or any surviving family. And in some cases, what they uncover could well have historic value.

Spear says she once found memos and cables from a former foreign service officer reporting on what he felt was a suspicious dinner in Mexico between a group of Cubans and Lee Harvey Oswald, who later assassinated President John F. Kennedy. Spear says she’s working with the officer's daughter to return the papers. (Where that’s not possible, they reach out to museums to gauge interest; they often don’t get responses.)

In another case, Spear found savings bonds in one of the abandoned safe deposit boxes that belonged to a woman who had died and was survived by a son. “He had no idea they existed,” she says. “So he got a letter in the mail that resulted in $18,000 in bonds.”
DC0A1279 copy.jpg (6553x3247, AR: 2.02)Hall has been in unclaimed property since 1989, first for Maryland before coming to D.C. in 2013. In that time she’s seen a significant drop in the number of safe deposit boxes her unit gets on an annual basis, from what used to be 1,000 a year to maybe 100 now. “The safe deposit boxes are becoming more obsolete,” she concedes.

Still, her team isn’t about to run out of property to auction and items to reunite with their owners. The vault — the one she banned me from entering — remains full. And that, adds Hall, keeps the job interesting.

“That’s the great thing about unclaimed property,” she says. “Every day is different.”

Tom Sietsema's 5 Favorite Dinners in D.C. for $25 (or Less!)

Tom Sietsema — Wed, 09 Sep 2026 09:50:00 GMT

Barry Dindyal’s fried chicken is bought fresh, cut up in the kitchen, dipped in an egg wash and dredged in flour seasoned with garlic, paprika, black pepper and dried thyme. (Kainaz Amaria/The Washington Sun)

Few of us are immune to the soaring cost of just about everything these days. One life pleasure I refuse to give up is dining out.

To make it work, I look less for inexpensive restaurants, period, and more for places where the experience exceeds what you’re paying. The following five D.C. restaurants, easy on the budget, spark joy in different ways. Each also offers a gently priced main course or more that makes it easy for you to become a regular.

Caruso’s Grocery

I can’t recall the last time I booked a table here. Reservations for prime times are in such demand, I simply show up when the doors open and grab one of eight stools at the softly lit bar of one of the coziest restaurants I know.

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Just about everything you order in this Italian American charmer from chef Matt Adler is a model of what it should be. Calamari gets sprinkled with semolina and fried so parts are crisp and parts are soft. A salad of bitter radicchio, endive, juicy citrus and saline green olives makes a perfect segue to one of the hearty main courses, like chicken parm or veal francaise. Be sure to check out the seasonal specials, which recently scattered tender shrimp and crisp corn on a bed of fusilli, everything draped with carbonara sauce. Each bite seemed to include a silky bit of smoked pancetta.

The steal, though, is spaghetti and meatballs for just under $25. The pasta is made in house and shows nice resistance; the meatballs seem to be shaped primarily from pork and heat. A server asks if you want cheese, and you nod. Onto the surface go snowy filings of Parmesan. Caruso’s Grocery offers gratis bread to start. Crusty slices from Uptown Bakery make a great sop for any remaining tomato sauce.

The restaurant, in the Hill East neighborhood, is dressed to look the part of an old-time Italian joint while nodding to two of co-founder Michael Babin’s Sicilian great uncles, who opened a market in Baton Rouge in 1920. Diners are shown to marinara-colored banquettes, walls display albums’ worth of black-and-white photographs, and in keeping with the “grocery” theme, bottles of wine and more are stacked on high shelves. With the check come peppermint candies, another sweet touch in a place packed with them.

1401 Pennsylvania Ave. SE
202-661-0148
carusosgrocery.com
(The younger Maryland branch is at 11820 Trade St. in North Bethesda.)

Chercher Ethiopian Restaurant

When I crave a little quiet, you’ll find me on the tiny rear patio, crawling with vines and watched over by the attentive staff of one of the city’s prized sources for Ethiopian. Sometimes, I spring for doro wot, the slow-cooked, chicken-and-egg stew that’s considered Ethiopia’s national treasure. Often, I find space for kitfo, the lush, tongue-tingling minced sirloin that fans know is best eaten raw and leaves a trail of fire, from the spice blend mitmita, in its wake.

Always, I order the vegan deluxe sampler ($23), 10 meatless stews and salads whose colors create a rainbow coalition on a platter lined with injera, the tangy, spongy bread that doubles as a utensil. A trio of lentil stews — some a touch sweet, some a lot spicy— top the edible canvas, along with shimmering diced beets, garlic-laced collard greens, porridge-like orange shiro and turmeric-tinted cabbage and carrots, lightly cooked to retain some bite. (“We don’t kill the cabbage,” owner Alemayehu Abebe likes to say.) Did I forget to mention wizened green beans in a tangle of onions? The spread is a lot to take in, and a lot to enjoy.

There are three Chercher locations. The original in Shaw, my favorite, opened in 2012 and finds 100 seats across three levels. A storefront on 14th Street Northwest claims the largest kitchen and is where the bulk of the stews and injera are made, then transferred via van to the other branches. Hence the consistency from branch to branch, a detail underscored by Abebe, who says he tastes everything so the food is “always the same.”

Call me a cheerleader. When travel gurus Rick Steves and Samantha Brown came to D.C., Chercher is where I broke bread — well, injera — with them.

1334 9th St. NW
202-299-9703
chercherrestaurant.com
(The other branches are at 3608 14th St. NW and 4921 Bethesda Ave., Bethesda.)

The Hitching Post

Al and Adrienne Carter introduced the soul food purveyor in Petworth in 1967. Barry Dindyal, a native of Guyana, bought The Hitching Post from the couple 45 years later. Wisely, while adding a few dishes of his own, Dindyal kept the bulk of the Carters’ recipes.

I drop by frequently, not just for the consistent cooking (the peerless fried whiting is seasoned like always with dried garlic and paprika), but for the sense of community. I never go that I don’t run into public radio star Kojo Nnamdi, who is such a regular that he has a drink named for him.
Hitching Post (7131x4754, AR: 1.50)More often than not these days, I gravitate to Dindyal’s fried chicken ($25), which is bought fresh, cut up in the kitchen, dipped in an egg wash and dredged in flour seasoned with garlic, paprika, black pepper and dried thyme. The entree is cooked to order, so be patient, because 20 minutes of waiting rewards diners with fabulous, finger-licking-good, Sunday supper eating. The crisp-golden skin barely clings to four moist pieces of chicken, and the price includes a choice of two homey side dishes. The creamy potato salad, punctuated with sweet pickle relish and boosted with dry mustard and celery seeds, is usually part of my plate, as are collard greens, which are pleasing (and vegan) with oregano, allspice and garlic.

Fun fact: The Carters live above the restaurant, and Adrienne sometimes comes down for whole fish. More frequently, says Dindyal, he walks upstairs for a visit with “a beer or two” in hand.

200 Upshur St. NW
202-726-1511
thehpostrestaurant.com

Donsak Thai Restaurant

This slip of a Thai eatery in Woodley Park gives us so many reasons to make it a habit. The vast list, 75 dishes long, flags items that are vegan or gluten- and peanut-free, and devotes a section to the distinct heat and funk of Essan, the cuisine of Thailand’s northeastern region. If you live within 1.5 miles, delivery is free with a $25 minimum. It’s named for Don Sak, a district in southern Thailand known for its seafood — and the birthplace of co-owner Supisa “Boom” Teawbut — and the dining room reinforces the water theme with navy blue banquettes.

Best of all for bargain hunters, one of the least-expensive selections is also one of the kitchen’s best: green curry ($17), its velvety coconut milk base sparked and stained with green chiles and cilantro and chock-full of vegetables (eggplant, bell pepper, bamboo) that are lightly steamed before being introduced to the bowl. The seductive aroma comes from the inclusion of dried lime leaf peel, which Teawbut brings back from Thailand when she visits. Optional toppings include beef, pork, more vegetables, tofu and my go-to steamed chicken, served in generous ivory folds. A small bowl of warm rice rounds out the pleasure.

Donsak, illuminated by a front window and a skylight over the rear bar, gained a sibling when a larger branch with the same name rolled out in Georgetown in July. While the menus are similar, having tasted both, my affection remains with the original.

2608 Connecticut Ave. NW
202-507-8207
donsakthai.com
(The Georgetown branch is at 3251 Prospect St. NW.)

Her Diner

Watching our server navigate our cocktail order from bar to booth involves an impressive balancing act. The drinks are big and served to the brim, yet not a drop of margarita or Manhattan is lost. Better yet, both libations taste as if they were shaken and stirred in a far fancier establishment.

Her Diner is the chapter following Duplex Diner, the longtime Adams Morgan hangout popular with the LGBTQ community, whose general manager, Kelly Laczko, took over and refreshed the space a couple of years ago. Customers stroll into the bi-level space — a bar and a sunken dining room with concrete floors and Crayola colors here and there — and peruse plastic menus that tap into nostalgia. Salisbury steak? Chicken pot pie? This son of the Midwest laughed at the sight of “totchos,” a sharable appetizer pairing tater tots with spicy ground beef, queso, jalapeños and ranch sour cream dressing. Sure sounds like a Mexican-themed hot dish to me!

Comparisons to the long-lived, gay-friendly Annie’s Paramount Steak House in Dupont Circle are inevitable. I’d say the service is better at Annie’s — entrees and appetizers came together at Her Diner — and the food is a few notches higher at Her Diner. I’m a sucker for meatloaf ($20). Her Diner serves a crusty slab of meat that a server tells us uses Salisbury steak. The entree gets topped with a chunky tomato sauce and flanked with homey mashed potatoes and bright green beans, for a dish that tastes like a mom might be in the kitchen. (Not to worry if you don’t eat meat. For two bucks more, there’s meatloaf made with Impossible burger.)

A runner-up to my No. 1 pick is the packed-with-chicken pot pie ($22), filled with bright carrots and soft mushrooms in a light sauce to bind everything. The puff pastry dome is a nice touch, but it always needs to be baked longer.

2004 18th St. NW
202-204-1761
herdiner.com

Ranking the 10 Most Important Commanders Ahead of the 2026 Season

Martenzie Johnson — Wed, 09 Sep 2026 09:48:00 GMT

Offensive lineman Brandon Coleman was thrust into the starting left tackle spot after an injury to Laremy Tunsil. (Rick Osentoski/AP)

Around this time last season, vibes were high in D.C. The Commanders were coming off an impromptu trip to the NFC championship game, and it seemed like the stench of the previous 25 years had finally been fumigated.

But things fell apart quickly. The team won seven less games than it did in 2024, Jayden Daniels spent more time on the bench than he did under center and several players who were supposed to be difference-makers turned out to be nonfactors.

With a new NFL season kicking off today, let’s look at the players who will shape this year in Washington. If everything goes right with this group of 10, there’s a chance the Commanders can make it one game further than they did in 2024. If not, this fall could be a sequel to 2025.

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10. Drew Stevens

Here’s some trivia for you: How many kickers have attempted at least one field goal for the Commanders since the 2016 season? The answer: 11.

Washington’s kicking game has been so inconsistent that in two of those seasons (2021 and 2024) it used four kickers. After a camp battle with incumbent veteran Jake Moody, the Commanders are hoping Stevens, a rookie out of Iowa, is the answer.

He was consistent throughout camp and connected from 60-plus yards on multiple occasions. For a team that finished 8-5 in one-score games two years ago and 2–5 in those contests last year, having a reliable kicker is of the utmost importance.

9. Sonny Styles

Last season the Commanders missed the second-most tackles (131) in the NFL, according to Pro Football Reference. Washington also allowed the third-most rushing yards.

Washington is banking on Styles, who totaled 182 tackles and 17 tackles for loss his final two seasons at Ohio State, to shore up those areas. The No. 7 overall pick brings exceptional quickness and instincts to the linebacker position, in part because he used to play safety. While few of those traits stood out in limited snaps across two preseason games, Styles has played well in practice, showing an ability to hit running gaps with speed and blow up plays before they have a chance to start.

Bill Croskey-Merritt AP - 25278805543622 (4359x2906, AR: 1.50)

8. Bill Croskey-Merritt

There’s no doubt the Commanders offense runs through Daniels, but if the quarterback has any shot at recapturing his magic from 2024, he’ll need help from his lead running back. Offensive coordinator David Blough’s system will lean heavily on play-action and bootlegs, and those play calls only work if there’s a dependable run game.

Croskey-Merritt showed flashes of his light feet, speed and power last season, particularly against the Chargers in Week 5 (16 touches for 150 yards and two touchdowns), but lacked consistency. His offseason dedication to conditioning and pass-catching has impressed the coaching staff, but time will tell if he can be a reliable, every-down back.

7. Terry McLaurin

There are few Commanders more eager to not talk about last season than McLaurin. After five straight 1,000-yard seasons, the wide receiver finished 2025 with career lows in receptions (38), yards (582) and touchdowns (3). That was due in part to a training camp holdout and a quad injury that limited him to 10 games, a career low.

Based on the explosive plays he’s made through training camp, McLaurin looks like his normal self this year. Plus, the arrival of Stefon Diggs means he doesn’t have to carry the receivers room on his back anymore.

6. Nick Allegretti

Throughout training camp, Washington’s interior offensive line struggled to give Daniels and company enough time to make plays. And it wasn’t just on pass plays: Commanders running backs averaged 3.6 yards per carry this preseason, which would have tied for last in the league in 2025.

Coach Dan Quinn and general manager Adam Peters have stressed all offseason that Allegretti, the team’s presumed starter at center, is the answer to these problems. The only issue is that Allegretti only practiced a handful of times during camp. If Allegretti, who has only 178 career snaps at center in the NFL, isn’t the answer then the Washington offense will struggle to reach its potential.

5. Stefon Diggs

If Diggs lives up to his own statement that he is the league’s best No. 2 receiver, then the Commanders’ passing attack will be unlike anything we’ve seen in years. Washington has long needed someone opposite McLaurin who can reliably beat coverage and make tough catches, and Diggs has proven that throughout his 12-year career.

Whether lining up in the slot or on the outside, Diggs has proven to be a reliable safety valve for every quarterback he’s played with. He and Daniels formed an immediate connection in training camp despite Diggs showing up on Aug. 7.

4. Amik Robertson

While the Commanders’ defensive production will be heavily dependent on the front seven (more below), they will need above-average play from their defensive backs. Defensive coordinator Daronte Jones comes from a Vikings team that had the highest blitz rate (48%) and eighth-highest zone coverage rate (77.1%) last season, according to Sharp Football Analysis.

This means that if the pass rush doesn’t get to the quarterback, then the defensive backs will be stuck covering large swaths of field for long periods of time. With incumbent starter Trey Amos out with an ankle injury for at least the first four games of the season, Washington will depend heavily on Robertson, who mostly lined up on the outside in camp, and the rest of the defensive backs to hold up in coverage.

The only issue? Robertson allowed the third-most passing yards (808) in coverage last year with the Lions, according to Next Gen Stats. (Washington’s Mike Sainristil ranked fifth.)

Robertson has shown the ability to provide sticky coverage and blow up plays, but without a better showing from him this year, Commanders will finish near the bottom of the league in passing yards allowed for a second straight season.

Odafe Oweh AP - 25323687165192 (6602x4401, AR: 1.50)

3. Odafe Oweh

All that being said, Robertson and company may not have to hold their coverage for that long.

The Commanders completely retooled their front seven this offseason, bringing in rookie Styles and free agents Tim Settle, K’Lavon Chaisson and Oweh to shore up a unit that forced the seventh-fewest pressures (121) despite tying for the eighth-most sacks (42) in 2025.

Oweh, who spent last season with the Ravens and Chargers, was an unstoppable force throughout camp, mucking up nearly every play he was on the field for. Last season he was the second-best edge rusher behind only Micah Parsons, according to ESPN’s pass rush win rate formula. If opposing quarterbacks have to worry about Oweh getting to them this season, that opens up opportunities for the 10 other defenders to make a game-changing play.

2. Brandon Coleman

The interior offensive line has rightfully borne the brunt of the criticism this offseason, but Coleman is the most important member of the unit. After Washington lost starting left tackle Laremy Tunsil, Coleman was thrust back into the role he played as a rookie in 2024.

There’s no replacing a five-time Pro Bowler like Tunsil, but Coleman has done his best impression since taking over in early August. He’s held his own in practice against the Commanders edge rushers and in the three snaps he saw in the preseason against Detroit. Washington is hoping he can keep that form as the season gets going.

1. Jayden Daniels

No surprise here. The main difference between an NFC championship game appearance in 2024 and a 5-12 flameout last fall was Daniels’ availability. He started and finished just four games last season compared to 15 games the year before.

When Daniels is on the field, he’s one of the most electric players in all of football. As a rookie, he ranked sixth in completion percentage (69%) and 10th in passing touchdowns (25) while also ranking second among quarterbacks in rushing yards (891). His 64 rushing first downs ranked 10th among all rushers.

Under Blough, Daniels is expected to play more under center, use more huddles and be allowed to make more decisions at the line. The hope is that this will keep the defense guessing and lead to more explosive plays.

But if the offensive line can’t hold up, or Daniels continues to take the hits that caused him to miss 10 games last year, it won’t really matter how well Coleman or Oweh or Diggs performs. The Commanders will only go as far as Daniels takes them.

This Commanders Season Is About One Thing: Saving Jayden Daniels

Thomas Boswell — Wed, 09 Sep 2026 09:48:00 GMT

Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels. Stephanie Scarbrough/AP

Save Jayden Daniels.

That is all that the Washington Commanders season should be about.

You can develop young players, master new systems and win when you can. That will help for years. But not if JD5 becomes RGIV.

From the top down, but especially with new offensive coordinator David Blough and Daniels himself, the imperative must be to maximize the chance that Daniels will still be the team’s QB1 — and a better, more developed quarterback — in ’30. And ’35, when he'll still only be 34.

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Deferred gratification tastes bitter. This season is spinach so that the next 10 years can be, mostly, cake and ice cream.

Washington hasn’t had a quarterback with “franchise” level talent in over 50 years. Despite a step backward in every metric in ’25, Daniels still has it — if he survives to develop it fully.

Even when things look bleak, you may get a lucky break in the midst of the mess. That good fortune for Washington is the arrival of Blough.
David Blough (4838x3226, AR: 1.50)His system, largely learned from Ben Johnson in Detroit and Kevin O’Connell in Minnesota, uses every NFL theory that preserves the health and maximizes the weapons of a star quarterback over a long career.

By no coincidence whatsoever, Blough replaces his style-box antithesis, sugar-high coordinator Kliff Kingsbury — thanks for ’24, Kliff! — and his college-style spread offense. Unfortunately, the Kingsbury shotgun often seemed aimed at the slender Daniels’ head.

In ’24, Daniels escaped, brilliantly, despite three games in which he carried the ball 16 times. In ’25, Daniels led NFL QBs in carries per game (8.3). But there were only seven such games because he was hurt four times.

His knee was sprained while scrambling between the tackles in a blowout loss to Green Bay. His left elbow was gruesomely dislocated, bent completely the wrong way like a hinged toy, when he was asked to run near the goal line with the team down 38-7. Narrow the score so the coaches don’t look so bad? Two weeks later — sickeningly — he was back. And blasted again.

Suddenly, everybody got it: Save Jayden Daniels.

Now, we’ll find out: Can they?

Before their opener Sunday against the Eagles in Philly, the Commanders have headaches. The defense, which couldn’t stop anybody last season (last in yards allowed), is dealing with injury issues.

The offense, which added free agent wide receiver Stefon Diggs to complement Terry McLaurin, now has an offensive line in total flux. "Flux" being the technical term for OMG!

The great left tackle Laremy Tunsil, Daniels’ blind side protector, will miss most, if not all of the season with a torn triceps. After the team released solid center Tyler Biadasz in February, presumably to save salary cap space, it is now almost naked at the position. Will ex-guard Nick Allegretti, out for weeks this summer with a calf injury, be ready for Philly? Maybe. Otherwise, a sixth-round rookie will start at center. Light a candle.

The starting O-line on the depth chart has had z-e-r-o reps together — ever.

Fortunately, time passes. Injuries heal. On a team that won only five games last year and is predicted to win seven in ’26, the proper view is the long view. That’s why I can’t wait to see if Daniels adapts, grows and, in time, flourishes in a Blough system that looks heaven-sent for him.

It’ll take time. But, with Daniels in the Blough system, what should we look for?

In recent years, the NFL has trended toward running more plays with the quarterback under center. The leaders last year were the Rams (60% ), the champion Seahawks (55), Bills (51), Lions (49) and Bears (49). Lots of success there.

In ’25, Daniels ran only 5.8% of plays under center. Look for an eight-times increase?

Why go under center? Because, since the T-formation was born, the run game works better that way; it’s more deceptive and versatile. On the handoff, or fake, the QB’s back is to the defense, his body deliberately blocking their view of the ball. (Daniels’ crafty temperament should love the upgrade from the pro-forma fakes in the gun to the hard fakes of a dedicated ball-handling magician under center.)

For a split second, nobody knows who has it. Linebackers hesitate. Defensive backs have a harder read, too, and are more vulnerable to deep play-action passes. Blocking angles and ability to run “outside zone” plays are better. (You don’t need to take it from me, a mediocre ex-high school QB during the Mesozoic era; there are whole books on this.)

Star coaches Sean McVay, Kyle Shanahan and Johnson all preach this sermon as the NFL becomes a more run-centric league. In ’25, 17 players rushed for 1,000 yards. In ’15, it was seven.

The better you run the ball, the more you neutralize the defense’s pass rush. Play action also opens up rollouts, which get a mobile passer like Daniels away from traffic, and violence. If he’s willing to focus downfield on the throw, rather than the brave gain-a-few run which too often tempts him, it’s win-win.

Blough also prefers to huddle up, not play fast-break style. Kingsbury’s idea was to play so fast that defenses couldn’t change personnel packages, or call complex pressures as much as they liked. This made the QB’s job of defense recognition easier. But the spread is also a more predictable offense with fewer ways to do what Blough loves: “Spread the field horizontally and vertically.” (Oh, no, more X-and-O books.)

However, when you huddle, the defense can organize itself to call any complex lying, shifting picture that it wants before the snap; so, as Daniels turns his back to handoff, fake or drop back, by the time he turns around he may see a horrifyingly different defensive look.

Being under center helps you deceive them. But it can help them deceive you, too.

From new footwork to reading through a “pure progression” passing game like Blough’s, where you sift through your receivers in a predetermined order, Daniels has work to do. That’s understandable; even though everyone who’s coached Daniels raves about his high football IQ, it’s tough to ask a rookie to have a PhD in reading NFL defenses. But this is Daniels’ third year. He should be on schedule, maybe not early in ’26, but over time — or whenever he finally has a functional O-line — to prove that he’s a studious, observant quarterback who wins the brain game. Under Blough, Daniels will also have more control at the line to get out of “bad plays” before the snap and get swamped-and-stomped less often.

That doesn’t mean the Commanders will completely discard favorite Daniels plays from the past. You haven't seen the last read option. But, as Daniels told The Athletic last week, “Let’s [just] say there will be less designed quarterback runs.” (If there aren’t, after ’25, someone should be fired.)
Jayden Daniels Seahawks (5915x3944, AR: 1.50)But the final, and biggest piece of the “Save Jayden Daniels” puzzle is Daniels himself. He has shown little inclination to stay behind the line, looking to pass, once he has scrambled successfully and established a “second pocket.” He ran more and passed less (39%) than any QB in scramble situations last year. Only two others were barely under 50%. Most learn, “Look long, look medium, throw it away.”

From a child, Daniels has made Superman Plays. They draw awe, not just success. Is that showmanship, leadership and pride so deep in his personality that he can't or won't change it?

Daniels needs models. Whether it’s Patrick Mahomes, or prime Aaron Rodgers, or long-ago Roger Staubach, there have been Hall of Fame quarterbacks who scrambled all over the field. But most were waiting for a big play to open up down the field, not for a chance to gain 10 yards and get blown up. Roger The Dodger averaged 3.1 runs per game. From age 26 to 33, Rodgers averaged 3.6 runs. For Mahomes, 3.9 a game.

If it’s enough for them, it ought to be for Daniels. You don’t run when a first down is on the line. You run when the game is on the line.

The NFL is human demolition derby. Switching to a less self-destructive offense improves your odds. Nothing makes you safe. Until the line is functional, which may not be until Tunsil is back, Daniels will be tempted to “save the day.” So, go on and worry.

As always, at least for the last 57 years since Vince Lombardi came to D.C. to coach, fans of the Commanders are insanely optimistic. If the experts say “seven wins,” then they start counting at 10. You can’t tell ’em anything, bless their hearts. Often, they even refuse to believe a whole season’s worth of final scores.

Everybody, including Daniels, needs a serving of reality and deferred gratification. No one will remember whether Washington won the Super Bowl this year, because they won’t.

But we’ll remember whether Jayden Daniels survived and if he improved. That “scoreboard” will impact the next decade.

How Trump Unleashed an Existential Fight Over America's Dinosaurs

Anna Kramer — Wed, 09 Sep 2026 09:47:00 GMT

Katja Knoll, a paleontology technician, recovers fossils from an excavation site inside Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in 2020. (Courtesy of Christian Venhuizen/Bureau of Land Management Utah)

Seventy five million years ago, a long-necked creature resembling an oversized ostrich curled into a ball to die.

In June, the dinosaur’s still-curled body took flight over the barren, jagged rocks of southeastern Utah, suspended from the base of a double-rotored military helicopter usually used to airlift tanks.

It was the second helicopter called upon to pull the ornithomimid into the sky. First came a Black Hawk, which struggled to lift the nearly 5,000 pounds of rock and bones. When it failed, state officials sent the far more powerful Chinook, armed with a cadre of soldiers on loan from the National Guard.

Few could see the camouflaged helicopter carrying its bobbing white package for what it was: an animal that once lived among tyrannosaurs and hadrosaurs, set free. Its once marshy wetlands had long since been subsumed by the cliffs that Americans knew until very recently as the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.

“Nearly all of the dinosaurs and other fossils preserved in the region have been found nowhere else,” said Joe Sertich, a paleontologist who has studied in Utah for more than a decade.
IMG_3215 copy.jpg (1200x1500, AR: 0.80)Dangling hundreds of feet in the air that summer day was a perfect capsule of that land before time.

Then, just a few weeks after the ornithomimid flew, President Donald Trump declared the dinosaur fossils of Grand Staircase-Escalante “common” and “not unique,” stripping protections from the place where this particular creature had slept for millenia.

***

Trump shrank the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument by more than 90% on July 13, removing almost 900,000 acres of geologic layers home to unusually complete dinosaur fossils.

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox and the entirety of the state’s congressional delegation stood behind him in the Oval Office as he signed the proclamation. They applauded, smiled and posed for photographs.

Back home, the scientists and paleontologists who have worked on that land for years sat in disbelief.

“It’s just an absolute distortion of reality to say that the fossils of Grand Staircase are common and can be found anywhere, and therefore don't need any special consideration or protection,” said Alan Titus, who served as Grand Staircase-Escalante’s official monument paleontologist for the Bureau of Land Management until the fall of 2025.

“I so vehemently disagree with that perspective, and I can guarantee the people that wrote it did not talk to a qualified paleontologist about it,” Titus said.

Most of the region’s local leaders disagree with Titus. They love dinosaurs, they say, but the national monument has been a burden. Trump’s order was a long-fought victory, finally giving them more control over the future of both the land — and dinosaurs — they see as theirs.

“The fossils don’t disappear because the boundaries change. That basin is still one of the richest Late Cretaceous ecosystems ever discovered,” said Kaden Figgins, Garfield County’s planning and economic development director.

Figgins believes both that the dinosaurs are an extraordinary resource and that the dramatic cuts to the national monument are a boon for his community.

There are indisputable facts. The fossilized bodies found in Grand Staircase-Escalante are unique. They have inspired massive movie franchises and even amusement parks. The most recent “Jurassic World” featured dinosaurs only known to scientists because of excavations there. Dinosaur species have been found for the first time in this desert.

For the last 15 years, paleontologists and local leaders have been working in tandem to bring that Hollywood attention to their backyard. They want to make Utah a dinosaur capital and build a world-class dinosaur museum — an international destination for scientists and tourists alike.

Trump (8640x5760, AR: 1.50)

Monumental Day of Action: Utah based public land rally (4800x3202, AR: 1.50)Then there is the debate. Trump’s proclamation has brought to the surface in Utah a long-simmering and existential disagreement about the future of this land, what it holds and who should control it. The same people who for so long have been united in their belief that the dinosaurs are among the nation’s greatest crown jewels are now fundamentally at odds with each other over what is required to protect them.

In his order, the president did not just dismiss the value of the monument’s scientific resources. He went further, suggesting that the lands could be opened for mining minerals and coal, perhaps helping make the U.S. less dependent on foreign sources of critical minerals.

While the local leaders are excited about what comes with the shrinking of Grand Staircase-Escalante’s boundaries, the researchers are warning that its still-pristine time capsule could be disrupted by industrial development. The dinosaur bones themselves are at greater risk of being stolen and sold on the black market. And without the prestige of a national monument, money for research, a museum or scientific infrastructure will be far harder to secure, they said.

“There needs to be a national dialogue about public lands, and what we want to do with them,” Titus said. “Is this really what we want to do with our public lands? Open them all up to extraction? Or do we want to balance this with conservation, protection, and scientific research?”

Paleontologists believe that this remote corner of southern Utah could be home to the next great undiscovered dinosaur — and the next, and the one after that.

That faith is so strong that one local official is willing to break publicly with his leaders.

State Paleontologist James Kirkland found himself at a loss for words when first asked about Trump’s presidential proclamation. He said that Democrats have sometimes gone too far in their defense of Grand Staircase-Escalante’s massive size. But for the president to attack the monument’s boundaries wholesale? That’s a decision so far beyond his personal red line that he’s willing to risk the consequences of speaking out.

“Yeah we need common sense, but we don’t want to just throw out the baby with the bathwater,” he said. “It’s just sad. We had so much to offer, and this is not going to help anybody.”

"We are talking gigantic dinosaurs,” he went on. “This is the story, the age of dinosaurs in Utah. It could be ground shaking."

***

President Bill Clinton designated Grand Staircase-Escalante as a national monument in 1996. Ever since, researchers in Utah have been discovering new dinosaurs at such a rapid pace they haven’t been able to name them all.

And every year, they dig out at least one especially well-preserved dinosaur. Last year’s dig produced the ornithomimid that scientists airlifted out this summer. The year before it was a tyrannosaur.

“It’s just every year we get something special, like a little baby hadrosaur covered in skin impressions,” said Titus, who retired last year, taking the early resignation offer the Trump administration used to dramatically cut the size of the federal workforce. “It always has a treasure every year. And you don't know what's out there until you go out and look for it.”

IMG_1271 (4032x2688, AR: 1.50)

51121918048_68f690813f_o copy.jpg (1620x1080, AR: 1.50)Unlike many of the better-known dinosaur hotspots in China, and even in North America, Grand Staircase-Escalante is still in the early stages of investigation, paleontologists said.

Even researchers from China — often credited with the most interesting dinosaurs yet known to man — have come to see the fossils of Grand Staircase-Escalante.

“The Chinese admit we have the best Mesozoic age of dinosaurs record anywhere in the world,” Kirkland said.

Discoveries have come thick and fast in recent years only because researchers finally had access to modern tools and transportation. The region, known as the Kaiparowits Plateau, is so remote that it was the last part of the contiguous United States reached by cartographers.

The Chinook that carried the ornithomimid in June was merely the most recent helicopter deputized for dinosaur transport. The fossils are so massive that in previous years, paleontologists have paid federal wildland firefighting teams to swing by with their helicopters at the end of a deployment to pick up bones.

“We’ll fly a camp deep into the backcountry and camp out there for two or three weeks,” Sertich said.

Because the digs are especially expensive, funding them has become increasingly difficult as research dollars grow scarce. Paleontologists have relied heavily on the Grand Staircase-Escalante name to help get the limited dollars flowing over the last two decades, they said. Without that monument status to attract attention, they predicted that resources that were already hard to tap will likely grow dry.

“The new executive order cuts us off at the knees in that effort” to make Utah a new epicenter for dinosaur study and tourism, Titus said. The Interior Department has not hired anyone to replace him as the monument paleontologist at the Bureau of Land Management.

A BLM spokesperson told The Washington Sun that paleontological resources and protection "is not limited to areas with monument designation.”

“BLM Utah will move forward with advertising the position as opportunity and funds become available,” the spokesperson said.

The region’s local leaders share Titus’ passion for the dinosaurs. Several told The Sun that no other place on Earth can compete with what’s been found in their backyards.

One official went so far as to say that the county’s great exports are twofold: “our children and our dinosaurs.”

But they don’t have Titus’ fear for the future. In fact, these local leaders said that they don’t believe there’s any risk at all in cutting the monument.

***

The contours of today’s fight trace back to at least 1976, when a group of power companies abandoned plans to build what at the time would have been the largest coal power plant in the country on the edge of the Kaiparowits Plateau. The plant would have been powered by coal blasted out of the same rocks that hold the fossils.

Back then, no one understood that there was an expansive dinosaur boneyard in those rocks. The plan fell apart because mining in the region was plagued with problems.

Mining the region was just as fraught in the 1990s, when another plan coalesced to build a coal mine in the middle of the plateau. But that time, the project died because Clinton established the national monument, effectively making it impossible to move forward. In the process, Utah Republicans grew increasingly angry with the federal government’s power over public lands; on the day of the monument designation ceremony, both Clinton and then-Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt were hung in effigy from lampposts in Escalante.
PRESIDENT CLINTON (1790x1430, AR: 1.25)Exactly 30 years after they sent black balloons into the sky and told The New York Times that “We’ve had it up to here with the federal government,” Utah’s local Republicans have freed the land from the monument.

But now they face a new challenge. The intervening three decades’ worth of research have irrevocably altered understanding of what’s inside those rocks in Grand Staircase-Escalante. Even if mining the plateau today is economically justifiable and technically feasible — questions as yet unanswered — any new mining effort would have to confront what could be lying on top of a possible uranium deposit.

Federal laws like the National Paleontological Resource Preservation Act, which prohibits anyone from taking fossils with vertebrae from federal lands, will remain in effect. The Bureau of Land Management's “legal responsibilities for paleontological resources did not change with the monument’s boundaries,” the BLM spokesperson said. “Vertebrate fossils are protected across all BLM‑administered lands, regardless of monument designation,”

But those laws are rarely enforced, Titus and Sertich said.

It is the land’s monument status, and the special protections that come with it — like the complete prohibition on taking anything out of the monument — that do far more to guarantee the safety of the dinosaurs in the long term, Sertich insisted.

Utah’s local leaders who advocated shrinking the monument say the dinosaurs aren’t at all at risk; if anything, they say, Trump’s order will boost their push for a regional museum.

“We hope it does bring attention to what’s there,” said Dave Dodds, the Garfield County public works director, arguing that shrinking the monument would lead to greater focus on what remains. “We hope that this can focus in on the dinosaurs down there.”

Garfield County Commissioner Jerry Taylor has been trying to get the museum off the ground for a long time; he had a feasibility study commissioned, he consulted experts who helped design North America’s most famous dinosaur museums, and he even recently persuaded the Utah State Legislature to provide a small amount of seed funding.

The presence of the monument has not helped advance those efforts, Dodds and Figgins said.

“We’ve never received federal funding for this, and we’ve been begging for 20 years,” Figgins said. “The museum does not exist because it was the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. The museum exists because it’s one of the most significant dinosaur discovery regions in North America.”

The Bureau of Land Management said the government’s existing partnerships with universities and museums, and its work to “expand statewide capacity for preparation, curation, and research,” would be “unaffected by monument boundary changes.”

The government currently has partnerships with Utah State University Eastern’s Prehistoric Museum and the Natural History Museum of Utah.

***

The most legendary dinosaur quarry in Grand Staircase-Escalante is called “Rainbows and Unicorns.”

It’s there that in 2014 Titus discovered a family of tyrannosaurs that drowned in a flood together, all of them unusually intact. Paleontologists are still studying these massive creatures, hoping to answer the many questions that arose from their discovery more than a decade ago: Were tyrannosaurs actually social creatures, traveling in groups with their relatives? Are these fossils an entirely new species of tyrannosaur?

Rainbows and Unicorns is the single fossil-rich area that Trump protected when he shrank the monument in July, calling it “a globally important paleontological resource.”

IMG_1167.JPG (4032x2863, AR: 1.41)

IMG_0388.JPG (4032x3024, AR: 1.33)There was a deep irony in that for Sertich: The president kept protections for the one place where the most impressive fossils had already been found and largely removed from the site.

“Of course there are still bones in the ground, but you know the important stuff has already been excavated and removed, so now they're preserving largely a hole in the ground,” he said.

There are hundreds of thousands of acres across the Kaiparowits Plateau with the potential for equally impressive finds, paleontologists said — and now they are no longer protected by monument status.

The researchers who have devoted their lives to this work have a nagging fear that if they don’t find and study these bones themselves, the fossils could end up one day on display in a private compound instead of a museum in Utah.

“We’ve cracked the door on the safe over the last 30 years, and now people want fossils for themselves. There’s a whole underground market for illegal fossils, and I see these things pop up on Instagram and eBay all the time. That’s going to become rampant,” Sertich said.

Enthusiasm for dinosaurs is exploding globally, with or without Utah riding along. A tyrannosaurus known as Gus sold for $50 million in an official auction in July, and the black market is growing quickly in response to the demand.

The Bureau of Land Management’s “law enforcement responsibilities remain in place,” the agency’s spokesperson said.

Titus has in the past been involved in efforts to prosecute the thieves. But in certain parts of the Western United States, black market collectors have grown systematic and organized in their dinosaur looting, Titus said.

That level of sophistication has not yet reached Grand Staircase-Escalante. Still, he wonders if that’s only a matter of time in a world increasingly obsessed with the best possible fossils.

“The bad guys know that now they can go out there and just pretend they are looking for clamshells,” he said.

What to Do in the D.C. Area This Weekend (Sept. 10)

Rebecca Ritzel — Wed, 09 Sep 2026 09:46:00 GMT

The Philadelphia Ballet is coming to Wolf Trap. (Courtesy of Philadelphia Ballet)

Thursday

Philadelphia Ballet at Wolf Trap

Filene Center, 1551 Trap Road, Vienna, 8 p.m., $42 to $133

The Philadelphia Ballet brings a full-firepower performance of four ballets set to American music: Jerome Robbins’ “Fancy Free,” Eliot Feld’s “Variations on America,” George Balanchine’s “Who Cares?” and John Philip Sousa’s “Stars and Stripes Forever.” Con: There’s no live orchestra playing Sousa. Pros: Jane Raleigh, the beloved former dance director of the Kennedy Center, will lead a panel discussion before the show, and one kid can come free with the purchase of each adult ticket.

Brazil Independence Day celebration at El Mercat Bar de Tapas

1301 S. Joyce St., Arlington, 7 p.m., $10 cover charge

Fiesta D.C., the same group organizing a Latino festival and parade for Sept. 26 and 27, starts the Latin American Heritage Month party early with a celebration of Brazil’s Independence Day. Join the Vavá United School of Samba for an evening of tapas, music and samba lessons in Pentagon City.

More to explore: “Love Letters of World War II,” a free music and dance performance at the Library of Congress

Sign up for The Washington Sun Metro newsletter for essential coverage of the D.C. region.

Friday

“The Score” at Shakespeare Theatre

610 F St. NW, 7:30 p.m., $43 to 152. Runs through Oct. 25.

Every “Succession” fan’s favorite patriarch is coming to town to play Baroque composer Johann Sebastian Bach. Instead of his small-screen offspring, however, Scottish actor Brian Cox faces off against Prussian monarch Frederick the Great. Cox’s wife, Nicole Ansari, stars opposite him as Anna Magdalena Bach, mother to 13 of the composer’s 20 children. A Guardian critic deemed the script uneven when the drama debuted in England three years ago, but had high praise for Cox, “who plays the genius musician with such magnetism that he almost singlehandedly saves this play.”

The Folger Consort performs “Monteverdi’s Legacy”

Folger Shakespeare Library, 201 East Capital St. SE, 8 p.m., $20 to $50. Additional performances Saturday and Sunday.

Meanwhile, at the other Shakespeare-centric theater in town, the Folger Consort opens its 50th season with a program billed as “the musical equivalent of a gondola tour through 17th-century Venice.” Consort co-founder Robert Eisenstein will play music of Monteverdi and his successors on the viola da gamba, joined by two sopranos and four other musicians.

More to explore: Opening night of the NoMa in Color Mural Festival

Saturday

Gin Dance Company’s Farewell Performance

Capital One Hall, 7750 Capital One Tower Road, Tysons, 7:30 p.m., $61.75

Choreographer Shu-Chen Cuff’s personal story is the stuff of American dreams: After immigrating to the U.S. from Taiwan, she graduated from the prestigious New World School of the Arts. She landed a job with Nevada Ballet Theatre, but found dancing didn’t pay the bills. She sold watches on the side, met and married a customer, and followed her new husband to Fairfax. For 15 years, Gin Dance has been an artistic home for many young professionals with high levels of training but day jobs in other fields. Now she’s retiring from running the company. Four works and 14 dancers are on the final program.

“Come From Away” at Ford’s Theatre

511 10th St., 7:30 p.m., $20 to $110. Runs through Oct. 18.

The concept sounded improbable and perhaps even crass: a docu-dramedy musical about Sept. 11? Yet “Come From Away” has become one of the most popular musicals of the 21st century. Ford’s Theatre marks the 25th anniversary of 9/11 with a reprise of the musical, which stopped in D.C. ahead of its long Broadway run. Opening-night guests in 2016 included Elaine Chao, Sen. Rand Paul and the mayor of Gander, Newfoundland, a character in the show. After the Twin Towers fell, the town welcomed the passengers of 38 stranded planes. Now the musical about Canadian generosity takes the stage against the backdrop of President Donald Trump’s tariff war.

More to explore: The 34th annual Rosslyn Jazz Fest

Sunday

Adams Morgan Day

18th Street and Columbia Road, noon to 6 p.m., free

The neighborhood that remains home to some of the District’s quirkiest indoor establishments — animal crackers at Tryst or redhead night at Madam’s Organ, anyone? — pours out onto the streets Sunday. This volunteer-run festival has a catch-as-catch-can vibe, but everyone should stumble into something fun. Scheduled events include “Volo Kids” activity zone from noon to 2 p.m. and a 1 p.m. mural unveiling at 1640 Columbia Road. Entertainment ranges from Civil War reenactors to FrankoJazz karaoke to Cuban dance troupe D.C. Casineros.

“Congressional Unleashed” Pet Tour at Historic Congressional Cemetery

1801 E St. SE, 1 p.m., $10

This guided tour for history buffs focuses on famous animal lovers interred in the 200-year-old cemetery. Among those to whom you and your pet may pay respects: “Stars and Stripes Forever” composer John Philip Sousa, journalist Cokie Roberts and Minnesota explorer Joseph Nicollet. Note that Americans with complex legacies, such as Lincoln conspirator David Herold and FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, are also buried in Congressional Cemetery; peeing on gravestones may result in you (and your pet) being banned from the premises.

More to explore: 41st annual Mediterranean Festival at Saints Peter and Paul Antiochian Orthodox Christian Church in Potomac

Are Maryland Drivers as Bad as Everyone in D.C. Thinks?

Andrew Van Dam — Wed, 09 Sep 2026 09:45:00 GMT

D.C. drivers love to portray Maryland drivers as the problem. Is that fair? (Kainaz Amaria/The Washington Sun)

Jeff Dooley, a Virginia native and current D.C. resident who runs The Washington Sun’s local and sports coverage, asked if we could confirm the D.C. region’s most enduring stereotype: Are Maryland drivers really the worst?

At first glance, the data seemed to confirm our suspicions.

A quick analysis of crash and license-plate data from D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department reveals something genuinely impressive: From 2019 to 2021, Maryland drivers were at fault in more two-car crashes in D.C. than drivers from anywhere else, including D.C. Those are the most recent years for which we have good numbers. The picture gets fuzzy in 2021 as the D.C. government appears to have tapped the brakes on releasing detailed license-plate data.

But is that an unfair assessment? Could it be that there are just more Maryland drivers on District roads?

Of course there are. Of D.C. workers who commute by car, almost half (48%) drove in from Maryland between 2022 and 2024. Another 30% drove from Virginia, and only 21% were D.C. residents, according to our analysis of the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey.

DCdrivers online notus-03.png (3034x945, AR: 3.21)

How do we account for that? We tried some surprisingly simple math. We compared the share of accidents involving a driver with Maryland plates who’s at fault — meaning they were ticketed for an offense that could have caused an accident, such as running a red light, making an illegal U-turn or going the wrong way on a one-way street — to the share of Maryland drivers who were the unoffending party in a two-car accident.

When we did that, Maryland drivers didn't look so bad. They’re only slightly more likely to be at fault in an accident as they are to be innocent victims, according to our analysis of about a decade of MPD data ending in 2021.

That still makes them worse than D.C. drivers, who are over 15% less likely to be at fault than to be the victim. But they both do far better than drivers from Virginia, who are over 20% more likely to be at fault. Drivers from outside the region fare even worse, but they’re rarer on the District’s roads and thus don’t feature as prominently in local stereotypes.

DCdrivers online notus_Graphic.png (3034x2195, AR: 1.38)But before declaring D.C. drivers excellent, Maryland drivers exonerated and Virginia drivers the actual villains, we checked in with our colleagues. Right away, legendary District-knower Martin Austermuhle kindly reminded us that D.C. and Maryland drivers have been known to cross the river for cheaper Virginia plates, since the state has low fees and no residency requirement.

The dodge became less lucrative once Virginia began requiring insurance in 2024, but it appears to remain popular among folks looking to save a few bucks and maybe avoid Maryland inspections or fines. But Maryland is cracking down — beginning in October, a new law will fine residents with out-of-state plates.

D.C. has its own rules limiting outside plates, but D.C. licensed drivers remain far more likely to have out-of-state plates than drivers in any state in the country, according to our quick analysis of a decade of data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Fatality Analysis Reporting System.

Of all D.C. licensed drivers involved in fatal accidents, almost half (46%) were on out-of-state plates, compared with just 12% for the highest states. Drivers in deadly crashes probably differ meaningfully from the population at large, but it’s safe to assume D.C. remains unique by any measure.

https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/pgG99/1/Unfortunately, we can’t directly correct for out-of-state drivers. The MPD data released by the District Department of Transportation only tells us the state of the license plate, not the state the at-fault driver is licensed in. They did, however, release both license-state and plate-state data for more than 27,000 drivers involved in crashes that resulted in moving violations between 2016 and 2020.

And that data has one clear message: Don’t trust Virginia plates! More than a third (35%) of drivers cited by police with Virginia plates actually had licenses from other states. That’s about double the comparable number for Maryland drivers (17%).

So, what would D.C. data look like if we only measured “real” Virginia drivers? We can’t know. MPD doesn’t release enough driver’s license data. But we can guess based on better data from the District’s northern and eastern suburbs, courtesy of the Maryland State Police. It comes from different years — 2024 to 2026 — so it’s not a perfect comparison, but it’s the best we have.

In Montgomery and Prince George’s counties, drivers with Virginia plates look like absolute menaces, about 25% and 35% more likely to be at fault, respectively. But if you only look at drivers with Virginia licenses, the discrepancy effectively vanishes — they’re only slightly more likely to be the at-fault driver.

Why might D.C.-region drivers with Virginia plates be so much more reckless on the road? We’re guessing it’s partly explained by the clearest trend in the data. Young drivers — those under age 25 — are much, much more likely to be at fault in an accident in D.C., as will already be obvious to anyone who’s tried to insure a college student and/or knew us in our 20s.

DCdrivers online notus-02.png (3034x1254, AR: 2.42)

In related news, those potemkin Virginians tend to be younger than drivers whose plates match their state. This makes sense, as cars with Virginia plates have long been cheaper to register and insure, and thus popular with the region’s impecunious youth. It also may explain their apparent recklessness.

In other words, the more we dug into the data, the more our gut impression shifted. We can’t say anything cohesive when faced with such balkanized numbers, but our feeling is that you might drive a bit more safely on your home roads, and maybe a bit more risk when you’re far from home, but those rules apply to everybody. Regardless of the state, drivers are roughly the same.

So it’s reasonable to drive defensively when you spot Virginia or out-of-state plates in D.C., but you can’t really blame actual Virginians. If you’re stereotyping anyone, it should probably be younger drivers, regardless of what state their plates come from.

Hi! You don't have to be an editor here to ask us questions. What are you curious about? Let us know!

Sam Altman Privately Rejected Giving OpenAI Shares to the Government

Jeff Stein — Wed, 09 Sep 2026 09:30:00 GMT

OpenAI founder and CEO Sam Altman told conservative economic policy experts that he does not support having the government take shares in the company. (Francis Chung/POLITICO/AP)

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman privately told a group of conservatives this summer that he did not support having the government take shares in the company, distancing himself from a proposal that he and his firm were widely understood to have supported.

For months, OpenAI has been connected to the idea that it is interested in voluntarily ceding shares to the government. Altman has spoken to senior Trump administration officials about the idea, as The Washington Sun first reported in June. The Financial Times reported that OpenAI had proposed giving the government a 5 percent stake in the company, citing Altman’s private comments. The New York Times wrote that Altman had directly pitched President Donald Trump on creating a “government investment fund” seeded with shares in OpenAI. And The Associated Press reported that Altman told Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) that he wants the public to have equity in artificial intelligence companies.

At the off-record meeting with conservative economists on July 29, Altman said that he supports some version of redistributing company shares to the American public, according to three people present and notes taken by one participant reviewed by The Washington Sun. But he also was adamant that he would oppose the government taking equity in his firm and would resist any efforts for federal control over the company, those in the room said.

Altman’s comments, previously unreported, provide new insight about the intentions of the leader of one of the most powerful technology companies in the world, as companies like his own and Anthropic navigate public backlash against the rise of AI.

To those present, Altman appeared confused why anyone could think he wanted the government to take shares in the company.

"To most people in Washington, 'public shares in OpenAI' obviously means government control," said one of the economists who attended the meeting. “But he did not seem to understand that and seemed confused that anyone would think that’s what it meant. He said, 'That's not what we're talking about.' … I had the sense that he did not see as big of a difference between individual Americans owning shares and the government owning shares as there is in reality.”

The economists spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the off-record discussion.

In a statement to The Sun, the company said it supported creating a “government-administered public wealth fund,” which it distinguished from one in which the government took a “controlling or ownership stake in AI companies, which we would not support.”

"We think AI should create economic opportunity for everyone,” the statement said. “In April, we published an industrial policy blueprint with several ideas, including a public wealth fund that would let people share directly in the economic gains from AI. We’ve also talked with policymakers in both parties about related ideas, including whether AI companies could contribute equity to help seed a fund, but we are not close to anything specific.”

Several experts expressed confusion about Altman’s position. Theoretically, it would be possible for OpenAI to at some point donate “nonvoting” shares to a private entity overseen in part by government officials, which would limit federal control over the firm. But this would still amount to ceding stakes to the government.

"Everything we've seen from Sam Altman and OpenAI over the years implied a pretty conventional government ownership stake in the companies, including voting rights, dividend rights, other kinds of shareholder rights," said Matt Bruenig, founder of the People's Policy Project, a left-leaning think tank. "The distinction they are drawing is hard to understand: How does a government-administered public wealth fund that owns equity not have an ownership stake in companies? These sentences are contradictory."

The position also diverges from that understood by others in Washington who have met with Altman. In a meeting in Sanders’ office in late June, Altman said he had seen the senator’s bill requiring AI giants to turn over 50 percent of their shares to the government and agreed that the government should have some stake in the AI companies, though not 50 percent, according to another person familiar with the matter, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity to recount that private discussion.

By contrast, the economists who attended the July 29 meeting came away from the discussion with Altman believing that OpenAI agreed with their fierce opposition to expanding the government’s control over the private sector.

Some experts have long been skeptical that OpenAI really would be voluntarily willing to turn over what would amount to billions of dollars to the government. Jeremy Bearer-Friend, an AI expert and law professor at George Washington University who helped design the Sanders plan, said there is nothing in corporate law currently stopping Altman from ceding shares to the government.

Shareholders could sue the company if it made that decision, but it would have the freedom to try.

“They already could have done it,” Bearer-Friend said.

The same day Altman met with conservative economic policy experts, the OpenAI executive also briefed a group of economists influential with Democratic policymakers. Several attendees of that second meeting did not recall the equity stakes question being discussed.

Both meetings started with presentations from Altman about the mathematical breakthroughs made by the OpenAI models. To the conservative economists, Altman stressed that OpenAI had the least politically biased model of any of the major AI companies, two of the people at that meeting said. The liberal economists did not remember Altman discussing the political orientation of the OpenAI model.

Welcome to The Washington Sun

Tim Grieve — Wed, 09 Sep 2026 09:05:58 GMT

Wed, 09 Sep 2026 09:05:58 GMT https://washingtonsun.com/about-us/press-releases/welcome-to-the-washington-sun

(Tom Brenner/AP)

Washington journalism is in a moment of generational change. We’re rising to meet it.

Welcome to The Washington Sun.

We launched two years ago as NOTUS, a news site focused on national politics and policy. But as we watched others pull back on Washington coverage, we knew our hometown deserved better. So we invested — more than doubling the size of our newsroom in just six months.

We’ve added local reporting from Martin Austermuhle, Jenny Gathright, Michael Brice-Saddler, Zara Norman and Shamira Muhammad, columns from Dana Milbank, Matt K. Lewis and Thomas Boswell, food coverage from Tom Sietsema and weather forecasts from what used to be called the Capital Weather Gang. We hired Paul Kane and Kadia Goba to join the best congressional reporting team in D.C., Jeff Stein to cover economic policy, and Elena Schneider on politics. We’ve added reporters to cover federal agencies and law enforcement, we’re building out our teams for breaking news and features, and we now have more staff reporters covering local sports than anyone else in the DMV.

Our work puts Washington front and center, and we wanted our name to do the same. So NOTUS — short for News of the United States — is now The Washington Sun.

Why The Sun? You can choose your metaphor: We’re shining a light on Washington. Everything is clearer in daylight. And we’d rather light a big candle than keep on cursing the darkness.

We cover politics and policy and the people who shape life in Washington — not just at the White House and in Congress, but at the Wilson Building, at Northwest Stadium and in the neighborhoods where we live.

We report for the people who live here, the people who make policy here, and the people around the world who care deeply about what happens here. We do it with original reporting, with deep sourcing and with an unwavering commitment to accuracy.

And we do it with a newsroom unlike any other in Washington, bringing together veteran journalists and some of the country’s most promising up-and-coming reporters — individuals from different regions, backgrounds and beliefs who have come to D.C. as fellows at the Allbritton Journalism Institute.

We’ve got the financial backing of Robert Allbritton, the founding publisher of POLITICO. We’re supported by advertisers who buy ads on our website and sponsor our newsletters, podcasts and events — and by paid subscriptions from readers who value what we do. We’re grateful to everyone who makes our work possible, but our editorial decisions are entirely our own.

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Sununu to Face Pappas in New Hampshire Senate Race

Associated Press — Wed, 09 Sep 2026 00:39:52 GMT

Former Sen. John E. Sununu won the Republican primary to seek his old seat again. (Holly Ramer/AP)

By HOLLY RAMER and KATHY McCORMACK

CONCORD, N.H. — New Hampshire primary voters chose candidates for Congress, governor and the 424-seat state Legislature on Tuesday, and incumbents weren’t the only familiar names on the ballot.

Former U.S. Sen. John E. Sununu, a Republican, will face Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas in November in the race to replace U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, whose decision to not seek reelection created a cascade of competitive races.

Two of the eight Republicans hoping to replace the three-term Democrat were former U.S. senators she previously defeated: Sununu and Scott Brown. Pappas, whose departure from his 1st Congressional District seat in turn attracted a crowd of candidates, defeated four candidates in the Democratic primary for the open Senate seat.

Shaheen’s daughter, Stefany Shaheen, was among those seeking the Democratic nomination for Pappas’ seat, along with former candidate Maura Sullivan. Several other candidates in top races also were making repeat appearances.

Anthony DiLorenzo won the Republican primary in the 1st District, while Lily Tang Williams won the GOP primary in the 2nd. She’ll face U.S. Rep. Maggie Goodlander, a Democrat seeking a second term.

Ex-GOP senators sought a return to Congress, while House member wants promotion

Sununu, who spent six years in the U.S. House and one term in the Senate before being ousted by Shaheen in 2008, has this time focused on themes including affordability for housing, healthcare and energy, holding Congress accountable and constituent service.

“I’ve been out of politics for 17 years. I’m not worried about reelection,” he said during a campaign stop last month. “I don’t need an appointment or a job. I don’t need to make anyone happy. I need to do one thing: Stand up for the people of New Hampshire.”

Brown previously represented Massachusetts, where he won a special election in 2010 after the death of Sen. Ted Kennedy before losing in 2012. He unsuccessfully challenged Shaheen in 2014 and served as ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa during President Donald Trump’s first term.

In a July interview, he said he decided to run again because New Hampshire Republicans have no representation in Congress and because, in his view, his experience as a veteran, lawmaker, ambassador and grandfather is unmatched.

He accuses Sununu — whose father and younger brother are former governors — of coasting on his name. Sununu also has the backing of Trump, despite having called him “a loser” in 2024, but Brown said that will just make him beholden to the president and other special interests.

“I’m the only truly independent candidate here who can actually vote on anything with a clear conscience and with New Hampshire’s best interests at heart,” Brown said.

Jim Loomis, 83, of Bow, said he backed Brown in 2014 but not on Tuesday because “he never got traction back again.” He acknowledged Sununu had been out of politics for even longer but still voted for him.

“I think what he’s done for work over the years has kept him close enough to what’s going on, and then with his family ties, I just think he’s got a more stable base,” he said.

Pappas, who is giving up his House seat after four terms, raised twice as much money as Sununu and Brown combined and dwarfed his Democratic primary opponents, as well. He also enjoyed a wide lead in polls, though recently lost some ground to scientist and democratic socialist Karishma Manzur.

Kristin Selesnick, 41, of Bow, said Pappas was a “fine” candidate but she doesn’t like that he accepts money from super PACs and that he voted “present” on a measure to restrict weapons sales to Israel instead of voting no. She voted for Manzur.

“I just like her whole platform,” she said. “I think she would be a great voice for the Granite State.”

Open seat in 1st District attracts a crowd, while 2nd District was quieter

Stefany Shaheen and Sullivan were the leading candidates among seven seeking the Democratic nomination in the 1st District.

Shaheen is a former city councilor in Portsmouth. She founded a business to help people with chronic medical conditions after one of her daughters was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. She also is part of a bio-tech initiative in New Hampshire to advance regenerative medicine.

Sullivan is a former Marine and Iraq War veteran who served as an assistant secretary at the Department of Veterans Affairs under President Barack Obama. A vice chair of the New Hampshire Democratic Party, Sullivan ran for the 1st District seat in 2018, losing in an 11-candidate primary to Pappas in his first congressional bid.

On the Republican side, political newcomer DiLorenzo, who owns a chain of car dealerships and has been endorsed by Trump, won the Republican primary. He defeated three other candidates, including Hollie Noveletsky, a veteran and nurse practitioner who runs a steel fabrication company and ran for the same seat two years ago.

In the 2nd District, first-term incumbent Goodlander overcame a primary challenge from Paige Beauchemin, a progressive state lawmaker and nurse. Tang Williams, who was the nominee two years ago and was making her third attempt at the seat, won the Republican primary.

Nominations for governor and down ballot races were also at stake

In contrast to the all-Democratic congressional delegation, Republicans dominate state government.

Republican Gov. Kelly Ayotte defeated two little-known opponents in her primary as she seeks a second two-year term. Cinde Warmington, a healthcare attorney, was unopposed for the Democratic nomination.

Voters also were nominating candidates for the entire state Legislature, where Republicans hold a roughly 40-vote majority in the 400-member House and outnumber Democrats in the Senate 16-8.

Accustomed to going first when it comes to presidential primaries, New Hampshire is among the last states to hold state-level primary elections, leaving the winners just eight weeks to woo voters before Nov. 3. But legislation passed this year moves future state primaries to the second Tuesday in June.

Duffy Scolds Ford Over Deals With China in Urging More American Manufacturing

Gavin J. Quinton — Wed, 09 Sep 2026 00:32:47 GMT

Ford said it supports the Trump administration’s vision for advancing American innovation and manufacturing. (Charles Krupa/AP File)

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has warned Ford Motor Company about maintaining “questionable foreign alliances” with Chinese companies amid calls from the Trump administration to reshore its manufacturing operations.

In a recent letter to Ford CEO Jim Farley, Duffy derided the company’s recent deals with China-backed auto manufacturers, and said Ford “fails to act as [a] reliable partner” to the American public.

“The company’s recent strategic decisions paint a troubling picture of a foundational American brand actively intertwining its future with Chinese state-backed enterprises,” Duffy wrote in the letter sent Sept. 3 and released publicly Tuesday.

Ford pushed back sharply in a statement to NOTUS on Tuesday, calling Duffy’s letter an error-filled and “wrongheaded attempt to capture headlines.”

The company said it produces more vehicles in the United States and employs more American workers than any other automaker.

Ford has been under continued pressure from the White House to return to domestic supply chains and manufacturing, and recently announced it would relocate manufacturing operations of its Lincoln models from China to the United States by 2030.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick recently celebrated the announcement as a tariff success, but Duffy asserted the four-year timeline “leaves an unacceptable, multi-year window of reliance on Chinese manufacturing while depriving skilled American workers of vital manufacturing jobs.”

Duffy went on to highlight Ford’s dependence on licensed technology from Chinese battery manufacturer Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited — a company that appears on the Defense Department’s list of banned companies. He also criticized Ford over a new deal with Chinese automotive company Geely Auto to build zero-emission vehicles at a Ford factory in Spain.

Ford defended its arrangement with Chinese battery makers, saying its Michigan battery hub is owned and operated by Ford and can’t be classified as a foreign-owned manufacturing operation. The company said Duffy’s assessment of its operations in Spain are also fraught.

“Ford supports the Trump administration’s vision for advancing American innovation and manufacturing,” Ford’s response states. “Had Secretary Duffy reached out before issuing his letter to the press, we would have been happy to share more details about Ford’s U.S. commitment.”

Prosecutor Says Man Accused of Charging Ohio Candidate Wanted to Ask Questions

Associated Press — Wed, 09 Sep 2026 00:23:47 GMT

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Amy Acton was not harmed in Sunday's incident. (Jay LaPrete/AP)

By JOEY CAPPELLETTI and JAMIE STENGLE

CANFIELD, Ohio — An armed man accused of charging toward Ohio gubernatorial candidate Amy Acton during a campaign stop at a fair was trying to ask the Democrat questions, a prosecutor said during the man's arraignment Tuesday.

No one has publicly said what 38-year-old Patrick Havas wanted to ask Acton, but authorities have said he never brandished or unholstered the weapons he had on him and they haven't found any threats in a search of his cellphone. As he charged toward Acton, authorities said, he knocked down two people before troopers stopped him.

Havas pleaded not guilty to two counts of assault, one count of disorderly conduct and one count of inducing panic. His bond was set at $5,000.

He was arrested after authorities said he knocked people down while forcing his way through a crowd Sunday as Acton spoke under a tent at the fair in Canfield in northeastern Ohio. Authorities said he had two handguns, a taser and a set of brass knuckles.

“He appeared in that tent wanting to ask questions,” Mahoning County Prosecutor Lynn Maro told the judge during the hearing. “You should know law enforcement gained consent for them to have complete access to his cellphone so they found no threats.”

Maro said after the hearing that the video Havas took shows him “walking into the tent recording and moving forward, calling out her name.” Acton, a physician, is the state’s former public health director.

“All he got out was Dr. Acton, Dr. Acton,” Maro said.

Maro said that the investigation is continuing, and noted the Mahoning County Sheriff's Office is asking the public for any video capturing what happened.

Acton’s security detail, made up of troopers with the Ohio State Highway Patrol, intercepted Havas as he forced his way through the crowd, the agency has said. A highway patrol spokesman said they did not have any bodycam footage from the incident.

Two people were treated at the scene on Sunday and released, according to an incident report from the Mahoning County Sheriff’s Office.

Mike Ray, a city councilman in Youngstown who is also a member of the Ohio Democratic Party’s executive committee, said he was in a corner behind Acton as she spoke. Then, he said, he could tell that something was going on among those in the crowd facing Acton, and he saw two people who were standing in front of their mobility scooters “tumble to the ground.”

Havas’ attorney, J. Gerald Ingram, said at the hearing that his client has lived with his mother in Canfield for the past 30 years and is not a flight risk.

“He really has nowhere to go,” said Ingram, who declined to make any comments after the hearing.

The Ohio gubernatorial race is one of the most high-profile races this year as the campaigns enter the final six weeks of campaigning before the election in November. Acton is facing Republican Vivek Ramaswamy, who has parlayed his national name recognition, tech industry connections and alliance with President Donald Trump into a record fundraising haul. Ramaswamy’s campaign called the incident unacceptable.

The judge on Tuesday ordered that Havas have no contact with Acton or the two people who were knocked down, and that he forfeit any guns. He was also ordered to refrain from speaking with the media.

Addie Bullock, spokesperson for the Acton campaign, said in a statement following the hearing that Acton and her husband were “grateful to see the rule of law upheld,” and extended their “continued appreciation to law enforcement.”

Former U.S. Rep. John Boccieri, a Democratic candidate for the Ohio House, said he was near Acton in the tent when Havas “came in very aggressively” with his cellphone in the air screaming Acton’s name while rushing toward her. He said officers quickly “sprang into action,” grabbed the man and pulled him out of the tent.

Boccieri said he immediately jumped forward to make sure Acton was OK, which she was. And, he said, she’d already started helping a man who was face down in the mud after being knocked down.

___

Stengle contributed to this report from Dallas.

Challenge to Abortion Drug Heads Back to Court Ahead of Midterm Elections

Derek Hawkins, Paige Winfield Cunningham — Tue, 08 Sep 2026 22:30:10 GMT

Much of the case hangs on when the Trump administration will finalize its review of mifepristone. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, File)

A federal appeals court in Louisiana is set to hear oral arguments Wednesday in a high-profile case that could limit access to a drug used in nearly two-thirds of abortions in the United States.

The court action over whether the abortion and miscarriage drug mifepristone can continue to be distributed through the mail and telemedicine appointments, coming weeks before the midterms, is legally and politically thorny for the Trump administration.

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. promised GOP state attorneys general a year ago that the Food and Drug Administration would review mifepristone’s safety. But the effort initially stalled amid sharp Trump administration divisions over how to handle the divisive issue in an election year.

The Justice Department is defending a Biden administration policy on mifepristone on procedural grounds at this stage, but Attorney General Todd Blanche told lawmakers during his confirmation hearing in July that the administration wants to reinstate restrictions on the drug.

Previously, patients could only get mifepristone at in-person doctor visits. The state of Louisiana, which sued the FDA last fall to reverse the Biden policy, has now asked the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to side with it on a procedural issue as the case appears destined to return to the Supreme Court.

In its initial complaint, Louisiana argued Biden-era regulators expanded access without properly considering potential safety risks. The state also claimed the policy violated the Comstock Act, which generally bars mailing of abortion drugs.

More than 20 interest groups on both sides of the abortion debate have since intervened in the case, along with the drugmakers. After ping-ponging through the court system over the past year, oral arguments will be heard by a panel of three judges — appointees of former presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

The case has the potential to reshape access to medication abortions, which have become the most common method for terminating a pregnancy in the four years since the Supreme Court’s conservative majority ended the constitutional right to an abortion.

“This case isn’t just about Louisiana — it could make it much harder to get abortion pills in every state, from New York to California,” said Nancy Northup, head of the Center for Reproductive Rights. “This is not simply about convenience — for many people, telehealth could be the difference between getting an abortion and not.”

Much of the case hangs on when the Trump administration will finalize its review of mifepristone. A U.S. district judge in the underlying court case challenging the policy ruled in April that Louisiana was likely to succeed on the merits but that the litigation should be paused while the FDA conducted its review.

The FDA is required to update a district court by Oct. 7 on its progress. Anti-abortion activists say they’re still not sure whether much has been done. “Hopefully it started,” said Tom McClusky, director of government affairs for CatholicVote.

One GOP Senate staffer, granted anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak to the press, said: “We get the clear sense that the White House doesn’t want the report to be finalized until after Election Day.”

An FDA spokesperson told NOTUS the agency is undergoing the review. “The FDA is conducting a safety study of mifepristone and is performing a review of the mifepristone REMS [Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy],” the spokesperson said. “The FDA cannot comment on potential future actions or decisions.”

Acting FDA Commissioner Kyle Diamantas called anti-abortion leaders after he took the agency’s helm last spring to assure them he’d make it happen. They said they’re hopeful that Heidi Overton, President Donald Trump’s nominee for permanent commissioner, will move the study along quickly.

Activists also hope the FDA review provides the agency with justification for reinstating the in-person dispensing requirements.

And some Republican lawmakers are looking for Blanche to follow through on the legal side. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Missouri) pressured Blanche during a confirmation hearing in July to explain why the Trump administration had left the Biden administration’s policy in place.

Hawley asked how Blanche planned to help Republican-led states out of a tangle of litigation with the Trump administration over abortion pill access. In addition to Louisiana, several other states have challenged the approval of mifepristone or the loosening of access rules.

“We are not defending what Biden did, and will not,” Blanche said, adding that the Justice Department intended to let the FDA finish its mifepristone review.

“We’re trying to let FDA — we, meaning the Department of Justice — do their work, so that we can continue to protect the lives of the unborn children and frankly the states’ laws, like Missouri’s, which is really what’s being violated here,” Blanche testified.

Blanche’s remarks line up closely with what the Justice Department’s appellate attorneys wrote in their briefs in the 5th Circuit case. Taking a technical approach to the legal issues at play, they argued that the judges should preserve the status quo and put the litigation on hold while the FDA completes its review.

Louisiana’s lawyers, however, quoted Blanche’s own words to try to persuade the judges to rule the opposite. Blanche, they wrote, was “exactly right” when he told lawmakers the policy undercut the state’s laws.

Mifepristone, developed in the 1980s, is administered in the first 10 weeks of pregnancy and works by preventing the uterus from retaining a fertilized egg. It’s one of two pills typically taken for a medication abortion.

The pills and their broad availability through the mail have kept abortion accessible to women in states with abortion bans after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. Under 2023 Biden administration rules, women can order the pills from a doctor in another state.

Anti-abortion activists are trying to put an immediate stop to that practice, asking Blanche to settle Louisiana’s lawsuit and block the mailing of the pills.

“Mail-order mifepristone has become a public health crisis in our country,” said Kelsey Pritchard, communications director for Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America. “This is the opportunity to end the problem.”

The Supreme Court Leaves Missouri's 2022 Congressional Map in Place

Gavin J. Quinton — Tue, 08 Sep 2026 22:25:40 GMT

The Supreme Court denied Missouri's emergency request. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP)

A legal fight over which map Missouri voters will use this November is creating its own convoluted twists and turns.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday denied a bid from Missouri to use a redrawn congressional map for the 2026 elections that targeted a Democratic-held district.

Republicans had asked the justices to step in and halt a ruling from the state’s highest court, which would have voters choose their U.S. representatives from a map used in the 2022 elections.

The decision is a win for Democrats who had fought a Republican-led redistricting that split a Kansas City seat held by Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver. The old map yielded a state delegation with six Republicans and two Democrats.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who oversees emergency requests from the region, denied Missouri’s application without explanation.

But it may not be the final court action in the redistricting clash.

At almost the same time as the Supreme Court order, in a separate case brought by a member of Congress and others, a federal judge quickly halted the use of any map other than the one drawn this year by the Republican-controlled state Legislature for two weeks while litigation plays out.

“Using a different map for the general election would wreak havoc on the fairness and orderliness of Missouri’s congressional elections, calling into question the candidacy of those nominated in the primaries and the votes of those who voted in the primaries,” Stephen R. Clark, the chief judge of the U.S. Eastern District of Missouri, said in his decision.

“Widespread voter confusion would inevitably follow,” Clark added. “The public interest factor thus weighs in favor” of a preliminary injunction.

The order will remain in effect for two weeks while Clark considers whether to extend the use of the new map through November. His order acknowledged that Kavanaugh had just denied Missouri’s application.

That decision was immediately followed by an appeal to the U.S. 8th Circuit Court from the citizens group behind the original lawsuit over the maps

The Missouri dispute is part of a nationwide wave of mid-decade redistricting ordered up by President Donald Trump to aid Republicans in protecting their narrow House majority.

Democratic-led states responded with redistricting efforts of their own.

The back-and-forth over Missouri’s electoral map comes less than two months before Election Day, amid several late-breaking court fights over election procedures, including ongoing litigation over mail-voting rules.

This story has been updated with new developments.

Air Force Base to Allow Religious Greetings After Hegseth Vowed to Intervene

Jenna Monnin — Tue, 08 Sep 2026 21:02:43 GMT

Mandatory Air Force policy requires leaders and service members to “ensure their words and actions do not discriminate against any individual or group because of their faith, belief, or absence of belief, or extend preferential treatment for the same.” (Tom Williams/AP)

Guards at a New Mexico Air Force base were cleared to continue using religious greetings while operating the facility’s gates, according to a statement provided to NOTUS — a policy that comes after complaints about the greetings spurred Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to defend the Christian service members.

The Military Religious Freedom Foundation, a nonprofit that advocates for the separation of church and state within the military, last week reported receiving dozens of complaints regarding guards saying “Have a blessed day” or “God bless you” to people arriving at the base’s gates.

But after the headline-grabbing criticism, a spokesperson for Kirtland Air Force Base said there were no plans to police the “common phrases” that service members use to greet each other and visitors to the facility.

“Base officials have reviewed the feedback received from a small percentage of individuals with base access and, in line with Department of the Air Force policies and the law, have not issued, and have no plans to issue, any changes to procedures either mandating or restricting the use of common phrases while welcoming personnel to the installation,” base officials told NOTUS.

Kirtland base officials added that gate guards are “expected to communicate professionally and courteously” with everyone entering the facility.

Mikey Weinstein, a former Air Force captain who founded the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, told NOTUS that he did not receive a faith-based greeting when he visited the base on Monday — though he said he heard a secondhand account of the religious greetings continuing this week.

Mandatory Air Force policy requires leaders and service members to “ensure their words and actions do not discriminate against any individual or group because of their faith, belief, or absence of belief, or extend preferential treatment for the same.”

If the religious greetings continue at the base, Weinstein said his group will pursue a writ of mandamus in federal court, which is an official court order that would require the Defense Department to follow its own regulations.

Hegseth sharply criticized the Military Religious Freedom Foundation last week and promised to intervene to protect the Christian greetings.

“The MRFF is a radical anti-Christian, pro-atheist group that attacks any/all faith inside the @DeptofWar,” Hegseth wrote Friday on X. “We will never cave to them. The @usairforce will confront this.”

Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Kenneth Wilsbach said Friday the policies on the greetings “are unchanged,” and there were no plans to restrict “the use of common greetings while entering our bases.”

The Department of Defense did not respond to a request for comment.

Weinstein called the religious greetings a “blatant violation” of Air Force regulations that threaten religious freedoms for all military members.

“When differences become divisions, you destroy the unity, morale, discipline, and good order that are the compelling governmental interests that our U.S. Supreme Court talks about when it comes to the First Amendment in the military,” Weinstein said.

New Grand Jury Subpoenas Sent in Trump-Russia Conspiracy Probe

Associated Press — Tue, 08 Sep 2026 20:58:21 GMT

Investigators have set up shop in the home court of U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, who appeared skeptical of the classified documents case against President Donald Trump and ultimately dismissed it. (Justice Department via AP)

By Eric Tucker

The Justice Department is demanding testimony before a Florida grand jury in an investigation aiming to establish an intelligence community conspiracy against President Donald Trump, according to multiple people familiar with the matter.

New subpoenas being issued to former government officials represent an escalation in the year-long investigation as the Justice Department pursues a loosely defined theory that members of the intelligence community who scrutinized Trump over the last decade, including over Russian interference in the 2016 election, conspired against him and violated his rights.

Investigators in recent days contacted some defense lawyers for witnesses advising them of forthcoming grand jury subpoenas. It was not clear how many as of Tuesday had received a subpoena or were still waiting to receive one, and the identities of the witnesses receiving subpoenas were also not immediately clear. The people who confirmed the subpoenas spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a secretive grand jury investigation.

The Investigation Has Focused in Large Part on the Trump-Russia Probe

The contours of the conspiracy investigation aren't fully known, but agents and prosecutors over the last several months have focused intensely on one of Trump's chief grievances: the U.S. government response to Russian interference in 2016 and an intelligence community assessment that Moscow meddled on Trump's behalf at the direction of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Trump, who spent much of his first term shadowed by an investigation into whether his campaign colluded with Russia to sway the outcome of the election, has for years lashed out at the intelligence community finding and cast it as a “deep state” conspiracy to undermine the legitimacy of his win.

Investigators searching for potential crimes in connection with the intelligence community response have conducted numerous voluntary interviews, but the subpoenas prepared for witnesses in recent days represent an apparent effort to lock down sworn testimony before a grand jury.

It remains unclear whether anyone will be charged or for what offense, though lawyers for former CIA Director John Brennan have said they have been informed that he is a target as investigators examine whether he falsely testified to Congress — something he and his attorneys have consistently denied. The Justice Department last spring subpoenaed witnesses before a Washington grand jury as part of an investigation into Brennan, but swiftly withdrew the subpoenas in favor of voluntary interviews.

The investigation is being run out of Florida, with the Justice Department in April bringing back into government service a top prosecutor from the Reagan administration, Joe diGenova, to serve as a counselor to the attorney general and help lead a team of agents and prosecutors.

diGenova, who had previously asked then-Attorney General Pam Bondi to appoint him to the job and has openly and repeatedly claimed Trump was the victim of an intelligence community conspiracy, declined to comment Tuesday when reached by The Associated Press.

In an indication of the wide-ranging nature of the investigation, the AP reported last month that diGenova's team has sought interviews with law enforcement officials involved in the 2022 FBI search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property in Palm Beach, Florida. The search recovered a trove of classified documents that formed the basis of a since-abandoned Justice Department prosecution of Trump, who has long decried the FBI operation as an invasion of his privacy.

Concerns From Defense Lawyers About a ‘Favored’ Judge

Investigators have set up shop in Fort Pierce, Florida, the home court of U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, the Trump-appointed jurist who repeatedly appeared skeptical of the classified documents case against him and ultimately dismissed it after concluding that the prosecutor who filed the charges was illegally appointed.

Lawyers for Brennan last year asked the chief judge of the federal court in Florida to prevent the investigation from being steered to Cannon, whom they described as a “favored” Trump judge. They have since sued the Trump administration, demanding a court order requiring prosecutors to preserve records from the investigation so that Brennan could challenge any eventual prosecution of him as vindictive and selective.

Trump came to office in 2017 under scrutiny from the intelligence and law enforcement community about whether his successful campaign had conspired with Russia, which stole politically damaging Democratic emails and orchestrated their release through WikiLeaks as part of a wide-ranging interference scheme.

A Justice Department special counsel, Robert Mueller, investigated but found insufficient evidence to prove a criminal conspiracy between Russia and the Trump campaign, though his team of investigators did find that Russia interfered in sweeping fashion in the election and that the campaign eagerly hoped to benefit from Moscow’s help.

Subsequent investigations by an inspector general and Justice Department prosecutors identified numerous errors and omissions by agents who conducted the Russia probe but found no evidence of criminal wrongdoing by senior law enforcement officials nor proof of an anti-Trump conspiracy like what prosecutors are now hoping to prove.

Deeply frustrated by those outcomes, Trump has amplified his demands for retribution, which his Justice Department has heeded. Last year, Bondi directed prosecutors to put evidence before a grand jury following the release of documents aimed at calling into question the legitimacy of the Trump-Russia inquiry.

U.S. Strikes Iranian Tankers in Retaliation for Attacks on Navy Vessels

Associated Press — Tue, 08 Sep 2026 20:55:06 GMT

The U.S. is striking back at Iranian tankers. (Vahid Salemi/AP)

By Konstantin Toropin

The U.S. has struck multiple Iranian tankers in response to more attempted missile attacks on a Navy warship, according to a U.S. official, who spoke Tuesday on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military operations.

It marks the latest tit-for-tat strikes as Washington and Tehran lurch back toward fighting during more than six months of war.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Navy has warned crews of oil tankers near ports in Kuwait and Bahrain to immediately leave their vessels, saying the ships could be targeted in retaliation for U.S. attacks on Iranian tankers.

The warning, carried by Iranian state television, said the U.S. military had targeted several Iranian oil tankers. It accused Kuwait and Bahrain of hosting U.S. forces and assisting in the attacks.

The Revolutionaly Guard warned tanker crews to abandon their vessels whether they were at anchor or docked, saying they “will be targeted.”

'South Park’ Creators Say the Series’ Name Is Changing Thanks to Trump

Gavin J. Quinton — Tue, 08 Sep 2026 20:26:06 GMT

“South Park” has so far survived scrutiny from Paramount, in large part due to its unusual streaming deal that keeps creative autonomy in the hands of Matt Stone and Trey Parker. (Photo by Todd Williamson/Invision for the Television Academy/AP Content Services)

“South Park” creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone announced that the long-running comedy show will premier its next season with a new name, one which appears to be another elaborate joke made at President Donald Trump’s expense.

“Inspired by the bravery and patriotism of Apple and Google,” Parker and Stone said in a statement Tuesday, “we are changing the name of South Park to SOUTH AMERICA.”

The mock-rebrand comes after Trump issued a series of directives and executive orders to rename geographic landmarks, notably changing Lake Ontario to Lake America and the Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America. Apple and Google quickly complied, updating their map apps to reflect the new names.

On Labor Day morning, Trump published seven posts to his Truth Social page in a few minutes' span proposing New Mexico change its name to “New America.”

“South Park” frequently satirizes the president, notably depicting Trump in a sexual relationship with the devil. The White House returned fire last year, saying the show “hasn’t been relevant in 20 years.”

In their news release, Parker and Stone also gave “special thanks” to their parent company Paramount, which they dubbed “a Skydance Capitulation” in a nod to the company’s recent merger with Skydance, which is owned by Trump superdonor Larry Ellison.

The two often joke about their tense relationship with the company, and have openly mocked their bosses for repeatedly rolling over to political pressure by canceling “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” and reportedly altering CBS News programming to appease the Trump administration.

“South Park” has so far survived scrutiny from Paramount, in large part due to its unusual streaming deal that keeps creative autonomy in the hands of Stone and Parker.

The 29th season of “South Park” — or “South America” — premieres Sept. 16.

Mega Millions-Winning Congressman Violates the STOCK Act

Dave Levinthal — Tue, 08 Sep 2026 19:48:04 GMT

Rep. Gil Cisneros' improperly disclosed stock trades are worth between $95,000 and $900,000. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call via AP Images)

One of Congress’ most prolific stock traders violated a federal insider trading and transparency law by failing to properly disclose six-figures’ worth of purchases, according to new U.S. House financial records.

Rep. Gil Cisneros (D-California), who sits on the House Armed Services Committee, was days or weeks late revealing more than 50 individual trades, including shares of defense contractors Palantir Technologies, Microsoft, Macom Technology Solutions and SPX Technologies.

Other tardy disclosures by Cisneros, who won a Mega Millions jackpot worth $266 million in 2010, include trades in cryptocurrency company Coinbase Global, computer chip giant Nvidia, media conglomerate Paramount Skydance Corporation and ride-hailing platform Uber.

Taken together, Cisneros’ improperly disclosed stock trades are worth between $95,000 and $900,000. (Lawmakers are only required to list the values of their trades in broad ranges.) The records come as the U.S. Senate is considering the House-approved Stop Insider Trading Act, which would in part ban federal lawmakers from buying individual stocks.

Representatives for Cisneros acknowledged NOTUS’ request for comment but did not otherwise respond to phone and email messages.

It’s unclear whether Cisneros has or will pay a late-filing fine administered by the House Ethics Committee, which begins at $200 and may be waived at the committee’s discretion. Representatives for the committee, which is led by Rep. Michael Guest (R-Mississippi) — himself as STOCK Act violator this summer — did not respond to a request for comment.

In February, Cisneros told NOTUS that he doesn’t manage his own investments, and therefore, does not believe that his personal stock holdings conflict with his public service in Congress.

NOTUS’ Capitol Gains project estimated Cisneros’ median net worth to be $65.91 million entering 2025.

“I have a financial adviser, and you look at the size of my portfolio and you’ll understand why I have a financial adviser who makes all the decisions, and I trust him to do it,” Cisneros said. “I trust my adviser. As I always say, I got very lucky in life and I want to be able to protect it.”

Cisneros has made hundreds of other stock trades during the 119th Congress, House records indicate.

Among them: purchasing up to tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of stock in Palantir, which also has scored Immigration and Customs Enforcement contracts, and $15,000 worth of SpaceX stock days after the Elon Musk-led company made its initial public offering of stock.

In June, Cisneros easily emerged from a competitive primary to advance to November’s general election, where he’s heavily favored to win reelection to California’s 31st Congressional District, which includes parts of eastern Los Angeles County.

In addition to Guest, Cisneros joins an ever-growing list of federal lawmakers who’ve violated the STOCK Act’s disclosure provisions.

Since last summer, violators in the House include Reps. Michael Rulli (R-Ohio), Shri Thanedar (D-Michigan), Tracey Mann (R-Kansas), Julie Johnson (D-Texas), Linda Sánchez (D-California), Julia Letlow (R-Louisiana), Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), Lisa McClain (R-Michigan), Pat Ryan (D-New York), Sheri Biggs (R-South Carolina), Derek Tran (D-California), Donald Norcross (D-New Jersey), Tim Walberg (R-Michigan), Rich McCormick (R-Georgia), Ritchie Torres (D-New York), Troy Nehls (R-Texas), Dan Meuser (R-Pennsylvania), Jonathan Jackson (D-Illinois), George Whitesides (D-California), Val Hoyle (D-Oregon), Austin Scott (R-Georgia), Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Florida), Pramila Jayapal (D-Washington), Kelly Morrison (D-Minnesota), Christian Menefee (D-Texas), Daniel Webster (R-Florida), Ed Case (D-Hawaii), Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas), Laurel Lee (R-Florida) and Scott Franklin (R-Florida). Rep. Kevin Hern (R-Oklahoma) was also late, although his office denies it.

Senators who’ve violated the STOCK Act during the past year include Sens. Alan Armstrong (R-Oklahoma), Ron Wyden (D-Oregon), Katie Britt (R-Alabama), Susan Collins (R-Maine), John Hickenlooper (D-Colorado), Mike Rounds (R-South Dakota) and John Fetterman (D-Pennsylvania).

Scoop: Trump’s National Parks Shake-Up

Jenna Monnin, Kelly Poe — Tue, 08 Sep 2026 19:42:54 GMT

Tue, 08 Sep 2026 19:42:54 GMT https://washingtonsun.com/final-notus-newsletter/scoop-trumps-national-parks-shake-up

The nation’s 430 park units would operate dramatically differently under the proposed plan, with bigger parks given control over small ones. (AP Photo/Jed Jacobsohn)

Good afternoon. This is the Final NOTUS newsletter for Sept. 8, 2026. You can get it in your inbox every day by signing up here — it’s free!

THE LATEST

Scoop: The Trump administration is planning a major shake-up at the National Park Service and will tell officials to “avoid categorical promises” about layoffs, according to internal planning documents obtained by NOTUS.

The nation’s 430 park units would operate dramatically differently under the proposed plan, with bigger parks given control over small ones.
The Interior Department hasn’t yet notified Congress of its intention to reorganize, which it is legally obligated to do before implementation.

Smithsonian chief Lonnie Bunch III will retire at the end of this year. He told The New York Times the decision wasn’t due to pressure from the White House, but that the back-and-forth over how American history should be told did take a toll on him.

“I have to be honest, it has been stressful,” he told the Times. “And at a certain point, I’d like to wake up in the morning and not look at my cellphone.”

THE ADMINISTRATION

Canada’s retaliatory tariffs of up to 50% on $20 billion worth of U.S. goods went into effect Tuesday, just hours after President Donald Trump threatened to ban sales from Bombardier, a Canadian aircraft manufacturer, in the United States.

Bombardier’s U.S. headquarters is in Kansas, and Republicans there are not happy with the idea.

Treasury handed out new sanctions on Iran’s already heavily targeted aviation sector, the latest in a series of measures intended to cripple the country’s economy.

Icelandic officials summoned U.S. Ambassador Billy Long after Trump posted an image to Truth Social of the arctic nation and several other countries wrapped in the American flag.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Þorgerður Katrín Gunnarsdóttir told Long — who had to apologize for calling Iceland the “52nd state” earlier this year — the post “was entirely unacceptable.”

THE HILL

Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kansas), an obstetrician-gynecologist, has sued more than 700 patients for outstanding medical bills, The New York Times reports. Patients in 81 of those cases were arrested.

The unpaid bills ranged from $101 to several thousand dollars. Marshall’s office routinely charged an 18% annual interest rate. Payton Fuller, a spokesperson for Marshall, said on X that “Judges issue warrants, not doctors” and called the story “an obvious hit piece.”

THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker is jumping into the midterms spending fight with a new PAC stocked with a whopping $20 million called “Ready For the Fight.”

The PAC’s first ad buys are against two House candidates: Rep. Max Miller in Ohio and firearms influencer Brandon Herrera in Texas.

THE WORLD

The United Kingdom, France and Canada imposed trade restrictions on Israeli settlements in the West Bank, joining a broader coalition of 12 countries that have imposed sanctions on the communities, which are illegal under international law.

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said the move would “without a doubt” spur consequences from Washington.

CONVERSATION STARTER

https://x.com/DataProgress/status/2097330940808659179?s=20

Thank you for reading! Today’s newsletter was produced by Brett Bachman, Kate Nocera and Erik Schutz. If you liked it, please forward it to a friend. If someone shared it with you, please sign up — it’s free! Got a tip or comments to share? Email us at finalnotus@notus.com.]]>

U.S. Central Command Says American Drone Captured by Iran ‘Malfunctioned’

Avani Kalra — Tue, 08 Sep 2026 19:41:55 GMT

The Strait of Hormuz remains locked in a military stalemate. (Vahid Salemi/AP)

U.S. Central Command said that an American submarine drone captured by Iran near the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday “malfunctioned” and pushed back on claims by Iranian state media that it nabbed a high-tech surveillance vehicle.

A CENTCOM spokesperson, Navy Capt. Tim Hawkins, told NOTUS in a statement that the drone was surveying waters in the region to support ongoing military operations and malfunctioned more than a day ago.

“The defective drone was an older model that neither collected sensitive data nor carried any classified sonar or radar equipment,” Hawkins said. “U.S. operations in area waters continue.”

The statement counters Iranian officials who said that the underwater vehicle was one of the “most modern” and “smart” submarines and was equipped with “the latest” technology.

Iranian state-run media reported that the submarine was capable of “surveillance, seabed mapping, mine detection and inspection of submarine cables and pipelines.” Iranian state TV also released an image of the unmanned submersible vehicle on Tuesday.

A spokesperson for Anduril, which manufactures the vehicle, issued a statement later Tuesday.

“Dive-LD is an attritable autonomous system, meaning it is designed from the outset to operate in dangerous environments where loss of the vehicle is an expected possibility,” the spokesperson said. “Its purpose is to keep warfighters out of the most dangerous parts of the undersea mission. This vehicle had already delivered significant value operating thousands of hours in months-long operations in CENTCOM.”

The Strait of Hormuz remains locked in a military stalemate after U.S. forces struck three Iranian oil tankers following attacks on Navy warships over the weekend. The American military warned Saturday it would “if necessary, destroy Iran’s limited and exposed oil fleet.”

The incident came after President Donald Trump called the conflict “small potatoes” last week and negotiations to end the war have largely lapsed.

This story has been updated to include a statement from Anduril.

DHS Asks the Supreme Court to Revive Overhauled Voter Database

Natalie Alms — Tue, 08 Sep 2026 18:55:36 GMT

Under the Trump administration, Department of Homeland Security has been overhauling the system to use it for voter verification.

The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Tuesday to allow it to use its overhauled citizenship verification system ahead of the midterm elections.

In an application, the Department of Homeland Security argues that a lower court ruling that blocked the use of Social Security numbers and other information in the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, or SAVE, system, “threatens the integrity of upcoming elections.”

DHS revamped the system after President Donald Trump’s executive order in March 2025 aimed at rooting out potential noncitizen voters, although there is no evidence of large numbers of noncitizens voting in U.S. elections.

In the filing, DHS said the system has verified the citizenship of more than 65 million voters across 26 states while flagging 28,635 potential non-citizens on state voter lists. “The district court’s order, however, makes it harder to detect ineligible voters, undermining the integrity of federal elections and public confidence in the results of those elections,” the application states.

The SAVE system was created to verify the immigration status of non-citizens and naturalized U.S. citizens applying for government benefits.

Under the Trump administration, DHS has been overhauling the system to use it for voter verification, connecting additional government data to the system, including data from the Social Security Administration, and expanding its reach to also cover U.S. citizens.

That has sparked both privacy concerns and fears that the system could disenfranchise eligible voters; in Utah and Texas, some of those flagged by the system were later verified to be U.S. citizens.

States are charged with election administration under the Constitution and already have systems in place to maintain their voter rolls.

Voting and privacy groups have sued over the addition of Social Security numbers to the database — leading to the ruling from June that the Trump administration filing calls “an indefensible order that threatens the integrity of upcoming elections.”

DHS contends a district court judge got it wrong when she found the voting- and privacy-rights groups have a legal right to file the lawsuit and that the new SAVE system violates privacy law.

Last week, a federal appeals court declined to allow the federal government to revive the database.

The Trump administration says that the block on the SAVE system will “irreparably harm the federal government, the States, and the public by depriving the government of an effective tool to verify the eligibility of registered voters and benefits applicants under various state and federal programs.”

The old SAVE system, the government says, is “an older, slower, more cumbersome, and less capable process” that does not have certain identifying information and requires users to search one name at a time.

Critics, meanwhile, say that some of the data the new SAVE system relies on to verify citizens is not fit for purpose.

“Social Security numbers are not verification of citizenship,” Tina Waddell, former general counsel at SSA who left the agency last year, told NOTUS previously. The Social Security Administration itself has said that its data isn’t a definitive record of U.S. citizens.

The Trump administration’s efforts to revamp the SAVE system and use it to comb through voter rolls has been at the center of tangled legal proceedings.

The Supreme Court has ordered a response from the voting groups that challenged the database by Sept. 15..

The SAVE system is not the only front in the Trump administration’s effort to verify voter rolls and change voting in the midterms, including a challenge to a U.S. Postal Service rule over mail-in ballots.

The administration also has been attempting to obtain copies of states’ voter rolls, so far with no success.

Iceland Summons U.S. Ambassador for a Rebuke Over Trump’s Truth Social Post

Jenna Monnin — Tue, 08 Sep 2026 18:04:09 GMT

Trump’s post of an American flag-covered map has renewed fears in the region of a potential U.S. annexation of Iceland's close neighbor, Greenland. (Alex Brandon/AP)

The U.S. ambassador to Iceland, Billy Long, was summoned by the country’s officials for a meeting on Monday just hours after President Donald Trump posted an image to Truth Social of the Arctic nation blanketed in the American flag.

Trump posted a stylized map of North and Central American nations — including Canada, the U.S., Mexico, Greenland and Iceland — covered in the stars and stripes during a posting spree to Truth Social on Sunday, an apparent indication of his interest in taking control of those countries. Trump also shared a bizarre series of AI-generated images of “Iran's Navy” on the ocean floor, the moon and the Strait of Hormuz as American territories and New Mexico renamed “New America.”

The posts caught the attention of Icelandic officials, who have tangled with the Trump administration since the president returned to office last year.

"It was made clear to him in the meeting that the post was entirely unacceptable," Iceland's Minister for Foreign Affairs Þorgerður Katrín Gunnarsdóttir told broadcaster RÚV of her meeting with Long.

“If this is supposed to be a joke, then it is a bad joke,” she added at a press conference Tuesday, according to Arctic Today.

This isn’t the first time that Long has faced scrutiny over U.S. annexation threats. Long apologized before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in February over a joke he made, first reported by Politico, to former House colleagues calling Iceland the “52nd state” and saying he’d serve as its governor.

“It was totally inappropriate,” Long told senators at the time. “I just hope that the people in Iceland will give me a second chance to make a first impression.”

Icelanders launched a petition earlier this year calling for Gunnarsdóttir to oust Long, with the effort garnering nearly 5,500 signatures.

Long joins a group of other Trump-tapped ambassadors who have faced removal campaigns and diplomatic rebukes.

Pete Hoekstra, the U.S. ambassador to Canada, currently faces a removal petition that has accumulated nearly 270,000 signatures — an outgrowth of the escalating U.S.-Canada trade war.

Bill White, the U.S. ambassador to Belgium, has been summoned by the country’s officials twice this year — most recently to answer for an incendiary social media post in which he mocked the country’s health minister.

Trump’s post of an American flag-covered map has renewed fears in the region of a potential U.S. annexation of Iceland's close neighbor, Greenland.

Shortly after the start of his second term, Trump pushed for the U.S. to take control of Greenland. Last January, the president even said that conversations with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, had generated “the framework of a future deal” on Greenland.

Trump maintains that Greenland, which is a Danish territory, is vital for U.S. national security, but the push has landed with a thud in Europe — particularly in Denmark, which launched massive protests in response to the president’s push for control in the Arctic.

Iceland also joined Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden in a joint statement in January defending Greenland from Trump's annexation threats.

“We collectively reiterate that matters concerning Denmark and Greenland are for Denmark and Greenland to decide alone,” the foreign ministers of each country wrote.

Trump Administration Removes Criticism of Confederate Memorial From Arlington Cemetery

Kendall Staton — Tue, 08 Sep 2026 18:03:10 GMT

The Confederate monument stood at Arlington National Cemetery until 2023. Kevin Wolf/AP

The Trump administration censored language criticizing a monument to the Confederacy that previously stood at Arlington National Cemetery, removing a reference to the memorial’s “nostalgic, mythologized vision.”

The bronze statue depicting Confederate soldiers alongside enslaved people stood for more than a century before being removed in 2023 as part of a congressional mandate to remove symbols honoring the Confederacy on U.S. military property. The cemetery’s website described the memorial as showing “a nostalgic, mythologized vision of the Confederacy, including highly sanitized depictions of slavery.”

That language, along with further explanation of how history has “denied the horrors of slavery,” has been scrubbed ahead of a planned reinstallment next year. A marker at the former memorial site has also been replaced, with the new version missing any mention of slavery.

“Our website serves to provide facts for all visitors regarding monuments and memorials. Arlington National Cemetery’s decision to update website language and signage at Section 16 was made to ensure it was succinct, factual, current and objective,” a cemetery spokesperson said.

Historian Karen Cox said the language removed from the website was “absolutely accurate” historical context around the statue, which plays into the false idea that the South didn’t fight the Civil War to keep slavery but rather to protect states’ rights.

“Built into that narrative are lies,” she said. “It’s an attempt by the South to justify the confederacy, justify its role in the war and provide this gauzy haze over the Old South and slavery.”

Cox said the statue has been drawn into the GOP culture war as the Trump administration pushes back on what it calls “woke history” and attacks the discipline as a whole.

Last year, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in a social media post announcing the return of the statue that it should never have been taken down. He referred to it as “The Reconciliation Monument.”

“Unlike the Left, we don’t believe in erasing American history — we honor it,” he wrote.

President Donald Trump has ordered the revision of multiple exhibits and descriptions of slavery and racism since his return to the White House as part of an effort to remove references to “corrosive ideology.” From Boston’s Bunker Hill to Washington’s Smithsonian institutions, discussions of race have been altered, removed or censored.

The debate over Confederate statues heated up in 2015 after a shooting killed nine congregation members at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, a historically Black church in Charleston, South Carolina. After protests across the U.S., some cities began removing statues that honored Confederate soldiers and generals. Almost 150 statues were removed between 2015 and 2020.

Trump has worked to replace some of them, including a sculpture of Confederate Gen. Albert Pike that stood in D.C.’s Judiciary Square until 2020 when protestors tore it down and set it on fire. The statue was re-erected last year, and is the only outdoor monument in D.C. to honor a Confederate general.

This story was updated with a comment from an Arlington National Cemetery spokesperson.

Smithsonian Head Announces His Retirement After Months of Criticism From Trump

Torrie Herrington — Tue, 08 Sep 2026 16:42:13 GMT

Alex Brandon/AP

Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch III announced Tuesday that he will retire at the end of the year, wrapping up a nearly eight-year tenure as the institution’s leader.

His departure comes as the Smithsonian faces mounting pressure from the Trump administration over how it tells American history. In an interview with The New York Times, Bunch said it was not the pressure from the White House that led to his departure, but that the back-and-forth did take a toll on him.

“I have to be honest, it has been stressful,” Bunch, who in 2019 became the 14th secretary of the Smithsonian and its first Black leader, told the Times. “And at a certain point, I’d like to wake up in the morning and not look at my cellphone.”

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His departure comes at a consequential moment for the Smithsonian. The Trump administration has spent more than a year criticizing the institutions’ exhibits and scholarship — pushing for a more patriotic telling of American history that focuses less on divisive issues.

Bunch has resisted that pressure, while arguing that the Smithsonian’s job is to present history in all its complexity.

“Every day, I have somebody talk to me about how important it is to have complexity and nuance,” Bunch said earlier this year. He said visitors often come away from Smithsonian exhibitions understanding something they had not known before.

Chief Justice John Roberts, the chancellor of the Smithsonian, said in a statement that Bunch had “pursued excellence in the telling of our nation’s story.”

But President Donald Trump and his top officials have struck a different tune. In March, the president released an executive order critiquing the National Museum of African American History and Culture and the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum, among other institutions, for “a concerted and widespread effort to rewrite our Nation’s history.”

Last month, Trump also issued another order titled “Restoring Trust in the Smithsonian,” in which he says leadership of the institution “cannot be trusted to tell America’s story with honesty and gratitude.”

The executive order came after a White House report on the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History that argued the museum has shifted from presenting a balanced, patriotic account of U.S. history toward what the authors characterize as progressive political activism.

As evidence, they cited curators’ emphasis on racism, oppression and inequality while minimizing America’s founders and their achievements. The report called for the museum to return to a more “unifying” presentation of American history.

Bunch pushed back against the report, sending out a memo to Smithsonian staff in which he said that the report was not a fair representation of the museum's work and the complexity of American history.

“While there will always be room for improvement, this report is not a fair characterization of the work and totality of the National Museum of American History," Bunch said in the memo. “We remain focused on what grounds us: a steadfast commitment to scholarship, nonpartisanship, independence, accuracy, and integrity.”

Bunch was nominated to the storied institution’s top job after spending years with the organization, most notably as the founding director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, overseeing the creation and opening of a new museum on the National Mall in 2016.

Bunch began his Smithsonian career in 1978 as an education specialist at the National Air and Space Museum. Then, in 1983, he became the curator of history and program manager at the California Afro-American Museum. He was recruited to rejoin the Smithsonian in 1989 as supervisory curator at the National Museum of American History.

Over his career, he focused primarily on how museums can tell a more complete American story by confronting both the country’s achievements and its failures.

Pritzker Jumps Into Midterms Money Battle With New $20M PAC

Jenna Monnin — Tue, 08 Sep 2026 16:02:21 GMT

The governor is seen as a potential 2028 presidential contender for Democrats and often stands in strong opposition to President Donald Trump and his policies. (Angelina Katsanis/AP)

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker launched a new political action committee over the weekend that plans to funnel millions of dollars into Democratic House races ahead of the midterms.

Pritzker’s Ready for the Fight PAC — a phrase often used by the governor and repeated liberally in the committee’s first ad spot — plans to invest at least $20 million in what it considers to be overlooked and competitive races, according to Politico, which reported first on the spending push.

The committee will soon target what it deems “the worst of the worst MAGA Republicans,” with ad reservations against Rep. Max Miller (R-Ohio), who’s facing allegations of domestic abuse, and Texas’ Brandon Herrera, an incendiary internet personality who specializes in firearms and calls himself the “AK Guy.”

Both Ohio’s 7th Congressional District and Texas’ 23rd Congressional District lean red, but Pritzker sees them as potential wins for Democrats — with Trump’s approval rating dropping to record lows and midterm elections historically fairing well for the party that doesn't control the White House.

“As the affordability crisis continues, Democrats must think big and take the fight to every corner to support candidates in often-overlooked races,” a press release on the PAC reads. “With everything we care about on the line, Democrats cannot retreat to a handful of battleground races.”

The governor is seen as a potential 2028 presidential contender for Democrats and often stands in strong opposition to President Donald Trump and his policies.

This week, Pritzker will be in Dallas with other Democrats to counter the inaugural GOP midterm convention, according to CNN.

In August 2025, Pritzker hosted a group of Texas lawmakers who fled the state to oppose a Trump-backed redistricting effort. Pritzker has also fought back against Trump’s tariffs that affect the Illinois soybean industry and has lambasted the president’s immigration policies.

Pritzker is running for his third term as Illinois governor, and this PAC will bring his fight against Trump’s agenda to the national stage ahead of the midterms — and a potential presidential run.

“Since launching his campaign in 2017, Gov. Pritzker has closed his speeches with the same question: are you ready for the fight? As Gov. Pritzker has proven in Illinois, Democrats can aggressively fight Trump’s dangerous agenda and deliver real results for working families,” the press release reads.