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2018 is doing a number on many people’s emotional health as the punches keep coming. Enter aspirational eating: foods that make you feel the way you want to feel, instead of how you actually feel (befuddled, distraught, enraged, anxious, helpless, sad). Start with City Paper’s 2018 food issue, aptly titled “Eat Your Feelings.”

LEADING THE MORNING NEWS:

  • “Do you have children?” one protestor reportedly shouted at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer Wednesday afternoon. “Wouldn’t you do anything you had to to protect them?” Dozens of activists in D.C. gathered outside of ICE headquarters––one of a handful of similar actions in cities across the country––to protest the agency’s enforcement of a Trump administration policy that separates immigrant children from their families.

  • Yet, the same day, Democratic Virginia Senator Mark Warner called a child immigrant detention facility in Bristow “a first-rate facility. … I would only hope and pray that all the facilities across the country were of this quality,” he told reporters.

  • Members of the D.C. Council on Wednesday held a hearing on a bill that would lower the voting age in the city to 16, a move that would make D.C. the first municipality in the country to allow minors to vote for president.

  • More than two-and-a-half years later, the battle over the future of Congress Heights continues in a dizzying District lawsuit. New documents unearthed by D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine show how notorious landlord Sanford Capital and developer CityPartners arranged an unusual real estate deal last year in a move that blindsided officials and tenants at the properties.

  • For a sense of what it’s like to live in a Days Inn, consider this: The group of chronically homeless D.C. residents sheltered there refer to it as “the compound.” But despite saying in 2017 that the agency plans to stop motel placements by the end of next year, DHS Director Laura Zeilinger is quietly banking on the city’s contracts with motels to help offset the influx of homeless families into the city’s shelter system when the District closes D.C. General this fall.

THE BULLETIN:

  • Disruptive road closures ahead of Nats Park’s MLB All-Star game (for now).

  • …as well as ahead of July 4 celebrations.

  • Join Housing Complex tonight at the Busboys and Poets on 5th & K Streets NW for a discussion about homelessness in D.C.

  • Missed connection: “We both boarded at Columbia Heights this morning. You had on a white shirt with tie, had a backpack on, and wore Nikes. We made eye contact before boarding the train a few times.” [craigslist]

LOOSE LIPS LINKS, by Andrew Giambrone (tips? agiambrone@washingtoncitypaper.com)

  • D.C. Council approves new service operator for DC Circulator amid concerns. [Times]

  • Ex-Ward 5 Councilmember Harry Thomas Jr. and his mom testify to Council. [Twitter]

  • Ward 3 Councilmember Mary Cheh bemoans Justice Kennedy’s retirement. [Twitter]

  • District government says no construction near Nats Park during All-Star Game. [WBJ]

ARTS LINKS, by Matt Cohen (tips? mcohen@washingtoncitypaper.com)

  • What does it take to be a 21st century hip-hop star? This gorgeous Post feature explains how, through the lens of Maryland rapper Rico Nasty. [Post]

  • In East of the River, gentrification and Anacostia get the musical treatment. [DCist]

  • Bacchae talks about the street harassment and patriarchal fuckery that inspires their songs. [Post]

  • Check out the winning design for the Smithsonian’s new Native American Veterans Memorial. [WAMU]

YOUNG & HUNGRY LINKS, by Laura Hayes (tips? lhayes@washingtoncitypaper.com)

  • Flames swallow a beloved Georgetown wing spot. [Washingtonian]

  • On the brushes with death that trendy plants face in fancy restaurants. [Eater]

  • Millennials are happy working at Wegmans and Publix. [Food & Wine]

HOUSING COMPLEX LINKS, by Morgan Baskin (tips? mbaskin@washingtoncitypaper.com)

  • Ward 4 Councilmember Brandon Todd promotes an article about development in D.C. in which he’s quoted––and that was sponsored by (a Maryland-based) MGM Grand. [Twitter]

  • City Paper obtained an audit of DC Housing Authority’s fiscal year 2017 finances. [Twitter]

  • Using population weighted density to study D.C.’s growth. [GGW]

SPORTS LINKS, by Kelyn Soong (tips? ksoong@washingtoncitypaper.com)

  • Fan favorite and 2012 playoff hero Jayson Werth, who played a major role in bringing a winning culture to the Nationals since joining the club in late 2010, is “done” playing professional baseball, according to Fancred Sports. Nats fans have plenty of fond memories of Werth’s time in D.C., which ended in 2017. [Fancred]

  • The World Cup is a joyous event for Mexico soccer fans, but not one without somber notes this year. [WCP]

  • Introducing The Scoreboard, a new weekly sports series spotlighting the winners and losers, the champs and chumps, the highlights and lowlights, and anything in between, of sports in the D.C. area. [WCP]

HAPPENING TODAY

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