District Line Daily: The King of Ashburn

A morning roundup of news, opinion, and links from City Paper and around the District. Send tips and ideas to citydesk@washingtoncitypaper.com.

Sign up: To get District Line Daily—or any of our other email newsletters—sent straight to your mailbox, click here.

Before he was fatally shot in the head, Osama El-Atari was once considered a prince of Loudoun County, with a fleet of fancy cars to boot. But the bank fraudster turned jail informant may have drawn attention from the wrong people. Will Sommer digs into El-Atari’s puzzling death for our cover story this week.

LEADING THE MORNING NEWS:

Union Station was briefly evacuated yesterday afternoon over a suspicious package. [NBC4, FOX5, Post]
A man who was sleeping in his car in Northeast was shot in the neck early this morning. [WUSA9, WJLA]
Why is Metro seeing more red-signal overruns? “Zoned out” operators could be partly to blame. [WAMU]
A lawyer for an inmate accused of murder argued that the heat at the D.C. Jail is cruel and unusual. [DCist]
Adele Robey—the founder of the Anacostia Playhouse theater—discusses gentrification and art. [WAMU]
An 11-year-old dog called Lucy was rescued after fleeing a house fire in Logan Circle. [City Desk, WTOP]
“Carnivorous plants” sign in Columbia Heights stirs confusion, ends up as social commentary. [Borderstan]
More than 4,000 people have said they will attend a “Pokemon Go” walk on the Mall on Saturday. [NBC4]

RECENT CITY PAPER STORIES TO HELP YOU MAKE SENSE OF YOUR DAY:

Families in Need: About 15,000 D.C. residents receive cash payments through benefits that may diminish.
Instaworthy: Restaurant staff are learning how to take good photos of food to get customers in the door.
Homeless in the Heat: Many of the District’s homeless don’t know where to go during the hottest months.

LOOSE LIPS LINKS, by Will Sommer (tips? wsommer@washingtoncitypaper.com)

Muriel Bowser talks statehood at the convention. [Post]
What’s next for Maryland Ave. NE rebuild? [WAMU]
Court injunction keeps anti-abortion activist away from charter school [Post]
Teachers can take advantage of new subsidized apartments. [Post]
Big wage bump for District REI employees [WBJ]

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

Listen to the new EP from The Internal Frontier. [Bandwidth]
Crooked Beat Records finds a new home in Alexandria. [DC Music Download]
The rise and fall, and potential rise again, of nerdiness in D.C. [Washingtonian]
Read an interview with 9:30 Club booker Melanie Cantwell. [DC Music Download]

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

The word “climatarian,” explained [Edible DC]
Wunder Garten opens in its permanent home Aug. 5 [Washingtonian]
Fresh picks for the gluten-free crowd [Eater]
Sayonara small plates. Maybe? [Post]
No limit to Peter Chang‘s excitement about Bethesda [Bethesda Beat]