Happy Monday, D.C. Even though our city lost its chance to bring home another championship trophy this weekend, you’ve still made it to another week—good for you. Here’s the news you may have missed while celebrating local graduates and moms. 

Second and Goal

Friday news dumps aren’t just for political news—they also apply to sports. Late Friday afternoon, Washington Commanders owners Daniel and Tanya Snyder released a statement acknowledging that they had reached an agreement to sell the team to a group led by Chevy Chase native Josh Harris. 

“We are very pleased to have reached an agreement for the sale of the Commanders franchise with Josh Harris, an area native, and his impressive group of partners,” the statement reads. “We look forward to the prompt completion of this transaction and to rooting for Josh and the team in the coming years.”

Harris expressed similar sentiments in his statement, recalling the joy he felt seeing the team win three Super Bowls and thanking the many members of his ownership group. Among the members of that group: billionaire and art investor Mitchell Rales; NBA Hall of Famer Magic Johnson; David Blitzer, with whom Harris owns the Philadelphia 76ers and the New Jersey Devils; former Google CEO Eric Schmidt; and Washington City Paper owner Mark Ein. 

Plenty of people cheered the decision over the weekend, but longtime City Paper contributor Dave McKenna, a man who knows plenty about Dan Snyder, put it best. Writing for Defector this weekend, McKenna reflected on Snyder’s attempts to sue City Paper out of business in 2011 and what could be the end of the Snyder era in D.C.

The deal isn’t official yet—24 of the NFL’s 32 team owners must vote to approve it once it clears the league’s finance committee—but this latest move pushes the deal closer to the goal line. 

Train Triumphs

Complaining about the Metro is a favorite local pastime, but it turns out our complaints may be misplaced. According to a new survey, D.C. has the best large public transit system in the country. The survey, commissioned by moving company Hire a Helper and based on data from the Census Bureau and the Federal Transit Administration, considers factors like the number of annual transit trips per resident, the share of stations that are considered accessible under the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the share of miles traveled using electric power. D.C. outranked its East Coast rivals in New York, Philadelphia, and Boston with a composite score of 93.3. That being said, the data used to generate the score dates back to 2021, so here’s hoping D.C. can keep its high score in the years to come.

In other transit news, the Federal Railroad Administration released renderings of what a reconfigured Union Station could look like. Spoiler alert: It would look nothing like the current one. Estimated to cost around $8.8 billion, the new train hall would add wider rail platforms, integrate the bus terminal and access to Metro, and feature new shops and restaurants. The historic main hall will be preserved. Planners hope this renovation will make Union Station, by 2040, “the nation’s second-busiest intercity rail hub.” Don’t get too excited or worried about these changes, though: The environmental assessment of the project is already three years behind schedule, and once it’s sorted and the design is approved, construction could take 13 years.

Bike Patrol

We’d like to give a special commendation to City Paper contributor and local hero Joe Flood, who spent part of Saturday heckling the hateful White supremacists who showed up to rally on the Mall. That he did it while riding a Capital Bikeshare bicycle on grass is even more impressive. 

—Caroline Jones (tips? cjones@washingtoncitypaper.com)

• A mentorship program is teaching kids in Ward 8 about environmental justice. The program partnered with the Potomac Riverkeeper Network to work on the 50 Million Mussel project, an effort to revive the freshwater mussel population. A group of about a dozen kids worked on the project in Oxon Run Park on a recent Saturday morning. The goal of the mentorship, says founder and violence interrupter Victor Battle, is to introduce kids to the natural environments in their neighborhoods. [DCist]  
• A 10-year-old girl was shot Sunday night while riding in a vehicle with her parents near Kenilworth Park in Northeast. Police do not believe the girl or her parents were the intended targets. She was taken to the hospital with “very critical injuries.” Hours later, a 12-year-old girl asleep in her bed was grazed by a bullet that came through a window of her apartment on Naylor Road SE. She was taken to the hospital with “non-life-threatening injuries.” [Post, NBC Washington, WTOP]
• Cancer deaths in D.C. have decreased at a faster rate than other areas of the country, according to a study in the journal Cancer that analyzed data by Congressional districts. Deaths in D.C. dropped 61 percent in the past 25 years, compared to an average of 39.1 percent in Maryland and 37.2 percent in Virginia. [Axios]

By City Paper staff (tips? editor@washingtoncitypaper.com)