Stories from surrounding communities, closest first.
Sentinel Colorado · Arlington, VA
Nearby: Arlington, VAWASHINGTON | There’s a scene in Melania Trump’s documentary in which she enters the room as Donald Trump is rehearsing his inaugural address. When he says the line about how “my proudest legacy will be that of a peacemaker,” she offers a quick, verbal edit. “Peacemaker and unifier,” she tells her husband to say instead. But Melania is the Trump who is credited with recently bringing peace, if only for six days, to one war-torn city in southern Ukraine — an unusual intervention into an active war by an American first lady. Two days after Republican losses in the midterm elections knocked the president out of the spotlight, Melania Trump hosted Russian and Ukrainian officials at the White House to celebrate the temporary ceasefire. It’s part of a burst of public activity by a first lady regarded as among the most private women to hold the role, and it comes just before the Nov. 20 release by Prime Video of “Melania: The Series,” a follow-up to the first lady’s documentary from January.
Air Force Times · Arlington, VA
Nearby: Arlington, VAAn Army sentinel guarding the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery reprimanded Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's entourage after a member of the group was heard laughing during a Veterans Day visit Wednesday.
Madison County Eagle · Arlington, VA
Nearby: Arlington, VAVirginia and D.C. have filed suit to stop the Trump administration from beginning work on a 250-foot-tall triumphal arch at the entrance to Arlington National Cemetery.
The Diamondback · Washington, MD
Nearby: Washington, MDTonya Sweat’s first gig in Washington, D.C., was entangled in the 2000 presidential election recount controversy. Decades later, she finds herself at the center of her own ballot dispute. Then an Air Force attorney, Sweat advised the task force organizing the 2001 inauguration. The committee had to coordinate with two viable presidents-elect until the U.S. Supreme Court ruled a month after the election to end a recount in Florida, granting former President George W. Bush a razor-thin victory over Democrat Al Gore. “I watched that in real time, and I thought we had learned a lesson,” said Sweat, who ran as an unaffiliated write-in candidate for Prince George’s County executive this year. “And now, here we are, 26 years later, and I’m standing in the middle of it.” On Nov. 3, voters reelected County Executive Aisha Braveboy over Sweat much more conclusively. Still, Sweat spent Veterans Day on Wednesday protesting the midterm results outside the county’s elections board office.
Daily Republic · Washington, MD
Nearby: Washington, MDMITCHELL — Mitchell was lit up with Christmas spirit to greet the U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree on its 19th stop on the way to the nation’s Capitol. Mitchell residents, greater Mitchell area elementary students, and the Dakota Wesleyan University Jazz Band welcomed the U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree in front of the Corn Palace on Thursday morning. The tree is on a 21-day journey from the Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forests in Idaho to the west lawn of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. Community members signed the wrapped banner enclosing the tree, met Smokey the Bear and peered through the protective plexiglass of the semi-trailer to take a look at the tree. The tree remains enclosed during the entire transport. The U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree made its last appearance in Mitchell in Nov. 2015. This year’s tree is a 110-year old 76‑foot Engelmann Spruce from the Lochsa-Powell Ranger District.
Kinston.com · Washington, MD
Nearby: Washington, MDSen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., walks through the Capitol basement, Monday, in Washington. Allison Robbert | AP WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate on Monday advanced bipartisan legislation aimed at speeding up permitting reviews to power data centers and other infrastructure projects, in the first major action since last week’s election that soundly repudiated President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans.The Senate voted 73-25 to formally take up the bill, which senators and the president have pushed as a way to meet growing demand for electricity and other forms of energy that now face yearslong delays in getting to the grid.The legislation’s sweeping changes would shorten the timeline to get big energy projects started — both for clean energy and fossil fuel projects — and make sure data centers pay for the energy they use.
Athol Daily News · Bethesda, MD
Nearby: Bethesda, MDMassachusetts has joined nine other states plus Washington, D.C., without gestational limits on abortion, after Gov. Maura Healey shielded a new state law from an anti-abortion referendum petition that could have prevented it from taking effect. Healey signed an emergency preamble Friday that put the law into effect immediately and protects it from suspension, preventing what she called “two more years of women being denied care.” Opponents can still pursue a repeal question on the November 2028 ballot. Signed into law by Healey over the summer, “An Act prioritizing patient access to care” lifts the 24-week restriction. It eliminates the exceptions that previously governed abortions after that point, which applied when the procedure was needed to preserve the pregnant patient’s life or physical or mental health, or when physicians had diagnosed the fetus with a lethal anomaly.
