Today in D.C.: Headlines to start your Tuesday in D.C., Maryland and Virginia
Good Tuesday #GoodTuesday
Good morning — it’s Tuesday. We’re on snow watch. Start your morning with the latest news around the Washington region.
Today’s weather: We get a needed breather today as we watch the weather models and observations for insights into tomorrow’s big event. Wednesday will play out differently depending on where you are located. Far western and northwestern areas are poised to see significant snowfall, but amounts are expected to decline quickly as you get closer to the city. Highs: 40-45.
7:21 AM: Washington region rolls out coronavirus vaccines, prioritizing health-care workers
The first doses of the coronavirus vaccine were administered Monday in the Washington region, marking the start of a massive logistical undertaking that officials hope will start to quell a virus that has infected more than 540,000 residents and killed more than 10,000 in the area.
Governments and hospitals are hosting events this week to show residents getting vaccinated as part of an effort to foster public trust in the vaccine. D.C., Maryland and Virginia are reserving the first shipments for health-care workers, first responders and nursing home residents.
Members of the general public, officials said, will probably need to wait until the spring. The rollout comes as the seven-day average of new infections approaches 7,000 across the greater Washington region — the most since the start of the pandemic.
“We still have a long way to go,” Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) said to a group of hospital workers who were vaccinated Monday afternoon, “but you guys are the first. And we’re proud of all of you.”
Read more from The Post:
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By: Rebecca Tan, Lola Fadulu and Michael Brice-Saddler
6:55 AM: Rep.-elect Bob Good calls the pandemic ‘phony.’ Covid-19 has killed more than 300 in his district.
Newly-elected Virginia congressman calls coronavirus pandemic ‘phony’
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Rep.-elect Bob Good took the stage at Freedom Plaza on Saturday afternoon and looked out at a sea of masklessness. Thousands had come to march for President Trump — some carrying signs declaring the novel coronavirus a hoax.
They were just the kind of group, Good told the crowd, who “gets that this is a phony pandemic.”
“It’s a serious virus, but it’s a virus. It’s not a pandemic,” said Good (R), who will become Virginia’s newest congressman in the 5th Congressional District on Jan. 3. “It’s great to see your faces. You get it. You stand up against tyranny.”
Good’s denial of the existence of a pandemic flies in the face of an unprecedented surge in coronavirus infections, which have claimed the lives of nearly 300,000 Americans — including more than 300 in Good’s congressional district, according to a Washington Post analysis of coronavirus data.
Hospitalizations are up 18 percent in Virginia since last week, and experts fear an increase in fatalities will soon follow.
Read the full story
By: Meagan Flynn
6:41 AM: Nominees set for special election to fill Virginia state House seat
RICHMOND — A Democratic newcomer will face off against a former senior aide to Republican firebrand Corey Stewart in a Jan. 5 special election, when they will compete to fill the state House of Delegates seat vacated by Jennifer D. Carroll Foy.
Carroll Foy, a Democrat from Prince William County, stepped down over the weekend to focus on her 2021 bid for governor.
In a party-run primary on Saturday, Democrats chose Candi King, an education advocate and former small business owner, from a field of five. Heather Mitchell, who ran for the seat in this dark blue district in 2019, was the only Republican to seek that party’s nod, so there was no nominating contest. Mitchell lost to Carroll Foy, who took more than 60 percent of the vote.
The winner will have to run for reelection in November if she wants to hold the seat beyond January 2022, when Carroll Foy’s term was due to expire.
Read The Washington Post’s reporting from Virginia:
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By: Laura Vozzella
6:24 AM: Washington’s past: Holiday shopping at Woodward & Lothrop
This photograph of holiday shoppers at Woodward & Lothrop was taken by Marion S. Trikosko in November 1957. The department store closed its stores in 1995, but the flagship building in downtown Washington, now home to a Zara and Forever 21, still bears the company’s name.
Woodward & Lothrop — known to patrons as “Woodies” — is considered Washington’s first department store. The store’s founders, Samuel Walter Woodward and Alvin Mason Lothrop, opened at the corner of 11th and F streets NW in 1886.
In 2013, Michael Lisicky, a historian of American department stores, published a book on Woodward & Lothrop with the subtitle, “A Store Worthy of the Nation’s Capital.” He wrote that Woodward & Lothrop was the Buick of department stores in the District, known for being the store people wanted to shop at — not the one they had to go to.
“It wasn’t the high, it wasn’t the medium, and it certainly wasn’t the low,” Lisicky told The Washington Post. “It was better than it needed to be.”
Lisicky said the store had “legendary” decorated windows for the holidays along F Street. The point was to get people “off the streets and into the stores,” he said.
The store wasn’t welcoming for everyone in Washington. As The Post’s John Kelly wrote in 2014, most of the District’s department stores were explicitly or casually racist, and “Woodies was no different.”
“The NAACP and CORE were among groups that organized demonstrations and boycotts that eventually forced Woodies and other retailers to be more welcoming,” Kelly wrote.
Woodward & Lothrop was sold in 1995 after 115 years as a Washington department store. The local company had trouble competing in the Washington area with national chains.
This is part of a series that explores Washington’s past. If you have a story or a photo to share, please email postlocal@washpost.com.
More on Woodward & Lothrop:
By: Teddy Amenabar
6:22 AM: Two Metro stations to temporarily close in February for construction
Metro plans to close its Addison Road and Arlington Cemetery stations on the Blue and Silver lines for three months early next year while it replaces station platforms.
The stations will be closed from Feb. 13 to May 23 as part of Metro’s multiyear platform improvement program. Free shuttle buses will be provided to bridge riders to nearby stations.
During this period, the transit agency said, Blue Line trains will not run. Instead, Yellow Line trains will operate between the Franconia-Springfield station and Mount Vernon Square via the Potomac River bridge.
For other shuttle bus details and a list of Metrobus routes that offer alternatives, go to wmata.com/platforms.
Read more of The Post’s reporting on Metro:
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By: Justin George
6:10 AM: D.C.-area forecast: Sunny and cold today as a winter storm arrives Wednesday
The Capital Weather Gang rates today’s weather a 6/10: the cold calm before the storm. The daily digit is a somewhat subjective rating of the day’s weather, on a scale of 0 to 10.
Today: Mostly sunny skies help us dry out from Monday’s moisture, but temperatures only manage the low- to mid-40s for highs as light winds blow from the north at 5 to 10 mph. Confidence: High.
Tonight: Becoming cloudy with lows in the upper 20s to low 30s as light winds blow from the east or northeast near 5 mph. Confidence: High.
Tomorrow (Wednesday): Light precipitation developing mid- to late morning should start as snow or a wintry mix across the area (except perhaps plain rain into Southern Maryland). Areas east of Interstate 95 should change to plain rain by late afternoon, and it could be heavy at times with localized flooding. Our western and northern suburbs could continue to see a wintry mix through the afternoon, while far western to northwestern locations could get mostly snow, with heavier accumulations. Highs range from near freezing in far western to northwestern areas to the low- to mid-40s closer to the bay. Winds are from the northeast and east at 10 to 20 mph, with gusts to 25 mph. Confidence: Low-Medium.
Do you have questions about the winter storm heading toward Washington and the Northeast? Send an email to postlocal@washpost.com.
For other forecasts and more on weather in the Washington region, sign up to receive the Capital Weather Gang in your inbox. (Or, on your smart speaker.)
Read the full story here
By: Matt Rogers
6:01 AM: What do you think of Today in D.C.? Share your feedback.
The Post created Today in D.C. as a way to summarize the news in the Washington area for readers in D.C., Maryland and Virginia. We’d like to hear your thoughts on how we can improve. Because, at the end of the day, we want to deliver headlines that are relevant and useful to you.
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And please email postlocal@washpost.com with any questions or news from your neighborhood.
By: Teddy Amenabar