Good morning. This is The Washington Sun Metro newsletter for Oct. 20, 2026. You can get it in your inbox every day by signing up here — it’s free!
In today’s newsletter: A nine-hour D.C. Council hearing, a driverless Metro and the Commanders in prime time.
Capital Weather’s Daily Digit — 9/10. Beautiful day on the way, but dry air with brisk breezes may trigger a few fall allergy sneezes. Full forecast from Capital Weather.
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Death and taxes are the only certainties in life. But whether D.C. imposes new taxes on its residents and businesses is still up in the air.
Last week the D.C. Council held a nine-hour hearing on a range of ideas to bring in more revenue, just as the city faces an economic and budget crunch that could threaten a variety of existing programs and services.
Despite a lively debate on everything from new taxes on capital gains to higher property levies for expensive homes that sit vacant most of the year, The Washington Sun’s Martin Austermuhle reports that lawmakers likely emerged from the hearing realizing that there’s no silver bullet to the city’s fiscal challenges over the next year.
Some proposed tax hikes could be imposed quickly, but may only produce enough revenue to close an existing budget gap. More expansive options could take years to implement while raising concerns about what signal it sends to skittish businesses, investors and people choosing where in the Washington region they should live.
More takeaways from the hearing: A new tax on law firms and lobbyists may sound fair in principle but complicated in reality, and soaking the rich is easy politics but may be counterproductive for a city whose economy needs every boost it can get.
If there was one thing that most people at the hearing agreed on, it’s that D.C. needs a better way to dig into spending and revenue.
DEEP DIVE
Metro’s driverless future: Speaking to a crowd of transit experts last week, WMATA’s general manager, Randy Clarke, addressed the Red Line modernization project, which is expected to fully automate the system’s busiest line at a cost of $1.6 billion, according to the Federal Transit Administration.
“Driverless Metro does not mean we won’t have staff,” Clarke said at the Mobility Forum, a weekly seminar led by MIT professor Jinhua Zhao. He added that Metro has plans to have a “staffing concept of operation” within a year and a half.
It’s just one of the ways the agency is relying on new technology to manage its operations, The Sun’s Will Hofmann reports.
With $2.1 million in funding from Google, MIT’s Transit Lab — led by Zhao — is set to partner with WMATA to build an “open-source agentic AI platform for public transportation monitoring, control, and rider communications.”
WMATA has seen the acceleration of AI as “required” to modernize its transit ecosystem, even recently modifying a contract with Replicant Solutions, an AI-driven customer service vendor, by $3 million. The expanded contract would reflect that a “greater volume of calls has shifted to the AI platform” replacing “more expensive human agent-handled calls,” Fifi Magosi, a WMATA vice president, said at the agency’s Oct. 8 meeting.
FROM THE DISTRICT
No such thing as a coincidence: The federal judge in the East Potomac case is not buying the Trump administration’s argument that its recent mass tree-cutting at the park is disconnected from the president’s recently announced plans for a new championship golf course on site, The Associated Press reports.
“There is no universe in which all of this coincidentally happened all at the same time,” U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes said during a Monday hearing.
Reyes previously ordered that the government halt all work at the park until at least next week. While President Donald Trump wrote Sunday on Truth Social that golf course architect Tom Fazio will begin the redevelopment on Nov. 15, the government’s lawyers said Monday that there “is not a contract” with Fazio or his company, The Sun’s Reese Gorman reports.
A National Guard member was shot in the leg late Sunday night while attempting to break up a fight near Capitol Hill’s Eastern Market, The Sun’s Kendall Staton reports.
The interim Metropolitan Police chief, Jeffery Carroll, said on Monday that a person was shot in the abdomen after firing their gun toward a group of seven or eight guard members responding to the fight. The suspected shooter and guard member were each transported to the hospital with injuries not considered life-threatening.
A fire destroyed the dining room of La Bonne Vache, a French bistro in Georgetown, on Sunday night, The Sun’s Justice Covert reports. The fire displaced two adults who lived above the restaurant.
The Justice Department is investigating whether D.C.’s Department of Corrections “engages in a pattern or practice of violating the constitutional rights” of people incarcerated in its facilities, Kendall reports. The announcement comes days after six people filed a lawsuit claiming they were repeatedly served food with dead mice and bugs while being held at the D.C. jail.
Betting on tech: Mayor Muriel Bowser announced she’ll support 112 local tech start-ups with more than $5 million in funding for training, networking and even (for some) free office space to grow D.C.’s tech economy. The mayor also released a report projecting that local tech jobs will increase by nearly 8% through 2028.
A recent wave of crime committed by teens has reignited debate over how to punish and rehabilitate young offenders, City Cast D.C. reports.
FROM VIRGINIA
Rep. Suhas Subramanyam’s office received an “envelope containing a suspicious substance,” according to a Monday news release. The Virginia lawmaker, who’s running for reelection in the state’s 10th Congressional District, denounced the letter as “political intimidation” that has “no place in our country.” His office joined a list of several congressional offices that received letters containing unknown substances.
FROM THE DINING ROOM
The most important meal of the day: Sun food correspondent Tom Sietsema ranked his five favorite breakfasts in the D.C. area, highlighting everything from a crab cake and eggs platter inside Eastern Market to a picture-perfect stack of pancakes in Arlington.
WHAT YOU GET WITH A GARAGE
This week’s real estate column looks at what buyers can get for less than $900,000 with a garage.
Where is this house listed? Click on your guess to see the answer:
SPORTS
49ers 23, Commanders 17: In a game of two very distinct halves, the Commanders came out flat but showed some fight after the break. Despite losing Terry McLaurin to a leg injury, the offense found a rhythm and Jayden Daniels threw two touchdowns to pull Washington within a score. But two late drives came up of the end zone, and the Commanders will head into their bye week at 1-4-1. The Sun’s Martenzie Johnson breaks down the good and the bad from Week 6.
The Wizards kick off a new season tomorrow, hosting the Bucks at Capital One. The Sun’s Alex Schiffer reports that outside expectations for the team are mixed this year, as many league sources and national media outlets aren’t sure how the team’s new veterans will work with its young core.
“They have to prove they can win,” one executive told The Sun. “Do the young guys know how to do that?”
One undeniable bright spot for Washington? No. 1 overall pick AJ Dybantsa. But Alex reports that the buzzy rookie may not suit up Wednesday as he’s still considered day-to-day with an ankle injury.
What to Watch Today
NHL: Capitals vs. Kings, 7 p.m. (Monumental)
Thank you for reading! If you liked this newsletter, please forward it to a friend. If someone shared it with you, please sign up — it’s free! Got a tip or comments to share? Email us at metro@washsun.com. Finally, yesterday’s trivia answer was C) National Harbor. That is the new home of “The Awakening.” A special shout-out to Nancy Ward, who answered first.
The newsletter was produced by Jaden Amos, Andrew Burton and Michael Errigo.
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