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City Cast DC

Kaela Cote-Stemmermann

We’re on a mission to get out there and remember why we 

 living in D.C. again. We think this bingo card will help.

How many can you check off before spring?

 if you get bingo and we’ll give you a shoutout!

Ben Brasch

It’s a battle of spin and sludge. And are you going to believe the Interior Department or your interior judgement?

According to Donald Trump’s government, the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool is a “crystal clear” basin of water. “The nanobubbler technology and vacuuming have been incredibly effective, making the water crystal clear with the American Flag Blue coating shining brightly on the bottom of the pool,” the Department 

But on Thursday afternoon, a week into the ruckus over an algae bloom that began choking the pool soon after its renovation, the water was lagoon-green. Crews in waders used pool nets to scoop muck out of the two-tone pool, parts of which had become less green after workers poured bleach into the pool. Loud, whirring motors pumped the sickening-looking water into the storm drains.

And now, in addition to algae, sheets and ribbons of blue paint floated in the water or could be seen sloughing off as crews cleaned. Some pieces were left in the grass.

As Trump predicted, the renovation has brought crowds to the National Mall. But maybe not the ones he hoped.

Trump foes were out in force, drawn by massive media coverage of the renovation, which was completed after the administration awarded a 

The naysayers on hand included Rob Dale, a tourist from Colorado, who called the scene “a huge waste of resources.”

“Your tax dollars are literally going down the drain,” he said, motioning to the hose belching green water into the storm drain. He added: “I want my money back.”

The Interior Department’s press office 

 that “the Reflecting Pool is now so ‘blue’ that the Fake News Media, which has been staked out at the Reflecting Pool for weeks, has fled!”

But on Thursday, Dale said he was interviewed by Reuters. There were plenty of other media filing reports from the pool throughout the day, including reporters from 

. As Dale spoke, a cameraman with a CNN badge shot video. The fate of a D.C. monument had turned into a national symbol.

The renovation finished just over a week ago. Experts have said that it is common for algal blooms to strike after this kind of work, especially with the 

Yet even with all the remediation work, the water remained more chartreuse than “crystal clear.” And the only reflection occurring at the pool Thursday afternoon was from onlookers wondering how they would caption their blurry photos with metaphors about how this scene represents the state of the nation.

None of this stopped others from presenting a different reality. In another post, the Interior Department 

 that the “water is crystal clear, and our National Park Service team is now vacuuming up the bottom of some parts of the Reflecting Pool—just like the destroyed Iranian Navy resting on the bottom of the Persian Gulf.”

 early Thursday that “the advanced nanobubbler technology very effectively killed the algae that has plagued every Lincoln Reflecting Pool reopening.” City Cast DC saw isolated pools of bubbling in the Reflecting Pool occurring but can not confirm if they were, indeed, nanobubbles.

The Reflecting Pool Is Drawing Crowds of Gawkers

Local News

Get the story that everyone in Washington is talking about.

D.C. Local News

Emma Uber

Michael Schaffer

Kenyan McDuffie has conceded the mayoral election to Janeese Lewis George, making her the Democratic nominee and – barring an unprecedented political earthquake – the overwhelmingly Democratic city’s next mayor.

In a statement Thursday morning, McDuffie said he called Lewis George to congratulate her on the victory. At the time of his concession, Lewis George held 52.9% of the first-rank vote with nearly three-quarters of ballots counted, according to the 

“While the final certification process will continue, it is clear that the voters have chosen a different path,” McDuffie said in a statement. “I want to thank every voter who participated in this election, the tens of thousands of Washingtonians who placed their faith in our campaign, and all of our volunteers, supporters, staff, family members, community leaders, and neighbors who believed in our vision for the future of our city. The campaign may be over, but the work of building a safer, more affordable, more prosperous city continues.”

The concession, on the heels of Tuesday's surprisingly strong showing by the democratic socialist, marks a dramatic reversal of fortunes for McDuffie, a longtime D.C. Councilmember who before the campaign had good relations with D.C. progressives as well as its center-left.

When Mayor Muriel Bowser announced last year that she wouldn't seek a fourth term, McDuffie surprised few people when he jumped into the race.

And yet the politics of 2026 D.C. seemed to move beyond McDuffie, as Lewis George's call for more active government — and more vocal pushback against President Donald Trump — resonated in a register that the mild-mannered McDuffie couldn't seem to access.

Lewis George’s victory was accompanied by strong showings by fellow democratic socialists and progressives in D.C. Council races that could change the balance of the council, even as the ascent of a democratic socialist mayor will end the decade-long dynamic where a pro-business mayor effectively put a break on progressive lawmakers.

In a speech at her election night party Tuesday, she said her campaign has seen success "because we gave voice to one simple truth: the status quo is unsustainable for working people in D.C."

Lewis George, 38, currently represents Ward 4 on the D.C. Council. She has hinged her campaign on affordability, making big promises on child care and affordable housing. Her unapologetically left-wing posture has energized supporters tired of the status quo, but worried business leaders. And her opposition to policing measures like teen curfews have drawn the ire of law-enforcement advocates.

Last week, President Donald Trump threatened to take over the District if she was elected. Although the president doesn’t have the power to unilaterally do that, the win will likely raise tensions with a White House that retains a lot of power over the Capital City.

In D.C.’s first ranked-choice voting election, neither of the big ticket races will rely on voters' second or third choice votes. D.C. Council member Robert White 

 colleague Brooke Pinto on Tuesday night to win the Democratic nomination for D.C. delegate.

Democratic socialist JLG is all but guaranteed to be the next D.C. mayor.

McDuffie Concedes in Mayor's Race

Politics

DC Politics

It turns out, D.C. is only big enough for one 

The political news site NOTUS has amicably resolved its legal dispute with the owners of 

 trademark, bringing to a close one of the weirder copyright battles in recent media history — and putting an end to a pricey and aborted relaunch. As part of the settlement, NOTUS has abandoned its plan to rebrand as

The legal battle began late last month, as NOTUS prepared a much-hyped relaunch as 

a general-interest Washington publication. The site’s owner, Robert Allbritton, is the son of a former owner of 

, which went out of business in 1981. Unfortunately for Allbritton, the old paper’s trademark is owned by someone else. And that owner 

 for trademark infringement, asking a judge to order NOTUS to stop using the name and pay damages. According to court filings, 

– led by Dovid Efune, the publisher of 

 – had been planning its own re-launch and two D.C. publications with Star in the name is bad for business.

“Both parties have amicably resolved the matter,” a NOTUS spokesperson said in a statement. “We continue to work toward a new name."

 NOTUS from rebranding on the eve of its multi-million dollar launch. The temporary restraining order forbade NOTUS from unveiling a new website and advertising as 

 until the judge ruled on a preliminary injunction at a July 22 hearing.

But the media companies decided to forgo the wait and take matters into their own hands. 

 did not immediately respond to request for comment. The NOTUS spokesperson declined to answer whether money had been exchanged as part of the settlement

and if the publication has honed in on any potential new names.

NOTUS Scraps ‘The Star’ Rebrand, Ends Trademark Dispute 

Marc Fisher

After all that, now we wait? For a week? Ten days? Janeese Lewis George has evidently won the D.C. mayoral primary election, convincingly. But no victory is convincing enough for the District’s new ranked-choice voting system, which, according to the city’s politicians, bureaucrats, and activists, requires that we be patient. 

The final results of the election – both in Lewis George’s apparent majority win and in a couple of closer Council races – will be revealed when the elections board is good and ready. Learn a little civic patience, we’re told: Trust us. Trust the system.

Um, have they read the room? There’s plenty of suspicion in the air these days. We’re gorging on frustration. But trust? Precious little of that, especially around here.

This regression to a vote-counting pace that seems like something out of the 18th century is not the result of incompetence or conspiracy. It stems, rather, from a peculiar kind of corruption – a moral rot, fueled by righteousness, and a disturbing fear of being found to be less than ideologically pure.

Even though D.C.’s elections board was for decades perfectly capable of delivering election results in just a few hours, Washington voters Tuesday night got only partial numbers and now will need to wait, for two reasons:

First, it takes longer to count ranked-choice ballots because you are potentially conducting several elections in succession — and that can’t be done until every ballot arrives. Elections workers will have to process tens of thousands of ballots that were mailed-in or dropped in collection boxes. In races where no candidate has won an outright majority, such as the at-large Council election in which Oye Owolewa leads and the Ward 1 race, officials will have to conduct additional rounds of counting to add voters’ second and subsequent choices to the mix. All that just can’t physically be done in one evening, the city’s elections director, Monica Evans, said last week. The final count might take 10 days, which is longer than even California takes. “It just comes down to patience,” Elections Board chairman Gary 

Advocates for the city’s new ranked-choice voting system won over voters in the 2024 ballot initiative by arguing that this confusing method of ranking candidates would deliver a pure shot of democratic adrenaline. In fact, though, 

ranked-choice distorts the voting power of a relative handful

 of citizens – it unfairly empowers supporters of the least-popular (and sometimes most radical) candidates. (If no candidate wins a majority in the raw vote, it’s the supporters of the last-place finisher – by definition, the least appealing and most out of the mainstream candidate – whose second choices get elevated first.) It’s a system that few people understand and one that’s been extraordinarily poorly explained.

The second reason for the Great Wait is a pervasive and sad epidemic of fear that has infected the Democratic party and its various strands of liberals and lefties – a fear that if they dare to speak up for election integrity and efficient vote-counting, they will somehow be tagged as members of a MAGA mob hungry to undermine democracy.

Why would the Dems – both those who control the city government and those who want to get back in national power -- permit the idea of enhancing election security to be entirely hijacked by the venal operatives of The Trump Show? I enjoy the smalltown convenience and the trust implied by being able to vote in D.C. simply by stating my name at the registration table. But let’s be rational: In a society where you (bizarrely) can’t be seen by a doctor or gain entry to many office buildings without showing ID, there’s nothing oppressive or unfair about having to prove who you are to vote.

Similarly, imposing an earlier deadline for mail-in ballots so that they can all be tallied by Election Night would be perfectly reasonable. No one complains that the start date for early voting is chosen arbitrarily, and no one should whine if the deadline is a bit earlier than Election Day. I believe in voting in-person on Election Day, if only because stuff happens in the final days of campaigns and I want to be able to factor that into my choice of candidates. (Try it sometime: It’s one of our country’s most stirring rituals of community-building.) Those who want to vote early should pay a small price for that luxury: You need to vote a little sooner than your neighbors do, for the sake of building both efficiency and trust.

One of the many reasons D.C. voters approved ranked-choice was the failure of the No campaign in 2024 to show how the system has disappointed voters in other places that adopted it. In Maine, according to 

 Cynthia McClintock of George Washington University and Joseph Cerrone of Haverford College, voters “were very dissatisfied with a come-from-behind victory under ranked-choice voting.” That is, when a candidate who came in second in the regular voting was then elevated to the winner’s circle in the later rounds of the ranked-choice process, voters realized that the new system breaks a cardinal rule of fairness: It automatically turns winners into losers. (Runoff elections, in contrast, don’t leave that sour taste in voters’ mouths, the study found; they’re a fair and reasonable way to make sure a winner has majority support.) “To our surprise,” the study’s authors concluded, “voters were not troubled by the election of a winner without majority support under [the] plurality” voting system that most American elections use.

Other studies similarly have found that the ranked-choice system 

The fault lies not only with advocates of ranked-choice voting, though they do deserve blame for trying to fix a non-existent problem, at least in mayoral races: 

 did the winner of D.C.’s Democratic primary for mayor win less than 49 percent of the vote (Muriel Bowser in 2014, when she first won with 43 percent support in the primary.)

The city government bears some responsibility here too. Most places that use ranked-choice manage to get all the counting 

. The District this year moved aggressively to encourage mail voting, sending a ballot to every voter’s home. Now, every one of those envelopes has to be manually opened, examined and tallied.

It’s too late to fix the system for this cycle, but all is not lost. Ranked-choice voting, instituted in about 60 communities across the country, has already been repealed in places such as Burlington, Vermont (after ranked-choice voting resulted in the election of a mayor who had 

 in the first round of counting.) Seven states have voted against switching to ranked-choice and another 19 states have banned the system. After this wait is over, let’s rebuild trust. Let’s call the person who collects the most votes the winner.

Marc Fisher is a contributing columnist at City Cast. He has covered Washington for 40 years, most of them at The Washington Post, where he spent a decade as the local columnist. He was sacked from his position as op-ed columnist at The Post in 2025, when the paper's owner ordered an ideological pivot.

Column: D.C.’s Disastrous Election Wait 

Janeese Lewis George appears on the cusp of becoming D.C.’s next mayor, holding a majority of 52% of the first-rank vote in Tuesday’s Democratic mayoral primary with nearly two-thirds of ballots counted. Even if that number falls as the rest of the votes come in, she looks very likely to cross the 50% threshold once ranked-choice votes are tabulated.

The results represent a sweeping triumph for Lewis George, who led by smaller margins in pre-election polls.

As of early Wednesday morning, she led her main rival, Kenyan McDuffie, in seven of the District’s eight wards, trailing only in wealthy Ward 3. Though her strongest support came from younger, newer Washingtonians, Lewis George also led McDuffie in historically Black Wards 7 and 8, as well as in McDuffie’s own Ward 5. She has not declared victory, but the math is strongly in her favor.

A win would make the 38-year-old democratic socialist the Democratic nominee in a city that has never elected a non-Democratic mayor, and where the November general election is usually a coronation for whoever the party nominates.

It would also mark an emphatic end to the decades-long run of centrist mayors who presided as Washington became a richer, more dynamic, and much more unequal city.

Even as Lewis George ran up surprisingly strong numbers, fellow left-wing candidates took strong leads in several D.C. Council races: democratic socialist Oye Owolewa for an open at-large seat, democratic socialist Aparna Raj for a Ward 1 seat, and former Councilmember Elissa Silverman, the onetime anchor of the council’s progressive bloc, in a special election for McDuffie’s former at-large seat. (Owolewa and Raj were both below 50 percent, so ranked-choice voting will determine whether they win.)

"Tonight belongs to the postal worker on the early route, the nurse coming home from a double, the teacher who buys supplies out of her pocket, the childcare worker who loves on our babies all day but still can’t make ends meet,” Lewis George, clad in her signature lilac purple, said from the stage at her watch party at the Howard Theater. “This moment is for those who refuse to surrender their hope.”

In fact, Lewis George’s apparent victory is a final product of the very same business-friendly political era she may bring to a close — in some obvious ways, and some ironic ones.

As a candidate, the two-term D.C. councilmember channeled the frustrations of residents who felt priced out of an increasingly unaffordable Washington, frustrations she credited for her strong showing in a post-election conversation with reporters. She ran on an agenda that promised to use city government to do things like build housing and subsidize childcare. It’s a strikingly ambitious stance in a city where recent mayors have focused more closely on bond ratings than redistributing wealth.

”Let's show them what government can do,” Lewis George said in her speech.

But pre-election polls and election day returns suggest Lewis George benefitted from another trend of the past few decades: massive population growth that transformed “Chocolate City.”

Though she herself grew up in pre-gentrification D.C. and sang campaign-trail hosannas to organized labor, her strongest support came from the newcomers — disproportionately college-educated, white and privileged — who drove the demographic change that has roiled old Washington. Her strongest showing in the early returns came from Ward 1, an epicenter of D.C.’s transformation.

The contrast between the election-night parties of the two leading candidates reflected that. At McDuffie’s party at the swank Park on 14th restaurant, the crowd was older and predominantly Black, filled with veterans of city politics. At Lewis George’s much larger event, the crowd was much whiter and hipper, even as the candidate took to the stage surrounded by family members and labor-movement allies.

In addition to taking over a city reeling from federal job cuts that have spiked unemployment and sent the regional economy into the doldrums, Lewis George will also be dealing with a White House led by Donald Trump. The president has a history of singling out Black women — and has already threatened to take control of D.C. if the socialist candidate won.

Late on election night, as political supporters including Councilmembers Charles Allen and Zachary Parker began to trickle out of the party just before midnight, Lewis George sat down with a group of reporters. Asked about Trump’s comments, she said she thought they helped her on election day. “It motivated people to get to the polls,” she said. “Some people who weren’t paying attention to this race, when they heard Trump’s comments, they were like, ‘I need to pay attention.’”

In her remarks, Lewis George promised to stand up to Trump. And while the president doesn’t actually have the power to take over D.C. without an act of Congress, he has many other forms of leverage over whoever is mayor.

It may well be that Trump wants Lewis George as a foil. Already, national conservative media have begun to seize on Lewis George as a bogeyman, with the Murdoch-owned 

 to her million-dollar home and the radical online presence of a key supporter.

Councilmember Christina Henderson, who showed up at Lewis George’s party to congratulate her colleague, also credited the election results to Trump — but suggested his impact began well before his comments of last Thursday. “I think tonight's results sort of reflect the sentiment of a lot of D.C. residents who are very angered by everything that has been for the last few years,” she said. “I do think that the Trump effect definitely played out in these elections.”

Other candidates collectively held 11 percent of the vote, with no candidate having garnered more than 3%. In the event Lewis George doesn’t clear 50%, those ballots will now be reallocated under D.C.’s new ranked-choice voting system.

Of course, the very fact that Lewis George is so controversial, and not just among MAGA devotees, may make the next few months more interesting than the typical D.C. general election season.

When Marion Barry won the Democratic nomination in 1994 after serving a prison sentence, he was toxic to enough D.C. voters that the November election became a real fight, with more than 40% of votes going to Republican Carol Schwartz. And in 2014, independent David Catania looked like a real threat if scandal-damaged mayor Vince Gray had been renominated (Catania wound up getting 34% against Bowser).

So far, no D.C. notables have announced plans to make an independent run in November — and her surprisingly strong citywide showing makes it a daunting prospect. The deadline to register is August 5.

Henderson also predicted that some of the fears about Lewis George may prove overwrought.

“People campaign one way, and they have to govern in a different way,” she said. “You have the reality when you look under the rug and see where all the bodies are buried. The same administration has been running this government for 12 years. So there's a lot of things that even us on the council aren't necessarily privy to. When you step into that role… You may not be able to deliver on all the things that you campaign on. And so, I think that is going to be an interesting conversation. “

Lewis George, for her part, devoted a large chunk of her election-night speech to promising to be a mayor for all, including people who voted against her — and those who ran against her.

She said her campaign plans to wait for more of the votes to come in to declare victory, but said she wasn't sure exactly what percent of votes she’d like to see counted before declaring.

Although there won't be a traditional concession phone call between candidates tonight, she said she hoped to speak with McDuffie. She said voters approached her at the polls to tell her, “after this we want to be one D.C.”

“And that starts with me and Kenyan,” she said.

As of early Wednesday morning, she led her main rival, Kenyan McDuffie, in seven of the District’s eight wards, trailing only in wealthy Ward 3. 

Janeese Lewis George Looks Very Likely to Win D.C. Mayoral Primary

City Cast DC staff

Ben Brasch, a reporter who worked at The Washington Post for more than three years, is joining City Cast DC as its new politics and government reporter, where he will author a newsletter and break the latest news in this consequential year for DMV politics.

Before his time at the Post, Ben covered Fulton County government for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. During his seven years in Atlanta, he uncovered the 

obsessed with Fulton’s elections process

interviewed celebrities about their Waffle House orders

“Ben wowed us with his curiosity about D.C. — and his thoughtfulness about how to master a new beat,” said City Cast Executive Editor Michael Schaffer. “He has a record of breaking news that doesn’t want to be broken, and making sources in all sorts of unexpected places. Plus, he’s a lot of fun. We’re out to recapture the joys of old-fashioned, swaggering big-city reporting and columnizing, and Ben is going to be a big part of that.”

"Ben brings so much heart to City Cast DC. He has a real commitment to putting people at the center of his reporting and understanding what actually matters to D.C. residents,” said Yu Vongkiatkajorn, managing editor at City Cast. “And wherever he's worked, he's had a knack for finding unique, unexpected stories. I can't wait for him to hit the ground running."

Ben previously chronicled chaos and calm in his home state of Florida — including at the Miami Herald, The Ledger in Lakeland and The News-Press in Fort Myers. He is a graduate of the University of Florida, where he earned a degree in Journalism and a minor in Business Administration.

He lives in Alexandria with his wife Hannah. When he isn't looking for news, he can be found cooking or practicing martial arts.

Jaclyn Peiser Joins City Cast DC as Business, Development and Transit Reporter

Jaclyn Peiser, a retail reporter who worked at The Washington Post for nearly six years, is joining City Cast DC as its new business, development and transit reporter, where she will author a newsletter on the business and people shaping D.C. real estate, commerce, streets and skyline.

Jackie most recently covered the grocery, apparel, food and consumer goods sectors. Her work ranged from economic stories on the growing 

bifurcation among low- and high-income consumers

, and localizing them to illustrate how they’re playing out in different 

. She finds fresh ways to cover stories, such as her recent feature on how GLP-1 drugs could 

“Local business in Washington gets so little attention amid the city’s focus on government,” said Michael Schaffer, City Cast’s executive editor. “Jackie is going to chronicle the mastodons of real estate and retail who shape the way our city looks, the places our residents live, and the way we get around. And she’s going to do it in a way that makes her essential to anyone in the business — as well as anyone who just wants to know what’s going on in their neighborhood.”

“Jackie is a force of nature,” said Annie Rees, City Cast’s senior executive producer. “Every time I talk with her, I come away more energized and more excited about all the stories there are to tell about business and development in D.C. This is a beat that I’m so excited about because it really tells the story of what forces are shaping life in the city as most of us interact with it, including what’s getting built where and by who. Jackie has an innate eye for finding stories guaranteed to get people talking and I can’t wait for our readers and listeners to meet her.”

Before joining the business section, Jackie spent two years on The Post's Morning Mix team, where she covered national breaking news and wrote features overnight. She previously covered media for The New York Times and spent years as a news assistant there, where her work included research for the investigations team and writing wedding announcements and obituaries.

A Dallas, Texas native, Jackie earned her master's degree in journalism from Columbia University and her bachelor's degree in American studies and communications from Goucher College in Baltimore. When she's not out in the District with friends or hosting dinner parties, Jackie enjoys consuming culture, reading and doing puzzles.

Alyssa Fowers Joins City Cast DC as Data Reporter

Alyssa Fowers, a data reporter with six years of experience at The Washington Post, is joining City Cast DC as its new data reporter, where she will anchor smart data and graphics coverage around the city.

Alyssa joined The Post's graphics desk less than two months before the world shut down for the Covid-19 pandemic and found her feet in journalism covering economics and public policy. Her portfolio includes investigative work into 

, deeply personalized interactive stories about 

She also covered fun facts as a guest writer for The Post's Department of Data column, with stories about 

 of the United States. (Incidentally, her name is more human than dog and she lives in Greater Dunkin’land.)

"We were blown away by Alyssa's creativity, curiosity and versatility,” said managing editor Yu Vonkiatkajorn. “She has the incredible ability to help readers understand a data set or statistic, no matter how dense, and to find engaging ways to draw people in. There are so many data stories waiting to be told in this region and I know Alyssa is the reporter who will uncover them."

“Alyssa is going to be such a resource for people in D.C. trying to figure out how our city works and where it’s headed,” said City Cast executive editor Michael Schaffer. “And our audience won’t just see it in her own work but in the ways she’s able to lace data reporting into the stuff produced by colleagues.”

Alyssa grew up in Miami, Florida and graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor's degree in psychology from Duke University in 2013. She has lived in the D.C. area for over a decade and visits the azalea collection in the National Arboretum every spring.

Before her career in journalism, she worked in data analysis and management for five years. Her favorite answer to an either/or question is "both." She lives in DC with her wife Zoe and their dog Katy Spoon, who boasts an impressive ear-to-snout ratio.

Kaela Cote-Stemmermann Is City Cast DC’s New Food and Culture Reporter

Beloved newsletter editor Kaela Cote-Stemmermann is taking a new role at City Cast DC, where she will cover food and culture and author a weekly newsletter called “Obsessed.” Her newsletter, 

, will feature original reporting and local recs that bring readers closer to D.C.

Kaela joined City Cast DC in 2022. Over the past four years as Senior Newsletter Editor, she published more than 1,000 editions of City Cast DC’s popular daily newsletter, delivering smart, digestible local news to Washingtonians. Under her authorship, the newsletter grew by more than 60,000 subscribers, becoming one of the most-read newsletters in the City Cast network.

Her food writing has taken her across the city, from interviewing the DMV’s first 3-star Michelin chef 

 at the Inn at Little Washington to sharing a bowl of spicy noodles with 

 whose celebrated Chinese restaurants pioneered D.C.’s Sichuan cooking scene. She also 

, a social restaurant-ranking app quietly reshaping how D.C. foodies discover and track their meals, interviewing the app's top-ranked D.C. user.

 are beloved, including her original “Walk a Mile” series where she explores a mile-long stretch in D.C., uncovering everything from Ethiopian breakfasts to natural wine bars along the way.

," a love letter to Washington that resonated widely during the city's federal takeover, an ongoing guide to 

“As City Cast DC expands, moving Kaela into a reporting role made so much sense,” said Senior Executive Producer Annie Rees. “Over the four years she’s been at City Cast, she has built a loyal following of readers — the team often jokes she’s our local celebrity, because of how excited people are to meet her at member events — and her writing frequently makes me laugh out loud. I’m so excited to read “Obsessed” and I know the rest of D.C. will be too.”

“I was a fan of Kaela before I even joined City Cast,” said Managing Editor Yu Vongkiatkajorn. “Her voice, curation, and sense of humor always made the newsletter a pleasure to read. I’m so excited for Kaela to bring her skills to this beat, help us make the most out of living in D.C., and share all the weird and wonderful things about this city.”

Previously, Kaela worked in communications at the Department of State and covered antitrust and competition law at Global Competition Review.

A Boston native and graduate of Scripps College in Los Angeles, Kaela lives in Adams Morgan with a cranky cat. When she isn’t sleuthing for local gossip, you can find her biking around to her favorite cafes.

Yu Vongkiatkajorn Joins City Cast DC as Managing Editor

Yu Vongkiatkajorn is joining City Cast DC as Managing Editor. She’ll edit the beat reporters’ original reporting and their newsletters. Yu is the second editor hired as part of a major expansion in City Cast DC’s newsroom.

Yu Vongkiatkajorn is an editor who has helped lead coverage and audience strategy at The Washington Post. Most recently, she served as the breaking news and general assignment editor on the Metro desk, where she led a team focused on timely, original stories about life in the Washington region.

Earlier at the Post, Yu worked on initiatives to reach new audiences, helping launch newsletters, podcasts and other editorial experiments in collaboration with product, marketing and analytics teams. She also developed a process for conducting newsroom analyses and providing strategic recommendations.

“When we began looking for the right person to fill this role, one person’s name kept coming up: ‘Yu – have you met Yu?’ ‘Hire Yu,’” said Annie Rees, Senior Executive Producer of City Cast DC.” From the moment we talked with her, it was clear why she was so universally regarded by reporters and editors she worked with. Sharp, clear-headed and creative, with years of Metro and Audience experience to boot, she is a crucial piece in making City Cast DC a local powerhouse.”

Yu will be working alongside Michael Schaffer, City Cast DC’s Executive Editor, to shape CCDC’s new products. “We want to publish impactful, attention-getting journalism about Washington even as the local media environment undergoes a wild shift,” Schaffer said. “Yu immediately got the idea of galvanizing a team to do stuff that connects with an audience and obliges that audience to follow what we're up to.”

Yu began her journalism career at Mother Jones in San Francisco. She grew up in Chiang Mai, Thailand, and is a graduate of Wesleyan University and the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY.

Emma Uber is joining Cast Cast DC as a reporter. She'll write a twice-weekly newsletter with the juiciest, most memorable, most consequential stories playing out in the DMV. Emma is the first reporter hired as part of a major expansion in City Cast DC's newsroom.

Previously, Emma covered local breaking news and public safety for The Washington Post, where she distinguished herself with scoops and sharp stories. Emma began covering D.C. police for The Post just days before President Donald Trump federalized the city's police force and deployed the National Guard. She analyzed 

 to deliver a comprehensive account of how an unprecedented federal law enforcement surge was playing out on the District’s streets and doggedly covered 

Her reporting on a change to U.S. Park Police's 

 caused two Democratic lawmakers to open an investigation and her coverage of federal agents shooting at drivers during traffic stops was referenced as the D.C. Council passed emergency legislation requiring the city police department to release body-camera footage when a local officer witnesses a federal officer shoot someone.

“Emma is a rare talent – a brilliant, passionate, high-energy journalist,” said Annie Rees, Senior Executive Producer of City Cast DC. “With Emma as a reporter, City Cast DC will evolve into the city’s most indispensable – and most fun – place to find local coverage. We look forward to announcing the other reporters who will join Emma in the coming days.”

Hoosier born-and-raised, Emma graduated from Indiana University, where she earned degrees in journalism and international studies. Prior to moving to D.C. and joining the Washington Post in 2024, she covered breaking news at the Tampa Bay Times, interned with Indianapolis Monthly magazine, and worked with the national investigative team at USA Today.

Michael Schaffer Joins City Cast as Executive Editor 

Michael Schaffer is joining City Cast DC full-time as a host and executive editor as the national podcast network begins staffing a local Washington newsroom to complement and expand its daily audio and newsletter offerings.

City Cast DC is undergoing an unprecedented expansion of its local newsroom, hiring a team of journalists to create original reporting about the D.C. area. 

Ben Brasch Joins City Cast DC as Politics Reporter

Not to be dramatic, but this might just be the longest winter of our lives. We’re on a mission to get out there and remember why we love living in D.C. again. We think this bingo card will help.

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