Thursday!

🌤️ Today's weather: Mostly sunny. High near 90, low around 70.

🎂 Happy birthday to our member Zach Lowe!

Today's newsletter is 1,015 words, a 4-minute read.

Localities around D.C. are voicing concerns — and enacting bans — over Flock's controversial license plate readers, but the DMV is hardly in lockstep over the surveillance technology.

Why it matters: The cameras can help police, but their ability to track millions of innocent drivers — and share that data across jurisdictions — has fueled a privacy backlash and calls for tighter oversight or removal.

Driving the news: Arlington County is pulling the plug on Flock, per ARLNow, becoming the latest Virginia locality to abandon the surveillance technology.

• The County Board voted Tuesday to discontinue its 41 county-leased Flock cameras and begin removing them from public property.
• Board chair Matt de Ferranti said there have been no reports of misuse, but cited residents' concerns and the need to maintain "community trust."

Also Tuesday, Fairfax County paused new Flock installations pending an October review of privacy, data-sharing and access concerns.

• Fairfax police, facing a "DeFlock" campaign, have defended license plate readers, saying they've helped locate 57 missing people and support 1,700+ felony charges. The county is now evaluating other options.

Catch up quick: Scrutiny intensified in D.C. and Alexandria last week.

• The D.C. Police Union called license plate readers a "powerful investigative tool," but warned Flock can also assemble detailed records of people not suspected of crimes, per the Washington Post.
• The union is calling for more regulation after alleging MPD improperly used the technology to investigate officers, which MPD disputes.
• This week, D.C. Council member Brooke Pinto sought answers from MPD about its Flock policies and investigations.

Meanwhile, Alexandria Mayor Alyia Gaskins and two council members have said they don't see a future for Flock after questions emerged over how officers used the system.

• Police Chief Tarrick McGuire said audits found clerical errors but no "malicious misuse," and is exploring competing vendors.
• "I do not think there's a role for Flock in this community," Gaskins said.

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Cuneyt here, after day two of Trayon White's bribery trial...

The government yesterday called up its star witness — Allieu Kamara, who as part of an FBI sting handed Council member White cash that prosecutors allege were bribes.

• And Kamara cleared something up from the beginning. "I'm not related to him," Kamara said, after White's defense attorney claimed the day before that they were brothers-in-law.

Why it matters: The denial undercuts defense attorney Gary Kohlman's opening argument: that Kamara can't be trusted, not least because he's a serial fraudster, but also, who betrays his own brother-in-law?

The intrigue: It's unclear how the conflicting familial claims gets reconciled.

• Judge Rudolph Contreras didn't say anything in court.

🎥 Zoom out: For most of the afternoon, the prosecution replayed videos of White inside Kamara's bugged car in Navy Yard.

• White is seen explaining attempts to set up meetings with government officials, allegedly to get through Kamara's violence prevention contracts.
• Why's the council member doing that? "Because I paid him $15,000," Kamara told the courtroom, part of the $35,000 in FBI-supplied cash he handed White over several meetings.

The 2024 conversations weren't all business.

• At one point, White refers to Navy Yard as "sin city" — a tempting place full of "single women and dogs," rooftop pool parties and "broads, girls, drugs."
• "I don't want to be distracted," he says, agonizing over a relationship with a woman that was "on the rocks."

What's next: Kamara is expected back in court tomorrow. The defense could begin cross-examination if the prosecution wraps up.

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🏢 Loudoun supervisors voted to move toward a 12-month pause on new data center applications, giving the county time to rewrite rules for an industry that now generates more than half its local budget. (NBC)

• Meanwhile, Virginia environmental regulators proposed a roughly $2.5 million penalty against Microsoft over air-pollution violations at its Leesburg data center complex. (Loudon Times)

📈 Food insecurity across Greater Washington has reached a five-year high, with 38% of households struggling to access enough food, according to a new Capital Area Food Bank report. (Washington Post)

😥 RIP: Sunny, the Obama family's dog known for leaping over White House hedges, passed away at 13, the former President shared on Instagram.

🌮 So….who needs a taco pick-me-up? Tommy's Tacos, a Tex-Mex taqueria serving all-day margs, queso and fresh flour tortilla tacos, just opened in NoMa.

Fencing shot up around the Kennedy Center's main building yesterday after its Trump-aligned board voted to shutter it for repairs.

Why it matters: The shutdown is taking shape as a federal judge is being asked to intervene, again, in the performing arts center board's plans.

The latest: Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio), an ex officio Kennedy Center trustee, asked a federal judge for an emergency hearing yesterday, arguing the closure may violate his earlier order.

• A member of Beatty's legal team was denied entry and told the building was closed to the public.
• U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper ordered the Kennedy Center to respond by this morning, and said he would schedule a prompt hearing if necessary.

Friction point: Beatty's lawyers raised concerns about possible demolition, writing that the nature of the construction — "and any potential demolition" — remains unclear. They warned officials could demolish entrances or other public access to the building.

• Trump's board first threatened wrecking balls in August amid the fight over restoring his name to the building.

Zoom out: Trump said in a Truth Social post Tuesday that renovations won't begin until an appeals court rules on the naming fight.

What the Kennedys are saying: Kerry Kennedy, daughter of Robert F. Kennedy, called the closure a "tragedy" and "hostage taking by the president."

• Maria Shriver, JFK's niece, wrote Tuesday that Trump's insistence that renovations wait until the naming dispute is resolved "blows my mind."

Plus, a Friday rally

🛥️ Anna is testing out a new electric boat.

👨‍⚖️ Cuneyt is back in the courthouse.

🤸‍♀️ Mimi is back.

This newsletter was edited by Alexa Mencia Orozco.