Hey, D.C. Mark here.

📺 Need an afternoon break? The Nats are on.

• Washington is wrapping up its series with Detroit before heading home for the final three games of the season. Watch on Nationals.TV.

BTW: We want to hear from Nats fans! Grade their season in our latest poll.

Today’s newsletter is 833 words — a 3-minute read.

This father of an almost-2-year-old girl wonders if it's time to change our TV from Ms. Rachel to Ms. Kiki and Ms. Trin.

Why it matters: The Mystics and Spirit might be Washington's only major pro teams to make the playoffs this year.

The big picture: The Capitals and Wizards missed. The Nats are rounding third on their seventh straight losing season.

• The Commanders are 0-2 with their quarterback on the shelf. D.C. United is on the outside looking in.
• The women are pulling most of the weight in the District. And in my household.

Driving the news: The Mystics and Spirit are teaming up this week for Capital Queens, a celebration of D.C. as the "Capital of Women's Sports."

They said it: "Washington, D.C., has always been the Capital of Women's Sports," Mystics chief business officer Alycen McAuley said.

🧾 So, does D.C. have the receipts?

Reality check: There's no clean way to rank women's sports cities, and Washington has plenty of competition.

• Portland makes women's sports culture part of its identity (sip a Title IX cocktail at The Sports Bra).
• Seattle and Minneapolis are home to four-time WNBA champions.
• New York turns women's sports into a spectacle — from the Liberty to the U.S. Open.

Washington's case: It's well-rounded.

• The Mystics are a WNBA institution and have led the league in attendance eight times.
• The Spirit have reached four NWSL finals, winning in 2021, and employ the league's biggest star, Trinity Rodman.
• University of Maryland's women's programs are perennially strong, Georgetown soccer is a power, and the DMV produces elite prep teams in lacrosse, field hockey and basketball.
• Some of the world's fastest swimmers come from our backyard.

Plus: In 2027, a pro volleyball team will take Flight at the Anthem.

The fans show up, too: Washingtonians can fill an arena on the right night. A Mystics game at Capital One Arena in 2024 set a record, since broken, with 20,711 fans (Caitlin Clark helped).

• This year, 17,228 packed the building for a women's hockey game — and D.C. doesn't even have a PWHL team.

Yes, but: The Mystics usually play at 4,200-seat CareFirst Arena, leaving them last in WNBA attendance this season.

👀 What's ahead: Tomorrow offers a test. The Mystics' regular-season finale will be their lone game this year at Capital One Arena.

The bottom line: There's no objective way to crown America's women's sports capital.

• But I want to raise a girl in a city celebrated for its women's sports. So plant a yard sign with me in support of D.C.

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📍 Street closures are underway for Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to Washington. Secret Service warns of rolling closures between Joint Base Andrews and downtown during the evening commute.

• Plus: Expect downtown traffic delays and parking restrictions through Friday. Full closure list

🚨 President Trump wants to build a "drone port" atop his White House ballroom, but the Secret Service already operates a drone hub on a Treasury Department building a few hundred feet away.

• Its existence, first reported by the Associated Press, could undercut Trump's legal claims that his ballroom project is necessary to protect the White House from aerial attacks. The Secret Service declined to discuss specifics of its drone operations.

😬 NSFW benefits? A woman followed the URL on her new D.C. medical ID card, and ended up on a scam website featuring "a scantily clad female cartoon character," the Washington Sun reports.

• The city blamed an outdated domain that wasn't updated on some materials, which has since been corrected.

Earlier this week, I invited readers to take me inside their group chat debates. And they delivered. (Keep 'em coming: [email protected].)

Exhibit A: Chris B. has thoughts about Caleb Williams, the Chicago Bears quarterback who was born in D.C., grew up in the area and starred at Gonzaga.

• Williams went down untouched Sunday, screaming in pain and eventually leaving on a cart. The good news: It was a hamstring injury, not the season-ender many feared.

Then came the memes: Video of Williams' dramatic exit quickly became a template for jokes about moderate inconveniences.

• Case in point: Here and here.

Why it matters: Williams has long faced criticism for being expressive — from painting his fingernails to crying in his mother's arms after a USC loss.

Chris' verdict: "We ignored the nail paint, but now he's straight tarnishing D.C. We are waaaay tougher than this!"

My take: Williams might not have known whether his season was over. That reaction was probably about more than the pain.

But, yes: The memes are funny.

☁️ I'm getting reacquainted with my sweatshirts.

Today's newsletter was edited by Alexa Mencia Orozco.