Washington
Jussie Smollett Debuts New Feature, Denzel Washington Hints at Break From Acting at American Black Film Festival
Jussie Smollett declared he was weary of trying to explain away his past troubles while Denzel Washington foreshadowed an impending break from being in front of the camera during the just-wrapped American Black Film Festival, which also brought out stars including Issa Rae, Kenya Barris and Kerry Washington.
The festival, held in Miami Beach’s South Beach, served as a launching pad for ABFF’s Queer Lens Brunch with GLAAD, featuring Smollett on a panel promoting his second feature, The Lost Holliday, an official festival selection that he co-wrote, produced and directed. It stars Smollett as a man whose husband is killed just as the couple was adopting their daughter; he must also contend with the mother-in-law he never met, played by Vivica A. Fox.
“It means a great deal to have the love and support of my queer Black community and equally to have the love and support of the Black community as a whole,” Smollett, joined by his The Lost Holliday co-star Jabari Redd (The Chi), told The Hollywood Reporter after the brunch.
The former Empire star, who is still appealing a jail sentence after being convicted of five felonies for staging a racist, homophobic attack on himself, found a reprieve from his ongoing legal battles at the event. Instead, producer and director Sidra Smith, who moderated the panel, referenced his “perseverance” and mental health, to which he responded, in part: “Sometimes you just gotta bite the bullet and let everybody think that you’re crazy, that you’re shady, that you’re a fraud, whatever they’re going to think. And then they’ll figure it out. They’ll figure it out because I can’t sit here forever trying to explain.”
He was not silent on Black queer representation, however. “There are so many other things on the opposite side that are intentionally trying to devalue us so we must be intentional with our Blackness; we must be intentional with our queerness; we must be intentional with our Black queerness,” he said, explaining his fervent activism.
On the festival’s closing day, Washington was the subject of a retrospective, culminating with a conversation between the double Oscar winner and Chaz Ebert.
Washington stars in Gladiator 2 with Paul Mescal, set for release in November, and is also producing The Piano Lesson, which will feature John David Washington in front of the camera and his other son, Malcolm Washington, behind it as director. Daughter Katia is a producer on the film, which also features a cameo from daughter Olivia. Samuel L. Jackson, Corey Hawkins and Danielle Deadwyler also star.
Washington, who placed a pre-Father’s Day FaceTime call to wife Pauletta during the talk, briefly got emotional when he talked about working with his children.
“As a parent, as a father, you want to jump in,” he confessed. “It’s hard letting them go.”
Washington also shared that he doesn’t watch other movies besides his own, and even those he watches just once to familiarize himself for interviews. However, the audience let out the biggest gasp when he suggested people could be seeing him less onscreen in the near future.
“The things that are going on for me professionally behind the camera are as important to me now as in front of the camera. I think there’s less and less time I’ll be spending in front of the camera,” he said.
Meanwhile, Rae, who served as the creative director of this year’s festival, kicked off this edition of the event, which spanned June 12-16. In her remarks, she emphasized the importance of community at ABFF and testified to how it had helped her in her own career early on and why, in the face of attacks on diversity, it’s more important than ever.
“I met so many of my creative partnerships here. This is the space to do it, especially now that our spaces are being taken away from us,” she added, referencing the recent DEI rollbacks in the industry and the nation at large.
Also during the event, Rae led a talk with Barris, while Kerry Washington showcased the upcoming season of her Hulu show Unprisioned. Meagan Good and Cory Hardrict shared a first-look and discussed their starring roles in Tyler Perry’s Divorce in the Black for Amazon Prime.
Films from the festival are screening on streaming platform ABFF Play until Monday.
An 18-year-old who was shot and wounded in Northwest D.C.’s Tenleytown neighborhood on Thursday afternoon has died, authorities say.
Brady Flowers Jr., of Southwest, was the victim, police said in an update Saturday.
Flowers was found shot in the 4500 block of Wisconsin Avenue NW, behind the CVS store. Jackson-Reed High School and American University are nearby.
Flowers was rushed to a hospital with life-threatening injuries and pronounced dead a day later, police said.
Police said 10-15 teens were seen running after the gunshots.
An investigation is underway. Anyone with potentially relevant information is asked to contact police.
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Washington
Governor Moore Continues “Delivering for Maryland” Tour in Washington County, Highlighting Transportation Infrastructure, Economic Development, and Early Childhood Education
Updated:
ANNAPOLIS, MD — Governor Wes Moore today continued his statewide “Delivering for Maryland” tour with a series of engagements in Washington County, highlighting vital investments in local transportation infrastructure, manufacturing job growth, and early childhood education. The governor emphasized state contributions to modernize the Hagerstown Regional Airport, toured the state-of-the-art Hitachi Rail facility, and celebrated the opening of a new child care center in the South End of Hagerstown funded by the administration’s historic ENOUGH Initiative.
“From investing $1.5 million to update Hagerstown Regional Airport’s aging control tower to supporting 1,300 jobs at Hitachi Rail, the Moore-Miller administration is delivering for Hagerstown, Washington County, and Western Maryland,” said Gov. Moore. “Through our administration’s ENOUGH Initiative partnerships and investments, we’ve tripled child care capacity in the South End of Hagerstown — because no parents should be forced to pick between staying in the workforce or securing quality care for their kids.”
The governor began the day at the Hagerstown Regional Airport, touring the Air Traffic Control Tower and airport grounds. During the visit, Governor Moore highlighted the State’s $1.5 million Fiscal Year 2027 investment to complete the design for a critical replacement of the airport’s aging air traffic control facility. As a primary airport in the Maryland Aviation System Plan, the Hagerstown Regional Airport is a vital economic engine for Washington County, supporting more than 1,800 jobs and generating over $140 million in local business revenue.
Following the airport tour, Governor Moore visited the Hitachi Rail STS facility alongside Congresswoman April McClain Delaney, Senator Mike McKay, Senator Paul Corderman and state transportation leaders. The governor toured the factory floor and rode a test train to observe the manufacturing process. Opened in September 2025 with the support of a $1.6 million state conditional loan, the 307,000-square-foot, carbon-neutral facility is a $100 million capital investment by Hitachi. The factory supports 1,300 jobs — including 460 newly created jobs — and is actively manufacturing railcars for both the Maryland Transit Administration and the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority.
“Hitachi Rail has built a cutting-edge model for advanced manufacturing here in Western Maryland which is focused on delivering clean, safe, efficient regional transportation across our state and the rest of the country,” said Congresswoman April McClain Delaney. “This facility is powered by Maryland’s second-to-none workforce and world-class innovation environment. I’m proud to work with Governor Moore and our public, private, and philanthropic partners to drive global investment that supports jobs and economic growth along our I-270 Tech Corridor.”
Governor Moore concluded the day at the Children’s Learning and Empowerment Center in the South End of Hagerstown, where he met with parents, children, and community leaders. During the visit, the Governor highlighted the administration’s ENOUGH Initiative, which provided critical support for the center’s opening. The new facility is a major win for the community, tripling local childcare capacity with 24 new slots and generating six new early childhood education jobs.
The Children’s Learning and Empowerment Center’s opening was accelerated by a $100,000 investment from San Mar Family & Community Services, the ENOUGH grantee in Hagerstown. ENOUGH grant funding was also supplemented by a $100,000 philanthropic contribution from the Bainum Family Foundation — a member of the ENOUGH Alliance — to complete necessary facility upgrades. The center’s completion underscores the strength of the ENOUGH Initiative’s public-private partnerships to deliver on community priorities and work towards ending child poverty.
Governor Moore’s visit to Washington County follows the third stop of his “Delivering for Maryland” tour in Montgomery County, where he marked a historic milestone by installing the final segment of rail for the Purple Line. This installation completes the 16.2-mile light rail corridor connecting Bethesda and New Carrollton, with passenger service expected to begin in late 2027. The governor also visited Max’s Best Ice Cream in Bethesda, a local business dedicated to creating meaningful employment opportunities for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities through the Best Buddies Jobs program.
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A man charged with attacking the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner is seeking to disqualify top justice department officials from direct involvement in prosecuting him because they could be considered victims or witnesses in the case, creating a potential conflict of interest.
The acting attorney general, Todd Blanche, and US attorney Jeanine Pirro were attending the 25 April event at the Washington Hilton hotel when Cole Tomas Allen allegedly ran through a security checkpoint and fired a shotgun at a Secret Service officer.
In a court filing late on Thursday, Allen’s attorneys argued that it created at least the appearance of a conflict of interest for Blanche and Pirro to be making any prosecutorial decisions in the case.
“As this case proceeds closer to trial, the country and the world will continue to wonder – how can the American justice system permit a victim to prosecute a criminal defendant in a case involving them?” defense attorneys Eugene Ohm and Tezira Abe wrote.
Ohm and Abe, who are assistant federal public defenders, suggested that the appointment of a special prosecutor might be warranted. They urged US district judge Trevor McFadden, a Trump nominee assigned to Allen’s case, to disqualify Pirro, Blanche and possibly other justice department officials from direct involvement in the investigation and prosecution.
“Both heard gunshots, which presumably forced them to duck below the tables with the rest of the occupants. They were quickly evacuated. Shortly thereafter, they learned that law enforcement believed the target was certain administration officials,” Ohm and Abe wrote.
Pirro said her office would respond to the defense lawyers’ arguments in its own court filing.
“We will not tolerate people who come to the District of Columbia to engage in antidemocratic acts of political violence; and we will prosecute all such acts to the fullest extent of the law,” Pirro said in a statement.
Allen is scheduled to be arraigned on Monday on further charges in an indictment handed up Tuesday by a grand jury in Washington.
The charges include attempting to assassinate Donald Trump, who is a longtime friend of Pirro. Blanche served as a personal attorney for Trump before joining the justice department last year. Blanche, through a spokesperson, referred a request for comment to Pirro’s office. Allen, 31, of Torrance, California, is also charged with assaulting a federal officer with a deadly weapon and two additional firearms counts.
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