The Washington Wizards hosted the Midnight Basketball League finals Saturday night.

The Midnight Basketball League is an initiative to create a safe space and help build relationships for young athletes in D.C.’s Ward 8.

“I’ve been playing my whole life,” said Midnight Basketball League Player Myles Whitfield. “If I’m being honest, I just like hooping. It just takes my mind away from everything.”

It’s considered a positive getaway for Myles and other Midnight Basketball League players. Every Friday and Saturday night for the past two months, Ward 8 youth and young adults had the chance to go head-to-head against some of the District’s talented hoopers.

“One of the things that I liked about it, is I’ve seen a lot of the youth that are normally be on the corners or whatever, spending time in the Midnight Basketball League,” said Calvin Morrison, the Midnight Basketball League coach. “Like half of them, I didn’t even know they played basketball.”

That’s one of the reasons why the midnight league was created — to offer a fun and community-based option for those in Ward 8. On top of learning about basketball, they learn about the importance of teamwork.

“Some camaraderie, unity, togetherness, you know, I don’t think they’re coming together for any major life lessons, but then of course by participating, they will learn life lessons,” said John Thompson III, senior vice president at Monumental Basketball.

Last year, dozens of residents started to brainstorm actionable plans for some of the District’s youngest residents. Through partnerships with Monumental Basketball and Building Bridges Across the River, a former D.C. staple was brought back: Midnight Basketball

“It’s been years since we’ve led Midnight Basketball,” said Scott Kratz, senior vice president at Building Bridges Across the River. “We loved that idea so much. We were able to secure some funding, channel that energy into something that’s positive, so it’s been a lot of fun on these Friday and Saturday nights.”

In a short time, the league has grown and added more teams and players, and for the first time, teams are playing in the entertainment and sports arena.

A long term goal is to provide additional initiatives.

“When you give people activities, things to do, whether it be sports, whether it be after school music programs, whatever, then, you know, perceptions will change, crime will change and people stay occupied,” Thompson said.

The Washington Nationals are finally starting to make some noise in the offseason, but there is still plenty of work to be done. 

For quite some time this winter, the Nationals were a very quiet team in free agency. However, that recently changed as the they signed pitcher Michael Soroka to a one-year, $9 million deal. 

The right-hander was an All-Star back in 2019, but has missed a ton of time because of injuries while bouncing back and forth between the starting rotation and the bullpen. Washington appears like they will be giving him a chance to be a starter in 2025, but it’s hard to expect anything from him after the last number of years. 

While the Nationals do have five starters under contract now and projected to be in the rotation to start the season, they are really lacking a reliable veteran to help lead this rotation. The starting pitching market has been wild, but if Washington is hoping to compete, they should be thinking about adding another arm, even after signing Soroka. 

Recently, Jeff Passan of ESPN.com wrote about the starting pitcher market and highlighted Jack Flaherty’s value on the rise, which could affect the Nationals. Passan pointed out that the “exorbitant” price of pitching helps Flaherty. And it’s not just deals for pitchers like Blake Snell and Max Fried.

He noted examples like Luis Severino’s $67 million, three-year deal and Frankie Montas’ $34 million, two-year deal, as examples. All of those, he wrote, lifts Flaherty’s potential value.

“However long Flaherty’s free agency takes to flesh out, he’s still bound to do well because every team needs starting pitching, and all it takes is one suitor to step up,” Passan wrote.

After seeing some of the other deals starters have received so far this offseason, it’s easy to understand why Flaherty’s value has gone up. While the right-hander isn’t an ace, he had a strong season in 2024 for both the Detroit Tigers and Los Angeles Dodgers. Also, he won a World Series, which never hurts a resume. 

The right-hander showed top-end of the rotation production with the Tigers in 2024, as he totaled a 7-5 record and 2.95 ERA before being traded. 

For Washington, they have to be thinking about adding a more established starter than Soroka this offseason. Besides MacKenzie Gore and Jake Irvin, there are a lot of question marks in this rotation. 

Even though the price tag might be on the rise, the 29-year-old right-hander could be exactly what the Nationals need in their starting rotation to take a step forward in 2025 and beyond. 

A 66-year-old American citizen has been in the DC jail for almost 10 months awaiting extradition to the Philippines for a crime her attorneys say there’s no evidence she committed.

Air Force veteran Grace Lourenco earned commendations for her service. In 1981, she was part of the flight crew aboard the Air Force plane that returned 53 U.S. diplomats and citizens who had been held hostage in Iran, her family said – a moment seen around the world.

She went on to earn a business degree, get married and have a daughter.

Court filings from a 2023 divorce proceeding between Lourenco and her husband, Hans Brunner, show a D.C. judge believed her statements that she had suffered physical abuse in the marriage.

The decree of divorce also contains the judge’s assessment of the alleged crime for which Lourenco was arrested at her Georgetown home earlier this year. It describes an incident in October 2018 at a home the couple owned in the Philippines, where Brunner worked.

“After lunch, on the ride back to their Manila home, Mr. Brunner told Ms. Lourenco he wanted to have an open relationship with [a German woman he’d met] and that he wanted to open a trust fund for her.”

“[Lourenco] remembers waking up in a hospital a couple days later,” said her attorney, William Zapf. “She had been unconscious, and it is believed that she had taken some medication that made her unconscious.”

The judge’s conclusions went on to say: “Later … while standing on the balcony, Mr. Brunner was attacked from behind. The perpetrator hit Mr. Brunner on the back of the head with a sharp, hard weapon. He did not see who attacked him.

“He was in a coma for two days.

“He asserts Ms. Lourenco was the perpetrator. Not only did Mr. Brunner fail to present evidence that Ms. Lourenco was the perpetrator, but he also failed to present evidence that (she) had wanted to kill him to get his pension.”

The judge concluded: “Both parties have committed intrafamily offenses against the other, but Mr. Brunner committed more offenses against Ms. Lourenco, and the Court finds (him) to have been the primary aggressor.”

Lourenco’s attorneys say her future is in the hands of the U.S. State Department.

“In cases like this where there are very serious humanitarian concerns about our client, Grace, this is the type of case where the Secretary of State can say no and should say no,” Zapf said.

Several people she served with in the Air Force have written letters supporting Lourenco.

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