Washington

Washington Commanders’ success reportedly ‘killing’ former owner Dan Snyder

Published

1 year ago

January 26, 2025

Washington Commanders’ success reportedly ‘killing’ former owner Dan Snyder

Dan Snyder, the former owner of the Washington Commanders, is reportedly distraught at the success of the team after he sold it for $6.05bn in 2023.

According to a report by ESPN, Snyder now spends most of his time in London, where he has watched the Commanders’ progress to the NFC championship game with jealousy. During his 24 seasons as Commanders owner, they won only two playoff games, the same number they have won since he sold the team in 2023. His record as Commanders owner off the field was even worse: he was investigated by the NFL and US Congress over allegations of a misconduct. The congressional investigation found Snyder played a large part in what it described as a toxic workplace culture around the team.

According the ESPN report, Snyder tried to back out of the sale to a group led by Josh Harris and Magic Johnson. He reportedly refused to give his bank details to the new ownership group, meaning the sale could not be completed. According to ESPN, it was only when his wife, Tanya, intervened that Snyder finally let the sale go ahead.

Under the team’s new ownership, the Commanders have dazzled this season. They drafted quarterback Jayden Daniels, who already looks like one of the best players in the league, and under his leadership they have reached Sunday’s NFC championship game against the Philadelphia Eagles. If they beat the Eagles they will reach the Super Bowl for the first time since the 1991 season, a feat they never achieved under Snyder.

According to ESPN, one person who recently had dinner with Snyder said the former owner “hates” the Commanders’ newfound success. Another person close to Snyder told ESPN that Snyder has “sadness – for himself. [The team’s success under new ownership] is killing him … It’s devastating for him.”

The report says that some sources believe Snyder’s next move will be to invest in a Premier League club, which he can run from his new home in London. However, another person close to Snyder says that the Commanders, who he was a fan of from boyhood, were the only team he was interested in. “He isn’t a fan of other sports,” the source said. “He’s a fan of the [Commanders]. That was the biggest thing.”

Melanie Coburn, a former Commanders employee who testified to Congress during its investigation into Snyder’s ownership of the team, said that Washington’s recent success was welcomed by many.

“Karma is real,” Coburn told ESPN. “For years, we endured the dysfunction and toxicity at the organization under Dan Snyder and blamed all the losses on the dark cloud he brought over the team. Turns out, we were right.”

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Washington

Washington Spirit goalkeeper Aubrey Kingsbury announces she’s pregnant

Published

24 hours ago

February 26, 2026

Press Room

Washington Spirit goalkeeper Aubrey Kingsbury announces she’s pregnant

Washington Spirit goalkeeper Aubrey Kingsbury has announced that she and her husband Matt are expecting a baby in July.

The couple made the announcement in a video on the Spirit’s social media channels, holding a baby goalkeeper jersey on the pitch at Audi Field.

Kingsbury becomes the most recent Spirit star to go on maternity leave, following defender Casey Krueger, midfielder Andi Sullivan and forward Ashley Hatch.

Sullivan gave birth to daughter Millie in July, while Hatch welcomed her son Leo in January.

Krueger announced she was pregnant with her second child in October.

Kingsbury has served as the Spirit’s starting goalkeeper since 2018, and has been named the NWSL Goalkeeper of the Year twice (2019 and 2021).

The 34-year-old has two caps with the U.S. women’s national team, and was named to the 2023 World Cup roster.

The club captain will leave a major void for the Spirit, who have finished as NWSL runner-up in back-to-back seasons.

Sandy MacIver and Kaylie Collins are expected to compete for the starting role while Kingsbury is on maternity leave.

The Spirit kick off their 2026 campaign on March 13 against the Portland Thorns.

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Washington

Washington state board awards Yakima $985,600 loan for Sixth Avenue project design

Published

2 days ago

February 26, 2026

Press Room

Washington state board awards Yakima 5,600 loan for Sixth Avenue project design

YAKIMA, Wash. — Yakima could soon take a major step toward redesigning Sixth Avenue after the Washington State Public Works Board awarded the city a $985,600 loan.

The loan was approved for the design engineering phase of the Sixth Avenue project. The funding can also be used along Sixth Avenue for utility replacement and updated ADA use.

The Yakima City Council must decide whether to accept the award. If the council accepts it, the city’s engineering work will move forward with the design of Sixth Avenue.

The cost of installing trolley lines is excluded from the plan. The historic trolleys would need to raise the funds required to add trolley lines.

The award is scheduled to be discussed during next week’s City Council meeting.

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Washington

Microsoft promises more AI investments at University of Washington

Published

2 days ago

February 25, 2026

Press Room

Microsoft promises more AI investments at University of Washington

Microsoft will ramp up its investment in the University of Washington.

Brad Smith, the company’s president, made the announcement at a press conference with University of Washington President Robert Jones on Tuesday.

That means hiring more UW graduates as interns at Microsoft, he said.

And he said all students, faculty, and researchers should have access to free, or at least deeply-discounted, AI.

“ Some of it is compute that Microsoft is donating, and some of it is pursuant to an agreement where, believe me, we give the University of Washington probably the best pricing that anybody’s gonna find anywhere,” Smith said. He assured the small group of reporters present that it would be “many millions of dollars of additional computational resources.”

The announcement today didn’t include any specific numbers.

But Smith said Microsoft has already invested $165 million in the UW over several decades.

He pointed to Jones’ vision to spur “radical collaborations with businesses and communities to advance positive change,” and eliminate “any artificial barriers between the university and the communities it serves.”

Microsoft’s goal is for AI to help UW researchers solve some of the world’s biggest problems without introducing new ones.

At Tuesday’s announcement, several research students were present to demonstrate how AI supports their work.

Amelia Keyser-Gibson is an environmental scientist at the UW. She’s using AI to analyze photographs of vines, to find which adapt best to climate change.

It’s a paradox: AI produces carbon emissions. At the same time, it’s also a new tool to help reduce them.

So how do those things square for Keyser-Gibson?

“ That’s a great question, and honestly, I don’t know the answer to that,” she said. “I’m highly aware that there’s a lot of environmental impact of using AI, but what I can say is that this has allowed us to make research innovations that wouldn’t have been possible otherwise.”

“If we had had to manually annotate every single image that would’ve been an undergrad doing that for hours,” Keyser-Gibson continued. “And we didn’t have the budget. We didn’t have the manpower to do that.”

“AI exists. If we don’t use it as researchers, we’re gonna fall behind.”

Microsoft reports on its own carbon emissions. But like most AI companies, it doesn’t reveal everything.

That’s one reason another UW student named Zhihan Zhang is using AI to estimate how much energy AI is using.

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