Washingtonian’s January 2015 Guest List

1. Virginia Ali

The cofounder of Ben’s Chili Bowl has stood by her friend Bill Cosby—the only person besides President Obama who eats there for free. As accusations against Cosby mount, Ali also controls the fate of the comedian’s portrait on the restaurant’s exterior.

2. Ari Roth

The artistic director of Theater J stood up to pressure from donors displeased with criticism of Israel in his company’s annual Voices From a Changing Middle East Festival.

3. SoberWoman

Last year, Arlington introduced anti-DUI caped crusader Soberman. Now the county has deployed his “better half,” SoberWoman, to cruise Clarendon bars on weekends and warn carousers away from drunk driving.

4. Bjarke Ingels

The Danish architect’s recently released plan to reshape the Mall wowed us, but we really want to know how he convinced the keepers of what he calls “the most heavily regulated piece of real estate on Earth.”

5. Stephanie Santoso

The White House’s first senior policy adviser for “making”—using new technologies to invent and fabricate products—fitted out the mansion’s holiday display with a robot simulacrum of the Obamas’ dog Bo.

6. Karl Racine

We want to know how DC’s first elected attorney general is going to define the duties and reach of the office with the people’s vote behind him.

Photo-Illustration by John Ueland. Photograph of Browne by Alfredo Flores/Washington Life.

Disinvited: Chris Browne

After earning praise for his management of Reagan National Airport, he’s been unable to turn around Dulles, which ranks third-worst of 36 US airports on Bloomberg’s Airport Frustration Index.

This article appears in the January 2015 issue of Washingtonian.