five takeaways from tuesday

among them: s anders may have

lost his best c hance of recovery. a

the take: biden’s next tasks

W ith a big lead, he can start to pivot

to party unity, fall campaign. a

extended stay Russia’s parliament offered a

way for Vladi mir Putin to remain in power for

an additional 12 years after his current term

expires in 2024. a

inquiries into trump The Justice Department

must release grand jury evidence in the

Mueller probe to Congress, a court ruled. a

food

no-panic pantry

experts share what they

keep on hand to make

quick comfort meals. e

style

sandwiched

in the middle

a new generation juggles

taking care of both

children and parents. c

In the News

the nation

Justice sonia Soto-

mayor has recused her-

self from a Supreme

Court case in which one

of the parties is an old

family friend. A

the world

some worry that steps

toward democracy in a

polarized Ethi o pia could

be derailed ahead of key

August elections. A

the president of Af-

ghanistan said his gov-

ernment would free an

initial 1,500 Taliban

prisoners to get peace

talks underway. A

the economy

Wells Fargo has had

major problems with its

culture and leadership

but is redeemable, its

new chief executive told

lawmakers. A

the White House may

push federal assistance

for oil and natural gas

producers hit by plum-

meting oil prices. A

the region

lee Boyd malvo, one

of the D.C. snipers, got

married in a Virginia

prison last week, people

close to him said. B

the democratic ma-

jority in the Maryland

General Assembly is ad-

vancing a roughly

$700 million tax pack-

age to fund schools. B

CONTENT © 2020

The Washington Post

Year 143, No. 97

business news.........................a

comics.........................................c

opinion pages..........................a

lotteries....................................b

obituaries..................................b

television...................................c

world news...............................a

1

BY LISA REIN

The Trump administration is

racing to develop contingency

plans that would allow hundreds

of thousands of employees to

work remotely full time, an ex-

treme scenario to limit the coro-

navirus that would test whether

the government can carry out its

mission from home offices and

kitchen tables.

The office of Personnel Man-

agement, which oversees policy

for the workforce of 2.1 million,

has urged agency heads in recent

days to “immediately review”

their telework policies, sign pa-

perwork with employees laying

out t heir duties, issue l aptops a nd

grant access to computer net-

works.

The administration has not

issued a widespread mandate,

but some offices already have

acted. The securities and ex-

change Commission late Mon-

day became the first federal

agency in Washington to clear

2,400 employees from its head-

quarters after discovering that

an e mployee might be i nfected.

That emergency decision fol-

lows similar steps by more than

a dozen s eattle-area federal field

offices, the Interior Department

in Denver and nAsA’s silicon

Valley r esearch center, which e i-

ther have closed or shifted to

telework as some employees

tested p ositive for the v irus.

on Tuesday, the I nternational

Trade Administration started

see government on a

Federal workforce now on notice

about possible mass telecommuting

BY CAROLYN Y. JOHNSON,

LENA H. SUN

AND ANDREW FREEDMAN

With coronavirus cases in

more than 30 s tates and the

District of Columbia already

starting to strain limited re-

sources, including masks and

lab tests, the United states is at

a make-or-break moment that

will depend on one of the most

basic, but inconvenient and dis-

ruptive, public health tools in

the book: social distancing.

The best way to prevent a

catastrophic explosion of cases

in the next few weeks, many

experts think, is to break poten-

tial chains of transmission by

preventing infected people

from coming in close contact

with healthy ones, whether it

means canceling conferences or

relying on individual decisions to

avoid crowded public transporta-

tion or postpone weddings.

The goal isn’t to stop the virus;

not anymore. It i s to slow it down.

The city of Austin called off i ts

south by southwest festival. san

Francisco has canceled the ballet,

the symphony and other gather-

ings for the next two weeks. Bos-

ton canceled its st. Patrick’s Day

parade. In Washington state,

where 22 people have died in

King County, the health depart-

ment is urging people to avoid

large gatherings “if you can feasi-

bly avoid bringing large groups of

people together.”

“Whenever you see the virus,

see distancing on a

Social distancing could buy U.S.

valuable time against contagion

BY SEAN SULLIVAN

DETROIT — A fter s ustaining dam-

aging losses in the March 3 super

Tuesday contests, sen. Bernie

sanders had one critical week to

grow his support, change t he story

line and revitalize his campaign.

Instead, he spent i t largely i n com-

bat against the party he hopes to

lead.

He accused former rivals of

bowing t o establishment pressure

by endorsing Joe Biden. some

backers, including a top surro-

gate, made unsubstantiated

claims that Biden was deteriorat-

ing mentally. A nd sanders a brupt-

ly scrapped a speech his team said

would be an important statement

on racial j ustice.

“It was this scorched-earth ap-

proach,” said Markos Moulitsas,

founder of the pioneering liberal

website Daily Kos, who had sup-

ported sen. elizabeth Warren (D-

Mass.). “There was no opening for

common ground.”

Rep. Alexandria ocasio-Cortez

(D-n.Y.), a prominent sanders

supporter who has campaigned

with him, took issue with sanders

backers who have been attacking

Warren. Warren’s decision not to

endorse sanders after she exited

the race, while criticizing sanders

for his allies’ online taunts, was a

notable rebuke from an ideologi-

cal a lly.

“When things start falling

short, I don’t think seeking out

who to blame, instead of identify-

ing how to adapt, is the smart

thing to do,” ocasio-Cortez said in

an interview. “I think we have to

identify, ‘okay, h ow do we bring in

people?’ It’s like when I ran in my

primary, I didn’t win only with

supporters of senator sanders. We

built a broad c oalition on the s ame

principles.”

see sanders on a

In a week he had to regain stride,

Sanders mostly stumbled

BY SEAN SULLIVAN, MATT VISER

AND MICHAEL SCHERER

DEARBORN HEIGHTS, MICH. — Former vice
president Joe Biden seized c ontrol of the Democrat-
ic presidential contest Tuesday with four victories,
including a decisive win in Michigan that struck a
devastating blow to Bernie sanders’s ambitions
after the senator from Vermont committed his
campaign to winning the key Midwestern swing
state.
Biden also scored resounding wins Tuesday in
Mississippi, Missouri and Idaho w hile two other
states — north Dakota and Washington — contin-
ued to count ballots.
“It’s more than a comeback.... It’s a comeback
for the soul of this nation,” Biden said at the
national Constitution Center in Philadelphia as he
made explicit efforts to reach out to all parts of the
party. “This campaign is taking off, and I believe
that we are going to do well from this point on.”
The results showed further evidence of the
powerful coalition that Biden has assembled to fuel
his remarkable turnaround in the past few weeks,
particularly black voters who form the backbone of
the Democratic Party and the suburban women
who helped drive record turnout for Democrats in
the 2018 elections. Biden has also been winning
white Democratic voters without a college degree,
see primaries on a

Delegate lead widens

as coalition solidifies

Biden takes control with wins in Michigan, 3 other states

election 2020

Carolyn Van houten/the Washington Post

Joe Biden speaks in philadelphia on tuesday after early wins, including the night’s

biggest prize, michigan, where sen. Bernie sanders had focused his resources.

ABCDE

Prices may vary in areas outside metropolitan Washington. M2 V1 V2 V3 V

Showers 56/45 • Tomorrow: Mostly cloudy, mild 62/53 B8 Democracy Dies in Darkness wednesday, march 11 , 2020. $

BY BEN GUARINO,

SARAH PULLIAM BAILEY,

LAURA MECKLER

AND KATIE ZEZIMA

NEW ROCHELLE, N.Y. — new

York Gov. A ndrew M. Cuomo took

the country’s most drastic steps to

curb the spread of the coronavi-

rus Tuesday, ordering the closure

of schools and other gathering

places within a one-mile radius in

this new York suburb. The cre-

ation of what he called a “contain-

ment zone” for two weeks will

keep about half the city’s 10,

students at home and will allow

the national Guard to sanitize

public spaces.

Cuomo (D) said the state had to

move quickly to arrest the rapid

spread of the disease in this city a

short train ride from Manhattan;

104 new Rochelle residents have

tested positive for the novel coro-

navirus. The goal, Cuomo said, is

to “stop large-scale, dense gather-

ings because you had an existing

cluster of positive cases.” He

called it a “matter of life and

death.”

It will have an enormous effect

on this city of about 79,000 peo-

ple, with schools closed until

March 25 and regular routines

upended. Though supermarkets

will remain open and people are

free to come and go, national

Guard units will clean school

buildings, public transit and bus

depots as residents fear that the

wave of new cases could spread

throughout the community.

The measures come as officials

around the country and the world

are taking more aggressive ac-

tions against what has proved to

be a stubborn and deadly virus.

Democratic presidential candi-

dates Joe Biden and Bernie sand-

ers canceled primary night rallies

in ohio at the urging of state

health officials, the first time ma-

jor campaign events have been

scrapped because of the outbreak.

At least 15 states have declared

states of emergency. schools have

closed for deep cleaning, and

some colleges and universities are

shuttering and moving classes

see virus on a

BY ERICA WERNER,

JOSH DAWSEY,

SEUNG MIN KIM

AND ROBERT COSTA

President Trump told GoP sen-
ators Tuesday he wants to dramat-
ically reduce the payroll tax
through at least the end of the
year, a plan that could deliver a
massive — but expensive — boost
to many businesses and voters as
he heads into the november presi-
dential election.
But h is proposal was not warm-
ly received by Republicans, and it
was also panned by Democrats,
leaving policymakers searching
for any common ground as the
coronavirus’s outbreak continues
to take its toll o n the e conomy. o ne
area of consensus, though, could
be around the issue of paid sick
leave for employees, an idea Dem-
ocrats support and in which
Trump has shown some interest.
But in the past the two sides have
taken different approaches, and
it’s not clear whether agreement
can be reached.
“I don’t think any decision
whatsoever has been made,” said
sen. John neely Kennedy ( R-La.).
Trump has so far laid out a
broad menu of things he wants to
do to try to arrest the stock mar-
ket’s dramatic correction in the
past month, but some of the ideas
appear not to have been carefully
vetted. one senator at Tuesday’s
lunch meeting with Trump said
see payroll tax on a

Trump’s pitch

f or payroll-tax cut

faces bipartisan

skepticism

Across U.S., aggressive steps to stem outbreak

‘ Containment zone’

set in n.y. suburb

Sanders, Biden cancel

election night rallies

John taggart For the Washington Post

tables sit empty at a restaurant in new rochelle, n.y., just north of new york city. in the city of about 7 9,000 people, 104 residents

have tested positive for the novel coronavirus. gov. andrew m. cuomo (d) said he acted to “stop large-scale, dense gatherings.”

clues: understanding children’s
resistance might be vital. a

not so sunny: Florida’s elderly,
and tourism industry, at risk. a

$10 trillion: Panic could threaten
a mountain of corporate debt. a

lonely fight: People keep distance
in italy’s historic lockdown. a

outreach: D.C. homeless services
increase sanitation, education. b

in the d.c. area: Virginia,
Maryland report six new cases. b

More coverage

 Winner MiCh. Wash. Mo.Miss. iDahon.D.Delegates

Delegates at staKe: 125 89 68 36 24 14 gaineD total

biden  52.7% 32.5% 6 0.1%  8 1%  4 8.4% 3 4.3% +125 753

sanders 37 .6%32.7% 3 4.5% 1 4.8%42.5%44.8% +67 612

rePorting

By 12:54 a.M.^87 %<10% 99.2%^97 .9% 86.1%^37 .4%

CoMPlete

results, a