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Mostly cloudy 62/47 • Tomorrow: Cloudy, showers, mild 63/47 B8 Democracy Dies in Darkness MONDAy, MARCH 2 , 2020. $

Conflict grows Turkish fighter jets shot down

two Syrian warplanes over northwestern

Syria as the countries edged closer to a war

that could draw in world powers. A

university hiring Two of the largest schools

in the Washington region have named

engineering deans to lead their campuses. B

stYle

b loomberg’s way

How the Democratic

billionaire spends his

money provides a clue as

to what kind of president

he would be. c

Viral propaganda

tr ump is pushing a false

spin on the coronavirus —

and the media is helping

him spread it. c

In the News

tHe nAtIon

A north carolina

Democrat running for

the U.S. Senate says

she’s been disrespected

by both parties: Repub-

licans using her to dam-

age the perceived front-

runner and Democrats

endorsing her rival. A

the university of Cali-

fornia at Santa Cruz

fired 54 teaching assis-

tants who refused to

turn in grades in a strike

for higher wages. A

tHe regIon

Washington could

make transit free under

a D.C. Council mem-

ber’s proposal that

would give each resident

credits for public trans-

portation. B

Virginia lawmakers

are on the verge of en-

acting e nvironmental

bills that commit the

state for the first time to

eliminating fossil-fuel-

based energy, but Do-

minion Energy contin-

ues to exert influence on

policy. B

scooter companies

Lime and Bird will have

to leave the District

come April 1 after losing

their appeals to contin-

ue operating in the city.

Jump, Lyft, Skip and

Spin won bids in De-

cember. B

CONTENT © 2020

The Washington Post

Year 143, No. 88

busIness news.........................A

comIcs.........................................c

oPInIon PAges..........................A

lotterIes....................................b

obItuArIes..................................b

teleVIsIon...................................c

world news...............................A

BY TODD C. FRANKEL

ANNISTON, ALA. — not long be-

fore local leaders decided, in the

words of one of them, that federal

health officials “didn’t know what

th ey w ere d oing” w ith t heir plan to

quarantine novel coronavirus pa-

tients in town, a d octor here set

out in a biohazard suit to stage a

one-man protest along the high-

way with a sign. “The virus has

arrived. Are you ready?” i t asked.

The town didn’t think it was.

Residents already were unnerved

by strange stories posted on Face-

book and s hared via text m es s ages

about helicopters secretly f lying i n

sick patients, that the virus was

grown in a Chinese lab, that some-

one — either the media or the

government — was lying to them

about what w as r eally going on.

The quarantine plan hastily

hatched by the Department of

Health and Human services was

soon scrapped by President

Trump, who faced intense push-

back from Alabama’s congressio-

nal delegation, led by Republican

Rep. Mike D. Rogers. Americans

evacuated after falling ill aboard

the Diamond Princess cruise ship

in Japan would not be coming to

Anniston, a city of 22,000 people

see AlAbAmA on A

Unease in Ala. points to

containment plan issues

BY JOEL ACHENBACH,

KATIE METTLER,

LENA H. SUN

AND BEN GUARINO

The coronavirus has b een c ircu-

lating undetected and has possi-

bly infected scores of people over

the past six weeks in Washington

state, according to a genetic a naly-

sis o f virus samples that h as s ober-

ing implications for the entire

country a mid h eightening anxiety

about the likely spread of the dis-

ease.

The researchers conducted ge-

netic sequencing o f two virus sam-

ples. one is from a patient who

traveled f rom China to snohomish

County in mid-January and was

the first person diagnosed with

the disease in the United states.

The other came from a recently

diagnosed patient in the same

county, a high s chool student with

no travel-related or other known

exposure to the coronavirus. The

two samples look almost identical

genetically, said Trevor Bedford, a

computational biologist at Fred

Hutchinson C ancer Research C en-

ter in seattle who announced the

results of the research on Twitter

late s aturday n ight.

“This strongly suggests that

there has been cryptic transmis-

sion in Washington state for the

past 6 weeks,” Bedford wrote. “I

believe we’re facing an already

substantial outbreak in Washing-

ton state that was not detected

until now due to narrow case defi-

nition requiring direct travel to

China.”

officials in seattle and King

County on sunday announced

that four more people have tested

positive for the coronavirus, in-

cluding the second person in the

state to die of the virus. That

brings the outbreak in Washing-

see Virus on A

Virus spread for

weeks in Wash.

state, study says

ANALysIs IMPLIes ‘suBstANtIAL outBReAK’

Genetic test shows long period of stealth transmission

BY SUSANNAH GEORGE

AND DAN LAMOTHE

KABUL — The Afghan govern-

ment objected sunday to parts of

the historic peace deal between

the United states and the Ta liban,

showing the difficulties that lie

ahead for the country as the 18-

year conflict enters a new phase.

Afghan President Ashraf

Ghani, speaking at a news confer-

ence less than 24 hours after the

agreement was signed, ques-

tioned several elements of the

deal, including the timeline for a

controversial prisoner exchange

and the conditions surrounding

the start of talks between the

Ta liban and his government.

The U.s.-Taliban deal, the result

of talks from which the Afghan

government was excluded, charts

a path for the full withdrawal of all

U.s. troops from the country it

invaded after the sept. 11, 2001,

terrorist attacks. It stipulates that

talks between the Taliban and

Ghani’s government must begin

by March 10 — at which point the

sides must have completed a pris-

oner exchange.

The Ta liban has long demand-

ed the release of 5,000 of its fight-

ers held by the Afghan govern-

ment. But officials in Kabul see

the prisoners as a key piece of

leverage to be used during their

talks with the militants.

“Freeing Ta liban prisoners is

not [under] the authority of

America but the authority of the

Afghan government,” Ghani told

reporters in Kabul on sunday.

“There has been no commitment

see AfgHAnistAn on A

Afghan leader questions U.S.-Taliban peace deal

lorenzo tugnoli For tHe WAsHington Post

A street vendor sells bread in an alley of the charahi Qambar

refugee camp in Kabul, a day after the peace deal was reached.

electIon 2020

MAtt McclAin/tHe WAsHington Post

in Dallas, supporters of pete buttigieg (D) l earn that the former south bend, ind., mayor q uit the presidential race. story, A

At the epicenter of virus fears

cancellations and quarantines test

Kirkland., Wash., residents. A

recession worries grow

investors fear market losses will

lead to reduction in s pending. A

BY MICHAEL E. MILLER

CHARLOTTESVILLE — His name
still adorns much of the city, from
the public library to a private win-
ery. And from the foot of a moun-
tain dedicated to him, his statue
still gazes out over the university
he founded.
But lately, in ways both small
and seismic, Thomas Jefferson’s
town has started to feel like it
belongs t o someone else.

For the first time since World

War II, Charlottesville won’t hon-

or the Founding Father’s birthday

this spring. Instead, on Tuesday,

the city will celebrate the demise

of the institution with which Jef-

ferson increasingly has become

associated: slavery.

Liberation and Freedom Day, a s

the new holiday is known, will

commemorate when Union

troops arrived here on March 3,

1865, and freed the enslaved peo-

ple who made up a majority of

Charlottesville’s r esidents.

“This marks a wholesale shift in

our understanding of the c ommu-

nity’s history,” said Jalane

schmidt, a professor at the Uni-

versity of Virginia who helped or-

see cHArlottesVille on A

‘Jefferson’s town’ is steadily

reexamining his place in it

As Charlottesville skips

slave owner’s birthday,

a reckoning continues

BY DAN BALZ

The Democratic presidential

campaign has produced as

many questions as answers in

the first four contests of the

year. on Tuesday, things will

begin to change, as the candi-

dates enter what could be the

decisive, if not conclusive,

month in the battle for their

party’s n omination.

What has been a state-by-

state battle o ver t he past month

will suddenly explode into a

nationalized contest on Tues-

day, with establishment Demo-

crats worried about the

strength of sen. Bernie sanders

(I-Vt.) but not settled on the

strongest alternative.

Former vice president Joe

Biden, with his blowout victory

saturday in south Carolina,

made a strong case that he

should be that person, but su-

per Tuesday voters will barely

have time to digest t hose r esults

before t hey, a nd t he c andidates,

see election on A

Super Tuesday may start to solve

Democrats’ ‘insane Rubik’s cube’

Biden builds on momentum

Big S.C. victory drives push

for unity; Buttigieg drops out

BY ROBERT COSTA

Former vice president Joe

Biden moved aggressively sun-

day to capi tal ize o n his dramat-

ic south Carolina victory, wel-

coming a round o f key endorse-

ments and insisting in televi-

sion interviews that he alone

can unite his anxious party and

stave off the ascent of sen. Ber-

nie s anders ( I-Vt.).

Biden’s newfound confi-

dence came as like-minded con-

tenders confronted pleas to

drop out and b ack him a head of

this week’s primary elections —

and as Democratic operatives

deliberated o ver t he t iming and

nature o f those decisions.

A significant boost for Biden

came sunday evening, when

former s outh Bend, Ind., m ayor

Pete Buttigieg — one of his ri-

vals for moderate votes — end-

ed his campaign with a speech

that, while not an endorse-

ment, echoed Biden’s argu-

ments f or consolidating b ehind

see cAmpAign on A

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