SUNDAY, MAY 8 , 2022. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ M2 C3
court records show he was
charged with two counts of
assault and one count of using a
firearm in the commission of a
violent crime.
A D.C. police spokesman
confirmed that Sfoglia is an
officer. District records show he
has been on the force for 6½
years.
The spokesman said Sfoglia
has been put on “noncontact
status,” meaning he cannot do any
job that puts in contact with the
public pending completion of the
criminal case and subsequent
administrative review.
Prince George’s County District
Court records show Sfoglia was
released from custody on $7,500
bail. Efforts to reach him were not
successful. Court records do not
list a defense attorney.
— Peter HermannVIRGINIADominion: E xpect
energy bills to riseDominion Energy Virginia told
state regulators this month that it
expects customers’ bills to
increase substantially as the
result of increases in fuel prices.
The state’s largest electric
utility filed an application
Thursday with the State
Corporation Commission seeking
to revise the component of
customers’ electric rates that
covers fuel costs effective July 1.
The typical residential
customer could see their bill
increase by 20 percent, or about
$24 a month, Dominion said.
— Associated PressTHE DISTRICTMan, 32, fatally shot
in SoutheastA 32-year-old man was fatally
shot Friday in the Fairlawn
section of Southeast Washington,
according to D.C. police.
The shooting occurred about
4:30 p.m. in the 2300 block of
Nicholson Street SE. Police
identified the victim as Rashad
Davis of Southeast Washington.
He was pronounced dead on the
scene.
As of Friday, 63 homicides have
been recorded in the District this
year, even with the same period in- That year, killings in the
District surpassed 200 for the
first time since 2003.
— Peter Hermann
D.C. officer arrested in
Md. on assault chargeA D.C. police officer was
arrested Friday in Prince George’s
County when he allegedly
threatened another person with a
gun while off-duty, according to
law enforcement officials.
A statement from the Prince
George’s County Police
Department says the incident
occurred about 2:45 a.m. at a
business in the 10600 block of
Baltimore Avenue in Beltsville.
Police said they were called to the
location, which they did not
identify, for a report of a fight.
Police identified the person
arrested as Dennis Sfoglia, who
court records show is 30 years old
and lives in Maryland. ThoseLOCAL DIGESTResults from May 7
DISTRICT
Day/DC-3: 5-9-9
DC-4: 0-9-1-9
DC-5: 8-5-4-3-9
Night/DC-3 (Fri.): 1-3-3
DC-3 (Sat.): 0-0-1
DC-4 (Fri.): 9-0-8-2
DC-4 (Sat.): 4-9-0-6
DC-5 (Fri.): 8-5-3-0-7
DC-5 (Sat.): 4-2-9-6-4
MARYLAND
Day/Pick 3: 6-7-6
Pick 4: 4-5-7-2
Pick 5: 9-6-3-3-4
Night/Pick 3 (Fri.): 1-2-7
Pick 3 (Sat.): 7-3-7
Pick 4 (Fri.): 7-9-4-1
Pick 4 (Sat.): 5-1-5-3
Pick 5 (Fri.): 3-8-6-4-9
Pick 5 (Sat.): 8-7-6-8-2
Bonus Match 5 (Fri.): 6-8-9-27-30 10
Bonus Match 5 (Sat.): 8-9-18-28-38 17
VIRGINIA
Day/Pick-3: 8-5-2 ^8
Pick-4: 3-5-5-8 ^0
Night/Pick-3 (Fri.): 5-3-2 ^0
Pick-3 (Sat.): 3-6-8 ^8
Pick-4 (Fri.): 3-6-9-7 ^1
Pick-4 (Sat.): 5-8-7-0 ^3
Cash-5 (Fri.): 3-16-24-25-35
Cash-5 (Sat.): 9-13-19-20-3 7
Bank a Million: 4-5-14-15-22-29 *9
MULTI-STATE GAMES
Powerball: 4-5-6-28-67 †10
Power Play: 2
Double Play: 14-22-38-56-60 †17
Mega Millions: 16-21-33-52-70 *10
Megaplier: 2x
Cash 4 Life:30-37-40-54-59 ¶2
Lucky for Life:10-23-24-38-41 ‡8
Bonus Ball **Mega Ball ^Fireball
¶ Cash Ball †Powerball ‡Lucky Ball
For late drawings and other results, check
washingtonpost.com/local/lottery
LOTTERIESad called “our third and largest
juvenile discount supermart” on
Rockville Pike. This was called
Bargaintown USA, where “Every
day is discount day!”
Rocking horses were
33 percent off. Viewmasters that
sold for $2.50 elsewhere were
$1.82. Bicycles — “biggest and
best selection anywhere!” —
started at $24.94. Perhaps that
appealed to Lazarus, who grew
up above a bike store.
Two years later, a fourth
location — called Children’s
Supermart — opened at Baileys
Crossroads. A reporter for the
Evening Star wrote that
Lazarus’s growing chain had
“tossed away the book” with its
approach to retail, adding: “Its
stores with the dewy-eyed giraffe
for a trademark offered no credit,
no delivery, no carpeting, and an
every-man-for-himself
battleground when the
Christmas rush began.”
It's only in 1964 that Answer
Man finds the name Toys R Us
cropping up in newspaper ads.
Founder Charles Lazarus died
in 2018 at age 94. The toy giant
has had its ups and downs over
the years. Its latest incarnation
includes Toys R Us-branded
departments in Macy’s stores.
Today, the Adams Morgan
rowhouse where it all began sells
something rather more grown
up. The former National Baby
Shop is home to the bar Madam’s
Organ.Lazarus’s brother-in-law and co-
investor, a tax lawyer named S.
Walter Shine. Perhaps Lazarus
was testing out names or
concepts.
According to corporate
histories of the toy giant, the Toys
R Us name — the R rendered
backward, as if drawn by a child
— made its debut in 1957. Answer
Man isn’t so sure. By October
1958 Lazarus had dropped any
pretense that the 18th Street and
K Street stores were separate
endeavors. He opened what anSupermart ad was a separate ad
for Lazarus’s 18th Street store. It
had shed the National Baby Shop
name and was apparently going
by the name Baby Supermarket.
“Thousands buy at Baby
Supermarket,” the ad boasted.
“There must be some reason.”
The ad then noted: “This is our
only location — we have no
branch stores.”
Answer Man isn’t sure why the
two stores tried to distance
themselves from one another.
The K Street store was run byinto the National Baby Shop.
That year, an ad in The Post
promised American Flyer Trains
at 20 percent off.
In May 1956, a retail outfit
called the Children’s Supermart
opened at 501 K St. NW near
Mount Vernon Square. It was a
warehouse-style, 40,000-square-
foot cash-and-carry toy store
that, according to a large
classified ad in The Post,
promised “the LOWEST PRICES
in the U.S.A.”
Directly above that Children’sThe couple sold bicycles, with an
emphasis on refurbishing used
bikes.
In 1949, a Washington Post
reader wrote to the paper’s
consumer columnist asking if
anyone in town repaired baby
walkers. The reader was directed
to that Adams Morgan address,
where, The Post columnist wrote,
repairs were made on “every sort
of wheel goods, specializing in
infants’ carriages, strollers and
walkers.”
Frank and Fannie’s son
Charles had served in the Army
as a cryptographer. After World
War II, Charles returned to the
District and cast about for a
business opportunity. In 1948,
reasoning that a postwar baby
boom would be good for child-
related retail, he started selling
baby furniture out of his parents’
sporting goods store.
Lazarus soon realized that
baby furniture didn’t provide the
sort of regular turnover that
translated to constant sales. As
he later explained to the trade
publication DSN Retailing
Today: “The toy business was
kind of an accident. I started out
selling a few baby toys and
realized that customers didn’t
buy another crib or another high
chair or playpen as their family
grew, but they did buy toys for
each child.”
By 1952, the National Sports
Shop on 18th Street had shed the
bicycles and been transformedAs a 68-year-old,
lifelong D.C.
resident, I seem
to recall a Toys R
Us located in the
500 block of K
Street NW. Is this
a “false”
memory?
— James
Aukard,
Washington
In 1987, the most highly paid
CEO in the United States wasn’t
Chrysler chief Lee Iacocca, who
earned a paltry $17.7 million. It
wasn’t Jim Manzi of Lotus
Development Corp.
($26.3 million).
It was a toy salesman from
Washington. His name was
Charles Lazarus and his annual
compensation was $60 million.
Toys had been very, very good
to him.
The short answer is, yes, there
was a toy store at 501 K St. NW.
Answer Man can’t be certain that
it was ever named Toys R Us, but
it was an early outpost of the
Lazarus empire, a precursor to
the chain that would spread
across the world, delighting
countless children and
transforming the way toys are
sold.
The Toys R Us story actually
begins about two miles away, at
2461 18th St. NW in Adams
Morgan. That’s where Frank and
Fannie Lazarus ran a business
called the National Sports Shop.
The Toys R Us chain had humble beginnings with a few s tores in Washington
John
Kelly's
Washington
ERIC GAY/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Toys R Us was the brainchild of Charles Lazarus, who grew up above his parents’ Adams Morgan
bicycle store. Lazarus started by selling baby furniture after World War II a nd moved into selling toys.BY LIZZIE JOHNSON
He had a master’s degree and a
résumé that filled two pages, but
it hadn’t gotten him far in Ameri-
ca, where he earned $15 an hour
at a health services company. So,
on Saturday morning, the man
joined about 50 others at a job
fair for newly arrived Afghans.
The two-day event was held at
the Hyatt Regency in Tysons
Corner. He’d heard that on Fri-
day, 30 percent of the applicants
— 41 of the 136 people in attend-
ance — had gotten job offers on
the spot. As he signed in, the
30-year-old felt a prickle of hope.
Maybe this is where he would
find the opportunities that the
United States offered.
Since Afghanistan fell to the
Taliban in August, thousands of
refugees have settled in the
Washington region, inundating
resettlement agencies. Many of
them — like the man, whom The
Washington Post is not identify-
ing because of concerns about
his family’s safety in Kabul —
have struggled to find stable
housing and jobs.
“It’s our hope that employers
are starting to see just how
talented this population is and
will continue to open up higher-
level roles and see this as a prime
pool of talent,” said Melissa Dia-
mond, one of the event organiz-
ers, who also leads an initiative
for Talent Beyond Boundaries,
an international nonprofit that
helps displaced people find jobs.
The man had once worked as a
senior government official, doing
data analysis and project man-
agement. He loved his career,
which also afforded him a
m iddle-class lifestyle. His wife
stayed home with their son,
who’s now 11 months old. Their
daughter, 5, attended private
school in Kabul.
When the city fell, he’d been in
Washington for work training.
He applied for asylum, rented an
apartment in Arlington with a
roommate, and hoped that the
rest of his family would soon get
visas to join him. On video calls,
they described how their home
had been searched by the Taliban
three times. As a well-known
activist for women’s rights, he
knew his family was at risk.
He sent whatever money he
could back to them. But for the
first six months, his visa didn’t
authorize him to work. His sav-
ings dwindled. Rent and utilities
were $1,500. The silver 2011
Toyota Corolla he’d bought onFacebook Marketplace cost
$7,000. The round-trip drive to
Woodbridge — where he worked
for an Afghan-owned business —
was about 40 miles, and gas was
expensive.
Last month, he’d only man-
aged to save $150.
He’d applied to more than 60
higher-paying jobs.
He hadn’t heard back from
most of them.
“It’s hard, especially when you
hear you are not shortlisted for a
job,” he said. “At first, it made me
very emotional, but now I’m used
to the disappointment. People
say that the United States is the
land of opportunity. Where are
these opportunities? I haven’t
seen them yet.”
But he wasn’t ready to give up.
The job fair, he thought, might be
a good lead. He printed four
copies of his résumé and dressed
in a collared shirt and black
slacks. He slung his backpack
over one shoulder.
A volunteer in a blue T-shirt
handed him a ticket with a
number — 99049 — and pointed
him to the next ballroom, where
a dozen companies had set up
booths.
He walked past a television
playing a video, which explained
that integrating meant having a
meaningful career. “Work hard
and be an example,” an on-screen
woman said.At the first stop — for an
entry-level recruiting and staff-
ing agency — he handed over his
résumé. At the top, he’d typed:
“Fully work authorized, no visa
sponsorship required.” His last
real job, his résumé showed, had
ended in August, with the fall of
the government.
A man in a polo shirt tucked
his résumé into a gray folder
thick with papers and promised
to call if he found a good match.
“Thank you so much,” the man
from Kabul said.
At a booth for the Alexandria
Workforce Development Center,he read fliers advertising local
jobs. Laundry attendant at Ex-
tended Stay America. Retail
store associate at CVS Health.
Daytime dog-sitter. Another flier
announced “Spring into Work,” a
two-day event with trainings and
résumé help. He wondered if it
might be useful. He jotted down
his information.
The next table was scattered
with packets of candy and bottles
of hand sanitizer. Glossy photos
showed a retirement community
with green lawns.
“What are you looking to do?”
asked the hiring manager.The man looked confused.
“But I’m not retired,” he said.
She explained that the em-
ployees weren’t retired — but the
people they served were. He
asked if they had any available
jobs in program management or
data analysis. She peered down
at the man’s résumé, then offered
to pass it on to the woman in
charge of the facility’s IT depart-
ment.
“Amber will call you if we have
anything,” she said.
He wrote his name on the
clipboard and hoped she would
call.VIRGINIA
In Kabul, he worked as a senior o∞cial. In the U.S., he makes $15 an hour.
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