The Washington Post - USA (2022-05-07)

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SATURDAY, MAY 7 , 2022. WASHINGTONPOST.COM/LOCAL EZ RE B

RELIGION

The draft opinion that may

end Roe is testing clergy

on both sides of the U.S.

abortion debate. B

VIRGINIA

Three men are charged in

connection with the

distribution of 5,

fentanyl-laced pills. B

MARYLAND

State Democrats and Gov.

Larry Hogan are at odds

over funding for training

53 ° 52 ° 53 ° 52 ° abortion providers. B

8 a.m. Noon 4 p.m. 8 p.m.

High today at

approx. 12 a.m.

55

°

Precip: 90%

Wind: NE

10-20 mph

BY SARAH PULLIAM BAILEY

W

hen given the choice to put his religious

identity on his metal dog tag, World War II

soldier Albert Belmont did what many Jew-

ish soldiers did at the time. His family

members say he put a “P” for Protestant, out

of fear of what Nazi German soldiers could do to him if he

were captured.

For more than seven decades, Belmont was buried under

a Latin cross, what soldiers were generally buried under

unless they had “H” on their dog tag for Hebrew. In April,

however, his daughter and granddaughters traveled to

France to see the cross above his body replaced with a Star

of David to reflect his Jewish identity.

Belmont’s changed headstone is part of a larger project

called Operation Benjamin, working to correct the head-

stones of hundreds of Jewish soldiers who died in World

Wars I and II. Barbara Belmont, who lives in Alexandria,

Va., and her two daughters joined six other families on a

trip to Europe to participate in ceremonies for the

changing of their relatives’ headstones.

“In a way, it gave this very old lady closure,” said

Belmont, 80. “I feel like I attended my father’s funeral. It

was the most wonderful feeling.”

For most of her life, Belmont knew nothing about her

SEE BURIAL ON B

PHOTOS BY ERIC LEE FOR THE WASHINGTON POST

‘Reflecting what was closer to him’

The Star of David now marks the grave of a WWII Jewish soldier, giving his daughter a measure of closure

TOP: Barbara Belmont, left, and daughter Erin McCahill. Belmont’s father, Albert

Belmont, was a U.S. soldier killed in World War II and buried in France. ABOVE: A

photo of Albert with B arbara’s mother, Ruth, at McCahill’s home in Bethesda, Md.

BY SPENCER S. HSU

A son of a Brooklyn judge who

dressed as a cave man and helped

lead the charge against police

lines and barricades in the Jan. 6,

2021, Capitol riot was sentenced

to eight months in prison Friday

after pleading guilty to felony

civil disorder.

Aaron Mostofsky, 35, an aspir-

ing architect, admitted to being

one of the first 12 people to enter

the Capitol’s broken Senate-wing

doors and windows shortly after

2:13 p.m., while wearing a rac-

coon fur pelt and stealing a police

shield and bulletproof vest.

“What’s critical for you to un-

derstand, and for the public to

understand, is that without con-

duct like yours, without people

on the front lines pushing, the

barricades wouldn’t have fallen,

the Capitol would not have been

overrun, people would not have

been killed, and others would not

have suffered serious physical

and mental injuries,” U.S. District

Judge James E. Boasberg said.

Boasberg said he did not know

what sucked Mostofsky “down

this hole of a stolen-election fan-

tasy,” but added, “I hope you’ll

leave some of the fantasy world

behind at this point because I

hope you understand your indul-

gence in that fantasy led to this

tragic situation — tragic for the

country as to what happened that

day, and tragic for you and what

SEE JAN. 6 ON B

Son of N.Y.

judge g iven

jail time in

Capitol riot

DEFENDANT WAS ONE

OF FIRST IN BUILDING

8-month sentence will

set benchmark for others

BY IAN DUNCAN,

TEO ARMUS

AND MICHAEL LARIS

While Boeing’s chief executive

and its financial leader will soon

be moving their offices to Arling-

ton, a company spokesman said

Friday the aerospace giant’s deci-

sion to shift its headquarters to

Virginia will not immediately re-

sult in the creation of new jobs in

the region.

Paul Lewis, a Boeing spokes-

man, said the company employs

400 people in the Washington

area and has space to add more,

but “ there are no immediate plans

to expand the facility here in Ar-

lington.”

The company also won’t reduce

its roughly 400 employees at Boe-

ing’s outgoing headquarters in

Chicago. Nonetheless, Lewis said

in an email the move to Virginia

was important for the company:

“It’s significant in that this will be

the base of operations for the CEO

and CFO.”

The jet and weapons manufac-

turer’s d ecision to relocate was the

result of a lengthy lobbying cam-

paign by leaders in the region,

reflecting the Washington area’s

growing appeal to global corpora-

tions. Yet the shift appears unlike-

ly to accompany a m ajor economic

boost in the short term.

Amy Liu, a vice president at the

Brookings Institution and direc-

SEE BOEING ON B

Boeing’s

Va. move

means few

new jobs

Little immediate boost

expected despite

relocated headquarters

BY DANA HEDGPETH

Roughly 3.2 million confirmed

cases of the bird flu have been

found in chickens at six farms in

Maryland and Delaware over the

past two months, agriculture

officials said Friday, part of a

broader problem with the virus

that is quietly sweeping across

the country.

Eighty black vultures in Mary-

land’s Harford County also were

recently found dead from the

highly pathogenic avian influen-

za, officials said, near wildlife

areas along the Susquehanna

River.

Maryland and Delaware agri-

culture authorities said they

have had reports of chickens at

the farms being infected with the

bird flu since February. The vul-

tures were found in the past two

weeks.

Thirty-seven million chickens

and turkeys have been culled on

U.S. farms since February be-

cause of the latest outbreak,

according to the Agriculture De-

partment, and roughly 950 cases

of bird flu have been found in

wild birds, including at least 54

bald eagles.

In Virginia, officials said they

detected bird flu in February

among a “backyard flock” of

roughly 90 turkeys, chickens and

ducks in Fauquier County. There

has been no bird flu detected in

D.C., officials said.

“The numbers are just stag-

gering in terms of the poultry,”

said Charlie Broaddus, the state

veterinarian in Virginia.

One of the biggest factors in

the bird flu’s spread this year, he

said, is that it’s being carried by

wild ducks and geese that are

infected but “don’t typically be-

come affected” by it.

SEE BIRD FLU ON B

Bird flu strikes chickens

on farms in Md., Del.

Officials find 3 .2 million

cases locally of virus that

is sweeping across U.S.

DAVID RUBENSTEIN

David Rubenstein paid a “not insignificant”

sum for the 230-year-old imprint. One of its

quirks: The Fourth Amendment appears sixth.

BY MICHAEL E. RUANE

When the billionaire philan-

thropist David Rubenstein was

acquiring a 230-year-old broad-

side printing of the Bill of Rights,

he called the head of the National

Archives, David Ferriero, and

asked: “Do you have this?”

“I don’t think so,” Ferriero said

he replied. The Archives had the

handwritten original Bill of

Rights that proposed the first

amendments to the Constitution.

But a printed version in bold

letters that was, perhaps, one of

only two in existence? “Let m e get

back to you,” he said.

The Archives did not have such

a document. It announced Friday

that Rubenstein has bought it

and lent it to the Archives for

public display in its main build-

ing in Washington. The docu-

ment now joins the Declaration

of Independence, the U.S. Consti-

tution and the faded original Bill

SEE RETROPOLIS ON B

RETROPOLIS

Billionaire buys Bill of Rights imprint,

puts it on loan to National Archives