The Washington Post - 21.03.2020

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SATURDAy, MARCH 21 , 2020. WASHINGTONPOST.COM/REGIONAL eZ su B

RELIGION

As life shuts down, a

Louisiana pastor is among

the last holdouts vowing

to keep his doors open. B2

THE REGION

the cherry blossoms

reached peak bloom

Fr iday, tied for third

earliest on record. B3

OBITUARIES

Jack Mcdonnell Jr., 82,

was a major d.C.-area

tech entrepreneur at the

51 ° 50 ° 54 ° 50 ° start of the Internet age. B4

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

High today at

approx. 12 a.m.

55

°

Precip: 5%

Wind: NNE

7-14 mph

BY FENIT NIRAPPIL,

DARRAN SIMON

AND REBECCA TAN

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan on

Friday said a second person in the

state had died of the n ovel corona-

virus and emphasized the n eed for

residents to take the illness seri-

ously.

His announcement came as

D.C. officials reported that nine

more people in the District had

tested positive for the coronavi-

rus.

“ This is a public health crisis

like nothing we have ever faced

before — w e are all in this together,

and we will get through this to-

gether,” Hogan said.

Hogan said the man, a Balti-

more County resident, was in his

60s and suffered from underlying

medical conditions. D.C. officials

said that three people who tested

positive are in their 20s and two

are in their 30s. They said a 22-

year-old man who tested positive

lives in Florida, and a 58-year-old

man and a 34-year-old woman

have unknown addresses.

Mayor Muriel e. Bowser on Fri-

day extended school and restau-

rant closures and a ban on large

gatherings through the end of

April, following the first known

covid-19 death in t he n ation’s capi-

see dmV on b4

More

covid-19

deaths

in region

D.C. RePoRtS ItS 1St,

MARyLAND ItS 2ND

Bowser extends closures;

officials warn: Stay home

BY DAN MORSE

Illegal searches, unfair interro-

gations, bad witnesses: Maryland

attorney Mike Lawlor has cited

them all on behalf of clients since

1997. Add coronavirus to the list.
      “There’s a worldwide pandem-
      ic related to covid-19,” Lawlor
      argued this week, asking for a
      mistrial inside the otherwise bar-
      ren, nine-story Montgomery
      County Circuit Courthouse in
      Rockville. “The president said
      that groups should not be formed
      in excess of 10 people. There are
      obviously 12 people on this jury.”
      He said he feared that jurors
      would rush to judgment against
      his client, accused of fatally
      shooting two people during an
      alleged botched robbery.
      “We are all consumed with
      what is basically a worldwide

shutdown, certainly a shutdown

in this area,” Lawlor said.

That L awlor was even standing

in a courtroom was almost un-

heard of across Maryland this

week. The entire court system is

closed except for the most critical

functions.

In three of the state’s largest

jurisdictions — Baltimore City,

Baltimore County and Prince

George’s County — no criminal

trials were taking place, accord-

ing to prosecutors. At the state-

wide public defender’s office, top

see trIAl on b4

Montgomery’s only t rial w raps up

The defense had sought

a dismissal because of

coronavirus concerns

dAn Morse/tHe wAsHIngton post

the montgomery County Circuit Courthouse in rockville, md., was

host to just one trial this week. It ended with a deadlocked jury.

BY JULIE ZAUZMER

AND SARAH PULLIAM BAILEY

It was the last day of a 19-day

period of daytime fasting for

Baha’i believers all over the world.

The Washington area’s Baha’i

community would have ordinari-

ly been looking forward to joining

at n ight to feast in celebration and

welcome in the Baha’i new year.

Instead, alone in their kitchens

and bedrooms and living rooms

Thursday afternoon, they opened

a skype window.

The sounds of religious wor-

ship these days are intermingled

with the vocabulary of conference

calls: “Try to mute your micro-

phone.” “You’re frozen.” “I can’t

seem to turn my camera around.”

“I have to hop off.”

In a matter of days, religious

congregations across the country

have learned how to go virtual.

Churches that never had a camera

in the sanctuary before are live-

streaming services. elderly mem-

bers who never miss a Wednesday

night Bible study are becoming

adept instead at morning prayer

calls by Zoom. Close-knit commu-

nities are keeping people’s spirits

up by seeing one another’s f aces in

pixel form and singing together,

headphones on their ears.

Almost 11,000 churches signed

up in the past week for a tool

called Church online Platform,

according to oklahoma-based

Life.Church, which created the

platform. Life.Church said that

4.7 million people watched servic-

es from churches on the platform

this past sunday.

In t he associated Bible app You-

Version, searches for “fear” went

up by 167 percent last week, and

“fear not” b y 299 percent.

“This moment is inviting reli-

gious leaders and religious com-

munities to really think about

what is essential about our prac-

tices,” said Letitia Campbell, a

Presbyterian pastor and a profes-

sor at emory University’s Candler

school of Theology. “What is the

see VIrtuAl worsHIp on b2

Worship goes virtual in

age of social distancing

Bloom and doom

Crowds visiting Tidal Basin for the trees’ early peak are smaller, and cautious, amid coronavirus

pHotos BY JAHI CHIKwendIu/tHe wAsHIngton post

The economic

damage wreaked

by the novel

coronavirus will

force the

Washington

region’s state and

local governments to cut

spending at a time of increased

public need, making it harder to

relieve the distress of laid-off

workers and struggling

businesses, according to officials

and analysts.

Although there is much

uncertainty over how long the

pandemic will last, area

governments are bracing for a

wrenching change that will

abruptly end an era of flush

budgets. Many liken the

potential impact to that of the

9/11 attacks and the 2008

recession combined.

“This has the potential to be

worse than the Great Recession,

because you’re shutting down

entire industries,” such as hotels

and restaurants, said Jeffrey s.

DeWitt, the District’s chief

financial officer.

“It’s not unthinkable that we

would hit 15 percent to

20 percent unemployment

numbers in the District. I don’t

think we’ve ever seen those kinds

of numbers in the District

before,” he said. “How long that

lasts depends on how long the

event lasts.”

Area governments’ capacity to

absorb the blow will depend

greatly on how much help they

get from the federal government.

In hard times in the past, federal

Washington has provided critical

extra funds for rising demands,

such as for health care and food

stamps for the poor.

see budget on b6

Budgets

to shrink as

public need

soars

Regional

Memo

ROBERT

MCCARTNEY

BY MICHAEL E. RUANE

Jean Bley was 16 when she rode the bus with the other

seniors from Margaretville High school in Upstate new York

to see the cherry blossoms for the first time.

It was 1939. Before a husband and family. Before the war.

eighty years and a lifetime ago. on Thursday, at 96, she was

back with two friends on a “jail break” f rom their retirement

community in springfield, Va.

Virus or no virus, she and neighbors Beverly Fisher, 80,

and To m Coneeney, 7 7, h ad piled into Coneeney’s 13-year-old

green s aturn and drove to Washington to witness the annual

glory of peak bloom on the Tidal Basin.

Part of the group that is most vulnerable to the novel

coronavirus, they stepped out of the car for a minute to take

in the timeless beauty of a Washington tradition that goes

back more than a century.

They were among hundreds of people, drawn by the

promise of light traffic, easy parking and small crowds, who

wandered among the gnarled trees, awed by the delicate

blossoms, w hich were heavy from the overnight rain.

some wore surgical masks or bandannas over their faces,

see blossoms on b3

despite being urged to practice social distancing, hundreds of

people v isited the tidal basin on thursday. b everly Fisher, above

left, and Jean bley decided to leave their retirement community in

springfield, Va., to witness the cherry blossoms.