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MONDAY, MARCH 7 , 2022. WASHINGTONPOST.COM/LOCAL EZ RE B

JOHN KELLY’S WASHINGTON

Post reporters’ email

addresses are no longer in

the paper, but don’t let that

keep you from writing. B

EDUCATION

As school mask mandates

begin to ease in the D.C.

area, here’s a rundown of

the latest rules. B

OBITUARIES

Sharon J. Wohlmuth, 75,

created poignant images

of female bonds in the

65 ° 76 ° 79 ° 66 ° bestseller “Sisters.” B

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

High today at

approx. 3 p.m.

81

°

Precip: 85%

Wind: SSW

12-25 mph

BY ELLIE SILVERMAN,

STEVE THOMPSON

AND JESSICA CONTRERA

An armada of drivers calling

themselves the “People’s Convoy”

circled the Capital Beltway for

more than four hours Sunday to

protest pandemic restrictions,

and it plans to do so again Mon-

day.

Organizers said their goal is to

be a “huge pain.” On Sunday, the

disruption they caused was fairly

minimal. Though the convoy of

hundreds of trucks, cars and

SUVs started out in a deliberately

slow-moving formation that

stretched roughly 30 miles, it

became diluted after merging

with normal Beltway traffic.

By the time the demonstrators

SEE CONVOY ON B

Convoy circles the Beltway

Hundreds of trucks, cars, SUVs a rrive i n D .C. area to protest pandemic restrictions

P HOTOS BY MATT MCCLAIN/THE WASHINGTON POST

TOP: The convoy of vehicles makes its way along Interstate 495 seen from Georgetown Pike in Virginia on Sunday.

ABOVE: People wave at the convoy from Braddock Road. The convoy plans to circle the Beltway again on Monday.

BY TEO ARMUS

AND LUZ LAZO

richmond — As state lawmak-

ers hash out a bipartisan plan to

repeal the state’s sales tax on

groceries, Northern Virginia may

feel the burn of those cuts.

Advocates and local officials

from the Washington suburbs are

warning that a proposal to re-

move the tax — a signature prom-

ise from Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R)

and all but a certainty in the state

budget — comes without a com-

mitment from the legislature for

another long-term funding

source that could make up for

some of the revenue losses.

That ultimately could leave

county and city coffers with tens

of millions of dollars less to fund

road improvements, public tran-

sit and other projects in coming

years, they say, an especially po-

tent concern in a region that

depends on roads, railways and

buses to move its residents.

“No one who runs for office

SEE TAX ON B

G rocery

tax cut

raises

concern

R EPEAL IS KEY TO

YOUNGKIN’S AGENDA

N.Va. officials fear plan’s

impact on transit funding

BY LAURA VOZZELLA

richmond — Virginia lawmak-

ers might think they’ve been

wrestling with this question:

Should the state give up about

$1 billion in tax revenue to build

the Washington Commanders a

new National Football League

stadium?

But they’ve really been decid-

ing this: Should Virginia forfeit

possibly unlimited tax dollars to

finance not just a stadium but

team offices, unrelated office

space, retail stores, restaurants,

lodging and anything else that the

team, stadium authority and local

government are up for?

It’s no secret that team owner

Daniel Snyder wants to build not

merely a stadium, but a vast com-

mercial and residential complex

that supporters call a “mini-city,”

including a convention center,

SEE STADIUM ON B

Va. stadium

bills lack

caps on

subsidies

‘They should call it the

Snyder City authority,’

one critic says

BY JOE HEIM

Hundreds of low-income D.C.

families reported better mental

health and food security after

participating in a direct cash

pilot program that could be a

model for efforts elsewhere, ac-

cording to an Urban Institute

analysis of the program’s effec-

tiveness.

The THRIVE East of the River

cash-payment program, a com-

bined effort of four established

D.C. nonprofits, launched in

2020 soon after the pandemic

began. It gave $5,500 with no-

strings-attached to about 600

families in Ward 8, where the

median income is $40,000, less

than half of the Districtwide me-

dian.

Placing money into people’s

hands without restrictions em-

powered them to address their

needs, program administrators

said, and removed the typical

layers of bureaucracy and eligi-

bility requirements that can frus-

trate recipients and hamper the

effectiveness of aid efforts.

“I would argue that people

with less means are going to

make even more smart and

thoughtful decisions because

they know how to stretch the

dollar,” said Scott Kratz, director

of 11th Street Bridge Park, one of

the nonprofits that created the

program.

The study’s quantitative and

qualitative data showed that

“participants often struck a

thoughtful balance between ad-

dressing immediate survival con-

cerns like paying rent and longer-

term concerns like accumulation

of debt,” analysts concluded.

Recipients surveyed for the

study, which was released Thurs-

day, reported lower rates of men-

tal health stressors and food inse-

curity than people with compara-

ble incomes in the District and

nationally.

For Rahgeena Preble, a single

mother of two young children

who lives in Southeast Washing-

ton, the money arrived last year

when she needed it most. She

didn’t have a car and had missed

a couple of doctor’s appoint-

ments for her children because of

SEE STUDY ON B

D.C. direct

cash pilot

is e≠ective,

study finds

Low-income families

said their mental health,

food security improved

BY JUSTIN JOUVENAL

Fairfax County police quickly

announced that what unfolded

inside the large, yellow home in

McLean in 2017 appeared to be a

tragic murder-suicide. They said

they believed Helen Hargan, 23, a

recent college graduate, shot her

mother, Pamela Hargan, 63, a

successful executive, before turn-

ing the gun on herself.

But after a 16-month investiga-

tion, police offered a stunning

turnabout: What initially ap-

peared to be a murder-suicide

was allegedly a double killing.

They claimed the scene had been

carefully staged by the real perpe-

trator.

They accused Megan Hargan,

another daughter of Pamela Har-

gan who also lived with her, of

killing her mother and sister. The

motive, authorities said, ap-

peared to be greed.

Police said they discovered Me-

gan Hargan was settling on a new

home the day of the slayings and

she had allegedly withdrawn

nearly $420,000 from her moth-

er’s bank account to pay closing

costs, according to court docu-

ments.

Megan Hargan is slated to

stand trial Monday on two counts

of first-degree murder in a case

that captured widespread local

attention and could last as long as

six weeks. Maj. Ed O’Carroll of the

Fairfax County police summed up

authorities’ view of events suc-

cinctly in 2018.

“This is a tragedy — domestic

violence at its worst,” O’Carroll

said.

Hargan maintains her inno-

cence and is pleading not guilty to

all charges.

The public defenders repre-

senting Hargan declined to com-

ment or discuss her defense, but

in a filing her attorneys assert

that time-stamped video evi-

dence shows Megan Hargan’s car

leaving her mother’s home possi-

bly before the second killing.

They argue that video, written

statements by the defendant that

are exculpatory and other cell-

phone evidence cast d oubt on the

SEE TRIAL ON B

Prosecutors to argue Va. woman staged 2017 murder-suicide

They allege she killed

her mother, then sister

to cover a $420,000 theft