The Washington Post - USA (2022-05-24)

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TUESDAY, MAY 24 , 2022. WASHINGTONPOST.COM/LOCAL EZ RE B


JOHN KELLY’S WASHINGTON
Censored Black speaker’s
descendants sat front row
at the Lincoln Memorial’s
centennial celebration. B3

MARYLAND
Man previously convicted
of police impersonation is
arrested in Rockville on
the same charge. B5

OBITUARIES
Larry Woiwode, 80 , wrote
the acclaimed 1975 novel
“Beyond the Bedroom

61 ° 62 ° 62 ° 61 ° Wall.” B6


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

High today at
approx. 12 a.m.

64

°

Precip: 90%
Wind: E
7-14 mph

BY LORI ARATANI
AND DANA HEDGPETH

Thais Austin wanted to get
home to the District after a week-
end visit with family in Jackson-
ville, Fla. Instead, she said, she
and other passengers were stuck
on the Reagan National Airport
taxiway for three hours Sunday
night, unable to exit their plane.
“A t first they said, ‘Oh, it will be
a minute,’ ” Austin said. “Then it
was an hour and another hour.
The time just kept ticking by.”
Hundreds of passengers on at
least a half-dozen other flights
reported similar delays after
thunderstorms downed trees,
flooded roads and left thousands
without power in the Washington
region. The meltdown raised
questions about whether the in-
dustry is prepared for the sum-
mer travel season as it struggles
with continued labor shortages
and weather-related disruptions
that have long been its biggest
source of delays.
The Federal Aviation Adminis-
tration temporarily halted flights
Sunday evening at National, as
well as at Washington Dulles In-
ternational and Baltimore-Wash-
ington International Marshall
airports, until conditions im-
proved. But at hardest-hit Na-
tional, the backlog apparently
left the airport without enough
gates to accommodate all of the
arrivals.
According to flight-tracking
site FlightAware, more than one-
quarter of flights scheduled to
arrive Sunday at National were
SEE DELAYS ON B5

Meltdown

at National

is blamed

on weather

BY PETER HERMANN
AND EMILY DAVIES

A man was fatally shot Monday morn-
ing at a homeless encampment along one
of the District’s main downtown thor-
oughfares, authorities said, an incident
that comes as tensions flare over rising
violent crime and how to address en-
campments across the city.
The victim, who has not been identi-
fied, was shot in the neck about 9:45 a.m.
and pronounced dead at the scene. Police
standing outside a nearby convenience
store heard a gunshot and saw a man
running, who they said was probably in
his 30s. By Monday evening, authorities
were still searching for the man and
investigating what might have precipi-
tated the shooting.
The shooting occurred at a small

encampment in Thomas Circle, consist-
ing of little more than three tents, a
portable toilet, a s cooter and a shopping
cart. Residents in the downtown neigh-
borhood said they had long been raising
concerns about safety around the en-
campment, and a nearby condominium
building sent an email to occupants on
Monday expressing frustration that the
city had not acted on the “blight and
growing public safety hazard in Thomas
Circle.”
Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) launched

a pilot program last year aimed at
permanently clearing a number of en-
campments by offering one-year leases to
select people living at those locations.
The encampment at Thomas Circle, how-
ever, was not included in the program.
Officials have scheduled a Wednesday
afternoon briefing on the incident at the
request of concerned residents.
Assistant D.C. Police Chief Andre
Wright said that city outreach workers
had been in contact with people living or
visiting the encampment, and that police
had responded to the area several times
in the past six months for “minor spats
involving weapons” and made arrests.
“We try to make sure they’re safe and
that we’re helping in any way we can,”
Wright said, standing at the scene, where
a firearm had been seen next to a wooden
pallet resting against a small blue tarp. It
SEE SHOOTING ON B2

MATT MCCLAIN/THE WASHINGTON POST

Man f atally shot in D.C. amid

rising c rime against homeless

Police search for killer as
residents raise safety concerns
over downtown encampment

D.C. police officers a t the scene of a fatal shooting along Thomas Circle and Massachusetts Avenue in Northwest Washington
on Monday. The victim, who has not been identified, was shot in the neck about 9:45 a.m. and pronounced dead at the scene.

Let’s call this a
shaming
renaming.
While cities
have long named
streets and plazas
for heroes — from
Via Appia in
ancient Rome to
Lafayette Square in D.C. — and
the United States is removing
Confederate names from its
maps and buildings, ceremonial
namings are becoming a way of
wielding real protest power.
“I’m honored,” said D.C.
Council member Mary M. Cheh
(D-Ward 3), when she learned
that a shaming naming that she
helped author got her banned
from Russia.
The council had named the
block outside the Russian
Embassy on Wisconsin Avenue,
located in Cheh’s ward, after a
dissident whom the Russians
are trying to forget. And it
appears that little piece of
legislation — D.C. Law 22-92,
the Boris Nemtsov Plaza
Designation Act of 2018 — made

Cheh No. 911 on the Russian
Foreign Ministry’s list of almost
1,000 U.S. citizens “under
personal sanctions.”
She is identified as a
“member of the District of
Columbia Assembly.”
“I’m the most obscure person

on that list,” said Cheh, who is
quarantined at home because
she tested positive for the
coronavirus last week. “But I’m
very pleased to be on the list,
too.”
Most members of Congress
SEE DVORAK ON B4

Banned from Russia? It’s an honor.

Petula
Dvorak

MARLENA SLOSS/THE WASHINGTON POST
D.C. Council member Mary M. Cheh (D-Ward 3) has been banned
from Russia after helping to name a D.C. street after a dissident.

BY SHAYNA JACOBS

new york — A federal judge on
Monday blocked Catholic Uni-
versity from auctioning off a
gingham dress worn by Judy
Garland in “The Wizard of Oz,”
one day before it was set to be put
up for bids that some expected to
generate up to $1.2 million for
the school’s drama department.
U.S. District Judge Paul Gar-
dephe ruled that a Wisconsin
woman’s l awsuit claiming owner-
ship of the dress had enough
merit to proceed and that the
garment could not change hands
while the case is pending in
federal court in Manhattan.
The ruling means any sale of

the dress could be postponed by
months or years. Gardephe said
that he was prohibiting “any sale
or transfer of the dress pending
the outcome of this litigation.”
The dress at issue is one of six
authenticated by experts as hav-
ing been worn by Garland as
Dorothy in the famous 1939 film.
It was worn in the scene when
Dorothy w as captured at the
Wicked Witch of the West’s castle.
In 1973, the dress was given as
a gift to the Rev. Gilbert V.
Hartke, the longtime head of
Catholic University’s drama de-
partment who died in 1986. On
behalf of the school, the auction
house Bonhams had been expect-
ed to auction the dress Tuesday
in Los Angeles, along with a
number of other items of Holly-
wood and television memorabil-
ia, including a Leslie Howard
jacket from “Gone With the
Wind” and a chair from Rick’s
Cafe in “Casablanca.”
SEE DRESS ON B5

Judge blocks auction

o f ‘Wizard of Oz’ dress

CU claims it was a gift
and s ale would help fund
its drama department

BY SAM FORTIER,
LAURA VOZZELLA
AND ANTONIO OLIVO

The Washington Commanders
recently acquired the right to
purchase land in Woodbridge,
Va., as a potential site for its new
stadium, state Sen. Scott A.
Surovell (D-Fairfax) said he was
told Monday by a lobbyist for the
team.
Earlier, a person familiar with
the team’s plans said the Com-
manders had actually purchased
the land. But Surovell, whose
district includes the potential
site in Prince William, said one of
the team’s Richmond-based lob-
byists called him Monday after
ESPN broke news of a deal and
told him the team had not yet
bought the land in Woodbridge,
near Potomac Mills. The team has
an option-to-purchase agree-
ment to buy it, Surovell said.
A person familiar with the
team’s venue plans said the deal
was an option to purchase about
200 acres of land for about
$100 million.
If the Commanders build a
stadium in Woodbridge, it would
be about 23 miles from the U.S.
Capitol building. This would be
nearly double the 11-mile dis-
tance from the U.S. Capitol to the
team’s current stadium, FedEx
Field in Landover, and the third-
farthest distance from a city cen-
ter to a stadium in the National
Football League behind San
Francisco (42 miles) and New
SEE COMMANDERS ON B2

Team has

right to buy

200 acres

in Virginia

ANOTHER POTENTIAL
COMMANDERS HOME

W oodbridge land would
sell for $100 million
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