ABCDE Mostly sunny. 90/76 • Tomorrow: Thunderstorms. 92/70 • details, B8


‘BP squad’ assembles to probe oil spill


Criminal inquiry to focus on three firms and their ties to regulators


by Jerry Markon


A team of federal investigators known as the “BP squad” is as- sembling in New Orleans to con- duct a wide-ranging criminal probe that will focus on at least three companies and examine whether their cozy relations with federal regulators contrib- uted to the oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, according to law enforcement and other sources. The squad at the FBI offices includes investigators from the Environmental Protection Agen- cy, the U.S. Coast Guard and oth- er federal agencies, the sources said. In addition to BP, the firms at the center of the inquiry are Transocean, which leased the Deepwater Horizon rig to BP, and engineering giant Hallibur- ton, which had finished cement- ing the well only 20 hours before the rig exploded April 20, sourc- es said.


While it was known that in-


vestigators are examining po- tential violations of environ- mental laws, it is now clear that they are also looking into wheth- er company officials made false statements to regulators, ob- structed justice or falsified test results for devices such as the rig’s failed blowout preventer. It is unclear whether any such evi- dence has surfaced.


oil continued on A4 BP details strategy


for investors Robert Dudley, named as the firm’s first non-British CEO, will oversee a leaner operation. A4


Losses from spill Opinions


Kathleen Parker: Louisiana’s Women of the Storm. A15


reduce tax bill By deducting costs related to the disaster in the gulf, BP plans to take a $10 billion credit. A4


METRO A frustrating wait


for electricity People who rely on power for medical needs or emergencies face specific problems when lines go down. B1


Long wary of foreigners, Japan now needs them


But with the country’s popula- by Chico Harlan


tokyo — Her new country needs her, her new employer adores her, and Joyce Anne Pauli- no, who landed here 11 months ago knowing not a word of the language, can now say in Japa- nese that she’d like very much to stay. But Paulino, 31, a nurse from the Philippines, worries about the odds. To stay in Japan long-term, she must pass a test that almost no foreigner passes. For Japan, maintaining eco- nomic relevance in the next dec- ades hinges on its ability — and its willingness — to grow by seeking outside help. Japan has long had deep misgivings about immigra- tion and has tightly controlled the ability of foreigners to live and work here.


tion expected to fall from 127 mil- lion to below 100 million by 2055, Prime Minister Naoto Kan last month took a step toward loos- ening Japan’s grip on immigra- tion, outlining a goal to double the number of highly skilled for- eign workers within a decade. In Japan, just 1.7 percent of the


population (or roughly 2.2 million people) is foreign or foreign-born. Foreigners represent small slices of almost every sector of the econ- omy, but they also represent the one slice of the population with a chance to grow. Japan is on pace to have three workers for every


japan continued on A9


 Editorial: Is Japan ungovernable? A14


by Lena H. Sun T


he day after her first child was born in January at Vir- ginia Hospital Center in Ar-


lington County, Suzanne Libby discovered that he was missing from the hospital nursery. Searching frantically, she found Spencer in his hospital bassinet — in another woman’s room. Standing next to him was a hospi- tal aide, a stricken look on her face. The relief that Libby felt at


finding her son was later re- placed by fresh anxiety: The woman, it turned out, had breast- fed her newborn. More than two hours passed


before hospital officials told Lib- by, 34, and her husband, Reed, 36,


SARAH L. VOISIN/THE WASHINGTON POST


Suzanne Libby plays with her son, Spencer, at their Arlington home. He was breast-fed by another woman at Virginia Hospital Center.


how the mix-up had happened: The aide had neglected to match Spencer’s ID bands with the other


INSIDE FOOD 1


Home fires If you want pizza fresh out of a wood-fired oven, you could go to one of the better pizzerias — or score an


invitation to this Silver Spring back yard. E1


BUSINESS NEWS.......A10-12 CLASSIFIEDS .....................F1 COMICS ..........................C8-9


EDITORIALS/LETTERS...A14 FED PAGE.........................A13 GOING OUT GUIDE............C5


LOTTERIES.........................B4 MOVIES..............................C7 OBITUARIES...................B5-7


BASEBALL Strasburg scratched


The Nationals’ star rookie, scheduled to pitch against Atlanta, is pulled from the lineup as a precaution after he has trouble loosening up. The team plans an MRI exam and X-rays to see what might be wrong. D1


METRO Cemetery knew of errors in 2005 Documents show that Arlington National Cemetery left the inaccurate records unaddressed for years. B1


2 ECONOMY & BUSINESS $41,000 worth of buzz Chevy’s much-anticipated electric Volt has a price tag that puts it out of range of many would-be buyers. A10


STOCKS............................A12 TELEVISION.......................C6 WORLD NEWS...................A8


Printed using recycled fiber


DAILY CODE Details, B2


814 7 1


STYLE Beyond beep-beep Video games’ music is winning over highbrow art forms: Even the NSO is in on the act. C10


The Washington Post Year 133, No. 235


CONTENTS© 2010


woman’s. The next day, hospital officials told the couple that re- sults of blood tests run on the


woman showed she did not have HIV or hepatitis B or C, diseases that can be passed to a baby through breast milk. It’s impossible to know how of- ten breast-feeding mix-ups hap- pen, because many states do not require hospitals to report them unless there is serious harm. But Ruth Lawrence, a breast- feeding expert at the American Academy of Pediatrics, says that she hears about them occasional- ly.


At least eight other mix-ups


have occurred in recent years, in- cluding two at other Washington area hospitals where babies were given to the wrong mothers but not breast-fed. Although some experts say the


baby continued on A6 STYLE Pepco worker


handles PR storm Andre Francis has been monitoring the utility’s social networking sites and trying to calm irritated customers. C1


BILL O’LEARY/THE WASHINGTON POST


Power company workers try to repair lines on Dennis Avenue in Silver Spring that were damaged in Sunday’s violent storm. About 113,000 Pepco customers were still without power Tuesday.


POSTLOCAL.COM


Taking stock, cleaning up


6


Challenges of restoring power; readers share storm images; mapping the tempest’s path and outages.


WEDNESDAY, JULY 28, 2010 Powering back up


‘ONLY QUESTION WAS WHEN’


Board blames circuit failures, safety attitude


by Ann Scott Tyson


Chronic track circuit failures and a negligent attitude toward safety made a catastrophic acci- dent such as last year’s fatal Red Line crash inevitable, the Nation- al Transportation Safety Board determined in its final report on the incident Tuesday, warning that the conditions that led to the crash pose a continuing risk. The NTSB found that nearly half of the 3,000 track circuit modules Metro uses could seri- ously malfunction and that a quarter of its rail cars, the oldest in the fleet, offer little protection in a crash, posing an “unaccept- able risk to Metrorail users.” Al- though Metro is monitoring the problem circuits much more ag-


Prices may vary in areas outside metropolitan Washington.


MD DC VA SV1V2V3V4 washingtonpost.com • 75¢


Red Line crash was inevitable, NTSB finds


gressively to manage that risk, the board recommended that the troublesome equipment and old rail cars be permanently removed as soon as possible. The NTSB has no statutory power to enforce its recommendations, which it makes without regard to cost. Despite Metro’s problems, NTSB Chairman Deborah A.P. Hersman said Washington’s rail transit system, the second-busiest in the country with about 200 million passenger trips a year, remains far safer than the region’s roads. Thirteen people have lost their lives on Metro trains in the 34-year history of the system, the same number killed every two weeks in automobile accidents on area roads, she said. Metro interim General Manag- er Richard Sarles pledged to “carefully consider” the NTSB rec- ommendations. The agency has set aside $30 million total in its capital budget for the next three


metro continued on A11


 Dr. Gridlock reflects on the NTSB’s report. B2


Gun sales led to break


in Md. double slaying Suspect indicted; raids’ finds revealed other crimes, alarming photos


by Matt Zapotosky Police barely knew that Jason


Thomas Scott existed before the bodies of two of his alleged vic- tims turned up in a burning car in Prince George’s County last year. The suspected serial killer was living quietly with his par- ents and sister in a modest sub- urban colonial in Largo, and public records show just one breach of the law: a speeding ticket.


But soon after the slayings, he was suspected in a weapons case. That allowed police to raid his home and pull back the layers of


his life, revealing a rapid escala- tion from burglary to home in- vasions, and eventually the kill- ings, court records say. On Tuesday, a Prince George’s


grand jury charged Scott, 27, with two counts of murder and other crimes in the deaths of Delores Dewitt, 42, and her 20-year-old daughter Ebony. Their bodies were found March 16, 2009, in a burning car in Largo that had been stolen that day. Police have said that Scott is a person of interest in the killings of another mother-daughter pair from Largo: Karen Lofton, 45, and her 16-year-old daughter, Karissa, who were found shot in their locked home Jan. 26, 2009. Lofton and Dewitt were nurses. Detectives also are looking into whether Scott might be responsi-


killings continued on A6 After son’s birth, a ‘horrid’ discovery Baby is breast-fed by wrong woman at Va. hospital, raising questions about health risks, ID protocols


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