ABCDE Partly sunny. 86/69 • Tomorrow: Thunderstorms. 81/72 • details, B6 SATURDAY, JULY 31, 2010
Prices may vary in areas outside metropolitan Washington.
MD DC VA SV1V2V3V4
washingtonpost.com • 75¢
Growth too slow to drive up hiring FEW HINTS OF
IMPROVEMENT SOON
Economy still expanding, but GDP reading drops to 2.4%
by Neil Irwin and Sonja Ryst
The recovery is fading, and a trou- bling new pattern is setting in: eco- nomic growth that is too slow to put Americans back to work. Gross domestic product, the broadest measure of economic activity, grew at a 2.4 percent annual rate in the April- through-June period, the government said Friday, down from 5 percent at the end of 2009 and 3.7 percent at the begin- ning of this year. The good news is that it was the
BILL O’LEARY/THE WASHINGTON POST
On the eve of his daughter Chelsea’s wedding, former president Bill Clinton greets well-wishers in Rhinebeck, N.Y. In May, Clinton shared that the bride-to-be had requested that her father lose 15 pounds before the big day and that he was close to his goal weight. See more photos at
www.washingtonpost.com/chelsea-wedding.
Who’s Who on the list? Who knows? Chelsea Clinton calls the shots on her big day, even if it means mom and dad had to call off some big shots
by Manuel Roig-Franzia in rhinebeck, n.y.
ken at stage-whisper levels — translates into “I’m so very, very tight with the fam.
I
n the vast concentric circles of Clin- tonian friendship, a new vocabu- lary defines coolness. The lingo doesn’t pivot on name-dropping. But wedding-dropping.
“I’ll see you after The Wedding” — spo-
Wink, wink.” Nary a mention of Bill or Hill or Chelsea necessary. Inclusion in the wedding confers an intimacy, an ex- tra-special, next-generation “friend of the family” status that stands alongside FOB or Hillaryland bona fides — a family triangle of triangulation. It’s a kind of closeness that no private-jet sit-down, business collaboration or political grip- and-grin, no matter how exclusive, can achieve. They’re not A-listers, this “see you af-
ter the wedding” crowd, but something beyond. “That’s the Triple-A list,” says John Catsimatidis, a billionaire New York supermarket mogul whose chum- miness with the Clintons, and knack for raising megabucks for their campaigns, did not, alas, merit an invitation. “They’ll look at themselves as the lucky ones,” Catsimatidis says. The nuptials of Chelsea Clinton and
Marc Mezvinsky are scheduled to take place Saturday in all their secretive, in-
In his defense, Rangel cites his peers
Lawmakers who similarly sought donations were not punished, his lawyers say
by R. Jeffrey Smith
Rep. Charles B. Rangel (D-N.Y.) has chosen a less-than-collegial defense to charges that he violated House ethics rules when he asked corporate donors with legislative interests to give to an aca- demic center bearing his name. He was not the only lawmaker to solicit
donations in this manner, his lawyers ar- gue, saying that peers who did the same
thing were not punished. With a trial of Rangel by the House eth- ics committee possible by mid-Septem- ber, his legal team reached across the Capitol to point a finger at Senate Minor- ity Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who helped raise money for a center named for him at the University of Louisville. Rangel’s team cited similarities with the recently deceased Sen. Robert C. Byrd (D- W.Va.) and with former Republican sena- tors Trent Lott (Miss.) and Jesse Helms (N.C.). “These activities have never been re- garded as creating an improper benefit to a Member,” the lawyers said in their 32- page rebuttal. The logic apparently fig- ured heavily in Rangel’s reluctance to ne-
House panel suggests only a ‘reprimand’ for Rangel. A4
gotiate a settlement to 13 charges of ethi- cal misconduct, even when colleagues said Friday they had been ready to im- pose only a reprimand: Why should he be singled out when others haven’t? The practice of influential lawmakers asking monied donors to give to a charity in which they play a key role, which lies at the heart of 10 of the allegations against Rangel, has long troubled ethics advo- cates. By taking part in fundraising for such charities, they inevitably arouse sus-
rangel continued on A4 Wyly brothers built an empire side-by-side
by Zachary A. Goldfarb and Philip Rucker
Born during the Depression in a north-
east Louisiana plantation town of 3,000, Charles Wyly and his younger brother Sam have been inseparable since child- hood: numbers 3 and 13 on the state- championship high school football team, business partners who turned ideas into billion-dollar companies, philanthropic champions and benefactors of politi- cians, including the Bush political dynas- ty. Nowthe brothers are co-defendants in
The Wyly brothers’ network and political largess. A12
a far-reaching securities fraud suit. The reclusive pair, who both settled in Dallas, amassed extraordinary wealth af- ter starting a software company during the computer industry’s infancy and in- vesting their earnings in other technol- ogy firms, restaurant chains, clothing stores and energy companies. They show- ered money on environmental causes, public broadcasting, arts groups, chari- ties and Republican and conservative
causes in Texas and nationwide. But their wealth — and largess — had a dark side, according to a fraud suit filed Thursday by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The charges, culminating a six-year probe, accuse the brothers of cre- ating an elaborate network of overseas accounts and companies through which they made illegal trades, reaping more than a half-billion dollars in hidden prof- it. The Wylys deny the charges, according to a spokesman, who said they have al- ways supported causes in which they be-
wyly continued on A12 INSIDE THE WORLD 66 Americans
The number killed in Afghanistan in July, making it the deadliest month of the war. A6
REAL ESTATE Guiding home buyers A look at new rules introduced by the FHA as it insures more loans and deals amid mounting defaults. E1
BUSINESS NEWS............A10 CLASSIFIEDS.....................F4 COMICS..............................C6
EDITORIALS/LETTERS...A14 WEATHER ..........................B6 GOING OUT GUIDE............C4
ECONOMY & BUSINESS Combustible issue Lithium-ion batteries are raising concerns and prompting calls for “hazardous material” regulations on devices that contain them. A10
LOTTERIES ........................B3 MOVIES..............................C5 OBITUARIES ......................B4
STOCKS............................A11 TELEVISION.......................C8 WORLD NEWS...................A6
2 STYLE Judge J-Lo? Jennifer Lopez appears ready to join “American Idol.” C1
METRO The powerless They have been out of work since Sunday’s storm, and the lost wages are cutting deep. B1
Printed using recycled fiber
SPORTS Trent Williams ready to go The rookie, right, signs for $60 million over six years and joins his new team at Redskins Park. But the talk of camp remains Albert Haynesworth, who failed Coach Mike Shanahan’s conditioning test for a second day. D1
DAILY CODE Details, B2
28 7 3
crowd glory at a secluded mansion pro- tected by a no-fly zone and barricaded roads outside the village of Rhinebeck in the country-home paradise that is the mid-Hudson Valley. Managing the guest list, a scant 400 or 500 — a big bash for life-size folks, a tiny gathering for the JumboTron-scaled Clintons — presented a hyper-delicate challenge for Madam Secretary, Mr. Former President and
wedding continued on A9
fourth consecutive quarter of economic growth and that the expansion contin- ued despite a crisis overseas and pal- pitations in global financial markets. The bad news is that the growth was be- low the long-term trend rate at which the U.S. economy expands and is not strong enough to drive down unemploy- ment. And more worrisome, many of the details of the report point to a continued slowdown of expansion this year. “The post-recession rebound is his-
tory,” said Bart van Ark, chief economist of the Conference Board, a business re- search group. “We don’t foresee a double dip, but we do expect growth to slow even more markedly . . . in the second
GDP continued on A11
In Michigan, Obama touts auto industry comeback. A10
SARAH L. VOISIN/THE WASHINGTON POST Frenice Rollins, 13, adopted from Colorado, has dinner at home in Prince George’s.
And Frenice makes three Md. couple bonds with spirited teen, joins new trend in adoption
by Donna St. George
Once there was the idea of a child. Now there is Frenice: a middle-schooler who steeled her way through 14 foster homes before moving last summer to a comfort- able Prince George’s County neighbor- hood, where Sharon and Michael Rollins embraced her as their daughter. There were family dinners. Tuesday
evenings at church. Homework after school. Cousins and summer camps and a 13th birthday party. Ayear into her new life, Frenice’s adop- tion was made final Friday morning in an Upper Marlboro courtroom — amid hap- py tears and quiet celebration — as the
Rollins family became another example of a growing interest in adopting foster children, which many hope will extend to older youths, who are the hardest to place. The trend comes amid a sharp decline in overseas adoptions, which have fallen by more than 40 percent since 2005 as many countries tightened regulations, or stopped foreign adoptions altogether and the recession put the cost beyond the reach of some prospective parents. Mean- while, in this country, 123,000 foster kids are waiting to be adopted. The willingness of more people to con- sider foster children is visible at the Joint
adopt continued on A12
1
The Washington Post Year 133, No. 238
CONTENTS© 2010
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78