ABCDE Thunderstorms. 90/76 • Tomorrow: Thunderstorms. 95/77 • details, B8
Rep. Waters likely broke ethics rules, panel finds
Conflict-of-interest problem could result in trial for a second leading Democrat
by Paul Kane and Ben Pershing
An ethics report released Monday found that Rep. Maxine Waters probably broke conflict-of-interest rules in urging federal aid for a bank where her husband had served on the board and owned hun- dreds of thousands of dollars in stock. The California Democrat, a member of the Financial Services Committee, denied any wrongdoing and said she will not set- tle with the House ethics committee, most likely meaning a second public trial of a leading Democrat this fall. Rep. Charles B. Rangel (N.Y.) is set to stand trial on allega- tions that he broke congressional rules with his personal finances and with his fundraising efforts for a New York college. The twin scandals and expected trials
further complicate what was already ex- pected to be a difficult midterm election year for Democrats. Although Waters and Rangel represent solidly Democratic dis- tricts, Republicans are holding them forth as examples of House Speaker Nancy Pelo- si’s inability to live up to her pledge to run the “most ethical Congress in history.” The GOP has made ethics reform and legisla- tive transparency part of its pitch to try to reclaim the majority in November. Pelosi (D-Calif.) echoed her stance on the Rangel matter, offering a muted re- sponse that suggested the Waters case showed that the ethics panel is doing its job of policing the House. “As we have said in the past about the process, ethics proceedings are a result of a bipartisan, confidential and independ- ent process in the House,” Nadeam Elsha- mi, Pelosi’s spokesman, said in a state- ment.
Although Rangel’s legal team continues to hope that it can reach a settlement and avoid a trial on 13 counts of violating
waters continued on A13 on
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View images from Rep. Waters’s life and career; read the ethics report and the response from her office.
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Va. seeks to clarify checks of legal status ACTION PERMITTED
BUT NOT REQUIRED
Cuccinelli opinion thrusts state into immigration debate
by Anita Kumar and Rosalind s. Helderman BRENNAN LINSLEY/ASSOCIATED PRESS A U.S. soldier helps an Afghan army soldier wounded by a rocket-propelled grenade attack to an evacuation helicopter. In Kandahar, echoes of Baghdad
U.S. tries tactics that helped turn Iraq war in an effort to win over Taliban stronghold
by Rajiv Chandrasekaran
kandahar, afghanistan —This city is starting to feel a lot like Baghdad. Tall concrete blast walls, like those that surround the Green Zone, are seemingly everywhere. Checkpoints supervised by U.S. soldiers have been erected on all ma- jor roads leading into the city. Residents are being urged to apply for new identifi- cation cards that require them to have their retinas scanned and their finger- prints recorded. As U.S. and NATO commanders mount
amajor effort to counter the Taliban’s in- fluence in Kandahar, they are turning to population-control tactics employed in the Iraqi capital during the 2007 troop surge to separate warring Sunnis and Shi- ites. They are betting that such measures
Beginning of the end
for U.S. war in Iraq President Obama tells veterans that American efforts will be led by diplomats instead of military commanders. A8
Opinion: Eugene Robinson on the war in Afghanistan. A15
In Baghdad, the use of checkpoints, RAJIV CHANDRASEKARAN/THE WASHINGTON POST
New ID cards require Kandahar residents to have their retinas scanned.
can help separate insurgents here from the rest of the population, an essential first step in the U.S.-led campaign to im- prove security in and around Afghani- stan’s second-largest city. “If you don’t have control of the popula- tion, you can’t secure the population,” said Brig. Gen. Frederick Hodges, director of operations for the NATO regional com- mand in southern Afghanistan.
identification cards and walled-off com- munities helped to reduce violence be- cause there were two feuding factions, riv- en by sect. Carving the city into a collec- tion of separate Sunni and Shiite neighborhoods allowed U.S. forces to place themselves along the borders. Both sides tolerated the tactics to a degree be- cause they came to believe U.S. troops would protect them from their rivals. The conflict in Kandahar is far murkier.
There are no differences in religion or eth- nicity: Nearly everyone here is a Sunni
kandahar continued on A8 Gulf disaster is biggest accidental spill in history, analysis says by Joel Achenbach
and David A. Fahrenthold The blown-out well in the Gulf of
Mexico gushed 12 times faster than the government and BP estimated in the ear- ly weeks of the crisis and has spilled a whopping 4.9 million barrels, or 205.8 million gallons, according to a more de- tailed analysis announced late Monday. BP’s Macondo well spewed 62,000
barrels of oil a day initially, and as the reservoir gradually depleted itself, the flow eased to 53,000 barrels a day until the well was finally capped and sealed July 15, according to scientists in the Flow Rate Technical Group, supervised by the U.S. Geological Survey and the U.S. Department of Energy. The new numbers once again have
nudged upward the statistical scale of the disaster. If correct — the government allows for a margin of error of 10 percent
—the flow rate would make this spill sig- nificantly larger than the Ixtoc I blowout of 1979, which polluted the southern Gulf of Mexico with 138 million gallons over the course of 10 months. That had been the largest unintentional oil spill in history, surpassed only by the inten- tional spills in 1991 during the Persian Gulf War. The new flow rate figures came as en- gineers made final preparations for a “static kill” operation that might plug
the well permanently even before a relief well intercepts Macondo at its base. BP announced late Monday that the pro- cedure would be delayed, probably until Tuesday, because of a leak in the hydrau- lic control system on the well’s new cap. Macondo’s flow rate has been a major source of controversy since the April 20 explosion on the Deepwater Horizon. Early in the crisis, the Coast Guard and
oil spill continued on A3
Unlocking a long-lost town’s secret past Excavation in Timbuctoo, N.J., may help rewrite black history
by DeNeen Brown DENEEN BROWN/THE WASHINGTON POST
Mary Weston opens a family Bible from her ancestors of Timbuctoo, N.J.
timbuctoo, n.j. —In Timbuctoo lies a hill. Underneath that hill lies a house, or what archaeologists think might have been a house once upon a time. The sil- ver clasp of a woman’s handbag, piles of Mason jars, chips of dinner plates and an empty jar of Dixie Peach Pomade lie among the bricks that have broken away from the foundation. These are crushed fragments of a past life when free black people lived in this New Jersey community almost 200 years
ago — free even then, 45 years before Emancipation. “Most of the history of this country is in that house,” says David Orr, a classical archaeologist and profes- sor of anthropology at Temple Univer- sity. Orr is standing at the site down a gray road in Timbuctoo. A hot wind is blowing.
Orr said that the buried community has the potential to be a very important find in African American history. “Tim- buctoo is great in a larger context be- cause it lasted, some of it, into the 20th century,” he said. “It also has a very large descendant community, so ethnograph-
INSIDE
POLITICS & THE NATION A coast-to-coast Obama toast As President Obama turns 49 this week, his operatives are staging a nationwide extravaganza, with the hope of reactivating millions of 2008 supporters. “Yes, We Cake?” A2
BUSINESS NEWS............A10 CLASSIFIEDS......................1J COMICS ..........................C6-7
EDITORIALS/LETTERS.A14-15 FED PAGE.........................A13 GOING OUT GUIDE............C8
METRO D.C. fence flap Under Mayor Fenty, just one District resident has been cited for violating fence height limits: political rival Vincent Gray. B1
HEALTH & SCIENCE Take a hike . . . . . . But don’t hurry. Tips for conquering high altitudes without getting sick. E1
LOTTERIES.........................B4 MOVIES..............................C4 OBITUARIES...................B6-7
STOCKS............................A12 TELEVISION.......................C5 WORLD NEWS...................A6
STYLE TLC wants another cupcake Spread the word: Sisters Sophie LaMontagne and Katherine Kallinis, owners of Georgetown Cupcake, will be back for a second season on TLC.
IDOL RUMORS? Meanwhile, at Fox, the “American Idol” rumors keep flying. Is Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler on board? He says yes. But the network brass isn’t talking. C1
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ECONOMY & BUSINESS Geithner plays the peacemaker The Treasury secretary goes to Manhattan to pitch the benefits of the financial overhaul law in a city where many remain skeptical. A10
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STOCKS SURGE: The Dow begins August with a bang, climbing 208 points. A11
The Washington Post Year 133, No. 241
CONTENTS© 2010
ically it is important.” Timbuctoo was founded by freed blacks and escaped slaves in the 1820s. It was probably named after Timbuktu, the town in Mali near the Niger River, al- though researchers are still trying to find out how and why it got its name. The neighborhood still exists in the township of Westampton, N.J., about a 45-minute drive northeast of Philadel- phia, an enclave of many acres, so tiny and tucked away that when you ask someone at the store two miles away, he
timbuctoo continued on A9
Va. driver had record of DUIs before fatal crash
by Jennifer Buske and Paul Duggan
An alleged drunk driver involved in a
crash Sunday morning that killed a Catholic nun in Prince William County and left two other nuns gravely injured has a record of numerous motor vehicle violations in recent years, including two drunken-driving cases for which he served 20 days in jail, according to au- thorities and court records. The suspect, Carlos A. Martinelly Mon- tano, 23, an illegal immigrant from Boliv- ia, was also detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement after a drunk- en-driving arrest in 2008. Montano was released on his own recognizance pend- ing a deportation hearing, which has yet to occur because of a backlog, said ICE spokeswoman Cori Bassett. Montano “has reported as required on a monthly basis to ICE” while awaiting the hearing, Bassett said. Gang members and other violent criminals are often jailed to await deportation hearings, but two drunken-driving arrests “aren’t enough to warrant detention,” said an immigration official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the case against Montano is pending. Prince William Commonwealth’s At-
crash continued on A12
richmond — Virginia joined the na- tional debate over immigration Monday when Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II issued a legal opinion that authorizes law enforcement to check the immigration status of anyone stopped by police offi- cers for any reason. Previously, law enforcement officers in Virginia were required to investigate the legal status only of those who were arrest- ed and jailed. Cuccinelli’s opinion is less stringent than the portion of an Arizona law that was stopped by a federal court last week. Under that law, Arizona authorities were required to question people who they have a “reasonable suspicion” are illegal immigrants.
“Our opinion basically said that Vir-
ginia law enforcement has the authority to make such inquiries so long as they don’t extend the duration of a stop by any significant degree,’’ Cuccinelli (R) said at a news conference Monday. “That’s con- sistent with Supreme Court authority.” The attorney general issued the opin- ion in response to a request from Del. Robert G. Marshall (R-Prince William), who sought clarification on whether local police, conservation officers and zoning officials could inquire about legal status. Marshall said he chose to seek the legal
immigration continued on A12
Judge allows health-care challenge in Va. to go on. A2
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