STYLE O, COME LETUS ADOREHERNETWORK


BUSINESS CELEBRATING 25 YEARS OF RARE ‘AIR’


SPORTS TORREY SMITH, THE FOCUSED FIGHTER


MAGAZINE REFLECTING ON THOSEWHO PASSED


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TIMING PROMPS ETHICS QUESTIONS


Fundraisers go on during crucial legislative debate


BY CAROL D. LEONNIG AND T.W. FARNAM


Numerous times this year,members of


Congress have held fundraisers and col- lected big checks while they are taking critical steps to write new laws, despite warnings that such actions could create ethicsproblems.Thecampaigndonations often came fromcontributorswithmajor stakes riding onthe lawmakers’ actions. For three weeks in June, for instance,


themembers of a jointHouse and Senate committee worked to draft final rules for regulating the financial industry in the wake of its 2008 meltdown. During that time, the 35 members of the drafting committee collected $440,000 in dona- tions fromthat same industry,whichwas thenlobbying heavily for looser rules. Earlier thismonth, the chairmanof the


Senate committee overseeing tax policy, Sen.Max Baucus (D-Mont.), gave himself a birthday-party fundraiser — on the same day that the chamber took its first vote on an $858 billion tax package that would provide breaks to wealthy citizens and business interests.


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incongress, checks,votes oftenoverlap


Members of Congress contacted for


this article declined to answer questions about ethics rules and the possible ap- pearance of impropriety. Instead, they stressed that their votes can’t be bought. “Money has no influence on howSena-


tor Baucus makes his decisions,” Baucus spokeswoman Kate Downen said. “The only factor that determines Senator Bau- cus’s votes is whether a policy is right for Montana and right for our country.” But ethicswatchdogs complainthat, in


a race formoney to help themwin reelec- tion, lawmakers routinelyignorecongres- sional ethics rules thaturge themto avoid fundraising around the same time that they are making key lawmaking deci- sions. The rules say that such sensitive timing could give the appearance that donors are improperly influencing deci- sions. The Washington Post found that the


pattern of crunch-time fundraising has continued this year, even after a congres- sional investigative office warned this summer that it could violate ethics rules. The Post analysis — using data fromtwo nonprofit organizations, the Center for Responsive Politics and the Sunlight Foundation — scrutinized lawmakers in- volved in pushing key legislation and donations made to them by interested parties. “Citizens generally feel this kind of


thing falls between the bookends of ‘icky’ and ‘bribery,’ ” said David Levinthal, a spokesman for the Center for Responsive


fundraisers continued onA9


Obama plans to shut down federal internship program


SUDARSAN RAGHAVAN/THE WASHINGTON POST


SarahMohammed, who is eight months pregnant, plans to deliver inside her tent in Galkayo, Somalia, because there is no nearby hospital.Mohammed fledMogadishu several months ago after watching an explosion tear apart her cousin.


‘From one hell to another’


Somalis are desperate for a new life, but refugees face a dangerous road onwashingtonpost.com


BY SUDARSAN RAGHAVAN IN GALKAYO, SOMALIA


D


ekaMohamed Idou sat under a tree, exhaustedafter a grueling six-day journey. She touched her belly, yearning for her un- born child to kick.


This is why she took the long, bumpy


road out of Mogadishu: War. A missing husband and three missing children. A shattered house. This is why she’s here in this wind-


swept no man’s land between Somalia and Djibouti: Peace.Work. An education for her two other children. She can’t see what awaits them. Perhaps sanctuary.


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Despite concerns, the TSA plans to continue rolling out the devices. A3 METRO Star-struck at holiday Mass


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CLASSIFIEDS.....................H1 COMICS......................INSERT EDITORIALS/LETTERS.....A26


Perhapsmore suffering. But she’s certain of one thing. “I will delivermy baby in a place with-


out gunfire,” she said. ForSomalis, the roadoutofMogadishu


is a last resort. Those traveling on it have fled homes abruptly with terrified chil- dren, and crossed awilderness of thieves, armed Islamists and marauding tribes- men. Many have been robbed, beaten, raped, even killed. The situation in Mogadishu has be-


come so bad that nearly 300,000 Somalis havemade their way out this year, swell- ing the ranks of what is, after Iraq and Afghanistan, the third-largest refugee populationintheworld.Most arewomen andchildren.Themenwhohave survived


Willing to risk everything A dangerous crossing from Djibouti to Yemen is the path some take in search of a better life: wapo.st/yemenrefugees.


Video: Djibouti serves as a main transit point: wapo.st/somalirefugees.


have stayed behind to protect their homes, or they went ahead. Some have vanishedinthechaos.Othersarefighting. The road, and the places along it, is the


most visible evidence of a population still disintegrating, amid hopelessness and death, two decades after the collapse of


somalia continued onA12


Unions and government board say FCIP violated


hiring rules, veterans’ rights BY JOE DAVIDSON


President Obama plans to issue an


executive order, perhaps as early as this week, ending a federal internship pro- gramthat critics say circumvents proper hiring practices. Since it began in 2001, the Federal


Career Intern Programhas been used to hiremore than 100,000 people—few of them interns as traditionally under- stood and many of them border and customs officers who later became full- time federal employees. The program has drawn fire from


federal employee unions and from the government board that oversees federal hiring practices, which ruled in Novem- ber that the program undermined the rights of veterans, in particular, who were seeking federal work. According to a draft copy of the executive order, which The Washington


Growth of the Federal Career Intern Program: 105,000 interns since 2001.


10,000 15,000 20,000 25,000 30,000


5,000


2001 ‘02 ‘03 ‘04 ‘05 ‘06 ‘07 ‘08 ‘09 SOURCE: Office of Personnel Management


NATHANIEL VAUGHN KELSO/THE WASHINGTON POST


Post obtained from a person involved with the review process, the program will be terminated in March and be replaced with a program clearly de- signed to provide short-term federal work opportunities for recent graduates of schools of all kinds. “This program has led to abuses in


hiring,” said John Gage, president of the American Federation of Government


interns continued onA6 Two lives forever altered on a roadway


officer is left a quadriplegic but keeps his faith


Boy struck by speeding BY DAN MORSE Officer Jason Cokinos was about to


leave his house in northern Montgom- ery County when he heard the traffic report. Route 27 was backed up. Better take Stringtown Road, he thought, be- fore climbing into his police cruiser to drive to his off-duty job at a power plant. Inside amodest, split-level house along


StringtownRoad, 12-year-old Luis Jovel Jr. had gotten home from school. He ate a bowl of cereal and asked his dad whether he could walk to a friend’s house. He


LOTTERIES.........................C3 OUTLOOK...........................B1 OBITUARIES....................C6-7


CAROL GUZY/THE WASHINGTON POST Norma and Luis Jovel Sr. help their son Junior, 14, with physical therapy.


STOCKS.............................G6 TRAVEL..............................F1 WORLD NEWS..................A10


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headed down his long driveway and crossed a stretch of Stringtown where rural givesway to residential. What happened next, on a sunny


afternoon in April 2008 in Clarksburg, changed two lives forever. “It’s a picture in my mind that I never


want to see again,” said Cokinos, speaking publiclyfor thefirst timeabout theaccident. He was driving an estimated 56 mph,


nearly twice the speed limit, and said the child darted in front of his car. He slammed his brakes, skidded 40 feet and struck the 82-pound boy, who rolled over his hood. Junior, as Luis is called, is now a quadriplegic. “It’s okay it was me,” Junior told his


interns PROOF1


mother. “I can’t even imagine if it was one ofmy brothers ormy sister.”


Topic: National 


Run Date: 12 / 26 / 2010 Size: 11p x 235 px Artist: KELSO


junior continued onA20


The Washington Post Year 134, No. 21


CONTENT © 2010


26,709 interns in 2009


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