NPR 2010-08-10

A House ethics 1 panel releases new details on charges against California Congresswoman Maxine Waters. We've got the latest from NPR's Audie Cornish.

In its reports, ethics committee investigators 2 alleged 4 the congresswomen's chief of staff, who is also her grandson, broke House rules and helping 5 a bank called OneUnited get federal bailout funds during the financial crisis. At the time, Maxine Waters' husband owned stock in that company. And the committee claims Waters should have acted to stop her staff from getting involved when there was a conflict of interest. Waters says the charges are unfair, and that she will fight them. It was the congresswoman who called for the allegations to be made public, and the California Democrat 6 also says the House Ethics Panel should move forward with her trial before the November midterm elections. It would be the second trial for the committee this fall. Along with that of New York Congressman 7 Charles Rangel. Audie Cornish NPR News, the Capitol.

Significant budget cuts on the way at the Department of Defense 8. Secretary Robert Gates says that the Pentagon plans to cut its use of contractors 9 by 10% next year. DOD is also expected to eliminate one of its ten major military commands, which could affect nearly 5,000 employees.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is condemning 11 the Taliban for the murder of ten aid workers in northern Afghanistan on Friday. As NPR's Jackie Northam reports, there're still some questions as to who was responsible for robbing and shooting the health care workers.

Although there is some debate in Afghanistan whether it was actually Taliban militants 12 that killed the medical workers including six Americans in northern Badakhshan province, Secretary Clinton left little doubt who was responsible. She said Taliban militants stopped the unarmed aid workers on the road, led them into a forest and killed them. Clinton called it 'a despicable act of wanton violence'.

"We are heartbroken by the loss of these heroic, generous people, and we condemn 10 in the strongest possible terms these vicious murders."

Clinton said the US condemns 13 the Taliban's attempts to justify 14 the murders by saying the aid workers were proselytizing 15 or were spies for the CIA. Jackie Northam, NPR News, Washington.

President Obama is looking to come away from Texas with extra support for congressional Democrats 16 this election year. Speaking at a Democratic fundraiser in Austin earlier today, the president took aim at the GOP for criticizing his handling of the economy. Mr. Obama poked 17 fun at Republicans, saying after their time in power, there is no way they should be back in the driver seat.

"From now, you can't have the keys back cuz you don't know how to drive. You do not know how to drive and so you can't have the keys back."

The president at a Democratic fundraiser in Austin today.

US stocks are stilling gaining ground. At last check, Dow Jones Industrial Average up 45 points at 10,699, NASDAQ up about 17 at 2,306.

This is NPR News.

The third recall by Japanese carmaker Honda to repair malfunctioning 18 ignition switches brings the total number of vehicles involved to nearly 1.5 million. NPR's Paul Brown reports there have been no deaths or serious injuries, but the problem could allow cars to roll away.

Honda says worn or broken ignition switches could let drivers remove keys without putting their automatic transmission vehicles in park. The latest recall of the popular Accord and Civic 19 models and the multipurpose Honda Element covers 2003 and 2004 model years. Honda says it's only aware of what it calls 'a small number of related incidents' including one that resulted in a minor 20 injury. The latest recall follows 16 complaints from users. Eleven of those allege 3 the ignition key interlock failures resulted in rollaway crashes. Honda says it will put new interlock pins and levers into the switches for free. Paul Brown, NPR News, Washington.

BP says the cost of responding to the unprecedented 21 oil spill in the Gulf 22 of Mexico now tops six billion dollars. That includes its operations to stop the leak as well as compensation to affected 23 Gulf Coast residents. BP says that as of Saturday, more than 145,000 claims have been submitted. More than 200 million gallons of oil is believed to have spilled into the gulf after April's oil rig explosion off the Louisiana coast.

A second escaped convict's been captured. Authorities say they arrested the fugitive 24 this morning in Wyoming. However, police are still on the hunt for a third fugitive and a suspected accomplice 25. The inmates 26 convicted killers 27 escaped from an Arizona prison last month.

I'm Lakshmi Singh, NPR News in Washington.