Maxine Waters

The tumultuous ethics case against Rep. Maxine Waters, one of Los Angeles' most enduring politicians, took another strange turn Friday as six members of the House Ethics Committee recused themselves from considering the charges against her. Committee Chairman Jo Bonner (R-Ala.) said that all five of the panel's Republicans, including himself, and one Democrat were taking the unusual action of recusing themselves from further involvement in the long-running Waters case "out of an abundance of caution and to avoid even an appearance of unfairness.

The tumultuous ethics case against Rep. Maxine Waters, one of Los Angeles' most enduring politicians, took another strange turn Friday as six members of the House Ethics Committee recused themselves from considering the charges against her. Committee Chairman Jo Bonner (R-Ala.) said that all five of the panel's Republicans, including himself, and one Democrat were taking the unusual action of recusing themselves from further involvement in the long-running Waters case "out of an abundance of caution and to avoid even an appearance of unfairness.

Re "Rep. Waters Fights the GOP Tide," May 8: Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) lives true to her reputation. She continues to view activist government as the salvation for her constituents and other lower-class people throughout the country. All this, despite decades worth of proof that government-generated aid has failed to remedy our society's ills (indeed, many of society's woes are worse). Her stated disdain for House Speaker Newt Gingrich--"He's corrupt. I think that he probably is the epitome of what's wrong with politicians."

Sabino Fernandez lost his job assembling auto parts three years ago. With that, he said, he lost his ability to sustain his family. "My American dream ended because at that moment I had no excuse to share with my family about why I was not able to provide food for the table," said Fernandez, 43, a resident of Compton. "Sometimes my children don't understand what's going on. All they want is something to eat. " Fernandez was among hundreds of people from Los Angeles-area communities who gathered Saturday to share their stories of hardship and to urge local members of Congress to push corporations to help fix the economy and devise ways to put people back to work.

The Maxine Waters Employment Preparation Center, a job-training facility in one of Los Angeles' poorest neighborhoods, is threatened with receiving no federal money at a time of high unemployment -- simply because of its name. The center has become a victim of a move on Capitol Hill to block funding for projects that bear the monikers of sitting lawmakers. "It doesn't seem fair that rich private entities can get funded and this poor school cannot," said Rep.

The day her long-awaited ethics trial was supposed to begin, Rep. Maxine Waters (D- Los Angeles) stepped up her attack on the case against her. "I have been denied basic due process," Waters said Monday, standing in front of the empty Capitol Hill hearing room where the charges against her were to have been heard by a bipartisan panel of eight fellow lawmakers. Earlier this month, the trial was put off indefinitely. Waters, a South Los Angeles political fixture since the 1970s, said the delay, after nearly a year and a half of investigation, "demonstrates in no uncertain terms the weakness of their case against me," and she castigated the Ethics Committee for "lack of decency.

When the congresswoman entered, the crowd rose up like a congregation on Sunday morning for one, two, then three standing ovations. Rep. Maxine Waters (D- Los Angeles) stood facing her cheering supporters. She wore a pencil skirt, pearls and a smile that looked curiously triumphant, considering the month she has had. Waters, 71, has been at the center of a political battle since the House Ethics Committee revealed that it was investigating whether she had used her influence to gain advantage for OneUnited, a Massachusetts-based bank in which her husband has a financial interest.

Democratic gubernatorial candidate John Garamendi won the endorsement Saturday of Rep. Maxine Waters of Los Angeles, one of the state's most influential black political leaders, who praised Garamendi for having "a real vision" for rebuilding the city. "He has not, and will not, take us for granted," said Waters, who represents some of the areas hit most severely by the 1992 riots. "I believe John Garamendi will be a true friend of our community and I wholeheartedly endorse him for governor."

The San Fernando Valley branch of the NAACP will honor Assemblywoman Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) at its 13th annual Freedom Fund Banquet on June 5. Waters will receive the Roy Wilkins Award at the event, to be held at the Burbank Airport Hilton. NAACP officials Ora F. Skipper, a board member; Thomas J. Montgomery, first vice president, and his wife, Evelyn Montgomery, an executive board member, will also be honored. The Roy Wilkins Award is presented each year to those whom the National Assn.

Maxine Waters is beginning to act a lot as though she has already won her first race for Congress. There is a little matter of the election five weeks from now and the two opponents that Waters, a Democrat, faces on the ballot. But the veteran Los Angeles assemblywoman hardly has been breaking a sweat on the campaign trail. Indeed, at times she has not even been on it. Last week, for instance, Waters could be found in Washington, where she was being treated like a rising political star.

As far as Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) in concerned, it is time for President Obama to get tough with Republicans and put together proposals that help the poor and especially the hard-hit African American community. Speaking at a job fair in Atlanta on Thursday, the fiery Waters said there was rising unhappiness in the African American community with the nation's first black president. “There is a growing frustration in this country and in minority communities because the unemployment rates are so high,” Waters said in televised remarks.

The seemingly endless ethics investigation of Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) may finally be heading to a conclusion. The House Ethics Committee has commissioned a prominent outside lawyer to examine the conduct of committee staffers who allegedly violated her rights by leaking investigative information to a Republican committee member. If the committee decides to revive its investigation, the outside counsel will play a continuing role. The Waters case can be traced back to a meeting investigators say the congresswoman set up between Treasury Department officials and the National Bankers Assn., which represents minority-owned banks.

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) on Tuesday launched a new drive to push the House Ethics Committee to drop its long-running case against her, saying that internal committee documents show she cannot get a fair hearing from the panel. Waters' lawyer, Stanley Brand, said the documents included allegations that there was misconduct among the committee staff members who investigated the Democratic congresswoman, and further action by the panel would be "irremediably tainted. " "Simply put," Brand said, "this committee can never conduct an impartial and unbiased inquiry.

—The House Ethics Committee on Wednesday announced the hiring of an outside counsel to review the case against Rep. Maxine Waters and misconduct allegations against the committee staffers involved in investigating the veteran Los Angeles congresswoman. The panel voted unanimously Tuesday night to hire Washington attorney Billy Martin. "Serious allegations have been made about the committee's own conduct in this matter," the panel's Republican chairman Jo Bonner of Alabama and top Democrat, Linda Sanchez of California, said in a statement.

The congressional hearing had been called to take testimony about a Republican plan to shut down a nationwide program championed by Rep. Maxine Waters that uses tax dollars to buy and fix up foreclosed properties. When it was her turn to speak, the fiery Los Angeles Democrat said: "I don't have any questions. I just have a lot to say. " And she did. "Would you like to live next to these run-down, rat-infested properties, sprayed with graffiti and vandalized?" she asked.

An experiment to charge solo drivers to use speedier carpool lanes on two of Los Angeles' most congested freeways has hit renewed opposition in Congress as two influential lawmakers ? a Republican and a Democrat ? say the plan is unfair to taxpayers and would create a two-tier transportation system for rich and poor. Rep. Gary G. Miller of Diamond Bar, the senior California Republican on the House Transportation Committee, said the toll of up to $1.40 a mile during peak periods "absolutely infuriates me. " Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles)

FROM THE OUTSIDE, the Greater Union Baptist Church in Compton isn't much to look at, a square, small building on a street of square, small houses. Inside, it has only nine rows of pews beneath dim fluorescent bulbs. It is the sort of church that finds glory in its faith, not on its walls. On this sunny afternoon, somber black women, softly nodding to the words of the speakers who pass through the pulpit, have filled about half the pews. A few men are interspersed among them, one of them white.

Irrepressible is the word for Maxine Waters. Making her way though the crowded bungalow in South-Central that serves as her congressional district office, she chats it up with gang members about a jobs program, college scholarship winners and "just some older folks." Then on to judge a Compton student art show. The day ends with a late dinner at a Santa Monica restaurant.

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) pulled back Thursday from her efforts to force an investigation of the suspensions of two House Ethics Committee lawyers who worked on a pending case against her. Waters took to the House floor and instead called on the Ethics Committee to publicly disclose the circumstances surrounding the suspensions of Morgan Kim, the panel's deputy chief counsel, and Stacey Sovereign, another committee lawyer. "Upon the advice of my colleagues whom I trust and admire, I am not pushing for a vote on this resolution today," Waters said.