Remember that brouhaha back in March over Los Angeles Congresswoman Maxine Waters' ties to a bank in which she and her husband have had past investments — even though the bank had come before the House Financial Services Committee Waters sits on? Both the L.A. Times and Washington Post report today that the House Ethics Committee is continuing to look into any role Waters may have had in helping OneUnited Bank, which has branches in L.A. and Miami, receive federal bailout funds. She has freely admitted arranging a meeting between the bank's CEO and Treasury Department officials.

Waters has claimed the Boston-based bank's survival is necessary to guarantee that minority and low-income communities have access to banking services. OneUnited's critics, however, claim it has ignored the needs of low-income communities in favor of wealthier clients. A New York Times story last year suggested that Waters' assistance to OneUnited was not a one-way street, and that executives from the bank had donated money to the veteran Congresswoman's re-election campaigns.

The L.A. Times' Richard Simon writes that “[t]he panel's

chairwoman and ranking member announced the committee was extending by

45 days a determination on whether it would conduct a more thorough

review of Waters' conduct, but they declined to say what was being

investigated.”

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