Welcome to www.mcclatchydc.com, a news, information and communication service available on the Internet's World Wide Web. The service combines much of McClatchy Washington Bureau newspaper with additional material available only on www.mcclatchydc.com. Both McClatchy Washington Bureau and www.mcclatchydc.com are divisions of McClatchy Newspapers, Inc., a subsidiary of The McClatchy Company.

You must read, agree with and accept all of the terms and conditions contained in these Terms of Use before you may become a Member of www.mcclatchydc.com. By registering as a Member, and/or by accessing and using www.mcclatchydc.com, you agree to these Terms of Use.

From time to time, we may make changes to these Terms of Use by posting the changes here. Should you object to any such modifications to these Terms of Use or become dissatisfied with www.mcclatchydc.com in any way, your only recourse is to immediately terminate your Membership and discontinue use of www.mcclatchydc.com. Otherwise, continuing to use the service after that date means that you agree to be bound by the changes.

Cost

At this time, there is no cost for using the basic or premium services of www.mcclatchydc.com. From time to time there may be premium content available via subscription or surcharge, and those areas will be clearly marked. Because this is an advertising-supported service, we encourage you to patronize the advertisers that help to make this service possible.

McClatchy Washington Bureau'- electronic archives carry a fee per full-text article downloaded. Note that many news articles remain available for several- days in the pages of www.mcclatchydc.com. Additional information, including credt card information, may be required to complete this purchase.

Registration

Access to the majority of content, services and features on www.mcclatchydc.com requires users to register and become Members of www.mcclatchydc.com. Member registration requires you to provide certain Personally Identifiable Information, such as your name, e-mail address, street address, gender, and date of birth. Please see our privacy agreement for information on www.mcclatchydc.com's information gathering and how we intend to use and share any information we collect. If you become a Member of www.mcclatchydc.com, you accept responsibility for all activities that occur under your account. You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your password and for restricting access to your computer so others may not access www.mcclatchydc.com using your username or account in whole or in part. www.mcclatchydc.com reserves the right to terminate Membership and deny access to the site to any person who violates these Terms Of Use.

Copyrights and trademarks

Material published on www.mcclatchydc.com, including articles, photos, graphics, bulletin board postings, audio and video clips, and other content, is copyrighted by McClatchy Washington Bureau, or by other information providers who have licensed their content for use on www.mcclatchydc.com. Additionally, the entire content of www.mcclatchydc.com is also copyrighted as a collective work under the United States copyright laws; the owner of the collective work is McClatchy Washington Bureau. You cannot reproduce, republish or redistribute material from McClatchy Washington Bureau, the Associated Press and other news services and syndicates in any way without the written consent of the copyright owner.

You may, however, electronically store a reasonable portion of www.mcclatchydc.com content for your personal, non-commercial use by making a single electronic copy on your computer's hard drive, a single copy on a disk or other media or a single copy in printed form. You agree, however, that you will not store or archive a significant portion of the content or create a database using the content.

These rules also apply:

1. You will not in any way violate the intellectual property laws protecting the content accessible through www.mcclatchydc.com. This means you agree not to copy, modify, publish, transmit, create derivative works from, transfer, sell or display the content, including logos, trademarks or service marks, or otherwise violate the proprietary rights of www.mcclatchydc.com or others. 2. You will not reuse, republish or otherwise distribute the content or any modified or altered versions of it, whether over the Internet or otherwise, and whether or not for payment, without the express written permission of McClatchy Washington Bureau or a third-party copyright holder. 3. You will cooperate promptly and completely with any reasonable request by McClatchy Washington Bureau related to an investigation of infringement of copyright or other proprietary right.

To obtain permission to reuse or republish any material copyrighted by McClatchy Washington Bureau, please contact content@www.mcclatchydc.com. McClatchy Washington Bureau cannot grant permission to reuse or republish material from other information providers, such as the Associated Press or New York Times News Service. Please contact them directly.

Member Content is any information, including photographs, you provide to us or other users in the registration process, in any public message area (including the forums area) or through any e-mail feature. You are solely responsible for Member Content, and we act as a passive conduit for your online distribution and publication of Member Content. Member Content must conform to the guidelines set forth under Community Publishing Guidelines below. www.mcclatchydc.com reserves the right to remove any material that it believes may violate these Terms or Use, or any copyright or third-party rights.

McClatchy Washington Bureau, www.mcclatchydc.com and its logos are registered service marks or trademarks.

Submissions

By submitting any content to www.mcclatchydc.com, including photographs, you automatically grant McClatchy Washington Bureau and www.mcclatchydc.com a nonexclusive, royalty-free, worldwide, perpetual, sublicensable (through multiple tiers), license to use, modify, copy, distribute, transmit, publicly display, publicly perform, publish, adapt, create derivative works of, distribute, transfer or sell any such content, for any purpose, including commercial purposes, without any payment to you, in any type of media or in any form now known or later developed. In addition, you automatically waive and give up any claim that any use of such content violates any of your rights, including privacy rights, publicity rights, moral rights or any other right, including the right to approve the way www.mcclatchydc.com uses such content.

Community Publishing Guidelines

www.mcclatchydc.com encourages a free and open exchange of ideas in a climate of mutual respect. www.mcclatchydc.com welcomes your participation in our online discussion and comment posting systems. We hope these forums offer you the chance to interact with our writers and each other. In order to keep these forums enjoyable and interesting for all of our users, we ask simply that you follow these minimal rules. These rules are only a minimum; in addition to complying with these rules, we ask that you also exercise common sense and generally be considerate toward your fellow users. By participating either in our online discussion and comment posting systems, you are consenting to these rules.

1. You agree that you are fully responsible for the content that you post. You will not knowingly post content that violates the copyright, trademark, patent or other intellectual property right of any third party and that you will remove the same should you discover that you have violated this provision. Likewise, you may not post content that is libelous, defamatory, obscene, abusive, that violates a third party's right to privacy, that otherwise violates any applicable local, state, national or international law, or that is otherwise inappropriate. You will indemnify McClatchy Washington Bureau, its employees, agents, and affiliates from any and all claims and/or damages (including but not limited to reasonable attorneys' fees) resulting from any claim brought by any third party relating to content you have posted.

2. You understand and agree that www.mcclatchydc.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties. You further understand that www.mcclatchydc.com does not and cannot review all content prior to its posting. Keep in mind that more than likely you will read a post before www.mcclatchydc.com staff. Nevertheless, www.mcclatchydc.com may monitor the discussion forums as it chooses and reserves the right (but assumes no obligations) to remove, edit or otherwise alter content that it deems inappropriate for any reason without obtaining anyone’s consent. We further reserve the right, in our sole discretion, to remove a user's privilege to post content in our discussion forums.

3. You understand and agree that these discussion forums are to be used only for noncommercial purposes. You may not solicit funds, promote commercial entities or otherwise engage in non-commercial activity in our discussion forums.

4. The discussion forums are for text only. Use of graphics and audio is not appropriate.

5. You acknowledge and agree that you use and/or rely on any information obtained through the discussion forums at your own risk. www.mcclatchydc.com is not in any manner endorsing the content of the discussion groups and cannot and will not vouch for its reliability.

6. For any content that you post, you hereby grant to www.mcclatchydc.com the royalty-free, irrevocable, perpetual, exclusive and fully sublicensable license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, perform and display such content in whole or in part, world-wide and to incorporate it in other works, in any form, media or technology now known or later developed.

To register a complaint about another user's conduct, please send an e-mail message to content@www.mcclatchydc.com, or write to Customer Service, www.mcclatchydc.com, McClatchy Washington Bureau, One Metro Center, 700 12th Street NW, Washington, DC 20005.

User participation photo galleries

Thanks for your interest in contributing to our photo galleries. The McClatchy Washington Bureau may publish, on the Web or in print, any photo submitted. All photos submitted become the property of the McClatchy Washington Bureau. We may use them for any purpose without compensation to you. In submitting -- by e-mail or other means -- these photos to us, you agree to these terms.

Privacy rights

www.mcclatchydc.com takes your personal privacy seriously. That is why we have adopted our Privacy Policy, which explains our position on information gathering and how we intend to use and share any information we collect. Your use of the www.mcclatchydc.com Web site or our services signifies acknowledgement of and consent to the information practices in our Privacy Policy. Other services, advertisers and information providers that are accessible on www.mcclatchydc.com are provided by third parties, and have their own policies about using personal information. You should contact these third parties directly for their policies.

You agree that www.mcclatchydc.com may access and disclose information about you or your use of our service when we deem it necessary or appropriate to comply with the law, to respond to claims, to protect our systems and customers, to ensure the integrity and operation of our business and systems, or to protect the rights or property of www.mcclatchydc.com or its affiliates. Such disclosure may include, without limitation, Personally Identifiable Information (name, e-mail address, etc.), your IP address,clickstream and traffic information and usage history. Our right to disclose any such information shall govern over any terms of our Privacy Policy.

International Users

You acknowledge and agree that due to the international dimension of our company we may use the data collected in the course of our relationship for the purposes identified in the Privacy Policy, for the purposes identified in our other communications with you, or to provide the information to other businesses and selected third parties which may be outside your resident jurisdiction. www.mcclatchydc.com stores and processes your information on computers located in the United States that are protected by physical as well as technological security devices. In addition, such data may be stored on servers located in other jurisdictions. By providing us with your data, you consent to the transfer of such data. If you object to your information being transferred or used in this way please do not use our site or services.

Children's use of www.mcclatchydc.com

www.mcclatchydc.com is particularly concerned with providing a safe online environment for children. Parents and legal guardians of children under age 13 who register will be able to establish a member account for their child by accessing the Member Center. Children under age 13 without signed Parental Consent Forms are not allowed to become members of www.mcclatchydc.com. For more information about how www.mcclatchydc.com handles children’s privacy, please refer to our Privacy Policy.

Other services and information providers accessible through www.mcclatchydc.com have their own policies about children's privacy, and you should contact them directly for their policies.

www.mcclatchydc.com strongly recommends that parents supervise the use of the Internet by their children. A number of commercial products are available to help limit access to material on the Internet that you may consider harmful or inappropriate for your child.

Disclaimer

While www.mcclatchydc.com strives for accuracy, it does not warrant or guarantee the accuracy or completeness of any information or database on our service. Nor does www.mcclatchydc.com guarantee or warrant that any files available for downloading will be free of defects. Neither McClatchy Washington Bureau nor any of its information providers shall be liable in any way to you or the other parties for delays, inaccuracies, errors or omissions in the material published in www.mcclatchydc.com.

While we take reasonable steps to ensure that no viruses, worms, Trojan horses or other destructive properties are present, the entire risk as to the quality and performance of www.mcclatchydc.com and the accuracy and completeness of any information is with the user of our service.

Likewise, www.mcclatchydc.com does not warrant that our service will be uninterrupted or error-free. www.mcclatchydc.com makes no warranties, express or implied, including, without limitation, those of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose any information published on the www.mcclatchydc.com Web site or any products or services sold through the www.mcclatchydc.com Web site.

Opinions, advice and all other information expressed on www.mcclatchydc.com bulletin boards represent the individual's own views and not necessarily those of www.mcclatchydc.com. www.mcclatchydc.com does not endorse and is not responsible for statements, advice and opinions made by anyone other than authorized www.mcclatchydc.com spokespersons.

Any investment decisions or other actions that users take based on information available on www.mcclatchydc.com should first be reviewed by a competent financial adviser or other professional.

THE www.mcclatchydc.com SERVICE IS PROVIDED ON AN "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE" BASIS. WE MAKE NO WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION, WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE OR NONINFRINGEMENT, OR WARRANTIES REGARDING THE ACCURACY, RELIABILITY OR COMPLETENESS OF THE CONTENT OR ANY OTHER SERVICE OR PRODUCT ON OR RELATED TO THE SERVICE (INCLUDING ANY LINK TO ANOTHER WEB SITE OR RESOURCE).

In no event will www.mcclatchydc.com be liable for (i) any incidental, consequential, or indirect damages (including, but not limited to, damages for loss of business profits, business interruption, loss of programs or information, and the like) arising out of the use of or inability to use www.mcclatchydc.com, or any information or services provided on www.mcclatchydc.com, even if www.mcclatchydc.com has been advised of the possibility of such damages, or (ii) any claim attributable to errors, omissions, or other inaccuracies published on www.mcclatchydc.com.

Indemnification

You agree to indemnify, defend and hold www.mcclatchydc.com harmless from and against any and all liability, loss, claims, damages, costs and/or actions (including attorneys fees) based on or arising from any breach by you of your obligations under these Terms of Use. We reserve the right to defend any such claim, and you agree to provide us with such reasonable cooperation and information as we may request.

Jurisdiction

This Agreement between The McClatchy Washington Bureau and its users will be governed and interpreted under the laws of the District of Columbia, without regard to its conflict of laws provisions. Any action brought in connection with this Agreement shall be filed within one year of the date of the alleged injury, regardless of any statute of limitations, and filed in the Superior Court of D.C.

Arbitration

Any legal controversy or legal claim arising out of or relating to these Terms of Use or www.mcclatchydc.com, excluding legal action taken by McClatchy Washington Bureau to obtain an injunction relating to its intellectual property, shall be settled by binding arbitration in accordance with the commercial arbitration rules of the American Arbitration Association. Any such controversy or claim shall be arbitrated on an individual basis, and shall not be consolidated in any arbitration with any claim or controversy of any other party. The arbitration shall be conducted in Washington, D.C., and judgment on the arbitration award may be entered into any court having jurisdiction thereof.

Termination

Notwithstanding any provision of these Terms of Use, we reserve the right, without notice and in our sole discretion, to terminate any or all of the www.mcclatchydc.com service and/or your license to use the www.mcclatchydc.com service, or to block or prevent future access to and use of www.mcclatchydc.com.

Severability

If any provision of these Terms of Use shall be deemed unlawful, void or for any reason unenforceable, then that provision shall be deemed severable from these Terms of Use and shall not affect the validity and enforceability of any remaining provisions.

Offices

McClatchy Washington Bureau offices are located at McClatchy Washington Bureau, One Metro Center, 700 12th Street NW, Washington, DC 20005.

Questions and comments about www.mcclatchydc.com

We hope you enjoy using www.mcclatchydc.com. Questions and comments about the content of www.mcclatchydc.com may be sent by submitting an e-mail to online@www.mcclatchydc.com. We read all comments sent to us and try to respond to as many as possible. Technical questions regarding your software, your configuration or your connection should be directed to your Internet access provider. www.mcclatchydc.com cannot address questions except those specifically about content and services that we provide.

Effective June 18,2007

© Copyright 2007, The McClatchy Washington Bureau