Posted by Secretary Arne Duncan As students head back to school this fall, I travelled over the last two weeks on an eight-state bus tour to highlight “Courage in the Classroom.” The mission of the tour was simple: to honor our nation’s unsung heroes—our teachers. READ THE REST
Posted by Secretary Tom Vilsack Yesterday I was pleased to receive the encouraging news from two USDA reports that illustrate the strength of the recovery in our agricultural economy. The 2010 Farm Income Forecast and Outlook for U.S. Agricultural Tradeshow a positive picture for 2010, and predict sustained growth for the future. This recovery is a testament to [...]
Posted by Norm Eisen In September 2009, the President announced that – for the first time in history – the White House would routinely release visitor records. Today, the White House releases visitor records that were created in May 2010. Today’s release also includes several visitor records created prior to September 16, 2009 that were requested [...]
Posted by Tina Tchen In honor of this year’s Women’s Equality Day and the 90th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, I did a live web chat with Shireen Mitchell from the BlogHer community. Shireen and I had a great conversation, in which Shireen asked me a variety of questions from online participants. Watch the full video or use [...]
Posted by Dallas Tonsager Devastation caused five years ago to the Gulf region by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita remains historic in proportion. It resulted in loss of life, families being displaced, homes and businesses destroyed, and communities left in ruins. In the midst of this great tragedy, USDA Rural Development lent their knowledge and time to [...]
Posted by Secretary Arne Duncan Today, 10 applicants have won grants in the second phase of the Race to the Top competition. Along with Phase 1 winners Delaware and Tennessee, 11 states and the District of Columbia have now been awarded money in the Obama Administration’s groundbreaking education reform program that will directly impact 13.6 million [...]
Posted by Sarah Bernard Join Tina Tchen from the White House Council on Women and Girls tomorrow at 4:30pm EDT to discuss women’s progress on the eve of the 90th anniversary of the 19th Amendment which guaranteed women the right to vote in this country. Submit your questions now on BlogHer and be sure to tune [...]
Posted by Jesse Lee From education in Austin, to bill signings in DC, to ice cream in Florida – and a couple shots of how the President gets around. It’s the first August 2010 batch of behind-the-scenes shots from Pete Souza and the White House Photo Office. READ THE REST
Posted by Secretary Ray LaHood Ed. Note: Building on the President’s commitment to address issues important to rural Americans, Administration officials are visiting state fairs all summer. Check out a map of where we’ve been so far and hear about the latest visit, cross-posted from the Department of Transportation’s blog, Fast Lane. Like hundreds of thousands of other Illinois households, [...]
Posted by Jesse Lee The President calls out Republicans for blocking campaign finance reforms that would address the Supreme Court decision opening the floodgates of corporate money into elections. Read the Transcript | Download Video: mp4 (106MB) | mp3 (3MB)
Posted by Deputy Administrator Marie Johns Ed. Note: Building on the President’s commitment to address issues important to rural Americans, Administration officials are visiting state fairs all summer. See a map of where we’ve been so far, and hear from SBA Deputy Administrator Johns about her recent visit to the Indian State Fair: Having grown up in Indiana, I know [...]
Posted by Tom Vilsack I’ve spent the last few days here in Iowa, a state that I was honored to serve as Governor for eight years. Yesterday, I walked the grounds of the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines. The fair is refreshingly the same each year, but also a snapshot of changing rural America. The food [...]
Posted by Kori Schulman Building on the President’s commitment to address issues important to rural Americans, Cabinet Secretaries and other top Administration officials are visiting state fairs this summer and fall to discuss ongoing efforts to: Support job creation; Improve access to health care; Enhance the quality of rural education and; Help strengthen rural America [...]
Posted by Melissa McNeal President Barack Obama walks with a group of summer interns in the Rose Garden of the White House, before taking a group photo with the entire class. August 12, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza) The White House Internship Program is dedicated to giving emerging leaders the opportunity to serve [...]
Posted by Nikki Sutton The First Family traveled to Florida’s Gulf Coast today to spend the weekend in Panama City Beach, Florida. The President and First Lady joined area small business owners and Navy Secretary Ray Mabus for a roundtable discussion of the recovery. President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama hold a round [...]
Posted by Katelyn Sabochik Download Video: mp4 (93MB) | mp3 (9MB) Last night, President Obama continued the White House tradition of hosting an Iftar – the meal that breaks the day of fasting – celebrating Ramadan in the State Dining Room. During his remarks at the Iftar dinner, President Obama reflected on the importance of religious freedom as [...]
Posted by Arun Chaudhary Mailbag Day! This West Wing Week the administration responds to the letters and emails sent in by you. Find out whether the President gets stamps in his passport, learn about pre-existing conditions and the Affordable Care Act from Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius, and see who gets to keep [...]
Posted by Zach Strief Download Video: mp4 (29MB) Cooking is one of my favorite activities in the world. It’s almost therapeutic to me. And when our Director of Communications came up to me after practice to let me know I would have the chance to cook in the White House kitchen with Chef Sam Kass, I was [...]
Posted by Kori Schulman With the ongoing reopening of Gulf fisheries, fishermen are going back to work and Americans can confidently and safely enjoy Gulf seafood again. President Barack Obama eats boiled seafood with residents at Carmandelle’s Live Bait and Boiled Seafood in Grand Isle, Louisianna, June 4, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Pete [...]
Posted by Kori Schulman Following the historic confirmation of Elena Kagan, the White House Council on Women and Girls asked you to tell us about other path-breaking women. In collaboration with GOOD, we asked: How do the women you know continue to break barriers? Here’s what some of our Twitter and Facebook fans had to [...]
Posted by Kori Schulman On Saturday, Elena Kagan became the fourth female justice in history. “For nearly two centuries, there wasn’t a single woman on the Supreme Court,” said President Obama at an event honoring her confirmation, “When Elena was a clerk, there was just one. But when she takes her seat on that bench, for [...]
Posted by Jesse Lee Read the Transcript | Download Video: mp4 (134MB) | mp3 (13MB) “This is a good day,” said the President this afternoon. And it was, especially for Elena Kagan, who was being congratulated on her on confirmation as the next Supreme Court Justice. He thanked the other Justices in attendance for coming, and thanked the Senate [...]
Posted by Kori Schulman For 40 years, the Citizens Medal has recognized men and women who have “performed exemplary deeds of service for their country or their fellow citizens.” In one of his favorite events of the year, President Obama awarded 13 Americans from different backgrounds and every corner of the country the 2010 Citizens [...]
Posted by Jesse Lee President Barack Obama delivers a statement on the confirmation of Elena Kagan for Supreme Court Justice at the Renaissance Chicago Hotel in Chicago, Ill. August 5, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Samantha Appleton) It’s been just under three months since most Americans were introduced to Elena Kagan by the President and [...]
Posted by Kori Schulman Earlier this year the President invited you, the American public, to nominate candidates for the 2010 Citizens Medal. Today, President Obama will award 13 outstanding Americans the second-highest civilian honor in our nation. Watch the award ceremony live at 2:15 PM EDT on Wednesday, August 4th on WhiteHouse.gov/live. Here is the [...]
Posted by Jesse Lee For those who have watched our animated video explainer on Wall Street Reform, there’s probably no question that there are benefits in there for every American as a taxpayer, a citizen, and a consumer. That’s true when it comes to the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau passed as part of the bill [...]
Posted by Jesse Lee This morning the President signed the Fair Sentencing Act, which reduces the disparity in the amounts of powder cocaine and crack cocaine required for the imposition of mandatory minimum sentences and eliminates the mandatory minimum sentence for simple possession of crack cocaine. It also increases monetary penalties for major drug traffickers. President [...]
Posted by Norm Eisen In September 2009, the President announced that – for the first time in history – the White House would routinely release visitor records. Today, the White House releases visitor records that were created in April 2010. Today’s release also includes several visitor records created prior to September 16, 2009 that were [...]
Posted by Jesse Lee There’s no question that last year’s SAVE Award was a great success, with tens of thousands of ideas to help government save money and be more efficient submitted by Federal employees. It was a first-of-its-kind exercise, called for by the President, to tap into the knowledge of the people who know [...]
Posted by Lynn Rosenthal Ed. Note: We encourage readers to watch the video of the signing, including the moving introduction from Lisa Marie Iyotte. Read the Transcript | Download Video: mp4 (140MB) | mp3 (13MB) The President just signed the Tribal Law and Order Act — an important step to help the Federal Government better address the unique public safety challenges [...]
Posted by Katelyn Sabochik Read the Transcript | Download Video: mp4 (439MB) | mp3 (42MB) Today, President Obama delivered an address on education at the Urban League’s 100th Anniversary Convention highlighting the steps his Administration has taken over the past eighteen months to improve the education system in America. The President stated that education reform is a top [...]
Posted by Kori Schulman Last month, President Obama awarded Paul McCartney the annual Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song. Artists from all the genres and backgrounds paid tribute to the music legend with a concert hosted by the President and First Lady at the White House. Take a break and go behind-the-scenes with the Jonas Brothers as [...]
Posted by Katelyn Sabochik Want to get the inside scoop on what’s going on at the White House delivered to your inbox each morning? The Daily Snapshot is a quick look at what’s happening each day at the White House. It includes the President and Vice President’s daily schedules, a look at what’s hot on [...]
Posted by Jesse Lee Today the President took a moment out of his day to greet crew members from the Space Shuttle Atlantis and the International Space Station in the Oval Office — a glance behind the scenes from Pete Souza: President Barack Obama greets crew members from the Space Shuttle Atlantis and the International [...]
Posted by Jesse Lee Read the Transcript | Download Video: mp4 (53MB) | mp3 (5MB) With a Senate vote tomorrow on legislation to undo some of the damage from the Citizens United Supreme Court decision, the President laid out the stakes in no uncertain terms: A vote to oppose these reforms is nothing less than a vote to allow corporate [...]
Posted by Katelyn Sabochik Starting today, the President and the Vice President’s daily public schedules are now available online. You don’t have to come to WhiteHouse.gov to find out what the President and Vice President are up to each day – you can subscribe to their schedules via RSS or even add their schedules to [...]
Posted by Secretary Arne Duncan On Friday, I joined Senator Tom Carper and Representative Mike Castle at the Delaware State Fair in Harrington, DE. We spent the day with 4-H and Future Farmers of America students. We saw the results of their hard work on farming vegetables, baking pastries and pies from scratch, sewing garments [...]
Posted by Katelyn Sabochik Read the Transcript | Download Video: mp4 (47MB) | mp3 (5MB) This week, the President signed three bills into law that will help our economy get back on track and eliminate wasteful and fraudulent improper payments by the federal government. On Wednesday, the President signed theDodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Yesterday [...]
Posted by Heather Higginbottom As the Washington Post and New York Times report, the United States has fallen from first to 12th in terms of 25 to 34-year-olds with postsecondary degrees. The finding comes from a report conducted by the College Board and confirms what we’ve known for too long: that United States’ graduation rate is lagging behind [...]
Posted by Julia Simmons and Sophia Solomon White House interns teamed up with Dr. Jill Biden to put together care packages for the families of wounded soldiers being treated at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, MD as part of program “Operation Care Package.” Organized by USO of Metropolitan Washington to [...]
