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Some state lawmakers are pushing for sovereignty from the federal government.

WASHINGTON (CNN) - Republican lawmakers from more than 20 states across the country are willing to take federal funding, but only on their terms.

From Montana to South Carolina, lawmakers in mostly red states have pushed ahead with measures calling for state sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment, saying the federal government has overstepped its bounds with the stimulus package. The states are calling for the right to ignore laws they deem unconstitutional.

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Before laying out his administration's plans for the U.S. military in Iraq Friday, the President called former President George W. Bush. (Photo Credit: Getty Images/File)

(CNN) – President Barack Obama called former President Bush on this morning to tell him about his plan to withdraw troops from Iraq, the White House said Friday.

Obama called the former president “as a courtesy” right before his speech at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, according to White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs.

Obama also called Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki from Air Force One to brief him on his plan to withdraw most troops from that country by the end of August 2010. The preident also “sought and received” an agreement from the prime minister that he would receive Christopher Hill as the next U.S. ambassador to Iraq.

On Friday, Obama released his plan to end combat operation in Iraq by August 31, 2010.

(CNN) – President Obama’s speech Tuesday night will mark the 220th annual message from a U.S. president to Congress.

The vast majority of these presidential messages were not delivered in person as a speech to lawmakers. Although Presidents George Washington and John Adams delivered the annual message as speeches, Thomas Jefferson ended the tradition — the nation’s third chief executive said it was too similar to the British practice of the king addressing parliament. The annual message was delivered in written form until 1913, when Woodrow Wilson resumed delivering the message as a speech before Congress.

Obama’s address Tuesday will mark the 76th time a U.S. president has relayed his message to legislators by speaking in person.

The president's annual message to Congress evolved from the British tradition of the monarch addressing Parliament.

(CNN) – The concept of State of the Union addresses and annual presidential messages to Congress has its roots in the British monarchy.

Under that system, the king or queen delivers a speech from the throne at the opening session of Parliament. The founding fathers modified and adopted the practice for use in the United States.

George Washington delivered the first “annual message” to Congress in 1790 at Federal Hall in New York. John Adams continued the practice. However, Thomas Jefferson ended the practice of delivering the speech in person in 1801, saying that the elaborate ceremony, complete with a “president’s throne,” too closely resembled a king addressing his subjects. He instead opted for a written message.

Woodrow Wilson resumed the practice of delivering the message as a speech before Congress in 1913. Franklin Roosevelt’s annual message to Congress in 1941 was the first to be referred to as a “State of the Union” address.

(CNN) – This year, the term “State of the Union” refers only to the new CNN program anchored by John King, not to President Obama’s first address to a joint session of Congress.

Americans may have gotten used to hearing the recognizable phrase over the years, but a new president’s first speech to Congress has not been called a "State of the Union” since 1977. Instead, the event often is referred to simply as a “message” or address to Congress, sometimes on a specific policy topic.

Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush each kicked off their terms with an “economic message.” Jimmy Carter delivered an address on energy policy at the start of his term in 1977. In 1989, George H.W. Bush called his first speech to a joint session of Congress, "Building a Better America."

A week after a woman was brutally attacked by a friend’s chimpanzee, a House committee moved to prohibit humans from keeping primates as pets.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – A week after a woman was brutally attacked by a friend’s chimpanzee, a House committee moved to prohibit humans from keeping primates as pets.

Rep. Nick Rahall, chairman of the Committee on Natural Resources, requested action Monday on legislation to prohibit people from buying or transporting primates across state lines as pets. The West Virginia Democrat warned that primates are too dangerous to be kept as pets.

“Images of Curious George and Koko may lead us to believe that these creatures are cuddly and harmless, but last week’s tragedy and other similar attacks stand as evidence that this is not the case, that they are in fact wild animals, and they simply must not be kept as pets,” Rahall said in a statement.

The Captive Primate Safety act would modify the Lacy Act amendments, which were passed in 1981 and only included a ban on buying or transporting fish and wildlife across state lines to keep as pets, by adding primates to that list. The legislation is expected to go to the House floor for debate this afternoon.

Roughly a dozen Americans were attacked by primates in 2008, according to the Humane Society.

The president is extending the operations of a federal office tasked with overseeing reconstruction efforts along the Gulf Coast.

WASHINGTON (CNN) - President Obama will send two Cabinet officials to the Gulf Coast next month to assess progress in rebuilding the region that was devastated by Hurricane Katrina in August 2005, the White House announced Friday.

The president is also extending the operations of a federal office tasked with overseeing reconstruction efforts along the Gulf Coast. Obama signed an executive order keeping the Office of the Federal Coordinator for Gulf Coast Rebuilding open through Sept. 30, 2009. It was initially scheduled to close at the end of this month.

“The residents of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast who are helping rebuild are heroes who believe in their communities and they are succeeding despite the fact that they have not always received the support they deserve from the Federal government,” Obama said in a statement. “This executive order is a first step of a sustained commitment by my Administration to rebuild now, stronger than ever.”

The office was established by former President Bush in November 2005.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan will head to the region on March 5 and 6.

The penny pictured above features a young Lincoln educating himself while working as a rail splitter in Indiana.

(CNN) – To commemorate Abraham Lincoln’s 200th birthday, the first of four new pennies to commemorate the 16th president’s rise from a one-room log cabin to the White House will go into circulation on Thursday.

The pennies, which will be released in three month intervals, will each depict a different stage of Lincoln’s life, showing images of his early childhood in Kentucky, his formative years in Indiana, his professional life in Illinois and his presidency.

Biden is set to push the stimulus bill in Pennsylvania (Getty Images)

(CNN) – Vice President Joe Biden reminded reporters in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania on Wednesday that he and President Barack Obama have been in office for less than three weeks, and said passing the stimulus package would help "kick-start the confidence" that the new administration can handle the economic crisis.

“I doubt whether anything this massive, this consequential, this significant, has passed this quickly in any other administration,” said Biden. “We're talking about 100 days, we haven't even hit 25 days yet.”

The vice president traveled back to his birth state to promote the local impact of the economic stimulus package, echoing Obama’s message at town hall meetings this week in Indiana and Florida. Biden said Pennsylvania would get $16 billion right away to help improve infrastructure and create jobs.

The administration has broken down potential stimulus results state by state and distributed them to supporters in an effort to prod some reluctant lawmakers to back the bill. Nineteen governors facing massive cutbacks and major budget shortfalls — including four Republicans — released a joint letter last week urging Congress to pass stimulus legislation.

Biden’s remarks on the stimulus were a bit more in line with official White House policy than his gloomier take last week, when he gave the administration and Congress slightly disappointing odds for fixing America’s economy. “If we do everything right, if we do it with absolute certainty, there’s still a 30 percent chance we’ll get it wrong,” Biden told lawmakers at a policy retreat in Williamsburg, Virginia last Friday.

Obama seemed to rib his vice president over the comment during his Monday press conference. "I don't remember exactly what Joe was referring to. Not surprisingly," Obama joked to reporters.

Etta James said she was only trying to be funny when she insulted President Barack Obama and singer Beyonce.

(CNN) – Legendary singer Etta James said she was only trying to be funny when she said Beyonce is “gonna get her ass whupped” and that President Obama has “big ears.”

James, who first made the comments at a concert in Seattle last week, told the Daily News on Friday that she continued the insults because the crowd was laughing. She said that her jokes were “not from a vicious place.”

"I didn't really mean anything," James told the Daily News. "Even as a little child, I've always had that comedian kind of attitude. That's probably what went into it."

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(CNN) – As the Senate debates spending measures in President Obama’s stimulus bill, a non-partisan group launched a million-dollar ad campaign Wednesday to urge the new administration to create a task force to tackle rising entitlements costs.

The Peter G. Peterson Foundation, an institution dedicated to fighting wasteful government spending, printed ads in the Washington Post and Roll Call on Wednesday calling the current financial crisis “just the tip of the iceberg.”

“We must also focus on a much larger yet less visible threat: the $56 trillion in liabilities and unfunded retirement and health care obligations (that’s $483,000 per U.S. household), and the dangerous reliance on foreign lenders, that threaten our ship of state,” says the ad.

The group is asking Obama to appoint a bipartisan task force to deal with the current financial crisis and to fix structural problems with the economy overall. Congressional Democrats like Sen. Kent Conrad of North Dakota and Rep. Jim Cooper of Tennessee and Republicans like Sen. George Voinovich of Ohio and Rep. Frank Wolf of Virginia will join the group’s president and CEO David Walker for a press conference on Capitol Hill on Thursday to talk about the mission and ad campaign.

A spokeswoman for the foundation said the group is planning to spend a minimum of a million dollars on the ad campaign launched Wednesday, which will include an ad in the New York Times this week as well as television spots in the near future.

(CNN) – Newly minted Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele announced his transition team Tuesday. The group is dominated by RNC members who backed the new leader during the election.

Steele also chose former rival Saul Anuzis, who endorsed him after withdrawing from the race, to be a part of the team. The group will start concentrating on gubernatorial and local elections right away, along with recruiting new candidates, building volunteer networks and forging relationships with local parties, according to a press release.

Co-chairs of Steele transition team include:

Michigan GOP Chairman Saul Anuzis

Mississippi National Committeeman Henry Barbour

Illinois National Committeeman Pat Brady

Florida GOP Chairman Jim Greer

Michigan National Committeewoman Holly Hughes

Northern Mariana Islands National Committeeman Bo Palacios

California National Committeeman Shawn Steel

Maryland National Committeeman Joyce Tehres

Oregon GOP Chairman Bo Tiernan

Obama is rooting for the Pittsburgh Steelers.

(CNN) – Democrats and Republicans may cross party lines to join colleagues in rooting for their favorite teams at President Obama’s Super Bowl party on Sunday night.

Obama invited several members of Congress, including a few Republicans, to the White House residence on Sunday night to chow down on chips and dip and watch the game between the Arizona Cardinals and the Pittsburgh Steelers. At the daily press briefing on Friday, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said this is a way of “bringing people together.”

“He'll have more members of Congress over here Sunday to watch the Super Bowl and, again, reach out to and get to know in a better way members on both sides of the aisle to see where we can work in concert to improve the lives of the American people,” Gibbs said.

Gibbs joked that his deputy, Bill Burton, would provide seven-layer dip. But he said there’s no wagering allowed at this party.

Full list after the jump

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(CNN) - There's a new face in President Obama's kitchen cabinet.

Sam Kass, the Obamas' personal chef in Chicago, was hired as part of the new White House kitchen staff. Kass will work under executive chef Cristeta Comerford, who has worked for both former Presidents Bush and Clinton.

Kass, a Chicago native, received his formal culinary training in Europe and traveled and cooked around the world.

When Kass, 28, returned to the United States, he founded Inevitable Table, a private chef service that provides personal shoppers to buy healthy food from local farmers and sends chefs to cook meals for kids or private parties. According to its web site, the business aims to "promote a healthy lifestyle that focuses on the quality and flavor of food to encourage good eating habits."

President Obama will head to Canada on February 19.

(CNN) –- President Obama will take his first foreign trip as commander in chief to Canada next month, his press secretary announced Wednesday.

“Canada is a vitally important ally and the president looks forward to the opportunity to speak with Prime Minister Harper and visit our neighbor to the north,” White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said during Wednesday’s press briefing.

Obama will head to Canada on February 19. Gibbs did not announce any further details about the president’s itinerary.

Former President Bush took his first international trip to Mexico, but many U.S. presidents have started their terms with a visit to Canada.

The Bidens are making the rounds at the inaugural balls Tuesday night.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – It's Joe Biden's home states ball, but it could be any giant prom or wedding party.

The ball is one of six official galas in the Washington Convention Center on Inauguration night. There's nothing here representing Biden's home states of Delaware and Pennsylvania, but hundreds of revelers were still enjoying themselves, noshing on pasta italiano and crudite.

Lots of people got tickets from friends or coworkers, but if you had to dish out the $150 for a way in, you still had to pay $12 for a glass of champagne. And don't expect Dom Perignon, either. But the dance floor is packed listening to the 11-piece James Gerard Orchestra playing classics like "My Girl," "The Way You Look Tonight" (Sinatra version), "Brick House" and "I Will Survive."

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Although the two leaders don’t see eye-to-eye on a number of issues, Obama has repeatedly praised his predecessor for making the transfer of power as easy as possible.

(CNN) – In his final Democratic weekly radio/web address on Saturday before being sworn in as president, President-elect Barack Obama acknowledged President George W. Bush for helping to make the transition smooth between the two administrations.

“Here at home, transitions also remind us that what we hold in common as Americans far outweighs our political differences,” Obama said. “Throughout the current transition, President Bush and his Administration have extended the hand of cooperation, and provided invaluable assistance to my team as we prepare to hit the ground running on January 20.

Although the two leaders don’t see eye-to-eye on a number of issues, Obama has repeatedly praised his predecessor for making the transfer of power as easy as possible. In an interview with CNN’s John King on Friday, Obama said they have been able to have “disagreements politically and yet treat each other civilly.”

In the address, Obama said even through the United States is currently dealing with a war and a faltering economy, transitions of power have happened in the past during difficult times and they have consistently been “peaceful and orderly.”

Watch: President-elect Barack Obama's final weekly address

President-elect Obama is set to return to Ohio where he held a campaign rally just days before the election in November.

(CNN) – The day before he kicks off a four-day marathon of Inauguration-related events in the nation’s capital, President-elect Barack Obama will head to Ohio to tout his economic recovery plan.

Friday, Obama will travel to Bedford Heights, Ohio to tour Cardinal Fastener & Specialty Company, a company that uses only American made items to manufacture parts used to construct wind turbines. He will meet with workers on the factory floor to discuss his economic stimulus proposals, officially known as the "American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan."

Obama has said his economic stimulus plan aims to save or create three to four million American jobs overall. His plan would also try to create a half million jobs by investing in clean energy, like wind power.

The president-elect and his economic team have been meeting with members of Congress about the plan for days, but a final solution is still in the works.

This will be Obama’s last trip to Ohio as president-elect. The next day, Obama will travel from Philadelphia to Washington, DC to kick-off Inauguration weekend.

Samuel Wurzelbacher, aka Joe the Plumber, is in Israel. (Getty Images/Israeli GPO)

(CNN) – ‘Joe the Plumber’ Wurzelbacher told a group of journalists covering the conflict in Israel and Gaza that he didn’t think the media should be allowed to report on war.

“I think media should be abolished from, you know, reporting,” Wurzelbacher said. “You know, war is hell. And if you’re gonna sit there and say, ‘well, look at this atrocity,’ well you don’t know the whole story behind it half the time, so I think the media should have no business in it.”

Wurzelbacher arrived in Israel on Sunday to start a 10-day assignment for pjtv.com, a Web site run by the conservative media outlet Pajamas Media. The plumber-turned-foreign correspondent said he wanted to cover Israel’s side of the conflict, because he thought the media was slanting the story to make it look like “Israel’s being bad.”

In his first day as a reporter, Wurzelbacher described the hardships of daily life in the southern Israeli town of Sderot.

“I’m sure they’re taking quick showers, I know I would,” Wurzelbacher said. “So you can’t plan your day, you can’t take a picnic.“

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