White House: Prospect of government shutdown won’t stop immigration action
Washington (CNN) – President Barack Obama won’t forestall upcoming executive actions on immigration amid Republican threats of another government shutdown, the White House said Wednesday.
Obama is currently weighing ways to make changes to the immigration system on his own after Congressional action on the issue stalled. Some GOP lawmakers have suggested holding up a bill funding federal agencies if Obama takes unilateral action as promised.
Obama announces new efforts for vets in politically tinged North Carolina visit
Updated 2:05 p.m. ET, 8/26/2014
Charlotte (CNN) – President Barack Obama detailed Tuesday how his administration is attempting to rectify shortfalls in caring for war veterans, just as new threats abroad could require more sacrifices for American military families.
Speaking at the annual American Legion conference in Charlotte, Obama announced new executive actions aimed at improving mental health services and financial opportunities for servicemen and women, months after allegations of massive wrongdoing surfaced at the Department of Veterans Affairs.
White House wants to improve government websites
Edgartown, Mass. (CNN) – The White House is putting the team of technology experts that helped revive the balky HealthCare.gov website to work, improving other government webpages, officials announced Monday.
The U.S. Digital Service, comprised of private and public sector technology experts, will help make websites of federal agencies and departments more user-friendly, accommodating the widespread desire among Americans to conduct business online.
White House preparing for ‘state dinner times 50’
Updated 12:15 p.m. ET, 8/6/2014
Washington (CNN) — Planning and executing a White House dinner for one foreign leader is hard enough — for every perfectly arranged place setting is a sari-wearing party crasher or a recently separated French president.
The careful display of protocol will only be multiplied Tuesday when fifty African leaders — in town for an historic summit convened by President Barack Obama — arrive at the White House for a formal dinner.
Battle-tested White House staffers have been busy ensuring the menu (tomato soup, aged beef) and entertainment (Lionel Richie) align with rules of etiquette and diplomacy that dictate these kinds of events.
To wit: servers are prepared to identify who will drink wine, and who will abstain because their Islamic faith forbids it.
White House: Major costs to delaying climate change policy
Washington (CNN) – If lawmakers delay taking action now on climate change it could cost taxpayers exponentially more in the future to deal with the effects of a warming planet, the White House is warning Tuesday.
A report from President Barack Obama's administration says the costs of mitigating carbon emissions will rise 40% per decade unless something is done now to stem the outpouring of pollutants scientists say are causing global warning.
Obama set to rake in millions, despite criticism of fundraising during tumult
Seattle (CNN) – Republicans and some political pundits have taken sharp aim at President Barack Obama for maintaining his fundraising schedule amid a period of global unrest.
Not among those complaining? Democrats who stand to benefit from the millions of dollars in campaign cash Obama will help pull in this week during a three-day West Coast swing, bringing him into the homes of entertainment and real estate bigwigs in Seattle, the Silicon Valley and Los Angeles.
Obama offers rules for success as he expands program for young minority men
Washington (CNN) – Setting daily goals. Keeping an open mind. Separating honest criticism from blind "hating."
Those were a few pieces of advice President Barack Obama offered young men of color on Monday as he announced an expansion of his program meant to improve the future prospects of African-American and Hispanic boys.
Obama’s ‘day in life’ offers opening to tout message and slam Republicans
Minneapolis (CNN) – Presidents don’t usually get to grab cheeseburgers at the corner dive.
But the normal restrictions placed on a commanders-in-chief don’t seem to hinder President Barack Obama recently, who’s continuing his effort to poke through the bubble and experience life as average Americans do – or at least an approximation of it.
Biden touts modest finances as Clinton wealth controversy swirls
Washington (CNN) – He's long joked about his modest financial standing, but on Monday Vice President Joe Biden acknowledged he's come a long way since being listed among the poorest members of Congress.
The vice president's comments came a day after Hillary Clinton rekindled debate over her and her husband's wealth by making a comparison to other wealthy people who the former secretary of state said were "truly well off." Biden's comments seemed to contrast his modest finances with those of Clinton, who could be a rival on the presidential campaign trail if both decide to run for the White House again in 2016.
Biden heading to Central America to address flood of immigrant kids
Palm Springs, Calif. (CNN) — Vice President Joe Biden will visit Guatemala this week to discuss a recent rash of unaccompanied minors crossing the U.S. Southern border from three Central American nations.
Senior administration officials said Biden would meet with Guatemala’s president along with the president of El Salvador and a senior official within Honduras’ government to broach the matter of young children being sent to the United States as a way to flee unrest in those three nations.
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