With odds for climate change legislation this year now hovering around zero, the Obama administration is looking for fallback positions that can ensure the United States has a strong negotiating hand at December's U.N. Conference on Climate Change in Copenhagen -- where 192 nations are supposed to develop a follow-on pact to the Kyoto Protocol.

The administration had hoped enactment of a domestic cap-and-trade system for carbon emissions would send a strong signal to its negotiating partners, and enable it to strike a global-warming deal that's acceptable to both houses of Congress.

Officials are eager to avoid repeating the experiences of the Clinton administration -- which backed the Kyoto pact but never submitted it for ratification to the Senate after the chamber in 1997 passed a resolution stating it would only sign a deal that included commitments to cut emissions levels from developing countries like China and India.

The White House is in a real bind. On one hand, it can't really come up with a coherent negotiating position without concrete emissions targets. And if negotiators in Copenhagen fail to reach any substantive agreement, Congress will probably be more reluctant to move cap-and-trade legislation next year, right before the mid-term elections. The House in June narrowly passed a bill (HR 2454) that would limit emissions at 17 percent below current levels in 2020, 42 percent in 2030 and 83 percent in 2050.

Less than a day after President Obama scrapped the missle-defense system championed by George W. Bush, Russia's leaders called on the administration and Congress to lift Cold War-era trade restrictions, including curbs on sensitive technology transfers.

At a business forum in the Black Sea city of Sochi, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin praised Obama's decision to cancel plans to deploy interceptor missiles in Poland and a radar in the Czech Republic "correct and brave," then pressed for U.S. trade concessions -- particularly the repeal of the so-called Jackson-Vanik amendment to a 1974 trade bill (PL 93-618) that links exports to human rights. The measure -- a long-running source of friction in Washington-Moscow relations that's named for its sponsors, former Sen. Henry Jackson, D-Wash. and Rep. Charles Vanik, D-Ohio, -- was enacted to pressure the Soviet Union to liberalize Jewish emigration.

The Bush missile plan had been viewed as a threat by the Russians. Officials there hope Obama's turnabout is part of a larger thaw in relations between the countries that they can turn to their economic advantage.

The White House on Thursday made good on President Obama's pledge to evaluate the medical malpractice system and take steps to discourage "defensive medicine" and frivolous lawsuits.

All without committing much money.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced her department would award $25 million in grants to states and health care systems to test new patient safety and medical liability measures and review existing state laws that discourage malpractice suits, by channeling claims through screening panels or out-of-court mediation.

At a White House briefing, Sebelius echoed the administration's line, by saying she didn't think malpractice suits were really driving health costs off the rails -- as some conservatives in Congress claim. But she allowed that the threat of litigation was chilling professionals in specialties like obstetrics and neurosurgery, by forcing them to order more diagnostic tests and take other potentially costly precautions.

Two days, two big environmental announcements from the Obama administration.

The EPA on Wednesday said it would reverse a Bush administration policy and propose new national smog standards by December to ensure that the benchmarks are scientifically sound and protect public health.

The action comes on the heels of Tuesday's unveiling of new mileage and tailpipe emission standards for cars and trucks and amounts to a rejection of 2008 EPA decision to tighten air pollution standards for smog -- also known as ground-level ozone -- to 75 parts per billion from the old standard of 84 ppb.

The fuel economy and tailpipe emissions standards that the Obama administration unveiled on Tuesday essentially formalized a deal the White House cut in May that got the federal government, states, the auto industry and environmentalists more or less on the same track with respect to climate change.

But there were several important political statements embedded in the several hundred-page proposal.

The first is that even more sweeping regulations addressing global warming are on the way. Within weeks, the EPA is expected to issue an "endangerment finding" that would trigger a requirement for the federal government to regulate greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act (PL 101-549) -- even without new legislation. This wouldn't just cover emissions from "mobile sources" like cars and trucks, but from power plants, factories and other large facilities. That puts pressure on the Senate to begin moving a climate change bill and protect its favored industries, or watch from the sidelines while the EPA writes new rules.

If you thought President Obama's health care address to Congress reset the terms of the debate and increased prospects for bipartisan cooperation with Republicans in Congress, think again.

The president has a health care rally in Minneapolis Saturday, and our colleague Emily Cadei reports state Republicans are ready.

Rep. John Kline plans to offer a "prebuttal" to the president at a 10:30 a.m. press conference. And the Republican Party of Minnesota is spending $25,000 buy local TV ads urging the president to take time developing a common-sense health care reform plan, instead of rushing a partisan plan through the Congress.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Obama plans to use the rally to reiterate key points from Wednesday night's speech to a joint session of Congress. And there's more to come. The president will hold another health care rally on Sept. 17 at the University of Maryland in suburban College Park, Md. and is likely to discuss the issue at the AFL-CIO convention on Sept. 15 in Pittsburgh, and at a fundraiser for Sen. Arlen Specter, D-Pa., that night in Philadelphia

Local TV stations who've lost money during the recession must be quietly hoping this debate will drag on.

The health care debate appears to be so intoxicating that even ninth-graders want to discuss the hows and whys of expanding coverage.

During a 20-minute question and answer period with 32 students on Tuesday before his national back to school address at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Va., President Obama took a query from a student who identified himself as Sean.

Why, Sean asked from what appeared to be a prepared question, does the United States lack universal health care when 36 other countries have such a system?

In a significant reversal, the Obama administration on Friday said it would release lists of White House visitors compiled by the Secret Service and give in to a legal challenge by the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, which had filed four lawsuits seeking visitors' names.

The White House until now had adhered to the policies of previous administrations and kept visitor logs secret. That antagonized good government types, who've long suspected that lobbyists and former government officials wield outsize influence helping formulate policies. The matter reached a crescendo during President George W. Bush's first term, when environmentalists and watchdog groups unsuccessfully tried to gain access to the records of an energy task force chaired by Vice President Dick Cheney.

"For the first time in history, records of White House visitors will be made available to the public on an ongoing basis," President Obama said in a statement. "We will achieve our goal of making this administration the most open and transparent administration in history not only by opening the doors of the White House to more Americans, but by shining a light on the business conducted inside. Americans have a right to know whose voices are being heard in the policymaking process."

The administration said each month it will release online records detailing visits from the previous three to four months. It will withhold a small group of appointments deemed confidential for national security reasons, as well as confidential visits from figures such as possible Supreme Court nominees.

CREW Executive Director Melanie Sloan called the decision "an important step in restoring transparency and accountability to our government."

The group had sued after the administrations of George W. Bush and Obama denied Freedom of Information Act requests for a series of records. Among other things, CREW was seeking details of visits to the Obama White House by health care and coal industry executives to determine the degree of their influence on health care and energy legislative proposals.

President Obama intends to address schoolchildren across the nation next week about the importance of taking responsibility for success in their studies. But in these polarized times, the first-ever talk has quickly prompted accusations that the White House is using taxpayer money to politically indoctrinate children.

Obama will travel to Wakefield High School in Arlington, Va. on Sept. 8 and deliver an address that will be aired on C-Span and the White House web site, whitehouse.gov. The White House says the message is intended to stimulate a discussion about persisting and succeeding in school. In a recent letter to school principals, Education Secretary Arne Duncan provided more details, stating, "The president will challenge students to work hard, set educational goals, and take responsibility for their learning. He will also call for a shared responsibility and commitment on the part of students, parents and educators to ensure that every child in every school receives the best education possible so they can compete in the global economy for good jobs and live rewarding and productive lives as American citizens."

Sounds pretty innocuous. But the Education Department's decision to distribute lesson plans to accompany the address and essentially require students to watch the speech is sparking an outcry from commentators and officials on the political right, who accuse the president of staging a political rally disguised as a civics lesson.

Absence clearly isn't making hearts grow fonder in the health care debate.

The Obama administration on Monday showed its irritation with remarks Wyoming Republican Sen. Michael B. Enzi made as part of the weekly GOP address on Sunday -- particularly lines about how Democratic proposals in Congress would restrict medical choices and make the nation's "finances sicker without saving you money." Enzi, you'll recall, is part of the "Gang of Six" Senate Finance Committee members who've been meeting for months to craft a bipartisan health plan.

President Obama during recent town hall meetings singled out Enzi as one of a handful of Republicans who's still working constructively to achieve results. But Enzi on Sunday said town hall meetings he's held with constituents revealed widespread anxiety over Obama's efforts to reshape the U.S. health system.

Strong signs that the Obama administration is close to declaring that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are dangerous pollutants are prompting the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to request the EPA conduct a public hearing on the scientific evidence underpinning the belief that rising temperatures threaten public health and welfare.

Last week, the powerful business lobby filed a request that the agency provide a venue to rebut "largely undocumented and, in the chamber's view, insupportable claims" about the effects of climate change. Chamber officials said they are concerned that any rules capping greenhouse gas emissions could be unduly influenced by what it contends are spurious claims, including assertions that climate change may cause mental illness and that 150,000 people die every year from the effects of global warming.

The request is part of the widespread jockeying by business groups and environmentalists in anticipation of a finding that would trigger a requirement that the federal government regulate greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act (PL 101-549), with or without new legislation.

Lost in all the tributes to the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy is the role he played asserting congressional prerogatives and curbing presidential power in the early 1970s, by limiting chief executives' ability to employ what has come to be known as the pocket veto.

Recall from civics class that the Constitution gives the president 10 legislative days (excluding Sundays) to sign a bill into law or return it to Congress. Bills that are neither approved or vetoed after 10 days automatically become law. But if Congress adjourns before the 10 days pass and the president has not yet signed the bill, the bill dies, forcing Congress to start over in its next legislative session, if it wants to try again. Taken literally, the president "pocketed" the bill rather than acted on it.

Since the pocket veto is a classic passive-aggressive behavior and doesn't require direct action, it has become a periodic source of friction between the branches, usually because the president and Congress can't agree over what precisely constitutes "adjourment." Such was the case during President Richard M. Nixon's first term, when he pocket vetoed a bill that would have provided funds for medical training during the six-day Christmas recess in 1970, arguing that the short recess was akin to an adjournment sine die, marking the end of a two-year session.

Just five years after assuming his brother's Senate seat at age 30, Edward M. Kennedy helped enact the Medicare and Medicaid programs, beginning a 40-plus year involvement with federal health care issues. Kennedy was so passionate about extending coverage to the uninsured and fortifying the social safety net, that he made then-candidate Barack Obama pledge to make health care a first-tier priority in return for his support -- a promise the president fulfilled by staking much of his first-term agenda on an ambitious and controversial plan to retool the U.S. health care system.

Kennedy's colleagues in Congress -- including Obama's campaign opponent, Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain -- have lamented the progressive warrior's absence from the Senate during this year's health care debate and speculated how his presence might have by now helped forged consensus on the broad contours of a plan.

"Had his own health allowed him to fully participate, we would be far closer to consensus today on a path to health care in America," Sen. Thomas R. Carper, D-Del., said on Wednesday.

In the hours after Kennedy's death, progressive interest groups wasted little time invoking his legacy, in an effort to rally Congress to enact a sweeping health plan when lawmakers return on Sept. 8.

Kennedy's passing could yet alter the tenor of the debate, now mired in fierce partisan battles over how to pay for an overhaul and what role the government should play in a retooled health insurance market.

As Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke was preparing to accept President Obama's offer of a second term, the central bank was losing a federal court case over its ability to keep details about emergency lending to banks and other financial institutions out of the public eye.

U.S. District Court Judge Loretta Preska on Monday ruled in favor of Bloomberg LP, the New York-based company majority-owned by Mayor Michael Bloomberg, which filed suit last November on behalf of its Bloomberg News unit over the Fed's refusal to disclose documents detailing the identities of borrowers, the amounts of loans or the assets put up as collateral under 11 relief programs.

Bloomberg argued taxpayers were entitled to know the terms of Fed lending intended to keep the financial system afloat, because the public had become a de facto investor in big financial institutions that the government decided to rescue.

Monday marked the deadline for states to submit applications for some of the $8 billion in high-speed rail funding contained in the economic stimulus package (PL 111-5). You'll recall how the Obama administration and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., muscled the rail money into the financial recovery bill during a House-Senate conference last February, in spite of watchdog groups' concerns that it could benefit construction of a long-planned magnetic-levitation, or "maglev," train connecting Las Vegas, in Reid's home state, and Southern California.

Now, the debate seems to be pivoting around whether the sum is enough to build rail networks of any consequence, and whether high-speed rail will deliver on environmental promises its proponents are promiting.

The Obama administration envisions a series of 100-600-mile corridors consisting of upgraded lines and entirely new track that could allow trains to sweep between cities at speeds between 150-250 miles per hour. Amtrak Acela trains operating on the line between Boston and Washington currently have the capability of running at more than 150 miles an hour, but the tracks will not accommodate such speeds.

With the leading presidential candidates each claiming they're ahead in the balloting, allegations of vote fraud swirling and U.S. public opinion increasingly turning against his Afghanistan strategy, President Obama was a bit circumspect sizing up the nation's elections Friday as he headed off for a weeklong summer vacation.

Before boarding Marine One for a short flight to the presidential retreat at Camp David, Obama praised the Afghan people for turning out to vote in Thursday's contest ''in the face of intimidation'' from the Taliban and added the plebiscite was an ''important step forward" for a nation that's struggled to tamp down violence and establish rule of law. He also renewed his commitment to beat back Islamic militants that carried out election day attacks in at least 15 of Afghanistan's 34 provinces.

"There is a clear contrast between those who seek to control their future at the ballot box, and those who kill to prevent that from happening," Obama said. "Once again, extremists in Afghanistan have shown themselves willing to murder innocent Muslims -- men, women and children -- to advance their aims. But I believe that the future belongs to those who want to build -- not those who want to destroy. And that is the future that was sought by the Afghans who went to the polls, and the Afghan National Security Forces who protected them."

With prospects for a bipartisan health care agreement growing slim, the Obama administration is weighing the idea of splitting a health care overhaul into two pieces and passing more contentious provisions -- including those that would create a government-run health plan -- under a congressional procedure known as budget reconciliation that would make them immune to filibuster in the Senate.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs declined to comment on the possibility on Thursday, saying President Obama remains committed to working with Republicans and Democrats on a comprehensive plan. A bipartisan group of six Senate Finance Committee members that has been involved in talks for several months is scheduled to hold a conference call tonight to evaluate next steps.

However, individuals familiar with the administration's thinking say the White House is increasingly comfortable with a strategy that could push some aspects of an overhaul through the Senate without Republican votes. Administration officials began seriously considering the option last month, after the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee approved a health plan by a party-line 13-10 vote.

So did Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius get taken to the wood shed on the White House grounds for remarks she made Sunday that seemed to imply the Obama administration is ready to ditch the public option in the proposed health care overhaul?

Administration officials on Tuesday stuck to their contention there's been no change in White House policy, and that Sebelius was simply articulating a longstanding desire for any overhaul to bring choice and competition in private insurance markets.

Press secretary Robert Gibbs instead attributed any misunderstanding to media reports that overinterpreted the ex-Kansas governor's remarks, asserting "we've been boringly consistent" on the public option.

Heeding the concerns of Congress and the real estate industry, the Federal Reserve and Treasury Department on Monday extended for three months an emergency program designed to unfreeze the market for mortgages and other consumer and business loans.

The Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility, or TALF, uses Treasury seed money to leverage $1 trillion for the purchase of securities backed by a variety of consumer loans from banks that were impaired by contagion from the mortgage crisis. The expectation is that the purchases will cleanse balance sheets and free the lenders to make new loans. Monday's action extends the program to June 30 for newly issued mortgage-based securities, instead of year's end. The program previously was extended to March 31 for non real estate-backed securities.

Commercial real estate interests implored the Obama administration and the Fed to extend the program, saying it was taking longer than expected to get going because of the time involved in packaging loans into mortgage-backed securities. The concerned were echoed by 41 members of Congress, including House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank, D-Mass., who sent Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner a July 31 letter asking for a one-year extension, through December 2010.

Charges that President Obama and House Democrats want to authorize "death panels" in their health care overhaul evoke a debate 19 years ago in which lawmakers first took up sensitive right-to-die issues.

The catalyst then was a controversial Supreme Court case, Cruzan v. Director, Missouri Department of Health, in which a 5-4 ruling upheld a Missouri Supreme Court ruling that it was acceptable to require "clear and convincing evidence" that a young woman in a persistent vegetative state would not want to remain on life support for years. The court held "that the evidence adduced at trial did not amount to clear and convincing proof of Cruzan's desire to have hydration and nutrition withdrawn."

Then as now, lawmakers who wanted to make sure people knew about their rights to execute "living wills" or other advance directives clarifying their wishes in such a situation tried to insert language in a sweeping bill dealing with Medicare and Medicaid policy. And opponents quickly charged that the effort would inject government into sensitive personal care decisions.

Still trying to make good on President Obama's vow to shut the detention camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, within a year of taking office, an interagency team from the Pentagon, Justice and Homeland Security departments visited a maximum security prison in Standish, Mich. on Thursday to evaluate whether it could be used as a combination courtoom-lockup for 229 al Qaeda, Taliban and other foreign fighters now in U.S. custody.

With unemployment in the area north of Saginaw hovering around 17 percent, you'd think the locals would welcome the prospect of a corrections-based stimulus program. The prison in the town of 1,580 is due to close soon, and local officials were concerned enough about the loss of 300 jobs to recently invite California to export some of its inmates, because the state can't afford to upgrade its prison health facilities.

But the prospect of turning Michigan into what one congressman called a "terrorist penal colony" is bringing out the NIMBY spirit -- and posing some delicate political calculations for elected officials. .

The politically sensitive issue of executive pay has provided much fodder for President Obama and Congress during the economic downturn.

The president in early February made a populist-tinged statement about corporate excesses by placing a salary cap on top executives at firms receiving "exceptional assistance" from the government. Congress followed suit days later by quietly slipping language into the economic stimulus package (PL 111-5) that limited bonuses for senior executives at companies that participate in the federal bailout program. Lawmakers have since taken other steps that apply to companies not receiving government aid; before the August recess the House passed a bill that would give shareholders a nonbinding vote on executive pay and allow fregulators to restrict incentive-laden compensation packages if they threaten the health of larger financial institutions.

The scrutiny enters a new phase on Thursday, when seven large companies that received bailout packages will present compensation plans to Kenneth Feinberg, Obama's "special master" on executive compensation.

American International Group Inc., Bank of America, Chrysler LLC, Chrysler Financial Corp., Citigroup Inc., General Motors Corp. and GMAC Inc. will detail how they play to pay their top 25 earners in the coming year. Feinberg's response, due within 60 days of the submissions, will probably influence the pay practices of much of the financial industry.

Well, that was civil.

After a series of flak-filled town hall meetings during which members of Congress were shouted down by voters angry about the proposed health care overhaul, President Obama on Tuesday presided over a gathering in Portsmouth, N.H., that was noteworthy for its lack of drama.

Maybe it was the fact that most of the 1,800 attendees in the Portsmouth High School gym supported Obama's goal of retooling the U.S. health care system. Tickets were distributed by local congressional offices (all in Democratic hands) and by sympathetic groups. The audience applauded broadsides the president fired at insurers. And when Obama asked for a skeptical question, one man responded by asking why Obama doesn't chastise members of Congress more for having access to better care than their contituents.

Other politicians should have it so good.

The White House is weighing in on the question of what's appropriate behavior and what isn't when constituents confront their elected officials about health care in town hall meetings.

Deputy press secretary Bill Burton was asked Monday afternoon about the health rage sweeping the nation and comments by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer, D-Md., casting aspersions on the patriotism of citizens who have shouted down members of Congress at health care forums.

Speaking on Air Force One as the president returned to Washington from the summit with his counterparts from Canada and Mexico in Guadalajara, Burton said President Obama supports "a spirited debate" and "a real vigorous conversation" about health care. "I think there's actually a pretty long tradition of people shouting at politicians in America," Burton said. "So if people want to come and have their concerns and their questions answered, the president thinks that's important."

Cross immigration off President Obama's short-term to-do list.

At the the three-way summit with his counterparts from Canada and Mexico in Guadalajara, Obama on Monday predicted immediate priorities like health care and new financial regulations would crowd out a comprehensive effort to secure borders and figure out what to do about the 12 million people estimated to be in the country illegally this year.

Obama said that he expects to see draft legislation for immigration overhaul by the end of the year. But anything resembling a fix will likely come in piecemeal fashion. Witness the Senate's decision last month to use the appropriations process to require federal contractors to use an electronic employee eligibility verification system and to set construction standards for the fence now going up along the border with Mexico.

President Obama moved his previously scheduled remarks on the economy from a gym at Fort Myer, Va. to the Rose Garden on Friday after the Labor Department reported that unemployment fell in July for the first time since April 2008, to 9.4 percent, in another sign the recession might be easing.

Sunshine, singing birds and colorful flowers surely evoke better times ahead, and helped put an exclamation point on a jobs report that exceeded the expectations of most economists and even the White House.

Obama took a victory lap of sorts, crediting the economic stimulus package (PL 111-5) and other Democratic initiatives for bringing the nation back from the brink. And he again plugged overhauling the health system, creating green jobs and bolstering education as necessary for building a sustained recovery.

"We have a lot further to go. As far as I am concerned we will not have a true recovery as long as we are losing jobs," Obama said. The president went on to rhapsodize about Americans he's met who are facing adversity but managing to keep their faith in the country and the future.

Such lofty talk doesn't mean Obama is finished playing the blame game, however.

The team that announced Barack Obama's running mate via text message during last year's campaign apparently is ready to place some curbs on the ubiquitous technology.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood on Tuesday announced he will host a distracted driving summit on a yet-to-be-announced date next month with public officials, safety advocates and law enforcement to address the dangers of text-messaging and other distractions behind the wheel.

LaHood pointed to a number of fatal incidents, including a 2008 commuter train crash in California that killed 25 people and involved an operator who was texting on a cell phone, and another incident in which a Florida truck driver admitted to texting moments before a collision with a school bus.

President Obama will host the entire Senate Democratic caucus for lunch at the White House Tuesday in what's likely to include a renewed pitch for his health care overhaul and an appeal to refinance the popular "cash for clunkers" program.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs on Monday said the gathering was in lieu of Democrats' customary weekly Senate caucus lunch on Capitol Hill and predicted a wide-ranging discussion before the chamber breaks for its August recess.

The gathering will be "to continue to talk about the priorities that they have . . . I don't doubt health care will be discussed . . . the economy will be discussed," Gibbs said.

One front-burner issue is the cash for clunkers program, which was left in limbo after the House on Friday passed a bill (HR 3435) to transfer $2 billion to the program from renewable energy loan guarantees in the stimulus bill enacted earlier this year (PL 111-5). The money would be available until the end of fiscal 2010.

President Obama plans to huddle with his Cabinet and top advisers on Friday and Saturday to review lessons learned from his first six months in office. There's bound to be some gnashing of teeth over the pace of the health care overhaul, and also some satisfaction over signs the economy is staggering back.

President Obama at town hall meeting today in Raleigh. (Getty Images/AFP/Sol Loeb)

Obama continued to strenuously defend economic relief efforts launched in the aftermath of last fall's financial crisis and lay some blame at the feet of former President George W. Bush. And he eagerly portrayed himself as a responsible steward of taxpayers' money, to deflect persistent Republican charges that he's incapable of controlling federal spending.

Just weeks ago, President Obama characterized a public insurance option as an almost essential component of any health care overhaul and an important tool with which to discipline insurance companies. Nevermind that a government-sponsored alternative to private health plans was already emerging as a stumbling block to serious health care overhaul. The president, at a June 23 White House press conference, said an government-run plan that isn't profit-driven, provides quality care and keeps down administrative costs simply "makes sense."

"The notion that all these insurance companies who say they're giving consumers the best possible deal, if they can't compete against a public plan as one option, with consumers making the decision what's the best deal, that defies logic, which is why I think you've seen in the polling data overwhelming support for a public plan," Obama said.

Fast forward to today. With health care talks bogged down in the House and Senate, the administration appears more receptive to fallbacks to the government-run option, including a consumer-owned "co-op" health plan that's being discussed in the Senate Finance Committee. But aides don't appear to be in a rush to learn all the messy details.

Back in 1999, the administration of Bill Clinton strictly limited the use of cookies on federal government Web sites, heeding the concerns of privacy advocates who worried the small data files could be deployed to build profiles of user activity.

The policy has remained in place ever since, in spite of the persistent use of cookies that's developed on most commercial, state and local sites and criticism from groups such as the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation, which maintains the concerns are overblown and that the policy limits the government's ability to embrace customized Web applications.

The Obama administration apparently agrees. This week, the Office of Management and Budget proposed revising the guidelines so that any federal agency could use web-tracking technologies, so long as it posts a notice to that effect.

Some days, it's difficult to tell what's more distracting for the Obama administration: awkward remarks by Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., or questions about whether the remarks are distracting.

The loquacious Biden -- already known for issuing ad hoc travel warnings and critiquing Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr.'s bungling of the presidential oath -- stirred the pot again over the weekend, telling the Wall Street Journal that Russia's economy is "withering" and that its problems will force it to make concessions on a wide range of national security issues, including loosening its influence on former Soviet republics and shrinking its nuclear arsenal.

"Russia has to make some very difficult, calculated decisions," Biden said at the conclusion of a four-day trip to the Ukraine and Georgia. "They have a shrinking population base, they have a withering economy, they have a banking sector and structure that is not likely to be able to withstand the next 15 years, they're in a situation where the world is changing before them and they're clinging to something in the past that is not sustainable."

President Obama, a politician not given to backtracking, clearly regrets the way he weighed in Wednesday night on the controversy surrounding the arrest of Harvard Prof. Henry Louis Gates Jr.

President Obama telling reporters in the White House press room that his remarks on the Gates' case were "unfortunate." (Getty Images/AFP/Chris Kleponis)

So on Friday, the president unexpectedly appeared at the beginning of the daily White House press briefing to announce that he had spoken to the white policeman who arrested the African-American scholar and told reporters, ''I could've calibrated those words differently.''

Obama had said Cambridge, Mass. police "acted stupidly" when they took Gates into custody July 16 during the investigation of a report of a break-in at Gates's home. He added a long history of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately "still haunts us" and "casts suspicion even when there is good cause."

Even if he really did turn down secretary of State for the vice presidency, Joseph R. Biden Jr. hasn't been discouraged from engaging in diplomacy. Consider the politically sensitive four-day tour of Georgia and the Ukraine he just completed.

Vice President Biden meets with Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili today. (Getty Images/AFP/Vano Shlamov)

But in the Georgian capital of Tblisi on Thursday, Biden delivered a more measured message, expressing support for Georgia's goal of joining NATO but warning its leaders not to try to reclaim the breakaway territories of South Ossetia and Abkhazia that were lost in a war last year with Russia. Biden also met with leaders of opposition parties, who brand President Mikheil Saakashvili a despot.

President Obama generally downplayed the issue of race during his historic presidential campaign and his first months in the White House. But at the end of Wednesday's prime-time news conference, he offered some unvarnished views about the controversy surrounding the arrest of Harvard African-American studies professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., who was taken into custody July 16 during the investigation of a report of a break-in at Gates's home in Cambridge, Mass.

Obama is friends with Gates and responded to a question about what the incident says about race relations by first saying, "I might be a little biased here." The president then recounted reports about how Gates had jimmied the lock on his door and remarked that if he tried the same thing at the White House, "I'd get shot."

But his tone quickly turned serious.

Sure, the president's consumed with health care, climate change and plans to re-regulate the financial markets. But the series of cyberattacks that shut down some government and financial Web sites this month exposed what many experts believe to be an Achilles' heel in the federal bureaucracy: a shortage of qualified workers who can fend off hackers, virus writers, criminal groups and even terrorist organizations intent on commandeering specific cybernetworks.

The Partnership for Public Service detailed the extent of the manpower shortage in a new report it released on Wednesday, citing the cumbersome federal hiring process, the lack of government-wide certification standards and low salaries as reasons.

Charles Bolden (Getty Images via NASA/Bill, Ingalls)

The future? Well, that's a subject for another day. Though Obama has vowed to return U.S. astronauts to the moon by 2020 and maybe even lay the groundwork for missions to Mars, the fiscal 2010 NASA budget the White House sent to Congress sets aside no money for such efforts. Officials are awaiting the outcome of an independent study of manned space flight that is expected to be completed next month. The review panel has been hearing competing proposals to replace NASA's aging shuttle fleet, including contracting more work to private firms.

NASA is placing its bets on Ares I, a next-generation rocket under development that it hopes can deliver astronauts to the International Space Station by 2015. But in an era of trillion-dollar budget deficits, with the country mired in a deep recession, skeptics are questioning whether the space agency couldn't get more bang for the buck launching unmanned missions, or at least partnering with other nations in ambitious manned space flights.

Lest anyone think Team Obama is rattled by new Congressional Budget Office analyses concluding the health care plans Congress is drafting will drive up, not reduce, long-term health costs, think again.

Lawrence Summers at the Peterson Institute for Internal Economics today. (Getty Images/Win McNamee)

Never mind that one of the administration's point men on health care, Budget Director Peter R. Orszag, is himself a former CBO director. Summers said the findings -- articulated on Thursday by current CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf in testimony to the Senate Budget Committee -- don't take into account wellness programs, preventive care, health information technology, research into the effectiveness of treatments and other improvements he said will deliver meaningful, if as-yet-unquantifiable cost savings.

Grim news Thursday for backers of the foreclosure prevention program (PL 111-22) that the Obama administration promoted and Congress enacted in May. Midyear statistics compiled by the online marketplace RealtyTrac found a total of 1.9 million foreclosure filings were reported on more than 1.5 million properties across the country -- a 9 percent increase over the previous six months and a 15 percent jump over the first half of 2008.

The numbers were further proof that the real estate downturn hasn't ended, and that the administration's economic relief efforts have yet to tamp down a dramatic rise in default notices, auction sales and bank repossessions. The numbers were particularly disturbing because big lenders including Citigroup Inc., Wells Fargo & Co. and Bank of America Corp. had agreed to suspend foreclosures while the administration worked out its plan to modify mortgages for troubled borrowers.

The program attempts to aid homeowners on the brink of foreclosure by helping them refinance into 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages insured by the Federal Housing Administration. It changed the yearly insurance premiums that participating homeowners must pay to the FHA from 1.5 percent of the value of the mortgage to "up to 1.5 percent," essentially giving the government the flexibility to lower the premiums. And it extended through Dec. 31, 2013, an increase in deposit insurance coverage by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and National Credit Union Administration.

President Obama frequently portrays health care and clean energy as pillars of any sustained economic recovery. But he used his first presidential trip to economically devastated Michigan on Tuesday to dwell on a third component: education, specifically to role community colleges can play in retraining the U.S. work force.

President Obama departs from the South Lawn of the White House for Michigan. (Getty Images/AFP/Chris Kleponis)

"Some of the jobs that have been lost in the auto industry and elsewhere won't be coming back," Obama said in remarks to be delivered at Macomb Community College in Warren, Mich., a state where unemployment is 14.1 percent, the highest in the nation. Likening his effort to Abraham Lincoln's establishment of land-grant colleges and Franklin D. Roosevelt's championing of the G.I. Bill, Obama said, "Time and again, when we have placed our bet for the future on education, we have prospered as a result - by tapping the incredible innovative and generative potential of a skilled American workforce."

President Obama devoted part of Monday's schedule to sketching out an urban policy to help cities and metropolitan regions become more effective drivers of economic growth. It's the first time Obama has waded into this area publicly since February, when he appointed former Bronx, N.Y. borough president Adolfo Carrion to the new post of White House Director of Urban Affairs and gave him responsibility for coordinating transportation and housing initiatives and helping to funnel federal aid to economically hard-hit municipalities.

Adolfo Carrion

Obama and other administration officials are expected to prod cities and their suburban counterparts to collaborate for federal funds and private projects, instead of competing against each other.

President Obama dropped a few hints about how he intends to lobby Congress on health care during a news conference Friday following the G8 summit in L'Aquila, Italy. And if we're parsing his remarks correctly, lawmakers can expect firm prodding through the August recess, flexible timetables on a final agreement and one barnburner of a House-Senate conference.

President Obama at press conference after G8 summit. (Getty)

"Whatever bill is produced has to be paid for, and that creates some difficulties because people would like to get the good stuff without paying for it," Obama said.

Aides believe focusing on the dollars-and-cents aspect expands the health care debate beyond the approximately 48 million uninsured Americans, to those who have health coverage but are concerned about losing benefits during the economic downturn. The administration is wagering that economically stressed workers will appreciate a bottom-line approach that squeezes new efficiencies out of the health delivery system and doesn't reek of expensive social engineering.

It's never too early to think about sensitive White House personnel appointments that lie on the horizon. Which is why speculation is building inside and outside the administration over whether President Obama will reappoint Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke when his four-year term expires on Jan. 31.

Ben Bernanke (Scott Ferrell/CQ)

Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Chairman Christopher J. Dodd, D-Conn., among others, has been critical of Bernanke's stewardship at the central bank and is fighting portions of a White House draft overhaul of financial regulations that would give the Fed responsibility for overseeing "systemically risky" financial institutions whose collapse would threaten the broader economy. The Hill generally is divided among skeptics who question the Fed's ability to to spot bubbles in housing or other sectors, and others who believe the economy melted down because of a failed regulatory structure, not incompetent regulators.

Though Republicans portray climate change legislation as a costly energy tax that would cost families thousands of dollars a year, the worsening economy and budget woes in dozens of states are increasing chances the Senate will enact a bill this year.

The White House is hoping billions of dollars worth of free emissions allowances that would be part of a cap-and-trade system will persuade undecided senators to support the bill, which is one of its top domestic priorities.

The climate change bill (HR 2454) the House passed on June 26 would distribute allowances from 2012 to 2025 to each state to protect consumers from energy price hikes, help utilities and other industries transition to clean energy and to spur conservation efforts and new technologies.

Analysts say if the allowances are incorporated into a House-Senate compromise, they could deliver between $120 billion and $330 billion worth of assistance to states, which would have substantial leeway to spend the money as they see fit. The largesse could prove to be a potent enticement at a time when national unemployment stands at 9.5 percent and many states are experiencing even higher jobless rates.

Responding to a series of food-related health scares that killed several people and cost producers hundreds of millions of dollars, the Obama administration on Tuesday outlined a series of regulatory steps aimed at preventing outbreaks of E.coli, salmonella and other pathogens.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack (getty)

"Our food safety system must be updated. One in four people get sick every year due to food-borne illness, and children and the elderly are more at risk," Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. said at a midday news conference during which he outlined the new steps with Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.

President Obama and Russian President Dmitri Medvedev on Monday signed a framework for further nuclear weapon cuts that increases the likelihood their nations can finalize an accord to replace the Strategic Arms limitation treaty that expires on Dec. 5.

President Obama and Russian President Dimitry Medvedev walk past an honor guard in the Kremlin today.

Administration officials are weighing a backstop that would allow them to authorize key inspection provisions by executive order, then submit the complete agreement to the Senate some time in 2010.

"We'll have to look at arrangements to continue some of the inspection provisions, keep them enforced in a provisional basis, while the Senate considers the treaty," Gary Samore, Obama's coordinator for weapons of mass destruction, told reporters at a briefing prior to the leaders' meeting in Moscow.

The Obama administration today released an annual report to Congress on the White House staff.

Publicly released, that is. Administration officials posted 487 names, titles and salaries spanning 29 pages on the White House web site as part of their much ballyhooed commitment to transparency.

The listing shows top presidential aides like senior adviser David Axelrod, Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and press secretary Robert Gibbs make $172,200 a year. But don't get too excited. On his second day in office, Obama froze senior aides' salaries at $100,000 in a nod to tough economic times.

The White House staff list is customarily sent up to Congress in confidence, after which details are leaked to the press. Feeling just a bit superfluous, we return you to your Web browsing.

Though Republicans still love to portray him as an urban elite, President Obama managed to more or less split the rural vote with John McCain during last year's election. Now, the White House is mounting a summer-long effort to help tailor the administration's agenda to small-town America.

Wattsburg, Pa. (Google Maps)

"Rural America is vast and diverse, and different communities face different challenges and opportunities," Obama said in a statement. "That's why we're going out to hear directly from the people of rural America about their needs and concerns and what my administration can do to support them."

There were no "Mission Accomplished" banners or other congratulatory trappings in the East Room of the White House Tuesday, when President Obama marked the withdrawal of American combat troops from Iraqi cities and towns in a decidedly understated fashion.

At a ceremony recognizing innovative nonprofit programs across the country, Obama paused to recognize the transfer of control to Iraq's government and security forces and reaffirm a goal of removing all U.S. combat forces from that country by the end of 2011.

"Iraq's leaders must now make some hard choices necessary to resolve key political questions, to advance opportunity, and to provide security for their towns and their cities. In this effort, America will be a strong partner to the Iraqi people on behalf of their security and prosperity," Obama said, before recognizing the sacrifices of American troops.

If President Obama hopes to make good on his promise to retool the U.S. health system, he'll almost certainly have to talk Congress into changing the tax treatment for employer-sponsored medical coverage.

The tax exclusion exempts health insurance premiums paid on workers' behalf from federal income and payroll taxes. It dates to World War II, when employers subject to wage and price controls decided to plow excess profits into health benefits in order to attract and keep workers.

The question now is how would Congress reel in the tax exclusion?

Rahm Emanuel: Looking at the legislative process in quarters. (Getty)

Over in the west wing, top aides and advisers manage the task by breaking the year down into four quarters, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel explained to reporters at a press breakfast on Thursday.

Kind of like a football game. Or a longish opera.

The first quarter was focused on winning enactment of the $787 billion economic stimulus package (PL 111-5), reauthorizing and expanding the State Children's Health Insurance Program, or SCHIP (PL 111-3) and rolling out the president's fiscal 2010 budget plan. Emanuel said he's particularly pleased that the SCHIP expansion allowed legal immigrant children who have been in the United States for less than five years to enroll in the program, fulfilling a priority of Hispanic groups and immigrant advocates.

President Obama has gone out of his way to defer to Congress on some his biggest legislative priorities in the areas of health care, energy, education and immigration. And his detached position on the political upheaval in Iran prompted skeptics on Capitol Hill to wonder if the president was leading or allowing events to dictate a response.

Time, then, for the commander-in-chief to bring out the stick hidden under his desk and silence those questioning his resolve.

On Wednesday, Obama issued the first veto threat of his presidency, stating he would refuse to sign the House's version of the fiscal 2010 defense authorization bill (HR 2647) if it includes either of two provisions: $369 million in advanced fiscal 2011 procurement funds for the F-22 aircraft or $603 million for development and procurement of the alternative engine program for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.

Arne Duncan (Getty)

But the former CEO of Chicago Public Schools and sometimes pickup basketball partner of President Obama's told a White House press briefing that other, potentially bigger changes are in the works, including new financial incentives for colleges that keep tuition affordable.

The Obama administration wants to lean on colleges to control costs while it proposes more financial assistance for poor students. For good reason.

Barack Obama at press conference. (Getty)

Obama opened his fourth solo White House news conference with his strongest condemnation yet of the Tehran regime, declaring, "No iron fist is strong enough to shut off the world from bearing witness to peaceful protests of justice."

By calling out authorities for threats, beatings and imprisonments, and invoking the widely viewed scene of a young woman bleeding to death from an apparent gunshot wound, Obama departed from his detached, measured approach to the Iranian crisis -- one predicated on respecting Iranian sovereignty and not making the U.S. a convenient scapegoat for Iranian authorities.

President Obama stands alongside Rev. Luis Cortes, president of Esperanza. (Getty)

Obama told the National Hispanic Prayer Breakfast in Washington on Friday that he's committed to passing an overhaul of the nation's immigration laws this year and honoring a campaign pledge that resonated mightily among Hispanic voters.

"The American people believe in immigration, but they also believe that we can't tolerate a situation where people come to the United States in violation of the law, nor can we tolerate employers who exploit undocumented workers in order to drive down wages," Obama said. "That's why we're taking steps to strengthen border security, and we must build on those efforts. We must also clarify the status of millions who are here illegally, many who have put down roots."

President Obama speaks Wednesday before signing a presidential memorandum regarding federal benefits and non-discrimination. (Getty)

Obama's administration has been under increasing pressure to make good on the president's campaign pledges to repeal the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (PL 104-199), which discourages same-sex marriages, as well as the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy. But the stakes were raised on June 11, when the Justice Department filed a brief to dismiss a lawsuit by a married same-sex couple in California that sought to invalidate the Clinton-era law. The Justice Department said the law "reflects a cautiously limited response to society's still-evolving understanding of the institution of marriage."

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs on Wednesday defended the filing, which at one point compares same-sex unions to incestuous relations. The president is responsible for upholding federal laws, even those he disagrees with, Gibbs explained. He added Obama hopes to work with Congress this year to repeal the law.

Experts are giving mixed reviews to the Obama administration's sweeping proposal for regulating the financial system, saying it smacks of a political compromise over how much authority to give the Federal Reserve.

The proposal, which will be unveiled Wednesday afternoon and already has been outlined in an administration white paper, portends a major overhaul of the Fed's responsibilities, by giving the central bank authority to oversee "systemically risky" financial institutions whose collapse would threaten the broader economy. These banks and financial houses will be subject to tougher federal oversight and tougher capital requirements, and the Fed would have the power to dissolve them in the event of their failure.

However, the administration plan would limit the Fed's emergency-lending authority, by forcing it to first seek approval from the Treasury Department. And a new agency, the Consumer Financial Protection Agency, will assume some of the Fed's traditional responsibilities overseeing products like mortgages and credit cards.

Much of the proposal has to be approved by Congress, which, no doubt, will alter key provisions.

President Obama has regularly paid homage to ailing Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., for showing leadership trying to revamp the U.S. health care system. But now that the Congressional Budget Office has put a $1 trillion price tag on a preliminary draft of a Kennedy health bill and concluded it would reduce the ranks of uninsured Americans by about one-third, or 16 million, administration officials are trying to put just a bit of space between the White House and the liberal icon.

Team Obama is acutely sensitive to concerns that it is creating an expensive government-supervised health system -- a charge that congressional Republicans are lobbing with glee.

Obama had barely finished addressing the American Medical Association on the need for an overhaul plan Monday when GOP senators and members pounced on the CBO forecast, charging that "the Democratic plan" Kennedy crafted would force millions of working Americans to lose the care they get now, by creating a public insurance option that would compete with private health plans.

President George W. Bush may be forever linked with faith-based initiatives due to his aggressive efforts to allow religious organizations to provide government-funded services. But it's President Obama who could yet turn out to be the chief executive who winds up most expanding the possibilities of government partnering with faith-based groups.

Joshua DuBois, a special assistant to the president and executive director of the rechristened White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, outlined the current administration's more expansive view of collaborations during an apperance Thursday at the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.

Instead of "leveling the playing field" for federal contacting to faith-based groups -- which became a presidential obsession for much of Bush's eight years in office -- Obama is trying to involve religious groups in more extensive policy discussions.

Rep. Christopher Smith tried to block the Global Women's Issues office from engaging in effort to change foreign laws governing abortion. (Getty)

The National Right to Life Committee and like-minded groups are pressing House members to reject a State Department reauthorization bill (HR 2410) due to be debated today, because it would create an Office for Global Women's Issues charged with promoting "women's empowerment internationally."

The groups contend this is a back-door way for American diplomats to micromanage reproductive rights abroad, particularly the right to abortion. Abortion foes have been deeply suspicious of the administration's motives ever since President Obama on his second day in office invalidated a prohibition on sending U.S. funds to groups that perform or promote abortion overseas.

President Obama talks to lawmakers at the White House. (Getty)

And though White House strategists swear they don't fixate on day-to-day blips in public opinion, they surely are concerned that the administration's budget proposals are projected to swell the deficit above $1.8 trillion this fiscal year -- a record in dollar terms and also the biggest deficit as a percentage of the gross domestic product since the end of World War II.

So it was hardly coincidence that Obama on Tuesday took a high-profile vow of fiscal responsibility by calling for a return to statutory "pay-as-you-go" treatment for legislation. The deficit-control rules were first written into law in the Budget Enforcement Act of 1990 (PL 101-508), but Republicans who controlled Congress for most of the current decade allowed them to lapse at the end of fiscal 2002, preferring to require offsets for new entitlement spending but not for tax cuts.

The Obama administration usually shows disdain for chronological milestones and what top officials derisively refer to as "Hallmark holidays." But with concern mounting that stimulus dollars aren't flowing fast enough to make a difference in economically stressed communities, the White House on Monday issued a new spending plan to guide the second hundred days of the implementation the economic recovery package (PL 111-5) that Congress passed in February.

The so-called "Roadmap to Recovery" spotlights ten major initiatives the administration says will save or create 600,000 jobs. The projects, enumerated on the White House web site recovery.gov range from creating 125,000 summer jobs for youths to breaking ground on 2,300 construction projects at military facilities around the country. Other steps include expanding service at more than 1,100 community health centers and accelerating maintenance repairs at 98 airports and on more than 1,500 highway projects.

"Our measure of progress is the progress the American people see in their own lives," said President Obama, who was presented the list by Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. at a Cabinet meeting . "And until that progress is steady and solid; we're going to keep moving forward. We will not grow complacent or rest."

Friday's news that the economy shed another 345,000 jobs in May triggered one of those "good news, bad news" moments at the White House and sent critics and supporters of the economic stimulus package (PL 111-5) into heavy spin mode one more time.

The job losses were lower than had been feared, which almost qualifies as a cause for celebration for an administration increasingly intent on demonstrating that its $787 billion pump-priming of the economy is working.

Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., who's minding the store while President Obama travels in Europe, met with Council of Economic Advisers Chair Christina Romer and his chief economist, Jared Bernstein, then tried to sustain the administration's careful management of public expectations in remarks to reporters.

To get any kind of positive return on the money it loaned, the Obama administration is hoping GM shares will rise in value when the company emerges from its Chapter 11 proceeding.

But there's also the added complication of pensions.

GM has made pension promises totaling about $100 billion in current dollars. Thanks to the financial crisis, investments in the company's pension funds are worth about $20 billion less than the obligations.

Perhaps one of the networks will decide to package all the back-and-forth about Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor and create a new reality show. Call it "Judging Sonia."

The White House on Wednesday continued its multi-day unveiling of President Obama's Supreme Court pick by hosting a conference call with six legal experts and continually pumping up the 54-year-old jurist's personal story and her legal and academic bona fides.

Spokesman Robert Gibbs said Sotomayor had made courtesy phone calls to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., as well as to the chairman and ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Patrick J. Leahy, D-Vt., and Jeff Sessions, R-Ala. Face-to-face meetings will take place as soon as the Senate returns to work on June 1, Gibbs said.

Administration officials acknowledge the need to control the narrative of Sotomayor's life story, in order to muffle fusillades from conservative talk-radio hosts and bloggers that portray the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals judge as a closet racist and a judicial activist intent on making policy from the bench.

New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand had urged Obama to pick an Hispanic. (Getty)

Newly minted Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., from Sotomayor's home state, said she got word early Tuesday when President Obama rang. Gillibrand, who's courting Hispanic voter support for her 2010 Senate race, had urged Obama to name a Latino to diversify the high court's lineup and went as far as drafting a May 1 letter with Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., to the president recommending the president consider Sotomayor or his interior secretary, Ken Salazar.

"I spoke with President Obama this morning and told him that he had made a historic and fantastic decision," Gillibrand said in a statement on Tuesday, adding, "Judge Sotomayor will bring invaluable experience and much needed diversity to our nation's highest court."

All the talk resonating through the Congress and the White House about energy efficiency, clean energy investments and green jobs begs the following question: Exactly where is the money going to come from?

Probably not via the cap-and-trade plans circulating in the House and Senate, which focus on curbing carbon emissions and forcing utilities to draw on more existing renewable energy sources. And likely not from the credit markets, which are only functioning these days thanks to massive intervention by the Federal Reserve.

For all their social utility, next-generation energy projects are a somewhat risky investment because of fluctuating fossil fuel prices, an incomplete national transmission grid and the lack of a proven track record for the technologies involved. The government can offer loan guarantees and tax credits to reduce some of the risk, but those incentives are always subject to the whims of Congress.

Which is why there is an intensifying push to create a so-called Green Bank, which would provide a dedicated source of funds for renewable and energy efficient initiatives.

Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Obama in the Oval Office today. (Getty)

Under an informal and secret agreement dating to the administration of Richard M. Nixon, Israel is understood to have pledged not to be the first nation to test or introduce nuclear weapons to the Middle East. The United States, apparently in exchange, agreed not press Israel to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty -- a global pact to limit the spread of nuclear weapons that went into force in 1970.

Though Israel is widely believed to possess a nuclear deterrant, it has never acknowledged it, and the subject has not come up in U.S.-Israeli talks in connection with other regional issues, such as a Palestinian state.

Which brings us to Monday's meeting between President Obama and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.

Kenneth Lewis after a White House meeting with President Obama in March. (Getty)

Wait no longer. Banking regulators have reportedly told Bank of America Corp. -- the recipient of $45 billion in federal bailout funds -- to shake up its 18-member board and install more outside directors with banking experience. The move raises questions about the future of CEO Kenneth Lewis, who had indicated he would remain at the helm until the financial crisis is over.

Lewis has had an ambivalent relationship with the feds since the financial crisis began. No doubt this is because many of the bank's problems stem from its acquisition of Merrill Lynch & Co. -- a move Lewis said was forced on him by Bush administration Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke.

But the White House's interest in bank management apparently extends far beyond BoA. Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chair Sheila Bahr is indicating more bank executives will be replaced in the coming months as regulators evaluate the results of stress tests the Treasury Department and Fed administered to 19 big institutions.

"There will be an evaluation process," Bair tells Bloomberg Television, in an interview to be aired this weekend. "We're requesting it as part of the capital plan."

Asked if chief executives will be replaced as part of the process, Bair replied, "Yes."

The tests found the combined losses of big lenders like BoA, Citigroup Inc. and Wells Fargo & Co. could reach $599.2 billion over the next two years, if the economy continues to worsen. Ten of the banks were ordered to raise $74.6 billion in capital from private sources.

The Obama administration's push to regulate carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act (PL 101-549) hit a bit of a speed bump Tuesday, with the release of an Office of Management and Budget memo that concludes the policy could bring serious economic consequences to factories, small businesses and localities across the country.

The nine-page document, which was immediately circulated by administration critics and environmentalists, faults the EPA for developing a one-sided rationale for the regulation that, among other things, didn't take into account positive effects of climate change in some regions.

"It might be reasonable to conclude that Alaska will benefit from warmer winters for both health and economic reasons," the document states, adding that new public health initiatives like cooling centers could mitigate the effects of heat waves in less fortunate parts of the country.

President Obama flanked by Tom Priselac of Cedars-Sinai Health System and George Halverson of the Kaiser Foundation Health Plan (Getty)

Chief among these is that Obama is likely to prevail in his efforts to expand access to public insurance and allow the government to negotiate Medicare outpatient prescription drug prices.

In speeches and policy pronouncements, Obama has successfully twinned an overhaul of the health system with the broader economic recovery. And with fortified Democratic majorities in both houses, the administration is working hard with Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., and other allies to move legislation in the next two months.

If White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel's correct and you need a crisis to get things done, Friday's employment report showing companies cut fewer jobs in April might be a sign the Obama administration's window for big policy initiatives could be closing just a bit.

The Labor Department said the jobless rate rose to 8.9 percent as payrolls were trimmed by another 539,000 positions. That's bad, but not quite as bad as the 699,000 jobs lost in March.

President Obama used the occasion to launch a new plan to allow jobless individuals to return to college without losing their eligibility for unemployment insurance. Under the initiative, the Labor Department will urge states to update rules that generally require the unemployed to be looking for work as a precondition for collecting aid.

President Obama's commitment to transparency may be playing well in public opinion polls, but it's left lobbyists feeling, well, just a little unloved.

First, the president issued an executive order in January prohibiting his staff from accepting lobbyist gifts and imposing tough revolving-door restrictions on ex-lobbyists who come to work for the administration and officials who leave government and go the other way. Then, his administration banned direct lobbyist contact with government officials when discussing details of the economic stimulus package (PL 111-5).

All of this has left professional Beltway fixers and trade association officials convinced the administration is either being too cautious, or maybe a little obsessed with imposing cumbersome and unnecessary rules. So there was more than a passing interest when Norman Eisen, Obama's special counsel for ethics and government reform, addressed a George Washington University conference on special interests and public policy on Tuesday and took audience questions.

As the Federal Reserve prepares to announce the results of "stress tests" it ran on the nation's 19 largest banks, White House officials are tamping down speculation they will need to go to Congress for another infusion of taxpayer money to keep the most troubled institutions afloat.

After all, Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner already is busy recruiting private investors to vacuum up those bad mortgages and other assets that are weighing down bank balance sheets.

And the president, at his news conference last Wednesday, made it clear that he doesn't want to stay in the business of running banks and car companies at a time when he's got to manage two wars and wrestle with an economic crisis.

By now, the travel industry is plenty weary of offhand remarks emanating from the Obama White House.

First, President Obama chastised corporate largesse while promoting his economic stimulus package (PL 111-5) in February, saying he wouldn't tolerate recipients of federal aid flying on corporate jets, taking trips to Las Vegas or going to the Super Bowl on the taxpayers' dime.

The remarks so chilled business travel among executives fearful of being seen as spendthrifts that even Hawaii officials gently admonished the president, reminding him that cancelled meetings and incentive trips were costing his economically strapped native state tens of millions of dollars.

Then, on Thursday, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. went on NBC's Today Show and confessed that he told his family to stay off airplanes and other conveyances because of the swine flu outbreak. Asked what he would tell a relative considering air travel this week, Biden replied, "I would tell members of my family -- and I have -- that I wouldn't go anywhere in confined places now."

Flashback to the 2005 Senate confirmation hearings of Supreme Court Chief Justice John R. Roberts Jr. Then-Democratic Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. pursued an aggressive line of questioning in trying to get the jurist and former Reagan administration lawyer to give his views on the Reagan White House's policy regarding Title IX discrimination. So aggressive that Pennsylvania Republican Arlen Specter, the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, became irritated and admonished Biden and fellow Democrats for not giving the nominee a fair shake.

Specter pointedly told Biden to give Roberts a chance to answer, prompting Biden to complain, "his answers are misleading, with all due respect."

"They may be misleading, but they are his answers," Specter shot back, eliciting laughter from the audience.

Though they've frequently taken opposite sides during high-stakes debates, the veteran senators from neighboring states long enjoyed a cordially cantankerous relationship, chiding each other about their politics and their parties. Specter on occasion would pause on Nov. 20 to publicly wish Biden happy birthday on the Senate floor. And the pair collaborated on disparate efforts such as a diplomatic mission to China, legislation to punish governments that carry out violent attacks against religious believers and even a long-shot attempt to force Major League Baseball and the National Football League to contribute more to the financing of new stadiums.

It’s been a long time since the power trio of John McCain, Lindsey Graham, and Joe Lieberman made music together. Since the election, the former Republican presidential nominee and his Senate colleagues have been mostly working on solo projects, with McCain and Graham teaming up to send the occasional joint letter to the White House.

Today, they got the band back together — to ask President Obama not to prosecute the Bush administration lawyers who wrote the “torture memos.”

It’s been a long road for Obama, from ruling out prosecutions to passing the buck to Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. But to the McCain trio, Obama’s first position was the correct one.

President Obama's call for Senate ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty during his April 5 stop in Prague has set off a round of armchair quarterbacking in the arms control community about the salesmanship the administration might employ to win over reluctant lawmakers.

Obama is keen to avoid the experience of Bill Clinton, who signed the pact in 1996 and made its ratification one of his top foreign policy goals only to see it soundly rejected by a Republican-led Senate, 48-51, in October 1999. Sixty-seven votes are needed for ratification.

While the political composition of the chamber has changed quite a bit, some experts say Obama's best tack might be to go slow and encourage extensive hearings, to avoid politicizing a national security issue and boxing senators into a corner.

When he served in the Senate, President Obama enthusiastically supported federal mandates to produce more biofuels like ethanol and biodiesel, predicting they would help break America's dependence on foreign oil.

Getty

The recession is weakening demand for motor fuels, making it more difficult to meet a requirement in the 2007 energy law (PL 110-140) requiring 12.95 billion gallons of biofuels to be utilized in 2010. Energy watchers say if the economy doesn't pick up soon, the rapidly expanding ethanol industry could hit a demand wall and be forced to idle production.

Timothy Geithner (Getty)

Oops.

Not long before he left office, President George W. Bush established a review board to study the way the government guards, studies and categorizes biological agents that could be used in a terrorist attack.

For much of his administration, Bush and homeland security officials said the threat of rogue scientists or al Qaeda sympathizers cooking up terror bugs like anthrax or plague was as great as that posed by a nuclear attack. The high-profile case of Bruce Ivins, the government researcher charged with masterminding the 2001 anthrax mailings, only heightened such concerns.

On March 9, President Obama ordered federal agencies to consult with the Justice Department before they rely on President George W. Bush's "signing statements" and outlined the circumstances under which he would issue such declarations, which assert limits on Congress' power over the executive branch.

It didn't take him long to find an occasion.

On Wednesday, Obama signed the fiscal 2009 omnibus (HR 1105) and promptly issued a list of grievances with the catchall spending law, citing provisions he said encroach on his power to conduct foreign affairs, direct military missions and make spending decisions.

Parceling out money from the economic stimulus law (PL 111-5) is a little like selling tickets for a Bruce Springsteen tour, at least insofar as coping with a computer-crashing volume of requests.

Nervous Obama administration officials already are making contingencies to make sure the billions of dollars flow quickly to all those shovel-ready projects, by fortifying the web site Grants.gov -- the central portal through which localities and individuals can find and apply for grants -- and making contingencies in case the site crashes.

A memo from White House Budget Director Peter R. Orszag says heightened interest in stimulus funds already is stressing the government's servers and is expected to increase application volume by 60 percent between April and August.

It only took three days, but the Obama press operation has replaced the stodgy "Daily Press Briefing" graphics that flanked the press secretary's rostrum during the Bush years with a logo plugging the White House web site.

It's all fitting for a team that used net savvy, social networking sites and YouTube to stream all things Obama during the presidential campaign.

Indeed, the White House site already is taking on some of the whiz-bang feel of the campaign and currently features video of Obama's weekly address -- once a YouTube staple -- along with footage from last week's inaugural and bits from the Obama-Biden whistlestop train tour.