News you can use
News you can use
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WASHINGTON (AP) — Working with Congress against a midnight deadline, President Barack Obama said Monday that a deal to avert the "fiscal cliff" was in sight but not yet finalized. The emerging deal would raise tax rates on family income over $450,000 a year, increase the estate tax rate and extend unemployment benefits for one year. "There are still issues left to resolve but we're hopeful Congress can get it done," Obama said at a campaign-style event at the White House. "But it's not done." The parties were at an impasse o...
WASHINGTON — The Democratic Party is moving to include support for gay marriage in the official party platform for the first time, a Democratic official said Monday, marking a key milestone for advocates of same-sex unions. The party's platform drafting committee voted to include language backing gay marriage during a weekend meeting in Minneapolis, the official said. Democratic delegates will formally approve the platform during the party convention in Charlotte, N.C. in early September. President Barack Obama will o...
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama on Friday nominated Sen. John Kerry as his next secretary of state, elevating the longtime lawmaker and foreign policy expert to the top diplomatic job he had coveted. "He is not going not need a lot of on-the-job training," Obama said, standing alongside Kerry at the White House. "Few individuals know as many presidents and prime ministers or grasp our policies as firmly as John Kerry." AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite Senate Foreign Relations Chairman John Kerry, D-Mass., leads a hearing Thur...
he reloaded. But the ban and other U.S. gun laws wouldn't have prevented his mother's purchase of the pTowerful assault rifle or the especially deadly ammunition that he used to kill 26 people. A generation of U.S. gun laws — and the inherent compromises intended to balance constitutional gun rights and public safety — reflects the intricacies of applying government policy to stem acts of mass violence. Since July, there have been at least four mass shootings that killed 47 people and wounded dozens more in Connecticut, Col...
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner pushed ahead on negotiating a broad deal to avert the "fiscal cliff," even as the GOP leader readied a backup plan Tuesday to pressure the White House with little time left to avoid a double hit on the economy. With exactly two weeks to automatic tax hikes and spending cuts, Boehner offered a measure, dubbed "plan B," that would cancel tax increases due to take effect Jan. 1 on everyone earning $1 million or less, while allowing tax increases on those e...
BANGKOK — On the eve of his landmark trip to Myanmar, President Barack Obama tried to assure critics that his visit was not a premature reward for a long-isolated nation still easing its way toward democracy. "This is not an endorsement of the government," Obama said Sunday in Thailand as he opened a three-country dash through Asia. "This is an acknowledgement that there is a process under way inside that country that even a year and a half, two years ago, nobody foresaw." AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster U.S. President Barack O...
COLUMBUS, Ohio — President Barack Obama's re-election campaign doesn't want to talk about what the Democrat is doing to prepare for the fall debates with Republican Mitt Romney. But aides are readily setting expectations — and not surprisingly, they want to keep them low for Obama while raising the stakes for Romney. "While Mitt Romney has done 20 debates in the last year, he has not done one in four years, so there certainly is a challenge in that regard," Jennifer Psaki, Obama's campaign spokeswoman, said of the pre...
WASHINGTON — Escalating an increasingly acrimonious campaign, Republican presidential challenger Mitt Romney dug in Wednesday on his charge that President Barack Obama's campaign was being driven by "division and attack and hatred" and called on the president to lift the tone of political discourse. Romney went on national television to say he thinks Obama is "running just to hang onto power, and I think he would do anything in his power" to remain in office. AP Photo/The Intelligencer, Scott Mccloskey Republican p...
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner met Sunday at the White House to discuss the ongoing negotiations over the impending "fiscal cliff," the first meeting between just the two leaders since Election Day. Spokesmen for both Obama and Boehner said they agreed to not release details of the conversation, but emphasized that the lines of communication remain open. The meeting comes as the White House and Congress try to break an impasse over finding a way to stop a combination of automatic t...
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama says he now supports same-sex marriage, ending months of equivocation on a subject with powerful election-year consequences. Obama says he has concluded that it is important for him to affirm that he thinks same-sex couples should be able to get married. He says he came to the conclusion over the course of several years of talking to family and friends. Obama has previously said his personal views of gay marriage were evolving, a stance that frustrated gay rights supporters. Obama r...
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — President Barack Obama swept into his convention city Wednesday, eager to accept his party's nomination and make the case for re-election despite a sputtering economy. He hoped to claim a little luster from Bill Clinton's prime-time address to the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday. In a last-minute shift, the president ditched plans to deliver his acceptance speech before a throng of 74,000 at an outdoor stadium on Thursday, the convention's final night, citing iffy weather. With a chance of t...
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — President Barack Obama swept into his convention city Wednesday, eager to accept his party's nomination and make the case for re-election despite a sputtering economy. He hoped to claim a little luster from Bill Clinton's prime-time address to the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday. In a last-minute shift, the president ditched plans to deliver his acceptance speech before a throng of 74,000 at an outdoor stadium on Thursday, the convention's final night, citing iffy weather. With a chance of t...
CONCORD, N.H. — Just two days from the finish, President Barack Obama's campaign is mobilizing a massive get-out-the-vote effort aimed at carrying the Democrat to victory, as Republican Mitt Romney makes a late play for votes in Democratic-leaning Pennsylvania. Obama was closing out the campaign with an apparent edge in some key battleground states, including Ohio. But both campaigns were predicting wins in Tuesday's election. AP Photo/Charles Dharapak Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt R...
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama hailed the beginning of the end of a devastating war Wednesday night, announcing he was pulling home 33,000 troops from Afghanistan by next summer, withdrawing the "surge" of forces he sent in to rescue a flailing effort. Said Obama to a country eager for an exit: "The tide of war is receding." AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, Pool President Barack Obama delivers a televised address from the East Room of the White House in Washington, Wednesday, on his plan to drawdown U.S. troops in A...
- In this Dec. 6, 2010, file photo President Barack Obama, visiting Forsyth Technical Community College in Winston-Salem, N.C., speaks about the key to boosting American competitiveness, that it rests in the nation's willingness to invest in a more educated workforce, a deeper commitment to research and technology, and improvements in infrastructure, from roads and airports to high-speed internet. Under pressure to boost the economy the same message will likely be at the center of his State of the Union address Tuesday. AP Ph...
WASHINGTON— President Barack Obama will announce the critical next steps in America's decade-long war in Afghanistan on Wednesday, outlining both a plan to start bringing thousands of U.S. troops home next month and a broader withdrawal blueprint aimed at giving Afghans control of their own security in 2014. But even as Obama finalizes those plans, there are deep divisions in his administration, with military leaders favoring only a gradual reduction in troops but other advisers advocating a significant decrease in the coming...
AP Photo/Charles Dharapak WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama drove the cart and House Speaker John Boehner celebrated a short putt during their much anticipated golf outing Saturday at a military base outside the nation's capital. Vice President Joe Biden earned the commander in chief's approval when he sank a 15-to-20 foot putt on the first hole, a par five, at Joint Base Andrews. AP Photo/Charles Dharapak President Barack Obama walks off the first green with House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, right, while golfing at A...
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama on Thursday bestowed the highest U.S. military honor on Dakota Meyer, a young and humble Marine who defied orders and barreled straight into a ferocious "killing zone" in Afghanistan to save 36 lives at extraordinary risk to himself. "You did your duty, above and beyond," Obama told Meyer after reciting his dramatic story. Though the corporal and a fellow Marine were going against orders — commanders considered their effort too dangerous — they were doing what they thought was right, Obama...
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama heralded the end of the divisive Iraq war Monday, and warned Iraq's neighbors that the United States would remain a major player in the region even as it brings its troops home. "Our strong presence in the Middle East endures," Obama said. "And the United States will never waver in the defense of our allies, our partners and our interests." AP Photo/Susan Walsh President Barack Obama listens as Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki speaks during a news conference in the South Court A...
Obama to call for $53B for high-speed rail JULIE PACE, Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is calling for a six-year, $53 billion spending plan for high-speed rail, as he seeks to use infrastructure spending to jump-start job creation. An initial $8 billion in spending will be part of the budget plan Obama is set to release Monday. If Congress approves the plan, the money would go toward developing or improving trains that travel up to 250 mph, and connecting existing rail lines to new projects. The W...
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama kicked off his first Twitter town hall with — what else? — a tweet. Using a laptop set up on a lectern in the East Room of the White House, Obama typed this message: "In order to reduce the deficit, what costs would you cut and what investments would you keep?" The tweet set the tone for the town hall focused on jobs and the economy, and hosted by Twitter, the social media service. The White House sees social media as an opportunity for the president to interact with Americans directly, par...
