white house

Just in case he wasn’t familiar with it, Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) decided to read the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution to David Kris, assistant attorney general of the Justice Department’s National Security Division, who was testifying to the Senate Judiciary Committee today to urge reauthorization of expiring provisions of the USA Patriot Act.
Franken, who [...]

After the Justice Department dragged out four different lawsuits seeking public access to White House visitor records, the Obama administration finally agreed yesterday to settle the cases, brought by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), and committed to post visitor records online.
CREW Executive Director Melanie Sloan praised the White House, saying, “The Obama [...]

The announcement is the result of an Obama administration task force’s proposal — first reported by The Washington Independent.

Little evidence backs claims that medical malpractice suits are driving up health care costs.

Concessions to moderates would make it difficult for urban clinics to obtain federal money.

I don’t know what it might be, but I understand there’s going to be a White House background briefing on Guantanamo Bay in about an hour. Newsweek’s Michael Isikoff reported earlier today that the Guantanamo Bay task force is going to miss its deadline by a few months.

The explosive inspectors general report released on Friday makes one thing increasingly clear: the Bush White House knew that it was probably breaking the law.
From the report itself, John Yoo’s Office of Legal Counsel memo — and the lightning-fast reporting of Spencer Ackerman, Marc Ambinder and others on Friday — we now know that President [...]

As expected, today’s immigration summit at the White House didn’t yield any big news, unless you happen to be waiting for an update on your citizenship application, in which case you’ll soon be able to check that online.
Other than that, President Obama simply acknowledged the obvious, which is that “there’s not by any means consensus [...]

The Washington Post reports that President Obama today will roll out his plan to increase regulation of the financial system.
The plan seeks to overhaul the nation’s outdated system of financial regulations. Senior officials debated using a bulldozer to clear the way for fundamental reforms but decided instead to build within the shell of the existing [...]

This afternoon, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association released a report on the impact of climate change in the United States. Its aim is as much political as it is scientific — The Guardian calls it “part of a carefully crafted strategy by the White House to help build public support for President Obama’s agenda [...]