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September 5, 2009

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VIDEO:
Pres. Obama Weekly Address

from C-SPAN Recent Video

In this week's weekly address, Pres. Obama talks about his initiatives
to help Americans save for their retirement.

Length: 6 min.

Published: Today at 10am (ET)

VIDEO:
Arnaud De Borchgrave, Center for Strategic & Int’l Studies,
Transnational Threat Assessments Dir

from C-SPAN Recent Video

Mr. De Borchgrave discussed his recent op-ed in the Washington
Times, "Time for a Strategic Retreat," in which he
addresses the issue of a troop pullout from Afghanistan. He also,
talked about the call from some conservatives for President Obama
to pull troops out of Afghanistan.

Length:

Published: Today at 7am (ET)

VIDEO:
Erik Olson, Pew Charitable Trusts, Food & Consumer Product
Safety Dir.

from C-SPAN Recent Video

Erik Olson discusses food safety issues, as cases of E. coli
continue to spread. In July, the House approved legislation,
the Food Safety Enhancement Act, which would give the FDA greater
control over recalls, put greater responsibility on the producers
of food and require more frequent inspections.

Length:

Published: Today at 8am (ET)

White
House Not Drafting Final version of Healthcare Bill

Contrary to a yesterday's CNN report, a senior administration
official tells Chuck Todd the White House is not drafting its
own health-care bill.

Lessons
from Clinton's Health Care Defeat

Before the August break, "the chief aides to Senate Democrats
met in a nondescript Senate conference room with three former
advisers to President Bill Clinton," reports the New York
Times.

"The topic: lessons learned the last
time a Democratic president tried, but failed disastrously, to
overhaul the health care system."

•Failure Is Not an Option.

•Know your audience -- insured taxpayers, American majority

•Leave the details to Congress.

•Co-opt the opposition.

President
Obama takes his pitch to Congress

Posted: September 5th, 2009 09:22 AM ET

Baucus
could send proposal to 'Gang of Six' on Saturday

Posted: September 5th, 2009 12:13 PM ET

From CNN Senior Congressional Correspondent
Dana Bash

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Two sources familiar
with the "Gang of Six" bipartisan talks say Senate
Finance Chairman Max Baucus, D-Montana, could distribute a proposal
to the other five negotiators as early as this afternoon.

In a conference call Friday, Baucus made
clear to the other senators he wants to move forward very soon
with a health care bill.

Analysis:
High court to revisit potential election law changes

Posted: September 5th, 2009 02:52 PM ET

From CNN Supreme Court Producer Bill Mears

The campaign finance case before the court stems from a film
critical of then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Money and politics are often equated
as the fuel and engine of American democracy, but thanks to the
Supreme Court, century-old government speed bumps on the campaign
speech superhighway may soon be a thing of the past.

Obama
health care pitch hits the road

Posted: September 5th, 2009 04:15 PM ET

Obama
to workers: We'll help you save

Posted: September 5th, 2009 06:08 PM ET

Afghan
election officials defend vote-counting process

Posted: 12:48 PM ET

KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) — Afghanistan’s Independent
Election Commission sought to reassure voters Saturday that it
was “impartially and transparently” tallying the results
of the August presidential election.

Economic
growth before fiscal restraint, Geithner says

Posted: 04:56 PM ET

LONDON, England (CNN) — The consensus by the G20 ministers
to not cut back on stimulus efforts yet will ensure that countries
don’t revert to fiscal restraint too soon, U.S. Treasury
Secretary Timothy Geithner told CNN’s Richard Quest in an
exclusive interview Saturday.

Statement
of Treasury Secretary Geithner on the Administration's New Retirement
Security Initiatives

Statement
by Secretary Geithner at the G-20 Meeting of Finance Ministers
and Central Bank Governors

VACANCY:
Administrative Support Assistant, GS-0303-07

Thu, 23 Jul 2009 14:09:08 -0500

SA2-09-386-LES3 (Closing Date: Thu, 17 Sep 2009 00:00:00 EDT)

DoD
Identifies Marine Casualty

Sat, 05 Sep 2009 14:05:00 -0500

Pelosi:
No public option, no bill

from Politico.com: congress by Alex Isenstadt

Any health bill "without a strong public option will not
pass the House," she says.

Reid:
"We're going to do everything we can to do a public option
or something like a public option," Reid said

from Politico.com: Politics by Manu Raju

Weekly
Address: President Obama Announces New Initiatives for Retirement
Savings

In this week’s address, President Barack Obama will announce
new steps to make it easier for American families to save for
retirement. These new initiatives will complement the president’s
major legislative proposals to boost participation in IRAs and
match retirement savings.

Statement
by the Press Secretary on Israeli Settlements

We regret the reports of Israel's plans to approve additional
settlement construction. Continued settlement activity is inconsistent
with Israel's commitment under the Roadmap.

Statement
from the President on the First Time Disclosure Policy for White
House Visitor Logs

As another indication of his commitment to an open and transparent
government, the President announced today that for the first
time in history, records of White House visitors will be released

Opening
Up the People’s House

Posted by Norm Eisen

Today, the President took another important step toward a more
open and transparent government by announcing a historic new
policy to voluntarily disclose White House visitor access records.
Each month, records of visitors from the previous 90-120 days
will be made available online.

Flu
Prevention is Elementary

Posted by Principal Robert Hindman

Ed. Note: As the Administration continues
to prepare for H1N1 and flu season across all federal agencies,
we welcome Principal Hindman to give us a glimpse of what school
administrators are doing to prepare locally.

Ethics
Update

Posted by Norm Eisen

We have previously reported six limited
waivers that have been granted by the White House pursuant to
the President’s Executive Order on Ethics for Executive
Branch personnel – the strongest ethics standards in U.S.
government history. Three of these waivers involved lobbying-related
issues and three did not. We blogged about them here, here, and
here.

Weekly
Address: Labor Day and Fair Rewards for Hard Work

Posted by Jesse Lee

With Labor Day approaching, the President commits to rebuilding
the economy so that a lifetime of hard work leads to a comfortable
retirement, and explains his proposal to help to get there.

Pelosi:
No public option, no bill

from Politico.com: congress by Alex Isenstadt

Any health bill "without a strong public option will not
pass the House," she says.

White
House's new health care pitch

from Politico.com: Politics by Carrie Budoff
Brown

President
Obama's 'Czars'

from Politico.com: Politics by Politico
Staff

POLITICO has compiled a wide-ranging list of President Obama's
various "czars."

Reid:
"We're going to do everything we can to do a public option
or something like a public option," Reid said

from Politico.com: Politics by Manu Raju

Labor
pushes on Mass. succession

from Politico.com: Politics by Michael
Falcone

Intensive effort underway to persuade legislators to support
the appointment of an interim successor.

Biden:
Stimulus right thing 'morally'

from Politico.com: Politics by Carol E.
Lee

Biden tries to blunt lingering skepticism of the Obama administration’s
$787 billion stimulus plan.

American
majority escalate public option push

from Politico.com: Politics by Carrie Budoff
Brown

Their message: Listen to the people who elected you.

U.S.,
Israel on collision course over settlements

from Reuters: Top News

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Israeli government's plan to approve
more construction in Jewish settlements drew a sharp rebuke from
the Obama administration on Friday, further complicating U.S.
efforts to revive Middle East peace talks.

World
must plan for climate emergency: academy

from Reuters: Environment

LONDON (Reuters) - Humans may have to reset the Earth's natural
thermostat and develop new technologies like reflecting sunlight
back into space if climate talks fail, Britain's top science
academy said on Tuesday.

Arctic
now warmest in 2000 years, researchers say

from Reuters: Environment

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Climate-warming greenhouse gas emissions
pushed Arctic temperatures in the last decade to the highest
levels in at least 2,000 years, reversing a natural cooling trend
that should have lasted four more millennia.

Congress
to probe SEC's lapse on Madoff

from Reuters: Business News

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An investigative panel in the U.S. Congress
will hold hearings on the failure of the U.S. Securities and
Exchange Commission to follow clues that could have uncovered
Bernard Madoff's $65 billion Ponzi scheme.

SEC,
CFTC urged to align rules to police markets

from Reuters: Business News

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The two main U.S. regulators policing
the securities and futures markets were urged on Thursday to
align their rules for ferreting out fraud, protecting investors
and punishing wrongdoers.

CFTC
sheds new light on funds in commodities

from Reuters: Business News

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Money managers were mostly net long on major
U.S. commodities in the week to September 1, according to a government
report issued on Friday to increase transparency on hedge fund
bets in the markets.

China
H1N1 vaccine gets green light

from Reuters Video: Most Watched Videos

Sep 03 - Chinese vaccine maker Sinovac becomes one of the first
companies worldwide to mass-produce a vaccine for the H1N1 strain
of flu.

US
eases travel curbs for Cuba

from Reuters Video: Latest Videos US

Sep. 4 - The US have given the green light to Cuban Americans,
allowing unlimited travel to Cuba to visit family members.

China,
U.S. may cooperate on world's biggest telescope

from Reuters: Science News

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Astronomers from China and the United States
may cooperate on building the world's largest telescope aimed
at providing deeper insight into the very early stages of the
universe, Xinhua news agency reported on Friday.

Kepler
telescope can find "oodles" of Earth like exoplanets:
NASA

from Reuters: Science News

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The orbiting Kepler telescope has spotted
a Jupiter-sized planet around another star -- a sighting that
demonstrates it can see Earth-like planets if they are out there,
scientists reported on Thursday.

Flu
drugs little use for children, experts say

from Reuters: Science News

LONDON (Reuters) - Children should not routinely be treated with
flu drugs like Tamiflu since there is no clear evidence they
prevent complications and the medicines may do more harm than
good, British researchers said on Monday.

NASA
wants proposals for space taxis

from Reuters: Science News

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - NASA plans to use $50 million
of federal economic stimulus funds to seed development of commercial
passenger transportation service to space, agency officials said
on Monday.

Germany
proposes unmanned moon landing for 2015

from Reuters: Science News

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany should try to launch an unmanned mission
to the moon by around 2015, the government official in charge
of aerospace matters said on Wednesday.

IBM
uses DNA to make next-gen microchips

from Reuters: Science News

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - International Business Machines Corp
is looking to the building blocks of our bodies -- DNA -- to
be the structure of next-generation microchips.

Building
block of life amino acid glycine found on comet

from Reuters: Science News

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The amino acid glycine, a fundamental
building block of proteins, has been found in a comet for the
first time, bolstering the theory that raw ingredients of life
arrived on Earth from outer space, scientists said on Monday.

Arms
expert warns new mind drugs eyed by military

from Reuters: Science News

GENEVA (Reuters) - A leading expert on chemical and biological
arms control called Wednesday for urgent efforts to stop new
mind-altering drugs developed for medical purposes from being
adopted by the military for use in warfare.

Experts
identify fungus-resistant gene in rice

from Reuters: Science News

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Researchers in Japan have identified a
gene that allows rice plants to fight off a fungal disease called
blast, which may open the way for farmers to cultivate hardier
plants.

U.N.
chief calls for urgent action on climate

from Reuters: Science News

LONGYEARBYEN, Svalbard (Reuters) - United Nations Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon called on world leaders on Monday to take urgent
action to combat climate change for the sake of "the future
of humanity."

Study
finds potential way to make an AIDS vaccine

from Reuters: Science News

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The discovery of immune system particles
that attack the AIDS virus may finally open a way to make a vaccine
that could protect people against the deadly and incurable infection,
U.S. researchers said on Thursday.

Obama
unveils measures to spur retirement saving

from Reuters: Politics

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama announced
new measures on Saturday to encourage Americans to save more
money for retirement, a move the White House said would put the
economy on a stronger footing in the future.

U.S.
cuts more than $30 million in aid to Honduras

from Reuters: Politics

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States said on Thursday it
would cut more than $30 million in aid to Honduras in an effort
to pressure the de facto government to step down and allow ousted
President Manuel Zelaya to return to power.

Russia
says progress made on U.S. nuclear arms deal

from Reuters: Politics

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia and the United States have made progress
on reaching a new deal to cut vast Cold War arsenals of nuclear
weapons, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was quoted as
saying on Thursday by local news agencies.

White
House to report on jobs saved and created

from Reuters: Politics

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House will report on September
10 on the number of jobs saved and created under President Barack
Obama's $787 billion program to jump-start the economy, an administration
official said on Thursday.

Obama
to lay out specifics on healthcare: Biden

from Reuters: Politics

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama will lay out specifics
of his proposed healthcare overhaul when he addresses Congress
on Wednesday, Vice President Joe Biden said, as the administration
sought to regain control of the debate.

Obama
picks Punke to be U.S. ambassador to WTO

from Reuters: Politics

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama intends to nominate
Michael Punke to be U.S. ambassador to the World Trade Organization,
the White House said on Thursday.

FTC
may pick privacy expert, Obama ally: sources

from Reuters: Politics

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A privacy and consumer protection expert
in the North Carolina attorney general's office and an Hispanic
ally of President Barack Obama are being considered for the Federal
Trade Commission, according to antitrust sources with knowledge
of the administration's thinking.

Sen
Schumer calls for making SEC self-funded

from Reuters: Politics

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission,
criticized this week for failing to detect the Bernard Madoff's
$65 billion Ponzi scam, needs more money and a new way of getting
it, said a key lawmaker on Thursday.

Ashcroft
aide threatens to take Fifth

from Politico.com: Politics by John Bresnahan

David Ayres may try to avoid testifying against a GOP lobbyist
caught up in the Abramoff scandal.

Pelosi:
House won't pass bill without a public option

from Politico.com: Politics by Alex Isenstadt

Any health bill "without a strong public option will not
pass the House," she says.

Ron
Paul finds support for Fed audit

from Reuters: Politics

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - After decades of pushing long-shot causes
like abolishing the income tax and reinstating the gold standard,
Republican Representative Ron Paul finds himself in an unaccustomed
spot: on the cusp of legislative victory.

U.S.-China
climate deal likely at Obama visit: senator

from Reuters: Politics

BEIJING (Reuters) - The United States and China are likely to
sign a new bilateral agreement to combat climate change during
President Barack Obama's visit to Beijing in November, Washington
senator Maria Cantwell said on Friday.

Intensified
Doha talks to resume this month

from Reuters: Politics

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Key trade ministers agreed on Friday to
relaunch the World Trade Organization's Doha talks with intensified
negotiations later this month, India's Commerce Minister, Anand
Sharma, said on Friday.

U.S.
wants G20 to axe fuel subsidies: source

from Reuters: Politics

(Reuters) - The United States plans to call on the Group of 20
to eliminate fossil fuel subsidies in five years and increase
oil market transparency when the group meets at the end of the
month, according to a source familiar with the proposal.

U.S.
sees progress on nuclear arms deal with Russia

from Reuters: Politics

* U.S. says talks progress, next round starts September 21

Iran
reportedly ready to hold talks with West