Barack Obama

Federal authorities in Tennessee announced Monday that they had arrested two alleged white supremacists who were reportedly planning a killing spree that would end with the assassination of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. Daniel Cowart, 20, of Bells, Tenn., and Paul Schlesselman, 18, of West Helena, Ark., were charged in U.S. District Court in Jackson, Tenn.

The housing plan unveiled by President Obama on Wednesday goes further than any previous effort to break the vicious cycle of declining home values, rising mortgage defaults and frozen credit that triggered the country's worst recession since the 1930s. And it embraces strategies that attack the complex problems on several fronts but without requiring a long struggle in Congress.

As Barack Obama builds his administration and prepares to take office next week, his political team is quietly planning for a nationwide hiring binge that would marshal an army of full-time organizers to press the new president's agenda and lay the foundation for his reelection. The organization, known internally as "Barack Obama 2.

President Obama moved Wednesday to rein in the pay of executives whose companies get taxpayer bailout money -- putting a $500,000 cap on annual compensation, limiting "golden parachutes" to departing bigwigs and requiring corporate boards to adopt policies on luxury expenditures such as lavish entertainment and parties.

Barack Obama portrays his stimulus plan as a quick jolt for the ailing economy and a "down payment" on his priorities as president. But those goals appear to be colliding in at least one key area: energy independence.

As President Obama names more policy czars to his White House team -- high-level staff members who will help oversee the administration's top initiatives -- some lawmakers and Washington interest groups are raising concerns that he may be subverting the authority of Congress and concentrating too much power in the presidency. The idea of these "super aides," who will work across agency lines to push the president's agenda, is not a new one.

President Obama will deliver his promised address to Muslims worldwide from Egypt, a nation the White House considers key to improving relations in the Middle East. Obama had said he would make the speech from a Muslim capital, but the country was not disclosed until Friday. "This is a continuing effort of the president to engage the Muslim world," White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said. "The president has high hopes for a stronger relationship."

President Obama urged Congress to provide an extra $250 each to about 57 million seniors, veterans and people with disabilities as the Social Security Administration prepared to announce today that there would be no cost-of-living raise in 2010. Social Security benefits are pegged to inflation, which has been negative this year. But by law, benefits cannot decline. This would be the first time benefits have not increased since 1975, when cost-of-living adjustments became automatic.

Making good on a popular campaign pledge, President Obama will sign an executive order Monday rescinding restrictions on federal funding for human embryonic stem cell research, administration officials said Friday -- instantly making hundreds of millions of new dollars available for the controversial science.

As Congress moves slowly on immigration reform, President Obama is making numerous policy changes in enforcement and other areas that are designed to shift priorities and boost confidence in the administration as it lays the groundwork for possible legislation. Most of the changes are being driven by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and are primarily aimed at illegal immigrants with criminal records and employers who hire undocumented workers.

Striding purposefully, his smile lighting up a rainy afternoon, Barack Obama appears to have arrived here early to tour an elementary school he attended as a boy. But wait. It's not him. The U.S. president is still back in Washington shepherding his healthcare bill toward passage. He's not due to arrive in Indonesia until next week. So who is this guy? He's Ilham Anas, a 34-year-old teen-magazine photographer who has parlayed a striking resemblance to the American president into his own brand of celebrity.

When he was a senator, Barack Obama pushed through a law setting up a kind of "Google-for-government" website -- a one-stop-shop for tracking the $1 trillion handed out in federal contracts. Obama said the new site would help create a more transparent government. But now that he is president, Obama's Office of Management and Budget is responsible for keeping up the website -- and government auditors have found deficiencies. A Government Accountability Office audit released Friday found broad compliance with the law establishing the spending tracker.

"The Story of Ruby Bridges" Robert Coles Ruby stood in the front of the mob. She was praying for them. She was the only African American child to attend a New Orleans elementary school in 1960. You might find it in the library. Reviewed by Marysol, 8 Dorris Place Elementary Los Angeles "A Picture Book of Harriet Tubman" David A. Adler Harriet Tubman fought for freedom, even as a young girl. She was an African American slave.

In November 2008, Alex Gevedon cast his presidential ballot for Barack Obama, joining thousands of independents who helped deliver an unexpectedly huge win for the Democrat here in Nevada. But ask his feelings about the president today and Gevedon lets out a long burst of air, as though he -- and not just his view of Obama -- was rapidly deflating. He sighs once. Twice. "Honestly? I didn't think the country would stay that bad this long," Gevedon finally says. He is 23 and works part-time doing cleanup work at a surgery center.

Not a soap fetishist? Unsure when is the proper time to bust out "the nice soap"? You still may fall in love with the Spell It Out soaps by L.A.-based Dugshop, which recently launched Bubblegenius.com. At 2 1/2 inches, each is smaller than you might think. But can you imagine anything more delightful, cheerful or Dadaist than these soaps ($5 apiece) in a little dish next to the sink, like an offering of oversized Sweethearts? Dugshop's other products include a Morning Bagels Soap Set that looks -- and reportedly smells -- like freshly baked bagels, and the Wright Suds Stained Glass Window Soap based on the designs of Frank Lloyd Wright.

President Obama's State of the Union address was an unusually candid attempt to recapture the magic of his first months in office -- an effort to remind Americans why they admired him in January 2009, and to persuade them to feel that way again. "I campaigned on the promise of change," Obama said. "And right now, I know there are many Americans who aren't sure that they still believe we can change -- or that I can deliver it. [But] I never suggested that change would be easy." In a speech that lasted more than an hour, the president offered a long list of federal initiatives, many of which he has proposed before, aimed at creating new jobs or saving old ones.

Sipping coffee in a strip mall, Joseph Farah looks like something out of a spy novel -- suave, mysterious, bushy black mustache. He's surprisingly relaxed, considering he believes his life is in danger because of his occupation. He runs a must-read website for anyone who hates Barack Obama. Once a little-known Los Angeles newspaper editor, Farah has become a leading impresario of America's disaffected right, serving up a mix of reporting and wild speculation to an audience eager to think the worst of the president.

As the one-year anniversary of Barack Obama's presidency rolls around, a fresh wave of polling shows his approval ratings have dropped amid public anxiety over his handling of the economy, healthcare and other issues. Much as they say they like the president personally, people have expressed unhappiness about some of his actions. Obama's advisors are devising ways to revive his political prospects and rebuild the coalition that propelled him into office, but the overriding question for 2010 is: Can President Obama rebound?

For a president with a daunting domestic agenda and limited experience in foreign policy, Barack Obama has taken on an unusually active world role. He has made important policy overtures to America's adversaries, delivered major addresses in Cairo, Prague, Moscow and at the United Nations, and set a White House record with visits to more than 20 countries in his first year in office. And with his December speech on Afghanistan, he now owns that war. Yet it will be at least a year before we know whether the Afghan surge is bringing the hoped-for results.

Ayear ago, President-elect Barack Obama was confronted with a fast-sinking economy, mounting unemployment and a wave of mortgage defaults that threatened to oust millions of people from their homes. The country seems to be pointed in the other direction today, thanks in part to a $787-billion economic stimulus package that Congress passed in February at Obama's urging. Nevertheless, the double-digit unemployment rate threatens to keep the economy limping for several years. Consumers are far more confident than they were in December 2008, but there is growing anxiety about Washington's handling of the crisis -- the debt it's amassing, its deep intervention into the auto, banking and housing industries, and the costs it may impose in the name of healthcare reform and climate change.