Obama White House

Advocates for illegal immigrants fear the White House is doing the bare minimum to appease Latino voters before the midterm elections in November, while concentrating its efforts on other issues it considers more urgent. A White House commitment to overhaul the nation's immigration system this year is collapsing, with the Obama administration undecided about the best way to proceed on an issue the president had identified as a top priority. Immigration advocates who meet regularly with White House officials said the Obama administration had been considering several approaches, including convening a summit meeting devoted to the issue and putting forward its own bill.

An early chance for the Obama administration to reshape the nation's judiciary -- and counter gains made in the federal courts by conservatives -- appears close to slipping away, due to a combination of White House inattention and Republican opposition. During President Obama's first year, judicial nominations trickled out of the White House at a far slower pace than in President George W. Bush's first year. Bush announced 11 nominees for federal appeals courts in the fourth month of his tenure.

President Obama on Saturday named White House lawyer Rashad Hussain a special envoy to the Muslim world. The president announced the appointment during a video address to the seventh U.S.-Islamic World Forum meeting in Doha, Qatar. Hussain is the second special envoy named to the Organization of the Islamic Conference. The group, with more than 50 member-states, is the world's second-largest intergovernmental body after the U.N. (The first envoy, Sada Cumber, was appointed by President George W. Bush in 2008.

The latest turn in the saga of gate-crashers at a state dinner offers a tour of a Washington social universe in which everyone is an entrepreneur, every party is for a good cause, every photo ends up online, and knowing the right names can get you almost anywhere -- even into the White House. It's the world inhabited by both Michaele and Tareq Salahi, the Virginia couple made famous for slipping into the dinner without an invitation, and Carlos Allen, an enterprising party promoter now believed to have done the same.

President Obama reassured India's prime minister Tuesday that the partnership between their two countries would be "one of the defining relationships of the 21st century." Appearing with Manmohan Singh at the White House after two hours of talks, Obama said the United States and India have agreed to broaden cooperation in a variety of areas, including the economy, agriculture, technology, trade and counter-terrorism. "The United States and India are natural allies," the president said at a news conference.

What's the hottest ticket in the nation's capital? An engraved invitation to Tuesday's White House state dinner, the first hosted by President Obama. He and the first lady will honor India's prime minister. But in a departure from the traditional venue -- the elegant State Dining Room -- the Obamas will gather with a few hundred VIPs in a huge, heated tent on the South Lawn. The guest list for the black-tie gala remains a closely guarded secret. Vice President Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, will certainly be there.

When Kevin Johnson, the former NBA star who is now mayor of Sacramento, was under investigation last year for alleged financial misdeeds and inappropriate behavior with female students, he had an important ally behind the scenes. Michelle Rhee, the nationally known education reformer who is now head of the Washington, D.C., public schools, had several conversations with a federal inspector general in which she made the case for Johnson and the school he ran in Sacramento, according to the inspector general.

President Obama and his predecessor differ significantly in their approach to America's wars. They differ at least as much in their relationship with their top battlefield commander. During the Bush administration, Gen. David H. Petraeus, the ground commander in Iraq, assumed the role of a trusted advisor who frequently visited the White House or talked to the president by phone.But Obama's commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, occupies a defined place in the chain of command.

The Obama White House, stepping in where other Democrats feared to tread, has launched a potentially risky fight with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce -- attempting to bypass the nation's most powerful business organization and develop independent ties to corporate America. In recent weeks, President Obama, his Energy secretary and one of his other most senior advisors have begun criticizing the chamber publicly, casting it as a profligate lobbying organization at odds with its members in opposing the administration on such issues as consumer protection and climate change.

In an unexpected spillover from the healthcare battle, activists in Washington, and Thailand and other developing countries are accusing the Obama administration of endangering access to affordable drugs to fight AIDS and other epidemic diseases. And they say the problem may lie in the administration's reluctance to confront the giant pharmaceutical companies at a time when the companies are crucial allies in President Obama's struggle to revamp the U.S. healthcare system. Organizations such as Doctors without Borders and OxFam International long accused U.S.-based pharmaceutical companies and the Bush administration of impeding their efforts to make generic drugs available to fight major diseases in poor countries.