White House

Distancing himself from Republicans on housing issues, President Obama pitched a $5-billion to $10-billion plan to help a key segment of struggling homeowners — those still making monthly payments, but on underwater mortgages. Obama proposed Wednesday to help about 3.5 million people with good credit who are unable to refinance at historically low rates because their homes are worth less than their mortgages. He argued that those homeowners — and the country — couldn't afford to let the housing market bottom out, as many Republicans, including presidential candidate Mitt Romney, have advocated.

CHICAGO - When the White House sent a last-minute invitation for Asif Ali Zardari to attend the two-day NATO summit, they were taking a highly public gamble. Would sharing the spotlight with President Obama and other global leaders induce the Pakistani president to allow vital supplies to reach alliance troops fighting in Afghanistan? But long before the summit ended Monday, the answer was clear: No deal. Zardari's refusal to reopen the supply routes left a diplomatic blot on a summit that NATO sought to cast as the beginning of the end of the conflict in Afghanistan.

washington -- Mitt Romney twice emphasized his unique business background when he and eight other Republican presidential candidates faced off in a debate last week in Iowa. "I've spent the last, as I've told you, 25 years in the private sector," former Massachusetts Gov. Romney declared at one point. "I understand why jobs come and why jobs go. I've done business in 20 countries."

After months of trading blame and criticism from afar, President Obama and GOPcongressional leaders will meet Wednesday to discuss the economy - and, presumably, trade blame and criticism in person, more politely. The bipartisan gathering at the White House, the first since late February, is billed as a discussion of legislative solutions to the sluggish economy. The White House says President Obama will push House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.)

The biggest home in Los Angeles County is ready for a new nickname: The 56,500-square-foot Manor, dubbed Candyland after owner Candy Spelling, has been sold to another wealthy socialite, British heiress Petra Ecclestone, in an all-cash deal for $85 million. As steep as that price is, it's not a record or even close to what Spelling was asking. The priciest Southland home transaction was the 2000 sale of an 8-acre estate in Bel-Air to financial executive Gary Winnick in a deal that included the trade of other land, for a total value of about $94 million.

The most ambitious federal mortgage program to date aimed at millions of underwater homeowners is poised to take off in the coming two weeks, yet some key issues could hinder borrower participation. One of them involves something most owners know nothing about: Who was your mortgage insurer on your underwater loan? Though it was announced by the Obama administration late last year, "HARP 2.0" — the second version of the Home Affordable Refinance Program — will finally hit full stride around the middle of this month, when Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac finish tweaking their automated underwriting systems to accept applications, and lenders and mortgage insurance companies start handling large volumes of requests.

CHICAGO - When the White House sent a last-minute invitation for Asif Ali Zardari to attend the two-day NATO summit, they were taking a highly public gamble. Would sharing the spotlight with President Obama and other global leaders induce the Pakistani president to allow vital supplies to reach alliance troops fighting in Afghanistan? But long before the summit ended Monday, the answer was clear: No deal. Zardari's refusal to reopen the supply routes left a diplomatic blot on a summit that NATO sought to cast as the beginning of the end of the conflict in Afghanistan.

A diamond-encrusted lining is emerging in Southern California's cloudy real estate market. At least a half-dozen Westside mega-estates have sold for more than $20 million so far this year — creating a deafening buzz in local realty circles. Only a few home sales in other Southland counties have surpassed the $20-million mark. On the horizon is the close of Candy Spelling's larger-than-White-House-sized "Manor," which has reigned supreme from its $150-million listing price perch in Holmby Hills for more than two years and is expected to eclipse last year's record $50-million Bel-Air sale by a wide margin.

LAFAYETTE, La. - Visitors to this oil town might be forgiven for wondering whether the BP oil spill and subsequent drilling moratorium ever happened. "Now hiring" signs are plastered on billboards around town, and hotels such as the Crowne Plaza are chock full of seminars training students to work on offshore rigs. Many offshore companies can't find enough workers for the jobs they're listing. This parish has the lowest unemployment rate in Louisiana, 4.8%. Such is the opportunity on the offshore rigs that Sheila Clark, whose husband, Donald, died in the Deepwater Horizon explosion two years ago, said her 22-year-old son recently asked her how she'd feel if he went to work on a rig. "I can't stop him," said Clark, who moved to Baton Rouge after her husband's death.

In his early days, Ed Ruscha painted single words that packed a punch: "oof," "slam," "smash," "honk." In the '80s, he took a subtler approach, floating equivocal phrases in painted skies. Consider "I Think I'll . . .," a 1983 piece that has moved into the first family's living quarters at the White House, courtesy of the National Gallery of Art in Washington. The longer you look at the painting, the more words emerge from a streaky red sunset. The phrase "I think maybe I'll . . .," in large block letters, descends from the top left to lower right of the 53 3/4 -by-63 3/4 -inch canvas.

Washington is full of nerds. I know. I speak nerd, not fluently mind you, at least not anymore. But I certainly know more than a few phrases memorized from a Berlitz nerd-to-English phrase book. I can talk Dungeons & Dragons (both D&D and AD&D). I know about the Golden Age of Comics (as in comic books -- if you thought that was a reference to Bob Newhart's heyday, subtract 20 nerd points right there). Anyway, if you spend any time in Washington you'll find nerds. What happens is most of them sublimate their fixations with comics, or baseball cards, or 1960s British comedies to policy minutiae and political arcana.

ELDON, Iowa - Beth Howard sits at her kitchen table on a Sunday morning and pulls back the curtain to peer at a group of rosy-cheeked youths taking pictures on her front lawn. They pair off to stand side by side in the pose familiar to millions - the dour farmer with a pitchfork, the unsmiling woman beside him in front of the white house. No one notices the woman in flannel pajamas sitting inside. "People seldom know that people live here, much less that there's someone watching them from the other side of the curtain," says Howard, who rents the house made famous in Grant Wood's painting "American Gothic.

WASHINGTON -- If the White House Correspondents' Dinner was any indication, all it takes to get a room packed with journalists and celebrities laughing is a series of jokes about eating dogs, the size of Mitt Romney's bank account and Kim Kardashian's attendance. The dinner, a celebration of Washington journalists, is complete with awards for excellent coverage and scholarships for aspiring reporters, but what ends up taking all of the headlines is the president's humorous address and the subsequent comedic routine by the host.

If you've been holding your breath to see whether Mitt Romney would pivot to the center now that it's a two-man race between him and President Obama, you can exhale; he won't. Romney made that clear in his victory speech after last week's primaries in the Northeast. Instead, at least for now, the presumptive nominee's campaign will focus relentlessly on what he sees as the president's wrongheaded approach to the economy. His message boils down to this: Obama favors government intervention in the economy, "a path where our lives will be ruled by bureaucrats and boards," a path that "leads to chronic high unemployment, crushing debt and stagnant wages.

WASHINGTON - Add cyber-security to the list of tough problems Washington can't agree on how to tackle. A bipartisan bill whose chief sponsors are the chairman and ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee has run into trouble, including opposition from leading privacy groups and the White House. The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, introduced by Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) and Rep.C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Md.), passed the Republican-controlled House on Thursday night.

WASHINGTON -- The plan was for the debate on the controversial Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act to take place on Thursday, with the vote the next day. As it turns out, the legislation came to a surprising vote after the debate tonight, eventually passing in the House by a vote of 248-168. The bill's passage, despite a veto threat from the White House Wednesday, now places the responsibility in the lap of the Senate, which has its own cybersecurity legislation in the works.

The leader of the free world had been in office only two days when he personally rang up his press secretary to seek some crucial input. Perhaps a communications strategy for his first 100 days? Maybe some help ironing out his upcoming address to Congress? Well, no. Not exactly. President George Herbert Walker Bush needed assistance with something far more immediate: a guest list for a White House party top-heavy with men. The President said, " 'I'm putting together this group for dinner,' " Marlin Fitzwater recalls.

Their name conjures up the most celebrated moment of America's post-Sept. 11 military campaigns. Now the Navy SEALs belong to a grimmer chapter in history: the most deadly incident for U.S. forces in the 10-year Afghanistan war. Three months after they killed Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in neighboring Pakistan and cemented their place in military legend, the SEALs suffered a devastating loss when nearly two dozen of the elite troops were among...

For her work in a Burbank classroom, Rebecca Mieliwocki earned a trip to the White House. Mieliwocki, a seventh-grade English teacher at Luther Burbank Middle School, was recognized Tuesday by President Obama as the National Teacher of the Year. She was cheered loudly at the event, which also honored the winners of each state's teacher of the year awards. Obama pointed out a particularly boisterous group. "This is Rebecca's crew right here, who are very proud. Auntie, cousins?"