Flanked by Vice President Joe Biden, the original author of the 1994 Violence Against Women Act, President Barack Obama signed a reauthorization of the legislation Thursday.
The reauthorization, which includes expansion of protections to gay couples and Native American women, passed the House last month after over a year of partisan disagreement over its renewal.
Obama: Nation stronger, GOP should back his plans
AP: US President Barack Obama urged Congress, during the State of the Union address on Tuesday night, to embrace his plans to use government money for job creation and strengthening the nation’s middle class.
Obama called for increased federal spending to fix the nation’s roads and bridges. He also called for the first increase in minimum wage in six years. He said his proposals would not increase the deficit.
Photo credit: AP
AP: In a pre-Super Bowl interview on CBS, US President Barack Obama said the Boy Scouts of America should open its membership to gays and lesbians when its national executive board discusses the issue this week.
During the interview, Obama praised the scouts as a “great institution” that provides young people with lifelong leadership training and opportunities. He said “no one should be barred from that.”
15-year-old Hadiya Pendleton was fatally shot yesterday at a Chicago park about a week after she attended President Barack Obama’s inauguration and performed at inaugural events with her high school’s band and drill team, the Chicago Tribune reports.
A 16-year-old boy with Pendleton in the park was wounded in the attack and remained in serious condition Tuesday night.
Obama calls for equality for women, gays in inaugural address
In his second inaugural address, U.S. President Barack Obama urged the nation to make sure that women were paid equally to men and that gay men and lesbians were treated equally under the law.
“Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law — for if we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well,” he said.
Obama also vowed to respond to the threat of climate change, to maintain economic vitality, to protect the poor and to defend the country’s people through “strength of arms and rule of law.” Read more from The New York Times.
Read the full text of Obama’s inaugural speech from NBC News.
More on today’s inaugural events on BreakingNews.com.
Photo: President Barack Obama takes the oath of office during the 57th Presidential Inauguration ceremonial swearing-in at the Capitol on Jan. 21, 2013, in Washington, D.C. (Emmanuel Dunand / AFP - Getty Images)
Obama unveils gun proposals, says ‘we are responsible for each other’
Saying “the only way we’ll change is if the American people demand it,” President Obama has announced a $500 million program of executive actions and legislative proposals to curb gun violence following the school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut.
NBC News reports some of the main legislative proposals backed by Obama and Vice President Joe Biden are:
The president also laid out a series of 23 executive actions - free from a Congressional blockade — intended to strengthen existing laws, augment mental health measures and promote federal research on gun crime through the Centers for Disease Control.
Read more on BreakingNews.com.
Photo: President Barack Obama speaks about proposals to reduce gun violence as Vice President Joe Biden watches on Jan. 16, 2013. (Mandel Ngan / AFP - Getty Images)
The evangelical pastor chosen to give the benediction at President Barack Obama’s inauguration has withdrawn after publicaiton of anti-gay remarks he made two decades ago, the Associated Press reportes
The Rev. Louie Giglio said in a statement Thursday that he’s withdrawing because he thinks the message of mercy he intended will be dwarfed by attention to his past comments.
More from the Associated Press here.
President Barack Obama arrives with Leon Panetta and Chuck Hagel during his press briefing to announce his nomination of Hagel as Secretary of Defense.
Photo: Brendan Smialowski / AFP - Getty Images
BREAKING: Obama to nominate Sen. John Kerry as secretary of state
President Obama plans to nominate Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts as secretary of state, a senior administration official says.
The decision by Obama is expected to be announced early Friday afternoon, The New York Times reports.
The appointment of Mr. Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat and his party’s former presidential nominee in 2004, has been widely expected since last week, when Susan E. Rice, the ambassador to the United Nations, asked Mr. Obama to withdraw her candidacy for the post.
Photo: Sen. John Kerry waves at the end of his speech during the final session of the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, on September 6, 2012. (Jason Reed / Reuters)
US President Barack Obama named TIME’s Person of the Year
Today: TIME magazine unveiled Barack Obama as the 2012 choice for its Person of the Year cover Wednesday. On Tuesday, the magazine’s short list for the cover was revealed. In addition to Obama, those choices included Marissa Mayer, Mohammed Morsi, undocumented Americans, Bill and Hillary Clinton, Malala Yousafzai, Tim Cook, and Higgs Boson and Italian physicist Fabiola Giannati.
The magazine’s Person of the Year has been a topic of year-end debate ever since Charles Lindbergh was chosen the first Man of the Year in 1927.
Read the TIME cover story here.
Photo: US President Barack Obama smiles while addressing his 1st news conference since his reelection at the White House in Washington, November 14, 2012. (Reuters / Kevin Lamarque)
UN envoy Susan Rice drops out of running for Secretary of State
BREAKING: U.N. envoy Susan Rice is dropping out of the running to be the next US secretary of state after months of criticism over her comments on the assault on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, NBC News reports.
“If nominated, I am now convinced that the confirmation process would be lengthy, disruptive and costly – to you and to our most pressing national and international priorities,” Rice wrote in a letter to President Obama.
More updates on BreakingNews.com.
Photo: Susan Rice speaks with the media after Security Council consultations at U.N. headquarters in New York on June 7, 2012. (Reuters / Allison Joyce)
President Obama speaks to residents in Staten Island, N.Y., as he visits neighborhoods hit by Hurricane Sandy.
More on this story from NBCNews here.
(Photo: Mandel Ngan - AFP/Getty Images)
Obama wins Florida, tops Romney 332 to 206 in electoral votes
Barack Obama has been declared the winner in Florida, topping Mitt Romney in the final electoral vote tally 332 to 206, AP reports.
Florida officials said Obama had 50% of the vote to Romney’s 49.1%, a margin of about 74,000 votes.
Photo: President Barack Obama addresses supporters during his election night rally in Chicago, Nov. 6, 2012. (Kevin Lamarque / Reuters)
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(Photo: Feb. 28, 2012, archive photo; John Makely / msnbc.com)
The New York Times reports that NYC Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said that Hurricane Sandy had reshaped his thinking about the presidential campaign, and he announced that he was endorsing President Obama.
Bloomberg, a political independent in this third term leading New York City, has been sharply critical of both Mr. Obama, a Democrat, and Mitt Romney, the president’s Republican rival, saying that both men have failed to candidly confront the problems afflicting the nation.
More from the Times here.
