White House

WASHINGTON - They returned home to a politically traumatized nation that treated them with indifference and scorn. Now, veterans' advocates fear the country will again miss an opportunity to recognize the toil and torment of the 3 million service members sent to fight the Vietnam War. The Pentagon's plans to celebrate the veterans - five years in the making - are sputtering. This Memorial Day is supposed to be the curtain-raiser for a series of gatherings to mark the 50th anniversary of the beginning of US involvement in the decade-plus war and to honor those who served.

WASHINGTON - For decades at the White House, photographs of the president at work and at play have hung throughout the West Wing, and each print soon gives way to a more recent shot. But one picture of President Obama remains after three years. In the photo, Obama looks to be bowing to a sharply dressed 5-year-old boy, who stands erect beside the Oval Office desk, his arm raised to touch the president's hair. The image has struck so many White House aides and visitors that, by popular demand, it stays put while others come and go. As a candidate and as president, Obama...

Polls show that frustration with Washington has never been higher — and who could argue? Most Americans believe the country is on the wrong track. Most lawmakers openly concede that nothing will get done before the November elections. The leaders of both parties are already trading threats over the possibility of a national debt default next year. Barack Obama got elected by promising to change the tone in Washington, but clearly he's failed, as George W. Bush did before him. That should be a clue that the partisan animosity consuming the political system doesn't originate in the White House.

The president of the United States travels in a government aircraft that contains his private cabin and bed. When Air Force One takes off and lands, all other air traffic halts. A motorcade awaits wherever he goes. And he has a staff that includes not just government aides but chefs, porters, and a personal doctor. In short, if anyone can handle the rigors of the road, it's him. But President Obama has been keeping some long days lately, often due to fund-raising events for his reelection campaign.

News flash: The next president of the United States, like the last 29, will be a Republican or a Democrat. That's not news, you say? But surely it must be. Haven't we been hearing for months that the post-partisan hour was finally at hand? Weren't legions of Americans said to be ready to turn their backs on the old two-party system, with all its divisiveness and ideological rigidity? Haven't tens of millions of dollars been donated to Americans Elect , the widely praised anti-special-interest reform group intent on anointing a genuinely bipartisan ticket — a presidential candidate...

Tim Thomas separated himself from his Bruins' teammates yesterday afternoon when he refused to join them at the White House, a day meant to celebrate their 2011 Stanley Cup championship. The two-time Vezina Trophy winner later in the day issued a statement, released by NHL.com and on Thomas's Facebook page just after 6 p.m., noting his disillusionment with the United States government and offering that as his reason not to stand with his team. "I believe the federal government has grown out of control," he stated, "threatening the rights, liberties, and property of the...

Am I the only woman over 50 who didn't sleep with JFK - or at least claim to have slept with him? The latest kiss-and-tell memoir comes nearly half a century after the president's death: "Once Upon a Secret: My Affair With President John F. Kennedy and Its Aftermath" by Mimi Alford. In 1962, Mimi Beardsley was a 19-year-old White House intern when, as she tells it, she was picked out of the press-office pool to have sex with the president when Jacqueline Kennedy was out of town.

ew sent to indesign on 0105 On November 6, 2011, Bill McKibben arrived at Washington, D.C.'s, Lafayette Park to protest the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, designed to carry oil 1,700 miles from Alberta, Canada, to refineries on the Gulf of Mexico. McKibben, a Vermont writer and environmentalist, had been one of 1,252 people arrested in front of the White House in August and September, protesting the same pipeline. He'd spent two nights in the district's Central Cell Block, and now was back with thousands more people and a bold new plan.

WASHINGTON - The House Judiciary Committee filed suit yesterday to force former White House counsel Harriet Miers and White House chief of staff Joshua Bolten to provide information about the firing of US attorneys. The lawsuit filed in federal court says Miers is not immune from the obligation to testify, and that she and Bolten must identify all documents that are being withheld from Congress. In a statement announcing the lawsuit, House Judiciary Committee chairman John Conyers said, "We will not allow the administration to steamroll Congress.

WASHINGTON - The Bruins partied on the Rogers Arena ice and in the visiting dressing room in Vancouver. They paraded through Boston with the Stanley Cup. They racked up a six-digit bar tab while celebrating their championship. They shepherded the Cup around the world. They raised the championship banner at TD Garden. Yesterday, seven months after winning the title, the Bruins capped their 2011-12 run by celebrating last season's achievements at the White House with President Obama.

WASHINGTON - White House counterterrorism chief John Brennan has assumed responsibility for choosing which suspects could be targeted for drone attacks or raids, establishing a new procedure for military and CIA targets. The effort concentrates power over the use of lethal US force outside war zones within one small team at the White House. The process, which is about a month old, means Brennan's staff consults with the State Department and other agencies as to who should go on the target list, making the Pentagon's role less relevant, according to two current and three...

The White House says it is not expecting to finish negotiations with Pakistan over reopening key supply lines during the NATO summit. Deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes says the U.S. does believe the issue will be resolved but says there is still work to be done. Rhodes spoke to reporters traveling with Obama to Chicago, where he is hosting the NATO summit. Pakistan closed the supply lines in November in response to a US airstrike that killed two dozen Pakistani soldiers.

News flash: The next president of the United States, like the last 29, will be a Republican or a Democrat. That's not news, you say? But surely it must be. Haven't we been hearing for months that the post-partisan hour was finally at hand? Weren't legions of Americans said to be ready to turn their backs on the old two-party system, with all its divisiveness and ideological rigidity? Haven't tens of millions of dollars been donated to Americans Elect , the widely praised anti-special-interest reform group intent on anointing a genuinely bipartisan ticket —...

The Obama administration has named the first full ambassador to Myanmar in more than two decades as U.S. political ties warm with the former Southeast Asian pariah state. As has been long expected, the White House tapped its current special envoy for Myanmar to become a full ambassador. Derek Mitchell has overseen U.S. engagement with Myanmar as the country also known as Burma has undergone startling political reform. If confirmed by the Senate, Mitchell would be the first U.S. ambassador in the country since 1990.

President Barack Obama welcomes Major League Soccer champions the LA Galaxy to the White House on Tuesday. He'll also congratulate the team on its community service activities. Earlier in the day, the president will speak at the National Peace Officers Memorial Service at the Capitol. It honors law enforcement officers who were killed in the line of duty last year.

WASHINGTON - President Obama honored the nation's top police officers Saturday, paying tribute to their sacrifices and "quiet courage" in the line of duty. The president, joined by Vice President Joe Biden, praised the winners of a national police association award at a White House ceremony honoring 34 officers who showed valor in an assortment of tense standoffs, shootings, and rescues. "They are representative of the sacrifices and that quiet courage that exists among law enforcement officers all across the country and their families," Obama said in the Rose Garden...

WASHINGTON -- Multibillion-dollar grants that the Bush administration distributed yesterday to hurricane-ravaged states left Louisiana far short of the federal aid it wants and divided Gulf Coast lawmakers who have been working together to win more assistance. The details of how the previously announced $11.5 billion would be distributed to five states followed word that the administration was rejecting a $30 billion redevelopment plan for Louisiana that state officials considered the cornerstone of their hopes for rebuilding.

WASHINGTON - The Obama administration and the nation's chief privacy regulator pressed Congress on Wednesday to enact online privacy legislation, saying new laws would level the playing field between companies that already had privacy policies and those that lacked them, and thus escape regulatory oversight. Jon Leibowitz, chairman of the Federal Trade Commission, which enforces limited Internet privacy laws, and Cameron F. Kerry, general counsel for the Commerce Department, said at a hearing of the Senate commerce committee that writing new laws and giving the FTC the power to enforce...