White House news

• Obama Backs DC Vote to Legalize Marijuana

  11-12-2014 23:54
  
  President Obama supports legalization of the recreational use of marijuana in the nation's capital as approved by D.C. voters in a November referendum, the White House says.But he also reluctantly supports and would sign a government funding bill that includes a rider blocking the measure, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said. Congressional negotiators have quietly tucked into a $1.1 trillion spending deal a provision prohibiting the district from spending money to enact the new policy.
  
  Read more

• Alleged White House fence jumper found competent

  11-12-2014 21:56
  
  WASHINGTON (AP) — Psychiatrists say Omar Gonzalez, who is accused of jumping the White House fence and running inside the executive mansion before being apprehended, is competent to stand trial.
  
  Read more

• CIA chief admits agency used 'abhorrent' methods on detainees

  11-12-2014 21:50
  
  By Mark Hosenball LANGLEY, Va. (Reuters) - CIA Director John Brennan said on Thursday some agency officers used "abhorrent" methods on detainees captured following the Sept. 11 attacks and said it was "unknowable" whether so-called enhanced interrogation techniques yielded useful intelligence. With his agency under fire in the aftermath of a U.S. Senate report detailing the CIA's use of torture on detainees after the attacks, Brennan rejected the report's conclusion
  
  Read more

• Obama plans to sign Venezuela sanctions legislation

  11-12-2014 19:53
  
  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama plans to sign legislation that would impose sanctions on Venezuelan government officials found to have violated protesters' rights during demonstrations earlier this year, the White House said on Thursday. The measure would deny visas and freeze assets of officials involved in what the law considers a crackdown on political opponents during three months of street protests in Venezuela over crime and the economy that left 43 dead. The House of Represe
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• White House swings behind huge $1.1T spending bill

  11-12-2014 19:47
  
  President Barack Obama swung behind a $1.1 trillion governmentwide spending bill Thursday, giving it critical momentum as it headed toward likely passage later in the afternoon, despite opposition from ...
  
  Read more

• White House: Obama supports spending bill

  11-12-2014 19:05
  
  WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House says President Barack Obama will sign a $1.1 trillion spending bill that has drawn widespread opposition from Democrats over its inclusion of banking and campaign money provisions they dislike.
  
  Read more

• White House says Obama prepared to sign government funding bill

  11-12-2014 19:02
  
  U.S. President Barack Obama is prepared to sign a $1.1 trillion government funding bill, the White House said on Thursday, even though the White House objects to rollbacks in Wall Street reforms and other ...
  
  Read more

• Force-Feeding at Gitmo: Obama’s ‘Torture’ Debate

  11-12-2014 18:47
  
  The forced feedings of at least five detainees held at CIA black sites after 9/11 were among the most graphic new revelations in a declassified Senate report on the interrogation program released this week.The procedures, described as “rectal hydration” and “rectal feeding,” have been criticized by the White House as “torture” and subsequently banned.But leading human rights groups, including the United Nations Committee Against Torture, International Committee of the Red Cross and t
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Help U.S. Cope with Climate Change: Enter NASA-USGS Data App Challenge

  11-12-2014 17:32
  WASHINGTON, Dec. 11, 2014 NASA in partnership with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is offering more than $35,000 in prizes to citizen scientists for ideas that make use of climate data to address vulnerabilities faced by the United States in coping with climate change. The challenge supports the efforts of the White House Climate Data Initiative, a broad effort to leverage the federal government's extensive, freely available climate-relevant data resources to spur innovation and private-sector
  
  Read more

• Genesis Media Appoints Software Guru Frank Farance To Serve On Its Advisory Board

  11-12-2014 15:00
  
  NEW YORK, Dec. 11, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Genesis Media, creators of the industry's first attention platform, today announced that Frank Farance, Senior Software Engineer and Senior Systems Architect at Smarthome Labs & President at Farance Inc., has joined the company in an advisory role.  Farance has a strong track record of helping major public and private sector entities like the U.S. Army, Dow Jones, IBM, Amtrak and The White House's Data.Gov develop, refine and optimize their technology. H
  
  Read more

• New Jersey voters say U.S. not ready for president 'Jersey Guy' Christie: poll

  11-12-2014 12:02
  
  (Reuters) - New Jersey voters say the rest of the United States is not ready for a "Jersey Guy" president and neither is the Garden State, where Governor Chris Christie's presidential appeal continues to slide, a poll released on Thursday showed. A telephone poll of 1,340 registered New Jersey voters by Quinnipiac University found that Christie, and every other potential Republican contender for the 2016 White House race, would lose the state to former Secretary of State Hillary C
  
  Read more

• Obama closer to closing Guantanamo, but hurdles remain

  11-12-2014 11:19
  
  Washington (AFP) - The White House is inching closer to its goal of closing the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay -- home to some of the men subjected to brutal CIA interrogations.
  
  Read more

• Obama effort leads to surge in Guantanamo releases

  11-12-2014 09:22
  
  WASHINGTON (AP) — Fed up with the stalled progress toward closing the Guantanamo Bay detention center, President Barack Obama summoned top administration officials to the White House for an unusual meeting last month to make it clear he wanted action.
  
  Read more

• White House says CIA torture undermined US' 'moral authority'

  11-12-2014 09:15
  
  Johannesburg, Dec 11 (ANI): The White House has said that the torture meted out to Al Qaeda suspects by the Central Investigative Agency (CIA) in the aftermath of the 9/11 attack undermined the United States' "moral authority" and added that the release of a report detailing the brutal interrogation techniques is an important step in regaining that authority.
  
  Read more

• Obama frustration behind Guantanamo release surge

  11-12-2014 06:38
  
  WASHINGTON (AP) — Fed up with the stalled progress toward closing the Guantanamo Bay detention center, President Barack Obama summoned top administration officials to the White House for an unusual meeting last month to make it clear he wanted action.
  
  Read more

• US budget leaves IMF reforms in doubt

  11-12-2014 01:57
  
  Crucial reforms of the International Monetary Fund were left hanging Wednesday after the US Congress failed to endorse them in the final budget legislation of the year. The IMF had held out hopes that the reforms, backed by the White House but needing Congress to ratify them, would be accepted in the huge budget bill that was under discussion this week. Already two years late, the reforms to the Fund's membership quota system -- essentially its shareholding -- are needed to both strengthen
  
  Read more

• U.S. Congress closes out year without passing IMF reforms

  11-12-2014 01:28
  
  By Anna Yukhananov WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Congress is preparing to leave town for the holidays without passing reforms to give emerging markets greater say at the International Monetary Fund, a step the Obama administration has warned could undermine Washington's international influence. The White House signed off on the reforms in 2010, but U.S. lawmakers need to back changes in how the IMF is funded before they can be put into place, given Washington's position as a controlling shareh
  
  Read more

• U.S. Congress passes sanctions on Venezuelan officials

  11-12-2014 01:08
  
  By Patricia Zengerle WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation on Wednesday to impose sanctions on Venezuelan government officials found to have violated protesters' rights during demonstrations earlier this year. The Senate approved the measure on Monday, so the House's approval by voice vote sends it to the White House, where President Barack Obama's administration has signaled he would sign the legislation into law. ...
  
  Read more

• US Senate report exposes shocking CIA torture

  11-12-2014 01:07
  
  WASHINGTON: THE Central Intelligence Agency’s torture of al-Qaeda suspects was far more brutal than acknowledged, did not produce useful intelligence and was so poorly managed it lost track of its detainees, a scathing United States Senate report revealed on Tuesday. The CIA also misled the White House and Congress with inaccurate claims about the programme’s usefulness in thwarting attacks, the Senate Intelligence Committee said in its graphic report that revived the debate over interrogati
  
  Read more

• CIA Torture Report: White House Mum on Whether Methods Saved Lives

  11-12-2014 00:11
  
  President Obama has condemned what he calls "torture" of detainees by CIA interrogators at black sites overseas in the dark days after 9/11.But the White House is not taking a position on whether any of the information gleaned from those sessions -- putting questions on the propriety of the tactics aside -- actually helped to save lives. ...
  
  Read more

Follow @NwslWhiteHouse on Twitter!