Tag: Obama administration

Now that Ken Salazar is a member of the Obama Administration, his former Republican Senate colleagues — with whom he frequently caucused — can dispatch with all that upper chamber nicey-nice. Utah Senators Orrin Hatch and Bob Bennett are blocking a key Interior Dept. nominee over a grudge match instigated when Salazar pulled 77 controversial oil and gas leases on public lands in Utah.

Just as a voluntary ban on foreclosures ended, a record jump in foreclosure activity in March is raising troubling questions about whether lenders and servicers are genuinely willing and able to do loan modifications on a large scale. And it poses an even more worrisome possibility: That many borrowers can’t be helped at all.

The Web is brimming today with comment on Obama's release of the Bush team's torture memos, much of it decrying Obama's accompanying statement, in which he said he believes the torturers should not be held to account. But the politics that gave rise to the memos suggest a more accurate reading of the politics surrounding their release.

Within hours of inviting ProPublica.org readers to peek at Team Obama's financial disclosures Thursday, one unusual finding came to light from the paperwork on Ken Salazar, secretary of the Interior Department.

Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter on Friday called the appointment of Senate President Peter Groff to a U.S. Department of Education post a "tremendous gain" for the federal government but a "big loss" for the state in a prepared statement. Education Secretary Arne Duncan announced Friday afternoon Groff was the Obama administration pick to head the department's Faith-Based and Community Initiatives Center. Ritter and Groff are both Democrats.

Colorado Senate President Peter Groff is the Obama administration's choice to be the director of the U.S. Department of Education's Faith-Based and Community Initiatives Center, Education Secretary Arne Duncan announced Friday afternoon.

For a pretty unassuming fellow, Colorado Senate President Peter Groff, D-Denver, can still stir up the languid state Capitol press corps. Rumors out of the Golden Dome, reported by the Denver Post today, claim that Groff will resign as top dog for a position with the Obama administration. That news comes as the Colorado Senate announced this afternoon that it rejected the long bill sending the proposed state budget back to the Joint Budget Committee for the first time in Colorado's legislative history.

Only in Washington ...

On March 26, 2009, the Office of Information Policy (OIP), Department of Justice, will host a governmentwide training conference to discuss President Obama’s and Attorney General Holder’s Memoranda which establish a new era of open government. ... No pre-registration is required. However, you must present your Government ID to attend the training.

Even the hint of a suggestion that Interior Secretary Ken Salazar could be considering caving in on oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge of Alaska has ruffled the feathers of environmentalists – and a few Arctic terns – who thought the place was bulletproof under the Obama administration.

As congressional lawmakers continue the thorny task of crafting the sweeping health care reforms they hope to pass this year, there’s a battle brewing over the growing push to rein in medical spending by weeding out ineffective treatments.