White House

In his first road trip to promote his plan to fight gun violence, President Obama visits Minneapolis the recent site of a mass shooting. In September, a man shot and killed six people at the Minneapolis business he worked at before taking his own life.

When President George W. Bush ran for re-election in 2004, Democrat Koch crossed party lines to support him and spoke at the GOP convention. He also endorsed Mayor Michael Bloomberg's re-election efforts at a time when Bloomberg was a Republican. Koch described himself as "a liberal with sanity."

When CBS News reported in 2011 that members of Congress weren’t prohibited from insider trading, Congress moved swiftly. President Obama signed a law banning it within six months of the broadcast. But Congress is still exempt from portions of a number of federal laws, including provisions that protect workers in the private sector but don’t apply to the legislative branch’s approximately 30,000 employees.

Thursday afternoon, Vice President Biden sat down with Americans from around the country to talk about proposals to reduce gun violence in a live Google+ Hangout. During the virtual roundtable, participants from all different backgrounds asked the Vice President about topics ranging from an assault weapons ban to the Second Amendment and from mental health checks to making our schools safer.

President Obama nominates Richard Cordray to continue as head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Mary Jo White as Chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Murray: “The fate of the Violence Against Women Act still lays squarely on the shoulders of Eric Cantor and John Boehner. To date they have refused to listen to countless law enforcement and women’s groups as well as moderate voices in their own party in the House and Senate who’ve said we need to pass the Senate’s bipartisan bill that extends protections to millions of new women."

The President, First Lady, and Bo made an unannounced appearance in the Blue Room to greet visitors during a public tour of the White House.

Joining the committees are rambunctious House freshmen and longtime senators willing to take on a second-term president. Republican Rep. Steve Stockman, who has threatened impeachment of Obama over new rules on guns, joins the House panel, while Sen. John McCain, the president's GOP rival in 2008, and tea party Sen. Rand Paul fill out the Senate committee.

Check out President Obama's new official portrait, and see what working with a dysfunctional Congress for four years will do to you.

When the Obama administration made the promise to respond to any "We the People" petitions on the White House Web site that attracted at least 25,000 signatures, I bet they never imagined having to feild a request to "begin construction of a Death Star" by 2016.