President Barack Obama tapes the Weekly Address in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, May 22, 2015.
(Official White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson)
In this week’s address,…
Gold is AU
President Barack Obama tapes the Weekly Address in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, May 22, 2015.
(Official White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson)
In this week’s address,…
Over the past few months, hundreds of thousands of Americans have signed petitions on our We the People petitions platform related to community policing, in the wake of the police-involved deaths of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Freddie Gray, and others. This week, we invited these petition signers to join a White House call about improving community-police relations.
Yesterday’s conversation participants included:
During the call, they highlighted new steps we’re taking to improve community-police relations through the use of open data, demilitarizing local police forces, and other recommendations from the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing.
The participants also answered some questions that petition signers submitted in advance of the call — questions such as what we can achieve by looking at police data on a national level, or how we can change the view of the community to one where police are seen as “guardians” instead of “occupiers.”
If you missed yesterday’s call, you can listen to the full discussion below. (And if you want to be in the loop about future events like this, make sure to visit We the People and add your voice by creating or signing a petition.)
Lady Bird Johnson attends the ceremony for National Head Start Day, June 30, 1965. Front row, left to right: Timothy Shriver, Robert Shriver, Danny Kaye, Lady Bird Johnson, Mrs. Lou Maginn (Director of a HeadStart project in East Fairfiel…
This morning, Jerry Abramson, Director of Intergovernmental Affairs here at the White House, sent the following message to the White House email list.
Abramson says that the tensions that have recently erupted in communities such as Ferguson and Baltimore are not solely tied to policing, but are also linked to the lack of economic opportunity. He also details a number of the efforts that President Obama is taking to expand opportunity for more Americans.
Make sure to tune in today at 11:30 a.m. ET to watch the President’s discussion at Georgetown University about poverty and opportunity — and share with us how these issues are playing out in your own community, and how you think we can continue expanding opportunity for more Americans. (And if you didn’t get the email, sign up for updates here.)
From Ferguson and Staten Island to North Charleston and Baltimore, our nation has been moved — to conversation and debate, protest and action — by images of tragic encounters between law enforcement and the communities they serve.
But as the President has made clear, these issues are not new, and every mayor (or former mayor, like me) can attest that what we are witnessing in cities across America is not only about policing.
This is also about opportunity.
Everyone should be empowered by the country they call home. Unfortunately, in America, too many young people are limited by the zip code into which they are born. The President doesn’t treat this conversation as one to be had only every few months surrounding the latest tragedy captured on camera and replayed on the news.
(And make sure to tune in to WhiteHouse.gov/Live today at 11:30 a.m. ET as the President sits down for a special discussion at Georgetown University about poverty and opportunity.)
When Sarah M. from Antelope, CA turned 26, she was no longer covered under her family’s health insurance plan. She then got a job that gave her a “limited” health care plan, with a care coverage limit of $10,000.
When Sarah lost that limited coverage, she applied for Covered California and enrolled in Medi-Cal coverage.
Shortly after getting covered under Medi-Cal, Sarah got a pap smear, which came back irregular. The follow-up biopsy revealed that Sarah had cervical cancer. Luckily, because she was still in the pre-cancer stage, the doctors were able to remove the abnormal cells.
“If you had not created Obamacare, I would never have caught it early, and would likely be suffering,” Sarah wrote the President this past February. She says that the law “saved my life from cancer. I did not have to have chemotherapy and expensive bills to manage my care, because of you.”
“Thank you from the bottom of my heart for all you have done.”
Watch on YouTube
This past Saturday, First Lady Michelle Obama delivered the commencement address to the Class of 2015 at Tuskegee University — a historically black university in Tuskegee, Alabama. Founded by Booker T. Washington in 1881, Tuskegee is…
Sangeeta M. from Pawtucket, Rhode Island is a mom with two young boys, ages 4 and 9. She and her husband have been self-employed for many years, and over the past decade, experienced troubles with maintaining health insurance.
“As health insurance continued to raise their premiums, we eventually got squeezed out of the system,” she wrote in a letter to the President last September. She says their premium went up at least three times within a year, amid a struggling economy.
Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, however, she and her husband were able to finally get quality health coverage. That coverage was there for them when Sangeeta found that she had breast cancer. Having insurance allowed Sangeeta to get the treatment she needed at a price her family could afford.
“I cannot imagine having to deal with cancer and worrying about how we’re going to pay for it all,” she wrote. “Not a moment goes by each day where I am [not] filled with such overwhelming gratitude to you and everyone it took to make health care reform happen.”
Sangeeta M. from Pawtucket, Rhode Island is a mom with two young boys, ages 4 and 9. She and her husband have been self-employed for many years, and over the past decade, experienced troubles with maintaining health insurance.
“As health insurance continued to raise their premiums, we eventually got squeezed out of the system,” she wrote in a letter to the President last September. She says their premium went up at least three times within a year, amid a struggling economy.
Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, however, she and her husband were able to finally get quality health coverage. That coverage was there for them when Sangeeta found that she had breast cancer. Having insurance allowed Sangeeta to get the treatment she needed at a price her family could afford.
“I cannot imagine having to deal with cancer and worrying about how we’re going to pay for it all,” she wrote. “Not a moment goes by each day where I am [not] filled with such overwhelming gratitude to you and everyone it took to make health care reform happen.”
President Barack Obama tapes the Weekly Address at the Anacostia Neighborhood Library in Washington, D.C., April 30, 2015.
(Official White House Photo by Chuck Kennedy)
In this week&…
President Barack Obama meets with Attorney General Loretta Lynch in the Oval Office, April 27, 2015.
(Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
At the Department of Justice this morning, Vice President Biden swore in Loretta Lynch as the newest Attorney General of the United States.
This afternoon, President Obama met with the new Attorney General to welcome her on board and to get an update on several issues — including the current events in Baltimore following the death of Freddie Gray.