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Heads up! President Biden embraced a surprised-looking Pope Francis with an intimate forehead-to-forehead hug on Friday during the G7 summit in Italy. Biden, a devout Catholic, had met privately with the pontiff, who is the first pope in history to attend a G7 gathering to discuss world issues.

Joe Biden, America’s oldest ever president, said Monday night the focus on his age as he seeks a return to the White House in 2024 is understood before boldly declaring he is running again because Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans wanted to “destroy” U.S. democracy. The octogenarian addressed the issue of his age during an elite fundraiser at a Broadway theatre in New York, declaring his experience helped him deal with crises like Ukraine and coronavirus, AFP reports. Funds raised at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre gala were destined for the Biden Victory Fund.

Transgender children were singled out for special attention by President Joe Biden on Saturday when he told them they are “loved” during Pride Month celebrations at the White House. “We need to push back against the hundreds of callous and cynical bills and laws introduced in states targeting transgender children, terrifying families, and criminalizing doctors and nurses,” Biden said, according to a White House transcript of his speech.

Hey! Who replaced the dithering guy who lives in the White House with somebody who acts like he wants to be President? On the heels of the large jobs plan announced earlier this month, President Obama has announced his own plan to reduce the deficit by up to $3 trillion. (Details, .. $1.5 trillion in higher revenues, through limiting deductions, shutting loopholes and letting the Bush tax cuts expire, and $1.5 trillion in spending savings from tinkering with entitlement programs and counting savings from winding down operations in Iraq and Afghanistan). Like the jobs plan, this deficit reduction plan doesn't...

WASHINGTON – President Bush was the headliner last week at three fundraisers for Sen. John McCain. But as happy as he was to accept the help to raise badly needed money, McCain did everything he could to push the unpopular president out of the headlines. Events in Arizona and Utah were moved out of big public arenas and into private homes. The only public sighting of the two men together was the briefest of handshakes at an Arizona airport, timed late in the day after the network news broadcasts. For Bush, it reflects his status as a lame duck with...

WASHINGTON, March 5, 2008 – A bipartisan congressional effort kicked off on Capitol Hill today to stand behind America Supports You, a Defense Department program that connects citizens and corporations with military personnel and their families serving at home and abroad. From left: John E. Potter, U.S. postmaster general, Allison Barber, deputy assistant secretary of defense for internal communications and public liaison, Rep. Mary Bono Mack of California and Rep. Connie Mack of Florida, Karen Grimord, founder and president of the Landstuhl Hospital Care Project, and Army Brig. Gen. Gary Patton, director of manpower and personnel for the Joint...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 2, 2008 – A group of Texans is offering a warm embrace to make sure wounded servicemembers aren’t forgotten. A three-person team from Operation Military Embrace has been making weekly visits to servicemembers recovering at Brooke Army Medical Center, on Fort Sam Houston, Texas, and their families since December 2005. “Operation Military Embrace … has visited the inpatients on a Sunday while setting up and serving breakfast to the outpatients in the day room of the ‘med hold’ barracks on the (following) Monday morning,” said Jerry Reed, a former Marine and the organization’s president and executive director....

CONCORD, N.H. - Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton on Sunday directly challenged her top rivals' claims that she is too conventional to bring needed change to Washington, declaring "you bring change by working in the system." Clinton argued that political transformation can come only by working within established rules and seeking common ground when necessary. Her years as part of the Washington establishment as first lady and as a New York senator have convinced her that real change can come only by seeking consensus, she told a rally on the lawn of the New Hampshire state capitol. "I've learned you bring...

After Arnold Schwarzenegger took over as governor in 2003, his experience playing the title role in "Kindergarten Cop" surely came in handy. For years, Sacramento's leaders had acted like irresponsible children, eager to add new programs and benefits without paying for them. The result was an annual gap of $16 billion between revenue and spending. For two years, Schwarzenegger played the role of responsible adult, trying to hold the fort on spending while promoting workers' compensation reforms and other pro-business measures to increase revenue. The result was real progress. The annual structural deficit was reduced by more than half, and...

CAMP AL ASAD, Iraq (Dec. 9, 2005) -- Nigerian-born Cpl. Chijioke I. Okereke went from attending college on another continent to serving as a U.S. Marine fighting in the Global War on Terrorism in Iraq. Nine months ago, Okereke, a motor transport operator for Regimental Combat Team-2, arrived in Iraq, where he is supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom by driving re-supply and security vehicles for operations in the Al Anbar province. These operations ‘outside the wire’ provide varying experiences as he attaches to units from the Marines, U.S. Army Special Forces and Iraqi Army. He enjoys being an operator because he...

SACRAMENTO — While declining in popularity and blasting Democrats, Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger left the way open Wednesday to put a huge seismic-safety bond before voters this year for the Bay Bridge and other needs statewide. The governor's comments came in the wake of Senate leader Don Perata, D-Oakland, acknowledging that he was considering the tactic but had not approached the governor. On learning of the governor's remark, Perata said he planned to huddle with other legislative majority Democrats, aides said. During wide-ranging questions after an address to the Sacramento Press Club, Gov. Schwarzenegger — asked specifically if he supported...

<p>CalPERS' lawsuit against the New York Stock Exchange highlights a renewed commitment to shareholder activism at the mega-pension fund, a commitment sparked by a rash of corporate scandals and the emergence of ambitious new Democratic leaders eager to make waves.</p>

<p>It started with an e-mail message last week to this column from a reader, asking whether strict interpretation of the state constitution would automatically make Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante the governor should Gov. Gray Davis be recalled.</p> <p>"I am mystified by the governor recall election talk," the reader wrote. "If I understand the California Constitution, if Gray Davis resigns, dies in office, goes into a coma or is impeached and removed, Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante will become governor for the remainder of the term. So why not the same outcome if Gray Davis is recalled?"</p>

<p>SACRAMENTO, Calif (AP) - Republican governors and legislators across the nation, facing big budget deficits and soft economic conditions, have reluctantly turned to tax hikes to solve their problems. But not in California.</p> <p>In the Golden State, where Democrats rule, a staunch minority of Republican lawmakers have held up adoption of the state budget for three weeks by refusing to accept any new taxes.</p>

<p>WASHINGTON - The California Republican Party is now fully behind the effort to recall Gov. Gray Davis, the state party chairman said Wednesday, and hopes to narrow the field of GOP candidates to boost the chances of capturing the governor's office.</p>