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from Tales from the Trail:
Republicans still looking for answers about Sestak
Republicans want answers -- and a little political mileage. The White House wants the whole thing to go away. And until somebody starts talking, neither side is going to get what they want.
On Wednesday, Republicans renewed their daily demand that Representative Joe Sestak, the Democratic Senate candidate from Pennsylvania, and White House officials come clean about what Sestak said was a White House offer of a job if he dropped his primary challenge against Senator Arlen Specter. 
Sestak, who first made the allegation to a local interviewer three months ago and confirmed it in television interviews on Sunday, won the primary last week but has refused to provide any more details. The White House says only that it looked into the issue, and nothing inappropriate happened. But it won't say what actually did happen, or who was involved.
Not surprisingly, that does not satisfy Republicans.
"I think he ought to come clean," Pat Toomey, Sestak's Republican foe, told Fox News Channel. "If Joe is going to be the man of principle that he says he's going to be in this campaign, I think he would be more forthcoming."
from Tales from the Trail:
Another poll comes out in favor of gays in the military
As Congress mulls "don't ask, don't tell," a new poll finds support for repealing it.
A CNN poll showed that 78 percent, or nearly 8 in 10 Americans believe people who are openly gay should be allowed to serve in the U.S. military. 
from Tales from the Trail:
No magic solution for oil spill, elbowing BP won’t do any good
The message from the White House podium today was loud and clear -- there is no magic fix for the oil spill that looks like curdled chocolate milk flowing on top of the Gulf of Mexico. And there isn't much that anyone can do that BP isn't doing.
Can government push BP out of the way if it believes the company is not doing the job?
from Tales from the Trail:
White House spokesman smells a rat in the Rose Garden
A furry little creature has been showing up at White House Rose Garden events recently about as often as a particularly persistent reporter. But this week it went too far, by running across the base of Barack Obama's podium while the U.S. president was speaking about financial regulatory reform on Thursday.
The moment was captured on video, but no one seems to know what the creature was, although there were plenty of theories.
from Tales from the Trail:
Question raised by Obama-Calderon presser: Was that it?
It was definitely not a press conference and it was barely a Q-and-A.
For a White House that is more agile than any predecessor in new media --Twitter, blogs, video -- it seems to be getting a bit out of practice with the traditional question-answer format with real, live reporters.
President Barack Obama and Mexican President Felipe Calderon faced the media in the White House Rose Garden. 
from Tales from the Trail:
The Day After: everyone’s got an opinion
Everyone's got an opinion about what happened Tuesday when Senator Arlen Specter -- long-term Republican, newly turned Democrat -- lost the Pennsylvania primary, Tea Party candidate Ron Paul won the Senate Republican primary in Kentucky, and neither Democrat in the Arkansas Senate primary could muster 50 percent of the vote so they have to do it all over again in June.
In all of the contests, there was only one person who won an actual seat in Congress on Tuesday night -- Democrat Mark Critz who took the special election for the Pennsylvania district seat left vacant by the death of Rep. John Murtha earlier this year.
from Tales from the Trail:
Ask away, Obama says, without answering reporters questions
Freedom of the Press is all well and good, but don't expect President Barack Obama to always answer journalists' questions.
That's what the president made clear in the Oval Office after he signed the Daniel Pearl Freedom of Press Act -- a new piece of legislation named after the Wall Street Journal reporter who was kidnapped and beheaded in 2002. The new law requires the State Department to identify countries and governments that restrict press freedoms.
from Tales from the Trail:
Rose Garden praise for Times Square cop
The hero cop who evacuated New Yorkers under threat from a car bomb on May 1 has already had dinner with the mayor and been visited by President Barack Obama. Now he's also received a shout-out from Obama in a ceremony in the White House Rose Garden honoring about 25 officers from across the country who won "Top Cop" awards for showing unusual bravery.
Obama praised police Lieutenant Wayne Rhatigan's handling of the failed Times Square car bombing as a good example of cooperation between citizens and the police.
from Shop Talk:
Arugula no cure for food deserts-expert
Adam Drewnowski, director of the Nutritional Sciences Program at the University of Washington in Seattle, says the United States needs to take home economics into account as it battles childhood obesity and attempts to eradicate "food deserts".
His comments come as first lady Michelle Obama has made it her mission to reduce childhood obesity within a generation. They also land on the heels of a White House task force report that made several anti-obesity recommendations, including using cash incentives to bring more healthy, affordable food into the nation's food deserts.
from Global News Journal:
Groundbreaking new cancer report?
The President's Cancer Panel has issued a new report saying that Americans are being bombarded -- their words -- with carcinogens.
Advocates of more research into the potential chemical causes of cancer had been waiting for the report, which they call groundbreaking. But it's made less of a splash than they expected. Asked about the report, one White House spokesman replied,
