WASHINGTON, Feb 1 (Reuters) – President Barack Obama is
leaning toward choosing Gina McCarthy, a top official in charge
of air quality at the Environmental Protection Agency, to run
the EPA in his second term, according to two sources familiar
with the matter.

McCarthy, currently the assistant administrator for the EPA
Office of Air and Radiation, would take on the top job as the
agency leads Obama’s push for measures to fight climate change.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Colorado Lieutenant Governor Joe Garcia is a leading candidate to become secretary of labor in President Barack Obama’s second-term cabinet, sources familiar with the situation told Reuters on Thursday.

Garcia, a Hispanic former president of Colorado State University-Pueblo, would bring racial diversity and a Western flair to Obama’s team.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Colorado Lieutenant Governor Joe Garcia is a leading candidate to become secretary of labor in President Barack Obama’s second-term cabinet, sources familiar with the situation told Reuters on Thursday.

Garcia, a Hispanic former president of Colorado State University-Pueblo, would bring racial diversity and a Western flair to Obama’s team.

WASHINGTON, Jan 31 (Reuters) – Colorado Lieutenant Governor
Joe Garcia is a leading candidate to become secretary of labor
in President Barack Obama’s second-term cabinet, sources
familiar with the situation told Reuters on Thursday.

Garcia, a Hispanic former president of Colorado State
University-Pueblo, would bring racial diversity and a Western
flair to Obama’s team.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama turned to law enforcement on Monday for support in his push to tighten gun laws, meeting at the White House with police chiefs from cities scarred by mass shootings and calling for more officers nationwide.

Obama, who has made stricter gun control measures a top policy goal for this year, reiterated his desire that lawmakers pass measures he recently unveiled to curb gun violence, including an assault weapons ban and universal background checks for gun purchases.

WASHINGTON, Jan 25 (Reuters) – President Barack Obama on
Friday named longtime foreign policy aide Denis McDonough as his
new White House chief of staff, tapping a trusted loyalist to
help drive his second-term agenda as he unveiled a major
overhaul of senior staff.

Obama announced the appointment of McDonough, who had been
widely tipped to fill the vacancy created by Jack Lew’s
nomination as Treasury secretary, at a ceremony in the White
House’s ornate East Room.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk said on Tuesday he was stepping down as the nation’s top trade official in late February, opening up a plum economic post as President Barack Obama searches for more women and minorities for his Cabinet.

White House international economic affairs adviser Mike Froman had been considered the front-runner to succeed Kirk, but sources familiar with his thinking said he was likely to stay in his current job, which allows him to weigh in on issues ranging from energy and climate change to trade and international finance.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Michael Froman, White House deputy national security adviser for international economic affairs, is likely to stay in his current job rather than succeed Ron Kirk as U.S. trade representative, two sources familiar with the process told Reuters on Tuesday.

Froman was considered a top candidate for the trade position, but is hesitant about leaving a portfolio that already allows him to have huge say over trade policy in addition to international finance, energy and climate change.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – On a bitterly cold Inauguration Day in January 2009, Barack Obama rode in a tank-like limousine to the U.S. Capitol, giving Americans on television and in Washington their first glimpse of an African-American assuming the trappings of the presidency.

Four years and another election later, the ride to the Capitol was less historic, but still a poignant reminder of Obama’s place in history.

WASHINGTON, Jan 21 (Reuters) – A confident President Barack
Obama kicked off his second term on Monday with an impassioned
call for a more inclusive America that rejects partisan rancor
and embraces immigration reform, gay rights and the fight
against climate change.

Obama’s ceremonial swearing-in at the U.S. Capitol was
filled with traditional pomp and pageantry, but it was a
scaled-back inauguration compared to the historic start of his
presidency in 2009 when he swept into office on a mantle of hope
and change as America’s first black president.