WASHINGTON, Feb 6 (Reuters) – U.S. defense officials and
their allies in Congress did their best on Wednesday to create a
sense of crisis about steep impending budget cuts but their
warnings failed to produce any visible result.

Instead, partisan divisions over how to avoid the automatic
spending reductions set for March 1 hardened, with Democrats and
Republicans offering solutions that appeared irreconcilable and
trading accusations designed to shift the blame across the
aisle.

WASHINGTON, Feb 5 (Reuters) – Immigration reform advocates
urged President Barack Obama on Tuesday to reject congressional
proposals that would delay a path to citizenship for
undocumented immigrants by making changes contingent on
stepped-up border security.

After meeting Obama at the White House, the activists said
they had pressed the Democratic president to ensure that reforms
provide an unambiguous route to citizenship for the estimated 11
million people in the United States illegally.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Immigration reform advocates urged President Barack Obama on Tuesday to reject Republican congressional proposals that would delay a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants by making changes contingent on stepped-up border security.

After meeting Obama at the White House, the activists told reporters they had pressed the president to ensure reforms provide an unambiguous route to citizenship for the estimated 11 million people who are in the United States illegally.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The White House said on Thursday it is disbanding President Barack Obama’s jobs council, a group of high-profile chief executives who gave advice on how to spur growth, even as 12 million Americans remain out of work.

The White House said it will begin a new, expanded effort to work with the business community – and other groups – to advance Obama’s priorities of boosting economic growth, cutting debt and fixing a broken immigration system.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The White House said on Thursday it is disbanding President Barack Obama’s jobs council, a group of high-profile chief executives who gave advice on how to boost hiring at a time of high unemployment.

The White House said it has made progress on the council’s recommendations and will begin a new, expanded effort to work with the business community to advance policy priorities promoted by the panel.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama on Tuesday said the United States would boost humanitarian aid to Syria and urged other nations to do more to help the United Nations, which is struggling to assist some 4 million people in the war-torn country and more than 700,000 who have fled it.

Obama said he authorized an additional $155 million in aid for food, medical care and clothing for Syrians and refugees, bringing the U.S. total to $365 million. He issued a video statement on youtube.com with Arabic subtitles speaking directly to Syrians.

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 (Reuters) – President Barack Obama said he has been wrestling with the question whether a U.S. military intervention in Syria’s 22-month-old civil war would help resolve the bloody conflict or make things worse.

In a pair of interviews, Obama responded to critics who say the United States has not been involved enough in Syria, where thousands of people have been killed and millions displaced according to U.N. officials. Transcripts of both interviews were released on Sunday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Outgoing U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sidestepped questions about whether she would run for president in 2016 in a CBS television interview done jointly with President Barack Obama, her rival in the 2008 race.

Clinton, 65, denied there were any political tea leaves to read in the unusual joint interview for the CBS show “60 Minutes,” and acknowledged that she still has “some lingering effects” from a recent concussion and blood clot that she said doctors expect to disappear over time.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama urged gun control advocates to listen to views of rural Americans who use guns for hunting and said bridging a cultural divide in attitudes to gun ownership will be critical to his administration’s push to curb gun violence.

“If you grew up and your dad gave you a hunting rifle when you were 10, and you went out and spent the day with him and your uncles, and that became part of your family’s traditions, you can see why you’d be pretty protective of that,” Obama said in an interview with The New Republic magazine published on Sunday on its website.