Obama order worries speech groups  —  Free speech advocates from across the political spectrum are accusing President Barack Obama of impinging on First Amendment rights and are gearing up to take their case public.  —  At issue is an unprecedented directive that Obama …

Learning the hard way  —  Barack Obama may at last be getting a grip.  But he still needs to show more leadership, at home and abroad  —  HILLARY CLINTON'S most effective quip, in her long struggle with Barack Obama for the Democratic nomination last year, was that the Oval Office is no place for on-the-job training.

Do New Bulbs Save Energy if They Don't Work?  —  SAN FRANCISCO — It sounds like such a simple thing to do: buy some new light bulbs, screw them in, save the planet.  —  But a lot of people these days are finding the new compact fluorescent bulbs anything but simple.

Police identify 200 children as potential terrorists  —  Drastic new tactics to prevent school pupils as young as 13 falling into extremism  —  Two hundred schoolchildren in Britain, some as young as 13, have been identified as potential terrorists by a police scheme that aims to spot youngsters who are …

Weeks of Obama's budget sales pitch and support still slips  —  Now, we know why the White House laid on the immense trans-continental public relations offensive over its immense budget these past two-to-three weeks.  —  The Gallup Poll did another one this week on President Obama's $3,550,000,000,000 budget …

White House Debate Led to Plan to Widen Afghan Effort  —  WASHINGTON — President Obama's plan to widen United States involvement in Afghanistan came after an internal debate in which Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. warned against getting into a political and military quagmire …

Obama: ‘Proof of pudding in the eating’  —  President Barack Obama tackled two of the most difficult fronts his administration faces this week, authorizing a significant increase in the U.S. miliitary deployment to Afghanistan and confronting the leaders of the nation's largest banks behind closed doors at the White House.

Building Good Roads  —  One problem in our transportation policy is that funding is unduly weighted to spending money on roads rather than spending money on mass transit.  Another problem in our transportation policy is that funding is unduly weighted to building new roads rather than to doing …

Goldman Bailed Out 2 Executives  —  The financial giant Goldman Sachs spent tens of millions of dollars to bail out two senior executives last fall who were short on cash, according to the bank's proxy statement filed on Friday.  —  In an unusual move, Goldman bought back stakes …

Obama's Man on the Budget: Just 40 and Going Like 60  —  WASHINGTON — At 6 in the morning, Peter R. Orszag is racing: across wet pavement for a 35-minute run, into a shower and a suit, and through a living room that looks rather like an office, the walls painted presidential gold and hung with pictures of federal monuments.

Reid To Cave To Bayh On Cram-Down?  —  Earlier this month, the House of Representatives passed cram-down legislation designed to allow judges to write down the principal and interest on some mortgages to allow homeowners to stay in their homes, a goal that is a central pillar of President Obama's housing legislation.

Bank Executives May Keep TARP Funds After Meeting With Obama  —  Bank executives indicated they are willing to hold onto U.S. government aid to help stabilize the financial system and pull the economy out of recession.  —  Thirteen chief executive officers of the nation's biggest financial institutions met …

Edwin T. Snell launches recall of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger  —  Arnold Schwarzenegger, meet Edwin T. Snell.  —  His campaign skills may not be as slick or well-funded as the governor's.  But the San Bernardino County resident has garnered the 50 necessary signatures for a notice of intent …

Van crashes in Midtown; kills pregnant woman  —  A 29-year-old pregnant woman was killed Friday in Manhattan when a van driver who was catcalling her and a co-worker lost control and plowed into them, police sources and witnesses said.  —  The 2-ton van jumped the curb on E. 37th St. in midtown …