Tag: WHITEHOUSE

The House of Representatives has approved the procedures for a joint resolution that would overturn the FCC's controversial Net neutrality rules. The resolution (PDF) is scheduled for a vote on Thursday in the GOP-controlled House. If it passes, it would then move on to the Democratic-controlled Senate, where its chances of survival are less certain. Even if it passes the Senate, though, the ...

Former White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs is in talks with Facebook to join its communications team, according to the New York Times. Gibbs left the White House team last month, after two years of service as press secretary (the longest one can serve without suffering permanent soul damage). Although Gibbs has reportedly planned to work on Obama's 2012 reelection bid before fully entering ...

President Obama is scheduled to meet with the titans of Silicon Valley today, including Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, Google's Eric Schmidt and, perhaps most surprisingly, Apple CEO Steve Jobs. Obama, who has been trying to build a healthier relationship with the business community, will reportedly meet with technological leaders at a private residence in San Francisco. "The president and ...

Last June, the Obama administration outlined an auction plan that could help double the U.S. broadband spectrum. According to Reuters, the White House has finally revealed the specific financial details concerning that strategy. As part of the overall plan, Obama will propose an additional $5 billion investment to bring wireless Internet to rural areas of the country. But, the spectrum auction ...

For a large chunk of yesterday, the relatively tech-savvy administration of President Obama found itself without e-mail. Starting around 7:45 a.m., The White House suffered a serious e-mail outage that lasted well into the afternoon. The unplanned downtime only affected unclassified accounts, so officials involved in monitoring events in Egypt and negotiating with President Mubarak were still able ...

This Thursday, President Obama will field questions submitted from the world of social media during a live-streamed YouTube interview. Any inquisitive Web surfer can send their questions to the President at youtube.com/askobama, or via Twitter, by using the #askobama hashtag. Obama will answer the top-rated questions when the interview kicks off at 2:30 p.m. EST, just two days after his State of ...

President Obama is looking to create an Internet ID system for American Web surfers, and is counting on the Department of Commerce to make it a reality. As CBS News reports, the so-called "trusted identity" project is part of the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace, which the Obama administration is currently drafting. White House Cybersecurity Coordinator Howard Schmidt says ...

Share Over the holidays, several government employees and contractors received a Christmas e-card that purported to be from The White House, but actually contained document-swiping malware. According to Krebs on Security, when a recipient opened the file, or clicked on either of the included links, a trojan stole PDF, Word and Excel documents, and then uploaded them to a server in Belarus. ...

Barack Obama initially promised to support and fund numerous techie projects, and now the President appears ready to publicly lead by example. With mounting pressure from green activists, White House officials are reportedly intending to install solar panels atop the President's residence next spring. According to the Associated Press, the White House solar panels will power unspecified areas, ...

As part of their tireless struggle to prevent terrorist attacks and protect U.S. citizens, federal law enforcement officials are now pushing for new legislation to enhance their online surveillance capabilities. The bill, which the Obama administration plans to submit for Congressional deliberation next year, would require communications services like Facebook, BlackBerry and Skype to be capable ...

With two wars, an oil spill and a stagnant economy on his political agenda, President Obama is, in all likelihood, busier than you. Now, though, you can at least pretend like you lead the free world, by adding the POTUS's daily schedule to your own iCal. As part of its efforts to promote a more open government, the White House has just published the President's complete schedule for all to see, ...

The White House just released its National HIV/AIDS strategy yesterday, and it ambitiously aims to reduce new HIV infections by 25-percent by 2015. How will it accomplish this goal? The plan outlines the use of more social networking, but not much new funding. According to the new policy, "The United States currently provides more than $19 billion in annual funding for domestic HIV prevention, ...

Just in time for the Fourth of July, the federal government's official Web portal, USA.gov, has been redesigned and relaunched with more comprehensive tools for citizen browsers. The clearing house for all other government sites and services has a brand new search engine that is reportedly nine-times faster than the original, and now boasts search-as-you-type features. The site also puts mobile ...

The Obama administration is making a major push to improve the state of broadband in the U.S., and to make large swaths of the wireless spectrum available for mobile data services. A full 500 Mhz of spectrum (nearly double what is available now) is expected to be freed up over the next ten years and be auctioned off primarily to broadband companies. The effort should create jobs, in both ...

Highlights from this morning's other big tech headlines.... The White House apparently harbors numerous, and already devoted, fans of the iPad, including Vice President Biden, economic adviser Larry Summers and several members of the press staff. They also all seem to be serious procrastinators, as 'Scrabble,' 'Lost' and 'Vanity Fair' rank among the assorted downloads. 'Vanity Fail?' ...