The president and Mrs. Obama paused Monday night to mark the beginning of Passover with a Seder at the White House.

This is the third time the Obamas have hosted the dinner since coming into office, a tradition they started when Mr. Obama was a presidential candidate on the campaign trail in Pennsylvania. Then Senator Obama is said to have enjoyed the ritual feast with staff and friends so much he played off the traditional refrain at the end of the Seder, yelling out "Next Year in the White House."

Celebrating the eight-day Jewish holiday, which commemorates the liberation of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, is not the only religious tradition the president has implemented at 1600 Pennsylvania.

Tuesday, for the second year, Mr. Obama hosted an Easter prayer breakfast in the East Room, which the president today deemed to be an annual event. (read more)

President Obama congratulated some service academy athletes at the White House Monday as he awarded the 39th Commander in Chief Trophy to the Air Force Academy football team.

"This is a group that has a lot to be proud of, but obviously the most impressive thing about these young men, the thing that sets them apart is that being a football player isn't what defines them," the president said in the Rose Garden. "They're airmen first, and more important than any bowl game or trophy is the commitment that they've made to serve this country."

The trophy, which is named for the President of the United States who is of course the Commander in Chief of all US military services, is awarded to each seasons winner of the college football series between the three military institutes - United States Military Academy (Army), the United States Naval Academy and the United States Air Force Academy. (read more)

President Obama said Friday that while there is a "stalemate" on the ground in Libya, he still expects the three-week-old air campaign to succeed in eventually ousting Moammar Qaddafi.

"You now have a stalemate on the ground militarily, but Qaddafi is still getting squeezed in all kinds of other ways," Mr. Obama said in an interview with the Associated Press. "He's running out of money. He is running out of supplies. The noose is tightening, and he is becoming more and more isolated. And my expectation is, is that if we continue to apply that pressure and continue to protect civilians, which NATO is doing very capably, then I think over the long term, Qaddafi will go and we will be successful."

The president's acknowledgment comes as Qaddafi forces continue to hammer the town of Misurata, the Libyan rebel's only stronghold in the west, under siege for six weeks, and as NATO allies indicate their desire for the U.S. to resume a lead role in the coalition's air strikes. The president signaled today that America's role will remain unchanged.

"I'm actually very impressed with the performance of NATO so far," said Obama. "And I'm very pleased that we've been able to do exactly what we said we were going to do, which is transition so that we are primarily in a support role." (read more)

Although they were meant for a private audience, the White House says President Obama stands by some of the candid thoughts he shared - inadvertently with a large group - Thursday night.

"That was meant to be a closed-press event. He was taking questions from supporters," White House Press Secretary Jay Carny told reporters aboard Air Force One. "But there's nothing -- nothing he said that contradicts anything he said in public."

Mr. Obama was in Chicago for a series of fundraisers Thursday, and as is common for such events, the traveling press was brought into the room to hear the opening remarks and then escorted out so the president could speak more freely with his paying guests. But an open microphone at one of the fundraisers caught the president discussing the negotiations he had with Republicans on the 2011 budget - after the press had left the room. The mic picked up the president criticizing the GOP for their attempts to roll back portions of health care reform, as well as their efforts restrict Planned Parenthood from receiving federal funding (read more)

President and Mrs. Obama will travel to Chicago April 27 for a taping of the Oprah Winfrey show.

The president and First Lady will sit for an interview for Oprah's last season, her 25th, which ends May 25. White House officials say the show featuring the first couple will air May 2.

The Chicago trip will be the second this month for Mr. Obama. He is scheduled to return to his home town - where his 2012 reelection headquarters is based - Thursday for a Democratic National Committee fundraiser and will head back again about two weeks later for three more fundraisers and the Oprah taping. The president hasn't visited the Windy City since last October when he appeared at two fundraisers for senatorial candidate Alexi Giannoulias. (read more)

President Obama made a quick trip to the Lincoln Memorial Saturday to highlight that national parks, monuments and museums are indeed open for business.

The budget deal Congress struck late Friday night prevented a federal government shutdown that would have necessitated the closing of tourist sites across the country. Those visiting the nation's capital, would have been out of luck too, as the Smithsonian's 19 museums and galleries, the National Zoo, parks and landmark monuments, like the Lincoln Memorial, would have been closed.

But that didn't happen, and Mr. Obama, who was greeted Saturday afternoon by hundreds to cheering tourists, was happy to welcome them to the District of Columbia.

"Because Congress was able to settle its differences, that's why this place is open today, and everybody's able to enjoy their visit," the president said under the marbled gaze of President Abraham Lincoln. "And that's the kind of future cooperation I hope we have going forward," he added, "because this is what's America is all about - everybody from difference places enjoying those things that bind us together." (read more)

President Obama has signed into law a six day budget agreement that Congress approved early Saturday morning. Technically, the government's spending authority lapsed for more than a dozen hours. Fox News has learned the short term spending bill was sent to the White House at 1:35 a.m., and the president signed it in the early afternoon.

Congressional leaders agreed late Friday to a budget deal that would keep the federal government running through the remainder of the fiscal year which ends in September, thus averting a government shutdown.

But the details of the 11th hour agreement, which will cut $38.5 billion from the federal budget, still have to be written into legislation. So in the early hours of Saturday morning, the House voted on a bridge continuing resolution that funds the government through Thursday night and that's the nugget Mr. Obama signed Saturday - the seventh short term funding bill so far, in the 2011 fiscal year. (read more)

At a green energy themed event in Pennsylvania Wednesday, President Obama, in speaking about the budget battle back in Washington, evoked a reference to which many Americans can relate.

Marriage.

More specifically, Mr. Obama, married himself over 18 years, drew a parallel between the parties on Capitol Hill working together to strike a deal on a budget - thus avoiding a government shutdown the end of the week - and dealing with conflict in marriage.

"You want everybody to act like adults, quit playing games, realize that it's not just 'my way or the highway,'" the president said at the town-hall style event before workers at a wind turbine company.

"How many folks are married here?" Obama asked. Dozens of hands were raised. "When was the last time you just got your way?" the president added, with a knowing smile.

"That's not how it works, right?" Obama stated to the head nodding, chuckling audience.

"The fact is, is that you have to make compromises as a family. That's what we are, the American family," the president asserted. (read more)

President Obama traveled to Pennsylvania Wednesday - a state once renowned for its steel industry - to tout his clean energy policy.

"This is the future of American energy," the president said at a Gamesa Technology Corporation plant in Fair Hills, where wind turbines are manufactured.

"What you do here is a glimpse of the future and it's a future where America is less dependent on foreign oil, more reliant on clean energy, produced by workers like you," said Mr. Obama

Just a week ago, in what the White House called a deliberate pivot from the turmoil in the Middle East, the president shifted focus to energy security, announcing his intention to reduce in the next decade the amount of oil imported to the US by one third, and to double the amount of electricity produced by renewable sources, like wind and solar, by 2035.

But with the cost of oil at about $108 a barrel, and the cost of a gallon of gas hovering around $3.70, many say the president's green goals are too far off in the future for those feeling the pinch today. It's a point the president acknowledged Wednesday in the town-hall style event.

"There is no magic formula to driving gas prices down," the president conceded. "It's a steady improvement in terms of how we use energy and where we get energy from, that's what's going to make a difference, that's how we're going to secure our energy future," argued Obama. (read more)

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar emphatically denied reports that there is a deal with BP to resume drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. "There is absolutely no truth to the rumor that there is some sort of agreement," the secretary said on a conference call with reporters.

Over the weekend, British media reports suggested BP would start drilling in the gulf this summer. "There is no agreement with respect to BP," said Salazar

The interior secretary - who is in Mexico City to discuss with officials there the development of "one gold standard" for oil and gas exploration and development in the gulf - told reporters, "We treat every company" that applies to drill offshore, "with the same set of standards that we would treat everybody else" and that BP would have to go through the same process. "There is nothing here with BP that is different from what we will be doing with all the other companies that operate in the Gulf of Mexico," the interior secretary said.