Posted 12:01 p.m. Thurs., 02.25.10 - President Obama opened the televised health-care summit Thursday with personal examples of why reform is urgently needed. He asked legislators to concentrate on where they agree. Sen. Lamar Alexander, who gave the Republicans' opening statement, urged scrapping current legislation and taking a fresh approach. | New York Times

Here's a running account of the proceedings, with reporters fact-checking some of the politicians' assertions. | Politico

Help inform our news coverage: How healthy is health-care reform? | Public Insight Network

Updated 11:01 a.m. Mon., 02.22.10 - In advance of the White House health summit, the president said he prefers new federal authority over increases in insurance premiums but no public option. He rejected GOP calls to scrap the current process and start fresh and urged Republicans to come together around their own proposal and make it public. | Washington Post

Read the Obama plan. | White House

Comparison of Obama, House and Senate plans. | Thinkprogress.org

Updated 7:06 a.m. Mon., 02.01.10 - The amount is a new post-World War II high. Then, for the next year, the blueprint projects a slightly lower deficit of $1.3 trillion — about the level the President inherited when he took office. That would be about 8.3 percent of gross domestic product, budget documents show. From there, largely due to economic growth, the deficit would drop sharply for 2012, when Mr. Obama will be up for re-election. | New York Times

Winners and losers in 2011 budget. | Washington Post

Crunching the budget numbers. | Wall Street Journal

Posted 11 a.m. Sun., 01.31.10 - Robert Behnken, an Air Force lieutenant colonel who graduated from Pattonville High School and Washington University, is getting ready to return to the space station and do a little construction work. While conditions may be just a little different from those experienced when his father was putting up buildings in the St. Louis area, the younger Behnken credits his dad with helping him see how things are put together.

Updated 9:50 a.m. Thur., 01.28.10 - In his first State of the Union speech, at a pivotal time in his presidency, Obama focused on fixing the nation's economy and promised to put more Americans back to work. He also called on both parties to work together, adding: "It's time for something new. Let's meet our responsibility to the people who sent us here." (White House photo by Pete Souza) | New York Times

Obama takes on partisan gridlock. | Washington Post

Health care gives way to the economy. | New York Times

Read the text and watch the video of the president's speech. | White House

Read the prepared text of the GOP response from Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell. | Atlantic

Updated 4:22 p.m. Wed., 01.27.10- Some want the president to be more forceful. Others say he needs to admit he has made mistakes. And they want to hear what he plans to do about health care, jobs, economic growth and more.

What Obama needs to say. | Politico

Updated 10:58 a.m. Thurs., 01.21.10 - The majority said the 5-4 ruling was a vindication of the First Amendment’s most basic free speech principle — that the government has no business regulating political speech. The dissenters said allowing corporate money to flood the political marketplace will corrupt democracy. | New York Times

Read the court's ruling. | Supreme Court website

Updated 6:39 a.m. Wed., 01.20.10 -  In one of the biggest upsets in the state's history, Republican Scott Brown defeated Democrat Martha Coakley in their race to succeed Ted Kennedy. The stunning, come-from-behind GOP victory -- the party's first in a Massachusetts Senate race since 1972 -- jeopardizes the health-care changes that the late Massachusetts senator pushed for during his long Senate career. | Boston.com

Brown's campaign won over independent voters. | New York Times

Democrats forced to rethink health-care bill. | Politico

Posted 3:25 p.m. Thurs., 01.07.10 - President Barack Obama today took responsibility for the mishandling of intelligence related to the near-bombing of a passenger plane on Christmas Day. He pledged "a continued and sustained" effort to improve intelligence gathering and security screenings at airport.

In a speech from Washington, Obama said he has ordered officials to act more swiftly in adding terrorist suspects to no-fly lists and on examining evidence that could lead to an attack. | Washington Post

White House summary of the review of the nation's security and intelligence systems. | The White House Blog