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Promising “transparency like you’ve never seen before,” The White House released its visitor log this evening under a new voluntary disclosure policy. The log chronicles 481 visits to the White House from individuals ranging from Jay-Z to Bill Gates from January through July. The list includes William Ayers, Jeremiah Wright, Michael Moore, Robert Kelly (R. Kelly), Malik Shabazz, and Michael Jordan.

Apple has won every category it participated in as part of a new study of service and reliablity. The reader-driven PCMag rankings saw it lead the cellphone, desktop, notebook and portable media categories, in some cases with particularly wide margins compared to rivals. Apple's best success was in the notebook category, where MacBooks earned an overall score of 9.2 out of 10 and a very high 9.4 out of 10 "would recommend" score. The win was a narrow one as Taiwan's ASUS made a relatively large gain to claim second place with 8.8 overall and 9.0 in recommendations. Its general...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 5, 2007 – President Bush’s fiscal 2008 budget request seeks to pump more money into the development of future capabilities that will support America’s warfighters. Strategic modernization of the force accounts for 38 percent, or $176.8 billion, of the $481.4 billion defense budget request the president submitted to Congress today. The budget request reflects an overall $49 billion increase over fiscal 2007, and developing future capabilities accounts for 18 percent, or $8.8 billion, of that increase. Within the strategic modernization arena, procurement accounts for roughly $101.7 billion and research, development, testing and evaluation takes the rest, at...

NEW YORK - Editing changes made by ABC to the first part of its miniseries "The Path to 9/11" were cosmetic and didn't change the meaning of scenes that had angered several former Clinton administration officials, a spokesman for the former president said Monday. As for Clinton, he didn't bother watching the movie that angered so many people who once worked for him. "He made the choice that most Americans made," said Jay Carson, Clinton Foundation spokesman. "Of a fictionalized drama version of Sept. 11 or the Manning brothers playing football against one another, he chose the latter." The movie...

WASHINGTON, August 2, 2006 – The National Guard has exceeded its troop requirement along the southwestern U.S. border by almost 200 servicemembers and is assisting U.S. Border Patrol activities there, a senior Defense Department official said here today. “We were obligated, by Aug. 1, to have 6,000 National Guardsmen deployed to the four-state southwest border region. And, in fact, as of close of business yesterday, we had 6,199 soldiers,” Paul McHale, assistant secretary of defense for homeland defense, said in an interview. “We kept our commitment to the secretary of defense, Lieutenant General (H Steven) Blum (chief of the National...

WASHINGTON (Army News Service, June 27, 2006) - The 2006 Gallup poll results on public confidence are in and the military is again at the top of the list. Seventy-three percent of Americans polled from June 1-4, 2006, said they have a “great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in the military, according to Gallup poll writer Lydia Saad. After the terrorist attacks Sept. 11, 2001, military confidence soared 13 percent above the previous year. In that 2002 poll, 79 percent of respondents said they had a “great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in the military. The...

New York state tops the country in taxes collected by the state and local governments, siphoning off $5,260 per person a year, a business group said Thursday. New York's combined local and state tax burden was 53 percent above the national average and $339 more than the second-most taxed state, Connecticut, said Robert Ward of The Public Policy Institute of The Business Council of New York State. The study was based on 2004 U.S. Census data. In 2002, the combined tax burden was $4,684 per state resident. Total state and local taxes collected in New York topped $100 billion for...

WASHINGTON, May 10, 2006 – All four services exceeded their active-duty recruiting goals in April for the 11th consecutive month and remain ahead of their year-to-date goals, defense officials announced today. And although four of the six reserve components slipped below their April recruiting goals, their year-to-date progress, particularly for the Army National Guard and Army Reserve, shows promise, Air Force Lt. Col. Ellen Krenke, a Pentagon spokeswoman, told American Forces Press Service. During what has historically been a slow recruiting period, the active Army recruited almost 5,700 members, 105 percent of its goal, for April. The Air Force signed...

Iran tops Merkel's agenda in US By Ray Furlong BBC correspondent in Berlin The German Chancellor Angela Merkel is visiting the US for a two-day trip set to be dominated by the confrontation over Iran's nuclear programme. Officials in Berlin said the visit would be used to show unity with the US in increasing the pressure on Iran to suspend uranium enrichment. They said the discussion of sanctions was a possibility, but that Germany remained opposed to the use of force. This is Mrs Merkel's second visit to Washington since taking office. The imposition of sanctions would not come immediately:...

Study: New York Tops In Taxes Thanks to its sky-high personal income, sales and business taxes New York state has the least business-friendly climate in the nation. According to a study by the tax foundation, the State Business Tax Climate Index (SBTCI): "Taxes matter to business. Taxes affect business decisions, job creation and retention, plant location, competitiveness and the long-term health of a state’s economy. "Most importantly, taxes diminish profits. If taxes take a larger portion of profits, that cost is passed along to either consumers (through higher prices), workers (through lower wages or fewer jobs), or shareholders (through lower...

Pink Panther tops US box office A new version of The Pink Panther starring Steve Martin has topped the North American box office chart. The comedy made $21.7m (£12.4m) in its opening weekend, with Martin reprising Peter Sellers' 1963 role as the bungling Inspector Jacques Clouseau. Horror film Final Destination 3 was second with $20.1m (£11.5m), box office tracker Exhibitor Relations said. It was followed by two more new films - animated movie Curious George at three and Harrison Ford thriller Firewall. The Pink Panther, which co-stars singer Beyonce Knowles, topped the US chart despite poor reviews. NORTH AMERICA...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Campaign committees battling over the eight propositions on last November's special election ballot spent a record $303.9 million, according to campaign reports filed this week. All eight of the initiatives, including four promoted by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, went down to defeat despite, or perhaps because of, the spending barrage. "It shows that if you have enough money you certainly can have your issue presented to voters," said Robert Stern, president of the Center for Governmental Studies, a Los Angeles-based campaign think tank. "But it also shows if you have enough money you can defeat almost any issue."...

MEXICALI – The whole menu of hot-button California immigration issues intruded yesterday on a long-awaited meeting between Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and his Baja California counterpart. Schwarzenegger and Baja California Gov. Eugenio Elorduy discussed cross-border cooperation on transportation, trade, education, environmental issues and immigration during a two-hour private meeting in the state government headquarters here. The two issued a joint statement with immigration couched in delicate diplomatic language: "Undocumented immigration is perhaps one of the most challenging and controversial issues that we face, but that does not mean that workable solutions cannot be found. Our dialogue with respect to this issue...

More people were executed in 2004 than any year since 1996, according to Amnesty International. At least 3,797 people were executed in 25 countries in 2004 - the vast majority in China. The charity, which is calling for the abolition of the death penalty, found executions had peaked at the second highest level for 25 years. Only four countries accounted for 97% of all deaths. China executed at least 3,400 people, Iran executed at least 159, Vietnam at least 64 and the USA 59. China refuses to give official figures for executions, but in March 2004 a delegate at the...

President Bush and some of his advisers received worst-acting nominations for their appearances in news and archival footage in Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11," which assails Bush for his actions surrounding the Sept. 11 attacks. Bush was nominated for worst actor, while Secretary of State-designate Condoleezza Rice got a nomination for worst supporting actress and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld for worst supporting actor. Wilson said that while "Fahrenheit 9/11" was a piece of anti-Bush propaganda, the president and his associates earned their Razzie nominations on their own. "It wasn't Mr. Moore's editing," Wilson said. "It's the raw footage of these people...

Officials just reaching hardest hit areas in Indonesia. BANDA ACEH, Indonesia (CNN) -- The latest death toll from the Asian tsunami has increased to more than 80,000 as relief workers and supplies begin to reach some of the most devastated areas.The dramatic rise of the number of deaths came Wednesday as officials were finally able to reach remote regions -- like Indonesia's Aceh province, India's Andaman and Nicobar Islands and the Maldives.More than half of those deaths were reported in Indonesia, the nearest land mass to Sunday's undersea earthquake that triggered the deadly waves and flooding in about a dozen...

WASHINGTON - New Mexico, Idaho, Utah and other states blessed with wide-open spaces are seeing steady population growth as increasingly cramped Americans look for ways to spread out. Overall, the U.S. population grew by almost 3 million people over the last year to just under 294 million, the Census Bureau (news - web sites) reported in annual population estimates being released Wednesday. The top 10 list of fastest-growing states was dominated by those in the West and South, with Nevada leading the way for the 18th consecutive year. While favorable weather and jobs continue to be primary lures, people also...

SACRAMENTO - He's used his millions to benefit exotic show horses, a home for retired chimpanzees - and California's actor-governor. William Armsted Robinson has quietly become one of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's top donors, periodically trading off the pinnacle with San Diego Chargers owner Alex Spanos and Spanish language television entrepreneur Jerry Perenchio. Stockton real estate developer Spanos and Univision owner Perenchio are high-profile businessmen with long-term interests in California. But Robinson is an elusive, reclusive man whose first major foray into influencing politics is the $650,000 he has given Schwarzenegger. Schwarzenegger fund-raiser Marty Wilson describes Robinson as a "very private,...

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Soros tops Institutional Investor's ranking of the 25 highest-paid hedge-fund managers. Among the top 25 managers on the list, the average salary rose to $207 million from $110 million. Soros' firm, Soros Fund Management, had more than $12.8 billion worth of investments at the end of 2003. The majority of its holdings are mid- to large-cap companies in the natural resources, business services and consumer goods sectors, according to Thomson Financial's ShareWatch, which monitors institutional holdings. The fund's largest position is discount airline JetBlue Airways (JBLU: news, chart, profile), in which it holds an 11.5 percent stake. The No. 2...

Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), who has made a fight against corporate special interests a centerpiece of his front-running campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, has raised more money from paid lobbyists than any other senator over the past 15 years, federal records show. Kerry, a 19-year veteran of the Senate who fought and won four expensive political campaigns, has received nearly $640,000 from lobbyists, many representing telecommunications and financial companies with business before his committee, according to Federal Election Commission data compiled by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.

<p>BATON ROUGE - Louisiana's next governor will be asked by higher education officials to continue funding reforms that are improving and stimulating growth in colleges and universities rather than subject them to cuts to balance the budget.</p> <p>"We've got all the necessary building blocks" to solve Louisiana's persistent education problems, Commissioner of Higher Education Joseph Savoie said. "Our challenge now is to follow through and finish the job."</p>

<p>Attorney General Richard Ieyoub touted his record and leadership ability Wednesday as his gubernatorial campaign came to Alexandria.</p> <p>"We have a very strong message of bold, energetic leadership for the people of Louisiana, which is absolutely necessary, if we're going to move this state in the right direction," he said.</p>

Des Moines, July 21, 2003 - If the Iowa Caucuses were held today, Richard Gephardt would win. But when Hillary Clinton is added to the mix, she beats Gephardt and all other declared democrats. That's according to our exclusive Survey Iowa 13 results. Survey participants were asked the following questions: If the Iowa Democratic Presidential Caucuses were today, and you had to make a choice right now, who would you vote for? Gephardt 32% Dean 19% Kerry 12% Lieberman 10% Edwards 7% Other 12% Undecided 7% Now suppose that Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton were to enter the contest. Who would...

Weight woes By Allison Fashek Published in the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle CHEYENNE – Donna Keyt, 60, knows just how difficult it is not only to lose weight, but also to keep it off. For years Keyt has been a local member of a weight-loss group, Take Off Pounds Sensibly, but she still hasn’t figured out how to get to her target weight and stay there. When she first joined, she lost about 30 pounds and then slowly gained it again. Now she’s trying to lose that weight and an additional 30 pounds. “The truth is America has too much good food,”...

<p>WASHINGTON -(KRT) - For the first time since the Sept. 11 terror attacks, the American people are more concerned about the nation's economic woes than about terrorism, war or Iraq, a new poll found.</p> <p>Fully 41 percent of those polled cited the economy, unemployment or the federal budget deficit as the nation's biggest problem, while 29 percent pointed to issues related to war and terrorism, according to the poll released Friday by the Pew Research Center.</p>

Bare hostess ... cabin girl Hillary Vinson on Hooters' maiden flight SEXY hostesses have taken off plenty for the debut of a new airline — called Hooters Air. Cabin girls wore tight vests and hotpants on the maiden flight of the US service which calls itself “delightfully tacky”. Boss Robert Brooks, who already has a chain of 330 Hooters restaurants, said: “We aim to bring fun back to flying. We’re politically incorrect and everyone knows it.” No plane Janes ... Hillary and colleague Cameron Brooks Robert hopes to lure golfers and other sportsmen away from rival airlines with £80 flights...

<p>SACRAMENTO (AP) - Despite a slumping economy and the possibility of war with Iraq, a poll released Tuesday found voters will go to the polls in two weeks with education as their top concern.</p> <p>One indicator is solid support for two education measures on the Nov. 5 ballot even with voters on edge over the shaky economy, said Public Policy Institute of California poll director Mark Baldassare.</p>