"After backing Mexico's ongoing battle against drug cartels, President Barack Obama is heading to a Western Hemisphere summit with a sudden spotlight on Cuba," the AP says. "Venezuela President Hugo Chavez, a staunch ally of Cuba's communist government, vowed to torpedo a final summit communique in protest of the country's exclusion. But Obama's move this week to ease travel and some other restrictions for Cuban-Americans brought an unprecedented reply from Havana. Raul Castro, who took over from his ailing brother, Fidel, a year ago, offered to talk to the Obama administration about all outstanding grievances. Speaking from a meeting Chavez hosted in Venezuela, Raul Castro declared: 'We have sent word to the U.S. government in private and in public that we are willing to discuss everything -- human rights, freedom of the press, political prisoners, everything.'"

Don't expect Obama to meet with Chavez, the White House said, per Politico. "Chavez will, however, be in a meeting Obama will hold with the leaders of all the countries of South America and Gibbs said that Obama wouldn't necessarily dodge a conversation if the Venezuelan president approached him."

Covering the president's activities in Mexico yesterday, the Washington Post says, "President Obama and his Mexican counterpart, Felipe Calderón, outlined a common approach Thursday to combating drug violence, climate change and trade disputes but appeared to part ways over the urgency of reinstating a U.S. ban on assault weapons. On his first presidential visit to Mexico, Obama praised Calderón for taking on the drug cartels, whose potent arsenals and economic power are threatening the integrity of the Mexican state. Obama announced that he will push the U.S. Senate to ratify an inter-American arms-trafficking treaty."

"But Obama indicated that while he favors reinstating the U.S. ban on assault weapons, which Congress allowed to expire five years ago, the move would face too much political opposition to happen soon. He said better enforcing existing laws to prevent arms smuggling would have a more immediate effect on keeping U.S. weapons from Mexican cartels."

According to the Washington Post, "Justice Department documents released yesterday offer the fullest account to date of Bush administration interrogation tactics, including previously unacknowledged strategies of slamming a prisoner into a wall and placing an insect near a detainee terrified of bugs. Authorities said they will not prosecute CIA officers who used harsh interrogation techniques with the department's legal blessing. But in a carefully worded statement, they left open the possibility that operatives and higher-level administration officials could face jeopardy if they ventured beyond the boundaries drawn by the Bush lawyers."

Video: The Justice Department released memos from the Bush administration that authorized the CIA to use harsh interrogation methods against suspected terrorists, but the Obama administration said CIA staffers won't be tried for "mistakes of the past."  NBC's Pete Williams reports.

The New York Times: "The release of the documents came after a bitter debate that divided the Obama administration, with the C.I.A. opposing the Justice Department's proposal to air the details of the agency's long-secret program. Fueling the urgency of the discussion was Thursday's court deadline in a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, which had sued the government for the release of the Justice Department memos."

"Together, the four memos give an extraordinarily detailed account of the C.I.A.'s methods and the Justice Department's long struggle, in the face of graphic descriptions of brutal tactics, to square them with international and domestic law. Passages describing forced nudity, the slamming of detainees into walls, prolonged sleep deprivation and the dousing of detainees with water as cold as 41 degrees alternate with elaborate legal arguments concerning the international Convention Against Torture."

The Washington Post editorial page, which doesn't always agree with the Obama administration on foreign policy, says Team Obama "acted courageously and wisely yesterday with its dual actions on interrogation policy. The pair of decisions -- one essentially forgiving government agents who may have committed heinous acts they were told were legal, the other signaling that such acts must never again be condoned by the United States -- struck exactly the right balance." 

But writing in the Wall Street Journal, former Bush CIA director Michael Hayden and former Bush AG Michael Mukasey criticize the release of the memos. "The release of these opinions was unnecessary as a legal matter, and is unsound as a matter of policy. Its effect will be to invite the kind of institutional timidity and fear of recrimination that weakened intelligence gathering in the past, and that we came sorely to regret on Sept. 11, 2001."  
 
Meanwhile, "Steven Rattner, the leader of the Obama administration's auto task force, was one of the executives involved with payments under scrutiny in a probe of an alleged kickback scheme at New York state's pension fund, according to a person familiar with the matter," the Wall Street Journal reports. "A Securities and Exchange Commission complaint says a 'senior executive' of Mr. Rattner's investment firm met in 2004 with a politically connected consultant about a finder's fee. Later, the complaint says, the firm received an investment from the state pension fund and paid $1.1 million in fees. The 'senior executive,' not named in the complaint, is Mr. Rattner, according to the person familiar with the matter." Apparently, the Journal says, the Obama administration knew about the pending investigation. 

Forget immigration reform, unless there's a "healthy bipartisan majority."

And is Dean vs. Rahm over? "The feud between Howard Dean and Rahm Emanuel appears to be over. Dean told The Hill that he recently had lunch with the White House chief of staff, signaling a thaw in their once icy relationship." "I think that (tension) was always somewhat exaggerated," said Dean during an interview this week with The Hill. "Look, we're both very fierce competitors and very strong-minded people. But I don't think there's a lot of ill will between myself and Rahm Emanuel."

From NBC's Pete Williams and Mark Murray
A senior Justice Department official says Attorney General Eric Holder has concluded that CIA operatives who followed the legal guidance they were given will not be prosecuted, even if they used harsh interrogation methods.

Video: CIA operatives who followed Bush interrogation guidelines on suspected terrorists will not be prosecuted for using methods such as waterboarding. NBC's Pete Williams reports.

If they acted "in good faith and in conformance" to the instructions they had, those officers will not face prosecution for administering even waterboarding and other methods that have since been disavowed.

This does not mean, the official said, that no CIA personnel could be prosecuted for their conduct in the war on terror. "If they went beyond the guidance or acted irresponsibly," the official said, they could still face prosecution.

The AP adds, "The decision comes as the Obama administration releases four long-secret legal memos from the Bush administration authorizing a dozen harsh interrogation techniques against high-value terror suspects."

The Washington Post: "The president and the Federal Reserve chairman voiced cautious optimism yesterday that the economy could be beginning to stabilize. But the economy wasn't cooperating. Retail sales dropped sharply in March, the government reported, and wholesale prices fell steeply. Both pieces of data underscore the hard slog the nation faces to emerge from its deep recession and the limitations of more optimistic talk from Washington. The stock market fell 2 percent, as measured by the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index." 

The New York Times adds, "As he spoke about the economy on Tuesday, President Obama invoked the parable in the Sermon on the Mount about two houses, one built on sand only to be blown away in a storm and another built on rock impervious to the swirling winds. Mr. Obama was trying to explain why he wants not only to revive the sagging economy but to virtually reinvent it with sweeping changes in health care, energy and education. Without deeper reform, he argued, the economy would only topple again later." 

The New York Times also front-pages that the Obama administration is planning to disclose the results of its "stress tests" for the nation's largest 19 banks. "The administration has decided to reveal some sensitive details of the stress tests now being completed after concluding that keeping many of the findings secret could send investors fleeing from financial institutions rumored to be weakest. While all of the banks are expected to pass the tests, some are expected to be graded more highly than others. Officials have deliberately left murky just how much they intend to reveal -- or to encourage the banks to reveal -- about how well they would weather difficult economic conditions over the next two years."  

Back to Obama's speech yesterday… It was well received by students, report NBC's Madeline Peters and Charlie Warzel. Ryan Wilson, a Georgetown University freshman, said, "It took a second to get over the fact [he was there]. But the speech was clear, clean cut, and laid out a message for where we needed to be going." 

Wilson added that the road to recovery "it's a daunting task. But [Obama] definitely makes people of my generation feel comfortable that we will be able to tackle the problems and eventually return to economic prosperity." 

And here's Reuters' lead on the new dog, Bo: "Forget the economic crisis, the North Korean nuclear standoff and Somali pirates. The hottest news at the White House on Tuesday was the long-awaited arrival of Bo, the first family's new dog." Bo "appeared to take his newfound celebrity in stride on Tuesday as the Obamas took turns walking him on the south lawn of the White House in front of a much larger-than-normal White House press corps." 
 
The New York Daily News on the dog: "Bo knows how to boss the First Family around -- or at least drag them across the South Lawn of the White House." 
 
"Speaking of star quality, Obama secretly met with surviving members of the Grateful Dead in the Oval Office Monday night. The visit was a thank-you for the legendary band, which reunited for an Obama fund-raiser in San Francisco just before last year's critical Super Tuesday primaries."

From NBC's Athena Jones

In a lengthy speech he said would be "prose and not poetry," President Obama set out to explain to the American people what his administration has done to jump-start the economy, and how the policies together would help move the country "from recession to recovery and ultimately to prosperity."

The president used the roughly 45-minute address not to make news -- but instead to summarize the first three months of his presidency, defend his spending policies, lay out the challenges remaining, and connect all of this with his larger vision for America.

He touted his administration's actions -- from his $787 billion stimulus package and his efforts to help stabilize the financial system and the housing market, to his support of the auto industry -- arguing these steps were starting to generate "signs of economic progress." Still, he tempered his remarks, as he often does, reminding his audience that the hard times were not over and that this year would be a difficult one.

"The severity of this recession will cause more job loss, more foreclosures, and more pain before it ends," Obama said, adding that there was much more work to be done, before reprising the kind of populist "fighter" rhetoric he often employed during the fall campaign. "But all of this also means that you can continue to expect an unrelenting, unyielding, day-by-day effort from this administration to fight for economic recovery on all fronts."

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs later drove home the point that the economy was not yet out of the woods. "We are likely to see many more months of hundreds of thousands of jobs lost," Gibbs said during the press briefing. "I don't think anybody is under illusion that -- particularly as it relates to the employment statistics or the employment market -- that we're gonna see an instantaneous turnaround."

The larger vision for America Obama described this morning involved "five pillars," including modernized rules to regulate Wall Street, investments in education, clean energy and health care and "new savings" to reduce the budget deficit over the long term -- all goals he has spoken about frequently since Inauguration Day, most notably in his February address to a joint session of Congress. Today, he called on Congress to deliver a new regulatory framework for the financial industry to his desk this year.

Obama stressed his long-term goals with a biblical reference, discussing the story of two men that Jesus relates in the Sermon on the Mount. "The first built his house on a pile of sand, and it was soon destroyed when a storm hit," he began. "But the second is known as the wise man, for when the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock."

Obama went on to say the economy could not be rebuilt on the "same pile of sand" but must be rebuilt on a rock.

The president also answered critics of his spending plan, saying the $787 billion package represented just a fraction of the long-term deficit. He pointed to Social Security and health care as two important areas where reform would dramatically lower government spending, again urging action on health care reform this year.

A few hours after the president's speech, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke delivered a somewhat more technical progress report on the economy to students at Atlanta's Morehouse College. Calling the crisis one of the most difficult financial and economic episodes in modern history, Bernanke pointed to some positive news.

"Recently, we have seen tentative signs that the sharp decline in economic activity may be slowing, for example, in data on home sales, homebuilding, and consumer spending, including sales of new motor vehicles," he said, explaining that a leveling out of economic activity was the first step toward recovery. "I am fundamentally optimistic about our economy," Bernanke said.

Responding to Obama's Georgetown speech, House Republican Leader John Boehner repeated early criticism about the president's spending plans and said Democrats were only paying lip service to working across party lines.

"The president's trillion-dollar 'stimulus' was loaded with wasteful spending that has nothing to do with job creation, his $410 billion 'omnibus' spending bill was chock full of 9,000 unscrutinized earmarks, and his $3.5 trillion budget paves the way for a bigger and costlier federal government that will not create new jobs, help rebuild Americans' savings, and get our economy moving again," Boehner's statement read in part. "Instead of embracing tough decisions, Democrats have avoided them in favor of saddling our children and grandchildren with mountains of debt that we know they cannot afford."

The AP previews Obama's economic speech. "President Barack Obama is trying to strike a careful balance between highlighting economic progress and underscoring continued challenges as he seeks to reverse the recession he inherited but now owns… Aides billed the address as major but acknowledged that it was expected to contain no significant policy announcements. Rather, they said, the speech would outline the state of the economy when Obama took office in January, steps his administration has taken in its first three months, and what still needs to be done to right troubled sectors, including the housing, banking and financial industries."

"Three months into his presidency, Barack Obama stands out as perhaps the most trusted figure in American politics," Politico writes. "In a new Public Strategies Inc./POLITICO national survey of 1,000 registered voters, Obama outdistances figures on both the left and the right in earning the public's trust, with two-thirds of respondents saying they trust the president 'to identify the right solutions to the problems we face as a nation.' Of those who said they trust the president, 31 percent said they trust him 'a great deal.' An additional 35 percent said they have 'some' trust that Obama will find the correct solution. Thirty-one percent said they trust Obama either 'not very much' or 'not at all.'"

"Voters were asked the same question of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Republican Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, former Massachusetts Republican Gov. Mitt Romney, conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh and the two major political parties. Among those choices, only the Democratic Party was trusted to find the right solutions by a majority of voters, 52 percent to 40 percent. Forty percent of those surveyed said they trusted the Republican Party, compared with 54 percent who did not trust the GOP."

Bloomberg: "The U.S. government is considering swapping some of the $13.4 billion General Motors Corp. owes it for an equity stake in a stripped-down version of the carmaker, people familiar with the matter said."

Politico looks at the areas in which the pro-business U.S. Chamber of Commerce has been able to work with Obama.

Howard Dean "is using a call for universal coverage to raise his profile once again," The Hill reports. "Now, Dean is using Democracy For America -- the organizing group that grew out of Dean's presidential campaign -- to build a 50-state strategy advocating for public healthcare. Dean has added his name to five DFA e-mails since the beginning of March, aiming to build a list of grassroots supporters in each state. So far, DFA says it has gathered more than 250,000 signatures for a petition through a website, StandWithDrDean.com -- signatures that have generated about 34,000 letters to the editor."

The New York Times front-pages, "The Obama administration and its European allies are preparing proposals that would shift strategy toward Iran by dropping a longstanding American insistence that Tehran rapidly shut down nuclear facilities during the early phases of negotiations over its atomic program, according to officials involved in the discussions. The proposals, exchanged in confidential strategy sessions with European allies, would press Tehran to open up its nuclear program gradually to wide-ranging inspection. But the proposals would also allow Iran to continue enriching uranium for some period during the talks. That would be a sharp break from the approach taken by the Bush administration, which had demanded that Iran halt its enrichment activities, at least briefly to initiate negotiations." 

The Boston Globe: "President Obama yesterday loosened travel and financial restrictions on ties to Cuba, a policy shift that advocates say signals the beginning of the end of a decades-long, Cold War-era relationship with the communist nation." It adds this context: "For decades, foes of the Cuban regime have argued that shutting off money and visits to the country would lead to the downfall of its dictator - first Fidel Castro, and now, Castro's brother, Raul. But the Obama administration argues that engaging more with Cuba will lead to a more informed and empowered populace there."

The New York Times: "The announcement represents the most significant shift in United States policy toward Cuba in decades, and it is a reversal of the hard line taken by President George W. Bush. It comes as Mr. Obama is preparing to meet later this week in Trinidad and Tobago with Latin American leaders, who want him to normalize relations with Cuba and its leader, Raúl Castro."

"The new Democratic administration is benefiting from a political shift among Cuban Americans, one that Obama was well aware of in 2007," Politico writes.

The Washington Post: "The moves were hailed by many advocates of greater openness toward the regime, including the business community, which sees new opportunities for commerce. But they were immediately criticized by those on the right and the left who said they went either too far or not far enough."

"Two Cuban-American GOP lawmakers blasted President Obama's decision Monday to allow more travel by Cuban-Americans to the island. Reps. Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.) and Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.) said Obama's move was a 'serious mistake' and a concession to a dictatorship that has increased its repression of pro-democracy activists. Besides lifting the travel restrictions, Obama said he would allow Cuban-Americans to transfer money to relatives in Cuba." 
 
But Republican Sen. Mel Martinez essentially backed the policy. 
 
The New York Post's headline: "O eyes Cuba libre."

Meanwhile, what to do about those pirates? "A day after the dramatic rescue of an American sea captain held captive by Somali pirates, US officials said yesterday that they are considering launching attacks on the staging areas from which pirates have hijacked a rising number of international merchant vessels," the Boston Globe writes.

"[A]s president, Obama has to keep his promise of revitalizing relations with the rest of the Western Hemisphere -- not just to create a better mood, but to achieve real results. The work begins in earnest this week when Obama travels Thursday to Mexico City. The stop is a clear signal of support for President Felipe Calderon as the U.S. and Mexico grapple with the deadly flow of drugs and weapons hurting both countries." 
 
"The Obama administration said Monday night that the president's trip to Mexico, Trinidad and Tobago later this week will focus on the global economic crisis, climate change and the escalating problem of drug cartel violence on the Mexican-U.S. border," The Hill's Youngman reports.

From NBC's Athena Jones

WASHINGTON, DC, April 13 -- The Obama administration kicked off the week with an event meant to highlight what it says are the early successes of the $787 billion stimulus package.

After a morning spent with children and their families at the annual Easter Egg Roll on the White House South Lawn, the President Obama spoke at the Department of Transportation about what has been accomplished since he took office nearly three months ago.

"Faced with an extraordinary economic crisis, we've responded with extraordinary action -- action that's both unprecedented in scale and unprecedented in its speed," he said. "We developed plans to stabilize our housing market, to unfreeze our credit markets, and to ensure the survival of our auto industry in this new century. We passed a budget that cuts our deficit in half while making investments to spur long-term growth and lasting prosperity."

Obama was joined by Vice President Biden and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood at an event to mark the approval of the 2,000th transportation project under the stimulus -- a $68 million road-widening project in Kalamazoo County, MI.

"Today, I think it's safe to say that this plan is beginning to work," Obama said, going on to cite new jobs at clean energy companies, jobs that were saved at police departments, tax cuts for middle class families, and plans to expand health care clinics.

As he has throughout his young presidency, the president sought to remind people that the road to recovery would be long and imperfect -- even as he spoke optimistically about the future. "We'll face some setbacks along the way. There will be some projects that don't work the way we want them to," he said. "But it is now clear that we're heading in the right direction. It's now clear that day by day, project by project, we are making progress."

Today's event was in line with the administration's recent upbeat language about the economy. Obama and administration officials like Larry Summers, a top economic adviser, have spoken recently about signs of progress and "glimmers of hope" on the economic front, citing as examples data on the housing market showing an jump in mortgage refinancing, and increased access to credit for small business.

In his brief remarks opening the event, LaHood touted the speed at which infrastructure projects were being approved, and he said many projects were coming in under budget, allowing for recovery dollars to go further. The Transportation secretary said updating the nation's infrastructure was key to restoring America's competitive edge, and he spoke about major new transportation legislation this year that would enable officials to "rewrite the rules for the future of transportation in this country."

"As Congress tackles this new legislation, we're going to make sure that new and creative solutions are included that help fight climate change, allow communities to support alternatives to driving, and offer taxpayers a strong return on their investment," LaHood said. "I'm very encouraged by the progress we've made so far to put our recovery dollars to work, and I look forward to working closely with Congress on finding new ways to build and finance our transportation needs."

Saying the road to recovery must be "re-paved", Biden highlighted the jobs created by infrastructure projects during a short speech introducing President Obama.

From NBC's Chuck Todd and Domenico Montanaro
Ahead of Friday's Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago, President Obama was thought to change portions of U.S.-Cuba policy. When he'd make an announcement, though, was an open question. The end of the week is busy for the president, on Thursday, he heads to Mexico City.

Video: White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs announces the lifting of travel and other restrictions against Cuba.

The White House now is confirming a Miami Herald report, outlining what President Obama will announce with regard to Cuba. Here are some bullet-point details from the report:

• Lifting travel restrictions for Cuban Americans, allowing them to travel more freely to the island
• Lifting gift restriction for Cuban Americans, allowing them to send additional financial help to family members. (-- Expanding the items that can be sent to the island, including clothing, personal hygiene items and fishing equipment."
• "Licensing steps to open up greater communication to the island"

But:

• The trade embargo remains in place
• And still prohibited: "Sending items to senior government officials and Communist Party members"

The Herald calls the policy "the most significant U.S. gesture to Cuba in decades."

"This is an effort to reach out to the Cuban people in an effort to support the Cuban people's desire to freely determine their country's future," a senior administration official told the paper. "The president has said this is the most direct means to open up the kind of space that is necessary to see democratic change in Cuba."

The New York Times' Zeleny writes: "He is not a mortgage broker. But for a time on Thursday, President Obama seemed to be playing one on television, urging Americans not to miss out on rock-bottom refinancing rates. From his perch in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, the president donned his salesman's hat and pitched the benefits — for you, and of course, for the American economy — of home mortgage rates at their lowest levels in 35 years."

"Seldom has the president sounded so much like the host of a late-night infomercial, stopping just shy of imploring people to call the toll-free number at the bottom of their television screens."

Adds the Washington Post's Milbank, "When last we heard from the salesman in chief 10 days ago, he was pitching General Motors and Chrysler cars so aggressively that he did everything but offer to rotate every American's tires. Now, it seems, he's moonlighting for LendingTree.com." 

The Wall Street Journal curtain-raises today's White House meeting on the economy. "President Barack Obama's meeting on Friday with top government economic officials likely sets the stage for more aggressive White House action soon on the economy, despite emerging signs of hope. 'He will make it clear that it took a long time to get into this crisis [and] will take time to get out,' a senior administration official said. 'He'll be briefed on progress of our aggressive efforts, and what more needs to be done.'"

"The president plans to meet at 11 a.m. Friday with some of the government's top economic officials, including Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, Comptroller of the Currency John Dugan and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Sheila Bair. Top White House economic adviser Lawrence Summers and economist Christina Romer also will attend. At the meeting in the West Wing's Roosevelt Room, the president will be 'updated on a broad range of economic and financial topics including ongoing efforts to stabilize our financial system and get lending moving again so that it supports economic recovery,' the White House said in a statement late Thursday evening. 'These efforts include steps to stabilize the housing market, jumpstart securitization markets for auto, student and small business loans, clean up bank balance sheets by creating markets for legacy assets, and provide banks with a capital cushion to withstand a more severe economic downturn.'"

One critic of the stress tests being performed by the Obama administration is gaining a lot of traction. "The bank stress tests currently underway are 'a complete sham,' says William Black, a former senior bank regulator and S&L prosecutor, and currently an Associate Professor of Economics and Law at the University of Missouri - Kansas City. 'It's a Potemkin model. Built to fool people.' Like many others, Black believes the 'worst case scenario' used in the stress test don't go far enough."

"He detailed these and related concerns in a recent interview with Naked Capitalism. But Black, who was counsel to the Federal Home Loan Bank Board during the S&L Crisis, says the program's failings go way beyond such technical issues. 'There is no real purpose [of the stress test] other than to fool us. To make us chumps,' Black says. Noting policymakers have long stated the problem is a lack of confidence, Black says Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner is now essentially saying: "'If we lie and they believe us, all will be well.' It's Orwellian."

The Boston Globe: "The worst days of the most severe recession since the 1930s may be over, as an increasing number of signs suggest the economy is beginning to stabilize. Yesterday, for example, some of the nation's biggest retailers, including TJX Cos. of Framingham, reported better-than-expected sales in March, and Wells Fargo & Co., one of the nation's largest banks, projected record earnings in the first quarter, which ended March 31. Government examinations of the finances of the nation's largest banks -- the so-called stress tests -- are finding the weakened banking system in better shape than expected, according to regulators."

Top Obama economic adviser Larry Summers echoed that while speaking to the Economic Club of Washington yesterday. "I think we can be reasonably confident that that's going to end within the next few months, and you will no longer have that sense of free-fall," he said.

But the New York Times has an interesting piece about how the economy could be experiencing a false recovery right now.

The Washington Post has a similar piece, except it paints a glass-is-half-full picture. "The recession remains severe, and economists stress that the worst for U.S. workers is still to come. Americans are still claiming jobless benefits at record levels, with the number of people receiving unemployment insurance now approaching 6 million. The unemployment rate in March was 8.5 percent, and earlier this week, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas chief Richard W. Fisher said he thought it could surpass 10 percent by year's end."

Picking up on where we left off yesterday in First Thoughts, Roll Call writes, "Despite renewed interest in tackling comprehensive immigration reform this year, Democratic and Republican aides in the House and Senate said prospects for serious action on the thorny issue remain uncertain at best. Aides also warned that the complexities and politically toxic nature of immigration reform would almost certainly force one or more of President Barack Obama's top-line agenda items off the table for the year."  and

The LA Times profiles the other Emanuel brother, the health-care expert, Zeke.

"A ragtag band of pirates has put President Barack Obama in a bind: He commands overwhelming firepower in the form of a growing flotilla of U.S. warships, but he doesn't want to use it."

The AP calls the president's response so far on the pirates "careful -- and quiet." 
 
So far, officials say they "see no direct ties between pirates looking for a fast buck and the Islamic extremists looking to attack America or her allies. But informal links are there, mired in Somalia's complex and combative clans."

"President Barack Obama wants Congress to act quickly on his $83.4 billion request for U.S. military and diplomatic operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, an appeal that's disappointing the most liberal, anti-war wing of his party."

CIA Chief Leon Panetta yesterday announced a new policy that should make the left very happy. "Panetta said Thursday that he had banned the agency's use of contract employees to interrogate prisoners or provide security at detention facilities, ending a practice that had drawn frequent criticism from human rights groups and key members of Congress. Panetta also spelled out new obligations for officers to safeguard the well-being of detainees when working with U.S. partners in Pakistan and other countries that frequently capture terrorism suspects with CIA help. The rules require agency employees to report abuses even if they take place 'in the custody of an American partner.'"

The other headline from Panetta: No more secret prisons. "The CIA has never revealed the locations where it secretly held and interrogated as many as 100 high-level al-Qaeda and other terrorism suspects captured overseas after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. News reports have said the sites were in Thailand, Romania and Poland, among other places. Panetta's statement was the first public acknowledgement that some of the sites still exist."

From NBC's Domenico Montanaro
Yesterday, we noted President Obama's call congratulating University of North Carolina men's basketball coach Roy Williams. And for those wondering, the president also called University of Connecticut women's basketball coach Geno Auriemma today to congratulate his team on its perfect 39-0 season.

The White House statement on the call:

"The President congratulated Coach Auriemma on his team's undefeated year and was impressed to learn that UConn had only one senior who started in the title game.  Coach Auriemma put center Tina Charles on the phone, and the President congratulated her on a great game and for going 11 for 13 from the floor, but jokingly asked what happened with the other two shots. The President told Coach Auriemma that he's looking forward to seeing him and the rest of the Huskies at the White House."