Leaning On Each Other

During times like this, we all need to lean on each other. For years, I’ve been turning to my friend Alicia for love and support, and I’m so excited for her to share her wisdom and her journey with all of you in her new book, #MoreMyself. ❤️ https://t.co/1EqNzIvXJR https://t.co/bn1NY9tX9L

— Michelle Obama (@MichelleObama) March 31, 2020

Presidential Jam Session

Pete Souza: This story is better than the photo. Back in 2011, the President invited Bono and Alicia Keys to lunch in his private dining room adjacent to the Oval Office. Bono asks where he should sit. Potus says sit wherever there’s a chair. Bono sees a guitar case in the corner, a campaign memento from Rock The Vote event. Bono quickly tunes the guitar and starts playing/singing Norwegian Wood by the Beatles. Why? Because the second verse goes like this: “She asked me to stay And she told me to sit anywhere So I looked around And I noticed there wasn’t a chair” In the midst of this, the President looks back at me and says, “How cool is this?”

A Meeting Of Education And Business

President Barack Obama introduces Maria Contreras-Sweet as his choice to be the new administrator of the Small Business Administration during an announcement ceremony in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building of the White House.

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Jim Kuhnhenn: Obama to nominate Calif. businesswoman to lead SBA

Maria Contreras-Sweet, the founder of a Latino-owned community bank in Los Angeles who was born in Guadalajara, Mexico, has a history of working with small businesses and has been an advocate for Hispanics. As California’s secretary of the state’s Business, Transportation and Housing Agency from 1999 to 2003, she was the first Latina to serve as a cabinet secretary in the state and oversaw 40,000 state employees and a $12 billion budget.

In 2006, she founded ProAmérica Bank, a financial institution that aimed to assist small and mid-size businesses. Before that, she was president and co-founder of a private equity firm that provided capital to small California businesses. Contreras-Sweet would become the second Hispanic in Obama’s second term Cabinet. The other is Labor Secretary Thomas Perez. She would also become the eighth woman in Obama’s current Cabinet.

More here

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First Lady Michelle Obama gestures while speaking in the State Dining Room of the White House where she hosted a screening of “The Inevitable Defeat of Mister and Pete,” a coming of age story about two inner-city youth who are left to fend for themselves in the Bronx.

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Lesley Clark: First Lady Joins With Alicia Keys To Talk Education

First Lady Michelle Obama has earned accolades — and few brickbats — for her campaigns to improve the American diet and get people off the couch. She’s also championed hiring opportunities for returning veterans. And now, the first lady says, she’s adding another initiative to her roster: helping achieve President Obama’s goal that the U.S. by 2020 will have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world. (It once was No. 1 but has fallen to 12th, she said.) Still, Obama, who turns 50 on Friday, says she’s not giving up her “Let’s Move,” food and exercise program or her “Joining Forces” campaign to help military veterans and their families.

“Nothing is going away, we’re just adding more on,” Obama said Wednesday, talking to a room full of educators at the White House. “I’m going to be doing my very best to promote these efforts by talking directly with young people. That’s my focus. Everybody else is going to be talking about resources, but the one thing I can bring to this is the message that we can give directly to young people.” Obama’s remarks came after a White House screening of “The Inevitable Defeat of Mister and Pete,” produced by the singer, Alicia Keys, who preceded Obama at the lectern in the State Dining Room.

More here

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In other news:

Smithsonian political history curator Lisa Kathleen Graddy, left, and museum specialist Bethanee Bemis, show off First Lady Michelle Obama’s second inaugural gown in a storage area at the Smithsonian Museum of American History. The White House is lending Obama’s ruby-colored chiffon gown made by designer Jason Wu to the National Museum of American History for a year to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the Smithsonian’s first ladies exhibition. It will be paired with Obama’s shoes designed by Jimmy Choo.

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Smithsonian political history curator Lisa Kathleen Graddy shows off First Lady Michelle Obama’s second inaugural gown in a storage area at the Smithsonian Museum of American History

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afternoon all

A red ribbon is hung from the North Portico of the White House to mark World AIDS Day

Text of full speech here

President Obama greets U2 front man Bono and Muhtar Kent the chairman of the Board and chief executive officer of The Coca-Cola Company after speaking during a World AIDS Day event at George Washington University

Alicia Keys

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Yesterday:

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Will catch up with all the news in the next hour or two, see ya then 😉

now they want the keys back!

Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s (DCCC) fundraising dinner, May 13, 2010