White House Blog

Tomorrow marks the one year anniversary of the deadly tornado that ripped through Joplin, Missouri, killing 161 and displacing thousands.

Tonight, President Obama will deliver the commencement address to the Joplin High School class of 2012 -- the first group of students to graduate since the storm. You can watch his remarks live at 9:15 PM ET.

To mark the anniversary, we've put together a piece featuring interviews with those who've witnessed and contributed the city's remarkable recovery, photos from the effort to rebuild, and video from President Obama's visit to Joplin.

Check it out: http://www.whitehouse.gov/joplin

To engage with Latinos active in social media, the White House Office of Public Engagement held a briefing for LATISM bloggers with Senior White House and Administration officials. Over 75  people from across the country attended the event at the White House to discuss a diverse range of issues important to the Latino community. Take a look at the tweets shared by #LatismAtTheWH attendees below or on Storify. Stay connected to the White House en español at WhiteHouse.gov/Espanol, follow us on Twitter @lacasablanca, and sign up for email updates here.

Learn more about the topics discussed during today’s briefing:

• College Affordability: http://wh.gov/double
• Education Civil Rights: Know your Rights (English) | Recursos de la Oficina Para Derechos Civiles (en Español)
• Health Care: Healthcare.gov (English) | Cuidadodesalud.gov (en Español)
• Nutrition: www.myplate.gov (English) | Mi Plato (en Español)
• Fixing Our Broken Immigration System: President’s Blueprint on Immigration Reform (English)
• The Hamilton Project Speech by Cecilia Muñoz: watch video here | text of remarks (English) | text of remarks (en Español)

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President Obama wrapped up the second and final day of the NATO Summit in Chicago on Tuesday.

In the morning, he participated in a meeting with leaders from the 50 nations that make up the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan to discuss the next step in the transition of power there—setting a goal for Afghan forces to take the lead for combat operations across the country in 2013.

• President Obama’s remarks at the ISAF Meeting
• Fact Sheet: Afghanistan Transition Interim Milestone
• Fact Sheet: NATO’s Enduring Presence in Afghanistan after 2014

In the afternoon, President Obama and his NATO counterparts met with leaders from non-NATO nations that are making significant financial, operational, and political contributions to NATO operations. These types of partnerships allow NATO to extend its reach and better shoulder shared burdens.

• Fact Sheet: Strenthening NATO’s Partnerships

Later in the afternoon, President Obama held a press conference before departing for Missouri, where he will deliver the commencement address at Joplin High School.

• Remarks from President Obama’s press conference

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Throughout the next few days, we will celebrate our nation's entrepreneurs during National Small Business Week. At the U.S. Small Business Administration, we have the great privilege to work with many amazing small business owners -- so we asked them to share their stories in a short video that demonstrates how their small business makes a difference in their local community. The response to SBA's first video contest was incredible.

On Wednesday, May 23, 2012, at 3:00 pm ET during a Google+ Hangout hosted by SBA and the White House, we will announce the winning entries. I will be joined by the small business owners who submitted the winning videos, along with special guest moderator, Diana Ransom, contributing editor of Entrepreneur.com. We'll discuss how SBA assistance helped their small business and what inspired their successes.

If you're interested in starting or growing a business, the Google+ Hangout is a great opportunity for you to learn more about the many programs available to help you achieve your goals. We will also take your questions live during the hangout via Twitter with the hashtag #WHHangout.

Here's how you can join:

• When: Join us at 3:00pm EDT on Wednesday, May 23, 2012
• Where: Watch on WhiteHouse.gov/live, the White House Google+ page, or at Entrepreneur.com
• Engage: Ask questions and join the discussion on Twitter with the hashtag #WHHangout

Ed note: In honor of Small Business Week, StartUp America is highlighting success stories from American enterpreneurs

Stockbox Grocers is a startup out of Seattle, WA that places neighborhood grocery stores throughout urban areas to increase access to fresh produce, essential staples, and good meals. Stores are tucked inside empty storefronts or reclaimed shipping containers that can be dropped into available parking lots. As a community focused for-profit, we’ve been able to leverage a wide range of support to grow our business from an idea into reality and we expect to continue to fund our development by further cultivating relationships within our community and across the country.  

In Fall 2011, Stockbox opened a prototype store that allowed us to test our unique business model, receive direct feedback from customers, and test key design features. We converted an 8’ x 20’ box into an inviting retail space complete with signage, curtains, community boards, a sitting area, and over 300 unique items sourced from a co-op distributor and local farms. Customers were blown away by the large variety of affordable and fresh food and this new alternative to local mini-marts. 

We were able to open the store in only a few months because of our supporters: community groups welcomed our concept with open arms; local non-profits and government offices helped with outreach and implementation; and we raised much of our funding via a donation-based crowdfunding campaign. This online fundraising platform allowed us to share our story and develop an even wider range of support, collecting almost 200 donors from Seattle and other cities, who contributed more $21,000 in 45 days. 

Carrie Ferrence and Jacqueline Gjurgevich are the co-founders of Stockbox Grocers, a Seattle-based startup that is working to fix the grocery gap in neighborhoods that don’t have access to good food.

The JOBS Act will expand opportunities for Stockbox and other startups to raise funds through similar crowdfunding websites – not just donations but true investments. Stockbox sees these new options as powerful tools in building relationships with investors who are interested in supporting community-based businesses, as opposed to the traditional venture capitalist format.  This will help us reach more people and raise more funds from ordinary Americans (not just the wealthy “accredited” investors currently allowed to invest in most private companies) in a way that is in line with our company’s mission.  And this provides us with resources to scale, in order to open more stores and create more jobs within communities.

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President Barack Obama, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, and North Atlantic Council leaders pose for a “family” photo at Soldier Field during the NATO Summit in Chicago, Illinois, May 20, 2012. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

President Obama was in Chicago today for the first day of the NATO summit, a gathering of leaders from the 28 member countries of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

In the morning, he held a bilateral meeting with President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan to discuss implementation of the Strategic Forces Agreement. The agreement, which the two leaders signed in Kabul earlier this month, lays out the future relationship between the United States and Afghanistan.

President Barack Obama and President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan deliver statements after a bilateral meeting at the McCormick Place Convention Center during the NATO Summit in Chicago, Illinois, May 20, 2012. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

In the afternoon, President Obama met with NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen to discuss goals of the NATO Summit in Chicago.

Later in the day, President Obama spoke at the opening session of the North Atlantic Council, and participated in a working dinner with NATO leaders.

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This week, leaders from the 28 member countries of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization will gather in Chicago for a summit aimed at discussing international security and the war in Afghanistan. This will be the 25th time NATO has held a summit and the first time the United States has hosted the event since 1999. It will also be the largest such event in the organization’s history.

Throughout the day on Sunday and Monday, the U.S. State Department will broadcast events with President Obama and foreign leaders. Click here to watch.

This weekend, the leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and Russia joined President Obama at Camp David for the annual G8 Summit. The leaders met to address major global economic, political, and security challenges, including energy and climate change, food security and nutrition, Afghanistan’s economic transition and transitions taking place across the Middle East and North Africa.

• Read the G8 Declaration
• View a slideshow from the weekend
• President Obama’s Remarks at the close of the G8 Summit

Energy and Climate Change:

At the Camp David Summit, G-8 Leaders recognized that the development of and universal access to environmentally safe, sustainable, secure, and affordable sources of energy is essential to global economic growth and to their overall efforts to address climate change. 

• Statement by the G-8 on Global Oil Markets
• Fact Sheet: G-8 Action on Energy and Climate Change

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This week, we got some terrific news about new ways individuals can protect their privacy on the internet.

Twitter announced it will support the new Do Not Track feature in web browsers, giving users one-click control over whether or not Twitter keeps track of which websites they visit.  This is an important step is part of a larger Obama Administration strategy to encourage more consumer privacy protections on the internet.

As much as people use and love the internet and other digital technology, there has been a growing concern that rapid advances in technology can lead to an erosion of personal privacy.  As the Internet evolves, maintaining consumer trust is essential for the continued growth of the digital economy. That's why the Obama Administration unveiled a Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights in February, to give users more control over how their information is used online (download as PDF). Immediately an association of over 500 companies (including search engines, internet platforms, advertising networks and browser developers) committed to expanding individual control with “Do Not Track” technology before the end of 2012.  

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President Obama discusses the reforms to Wall Street that he put in place to protect consumers and make Wall Street play by the same set of rules -- and calls on lawmakers to finish implementing these reforms so that we can prevent excessive risk-taking and help create an economy that is built to last.

Transcript | Download mp4 | Download mp3

A quick glimpse at this week on WhiteHouse.gov:

Fight for Your Seat: President Obama traveled to New York City to deliver his first commencement address of the year at Barnard College, one of the famous “Seven Sisters” private female liberal arts colleges. HIs first piece advice to the graduates was: “Don’t just get involved. Fight for your seat at the table. Better yet, fight for a seat at the head of the table.”

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Approximately 1 billion people worldwide suffer from chronic hunger-- a prolonged, life-threatening lack of food.

Hunger threatens the health and well-being of a nation’s citizens, and increases a country’s risk of democratic failure, rioting, violence, and civil conflict. It costs developing countries approximately $450 billion per year in lost GDP.

Poverty is a principal cause of hunger—it prevents people from having access to food and the tools they need to grow it. Natural disasters, conflict, lack of infrastructure, and poor farming practices also contribute to the growing problem of hunger as the world population increases.

But as President Obama explained today at the Symposium on Global Agriculture and Food Security, history teaches us that one of the most effective ways to pull people and entire nations out of poverty is to invest in their agriculture.

This weekend, G8 and African leaders will meet to discuss a major new alliance with private sector partners to reduce hunger and lift 50 million people out of poverty by investing in Africa’s agricultural economy. This new partnership builds on the commitment leaders made during the 2009 G8 meeting in L’Aquila to put the fight against hunger at the forefront of global development.

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President Barack Obama holds a bilateral meeting with President François Hollande of France in the Oval Office, May 18, 2012 (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

President Obama today met with French President Francois Hollande for the first time when the newly-inaugurated leader stopped at the White House in advance of the G8 Summit which starts tonight at Camp David.

While much of the conversation in the Oval Office was focused on the economic situation in the eurozone -- which President Obama said will also be central to the discussions throughout the weekend when they are joined by leaders from Britain, Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan, and Russia  -- others issues concerning areas of our nations' mutual cooperation were on the agenda:

We also discussed the situation in Afghanistan, in anticipation of our NATO meeting in Chicago on Saturday and Sunday. And we agreed that even as we transition out of a combat phase in Afghanistan that it's important that we sustain our commitment to helping Afghans build security and continue down the path of development. 

We also identified the issues of Iran and Syria, the transition that's taking place in countries like Egypt and Tunisia as topics of critical importance. And we'll be devoting extensive time to those issues throughout the G8 meeting. France has shown great leadership on these issues, and as I indicated to President Hollande, when the United States and France, along with our other key allies, make up our minds to stand firm on the side of democracy and freedom and development, that enormous progress can be made.

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President Barack Obama delivers remarks at the Symposium on Global Agriculture and Food Security at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington, D.C. May 18, 2012. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

At today’s Symposium on Global Agriculture and Food Security, President Obama announced that leaders at this weekend’s G8 meeting would devote a special session to the urgent challenge facing nearly 1 billion men, women and children around the world: the injustice of chronic hunger and the need for long-term food security.

G8 and African leaders will launch a major new alliance with private sector partners to reduce hunger and lift 50 million people out of poverty by investing in Africa’s agricultural economy. The partnership builds on the commitment leaders made during the 2009 G8 meeting in L’Aquila to put the fight against hunger at the forefront of global development.

And that fight is about more than delivering aid, President Obama said. True, sustainable development is about promoting economic growth that helps nations develop. "The whole purpose of development is to create the conditions where assistance is no longer needed, where people have the dignity and the pride of being self-sufficient,” he said. 

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Summer Jobs+ is a call to action for businesses, non-profits, and government to work together to provide pathways to employment for young people in the summer of 2012. It's about helping people find their first jobs.

Today Cris Comerford is the Executive Chef at the White House. In the video below, she talks about her first job, which was also in the food industry. Chef Comerford says her days spent as a salad bar girl in Chicago were lacking in glamour, but they taught her a great deal that she still uses today in the White House Kitchen. It also taught her an appreciation for the salad bar girls who work help out during big events hosted by the President and First Lady.   

So far, employers have listed more than 300,000 jobs, mentorships, and other employment opportunities this summer through Summer Jobs+.

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This weekend, the leaders of the world’s largest economies and four African heads of state will come together at the 2012 G8 Summit at Camp David for a very different kind of discussion on Africa. Joined by private sector leaders for the first time, the President will host a dynamic discussion on global efforts to fight food insecurity and improve nutrition. In 2009 at the G8 Summit in L’Aquila, Italy, President Obama and G8 leaders responded to the spike in world food prices and focused attention on strengthening food security to help countries end hunger. Reversing decades of decline in global agricultural development, L’Aquila committed leaders to supporting comprehensive plans designed by the developing countries themselves and built around smarter, more focused investments.

This weekend, the G-8 and African partners will launch the next phase of these efforts: the New Alliance for Food and Nutrition Security. The New Alliance is a commitment by G8 nations, African countries and private sector partners to lift 50 million people out of poverty over the next 10 years through inclusive and sustained agricultural growth.

A boy and a woman struggle with dusty wind looking for water in Wajir, Kenya (by Jervis Sundays, Kenya Red Cross Society)

Across history, the private sector has served as an engine of growth and transformation in nearly every country in the world. But although foreign direct investment flows to Africa now hover around $80 billion and trade has tripled over the last decade, this private sector boom has largely missed Africa’s agricultural economy. 

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This weekend, the leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and Russia will join President Obama at Camp David. The G8 is a gathering of eight of the world's leading economies, which meets annually. This will be the first meeting in the United States since 2004, and it will be the largest gathering of world leaders ever to assemble at Camp David.  

Their agenda for this weekend includes talks on growing the world economy, the nuclear situations in Iran and North Korea, and energy and climate issues. We’ll broadcasting a number of events from the weekend live on WhiteHouse.gov. Check out the schedule below:

Tonight at 7:40 PM – The Leaders Greeting
Saturday at 10:45 AM – The Family Photo
Saturday at 5:45 PM – A Statement from President Obama

Safety is the number one priority at the US Department of Transportation (DOT), so National Transportation Week is the perfect time for DOT to help launch the Obama Administration's critical Safety Data Initiative--an historic effort to make government data relating to every aspect of safety, from transportation to crime to consumer products, much more accessible, and to stimulate the development of innovative apps and services fueled by those data.

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Welcome to the West Wing Week, your guide to everything that's happening at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. This week, the President discussed his plan to help responsible homeowners in Reno, gave the commencement address at Barnard College, honored law enforcement officers, awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously for heroism in the Vietnam War, and continued to call on Congress to act on a "To Do List" that will create jobs and help restore middle class security, highlighting the need to invest in small businesses and jumpstart new hiring. That's May 11th to May 17th, or "Reach High and Hope Deeply."

Note: This live session of Office Hours has concluded. View the full question and answer session below or at Storify.com

This has been an exciting week for Let’s Move! On Monday, First Lady Michelle Obama joined Team USA to announce new programs that will help connect more than 1.7 million kids with athletic opportunities in their communities.

Today, we launched a new section on LetsMove.gov dedicated to helping schools, communities and families start their own gardens. Find out how you can get started on a garden of your own with checklists for schools, communities and kitchens.

Do you have questions about the Let’s Move! initiative or how to get your garden growing this spring?

On Friday, May 18th at 1:00 pm ET, we’re holding a special session of White House Office Hours with Sam Kass, White House Chef and Senior Policy Advisor for Healthy Food Initiatives, to answer your questions on Twitter.

Join Sam for Office Hours at 1:00 p.m. ET on Friday, May 18th. Here's how it works:

• Ask your question on Twitter with the hashtag #WHChat
• Sam Kass, Senior Policy Advisor for Healthy Food Initiatives, responds to your questions in real-time via Twitter from @LetsMove
• Follow the Q&A through the @WHLive or @LetsMoveTwitter accounts
• If you miss the live event, the full Q&A will be posted on LetsMove.gov and Storify.com/LetsMove

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