The White House posted a video over the weekend, giving the world a unique behind-the-scenes look at how the President manages his Cabinet. Cabinet Secretary Chris Lu explains: "We try to do a cabinet meeting every two months. The meetings run about an hour and a half." And President Obama expresses his kudos to the team he's assembled "a lot of them are doing such a good job that they don't meet with me much because they're like the good students in class. They are just handling their business really well." And while this administration has done a great deal to reach out to the world using the digital technology that's available, as Ben Smith at Politico pointed out, "the absence of Obama's tech-savvy press aides from Twitter, for instance, have left the White House silent in one of each day's important streams of political conversation; staff is restricted to lurking. Instant messaging has gone from the place where (for reporters) campaigns dueled on a minute-to-minute basis to a form where the White House is, for fear of creating embarrassing records, silent. And top national security aides, in particular, spend much of the day in secure spaces where Blackberries are banned." Whether that's a handicap for the White House or just good policy will not doubt be debated for decades to come. more ›

Summer's bounty is finally upon us! This was the first week where we could do ALL of our grocery shopping at the Farmer's Market, rather than using it to enhance our regular meals. The first root vegetables of the year have come in, and the market was stuffed with carrots, onions and the first small potatoes. Lettuces, Chard and other greens continue to come on strong, but the real stars of the show were berries. Cherries, Raspberries, Blackberries - even currants were for sale at this Saturday's Green City Market. more ›