Bill Daley, the current White House chief of staff, opened up about the Obama administration in a recent edition of Politico. more ›

An Indiana woman is selling a handwritten letter from President Obama for $11,000 so she can avoid eviction. more ›

An off-the-cuff list of Chicago faves from White House Chef and foodie hero Sam Kass is heavy on eateries South of Madison. Who says the North Side has all the good restaurants? more ›

Bloomberg News is reporting that President Obama is considering Bill Daley, brother of outgoing Mayor Richard Daley, for the position of White House Chief of Staff. more ›

Speaking on Fox News Sunday, White House Senior Advisor David Axelrod announced that he would be leaving the Obama Administration sometime in the first half of next year to begin planning Barack Obama's 2012 reelection campaign. more ›

Obama advisor David Axelrod will eventually leave the White House and return to Chicago but it's not for a new job. Rather, Axelrod will begin work on what's looking like a tougher and tougher task: President Obama's reelection. And even that departure still is a few months off, sometime "well into 2011." From the Tribune: more ›

The White House Council of Economic Advisers issued its fourth report on impacts of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (you can read a PDF of the report here). The report details some of the positive elements of the federal spending act, designed to kickstart the economy in the wake of the 2008 economic collapse, including 3.6 million jobs that were saved or created through the second quarter of 2010, exceeding the president's goals by six months. The report also estimated that as of this year's second quarter the Recovery Act boosted the gross domestic product between 2.7 and 3.2 percent, in line with Congressional Budget Office estimates. And the council noted that for every $1 in federal spending the private sector is investing $3 into the economy. more ›

Last night President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama honored Mexican President Felipe Calderon and first lady Margarita Zavala at their second state dinner. Guests included actress Eva Longoria Parker, actor George Lopez, Chicago's own gold-medal winning Olympic speed skater Shani Davis, and New York Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez. Entertainment afterwards included performances by pop singer Beyoncé and singers Rodrigo y Gabriela. And, of course, the meal was prepared by Chicago's Rick Bayless who - Twitter scandal aside - seemed to please guests with his meal of "herb green ceviche of Hawaiian Opah, Oregon Wagyu beef in Oaxacan black mole sauce, and for dessert, chocolate-cajeta tart, toasted homemade marshmallows and goat cheese ice cream with graham cracker crumble." more ›

We know that Rick Bayless is a Twitter master. But was he censored from tweeting from the White House? Did he tweet from the White House kitchen and get caught? Or was he putting some serious strain on his keypads with updates? more ›

If the kitchens of Frontera Grill, Topolobampo and Xoco seem strangely devoid of Rick Bayless in the coming weeks, you can blame President Obama. Bayless has been tapped by Obama to head the kitchen for the upcoming state dinner with El Presidente of Mexico, Felipe Calderón. The New York Times reports that the celebrity chef will be helming the kitchen on May 19th, the second celebrity chef to run a state dinner menu. Marcus Samuellson, currently receiving the arrogant-jerk-edit on this season's Top Chef Masters, cooked for the Indian Prime Minister back in November. more ›

Remember the Salahis, the infamous alleged White House party crashers? The couple had been finalists for a D.C.-based edition of Bravo's love letter to why the terrorist hate us, the "Real Housewives of..." series and many saw their gate-crashing at a White House state dinner in November as a publicity stunt, something the Salahis denied. Today, The Daily Beast reports that the Salahis wound up landing that tv gig and have already taped 12 episodes. After the state dinner incident, the White House grilled the Secret Service over the lapse in security and held hearings on the matter. And while White House officials denied the gate-crashing incident had anything to do with Desirée Rogers stepping down as the White House Social Secretary, Rogers was still heavily criticized for the incident and speculation remains as to how large a role it really did play in her leaving. [via] more ›

Once again, President Obama has extended that tradition of dyeing the Chicago River green to the White House by dyeing the fountain as well. Sort of. It looks like some of that luck of the Irish is coming through, at least for Obama. Earlier today, U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich publicly announced he would switch his health care vote from "Nay" to "Yea," a big get for the Democrats who are scrambling to reach that 216 vote margin to pass the bill. We'll see if the President's good luck also extends to his NCAA tournament picks. more ›

Chicago's City Council passed a resolution Wednesday demanding that the Obama Administration tackle comprehensive immigration reform. “Our President — a President we’re very proud of — promised to address this issue after the first 90 days of his administration, then after 180 days, then after a year. It’s been 14 months,” said 25th Ward Alderman Danny Solis. “In the meantime, there’s been more deportations. There’s been families that have been broken. It’s a national disgrace. ... This has to stop. Enough is enough.” more ›

Desirée Rogers is stepping down as the White House Social Secretary, and a former aide of U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin has been named as her replacement. No, not Mike Daly, who only seems interested in coordinating the party in his pants, but rather Julianna Smoot, who briefly worked under Durbin and is currently Chief of Staff for United States Trade Representative Ron Kirk, whose office negotiates international trade agreements. more ›

We finish up the first year of the Obama White House with one more peek behind the curtain, via the White House Flickr stream. more ›

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 ›

Last week, President Obama and his family lit up the National Christmas Tree, a holiday tradition for the President. Joining the Obamas and the Bidens were a wide array of stars including Randy Jackson, Sheryl Crow, Jordin Sparks, and Chicago's own smooth crooner, Common. You can check out more photos here, read Obama's remarks here and watch video of his speech here. more ›

Do you recognize the couple pictured above with President Obama? A week ago, we would have all said no. But thanks to some shenanigans by a pair of gate-crashing, reality show grubbing jerkstores during one of the slowest news weeks of the year, we can't help but know. Tareq and Michaele Salahi, previously known for nothing at all, are finalists for a D.C.-based edition of Bravo's love letter to why the terrorist hate us, the "Real Housewives of..." series. Without an invite, the couple showed up to last week's White House state dinner - held in honor of India's Prime Minister Singh who was visiting - and managed to give the security the slip. The couple isn't on the list of guests released to the AP, anyway. After a photo of the couple with VP Joe Biden surfaced, initial reports claimed that the couple didn't meet Obama. As the photo above - released by the White House - shows, though, they sure as hell did. more ›

It's time for another peek behind the curtain of the Obama White House in which we learn, among other things, that our President is more than likely a Star Wars nerd. First the lightsaber photo and now a photo with a stormtrooper and Chewbacca? We're digging it. As always, the photos come from the White House Flickr stream. more ›

The White House today released the official portrait of the First Family. The photo was taken on September 1, 2009 by famed photographer Annie Leibovitz in the Green Room of the White House. As expected, their family portrait is waaaaaaay better than any of the ones the Chicagoist family has taken at the K-Mart portrait study over the years. more ›

Has White House swearing increased? Politico looks at whether the current administration is more profane or reporters are just more accurate - and more complete - with their quotes and general coverage. more ›

• The White House responded today to the video footage of the brawl in which 16-year-old Derrion Albert was killed.
• The New York Times has announced plans for a local edition in Chicago.
• The investor who bought the city's large old main post office has missed a deadline, putting the deal in jeopardy.

We'll have more on today's event at the White House, supporting the 2016 Olympic bid, tomorrow, but for now, check out some photos from today's events. Mayor Daley introduced Michelle Obama who, in turn, introduced her husband, President Barack Obama. Below is a clip of Obama's speech. more ›

With all the talk of the Olympics and health care, what else has been going on in the Obama White House? more ›

It's been nearly 25 year since the Bears won Super Bowl XX -- doesn't that make us feel old! -- but the Bears team that brought home the Lombardi Trophy has never received their customary visit to the White House. Back in 1986, the Challenger Space Shuttle tragedy resulted in their visit being postponed, and it was never rescheduled. more ›

Here's one more round of the All-Star visit of Pres. Obama, courtesy of the White House Flickr Stream. [see our previous set here and check out SI's collection here (thanks, Chris!)] more ›

Pictures from President Obama's first Fourth of July in office, which also happened to be oldest daughter Malia's 11th birthday. Most pics are from the Fourth of July party on the White House's South Lawn. more ›

It's been a few weeks since we last took a peek inside the White House courtesy of its awesome Flickr stream. more ›

One last, self-indulgent note before we bow out for the day. Chicagoist went live on May 10, 2004 featuring a design you can see above (via the Wayback Machine). Since then, we've had ups and downs but it's been one hell of a ride. Five years is an eternity in internet time, so thanks to Jen, Jake and all our benefactors in NYC, thanks to Rachelle and Margaret for getting the ball rolling here, thanks to every single writer who has posted - past and present - for your hard work, and last but most importantly, thanks to all of you readers who keep coming back every day. We hope to see you tomorrow night at our celebration, and we'll see you back here next week as we start the next five years. - M.G. more ›

Things are rolling along at the Windy City White House these days and one of the coolest things we've found is the White House's official Flickr page. For fans of the President, it offers a daily glimpse into the inner workings of the White House that have never been so readily available while opponents of the President will likely decry it as a propaganda move. Either way, we enjoyed flipping through the photos and thought we'd share a few of our favorites. more ›