As part of a defense spending bill, Obama signed into law stronger protections from hate crimes for gay and transgendered people. Obama said the bill will "help protect our citizens from violence based on what they look like, who they love, how they pray, or who they are."
At the signing ceremony was the mother of Matthew Shepard, the young gay man whose beating death in 1998 became a rallying point; the bill is named for him. It took more than a decade after the murder before Congress could pass legislation that President Clinton had originally pressed and that later gained little traction under President Bush, who had suggested he might veto it.
"I promised Judy Shepard, when she saw me in the Oval Office, that this day would come," Obama said.
Obama signed the Veterans Health Care Budget Reform and Transparency Act of 2009 into law, allowing advance appropriations authority for certain parts of the Veterans Affairs budget.
Obama nominated Ben Bernanke to serve a second term as chairman of the Federal Reserve Board. Bernanke, a Republican, was first nominated by President George W. Bush in 2005.
NIH has released the final version of its guidelines for stem cell research.
Vice President Joe Biden announced that Lynn Rosenthal would be the first White House Adviser on Violence Against Women. Rosenthal, the former executive director of the National Network to End Domestic Violence, will advise the president and vice president and coordinate policy with various agencies to help victims of domestic violence and sexual assault.
Obama appointed Kimberly Teehee to be senior policy advisor for Native American affairs. Teehee has been a senior adviser to Rep. Dale Kildee, D-Mich., co-chair of the House Native American Caucus, since 1998.
Obama signed the Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act, which allocates $450 million to fight the kinds of fraud that the administration says created the recent housing crisis, "from predatory lending on Main Street to the manipulation on Wall Street." The law extends federal jurisdiction to mortgage loan companies that were not previously subject to regulation.
Obama signed the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act into law. It provides for regular increases in national service positions from 88,000 in fiscal 2010 up to 250,000 in fiscal 2017.
Obama announced in his weekly radio address that Virginia Technology Secretary Aneesh Chopra would become the nation's first chief technology officer.
The administration announced that it will allow Cuban Americans to travel to Cuba and transfer unlimited amounts of money to relatives in the island nation, ending a Bush policy that allowed trips just two weeks every three years.
The Obama family will be getting a Portuguese water dog. The new pet is a gift from Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy and has been named "Bo" by Malia and Sasha. Although the first family has already met the dog, it has yet to take up residence in the White House. Bo will move in on April 14.
Obama named Adolfo Carrión Jr. as director of the new White House Office of Urban Affairs and Derek Douglas as special assistant to the president for urban affairs. As Bronx borough president, Carrión was credited with improving neighborhoods and helping to guide the new Yankee Stadium project. Douglas headed New York Gov. David Paterson's Washington office.
By ALINA SELYUKH
President Obama established yet another new executive office on Thursday, fulfilling a campaign promise by naming Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrión Jr. as head of the new White House Office of Urban Affairs. Derek Douglas, director of New York Gov. David Paterson's Washington office, was named as special assistant to the president for urban affairs.
The new Office of Urban Affairs was created on Thursday by an executive order to guide, coordinate and oversee funding of all urban affairs policy and programs. In addition to doling out federal dollars to urban areas, Carrión told the Washington Post that he will work across traditional Cabinet divisions to coordinate health, education and environmental initiatives in American's cities. Obama told the U.S. Conference of Mayors today that he had also asked his new urban czar "to set up an advisory council with mayors and other urban leaders so that we can develop a new metropolitan strategy based on the lessons you've learned."
John F. Kennedy envisioned a similar office in 1962, offering to combine the Housing and Home Finance Agency and related agencies in the Department of Urban Affairs and Housing to address the population shift from rural to urban areas. But Congress killed the proposal. President Johnson brought attention back to the issue in 1966, creating the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Since then, urban affairs questions have passed through HUD and the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs -- a committee whose broad jurisdiction has resulted in chronic inattention to urban issues, according to some observers.
The final version of the stimulus package retains the expansion of the child tax credit to families making at least $3,000.
The president authorized 8,000 Marines and 9,000 soldiers for Afghanistan, almost doubling the number of U.S. combat brigades in the country.
Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, the first bill to reach him as president. The new law establishes that wage discrimination cases filed under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act are subject to a 180-day statute of limitations that refreshes with each paycheck.
The Freedom Project, chaired by House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, claims the White House is blocking a link for the GOP response to Obama's first presidential Web address. The White House allows comments on YouTube-posted videos, but the video response option is disabled.
Weekly official party responses to presidential addresses have been a common radio practice for a decade, across Bill Clinton and George W. Bush's presidencies. At the time of original "fireside chats" by Franklin D. Roosevelt, dozens of critical radio speeches aired, including ones from Herbert Hoover, Father Coughlin and Huey Long, although none "official."
On his first full day in office, Obama signed an executive order preventing executive branch employees from accepting gifts "from registered lobbyists or lobbying organizations."
Obama issued an executive order requiring "every appointee in every executive agency" to pledge that all hires will be made based on qualifications, competence and experience.
