Check out this sweet human interest story from Pres. Obama’s appearance at a town all in Wisconsin.

Xuan Thai
CNN White House Producer

President Barack Obama held a town hall meeting on Thursday in Green Bay, Wisconsin to discuss his health care agenda — but he also took a little time to write an all-important “get out of school” note.

A young girl named Kennedy attended the town hall with her father, who was called on to ask a question.

Her father, John Corpus, started his query saying he hoped his daughter wouldn’t get into trouble for missing the last day of school.

“Do you need me to write a note?” Obama asked.

Clearly assuming that Obama was just kidding, Corpus continued with his question — only to be interrupted by the president.

“No, no, I’m serious. What’s your daughter’s name?” Obama said, as he started to write a note. “I’m going to write to Kennedy’s teacher.”

He then walked over to the girl and handed her the note: “To Kennedy’s Teacher, Please excuse Kennedy’s absence…she’s with me. Barack Obama”

No word yet on whether the president’s get out of school free card did the trick.

Here’s the video…

http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2009/06/11/video-obama-note-pardons-4th-grader/

So, unfortunately I didn’t get to watch the Brian Williams “Inside the White House” Special, but this link  to the MSNBC website has a lot of so-called behind the scenes footage, such as Rahm Emanuel slamming doors on people and an interview with the ROTUS (receptionist of the US ).

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30892505/vp/31067382#31033110

So, Sonia Sotomayor is a lecturer at Columbia Law (Roar Lions Roar!). This is what her students have to say about her:

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Students who have taken her course at Columbia have raved about her, her willingness to mentor them, push them, and take them seriously.  Here are excerpts from student evaluations of her course:

- Judge Sotomayor is extremely accomplished, interesting and knowledgeable.  She is one of the top judges at the 2nd Circuit, and to get to sit in a class with her and just a handful of students is an incredible experience.

- Judge Sotomayor is an amazing judge, and person, and I feel privileged to have had a chance to learn from her.

- Judge Sotomayor is clearly brilliant and it’s great to be in class with her. She is really exceptional. It is interesting to hear the principles she applies to appellate adjudication. This was the best class I have taken at Columbia.

- As a student of the law, I found Judge Sotomayor’s lectures to be very interesting–she can offer a viewpoint of the law from the perspective of a prosecutor, a private litigator, a district court judge, and an appellate court judge.

- Judge Sotomayor really seems to enjoys teaching this class—and mentoring young lawyers generally—and it shows in her enthusiasm and preparation. This class is one of the great privileges of Columbia law school.

Ten Things To Know About Judge Sonia Sotomayor

1. Judge Sotomayor would bring more federal judicial experience to the bench than any Supreme Court justice in 100 years. Over her three-decade career, she has served in a wide variety of legal roles, including as a prosecutor, litigator, and judge.

2. Judge Sotomayor is a trailblazer. She was the first Latina to serve on the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and was the youngest member of the court when appointed to the District Court for the Southern District of New York. If confirmed, she will be the first Hispanic to sit on the U.S. Supreme Court.

3. While on the bench, Judge Sotomayor has consistently protected the rights of working Americans, ruling in favor of health benefits and fair wages for workers in several cases.

4. Judge Sotomayor has shown strong support for First Amendment rights, including in cases of religious expression and the rights to assembly and free speech.

5. Judge Sotomayor has a strong record on civil rights cases, ruling for plaintiffs who had been discriminated against based on disability, sex and race.

6. Judge Sotomayor embodies the American dream. Born to Puerto Rican parents, she grew up in a South Bronx housing project and was raised from age nine by a single mother, excelling in school and working her way to graduate summa cum laude from Princeton University and to become an editor of the Law Journal at Yale Law School.

7. In 1995, Judge Sotomayor “saved baseball” when she stopped the owners from illegally changing their bargaining agreement with the players, thereby ending the longest professional sports walk-out in history.

8. Judge Sotomayor ruled in favor of the environment and against business interests in 2007 in a case of protecting aquatic life in the vicinity of power plants, a decision that was overturned by the Roberts Supreme Court.

9. In 1992, Judge Sotomayor was confirmed by the Senate without opposition after being appointed to the bench by George H.W. Bush.

10. Judge Sotomayor is a widely respected legal figure, having been described as “…an outstanding colleague with a keen legal mind,” “highly qualified for any position in which wisdom, intelligence, collegiality and good character would be assets,” and “a role model of aspiration, discipline, commitment, intellectual prowess and integrity.”

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez says he expects to send an ambassador back to Washington soon.

Mr Chavez expelled the US envoy to Caracas in September in “solidarity” with Bolivia. The US reciprocated.

In response, the US state department says it “will now work” toward returning its ambassador to Venezuela.

The announcements came at a Summit of the Americas in Trinidad, where US President Barack Obama received a warm welcome from Latin American leaders.

Rising Powers Challenge U.S. on Role in I.M.F.

Tim Geithner may be the latest political piñata in Washington these days, but — policy aside — there may be another reason he is the one fellow everyone is picking on at Treasury: He’s there alone.

elieve it or not, Geithner is the only confirmed official at his department. Some top nominees, even those who have served in government before, have decided to withdraw. Others are still pending as they go through arduous background checks that one pro-Obama Democrat calls “maddening vetting hell.”

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A month ago I visited Kibera, the largest slum in Africa. This suburb of Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, is home to more than one million people, who eke out a living in an area of about one square mile — roughly 75% the size of New York’s Central Park. It is a sea of aluminum and cardboard shacks that forgotten families call home. The idea of a slum conjures up an image of children playing amidst piles of garbage, with no running water and the rank, rife stench of sewage. Kibera does not disappoint.

What is incredibly disappointing is the fact that just a few yards from Kibera stands the headquarters of the United Nations’ agency for human settlements which, with an annual budget of millions of dollars, is mandated to “promote socially and environmentally sustainable towns and cities with the goal of providing adequate shelter for all.” Kibera festers in Kenya, a country that has one of the highest ratios of development workers per capita. This is also the country where in 2004, British envoy Sir Edward Clay apologized for underestimating the scale of government corruption and failing to speak out earlier.

Yet evidence overwhelmingly demonstrates that aid to Africa has made the poor poorer, and the growth slower. The insidious aid culture has left African countries more debt-laden, more inflation-prone, more vulnerable to the vagaries of the currency markets and more unattractive to higher-quality investment. It’s increased the risk of civil conflict and unrest (the fact that over 60% of sub-Saharan Africa’s population is under the age of 24 with few economic prospects is a cause for worry). Aid is an unmitigated political, economic and humanitarian disaster.

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The G-20 meeting in London, England, on April 2 will be watched by the entire world with urgency and with a yearning for hope, vision and programmatic clarity.

The preparatory work is not adequate. The G-20 discussions do not move sufficiently beyond financial regulation. I would like to suggest the following main points for G-20 leadership in the global recovery.

The G-20 needs to combine stimulus, economic development and sustainability: stimulus to get the world recession reversed, development to ensure that all of the world (not merely the rich countries or the G-20) shares in the benefits, and sustainability to address the world’s grave risks of climate change, water stress and loss of biodiversity.

The world’s 3 billion poor, especially the 1 billion poorest of the poor, are suffering powerful and destabilizing blows from the crisis, and these will get worse and threaten global security unless there is specific attention and action.

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For years, George Clooney argues, there has been little hope in Darfur. Today, Sudan’s president was indicted for crimes against humanity. Now the world should bring him to justice.

Last week, I visited a camp in Chad—a camp of about 12,000 refugees and internally displaced persons. I was there three years ago. The violence there is nowhere near the scale that is going on just miles across the border in Sudan.

I think what was most disturbing about the place was how little it had changed. “Normal” is 800 calories a day, sickness, threats of rebel violence, or just crime. When you see their faces, the hope that was there three years ago was all but gone. There are still moments. We walked through a village where children would follow me and chant the name “Obama.” His promise of “hope” having such a different meaning here. But there’s too little hope. Time and time again they’ve seen the convoy of white trucks and even whiter faces pull up, drag out their camera crew and pull aside the most damaged family they can find. We film them as they give honest answers to questions no person should have to answer. “What happened?” “How did you lose that arm?” “Were you raped?” “By how many?” Then, just as they’ve seen time and time again, we jump back in our vehicles and run to the next place. “Not really tragic enough,” is said out loud (probably by me). “Maybe there’s somebody that’s been attacked more recently.” It’s all been covered before.

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