White House

Albert Lord doesn't like to wait - not in business or on the golf course. The colorful chairman of student loan behemoth Sallie Mae, who's embroiled in a nasty fight over the failed sale of the company, has spent 40 years in the accounting and banking industries. He said that experience should have instilled in him a measure of patience, but it hasn't. Whether in traffic, at the office or on the links, Lord said, he just doesn't like to wait. He can't do much about the first two, but he's got a sure-fire solution for the last one: He's building his own, an 18-hole golf course on land he's acquired amid shuttered tobacco farms and grazing horses in southern Anne Arundel County.

The General Assembly's speedy embrace of Gov. Martin O'Malley's income tax increases this week cleaned up a political mess in Annapolis, but the rate hikes could come back to haunt the Democrat if he seeks national office when his time in the governor's mansion is up. O'Malley's tax package, which won final approval from the Democratic legislature on Wednesday, will give Maryland's top earners the seventh-highest income tax rate in the country....

- Congress authorized subpoenas Wednesday for the White House gate-crashers to testify about how the couple got into a state dinner without an invitation. Lawmakers on the House Homeland Security Committee voted to compel the attention-hungry couple to answer questions about the Nov. 24 incident. The couple, Tareq and Michaele Salahi, have said they will invoke their Fifth Amendment right to refuse to answer questions. While the committee authorized the Salahi subpoenas, it would not accept its top Republican's plan to subpoena White House social secretary Desiree Rogers.

Thursday morning, ABC senior White House correspondent Jake Tapper posted a TwitPic of "Good Morning America" co-host Robin Roberts with the cutline "woman of the hour. " I can appreciate a newsperson congratulating a colleague, and I have to admit I was glad ABC News and not NBC News got the exclusive interview with Barack Obama to which the cutline referred. Headlines and history were made in the interview with Obama saying he was in favor of same-sex marriage. But the image struck me as part of a wrongheaded discourse generated by ABC and propagated by many of my critic colleagues celebrating Roberts and the network for getting this "scoop.

WASHINGTON - A publicist for the couple that crashed a White House state dinner denies they are "shopping" any interviews or demanding money from television networks to tell their story. In an e-mailed statement Monday, publicist Mahogany Jones said the allegations are false and demanded that "this adverse, inaccurate information cease immediately." Jones said Michaele and Tareq Salahi are not making any formal comments or arrangements to speak with the media. An appearance previously scheduled for Monday night on CNN's "Larry King Live" has been canceled.

- In a victory for people with cancer and other serious medical problems, the White House agreed Friday to help close a loophole in the Senate health care bill allowing annual dollar limits on their care. "The president has made it clear that health insurance reform legislation should prevent insurance companies from placing annual limits on health expenditures that can force families into financial ruin," said White House spokesman Reid Cherlin. The move was applauded by the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, which first called attention to the problem.

The Obama administration is considering "multiple options" for trying the mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, as local officials and some members of Congress resist the current Department of Justice plan for a civilian trial in New York. But administration officials are not saying whether Khalid Sheikh Mohammed could be tried before a military commission, or at the Illinois prison where they plan to move other detainees from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, or at some other unnamed site. Administration officials said last month that the White House was involved in discussions about the trial, as Congress was actively considering precluding options for trying Mohammed and the other detainees in New York.

Roma L. Klar, a former secretary who worked in the White House during the administrations of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman and ended her career with the Peace Corps, died Friday of heart failure at Brightview Assisted-Living in Catonsville. She was 98. Roma Lee Simmers, the daughter of farmers, was born and raised in Nowata, Okla., where she graduated in 1928 from Copan High School. After graduating in 1930 from Chillicothe Business College in Chillicothe, Mo., Mrs. Klar moved to Washington and went to work as a secretary for the federal government.

Re: "Teenagers in The White House," (July 10), it's interesting how one example of teenagers in the White House was left out of the compilation. While names like Monroe, Lincoln, Carter and Clinton are cited, the Bush twins are totally ignored. But it's not really surprising, seeing what side of the political fence The Baltimore Sun is on, practically choking up in their descriptions of the Obama clan. Cheryl Herman, Pikesville

A Baltimore police major who heads the Northern District station participated in a domestic violence workshop sponsored by the White House this week. Maj. Sabrina Tapp-Harper joined the lieutenant governor and others, including the mother of Yeardley Love, whose daughter from Cockeysville was killed by her boyfriend at the University of Virginia . The meeting, opened by Vice President Joe Biden, came just before the Senate is to vote on a bill that contains funds for the Violence Against Women act. It would allocate money to local law enforcement agencies to combat domestic violence and to shelters for battered women and rape crisis centers.

NBC News announced Friday that Brian Williams' ratings-impaired, journalistically-challenged "Rock Center" newsmagazine will have a report on what it was like inside the Situation Room on the night Osama bin Laden was killed by U.S. Navy Seals. I guess bowing to the president and hiring the secretary of state's unqualified daughter as a special correspondent should be worth something, shouldn't it? Check out the breathless language in the first paragraph: "In a first for network television," "unprecedented access" and "exclusive airing.

A Baltimore police major who heads the Northern District station participated in a domestic violence workshop sponsored by the White House this week. Maj. Sabrina Tapp-Harper joined the lieutenant governor and others, including the mother of Yeardley Love, whose daughter from Cockeysville was killed by her boyfriend at the University of Virginia . The meeting, opened by Vice President Joe Biden, came just before the Senate is to vote on a bill that contains funds for the Violence Against Women act. It would allocate money to local law enforcement agencies to combat domestic violence and to shelters for battered women and rape crisis centers.

The questions routinely asked of our presidential candidates are insufficient for assessing their potential ability to lead the nation. The following questions are based on my studies of the leadership style of recent presidents. The candidates' responses to these questions - as well as evidence of how they have already "answered" them in practice - would, I believe, provide more reliable guidance for their leadership potential in the White House: •Vision/purpose. Does the candidate embrace a strong vision or compelling view of the nation's future?

Baltimore's mayor, it turns out, has a soft spot for big fuzzy dogs and the two-time winner of the sexiest man alive title. Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, speaking Friday on Mix 106.5's Jojo and Reagan show, had a bit more fun than she usually seems to. She gabbed about trying to snap a picture of Bo Obama on a trip to the White House and about her brush last year with the "really cute" (as she put it) George Clooney. The two met last November while Clooney was in Baltimore to take in the Ravens/Bengals game.

They say Martin O'Malley has designs on the White House. And he seems to have made himself at home there one night this week. Maryland's governor and his Irish rock band O'Malley's March scored a pretty big there Tuesday night, getting to play as part of a White House celebration for Irish Prime Minister Edna Kenny. (This after two shows Saturday night at Baltimore's Creative Alliance.) As the Sun's John Fritze reported earlier, O'Malley and his band set up in the stately East Room in front of about 200 people in green ties and shawls.

Gov. Martin O'Malley's Celtic rock band always gets a bit more attention this time of year, but O'Malley's March got to play a particularly exclusive venue Tuesday night: the East Room at the White House. The band was on stage for a St. Patrick's Day reception honoring Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny. About 200 people donned green ties and shawls for the event. O'Malley's participation as a performer was a bit of a surprise. Bobby Caina Calvan of The Boston Globe , the print pool reporter for the event, said the crowd largely blocked his view of O'Malley.

They say Martin O'Malley has designs on the White House. And he seems to have made himself at home there one night this week. Maryland's governor and his Irish rock band O'Malley's March scored a pretty big there Tuesday night, getting to play as part of a White House celebration for Irish Prime Minister Edna Kenny. (This after two shows Saturday night at Baltimore's Creative Alliance.) As the Sun's John Fritze reported earlier, O'Malley and his band set up in the stately East Room in front of about 200 people in green ties and shawls.

Gov. Martin O'Malley is not exactly a stranger around the White House these days. He met with President Barack Obama along with other state leaders late last week to discuss the economy. On Sunday he sat at the same table as the president for an annual governors dinner at the White House. He is a frequent guest on the national Sunday talk shows, usually defending the Obama administration's policies. So it was a bit awkward to see Obama forget O'Malley's name at an education event Monday.

A former plastics salesman, House Speaker John A. Boehner stood before the GOP majority with a pitch: Members must stick together like never before, not only for the sake of their agenda in Congress, but for the larger prize of reclaiming the White House this fall. It was a complicated sell at the GOP's annual retreat, held Friday at the Marriott Waterfront in Harbor East, as Boehner faced rambunctious lawmakers still intent on changing how Washington does business. Though Republicans said they were humbled and frustrated by last year's bruising political warfare, some in the tea party-powered majority are ready to go at it again.