President Obama opened the post-Labor Day stretch of the midterm campaign in the perennial swing state of Ohio on Wednesday, accusing the GOP of pushing bankrupt economic policies and putting politics ahead of national welfare.

He pushed a new $350 billion plan to lift the sagging economy, including $200 billion in tax cuts for businesses to purchase new equipment and write off 100 percent of new investments through the end of 2011.

The president also highlighted a $50 billion proposal for infrastructure investment, as well as $100 billion to permanently extend tax credits to businesses for research and development.

He stood by his plan to allow the Bush tax cuts to expire for people making over $250,000, while extending the cuts for those making less.

Obama refused to use the word "stimulus" to describe his new proposals. Republicans have repeatedly savaged the White House for the controversial $862 billion recovery stimulus plan passed last year, arguing that it ballooned the deficit while failing to revive the economy.

But Obama saved his strongest rhetoric for his GOP opponents, especially House Minority Leader John Boehner.

The Ohio Republican -- in line to become House speaker if the GOP wins control of Congress -- has rejected new ideas and embraced "the same philosophy we already tried for the last decade -- the same philosophy that led to this mess in the first place," Obama told a crowd outside Cleveland.

Boehner and other Republicans are trying to ride a wave of "fear and anger all the way to Election Day," Obama said.

The election is about "fear versus hope (and) the past versus the future. It's still a choice between sliding backward and moving forward. That's what this election is about. That's the choice you'll face in November."

Obama spoke longingly of a proud Republican tradition of producing "serious leaders for serious times." Current GOP leaders, he said, are more interested in "playing games and scoring points."

Boehner immediately lashed back at Obama, declaring in a written statement that if the president "is serious about finally focusing on jobs, a good start would be taking the advice of his recently departed budget director and freezing all tax rates, coupled with cutting federal spending to where it was before all the bailouts, government takeovers, and 'stimulus' spending sprees."

Former White House Budget Director Peter Orszag recently offered an alternative to Obama's plan on the issue of whether the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy should be scrapped, asserting in a New York Times op-ed that failing to extend the tax cuts for the rich over the next couple of years would make an "already stagnating jobs market worse."

Orszag, however, proposed allowing all of the Bush tax cuts to expire after two more years.

A former soldier arrested after a hostage incident at a Georgia military base is scheduled to appear in court Wednesday.

Robert Anthony Quinones, 29, of Hinesville, Georgia, will appear before a U.S. magistrate judge in Savannah, Georgia, on multiple charges, including threats to kill President Obama and former President Bill Clinton.

Quinones was arrested Monday after a two-hour hostage situation at Winn Army Community Hospital on Fort Stewart, about 45 miles from Savannah, according to the FBI.

Officials said he had demanded mental health care at the hospital.

Quinones is charged with assault of a federal officer and kidnapping in the incident, which ended with the gunman's surrender. No one was injured in the incident, officials said.

After he was taken into custody and during interviews, Quinones "expressed his plans, preparation and intentions to kill President Obama and former President Clinton," according to an affidavit filed in federal court.

"Quinones detailed his studies of Secret Service protocols, sniper techniques and means of disguise and weapons concealment to implement his assassination plans."

A search of his residence resulted in the discovery of 11 long guns, four pistols, multiple rounds of ammunition and dozens of bayonets and knives, according to the affidavit.

Authorities also found books and manuals about FBI hostage rescue teams, Osama bin Laden, Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, the Russian mafia and other topics, according to the affidavit signed by FBI and secret service agents.

When asked whether he would kill Obama or Clinton if given a chance, Quinones said, "Yes. On a scale of 1 to 10 about being serious, I am a 10," the affidavit said.

Quinones was discharged from the military in February and had a civilian job at Fort Stewart, said the FBI, which released no other information on his military record.

Neighbor Jerry Franklin said he has known Quinones for several years.

"He was a good kid," he said.

Franklin, 48, an Army retiree, said Quinones would talk with him and other veterans because they understood the stress brought on by combat. Quinones had served two tours in Iraq, Franklin said.

"All I know is he saw death," Franklin told CNN.

"Maybe they [the Army] should have helped him a little more," said Franklin, adding he was not blaming the military for the incident. Quinones might not have received sufficient individual treatment after returning from Iraq, Franklin said.

Quinones worked at one of Fort Stewart's post-exchange stores, the neighbor said, adding he didn't believe Quinones had been treated at Winn Army Community Hospital, the scene of Monday's hostage situation.

The hostage incident started about 4 a.m. Monday when the former Army serviceman entered the facility and demanded care, spokesman Kevin Larson said Monday.

The gunman immediately took one hostage and went to the third floor, which houses the behavioral health unit, where he held two more people at gunpoint, including a nurse practitioner, Larson said.

The nurse, an Army major, was able to calm the man and authorities started negotiations, Larson said. The gunman eventually surrendered and was taken into custody for questioning, he said.

Quinones was armed with an MP5 assault rifle, an AR-15 assault rifle, a 9 mm handgun and a .38-caliber pistol, according to the affidavit. It accuses the gunman of pointing a firearm at an Army negotiator.

Quinones' attorney, Karl Christian Zipperer, said late Tuesday afternoon he had just gotten the case and would have no comment. A phone number for Quinones in Hinesville was disconnected.

A determined Republican stall campaign in the Senate has sidetracked so many of the men and women nominated by President Barack Obama for judgeships that he has put fewer people on the bench than any president since Richard Nixon at a similar point in his first term 40 years ago.

The delaying tactics have proved so successful, despite the Democrats' substantial Senate majority, that fewer than half of Obama's nominees have been confirmed and 102 out of 854 judgeships are vacant.

Forty-seven of those vacancies have been labeled emergencies by the judiciary because of heavy caseloads.

Even some Republican senators have complained. Sen. Lamar Alexander took to the Senate floor in July to plead with his own leaders for a vote on an appeals court judge supported by Alexander and fellow Tennessee Republican Sen. Bob Corker.

With Congress returning Sept. 13 for a session shortened by members' desire to campaign for re-election in November, there's little time to reverse the trend. Some say there's little chance of reversing it as polls show a rising chance the GOP will capture the Senate, which could stiffen GOP resistance to confirmation votes.

The Obama administration got a slow start sending names to the Senate last year and has yet to try to fill two vacancies on the high-profile federal appeals court in the District of Columbia, where four current Supreme Court justices once served.

Obama has voiced only tepid public objection as more and more of his judicial nominees become stranded in Senate limbo. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has been unwilling to set aside the considerable time needed to force votes under complex Senate rules.

Now there are 45 nominees awaiting action, two for nearly 13 months. After Alexander's complaint, the Republicans agreed to allow a mid-September vote for appeals court nominee Jane Stranch, first nominated by Obama in August 2009.

At this point in President George W. Bush's first term, 72 judges had been confirmed by a Senate that Democrats controlled for much of Bush's first two years. By contrast, the Senate has had 59 or 60 seats under Democratic control during Obama's tenure but has only confirmed 40 of his judges. Nixon got 33 judges through a Democratic-controlled Senate.

"What's interesting is you got a guy (Bush) who was barely elected president with a Senate in the hands of the opposing party, and he is going to come out better in his first two years than a guy who got elected with a big majority and had a big majority in the Senate too," said Brookings Institution scholar Russell Wheeler.

White House counsel Bob Bauer and progressive groups squarely blame Republicans.

The Senate GOP is obstructing "confirmations across the board, even forcing noncontroversial nominees who passed committee with overwhelming bipartisan support to wait months for a floor vote," Bauer said.

Marge Baker, executive vice president of the liberal People for the American Way, said that stalling votes on judges is "part and parcel of the general obstruction we're seeing right now."

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky has acknowledged that his strategy is partly payback for Democrats' blocking some Bush appointees.

But McConnell spokesman Don Stewart said the responsibility for the lack of confirmations lies with Obama, who nominated just 33 people to judgeships in 2009, and Reid, who controls the Senate calendar.

"We can't confirm what's not there," Stewart said.

But Republican senators have forced postponements of hearings and votes in the Judiciary Committee and used their power under the chamber's rules to block any easy route to full Senate votes.

Persistent resistance by the opposition to a president's appeals court nominees reaches back to President Bill Clinton's administration and a Senate controlled by Republicans for six of Clinton's eight years.

Wheeler said the Republicans now are delaying votes on district court nominees, too. And in one instance, Republicans for months even blocked confirmation of openly gay Marisa Demeo to be a local trial judge in the nation's capital. The Senate confirms local judges because the city is a federal enclave.

Republican objections to Obama's nominees, however, are not primarily rooted in the candidates' ideology. With a couple of exceptions, the president has nominated moderates who receive overwhelming, sometimes unanimous, support once they get a vote.

The Obama nominees so far have not excited progressive groups that once hoped a Democratic administration combined with a large Democratic Senate majority would remake the federal courts.

When Bush left office, Republicans had appointed just under 60 percent of all federal judges. Twenty months later, the number has dipped only slightly to a shade under 59 percent, according to statistics compiled by the liberal Alliance for Justice. Because of retirements, the percentage of Republican-nominated district judges actually has gone up.

The president has had some successes, notably changing the composition of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va., which had been dominated by conservatives chosen by Republican presidents.

His nominees also have been diverse: Just under half are women, one-quarter are African-American, 12 percent are Asian-American and 7 percent are Hispanic.

Obama also filled two Supreme Court vacancies. The confirmations of Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan took considerable time, although they do not completely explain the initially slow rollout of judicial nominees.

Even now, Obama has nominated roughly 40 fewer people for judgeships than either Bush or Clinton at this point.

The smaller number of nominees has been a surprise because Obama once taught constitutional law and installed a team with vast experience nominating and confirming judges.

"It seems like it has not been a priority," said Ilya Shapiro, senior fellow at the libertarian Cato Institute in Washington. "It's been surprising because he's a constitutional lawyer, he knows how courts work, how important they are. It seemed like an easy bone to throw to his base to make a mark, a lasting mark."

There's been yet another delay in former Rep. William Jefferson'sappeal of his federal corruption convictions. Jefferson's lawyers were given a one-month extension to complete briefs by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va. The briefs are now due Nov. 15, with prosecutors required to file a response brief by Dec. 10. The likelihood is that oral arguments will be held in the spring of 2011.

Jefferson, the former nine-term Democratic congressman from New Orleans, was convicted on 11 of 16 corruption counts by a Virginia juryin the summer of 2009. He remains free pending resolution of the appeal.

In asking for more time, Jefferson's new appellate attorney,Lawrence Robbins, said the case is complicated and the paperwork is extensive from the eight-week trial. In addition, Robbins said that one of Jefferson's appellate lawyers is getting married in October, and will be out of the country for 10 days that month. There were apparently no objections to the requested delay from federal prosecutors.

A federal grand jury has indicted a Maryland state senator on charges of bribery, conspiracy, mail fraud and extortion in connection with a scheme involving Shoppers Food Warehouse.

State Sen. Ulysses S. Currie, 73, of Forestville, was indicted Wednesday on 18 criminal counts charging that he and executives of Shoppers took part in a scheme in which Currie was paid by the company in exchange for using his official position to influence dozens of matters that benefited the supermarket chain and its executives.

The scheme went on from 2002 to 2008, prosecutors said. In that time, Currie was paid from $3,000 per month in 2003 to $7,600 per month in 2007, but the payments were never reported on annual government ethics forms, prosecutors said.

According to the indictment, Currie lobbied state highway officials to get traffic signals installed at the site of two Shoppers stores -- one in Baltimore County, the other in Laurel.

The indictment said he also helped the company get $2 million in public funding for its project at Mondawmin Mall, and Currie smoothed the way for the company to transfer a liquor license in Prince George's County.

"Government officials cross a bright line when they accept payments in return for using the authority of their office, whether they take cash in envelopes or checks labeled as consulting payments," said U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein. "When businesses can obtain valuable government benefits by putting a senator on the payroll, it diminishes public confidence and disadvantages companies that refuse to go along with the pay-to-play approach."

The indictment follows a two-year long investigation that came to light in the spring of 2008.

Reached by phone on Wednesday by 11 News I-Team lead investigative reporter Jayne Miller, Currie said he had no comment on the indictment and no comment on whether he plans to stay in office.

However, shortly after making that statement, Senate President Mike Miller released a statement saying Currie told him he would step down from his position as chairman of the Budget and Taxation Committee until the matter is resolved.

"He believes that he will be unable to dedicate himself fully to serving as chairman of Budget and Taxation Committee as he works to prove his innocence," Miller said in the release. "I am saddened that the investigation of Sen. Currie has reached this point. Sen. Currie has confronted adversity throughout his life, and I am confident he will be exonerated." "When businesses can obtain valuable government benefits by putting a senator on the payroll, it diminishes public confidence and disadvantages companies that refuse to go along with the pay-to-play approach."
- U.S. Attorney Rod Rosenstein

Currie has been in the Legislature since 1987. He is currently running for re-election and is unopposed in this month's primary.

Two former grocery store chain executives are also charged in the scheme. They are William White, 67, of Annapolis, and Kevin Small, 55, of Lewisburg, Pa.

Gov. Martin O'Malley also issued a statement regarding the indictment.

"This is a sad day for the people of Prince George's County and Sen. Currie personally. People have the right to expect the highest ethical service from their public servants," he said.

Currie's lawyer told reporters that the senator committed no crime, calling the case an unusual bribery case because it doesn't involve cash payments under the table or a hush-hush deal.

Shoppers Food Warehouse has agreed to pay a $2.5 million fine.

President Barack Obama blasted Senate Republicans on Monday for blocking a small business assistance bill, calling their opposition "pure partisan politics."

The country needs a "full scale attack" on economic sluggishness, he told reporters at the White House.

"While we have taken a series of measures and come a long way ... too many Americans are still looking for work and too many communities are far from being whole again," he said.

The president also said his economic team is "hard at work" on a series of new measure designed both to spark short-term hiring and lay the foundation for long-term economic growth.

Among other things, Obama said the administration will continue to push for an extension of middle class tax cuts, new incentives for clean energy research and development and initiatives to help rebuild infrastructure.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, released a statement immediately after Obama's remarks criticizing the president and Democratic congressional leaders for dramatically increasing the size of the national debt while doing little to restore stronger economic growth.

"Instead of growing jobs as promised, Washington Democrats have grown the size of the national debt, the federal government and the unemployment rate," McConnell said.

"It's no surprise that most Americans think the country is on the wrong track and that Democrat policies have failed to do anything to fix their top concern, the economy."

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said boosting small businesses and extending middle-class tax cuts both are important in improving the economy.

"The Republican Party talks a lot about their support for and their helping of small business," he said. "I think the question that the president put toward them today is, 'If that's what you support, why are you standing in the way of something that small businesses acknowledge would help with their hiring, with their purchasing and with their expansion?'"

Gibbs said the president does not believe there is any magic bullet to quickly getting out of the financial crisis.

"It took us a long time to get to this point. We got here not simply because of one thing, but because of many things," Gibbs said.

"We've seen the housing market collapse. We saw what happened to credit markets. We saw what happened to the stability of our financial system. All of that accumulated after many years into one big pothole ... the size of which any stimulus was unlikely to fill."

Growing economic jitters amid new signs of a slow recovery remain a top political issue in the runup to November's midterm elections.

The U.S. economy sputtered to a near stop in the second quarter, according to estimates from the government released Friday, although the slowdown wasn't as bad as many had feared.

The nation's gross domestic product, the broadest measure of economic activity, was revised sharply lower to an annual growth rate of 1.6 percent in the three months ending in June. The initial reading had been for a 2.4 percent growth rate in the period.

The bill currently stuck in the Senate authorizes the creation of a $30 billion lending fund. The Treasury Department would run the program, which would deliver cheap capital to community banks, defined as those with less than $10 billion in total assets.

The idea is that community banks are the ones that do the bulk of lending to small businesses and so by pumping capital into them, it will get in the hands of Main Street businesses.

Other key components of the bill would provide $12 billion worth of tax relief for small businesses between 2010 and 2020, according to an estimate from the Joint Committee on Taxation.

The bill also increases Small Business Administration loan limits and extends loan sweeteners through the end of the year. It offers several tax cuts for small businesses, to both encourage investment and entrepreneurship.

The legislation also provides $1.5 billion in grants to state lending programs that can't rely on depleted state coffers for more cash.

President Obama chuckles when Brian Williams asks him about polls that show may Americans still believe he is a Muslim. He says he doesn't pay much attention to those polls, because "I can't spend all my time with my birth certificate plastered on my forehead."

"I don't think the American people want me to spend all my time on it," he says.

Obama is clearly intent on casting himself as above the political fray, saying American politics is in its "silly season." For example, he swears he didn't watch any of Glenn Beck's "Restoring Honor" rally on the National Mall yesterday and says he doesn't find it surprising that "a Glenn Beck can stir up some of the people."

"I'm making decisions that are not necessarily good for the nightly news and not good for the next election, but for the next generations," he says.

Calling the federal response to Hurricane Katrina "a shameful breakdown in government," President Barack Obama said Sunday as rebuilding continues, officials are looking ahead to avoid a repeat when future disasters strike.

Speaking at Xavier University of Louisiana in New Orleans to mark the fifth anniversary of Katrina, Obama said construction of a fortified levee system to protect the city is underway and will be finished by next year, "We should not be playing Russian roulette every hurricane season," he said.

"There is no need to dwell on what you experienced and what the world witnessed," the president said, speaking to a crowd that included current New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu and members of Louisiana's Congressional delegation.

"We all remember it keenly -- water pouring through broken levees; mothers holding their children above the waterline; people stranded on rooftops begging for help; and bodies lying in the streets of a great American city," Obama said. "It was a natural disaster but also a man-made catastrophe; a shameful breakdown in government that left countless men and women and children abandoned and alone."

But the president spoke of the resilience of city residents. "Because of all of you -- all the advocates, all the organizers who are here today, folks standing behind me who have worked so hard and never gave up hope, you are all leading the way toward a better future for this city with innovative approaches to fight poverty, improve health care, reduce crime and create opportunities for young people -- because of you, New Orleans is coming back."

The president noted that New Orleans is now one of the nation's fastest-growing cities, and small businesses have surged. "Five years ago, the Saints had to play every game on the road because of the damage to the Superdome," he said. "Two weeks ago, we welcomed the Saints to the White House as Super Bowl champions."

"I don't have to tell you that there are still too many vacant and overgrown lots," Obama said. "There are still too many students attending classes in trailers. There are still too many people unable to find work. And there's still too many New Orleans folks who haven't been able to come home."

"So while an incredible amount of progress has been made, on this fifth anniversary, I wanted to come here and tell the people of this city directly: My administration is going to stand with you -- and fight alongside you -- until the job is done, until New Orleans is all the way back."

He said his administration has made efforts to reduce red tape and turf wars between agencies, and has put in place a new way to handle disputes, with help from Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-Louisiana. More than 170 projects are now underway as a result, he said.

In addition, federal officials are tackling "corruption and inefficiency that has long plagued the New Orleans Housing Authority," he said.

And a group led by Housing Secretary Shaun Donovan and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano is examining disaster recovery nationwide. "We're improving coordination on the ground, modernizing emergency communications and helping families plan for a crisis," Obama said. "And we're putting in place reforms so that never again in America is someone left behind in a disaster because they're living with a disability or because they're elderly or because they're infirm. That will not happen again."

On Friday, he said, his administration announced a final agreement on $1.8 billion for Orleans Parish schools, money the president said had been "locked up for years, but now it's freed up, so folks here can determine how best to restore the school system."

In addition, the largest civil works project in American history -- the construction of a fortified levee system to protect New Orleans -- is underway and will be finished by next year, he said.

"Together we are helping to make New Orleans a place that stands for what we can do in America -- not just for what we can't do," he said. "And ultimately, that must be the legacy of Katrina: not one of neglect, but of action; not one of indifference, but of empathy; not of abandonment, but of a community working together to meet shared challenges."

Some wounds, the president acknowledged, have not yet healed, and "there are some losses that can't be repaid. For many who lived through those harrowing days five years ago, there are searing memories that time may not erase. But even amid so much tragedy, we saw the stirrings of a brighter day."

He said he recalled being struck, upon visiting New Orleans four years ago, by the amount of greenery that had returned.

"The work ahead will not be easy," he said, "and there will be setbacks. There will be challenges along the way. But thanks to you, thanks to the great people of this great city, New Orleans is blossoming again."

Following his speech, the president, accompanied by first lady Michelle Obama, were given a short tour of a new neighborhood built on a part of the city that experienced severe flooding when Katrina hit.

Americans increasingly are convinced -- incorrectly -- that President Barack Obama is a Muslim, and a growing number are thoroughly confused about his religion.

Sen. Barack Obama visited the First Emanuel Baptist Church in Central City as a candidate for the Democratic nomination for president in August 2007. Church Pastor Charles Joseph Southall III and the choir put a blessing upon him. Nearly one in five people, or 18 percent, said they think Obama is Muslim, up from the 11 percent who said so in March 2009, according to a poll released Thursday. The proportion who correctly say he is a Christian is down to just 34 percent.

The largest share of people, 43 percent, said they don't know his religion, an increase from the 34 percent who said that in early 2009.

The survey, conducted by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center and its affiliated Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, is based on interviews conducted before the controversy over whether Muslims should be permitted to construct a mosque near the World Trade Center site. Obama has said he believes Muslims have the right to build an Islamic center there, though he's also said he won't take a position on whether they should actually build it.

In a separate poll by Time magazine/ABT SRBI conducted Monday and Tuesday -- after Obama's comments about the mosque -- 24 percent said they think he is Muslim, 47 percent said they think he is Christian and 24 percent didn't know or didn't respond.

In addition, 61 percent opposed building the Muslim center near the Trade Center site and 26 percent said they favor it.

The Pew poll found that about three in 10 of Obama's fiercest political rivals, Republicans and conservatives, say he is a Muslim. That is up significantly from last year and far higher than the share of Democrats and liberals who say so. But even among his supporters, the number saying he is a Christian has fallen since 2009, with just 43 percent of blacks and 46 percent of Democrats saying he is Christian.

Among independents, 18 percent say Obama is Muslim -- up from 10 percent last year.

Pew analysts attribute the findings to attacks by his opponents and Obama's limited attendance at religious services, particularly in contrast with Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, whose worship was more public.

Andrew Kohut, the Pew Research Center's director, said the confusion partly reflects "the intensification of negative views about Obama among his critics." Alan Cooperman, the Pew Forum's associate director for research, said that with the public hearing little about Obama's religion, "maybe there's more possibility for other people to make suggestions that the president is this or he's really that or he's really a Muslim."

Obama is the Christian son of a Kenyan Muslim father and a Kansas mother. From age 6 to 10, Obama lived in predominantly Muslim Indonesia with his mother and Indonesian stepfather. His full name, Barack Hussein Obama, sounds Muslim to many.

White House officials did not provide on-the-record comments on the survey, but they prompted Pastor Kirbyjon Caldwell of Houston to call The Associated Press.

Caldwell, who said he has known Obama for years, said the president is a Christian who prays every day. He said he was not sure where the public confusion about the president's religion came from, but he called false media reports about it "a 24-hour noise box committed to presenting the president in a false light."

Six in 10 of those saying Obama is a Muslim said they got the information from the media, with the largest portion -- 16 percent -- saying it was on television. Eleven percent said they learned it from Obama's behavior and words.

Despite the confusion about Obama's religion, there is noteworthy support for how he uses it to make decisions. Nearly half, or 48 percent, said he relies on his religion the right amount when making policy choices, 21 percent said he uses it too little and 11 percent too much.

At the same time, the poll provides broad indications that the public feels religion is playing a diminished role in politics today, with fewer people than in 2008 saying the Democratic and Republican parties are friendly toward religion.

With elections for control of Congress just over two months away, the poll contains optimistic news for Republicans. Half of white non-Hispanic Catholics, plus three in 10 unaffiliated with a religion and a third of Jews, support the GOP -- all up since 2008.

The survey also found:

--The Democratic Party is seen as friendly to religion by 26 percent, while 43 percent say the same about the GOP. That's a 9 percentage point drop for Republicans since 2008, and 12 points lower for Democrats.

--Fifty-two percent say churches should stay away from politics, a reversal of the slim majorities that supported churches' political involvement from 1996 to 2006.

The poll, overseen by Princeton Survey Research Associates International, involved landline and cell phone interviews with 3,003 randomly chosen adults. It was conducted July 21-Aug. 5 and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.

Shirley Sherrod, who received an apology after being forced to resign from the Agriculture Department in July, declined an offer Tuesday to serve as the agency's deputy director of the Office of Advocacy and Outreach.

The newly created position was designed to improve the department's civil rights efforts and image nationwide.

In an interview with Tony Harris on "CNN NewsRoom" Tuesday, Sherrod said she was uncertain about that role. "There are still many questions around that position," she said. "I just felt that taking the position at this time wouldn't exactly be where I should be at this point. ... Everything that should've happened with that position hadn't been made clear."

Sherrod said she also turned down an offer to return to her previous position as the department's director of rural development for Georgia. "When you look at everything that has happened in the last four or five weeks, it makes it difficult to go back to that position. I feel at this time I could do more to address issues not as a full-time employee of USDA," she told Harris.

Sherrod met Tuesday morning with Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to discuss the offers. It was the first face-to-face meeting between the two since a controversial sequence of events last month culminated in Sherrod stepping down.

The two indicated that, while Sherrod will not return to the USDA as an official staffer, she is likely to serve in an unofficial advisory capacity to help address issues related to racism at the department.

In a joint news conference after their meeting, Vilsack noted that Sherrod had expressed strong interest in a final settlement of claims made by black farmers against the USDA, as well as lawsuits raised by women, Hispanics and Native Americans.

She said Vilsack pushed "really, really hard" for her to stay in the department during their roughly 90-minute meeting, but she just didn't "think at this point with all that has happened" that it would be possible to continue working there.

She needs to "take a break" from the furor surrounding her dismissal, she said.

But "it doesn't mean I'm not interested in that work, because I am," Sherrod told reporters at the Agriculture Department.

Sherrod said she enjoyed her work with the department and "would want to see (it) continue."

"We need to work on issues (of) discrimination and racism in this country, and I'd certainly like to play my role," Sherrod said.

She later told CNN's Harris: "I'm encouraged there are people who want to seriously talk about the racism that exists in this country. I'd like to see how we can deal with it and move forward. If I can help promote that discussion, it's something I would really like to do. I'd like to see us once and for all deal with it.

"It's a great country. Let's make it better. Let's all get along."

She praised "new processes in place" to prevent discrimination and inappropriate firings at the department, but said she doesn't "want to be the one to test it."

Sherrod was forced to resign from her position in Georgia in July after misleading and incomplete video footage of a speech she gave was posted on the internet and picked up in media reports. Vilsack apologized to her and offered her the promotion.

He repeated his previous assertions Tuesday that he did not speak with anyone at the White House before initially deciding to force Sherrod to step down.

"This was my responsibility," he said. "I disappointed the president (and) the country. ... I have to live with that."

The secretary has apologized "and I accept that," Sherrod replied.

The flap began after conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart posted a portion of a speech Sherrod gave in which she spoke of not offering her full help to a white farmer. The original post by Breitbart indicated that the incident Sherrod mentioned occurred when she worked for the Agriculture Department, and news outlets quickly picked up on the story.

However, the incident took place decades before she joined the department, and her speech in its unedited form made the point that people should move beyond race. In addition, the white farmer whom Sherrod mentioned has told reporters that she helped him save his farm.

"People were quick to judge," Sherrod told Harris. "Hopefully it won't happen again with others in the future. I'm hoping with all I went through and continue to deal with, at least in the future people will think first and give the opportunity to look before quickly and hastily making a decision."

The one really big question hanging over President Obama's weekend vacation to Panama City, Florida, now has an answer.

Will he or won't he dive into the water to send a message that the Gulf Coast is back?

The answer: He will, and sooner than expected.

"I think we're going to go tomorrow and as I just said Ed, I'm not going to let you guys take a picture of me with my shirt off," Obama jokingly told reporters Saturday. "You guys will tease me just like last time. I was on the front page ... People commenting."

But just hours later, a photo was published on the White House Flickr page showing a smiling President Obama and his daughter Sasha taking a dip in the Gulf waters off Alligator Point in Panama City Beach, Florida.

No reporters or press cameras were present for the swim, but the image will nonetheless send a message that the White House has sought to convey with the first family's trip: the Gulf Coast is open for business.

Obama caused a bit of a tabloid stir when he took off his shirt to reveal a muscular physique during trips to Hawaii during the 2008 presidential campaign and subsequent presidential transition. But some are less concerned about Obama ending up on magazine covers, and more worried about the White House sending the right message.

"Absolutely, I want him to take his shirt off and get in the water and show it's clean and safe," said Stephen Leatherman, a professor at Florida International University in Miami who puts together an annual list of America's best beaches.

Leatherman rates the beach there as one of the top 10 in the country, and he said Obama has a unique opportunity to showcase the fact that the Gulf Coast is still open for business despite the worst oil spill in American history.

"It's got lily-white sand, and frankly the oil didn't really make it there. It was pretty well spared," said Leatherman, who noted that the water is 87 or 88 degrees because of the steamy Florida weather, making it conducive to at least a quick presidential plunge.

"There is no better symbol than the president of the United States showing us the way," Leatherman said.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs was cagey Friday when reporters asked whether the president will take a swim during the first family's 27-hour mini-vacation.

"Stay tuned," said Gibbs, who grew slightly impatient and a bit bemused about getting so many queries about something as seemingly minor as a presidential swim.

"Look, he's going to have some fun," Gibbs said. "Whether or not he gets in the water is up for clearly some debate. But, look, he will have an opportunity to enjoy ... the physical beauty of the Gulf and do some work at the same time."

Gibbs turned it around on reporters and wondered whether they would bare their midriffs this weekend.

"Are you bringing your suits?" Gibbs said with a smile.

But Leatherman suggested it's no joking matter because the president's decision to swim or not to swim will carry tremendous symbolic weight.

"I think it's very important that he gets into the water because I think there's this feeling that if you get in, you're going to get contaminated or get all kinds of diseases," he said.

This is the president's fifth trip to the Gulf region since the April 20 explosion that sparked the oil disaster. The trip is generating criticism over whether Obama is giving the region short shrift by spending only parts of Saturday and Sunday in Panama City.

White House officials announced the trip earlier this summer after critics wondered why the president and first lady had urged Americans to vacation in the Gulf but originally chose Bar Harbor, Maine, and Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, as the only locations for their own sojourns.

Now, the criticism has shifted to whether 27 hours in Panama City is too quick of a jaunt, and the Republican National Committee released a statement Friday that also said Obama has included Florida in only a couple of his trips to the region in recent months.

"It's nice to see the president take the time out of his busy schedule of golf games and campaign fundraisers to clear his conscience and visit Florida for only the second time since the oil crisis began," RNC spokeswoman Amanda Henneberg said. "As he meets with business owners in the Panhandle, it seems like the perfect opportunity for him to explain how his reckless spending, tax increases, and government takeover of health care are supposed to help the Gulf's devastated economy. Not even the Sunshine State can put a positive light on the president's failed liberal policies that have sunk his approval ratings to an all-time low."

The president is accompanied by first lady Michelle Obama and their younger daughter Sasha. (The oldest, Malia, is still away at camp and will not be in Florida). Also making the trip is Gulf Coast recovery chief, Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus, to try to show the administration is committed to a long-term turnaround.

Gibbs largely deflected questions about whether the trip was too short, saying the president is focused on promoting the "health of the region" with the vacation.

"Tourism in Florida and along the Gulf Coast is the economy," Gibbs told reporters Friday. "This is an opportunity to highlight the notion that this important region of the country is still doing well and open for business."

While Leatherman said he does think the trip seems too short, Obama should be applauded for carving out some time to help the region.

"I think it's basically a photo-op, isn't it?" said Leatherman. "But I still think it's a good thing for the president to come down and show the world that it's clean and safe. That will go a long way to helping the Gulf Coast."

Leatherman added: "The best thing that could happen is the president saying, 'I'm going in!' And I don't mean damn the torpedoes. I mean him saying, 'It's clean and safe, and I'm going in the water!' "

President Barack Obama, accompanied by members of his Cabinet, will travel to New Orleans on Aug. 29 to mark the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.

The visit will include remarks by the president at Xavier University, where, days short of the first anniversary, then-U.S. Sen. Obama delivered the commencement address to the first class to graduate after the storm.

Michael DeMocker/The Times-PicayunePresident Barack Obama greets the crowd as he leaves a town hall meeting at the University of New Orleans in October. The president will be in New Orleans on Aug. 29 to mark the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.

The announcement was welcome news for political leaders and others in the city and the region who are ever wary that the connection and commitment of a nation that was once so fixed on New Orleans and surrounding communities in the terrible wake of the disaster, is perhaps inevitably waning with each anniversary.

"We are pleased that President Obama will join us in commemorating the most catastrophic man-made disaster in our nation's history and celebrating the resiliency of the people of this region," New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu said. "We thank the president and his Cabinet for their commitment to and partnership with our city over the past few months. New Orleans has a long way to go, but with the federal government's commitment, and the hard work of our residents, we can create the city of our dreams."

"I'm very happy that the president has decided to mark the Katrina anniversary by being in Louisiana," said Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La.

"I'm ecstatic," said James Carville, the Democratic strategist and commentator who makes his home in New Orleans. "He's doing the right thing. The fifth anniversary is significant. This is the time to do it."

Carville noted the results of the latest post-Katrina Kaiser Family survey, which found people upbeat about where things are headed, but with some 70 percent convinced that most Americans had forgotten about their struggle to come back after the storm.

"We just got to keep things rolling here," Carville said. "People see progress but we want to know the government is going to stick around for a while. The fact that he's coming -- I think people here, to a person, will be ecstatic."

Oil disaster lingers

The fifth anniversary of Katrina comes four months into the latest disaster to befall the region -- the Gulf of Mexico oil spill -- which nearly half of the respondents to the Kaiser survey said may prove more damaging than the storm.

The six-month moratorium on deepwater drilling imposed by the Obama administration in the wake of the blowout of the BP well is unpopular in Louisiana.

"The five-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina will be a somber day of remembrance for the people of south Louisiana and those who are still trying to put the pieces back together," said Sen. David Vitter, R-La. "But I hope that the president realizes that his moratorium continues to cause very real problems for our economy."

In addition to lifting the moratorium, Reps. Charlie Melancon, D-Napoleonville, and Steve Scalise, R-Jefferson, emphasized the need for a federal commitment to greater flood protection for the region.

"I invite the president to stay at least a few days in south Louisiana, so he can see firsthand the need for a major federal investment in levees and coastal restoration that will protect thousands of American citizens from the next major hurricane," Melancon said.

Obama will come to New Orleans at the conclusion of a 10-day vacation with his family in Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts.

The president did not come to New Orleans for the fourth anniversary -- his first as president -- which fell while he was on vacation in Martha's Vineyard. But, as it turned out, Obama had to interrupt his vacation to travel to Boston to deliver the eulogy at the funeral of Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy on Aug. 29. The president subsequently visited the city and held a town hall meeting in October, and he has been back to the region since the oil spill. He is coming to Panama City, Fla., this weekend for a 27-hour mini-vacation with his family to make the point that Gulf Coast beaches are clean and open.

The choice of Xavier was a natural one.

"We are so happy to welcome him back this time as president, since he was still a U.S. senator when he came to address our first commencement class to graduate after Katrina in 2006," Xavier President Norman Francis said in a statement Friday. "Mr. Obama will get to see firsthand why we are so proud of the progress we have made here at Xavier during the five years since Katrina, not only restoring our campus but expanding our facilities and services since then in order to fulfill our mission established 85 years ago."

But where to eat?

"It's good, I'm really excited," said Donna Brazile, like Carville a Democratic strategist and commentator, who met with Obama in the Oval Office last week, and was among those urging him to be in New Orleans on Aug. 29.

Now, she said, she will provide the president with her "three cents on what restaurants he would enjoy."

Obama is familiar with at least one famed city eatery. On a campaign visit to New Orleans in February 2008, Obama had gumbo at Dooky Chase with Francis, and, in his abbreviated visit last October, the proprietor, Leah Chase provided the president and his entourage with a to-go order.

Alerted to the president's next visit, Chase, 87, said she stands ready to serve her president once again. "The 29th, that's a Sunday, I'll do whatever they want. If they want brunch, I'll do it for them. Just let me know."

A former aide to New York Gov. David Paterson, whose alleged attack on a former girlfriend led to cover-up allegations against the governor, has been charged with assault, authorities said Thursday.

The charges against David Johnson relate to the October 2009 non-fatal incident during which Johnson allegedly choked his girlfriend.

Johnson will be arraigned Thursday, according to Steven Reed, a spokesman for the Bronx District Attorney's Office.

In July, a retired judge tasked by the New York Attorney General to investigate the incident and its alleged cover-up recommended charges against Johnson, but not Paterson. The report from Judge Judith Kaye said Paterson was guilty of "errors of judgment" and made some mistakes in handling the October 31 incident but committed no crime.

Kaye cited repeated instances in which Paterson contacted the woman, including after he referred the case to the state attorney general.

"Regardless of any good faith reasons on the part of the governor for contacts that he initiated, these were errors of judgment," Kaye wrote.

However, Kaye said her investigation showed that evidence in the case "warrants consideration of possible charges against David Johnson relating to the October 31 domestic incident."

The state attorney general, Andrew Cuomo, appointed Kaye as independent counsel in the case to avoid any potential conflict with his own plans to run for governor.

A man accused of planning a "killing spree" against African-Americans in a 2008 plot that also targeted then-presidential candidate Barack Obama will be sentenced Friday in a federal courtroom in Tennessee.

Daniel Cowart, of Bells, Tennessee, admitted to conspiring with Paul Schlesselman of West Helena, Arkansas, in planning to kill more than 100 African-Americans, according to the Justice Department.

The two are self-described white supremacists who met online through a mutual friend, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Jackson, Tennessee, has said.

The men were arrested in October 2008 after an aborted robbery attempt outside Jackson, according to court records.

Cowart pleaded guilty in March to threatening to kill and inflict bodily harm upon a presidential candidate, conspiracy, intentional damage to religious property, discharge of a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence, and multiple gun charges related to carrying a sawed-off shotgun across state lines.

His co-conspirator Schlesselman pleaded guilty in January to conspiracy, threatening to kill and inflict bodily harm upon a presidential candidate, and one count of possessing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence. Schlesselman was sentenced in April to 10 years in prison.

Cowart faces up to 75 years in prison under his plea agreement, the Justice Department said.

Rep. Maxine Waters, D-California, who is under investigation by the House ethics committee, will personally plead her case to reporters in a 10 a.m. news conference on Capitol Hill Friday.

The 10-term congresswoman is alleged to have helped steer federal bailout money to a bank in which her husband had a financial stake.

In an appearance on the Tom Joyner Morning Show on Tuesday, Water said she has not been given due process and that she "will not be a sacrificial lamb for anyone."

She also said she was not guilty of any violations and wants to go on trial.

On Friday, Waters is expected to read a prepared statement and also answer questions.

The House ethics committee released a report Monday detailing three counts against Waters and rejected her request for the charges to be dismissed.

The 71-year-old Waters has been pushing the ethics panel to set a trial date before the midterm elections in November.

But she said Tuesday in the radio interview she doesn't expect that request to be granted.

"That's one of the issues of not having due process. When in the heck are you going to set up this hearing? We are on break and we don't think it's going to be before the November election," she said.

Waters, a senior member of the House Financial Services Committee, helped arrange a meeting in September, 2008, between Massachusetts-based OneUnited Bank and Treasury Department officials, according to ethics investigators.

OneUnited Bank ultimately received $12 million in bailout funds.

According to the report, Waters' husband owned almost 4,000 shares of OneUnited stock at the time of the meeting. The shares had declined in value from more than $350,000 in June to $175,000 at the end of September -- the height of the Wall Street financial crisis.

Waters, according to a separate preliminary report, called then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson "and requested that Treasury Department officials meet with representatives from the National Bankers Association," an organization representing more than 100 minority-owned banks.

"A meeting was in fact granted, however, the discussion at the meeting focused on a single bank -- OneUnited. Rep. Waters' husband had been a board member of the bank from 2004 to 2008 and, at the time of the meeting, was a stock holder of the bank," the report said.

But Waters reiterated Tuesday that "the meeting was set up for NBA -- for all the minority bankers. Just like you have a representative for the chamber of commerce or for the Realtors, etc., that's what the meeting was for."

The report also states that Waters approached Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank, D-Massachusetts, to say that she was "in a predicament because her husband had been involved in the bank, but 'OneUnited people' were coming to her for help."

Waters, "according to [Frank] ... knew she should say no, but it bothered her. It was clear to [Frank] that this was a 'conflict of interest problem.'"

Frank's advice to Waters, the report states, was to 'stay out of it.'"

In the Tom Joyner Show interview Tuesday, Waters admitted she had spoken to Frank, but described the circumstances much differently than the report.

"I didn't go to him for advice. I went to him and told him, 'These are your constituents. They are headquartered in your district and they are now trying to find TARP. We're representing the National Bankers Association,'" Waters said.

"So then I said, 'Perhaps you need to take a look at this' and he said, 'Fine. Don't worry. You don't have anything to do with this. I will take care of it.' And, as a result of that, he started to work on it." she said.

The report released Monday stated that Waters "agreed to refrain from advocating on behalf of OneUnited," but failed to instruct her chief of staff, Mikael Moore, from doing so.

Following the September 9 meeting between Treasury and National Bankers Association officials, Moore "was actively involved in assisting OneUnited representatives with their request for capital from Treasury and crafting legislation to authorize Treasury to grant the request" for financial assistance, the report said.

"Reasonable" people could construe Moore's "continued involvement in assisting OneUnited as the dispensing of special favors or privileges to OneUnited," the report concluded.

Waters refuted that allegation as well Tuesday.

"If you're going to wrap this all around creating these violations because I failed to supervise my staff, it doesn't hold water, they don't have any proof of that and I maintain that I want to go to trial or whatever they want to call it -- adjudicatory hearing -- because I think I don't deserve this," she said.

Waters is the second high-ranking Democrat now facing a public ethics trial this fall. New York Rep. Charlie Rangel, the former chairman of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, has been accused of 13 violations of House rules involving alleged financial wrongdoing and harming the credibility of Congress.

The prospect of inquiries into the two high-profile Democrats has compounded the fears of congressional Democrats nervous about their prospects in mid-term elections in November.

The growing likelihood of trials for Waters and Rangel also adds the explosive element of race to the political equation. Both representatives are leaders of the Congressional Black Caucus, and OneUnited Bank is one of the largest minority-owned banks in America.

Waters alluded to race Tuesday on Joyner's show, which is broadcast over the Internet on BlackAmericaWeb.com.

"The OCE [Office of Congressional Ethics] is poorly constructed. You don't know who is charging you with what or brought a claim against you or who brought the information to the OCE... of all the information claimed or accusations brought to them, they think that African-Americans are the only ones who they move further with investigation on," she said.

Veteran Rep. Charlie Rangel apologized on the House floor Tuesday for causing any embarrassment by violating chamber rules, but he insisted he is not corrupt and refused to resign.

In a sometimes rambling speech, the New York Democrat defiantly challenged the House ethics committee to move faster on holding a public hearing on the 13 counts of alleged violations against him.

He also challenged fellow House members of both parties to kick him out if they want to get rid of him.

"If it is the judgment of the people here that I should resign," then the ethics committee should expedite its consideration of the charges against him, Rangel said.

Rangel blasted what he characterized as a politicized, partisan ethics investigation process.

"Somebody has to do more than wish I go away," he said. "I am not asking for leniency. I'm asking for exposure of the facts."

If you think I'm guilty of violating House rules, then "fire your best shot at getting rid of me through expulsion," said Rangel, a 20-term congressman running for re-election in his Harlem district.

House Republicans and some House Democrats have called for Rangel to resign because of the alleged ethics violations. With another ethics case pending against fellow House Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters of California, Rangel is under pressure to ease the negative publicity of his case during the runup to congressional midterm elections in November.

Rangel acknowledged those sentiments, saying, "Heck, if I was you, I might want me to go away too." However, he made clear that only expulsion by the full House would get him to leave.

"Are you going to say that while there's no evidence that I took a nickel ... that I have to leave here?" he asked. "Do what you have to do."

On July 29, the House ethics committee accused Rangel of 13 violations of House rules involving alleged financial wrongdoing and harming the credibility of Congress.

Among other things, Rangel has been accused of using his influence to solicit donations for a college policy center bearing his name from corporate heads and others with business before the powerful House Ways and Means Committee. Rangel was chairman of the committee until he was forced to give up the leadership position this year because of the pending allegations.

Other charges involve alleged income tax and financial disclosure violations, as well as improper use of government mail service and letterhead.

An ethics committee trial of Rangel is still set to be held, most likely in September, barring a settlement between Rangel and the committee members.

Rangel said Tuesday that he wanted the ethics committee to announce a date for the trial hearing, instead of leaving him and the chamber on hold during campaigning for upcoming primary elections and the November midterm vote.

"I have to wait until after my primary to find about when the ethics committee intends to have a hearing," Rangel said of the New York primary vote on September 14. He later quipped: "I'm 80 years old. I don't want to die before the hearing."

Rangel also offered explanations for the ethics charges against him, characterizing them as mistakes and acknowledging violations of House rules but denying they amounted to corruption.

"It's not corrupt," he said of using House letterhead for approaching possible contributors to a university policy center in his name. "It may be stupid. It may be negligent, but it's not corrupt."

Regarding an accusation that he used a rent-controlled apartment as a campaign office, Rangel said he did nothing wrong but was "insensitive to the appearance of being treated differently."

"I plead guilty of not being sensitive," he said.

Rangel also said that he referred problems with tax issues to the ethics committee himself, saying it showed he never intended to hide anything.

Republicans say the cases of Rangel and Waters show that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has failed to live up to her vow to rid the House of corruption.

Ken Spain, the communications director of the National Republican Campaign Committee, said Pelosi's "most ethical Congress in history" had "has turned into a three-ring circus."

However, Rangel blamed partisan politics by Republican members of the ethics committee for the two-year investigation of his case, as well as the lack of a firm date for the trial hearing on his alleged violations.

He also said that the ranking Republican on the ethics subcommittee that would hold the trial hearing had already stated publicly that Rangel is corrupt.

"Isn't this historically the first time that it appears as though partisanship has entered the subcommittee?" Rangel said, later adding: "Who in the heck would want somebody who called you corrupt to be the ranking guy on the subcommittee to judge you?"

An expedited hearing is needed to reveal all the facts, rather than continued delay in hopes that Rangel would run out of money for lawyers or otherwise lose his resolve to fight the charges, he said.

"Don't let this happen to you," he said in advice to newer House members. "Don't walk away as a convenience with no evidence against you."

He apologized "for any embarrassment I've caused," he said, but insisted he would retain his dignity despite the allegations.

"For God's sake, just don't believe that I don't have feelings, that I don't have pride," Rangel said, later adding: "You're not going to tell me to resign to make you feel comfortable."

A congressional candidate's campaign confused opponent U.S. Rep. Bill Foster, a Democrat from Batavia, with a politician and hip-hop businessman from Jamaica.

State Sen. Randy Hultgren's campaign sent a news release last week accusing Foster of taking a $1,000 donation from U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters of California, who is facing ethics charges. But Waters actually gave the donation to Gary Foster, the founder of Upliftment Jamaica and former vice president of Rush Communications, a company owned by Def Jam Records. Bill Foster's campaign said in a news release: "Hey mon! You got the wrong guy."

The Hultgren campaign said it got the erroneous information from the the Federal Election Commission. Hultgren, a Republican from Wheaton, is running against Foster in November's election in the 14th Congressional District.

While the first lady and daughters Malia and Sasha were away for part of the weekend, President Barack Obama enjoyed what some have jokingly referred to as a bachelor's weekend with friends -- golfing, playing basketball and grilling out on the South Lawn.

The festivities were all part of a belated birthday celebration of sorts for the president, who turned 49 on Wednesday.

First lady Michelle Obama and youngest daughter Sasha, 9, returned from a vacation in Spain on Sunday in time to join the president for a seafood barbecue on the South Lawn. The Obamas' 12-year-old daughter, Malia, has been attending camp.

Tables set up with white and yellow linens and adorned with centerpieces of lemons and limes dotted the lawn.

The menu included shrimp from the Gulf Coast, where the seafood industry has been hard-hit by the BP oil disaster, according to White House aide Katie Hogan.

Friends from Hawaii, Chicago, Illinois, and college joined the president on Saturday at Andrews Air Force Base for a round of golf.

The sports outings continued Sunday with a basketball game at Fort McNair where Obama -- along with such NBA stars as LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, Grant Hill and Earvin "Magic" Johnson -- played in front of an audience of wounded servicemen and participants in the White House mentoring program.

Two of Congress' most senior African-Americans are fighting to save their reputations .

These were supposed to be heady days for African-Americans in Congress, with President Barack Obama occupying the White House and a half-dozen blacks holding powerful committee chairmanships and leadership jobs.

Yet the past two weeks have been a nightmare.

Two of Congress' most senior African-Americans, Democratic Reps. Charles Rangel of New York and Maxine Waters of California, are fighting to save their reputations and quite possibly their jobs over ethics allegations. Tuesday night, Michigan voters threw out seven-term Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick in a Democratic Party election to nominate her or another candidate to run for her job in November's Congressional elections. Several other lawmakers have lost bids for higher office or are struggling to get traction.

Further complicating matters, the relationship has frayed between members of the Congressional Black Caucus and Obama, the first black president, with lawmakers seething over what they see as a his neglect of their agenda. Their priorities such as jobs programs and emergency aid to needy families have been stripped repeatedly from spending bills in the face of Republican opposition.

The frustration came to a head last week when, amid a racial uproar over the botched ouster of a black Agriculture Department employee, the White House cut a deal with Democratic Sen. Blanche Lincoln to bypass Congress and devote $1.5 billion in emergency aid to farmers. It is exactly the kind of arrangement that black lawmakers have been seeking for more than a year to pay for an unfunded, $1.2 billion settlement agreement between the department and black farmers, only to be told that no money was available.

Black leaders were furious, and it did not help that the news came as the White House was forced to apologize for pressuring Shirley Sherrod to resign from the Agriculture Department over misleading video snippets depicting her as a racist.

"I didn't believe it," black caucus chairwoman Barbara Lee said last week of the funding agreement with Lincoln, who is considered vulnerable in November's Senate elections.

Lee and others rejected interview requests from The Associated Press on Wednesday, underscoring the sensitivity of their predicament.

While most black members of Congress hold safely Democratic seats, they are under intense pressure to bring relief to their districts, many of which are in poor urban areas suffering disproportionately from the economic downturn. Their voters, like those elsewhere, are showing little patience.

"Everybody expected they would have gotten further. That's the surprise," said Ronald Walters, a University of Maryland professor who studies African-American politics.

The ethics distractions will not help.
Rangel's tax and finance troubles already have cost him his powerful chairmanship over the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee, while many argue that Kilpatrick lost because of the shadow cast by her son, Kwame Kilpatrick. He resigned as Detroit's mayor in 2008 after pleading guilty to obstruction of justice and is serving prison time.

Waters, a senior member of the Financial Services Committee, faces allegations that she intervened inappropriately to get the Treasury Department to help a black-owned bank in which her husband owned stock and had served on the board of directors.

Black lawmakers so far have defended Rangel and Waters, saying they are entitled to due process even as many Democrats worry that their insistence on public trials just before the election could deliver a devastating blow to the party in the elections. While some black lawmakers have grumbled privately that race may be a factor in the ethics process, few will say that publicly.

Obama's victory has not translated into the kind of model some had hoped as primaries play out across the country.

In Alabama, Rep. Artur Davis, seen as a rising star in the Democratic Party and the black caucus, gave up his seat to run for governor. He was trounced in the Democratic primary in June by the state's agriculture commissioner, Ron Sparks.

Rep. Kendrick Meek of Florida is making a similar long-shot bid for the U.S. Senate seat in Florida but trails badly in polls.

The only current black senator, Roland Burris, decided against running for re-election as his political benefactor disgraced former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who appointed Burris to fill the vacant seat left by Obama, faces corruption charges.

Six years ago, hip hop icon Wyclef Jean released a soulful tune called "President," where he fantasized about what it would be like to lead a country.

That fantasy may come closer to reality when the Haitian-American recording artist announces exclusively on CNN's "Larry King Live" that he intends to run for president of Haiti.

Jean, who had been an outspoken proponent of Haiti through his Yele Foundation, told reporters Tuesday that he plans to make the major announcement on King's show Thursday night.

Jean, who was born in Haiti, shot to fame in the mid-1990s as a member of The Fugees, a U.S.-based hip-hop and reggae group. He performs now as a solo artist.

Jean was one of the first celebrities to offer aid after January's devastating earthquake in Haiti. He told reporters late last month that he has filled out the necessary paperwork to make a run at the country's highest office.

And in February, Jean said he has tried to promote Haitian issues in his music.

"I've always promoted Haiti in my music, since my first album with the Fugees where we talked about what Haitians are going through and about human rights for people around the world," Jean said. "This is how we came in the game, we never thought we were going to be music stars because the topics we talked about were not very popular in mainstream music."

Jean said he was born in "born in a small village in Port-au-Prince." He moved to Brooklyn, New York, when he was nine.

"I had never been inside an airplane before -- me and my brother looked out the window and saw nothing but a bunch of lights," Jean said. "I told my brother, 'Look, we've arrived, it's the city of diamonds,' because it was shining so much."

Jean said he grew up in the housing projects in Brooklyn in "one of the roughest areas at the time."

He was able to grow from those humble beginnings to be a top recording star and now he says will try to help rebuilt his birthplace

The January 12 earthquake in Haiti killed more than 220,000 people, destroyed 60 percent of government infrastructure and left more than 180,000 homes uninhabitable.

While little is known about Jean's political agenda, some of the lyrics from his song "President" may provide a sneak peek:

"Instead of spending billions on the war. I can use that money, to feed the poor."