Barack Obama

President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama thanked and urged prayers for U.S. troops and their families in their weekly address early Saturday during which they wished all Americans Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.

“This is a such a wonderful time of year, it’s the time to honor the story of love and redemption that began 2,000 year ago, a time to see the world through a child’s eyes and rediscover the magic all around us, and a time to give thanks for the gift that blesses every single day,” Michelle Obama, sitting beside the president, said in the weekly radio and Internet address on Saturday morning.

“Our troops are coming home. And across America, military families are being reunited,” Obama stated. The address comes days after the U.S. forces’ complete withdrawal from Iraq, which formally ended a more than eight-year war in which nearly 4,500 American soldiers lost their lives along with tens of thousands of Iraqis. more >>

[UPDATE] 12/23/11 10:39 a.m.

Congress passed on Friday a two-month extension of the payroll tax cut. The bill, which prevents a 2 percent increase in the payroll tax, now heads to President Obama for his signature.

[This is a breaking news update. Check CP's earlier story below.] more >>

A married gay couple from New York received a congratulatory letter from President Obama over the weekend.

Matt Katz and his husband, Aaron Lafrenz, married in July, were one of the first gay couples to wed on the day same-sex marriage was legalized in New York.

Katz told BuzzFeed he was bewildered by the letter he received over the weekend. more >>

A letter signed by 61 non-Catholic faith leaders was sent to President Obama Wednesday expressing solidarity with Catholic concerns over government regulations mandating the provision of contraceptive services and a narrowly-written “religious employer” exemption.

“We write to you specifically as organizations and leaders that are not part of the Catholic community. We write not in opposition to Catholic leaders and organizations; rather, we write in solidarity, but separately – to stress that religious organizations and leaders of other faiths are also deeply troubled by and opposed to the mandate and the narrow exemption,” the letter states.

The letter was driven partly out of concern that, due to press reports on the issue, the White House might be under the impression that only Catholic leaders are concerned about the contraception mandate and narrow employer exemption, according to Stanley Carlson-Thies, president of the Institutional Religious Freedom Alliance, in a Wednesday interview with The Christian Post. more >>

President Obama announced on Monday that he plans to sign an executive order rendering the country’s “first-ever national action plan on women, peace, and security.” The order serves to act as a way to include the perspectives of women in world and diplomatic strategies, he said in a statement.

The order is a blueprint for steps to be taken in order to include the female population in international peace efforts and to ensure that the women who do step up in peace efforts have more international support, particularly from the U.S.

“Deadly conflicts can be more effectively avoided, and peace can be best forged and sustained when women become equal partners in all aspects of peace-building and conflict prevention,” the White House said in a released document outlining the order. more >>

Gay activists have found themselves confused and often perplexed at President Obama’s position on homosexual rights; more specifically, whether or not he is willing to publicly embrace same-sex marriage prior to the November 2012 elections.

On one hand, Obama is touted as the president who has done more for gay rights in the last three years than any president in the nation’s history. Shaun Donovan, Obama’s Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, is the first senior administration official to come out in support of same-sex marriage.

“We’ve done more for gay rights in our first three years than most administrations do in eight – and we’re not done yet,” Donovan said in a statement last month. more >>