Barack Obama, White House Staffing | featured news

A key player in implementing President Obama's health care law is stepping down in the face of Republican opposition. Don Berwick, the head of Medicare and Medicaid, was a recess appointment made by Obama after Senate Republicans had vowed to vote down his nomination.

A former campaign adviser to President Obama warned in a prescient e-mail that Republican attacks "are surely coming over Solyndra and other inside DOE deals that have gone to Obama donors" and suggested firing Energy Secretary Steven Chu. Dan Carol, who advised Obama's 2008 campaign, wrote in a February e-mail that the administration turned over today to the House Energy and Commerce Committee that the White House "bring forward a new leadership team in one package: DOE Secretary, Undersecretary (open), EERE (open), Chief of Staff (open)."

National Public Radio’s Michele Norris will step away from her hosting duties as host of All Things Considered after her husband took a job with the Obama campaign.

A White House official says President Barack Obama will name labor economist Alan Krueger to a top administration post.

The secretary's decision not to leave means President Obama can avoid a Senate confirmation fight to fill the post during a time of financial turmoil. Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner will not be stepping down, ending speculation that the key Obama administration advisor was preparing to resign.

President Barack Obama on Monday will nominate former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray to head the new consumer financial watchdog agency, White House officials said.

Austan Goolsbee, a longtime adviser to President Barack Obama, will resign his post as the chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers this summer to return to teaching at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, the White House announced Monday.

President Barack Obama will nominate businessman John Bryson to lead the Commerce Department, a White House official said Tuesday. Bryson's appointment brings another private sector player into an administration that has been making a concerted effort to improve its relationship with the business community.

President Barack Obama has chosen veteran Army Gen. Martin Dempsey to succeed Adm. Mike Mullen as chairman of the military Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Republican opposition is steadily growing against controversial University of California-Berkeley law professor Goodwin Liu, President Obama's nominee for the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, potentially imperiling a judicial appointment for the first time in his presidency.