Showing posts with label easter egg roll. Show all posts
Showing posts with label easter egg roll. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Monday, April 5, 2010
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Hop to it: White House adding exercise to Easter
Interesting. The National Park Foundation's website just told me that the White House South Lawn is one of our country’s 392 national parks. Never knew that.
WASHINGTON — First Lady Michelle Obama is taking her campaign against childhood obesity to the annual White House Easter Egg Roll.
Besides rolling eggs with spoons, children will get a dose of activities to promote healthy living and exercise, including sports, dancing - and even yoga. White House chefs will be on hand to talk about eating right.
Performers at Monday's event will include pop star Justin Bieber and the cast of the television show "Glee." J.K. Rowling, the author of the "Harry Potter" books, and Olympic speed skater Apolo Ohno will also attend.
The Easter Egg Roll is the largest public event held at the White House each year, with 30,000 people from all 50 states set to attend.
Monday, April 13, 2009
VIDEO + PhotObama: On a roll, Easter edition
By GottaLaff
Snuggle up, boys and girls. It's story time!
Awww. Haven't had enough? Okay, okay, settle down, or no Reeses or Peeps for you!
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
White House Invites Gay Families to Easter Event
By GottaLaff
The White House is allocating tickets for the upcoming Easter Egg Roll to gay and lesbian parents as part of the Obama administration's outreach to diverse communities.Families say the gesture shows that the new Democratic administration values them as equal to other families. And for many, being included in the annual tradition -- dating to 1878 -- renews hope that they will have more support in their quest for equal rights in matters such as marriage and adoption than under the previous administration. [...]
White House officials said that tickets for Monday's Easter Egg Roll event were distributed to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender organizations, but did not specify how many or to which ones. Representatives from Family Equality Council, Human Rights Campaign, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and other groups confirmed they were invited and encouraged to have their members participate. [...]
Chrisler said Tuesday she expects more than 100 gay and lesbian-headed families to take part in the egg roll. [...]
In 2006 during the Bush administration, more than 100 gay parents attended the egg roll in part to make the statement that they should be welcome. Some conservatives accused gays and lesbians of trying to "crash" the event and turn it into forum for ideological politicking.This year already feels different, said Colleen Gillespie of Brooklyn, who helped spark the 2006 effort.
"We feel so welcomed and embraced, and that in a very real way, I think we can just go as a family and enjoy it," said the 42-year-old assistant professor at New York University's school of medicine, who is attending with her wife and their daughters, Ella and Zelda. "We don't have to fight for our right to exist and be treated fairly."
Leah McElrath Renna, managing partner at a D.C. communications firm:
"Under Bush, it felt a bit like we were crashing our own party. But this year it feels like we're equally honored guests," Leah McElrath Renna, 44, said. "It's more celebratory."Under Bush, it felt like simply living in America was crashing our own party.
Friday, March 27, 2009
Spin and bear it
By GottaLaff
Mladen Antonov / AFP/Getty Images
A computer screen in Paris shows President Obama’s virtual town hall meeting. The event drew more than 104,000 questions, and 3.6 million votes on which questions he should answer.
What ever happened to actual news reporting? Here are a some examples of the spin the L.A. Times put on just about every Obama story today. These were not found on the Op-Ed pages. These are front page and/or Section A reports that are supposed to represent real news, not editorializing:
On Thursday, the president took another step in embracing the power of technology -- hosting a virtual town hall that elicited more than 104,000 questions and drew 3.6 million votes to determine which the president would answer.Can't get more objective than that, right? There were a few parts that weren't negative, but the overall tone was a big ho-hum review of the president's online town hall meeting. Key word: Review.
In the end, given that the questions were vetted by the White House, it felt about as spontaneous as an infomercial. [...]
What Obama had to say Thursday about the economy, education and healthcare was nothing new. [...]
Which may be why at 9 a.m. in the airy lobby of USC's Annenberg School for Communication, a dozen students who were sprawled on armchairs or sitting at tables barely seemed to take note. A wall was filled with TV screens, but only one was showing Obama holding forth.
"They'll probably be playing it on repeat at CNN," said Susy Garcia Salas, 26, a conference coordinator who recently graduated from the communications school. "I might go look for the highlights online." [...]
USC communications major Laurel West, 20, said: "I like that they're trying to get people more involved with the process.
"But I'm not sure about its effectiveness."
She said she didn't have time to watch. [...]
But was the event truly engaging the public, or only creating an illusion of doing so?
Then there was this piece about the White House Easter Egg Roll:
Maybe we should go back to standing in line.Yes, there were glitches:
The White House's Internet distribution of free tickets to its South Lawn Easter Egg Roll appears to have begun with a splat.
Thursday's release of tickets in batches produced what some described as large gaps in availability, creating frustration and confusion.Again, the overall tone seemed unnecessarily critical. Come on, huge lines and endless hours of waiting wasn't a piece of cake, either.
In recent years, most people wanting tickets for the rite of spring -- a free event held the Monday after Easter -- would stand in line, often for hours, the Saturday before.
In the years before that, huge lines would form Easter Sunday and into the next morning.
The switch to online distribution was envisioned as a way to ease the process and make tickets available to people across the nation. By 6 p.m. Eastern time Thursday, the tickets had been snatched up by people in 41 states, a spokeswoman said.
Complaints began surfacing early Thursday, shortly after the tickets became available.
It's fine to point out flaws or have opinions, but after reading these two "news" articles, I came away with a feeling that President Obama's attempts to bring us into the 21st century were being scoffed at instead of reported dispassionately.
Transition isn't easy, whether it's into a new world of technology or a new administration. But why the negative spin? Or am I just being overly sensitive?
Monday, March 23, 2009
First Obama WH Easter egg roll to emphasize healthy living
Yeah!!! Wish I had kids, I'd take them. At least you know this year gay families won't be discouraged.
WASHINGTON (CNN) - President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama have announced plans for their first White House Easter egg roll.
The event will be held Monday, April 13 on the South Lawn. The theme will be "Let's go play," the White House said Monday, and this year's egg roll will encourage young people "to lead healthy and active lives." The ticketed event is open to children aged 10 and younger along with their families, and will also include sports, cooking classes, live musical performances, and storytelling.
For the first time, tickets will be made available online, and will no longer be distributed at the Ellipse near the White House during the weekend prior to April 13. More information is available at www.whitehouse.gov/eastereggroll.
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