Today’s Times
- They shied away from it before, but now members of the president’s administration are pointing fingers and dropping names on cybercrime, and they want the world to hear it. Tom Donilon, President Obama’s national security adviser, demanded that the Chinese government agree to “acceptable norms of behavior in cyberspace†after it rejected a growing body of evidence that the country’s military was involved in widespread theft of data from American computer networks, Mark Landler and David E. Sanger report.
- Though former Mayor Kwame M. Kilpatrick of Detroit was convicted on Monday of racketeering and other federal charges, as Mary M. Chapman reports, the financial crisis that has ade Detroit one of the largest cities to face mandatory state oversight was decades in the making. Monica Davey and Mary Williams Walsh delve into the “bad decisions piled on top of each other†that led a veteran financial consultant to suggest that the city file for bankruptcy.
- Nearly three months into a new session and more than a week after the automatic budget cuts took effect, Congress has decided to take the first steps toward a budget process that both parties hope is a move away from the deadline-driven cycle of quick fixes. Though it will be hard to merge the spending plans proposed by each party, the fact that both houses of Congress are working on their budgets simultaneously is enough to ignite a glimmer of hope in some Washington optimists, Jerem! y W. Peters reports.
- Democrats say that President Obama’s renewed efforts at making nice with Republicans will put to the test, or at least expose, what they call the biggest factor of all: Republicans’ resistance to any overtures Mr. Obama makes, whether social or legislative, given the political danger of appearing at all cordial with a president so unpopular among the conservative base, Jackie Calmes writes.
Around the Web
- It’s that time again, Politico reports. The Faith and Freedom Coalition will be inviting the biggest names in the 2016 presidential field to a conference that will allow them to court the Republican Party’s evangelical base.
- The Hill: After President Obama received overwhelming support from black voters in the 2012 election, some members of the Congressional Black Caucus have been asking him, “Where are the black cabinet nominees†The caucus’s chairwoman, Representative Marcia L. Fudge, Democrat of Ohio, expressed concern that Mr. Obama had yet to name any black nominees to his second-term cabinet.
- Anyone with an Internet connection can listen in as President Obama delivers remarks to his Export Council in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. It will be live-streamed on the White House Web site.
- Later, Mr. Obama and Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. will hold a bilateral meeting with Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah of Brunei, as the White House continues its renewed focus on the Asia Pacific region.
- After that Mr. Obama will head to Capitol Hill for the f! irst of m! ultiple meetings with legislators from both parties.
