Sunday Breakfast Menu, June 16

Stephen Crowley/The New York Times

With the Obama administration planning to provide small arms and ammunition to rebel forces in the Syrian civil war, the Sunday shows will focus on the debate over whether this is the best response to the revelations that President Bashar al-Assad used chemical weapons against the rebels.

Denis R. McDonough, the White House chief of staff, and Representative Mike Rogers of Michigan, the chairman of the Intelligence Committee, will join CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday to talk about Syria and the leaks disclosing the reach of the National Security Agency’s surveillance efforts.

Mr. Rogers will also appear on CNN’s “State of the Union,” as will Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee.

Senator Marco Rubio, Republican of Florida and a co-author of the immigration overhaul under consideration in the Senate, will be on ABC’s “This Week.” Also on the program will be Jeb Bush, former governor of Florida, who will talk about his father, George Bush, on Father’s Day.

Dick Cheney gives an exclusive interview to “Fox News Sunday” this week. The former vice president will discuss surveillance under George W. Bush and President Obama.

Two members of the Senate Intelligence Committee â€" Senator Saxby Chambliss, Republican of Georgia, and Senator Mark Udall, Democrat of Colorado â€" will talk about the civil war in Syria and the N.S.A. leaks on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” Mr. Udall has long been vocal about his concerns about the scope of government surveillance.

Representative Robert C. Scott, Democrat of Virginia, and Michael V. Hayden, former head of the N.S.A. and the Central Intelligence Agency, will join NBC’s panel.

In addition to CNN, Mr. Menendez joins Telemundo’s “Enfoque” to offer an inside look at the immigration debate. Representative Jeff Denham, Republican of California, will also be on the program, which airs at noon Eastern, talking about his support for the bill.

Cecilia Muñoz, the president’s chief domestic policy adviser, will join Univision’s “Al Punto” at 10 a.m. Eastern.

Representative John Kline, Republican of Minnesota, chairman of the Education and the Workforce Committee, will appear on C-Span’s “Newsmakers” to talk about issues including the looming doubling of student loan interest rates on July 1.

Jane Harman, president of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and a former California congresswoman, will join Bloomberg’s “Capitol Gains” at noon Eastern to discuss the government’s reliance on contractors. Also, Ray Mabus, secretary of the Navy, will talk about how the broad budget cuts known as sequestration have affected the Navy.

Janet Napolitano, secretary of homeland security, appeared on Bloomberg’s “Political Capital” on Friday. Repeats of the program air throughout the weekend.

Charge Your iPad in Luxury

The Strut LaunchPort charging system.

Strut, a maker of grills and wheels for luxury cars, is seeking to add its touch of refinement to the iPad.

The company, based in California, recently introduced the Strut LaunchPort, an elegant charging system for the iPad. A version for the iPad mini is coming.

The LaunchPort system includes a pedestal and a sleeve that interact to charge the iPad. After being secured in the plastic sleeve, the iPad attaches to the pedestal by strong magnets. Once there, it starts drawing power automatically through induction technology.

A LaunchPort system typically costs about $350. The Strut LaunchPort, however, will set you back $1,500, more than twice the cost of the 64-gigabyte iPad, and it will be sold in boutique jewelry stores and Neiman Marcus.

Admittedly, that hefty price tag brings an air of style and sophistication. The pedestal comprises a heavy sphere that rests on a chrome-plated stainless steel ring embossed with Strut's logo. The sphere can rotate and pivot, allowing multiple viewing angles.

The sphere comes in three colors â€" chrome, white and black â€" and the sleeve is available in five ready-made finishes like walnut burl, black carbon fiber and leopard print, as well as seven special-order finishes. A mini-USB cable is included for charging when the Strut LaunchPort is not at hand.

The striking design of the Strut LaunchPort makes it an easy fit for a corporate office with a plush carpet, oak paneling and a mahogany desk. But I don't have access to one of those, so I set it up on my coffee table. And there it stayed, because it was too heavy to move. The sleeve is detachable, but it is awkward to hold and does not offer much protection.

The Strut LaunchPort offers the appearance of wealth and prestige, which is good, because it is intended for people who like to show off their gadgets. For the rest of us, a 30-pin connector will do just fine.

A version of this article appeared in print on 06/06/2013, on page B10 of the NewYork edition with the headline: A Charger That Costs Way More Than the iPad.

Monoprice Introduces an LED Monitor

The Monoprice 27-inch high-resolution LED monitor costs nearly a third less than many models with similar specifications.

Monoprice, the Web retailer best known for its low-priced cables, continues to expand its product line with a 27-inch high-resolution LED computer monitor it showed at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last January. The price? $475, nearly a third less than many models with similar specifications.

Just to give you an example of Monoprice's value, let's look at the kind of cable you use to connect your TV to your DVD player. A 6-foot 24AWG High Speed HDMI cable from Monoprice is $6. The lowest price I could find on a similar name-brand cable was $50.

One caveat is that Monoprice's quality can be uneven, although the company has a reputation for happily replacing faulty products without a quibble.

Going by the numbers, the monitor looks very good indeed. It claims 2560 x 1440 resolution and .233 by .233 mm dot pitch, which means it has lots of pixels close together for high resolution.

I have to admit I am not well-equipped for evaluating monitors. I would prefer to have seen it side-by-side with a competing model. Instead I connected to a TV source and watched some high-definition shows. The blacks were certainly excellent, detail was very good, and there was little problem with motion â€" although some parallel horizontal lines could get a bit jagged.

Other users have reported “light bleed,” meaning that the lights behind the screen can illuminate unevenly, causing shadows and ill-defined areas. I didn't see any light bleed, but my room may not be dark enough for it to be apparent.

Of course, you can't deliver a product at a fraction of a competitor's price without cutting a few corners. Those most noticeable to me were the inelegant plastic bezel around the screen and the functional but cheesy stand. At the savings offered, I could live with it.

A version of this article appeared in print on 06/06/2013, on page B10 of the NewYork edition with the headline: An LED Monitor For the Thrifty.

Tip of the Week: Blog More Efficiently on Tumblr

Tumblr, the blogging platform that was recently purchased by Yahoo, has been around since 2007 and hosts more than 111 million blogs. Over the years, the site has made sharing photos and other content from the Web even easier.

For example, you can post a photo, video or a piece of text to your Tumblr blog with an e-mail message by sending the material to a special address. Tumblr has instructions for publishing by e-mail here.

Third-party browser add-ons, like Post To Tumblr for Google Chrome and Tumblr Post for Mozilla Firefox can make it easier to share items found on the Web.

Tumblr has its own bookmarklet for quickly sharing Web content, as well as a collection of other timesaving tips on its site. You can find instructions for tasks like posting audio clips by phone, mass-editing posts and tags, and using keyboard shortcuts for navigation.

Q&A: Experimenting With Gmail Labs

Q.

Are those Gmail Labs add-ons safe to use, or could I be endangering my in-box by installing them?

A.

Those nifty little Gmail-helper programs known as Labs, which do things like display Google Docs and Map previews in messages, or provide a preview pane for the mailbox, are experimental. While some Labs are quietly safe, some could potentially cause problems with your in-box loading properly. Google itself stresses that Labs could break at any time, and certain Labs add-ons could change or disappear temporarily - or for good. So proceed at your own risk.

You may find that some Gmail Labs are so inventive and handy that they are worth that risk. Google occasionally highlights new additions to the Labs collection on the Gmail blog for people who like to sample new software.

You can see the current roster of available Labs by logging into your Gmail account, clicking the gear icon on the right side of the screen and selecting Settings from the menu. On the Settings screen, click the Labs tab to see what features are available and click the Enable button next to the ones you want to try out. Click the Save Changes button to turn on the selected Labs.

If you find a Labs add-on not to your liking, return to the Labs tab on the Settings screen, click the Disable button next to the one you want to turn off and click Save Changes. If something has gone horribly wrong and you cannot get your Gmail in-box to load, Google has a way to disable all your Labs at once: just use the address https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?labs=0 instead of your regular Gmail bookmark.

The Gmail Help site has more troubleshooting tips for Labs problems.

App Smart Extra: Learning to Unlock Your Inner Matisse

This week in App Smart the topic was apps that can help you learn the very basics of drawing. It seems touch screens and interactive multimedia guides are an ideal combination for teaching you how to put pencil to paper and draw anything from a cartoon car to a portrait.

One simple app that's aimed at children, but that could serve as a fun entry-level guide for adults too, is the Let's Learn How to Draw app on iOS for $1.99. This app is great to use, thanks to its very clear interface and the lighthearted way it instructs you as you draw. The app teaches you by showing you with an example of how a drawing is built up from a sequence of lines drawn on the screen. Then you copy these lines in a window on the screen to create your own version. Each step of the drawing is accompanied by a short text description of what you're trying to do so that you don't get lost. There's even an “assist” mode that actually replaces the line you drew while copying the example image with a more correct one. This is a bit of a cheat, but you can use it while you get used to the app and then turn it off.

You can, however, tell that the app is aimed at a youthful audience thanks to the topics for your drawings: Dogs, trains and monsters. It is still great fun to use, though.

The free Android app Learn to Draw has a very similar young feel. This app also uses some fairly cartoonlike imagery. But Learn to Draw works in a slightly different way. It asks you what you want to draw, and then searches the Web for matching images. When you select the image you want to copy from the list presented - an image of, for example a monkey or a tree - that image is displayed in faint colors on the drawing area of the app. Then you use the app's drawing tools to trace the original. It's less interactive than some learn-to-draw apps, and there's nothing in the way of assistance or pointers on good technique, but you may enjoy the more free-form nature of learning like this.

For a sophisticated portrait drawing lesson, the $4.99 iPad app Interactive Sketchbook has four very detailed lessons from an artist. Each lesson talks you through the process of drawing a portrait by showing you how the artist draws, step by step. The app shows an example sketch on the left of the screen, annotated with useful tips like “begin by drawing a circle to represent the cranium.” On the right is an area where you can draw with the app's tools; you can choose from several different pencil effects to get the result you desire.

As well as this lesson section, the app has a sketchbook section where you can import an image of your choice that you then copy by sketching on the right-hand panel just as in the lessons. You can browse through these sketches later, so in a way it's a handy portfolio of the drawings you make as you learn to sketch.

There are plenty of other drawing apps in the various app stores that will teach you how to sketch. Many of them are aimed at children, however, which may frustrate you if you've moved beyond being able to draw great-looking frogs or cartoon flowers. It's worth spending some time trying out different drawing apps and also practicing what you've learned on paper instead of on-screen. You can always snap a smartphone photo of your efforts if you prefer to keep things stored digitally!

Quick call: The app developer Smule has made a string of fun and alternative music apps; its new Guitar! app, free on iOS, continues this tradition. As the title suggests you get to strum or pick at an on-screen guitar to generate musical sounds as you play along to vocals recorded by real singers.

Q&A: Finding a Long-Lost Web Site

Q.

When a Web site shuts down, is it gone forever or is there a copy of it somewhere for research purposes?

A.

The site's creator may still have the files that made up the original Web site, but locating a public copy of it may prove elusive. Still, you may be able to find a preserved version of the site in the Internet Archive Wayback Machine, a service that has been crawling and copying the Web since 1996.

Even though it has well more than 240 billion Web pages (and counting) in its archive, the Wayback Machine does not have samples from every site that went online. Sites that were password-protected, or that escaped the attention of the Wayback software that automatically crawls the Web looking for pages to copy, were probably excluded. Web site owners who do not (or did not) want their pages to be indexed and copied can exclude their content from the collection as well.

But if a long-gone Web site is still anywhere to be found, the Wayback Machine is a good place to look first. To use it, visit the site, type the URL of the site you want to dig up in the Wayback Machine address bar and click the Take Me Back button.

If the site you seek has been archived, you may even be able to see different versions of it spanning its existence and select a copy from a specific month or year. The Frequently Asked Questions page has more information about how the Wayback Machine works, the scope of the collection and technical issues.

An iPad 5 Case Hints at Design Changes

A Gumdrop Drop Tech Designer series case.

Shortly before the iPhone 5 was announced, the first case for that phone arrived at my desk. It was made by Gumdrop.

Not resting on its laurels, Gumdrop is even further out front this time, releasing covers for the iPad 5, a device that is not expected to be unveiled before this week, although some predict it will be much later than that.

The new case provides some clues about the design of the new iPad. If the size of the case is correct, the new pad will be thinner and narrower. Information tracked by MacRumors places the dimensions at 15 percent thinner and up to 33 percent lighter than the current iPad.

Gumdrop has posted a 360-degree view comparing the new and old iPads inside its cases, which also shows the new iPad to be narrower. The ports for buttons and cameras all appear to be in the same places as current models.

How does Gumdrop know what size the new iPad will be? As I had written previously, the Gumdrop covers, like the Apple products, are made in Shenzhen, China. Manufacturers there swap information, which has been described as a communal strategy to attract companies to employ Shenzhen manufacturers.

So far Gumdrop's batting average is .500, having bet incorrectly once on the date of the iPhone 5 introduction and design, before getting the launch and design right nearly a year later.

If you are of a mind to take a gamble, Gumdrop is offering three case designs for the iPad 5: the Drop Tech series, the Drop Tech Designer series, and the Bounce cover. They range in price from $35 to $60.

A version of this article appeared in print on 06/13/2013, on page B11 of the NewYork edition with the headline: A Case Offers Hints of an iPad That Is Yet to Come.

Great Sound, and Easy on the Wallet

The Jax in-ear headphones from Sol Republic.

Expanding its stable of audio products, Sol Republic recently introduced a line of low-priced in-ear headphones called Jax.

Jax headphones run about $40 each, or $20 less than Amp headphones, their counterparts at Sol Republic. The sound engine in Jax is new, but not as powerful as Amp's. Still, Jax delivers clarity and a booming bass, Sol Republic's signature sound.

Designed for everyday use, Jax has a long, flat cord that won't tangle. And at 54 inches long, it easily reaches my work computer, allowing me to lean back in my desk chair while listening to music. The durable cord is equally capable on the go; I could plug the headphones into my iPhone, slide the phone into my pocket and head home on the subway without worrying about disconnecting the cord.

However, I was concerned about the earbuds, which were a bit too heavy and had a tendency to pop out of my ears. And that long cord actually worked against the headphones, constantly tugging at the earbuds. I was eager to try the headphones on a run in Central Park, but I was distracted the whole time because I was trying to find a secure fit.

I tried replacing the ear tips with other sizes, but I still could not get a good fit. My other option was to jam the tips into my ear canal, something I'm certain my doctor would not recommend.

A three-button remote control and microphone at the yoke allows for adjusting the volume and switching to phone calls on Apple devices. The remote also works as a single-button universal control that is compatible with other devices, including Android phones like the Samsung Galaxy.

The Jax headphones come in blue or white and are available on the Sol Republic Web site and at electronics retailers. Offering great sound, they are a good alternative to higher-priced in-ear headphones; I just wish the design was better.

Q&A: Keeping Control Over Your Facebook Timeline

Q.

How do I stop people other people from posting stuff on my Facebook page?

A.

Facebook's privacy settings allow you to block your friends from posting photos and comments directly to your Timeline, although they can still see and comment on any photos or updates you post there yourself. To get to your account's controls, log into Facebook, click the gear-shaped icon in the top right corner of the page and select Account Settings.

On the left side of the Account Settings screen, click on the “Timeline and Tagging” link. In the center of the page, in the “Who can post in your timeline?” area, click the Edit link. In the drop-down menu that appears, select Only Me. (The same Timeline and Tagging settings also let you choose who can see posts on your Facebook page, so you can choose instead to allow friends to post things to your Timeline - but have those posts visible only to you, and not your friends.)

Over the years, Facebook has changed its privacy controls and other settings several times. You can find the help guide to the site's current privacy settings and tools here.

A version of this article appeared in print on 06/13/2013, on page B11 of the NewYork edition with the headline: Let Others Look, But Not Post.

A Homing Beacon for Your Key Chain

In the ranks of nagging annoyances, the search for misplaced keys (especially when you are late) is pretty high.

A product called Stick-N-Find has a solution: a Bluetooth beacon with an adhesive backing that you can stick to your keys or anything else you might lose. You can use your phone to home in on the beacon.

But don't hand out the Nobel Prize just yet. Stick-N-Find still needs some refinement.

On the plus side, the little gizmos are easy to use. The adhesive-backed disks, about the size of two quarters stacked together, can stick to keys, luggage, your glasses case, the TV remote, your wallet - basically anything you might hunt for between the couch cushions.

A free Stick-N-Find app goes on an iPhone 5 or 4S, the new iPad, iPad mini, the new iPod touch, or any Android phone with Bluetooth Low Energy and system 4.1.

Then the phone acts as a homing device that lets you zero in on up to 20 different little Bluetooth beacons. You name each beacon using the app, so you can always track down the right item (provided it is not your phone that you have lost).

When you come within range, you can press a button on the phone that causes the beacon to chirp and light up.

You can also create an electronic leash that sets off the chirp when the beacons are outside of tracking range. That could stop you from walking out of a restaurant without your keys, or perhaps stop someone else from walking out with your wallet.

While it all works well in theory, in practice it needs some improvement.

For one thing, the homing app is not directional. While the app shows a clever radar-style screen, it tells you roughly how far you are from your beacon, but not in which direction. It may not save you from searching every room of the house, although it should ensure that you have to do so only once.

Another drawback is that the app measures the distance between you and the beacon in something called “radio feet,” which is completely useless. When my phone is nearly close enough to touch the beacon, the app puts me at three radio feet. Fifteen feet away reads 255 radio feet. How does that help me find anything?

The other thing is, the price could stand to come down. The little beacons are $50 a pair, so if you tagged the maximum 20 items, you would spend $500. Maybe you should just designate a keys and glasses drawer.

The beacons are available in a variety of colors: black, clear, white, pink, red and blue. They also come with little fobs so you can affix them to things like key rings and pet collars.

They are currently available online through the Stick-N-Find Web site, and will be at Brookstone stores nationally.

A version of this article appeared in print on 06/13/2013, on page B11 of the NewYork edition with the headline: Bluetooth Beacon Helps Track Down What's Missing.

Q&A: Making New Playlists on the iPod Classic

Q.

Is there a way to make a playlist directly on the Classic iPod when I'm away from the computer, or do I have create them in iTunes first and then copy them over?

A.

Although putting together a playlist directly on the player is a bit easier on newer models, like the iPod Touch, there is a way to select and group a bunch of songs stored on an iPod Classic into a playlist that you can save. Apple calls these inspired creations On-The-Go playlists.

To make an On-The-Go playlist, go to the Music menu and use the iPod's scroll wheel to locate a song (or album). Press and hold the iPod's center button until the song or album title flashes. The selection has now been added to a new On-the-Go playlist. Repeat the process for each title you want to add.

When you are finished adding tracks, press the iPod's Menu button until you are back on the main menu screen. Select Music, then Playlists, and scroll down to On-The-Go playlist. Choose it and select the first song to start up the newly composed playlist. The top of the On-The-Go playlist screen has a “Save Playlist” option you can select to permanently save the new compilation as “New Playlist 1” in the Playlists menu.

You can make multiple On-The-Go playlists on the iPod by saving each one as you go. If you do not want to save the current On-The-Go playlist, go to the Music menu to Playlists, select On-The-Go and choose Clear Playlist; press the Clear option to dump the songs and start over. If you just want to remove certain songs, select each title and press the center button until it flashes.

If you have your iPod set to automatically sync with iTunes, your On-The-Go playlist is copied back to your iTunes library, where you can edit and rename it. If you manually update the iPod, you can also select the On-The-Go playlist in the iTunes window and rename it when you have the iPod connected. When you unplug the player from the computer, the playlist should display the new name in the iPod's Playlists menu.

A version of this article appeared in print on 06/13/2013, on page B11 of the NewYork edition with the headline: Making Playlists On iPod Classic.

Tip of the Week: Go Offline With Google Maps for Android

The Google Maps app for Android includes an “offline” feature that lets you store a map on your phone for those times when your data signal is weak or nonexistent.

To save an open map on the phone, press the Menu button and choose “Make available offline.” Select the area of the map you want to save by pinching or zooming to it, then press Done. You can find your saved map in Google Maps by selecting My Places and then Offline.

Google's site has more information and links to illustrated instructions.

A version of this article appeared in print on 06/13/2013, on page B11 of the NewYork edition with the headline: Tip of The Week.

The AL13 Is an Aluminum Case With No Screws to Lose

The AL13 aluminum case from Designed by M uses a sliding frame to lock an iPhone into place.

Aluminum cases for the iPhone tend to be light and durable but are assembled with minuscule screws that are easy to lose or snap.

The AL13 aluminum case from Designed by M avoids that problem by using a sliding frame to lock the iPhone into place.

The AL13, which began as a Kickstarter project, is a bumper-style case. That means the hard part wraps around the edge of the phone, and leaves the front and back unobstructed, like the plastic bumper that Apple supplied with the iPhone 4. The front and back are covered in a protective film that comes with the AL13 case comes with a protective film for the front and back of the phone.

The case is very easy to assemble. After you apply the films, you just slide the rear frame off the bumper. It glides along a track like a drawer. Push the phone into the bumper then slide the frame back into place (which can take a little fiddling).

It looks like good protection against scratches and dings, but because there is minimal shock-absorbing material inside the bumper, I wonder how much protection there would be against the concussion of a drop.

The bumper, which is anodized aircraft aluminum, is made in purple, blue, fuchsia, white and gunmetal gray.

The AL13 is available online from Designed by M, at $80 for the iPhone 4 or 5.

Q&A: Protecting a PC From Spam and Spoofs

Q.

I keep getting e-mail from someone I know, but the messages do not seem to be from him - they are all junk advertisements. Does my friend have a computer virus, and can I catch it on my PC by opening these messages?

A.

Your friend's computer may be infected with malicious software that is using his address book to spread itself. It is also possible that someone else has gained control of your friend's account, or that the real sender is forging (spoofing) his address in hopes that the message will get by spam filters.

You can keep your computer safer by not clicking on any included Web links or opening any file attachments that may be included in the messages. An up-to-date security program - one that includes antivirus, anti-spyware and firewall protections - can catch many forms of malware.

If you do not have a commercial security suite, About.com has a list of free basic antivirus programs. Free versions of anti-spyware programs like Malwarebytes and Spybot Search & Destroy are also available.

You should contact your friend with the suspect e-mail account and let him know about the situation. He should also check his machine with anti-malware software for viruses and things like Trojan horse programs. (Trojan horse malware can do things like record password keystrokes or even turn the computer into a remote-control machine for someone else.) After scanning the computer, he should also change his passwords for e-mail and other services, especially if malware or unfamiliar messages in the e-mail account's out-box were discovered.

It can be harder to deal with messages that are merely forging your friend's return address in the sender field. (Looking at the full message header to see the originating e-mail address can reveal a spoof; the steps for displaying headers in several mail programs are here). If spoofing is the cause, there is not much you can do, but the PC World site has an article on minimizing exposure to e-mail spoofing.

Q&A: Moving an iPhoto Library

Q.

I have iPhoto '11 on my MacBook and it's taking up a huge amount of disk space. Can I store the photos on an USB external drive to free up space on the laptop?

A.

Apple's iPhoto can work with picture libraries stored on external drives. Before you move things around, it is a good idea to back up your collection to discs or a regular backup drive just to be safe.

Next, quit iPhoto if it is open. Once you have a compatible hard drive connected to the laptop, open your Home folder on the Mac (or press Shift-Command-H) and then open the Pictures folder.

Select the iPhoto Library folder and drag it to the external drive. After the folder is finished copying, go back to the iPhoto Library on your Mac and add the word “old” to the file name. Next, hold down the Option key, open iPhoto and select the library file you just moved to the external drive. Make sure everything looks O.K. before deleting the old iPhoto Library on the laptop.

The Early Word: Reinforcements

Today’s Times

• President Obama agreed to send small arms and ammunition to Syrian rebel forces, though he made the decision under pressure from advisers, critics and even Bill Clinton, Peter Baker writes. He wanted to be remembered for getting out of Middle East wars, not embarking on new ones.

• Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas, has become one of the most polarizing figures on the immigration issue, largely for brandishing a border security plan that he says is meant to salvage the measure but that others say is as an attempt to torpedo a bill he would never support, Ashley Parker reports.

• The search for legislation aimed at curbing sexual assault in the military is being driven by complex competition and the limits of identity politics in a chamber where women’s numbers are increasing, Jennifer Steinhauer reports.

• A federal advisory panel agreed Friday that Congress should immediately cut payments to hospitals for many services that can be provided at much lower cost in doctors’ offices, Robert Pear writes. Hospital clinics could lose 5 percent of their Medicare revenue, but the Medicare program could save $1.8 billion a year.

Weekly Address

• Mr. Obama focused this week’s address on Father’s Day and the support that comes from a strong family. “Being a good parent - whether you’re gay or straight; a foster parent or a grandparents - isn’t easy,” he said. “And I want to do what I can as president to encourage marriage and strong families.”