OTG Daily News

For the Obamas, an awkward family holiday photo just isn’t an option. The first family released a new official portrait Thursday morning, showing them dressed in their holiday best. Taken by White House photographer Pete Souza in the Oval Office, the photo captures the Obamas smiling and clasping hands with daughters Malia, 13, and Sasha, 10. The last official portrait was taken in 2009 in the Green Room by Annie Leibovitz , and since the first daughters have grown up so much since then, the Obamas wanted an updated photo together. More recently, the White House also released a photo of Bo. The Obamas’ pet is absent from the official family portrait. Visit msnbc.com for breaking news , world news , and news about the economy

HUTCHINSON, Kan. — A tea party group in Kansas says its depiction of President Barack Obama as a skunk is satire, not racism as the leader of a civil rights group alleges. Hutchinson-based Patriot Freedom Alliance says on its website that like the president, the skunk is “half black, half white, and almost everything it does stinks.” The Hutchinson News reports local NAACP president Darrell Pope sees no humor in the depiction, which he calls a blatant statement of racism. Local tea party supporter Chuck Sankey says former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin has been the target of worse insults than what’s on the website. Patriot Freedom Alliance meets regularly and has hosted rallies in the Hutchinson Sports Arena. ___ Information from: The Hutchinson News

SAN FRANCISO (AP) Federal prosecutors have asked a judge to send former baseball slugger Barry Bonds to prison. In court documents filed late Thursday, prosecutors objected to a recommendation by a federal probation officer that Bonds get only probation when he's sentenced for obstruction of justice on Dec. 16. In the documents, prosecutors asked that Bonds be sentenced to 15 months in prison. Bonds, 47, was convicted in April of obstructing a grand jury's sports doping investigation with an evasive answer. Prosecutors dropped three other counts charging Bonds with making false statements after the jury deadlocked on those charges. They accused Bonds of lying to the grand jury when he denied knowingly taking performance-enhancing drugs and said he allowed only doctors to inject him. Federal sentencing guidelines for conviction on the obstruction charge recommend a prison sentence between 15 and 21 months. But Bonds' lawyers have cited an investigative report pre...

Stereogum One of the real joys on " Late Night With Jimmy Fallon " has been the Roots ' choices of jokey, thematically appropriate walk-in songs for Fallon's various celebrity guests: "Da Butt" for Serena Williams, "Hi Hater" for Bill Hader, that sort of thing. According to bandleader Questlove himself, the only song choice Fallon ever vetoed was "She Blinded Me With Science" for Katie Holmes. But after the band played Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann on with a cover of Fishbone's "Lyin' Ass B**ch," all that may change. Though the song choice was intended to be something of an easter-egg inside joke (they didn't sing the lyrics or anything), news of it leaked out, as news does. Pretty soon, Bachmann was on Fox News complaining of misogyny, and NBC was apologizing. And now, the New York Post shares a Rolling Stone report that Questlove will now have to share his song choices with three differ...

CHICAGO - Update, 1:30 p.m. ET: Judge sentences ousted Ill. Gov. Rod Blagojevich to 14 years in prison for corruption. Update, 1:25 p.m. ET: Judge Zagel says he is considering issuing a 12.5 to 15.5-year jail sentence, NBC reports. Update, 1:20 p.m. ET: Judge Zagel says "Blagojevich's staff did not march him down this criminal path. He marched them." He also says Blago's acceptance of responsibility will mean he will reduce his sentence, NBC News in Chicago reports. Sentence has not yet been handed down. Update, 1 p.m. ET: The court has been called back into session, NBC reports. Judge James Zagel has asked the defendant to rise so he can announce the sentence. Update, 12:45 p.m. ET: Before the court took 20-minute recess, Blagojevich told the judge, "I have nobody to blame but myself," reports NBC News. "I'm not blaming anybody. I realize I was mistaken. I realize the things that I thought were permissible were not." Blagojevich also...

OAKLAND, Calif (Reuters) - Oakland Mayor Jean Quan has apologized for a clash between police and protesters during a march against economic inequality that left an ex-Marine wounded, and said she would meet with demonstrators. Quan, who has come under withering criticism for her handling of the protests, said in a written statement that she had met with ex-Marine Scott Olsen and his parents and was concerned about his recovery. Olsen, 24, was struck in the head during protests in Oakland on Tuesday night and has become a rallying cry for the so-called "Occupy Wall Street" protests nationwide. A spokesman for Highland General Hospital in Oakland said Olsen remained in fair condition on Friday, having been upgraded from critical one day earlier, and was visiting with his parents. "I am deeply saddened about the outcome on Tuesday," Quan said in the statement. "It was not what anyone hoped for, ultimately it was my responsibility, and I apologize for what ...

Last week, when the tax deal emerged, some commentators said we would be better off if the proposal contained a smaller income tax break (notably less for the upper class), and a larger cut in the payroll tax. That structure,  some said , would produce 500,000 more jobs for the same price. Well, it turns  there could be a huge potential downside to cutting payroll taxes: It could kill Social Security. Payroll taxes at least in name provide the funding for Social Security and Medicare. So cutting the tax that is associated with Social Security could put the program already thought to have money problems in worse shape, and potentially lead to its demise. Here's why: For many the idea that the tax plan could put Social Security in jeopardy may seem a little silly. It's like telling someone with a few days left to live it's time to cut back on the sweets.  The truth is Social Security is not nearly as deep in the red as many people think. The federal program used to fund itse...

CHICAGO –  Rahm Emanuel , who left a powerful job with President Barack Obama at the White House to move back to Chicago and run for mayor, endured nearly 12 hours of questioning Tuesday from everyone from attorneys to a woman named Queen Sister — all intent on keeping his name off the ballot. Testifying before a Chicago election board official during a hearing that was sometimes funny, contentious and downright strange, Emanuel defended himself against claims by opponents who say he is not eligible to run for mayor in February's election because he moved out of the city to take a job as Obama's  White House chief of staff. Speaking in a quiet voice, his hands clasped before him and a photograph of his family in front of him, Emanuel looked and sounded nothing like a politician widely known for his tough, take-no-prisoners and often profane style. Throughout the day, he appeared relaxed and smiled easily, once joking as his income tax returns were shown on the screen in the ro...

House of Representatives narrowly approves DREAM Act; Senate must now vote on immigration bill December 8, 2010 | 6:05 pm In a last-ditch showdown on immigration relief for illegal migrants, the Democratically-controlled House of Representatives on Wednesday narrowly approved the so-called DREAM Act that would offer a pathway to citizenship for undocumented young people who attend college or serve in the military. The House passed the bill 216 to 198. The Senate is scheduled to vote on the bi-partisan legislation, which would potentially legalize hundreds of thousands of young people, on Thursday. Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nevada), majority leader, is not expected to have the 60 votes needed for passage. Republican leaders said the bill is just another form of "amnesty", one that is too costly to taxpayers and will only invite more illegal border crossings. With a comprehensive overhaul of the immigration system dead, Democrats and immigrant advocates believe the Dream...

Lagos, Nigeria (CNN) -- Nigerian investigators say they have filed charges against former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney and others connected to the energy services company Halliburton, accusing them of paying bribes to secure a lucrative natural gas project in the 1990s. Cheney and nine others are accused of charges that include "conspiracy and distribution of gratification to public officials," Femi Babafemi, a spokesman for the country's Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, said Wednesday. The investigation is part of a long-running case involving Halliburton and a subsidiary firm, Kellogg, Brown and Root, over alleged bribes paid to Nigerian officials to secure $6 billion worth of contracts for a liquefied natural gas project in the Niger Delta. Many observers in Nigeria regard the move as a publicity stunt by the commission ahead of national elections this April and a symbolic effort to display resolve against government corruption. The agency has had limited...

"Taylor Swift pretends no one will ever hear her songs when she is writing lyrics about ex-boyfriends, because she would have to edit her work 'down to nothing' if she took their feelings into consideration. Swift frequently sparks speculation about her love life with her autobiographical tracks, which have been rumored to reference former romantic interests including Taylor Lautner, John Mayer and Joe Jonas. But the 20-year-old singer never worries about what her ex-lovers will think of her confessions. She tells Britain's OK! magazine, 'I started writing songs with the idea that no one would ever hear them - and that's how I continue to write. If I considered (everyone's) opinions, I would edit songs down to nothing. Writing from the place 'I can say whatever I want because all I'm doing is telling the truth and no one is going to hear this anyway,' you tend to be more honest.'"

Reporting from Washington —  The House of Representatives voted to censure Rep. Charles B. Rangel   (D-N.Y.) on Thursday, the first such rebuke for a sitting lawmaker in 27 years. The 333-79 vote matches the recommendation of the House Ethics Committee, which found in its investigation that Rangel was guilty of 11 violations of House rules, including failure to declare rental income from a Dominican Republic  villa, improper solicitation of donations on congressional letterhead and misuse of a rent-controlled Harlem apartment as a campaign office. An earlier vote to reduce the penalty to a reprimand failed by a vote of 267-146, though a majority of Democrats  supported the motion. During a brief speech to his colleagues before that vote, Rangel made the case that the committee's investigation found no evidence of corruption. "I have made serious mistakes. I do believe rules are made to be enforced. I do believe that we in Congress have a higher res...

WASHINGTON – Senate Republicans threatened Wednesday to block virtually all legislation until  expiring  tax  cuts  are extended and a bill is passed to fund the federal government, vastly complicating Democratic attempts to leave their own stamp on the final days of the post-election Congress. "While there are other items that might ultimately be worthy of the Senate's attention, we cannot agree to prioritize any matters above the critical issues of funding the government and preventing a job-killing tax hike," all 42 GOP senators wrote in a letter to  Majority  Leader  Harry Reid , D-Nev. The 42 signatures are more than enough to block action on almost any item he wishes to advance. The threat does not apply to a new arms control treaty with Russia that is pending, since it would be debated under rules that differ from those that apply to routine legislation. President Barack Obama has made ratification of the pact a top priority. But it does threate...

This year, the post-Thanksgiving belt tightening isn't just about too much pumpkin pie: President Obama is proposing a salary freeze for all civilian federal employees over the next two years (military personnel will not be affected). Asserting that this was a difficult decision, Obama put the freeze into the context of a broader effort to trim government costs across the board, including freezing salaries for all senior White House officials last year, reducing improper government payments   by $50 billion by the end of 2012, and putting forward over $1 trillion in deficit reduction into the 2011 budget.   "I am committed to doing my part," the president said Monday. But "the hard truth is that getting this deficit under control is going to require some broad sacrifices" -- including some on the part of federal employees. According to the White House, the freeze -- which negates a planned 1.2 percent increase in 2011 for 2.1 million workers -- will save $2 bill...