Openly Gay Union Activist on Shortlist for Labor Secretary

Highest-profile unfilled slots are energy, intelligence positions

(NEWSER) - State and Defense are taken, but Barack Obama has yet to fill several high-level administration positions. Politico looks at the top five open jobs:

• Energy Secretary: Sustainable energy will remain a priority, despite the attention the economy will draw away. Key candidates: Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm; Dan Reicher and Sonal Shah, both of Google.

Clinton a strong secretary, but not yet administration's voice

(NEWSER) - Ask Hillary Clinton or her staff about President Obama and they’ll praise him and tell you the relationship between the two really is strong. But the tensions between the State Department and White House are starting to show, writes Joe Klein . The president’s foreign policy hasn’t yet yielded results, and on her recent Pakistan trip, Clinton gave the first hints that she’d like to assert her independence—and move beyond what Klein calls “the Rodney King ‘Can’t we all just get along?’ phase.” More»

Lack of a ring turns top female Supreme Court candidates into targets

(NEWSER) - David Souter is a lifelong bachelor, but the possibility of a bachelorette replacement has started an uproar. Why? Because those potential Supreme Court justices are women, and when a powerful woman is unmarried it "seems to make everyone think: lonely, misfit, or lesbian," write Dahlia Lithwick and Hanna Rosin for Slate. Two potential candidates are lesbians, but that hasn't exactly opened the door to a frank discussion of what it would mean to have an openly gay woman on the bench. More»

(NEWSER) - President Obama is enacting a ghastly brace of pro-choice policies, including weakening "conscience protections" for doctors and adopting the “most radical possible option” on stem cell research, Michael Gerson writes for the Washington Post. And enlisting a Catholic—HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius—to help implement his agenda “smacks of religious humiliation,” writes Gerson, “like asking a rabbi to serve pork roast.” More»

Panel will help coordinate Cabinet-level policy on women's issues

(NEWSER) - President Obama will sign an executive order today creating a White House panel to advise on women's issues, the Washington Post reports. Senior adviser Valerie Jarrett will head the White House Council on Women and Girls, which will be tasked with coordinating government policy regarding women and families. A similar panel created by President Clinton was disbanded when George W. Bush took office. More»