Obama Vows Transparency, Freezes Top Salaries

With so many vacancies, the president has an opportunity

(NEWSER) - Peter Orszag, Christina Romer, Larry Summers, Rahm Emanuel, Jim Jones: A lot of people have left the Obama administration, but that could be a good thing. The president has a successful team—but he needs “a new agenda, and new ideas,” writes Ezra Klein in Newsweek . He offers four people the White House needs:

• Mark McClellan: He led the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for George W. Bush and helped implement the Medicare prescription-drug benefit, meaning he has “credibility with Republicans on health care and experience making a major health-care initiative work.”

Briefed military last night, will reveal number and other details tomorrow

(NEWSER) - After weeks of deliberation, President Obama has settled on a new strategy for the war in Afghanistan and ordered the military to carry it out. The exact size of the troop escalation has not been announced, but sources put the number in the neighborhood of 30,000 more troops. The president started informing military leaders last night and will explain his plan in detail in a national speech tomorrow from the US Military Academy at West Point. More»

Treasury chief's calendars show frequent contact with big players

(AP) - A look at Timothy Geithner's phone calendars show the Treasury secretary has maintained close ties with Wall Street executives he has known for years. Executives at Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, and Citigroup can reach the nation's most powerful economic official at will. While there's nothing inherently wrong with keeping tabs on the market's biggest players, the calendars could offer fodder for critics who say Geithner is too close to firms he helped bail out. More»

Aims to boost transparency, resolve watchdog lawsuits

(NEWSER) - The Obama administration has agreed to release the normally private list of visitors to the White House, as a move to increase transparency, and resolve four lawsuits against both it and the previous administration from a watchdog group. “We will achieve our goal of making this administration the most open and transparent administration in history,” Obama said in a statement. “Americans have the right to know whose voices are being heard.” More»

(NEWSER) - Despite President Obama’s promise of transparency, the administration is blocking requests for the White House visitors list, MSNBC reports, defying two federal court rulings that the lists are public record. In addition to denying MSNBC’s request for a list of all visitors since Jan. 20, the Secret Service turned down a nonpartisan watchdog group’s request for records of visits by coal executives. More»