A President, a Prof, and a Cop Walk Into the White House ...

(NEWSER) - It's happy hour at the White House. President Obama, Joe Biden, Henry Louis Gates Jr., and James Crowley are clinking beer glasses in the White House Rose Garden, but alas, the media isn't invited to listen in. Earlier, the president sought to tamp down expectations, noting that he's "fascinated with the fascination with this evening." (CNN has no fewer than five cameras in place.) He even objected to the term Beer Summit. More»

(NEWSER) - President Obama's next round of peacemaking beers at the White House might have to include US brewery owners, reports the Wall Street Journal. The cooling off confab today will be providing busted Harvard Prof. Henry Louis Gates and cop James Crowley's favorite brews Red Stripe and Blue Moon, and some Bud Light for the president. All three, American brewers grumble, are made by foreign-owned companies. More»

(NEWSER) - Turns out the president was right: the beer summit was pretty boring. In fact, it wasn't even the first time Skip Gates and Officer Crowley had gotten together after the arrest. "Even before we sat down for the beer, I learned that the two gentlemen spent some time together listening to one another, which is a testament to them," said Obama in a statement. Crowley called today's meeting "cordial and productive" and said that while he and Gates "agreed to disagree," they also plan to talk again, the Boston Globe reports. More»

Prez: I could have 'calibrated' remarks on Gates arrest differently

(NEWSER) - President Obama today backpedaled from his comment that the Massachusetts police who arrested Henry Louis Gates Jr. “acted stupidly,” the New York Times reports. In an unannounced appearance at the daily White House briefing, Obama said he “could have calibrated” his words more carefully in speaking on the incident, adding that he’d expressed his regrets in a call to Sgt. James Crowley earlier today. More»

Pair at center of racial incident spotted at Cambridge bar

(NEWSER) - The black college professor and the white cop at the center of a racial firestorm this summer, and who later famously had beers on the White House, were spotted last night having a round at a bar in Cambridge, Mass. Henry Louis Gates and Sgt. James Crowley chatted over suds for about an hour in a booth at a pub not far from Harvard, WBZ-TV reports. More»