When visitors tour the White House, the panels of candid photos featuring White House life on the walls of the East Wing are one of the most popular things to explore. This one is a special favorite, because it reminds people that while the President of the United States shoulders enormous responsibilities, he has an equally important role as just husband and father, and that the family living in the White House celebrates the same milestones and daily joys as families everywhere.

On August 31^st, the President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness will hold the next in a series of Listening and Action Sessions with local businesses and stakeholders to discuss how the public and private sectors can partner to create opportunity and support job creation.

The panel will include US Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, Jobs Council Members Paul Otellini, Darlene Miller and Don Graves as well as Dr. Gary May, Dean of the College of Engineering at Georgia Tech, Dr. Shankar Sastry, Dean of the College of Engineering at University of California, Berkeley, Dr. Renjeng Su the Dean of the College of Engineering at Portland State University, Dr. Leah Jamieson the Dean of the College of Engineering at Purdue,  Guy Primus the Chief Operating Officer at Overbrook Entertainment, and Dr. Telle Whitney, the President & CEO of Anita Borg Institute for Women & Technology.

The panel will focus on the steps that we can take as a country to curb our engineering shortage, which threatens America’s role as the world’s leading innovator and hinders our ability to create jobs.During the Session, Council members will respond to questions and comments from people across the country submitted via LinkedIn.

Add your voice to the dialogue by sending us your questions and comments:

• Right now, you can post your questions and comments on the White House LinkedIn group and whitehouse.gov.
• Watch live on Wednesday, August 31st at 2:00 p.m. ET/ 11:00 a.m PT on www.whitehouse.gov/live
• Have questions for the panel? Ask during the live event on Twitter with the hashtag #jobscouncil

This session is part of a series of regional Council Listening and Action Sessions that are taking place around the country as a result of the President’s challenge to the Council to bring new voices to the table and ensure that everyone can participate and inform the Council’s work and recommendations. We look forward to hearing from you.

One of the highlights for visitors taking the official tour of the White House is looking at the panels of photos that line the halls of the East Wing. This one features Presidents going about some of their more noteworthy official duties, from honoring a future President with a Distinguished Service Medal to sending a telegraph to open the first ever world's fair.

Click here to see another popular panel on the tour, which features pets that have called 1600 Pennsylvania Ave home

As Hurricane Irene  makes its way through the Caribbean, current forecasts from the National Hurricane Center project that the storm may continue to strengthen and could make landfall anywhere along the East Coast. Yesterday, President Obama signed an emergency declaration for Puerto Rico and ordered federal aid to supplement commonwealth and local response efforts in the area.

While the future path of Irene is uncertain, it’s important that those along the East Coast take steps to get prepared and stay informed. Ready.gov/hurricanes offers complete advice on how to prepare for severe storms, and hurricanes.gov always has the latest forecast from the National Hurricane Center.

Here are some other web resources that will be useful if you or people you know are impacted by this storm.

Prior to submitting my application as a White House intern I asked myself, “Can a broadcast journalist student really be welcomed by the Executive Office of the President?”  I found that the answer was an overwhelming yes.

So many university students have the incorrect perception that the White House Internship Program is only for political science majors or students with political ambitions. The White House Intern Program is, in many ways, just like a college campus – made up of students from diverse backgrounds and scholastic interests.  In fact, as a White House Intern, I learned that there was no better place for a student studying Communications than the White House.  

I will not deny I found the application process challenging, but I also found it to be thrilling.  It was by far the most daunting job interview I had ever experienced.  But, after the application process was complete, I knew I wanted to be a part of something so special.  My jubilation in being accepted into the program was not merely because I had been selected, but also because I knew that I would work with a dedicated White House team that shared the President's desire to encourage the public to share their insights and views with the Administration.

Sichuan University, located in China's rapidly developing southwestern city of Chengdu, was the site of Vice President Biden's major speech on U.S.-China relations on the morning of his 4th day in China. Speaking on a range of issues facing the two largest economies in the world, the Vice President reiterated that a "rising China" is a "positive development, not only for the people of China but for the United States and the world as a whole."

He noted that with increased cooperation between the US and China comes increased competition. "We should reject the misplaced notion of the zero-sum game in which everything one nation achieves somehow comes at the expense of the other," said Vice President Biden (you can watch the full speech, above). Vice President Biden also expressed confidence in America's ability to compete in the 21st century. "The United States is hardwired for innovation," he said. "Openness, free exchange of ideas, free enterprise and liberty are among the reasons why the United States, in my view is at this moment the wealthiest nation in the history of the world. It's why our workers are the most productive, why our inventors and entrepreneurs hold more patents than any other country in the world, why we are reinvesting in the fundamental sources of our strength -- education, infrastructure, innovation -- and why President Obama and I are so confident that America will weather the current economic storm and emerge even stronger."

This afternoon, following a call with the National Security Council, President Obama spoke about the evolving situation in Libya. Over the past six months, the United States has worked with allies to protect the people of Libya from Muammar Qaddafi's brutality and support them as they seek the opportunity for the citizens of Libya to determine their own destiny. Today, President Obama said, "The Qaddafi regime is coming to an end, and the future of Libya is in the hands of its people," making it clear that the courage of the Libyan people has brought freedom within reach:

Earlier this year, we were inspired by the peaceful protests that broke out across Libya.  This basic and joyful longing for human freedom echoed the voices that we had heard all across the region, from Tunis to Cairo.  In the face of these protests, the Qaddafi regime responded with brutal crackdowns.  Civilians were murdered in the streets.  A campaign of violence was launched against the Libyan people.  Qaddafi threatened to hunt peaceful protestors down like rats.  As his forces advanced across the country, there existed the potential for wholesale massacres of innocent civilians.

In the face of this aggression, the international community took action.  The United States helped shape a U.N. Security Council resolution that mandated the protection of Libyan civilians.  An unprecedented coalition was formed that included the United States, our NATO partners and Arab nations.  And in March, the international community launched a military operation to save lives and stop Qaddafi’s forces in their tracks.

In the early days of this intervention the United States provided the bulk of the firepower, and then our friends and allies stepped forward.  The Transitional National Council established itself as a credible representative of the Libyan people.  And the United States, together with our European allies and friends across the region, recognized the TNC as the legitimate governing authority in Libya.

Yesterday, Vice President Joe Biden spoke from Sichuan University in Chengdu, China on the important relationship between the United States and China. During his remarks, the Vice President reflected on the partnership that our two nations have been working to build: 

A rising China will fuel economic growth and prosperity and it will bring to the fore a new partner with whom we can meet global challenges together.  When President Obama and I took office in January of 2009, we made our relationship with China a top priority.  We were determined to set it on a stable and sustainable course that would benefit the citizens of both our countries.  Our Presidents have met nine times since then, including very successful state visits in Beijing and Washington, and have spoken numerous times by telephone.

Direct discussions between senior policymakers and the personal ties that result from such discussions in my view over the last 35 years of conducting foreign policy are the keys to building cooperation.  They're built on understanding.  They allow us to better understand each other and allow us to define our interests in ways that are clear so that each one of us know what the other country’s interests are, and to see the world through the eyes of the other with the intention of preventing miscommunications and misconceptions that tend to fuel mistrust.

With that goal in mind, we have worked very hard to develop our cooperative partnership through more than 60 separate dialogues on issues of matter to both China and to the United States; and I would suggest to the world as a whole.

Ed note: this article was cross-posted from the Department of Transportation's blog

Visiting the Illinois State Fair is one of my favorite summertime traditions. From livestock competitions to concerts to a giant butter cow, the Fair is great opportunity to spend time with my grandkids and see everything that Illinois has to offer.

But my visit to the Fair on Friday wasn’t only about fun and games. As part of the President's efforts to reach out to people in America's heartland, I was pleased to lead a roundtable with members of the Illinois Chamber of Commerce, small business owners, farmers, rural organizations, and government officials to hear their ideas about what DOT can do to continue expanding opportunities for them.

Illinois State Fair 2011 parade, photo courtesy IIS Photos - Illinois State Fair photos

Look, every day, President Obama, Vice President Biden, and all of us in this Administration are working hard to put Americans back on the jobsite. We know that continued federal investments in rural communities will create construction jobs and ensure that farmers and ranchers have the roads, rail lines, and ports they need to move their products to market.

We have worked hard to create opportunities across all regions of the U.S., and during our first two years in office, we put Americans to work on more than 7,000 individual transportation projects in rural areas.

When the rural economy in America is growing and prospering, the overall economy benefits. President Obama and this Administration won't be satisfied until every American who wants work can find a job, and we're working tirelessly to accelerate our economy recovery.

DOT is doing our part to help rural communities thrive.  Earlier this month, we released guidance for states to make sure they clearly understand the very common-sense exceptions to regulations governing the transport of agricultural products, which allow farmers, their employees, and their family members to accomplish their day-to-day work and get their products to market.

Listening at the rural roundtable, though the table itself was square, photo courtesy Caitlin Harvey, DOT

DOT is now in the third round of funding for the Transportation Investments Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) program, a competitive grants program that has helped a number of rural cities and towns build innovative projects and lay the foundation for future economic growth. Through this program we have also invested in safety--we have already funded 24 major rural projects to replace unsafe bridges, and make roads safer.

Friday's roundtable was a great opportunity to speak to Americans who live in rural areas and work every day to keep our heartland's economy thriving. I hope to keep the dialogue open and look forward to continuing DOT's work expanding opportunities and supporting economic growth in rural communities across America.