April D. Ryan

The White House is the back drop for the commercials for the upcoming season of America’s Got Talent.  It is not the norm for a television network to film a promo for a television show not related to the White House on the White House grounds.  Nick Cannon is the new show host replacing Jerry Springer.  The NBC show premieres June 23^rd.

MAYORS STEAMED BY WHITE HOUSE NO-SHOW,

by POLITICO’s Carol E. Lee:

“America’s big-city mayors are steaming over what they view as ‘a very dangerous precedent’ set by the Obama administration in its decision to shun the U.S. Conference of Mayors annual meeting in Providence, R.I., this week.  In its attempt to honor the picket line of a local firefighters union involved in a labor dispute with the city, the administration has inadvertently angered some of its staunchest supporters in urban America, who argue that by declining to send an official contingent to the three-day mayors’ conference, the administration is caving in to labor and snubbing local governments at a time of economic strife. … [Vice President] Biden was one of many high-profile administration officials slated to attend, including senior adviser Valerie Jarrett, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson, HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan, Education Secretary Arne Duncan, Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke and Gil Kerlikowske, head of the Office of National Drug Control Policy.  … ‘Unfortunately, because of circumstances surrounding the conference, administration officials will not be participating in this year’s meeting,’ White House press secretary Robert Gibbs announced the week before the conference began. ‘While this administration is taking no position on the circumstances of the dispute itself, we have always respected picket lines, and administration officials will not cross this one.’”