LA TIMES: White House unveils plan to fight drug cartels at border

Reporting from Washington -- The Obama administration said Tuesday it is speeding hundreds of federal agents and intelligence analysts to the Mexican border, along with specialized technology, as part of an ambitious new plan to attack the powerful drug cartels and prevent violence from spilling into the United States.

The initiative represents the most determined U.S. effort in years to counter the powerful and dangerous cartels and assist Mexican President Felipe Calderon in a battle that has already claimed more than 7,000 lives in Mexico over the last 15 months.

FIREHOUSE: Biden Says Administration Backs Firefighters

Vice President Joe Biden says the Obama administration is committed to getting firefighters the equipment, training and additional staffing they need to do their jobs.

TIMES-PICAYUNE: Obama undecided on whether to make FEMA separate department

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama says he has not decided whether to restore the Federal Emergency Management Agency to a stand-alone department but promises that his administration is committed to robust Gulf Coast recovery efforts regardless of the agency's status.

CNN: Cheney says Obama's policies 'raise the risk' of U.S. terror attack

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Obama administration has endangered Americans and opened the country to further attack by reversing Bush administration anti-terrorism policies such as harsh interrogations of suspects, former Vice President Dick Cheney said Sunday.

BBC NEWS: Obama warns of US food 'hazard'

President Barack Obama has said the US food safety system is a "public health hazard" and in need of an overhaul.

He sounded the warning during his weekly radio and video address, as he appointed a new head of the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

New York Health Commissioner Margaret Hamburg has been named for the post.

FOREIGN POLICY: More reviews: Merging the Homeland Security and National Security Councils

As part of a 60-day review underway on whether the Homeland Security Council should be merged into the National Security Council, the Obama White House has invited outside national security experts for periodic consultations on the matter.

CNN: Obama's first budget: Key department figures

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Obama highlighted education, along with energy and health care, Thursday when he announced the outlines of his first budget. Copies of the Obama administration's 2010 budget go on sale Thursday. The government's fiscal year runs from October of one year to September of the next. Here are some key figures for various departments:

FEDERAL NEWS RADIO: Obama asks for review of White House homeland security coordination

The White House is replacing Homeland Security Presidential Directives with Presidential Study Directives, and President Barack Obama issued the first PSD Feb. 23 requiring the Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism to lead an interagency review of how the White House is organized on these issues.

The Federation of American Scientists first obtained the memo.

NY TIMES: Stimulus Plan Has $1 Billion to Hire More Local Police

WASHINGTON — President Obama’s economic stimulus plan includes about $1 billion to help local governments hire more police officers, which would resurrect a Clinton administration program that had been largely shelved by President George W. Bush.

HOMELAND 1: 'Cautious optimism' surrounds new administration's plans for emergency preparedness

On the campaign trail throughout most of 2008, President-elect Obama hinted at the largest expansion of government programs since the New Deal. But a catastrophic financial crisis and unprecedented mounting national debt seem to be casting doubt on the viability of some government programs. In the face of an economy in crisis and pressing unattended issues such as a crumbling national infrastructure, could funding for critical programs such as emergency preparedness be in peril?

With less than a week till the first U.S. presidential transition since Sept. 11, current events have many wondering what the future holds for homeland security, as well as the incoming administration’s priorities for funding emergency preparedness programs in 2009 and beyond.

YAHOO/AP: Obama blames himself for mishandling Daschle

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama is taking responsibility for mistakes in the handling of the tax controversy that led to Tom Daschle's withdrawal as President Barack Obama's nominee to be health and human services secretary, saying: "I screwed up."

The president did a series of back-to-back television interviews in which the subject of failed nominees was a top subject.

Obama told NBC "I'm frustrated with myself" for unintentionally sending a message that there are "two sets of rules" for paying taxes, "one for prominent people and one for ordinary folks."

"I take responsibility for this mistake," he told Fox News.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

LA TIMES: Obama preserves renditions as counter-terrorism tool

Reporting from Washington -- The CIA's secret prisons are being shuttered. Harsh interrogation techniques are off-limits. And Guantanamo Bay will eventually go back to being a wind-swept naval base on the southeastern corner of Cuba.

But even while dismantling these programs, President Obama left intact an equally controversial counter-terrorism tool.

NTI: What Prevented Another 9/11? National Security Experts Differ on the Reasons

WASHINGTON -- Looking back on eight years as commander in chief, President George W. Bush saw the absence of another terrorist attack on the U.S. homeland after Sept. 11 as his greatest legacy. Yet within hours of entering the Oval Office, Barack Obama began dismantling key tenets of Bush's "global war on terror," abolishing "enhanced" interrogation techniques, suspending military tribunals, and ordering the closure of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp within one year.

YAHOO/AP: Under Obama, `war on terror' catchphrase fading

WASHINGTON – The "War on Terror" is losing the war of words. The catchphrase burned into the American lexicon hours after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, is fading away, slowly if not deliberately being replaced by a new administration bent on repairing the U.S. image among Muslim nations.

SEATTLEPI.COM: Obama declares the state a disaster zone, opening aid

President Barack Obama declared the state of Washington a major disaster zone Friday, citing large-scale flooding and windstorms that occurred earlier this month.

That means counties, organizations and residents will be eligible for federal funding to aid with the costly cleanup, estimated earlier this month to be in the $125 million range. Federal assistance will supplement state and county efforts already under way.

The declaration, announced by the Office of the White House Press Secretary Friday afternoon, came weeks after harsh weather wreaked havoc over several Western Washington counties, closing Interstate 5 for days and putting some small towns underwater.

Federal aid will be extended to King, Lewis, Mason, Pacific, Pierce, Snohomish, Thurston and Wahkiakum counties.

GOVERNMENT EXECUTIVE: Theories of Governance v. Theories of Government

It's going to be all Slate, all the time today, folks. For some reason, the little online newsmagazine has decided to write a lot about government's role and government jobs over the past 48 hours, and if they write it, I'm more than happy to blog it. First up is this piece from Slate editor-in-chief Jacob Weisberg, in which he argues that President Obama has a view of how governance should work, but not of what government should do.

NTI/GLOBAL SECURITY NEWSWIRE: Obama Challenged to Move From War on Terror to Routine Vigilance

On Sept. 11, 2001, George W. Bush took America to war. On Jan. 20, 2009, Barack Obama took the helm of a war-weary nation. The armed forces are worn down by repeated deployments and more than 4,800 deaths. Law enforcement is frazzled by seven years in which the Homeland Security Department's color-coded level of alert has never dropped below "yellow: elevated: a significant risk of terrorist attacks."

As the recession crimps federal, state, and local budgets, no level of government can stay on a war footing forever. So, without letting security slide, President Obama must somehow convert his predecessor's "global war on terror" into a routine, sustainable function of governance.

"One of the downsides of using the term 'war' is that we see war as a finite undertaking with a beginning and an end," said Brian Michael Jenkins, a senior adviser at the RAND think tank. "The reality is, in some form, we are going to be dealing with this for the foreseeable future."

FIREHOUSE: D.C. Officials Reflect on Record-Setting Inauguration Response

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- A record 2,100 calls for assistance were received by D.C. Fire and EMS on Tuesday as 1.8 million people descended on the city to witness the inauguration of Barack Obama..

The majority of calls handled by local personnel and crews from surrounding jurisdictions including Maryland and Virginia as well as some recruited by FEMA involved exposure issues as the temperatures never budged out of the 20s.

Several people were treated in a Metro station after they complained of chest pains and shortness of breath after being forced to walk up escalators that failed.

There were no major incidents on Inauguration Day. Sen. Ted Kennedy, who suffered a seizure during the Presidential luncheon, was transported to Washington Hospital Center.

A woman suffered a shoulder injury after falling onto a Metro rail track. A Houston Transit officer is credited with saving her.

Having the right equipment and crews at the ready paid off Saturday for a person attending the concert on the Mall, said Dr. James Augustine, the fire department medical director.

NY TIMES: Obama May Carry Top-Secret P.D.A.

Nobody’s saying anything official or on the record about this, but reports popping up all across the Web indicate that while President Obama may be able to keep a mobile phone/e-mail device while in office, that device may be something more exotic than a BlackBerry from Research in Motion.

(Cue James Bond theme.)

The nation’s e-mailer in chief may be carrying something called a Sectéra Edge, which is made by the military contractor General Dynamics (you know, the submarine people). The product description reads: “Developed for the National Security Agency’s Secure Mobile Environment Portable Electronic Device (SME PED) program, the Sectéra Edge is certified to protect wireless voice communications classified Top Secret and below as well as access e-mail and Web sites classified Secret and below.” Read more from the Gadgetwise blog…

WASHINGTON POST: Many Bush Officials Held Over at DHS

Wary of being caught short-handed in case of a domestic crisis, the Obama administration has asked nearly two dozen Bush administration officials in the Department of Homeland Security to stay in their jobs until successors can be named.

The attempt at continuity is unusual in presidential transitions between parties, which typically lead to wholesale purging of politically appointed personnel. At the Justice Department, for example, almost no Bush holdovers remain beyond Deputy Attorney General Mark R. Filip, who is acting as attorney general pending confirmation of Obama nominee Eric H. Holder Jr., and Filip's two top aides.