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President calls Jennas wedding spectacular

By Shealah Craighead (AP)

President Bush spent months joking about being a father of the bride, but on Sunday he was downright wistful about giving his daughter Jenna away to her longtime bow.

"Our little girl, Jenna, married a really good guy, Henry Hager," Bush said, standing next Mrs. Bush at an airport in Waco where he boarded Air Force One for his flight back to Washington. "The wedding was spectacular. It's just _ it's all we could have hoped for."

Unlike other first family weddings that have been broadcast live, the Bushes didn't share their daughter's nuptials with the nation. The day after,...

By Shealah Craighead (AP)

President Bush spent months joking about being a father of the bride, but on Sunday he was downright wistful about giving his daughter Jenna away to her longtime bow.

"Our little girl, Jenna, married a really good guy, Henry Hager," Bush said, standing next Mrs. Bush at an airport in Waco where he boarded Air Force One for his flight back to Washington. "The wedding was spectacular. It's just _ it's all we could have hoped for."

Unlike other first family weddings that have been broadcast live, the Bushes didn't share their daughter's nuptials with the nation. The day aft...

By Shealah Craighead (AP)

President Bush and first lady Laura Bush didn't share their daughter's wedding with the nation, but the president eagerly shared their joy on Sunday about Jenna Bush's marriage to Henry Hager.

"We're mighty blessed," Bush said at an airport in Waco where he and the first lady boarded Air Force One to return to Washington.

Bush called the wedding "spectacular," saying that his daughter and new son-in-law exchanged vows just as the sun set over the lake at the president's Texas ranch.

"This Mother's Day weekend was awfully special for Laura and me," said the pres...

By Shealah Craighead (AP)

President Bush and first lady Laura Bush didn't share their daughter's wedding with the nation, but the president eagerly shared their joy on Sunday about Jenna Bush's marriage Saturday night to Henry Hager.

"We're mighty blessed," Bush said at an airport in Waco where he boarded Air Force One to return to Washington. The first lady was standing at his side.

Bush called the wedding "spectacular," saying that his daughter and new son-in-law exchanged vows just as the sun set at his Texas ranch.

...

By Kimberlee Hewitt (AP)

Jenna Bush couldn't see herself getting married at the White House surrounded by antique furniture and oil portraits of presidents. She and Henry Hager said "I do" Saturday at President Bush's ranch in Crawford where the corn is thigh-high, roads are named Cattle Drive and the Texas flag is painted on the rooftops of barns.

The president and the bride picked "You Are So Beautiful" for their father-daughter dance, according to band leader Tyrone Smith of Nashville, Tenn. Smith and his 10-piece party band, The Tyrone Smith Revue, was asked to do "Lovin' in My Baby's Eyes" by T...

By Paul Sakuma (AP)

The public must pressure Republicans in the White House and Congress to change directions in the country's energy policies, which have pushed oil and gas prices to record highs, a Democratic lawmaker said Saturday.

Sen. Debbie Stabenow said the rising price of oil, fostered by President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney's close ties to the oil industry, is no longer just a burden.

"Now it is a crisis for every American family," the Michigan senator said in the Democrats' weekly radio address. She called the current energy situation "a crisis that doesn't just affect us ...

By Kimberlee Hewitt (AP)

Jenna Bush couldn't see herself getting married at the White House surrounded by antique furniture and oil portraits of presidents. She and Henry Hager opted to say "I do" Saturday at President Bush's ranch in Crawford where the corn is thigh-high, roads are named Cattle Drive and the Texas flag is painted on the rooftops of barns.

Away from the glare of television cameras that have beamed other first family weddings into American living rooms, Jenna's outdoor wedding at the ranch reflects her family's penchant for privacy and her preference for the casual over grandiose.

...

By CHARLES DHARAPAK (AP)

President Bush, who often jokes about being sure to listen to his mother, will be with her on Mother's Day _ the day after celebrating the wedding of his daughter Jenna.

"This is a joyous occasion for our family, as we celebrate the happy life ahead of (Jenna) and her husband, Henry," he said about the wedding being held on his 1,600-acre ranch. "It's also a special time for Laura, who this Mother's Day weekend will watch a young woman we raised together walk down the aisle."

In his weekly radio address, Bush offered special words for new mothers and women parenting adopt...

By (AP)

Embattled and embarrassed by the confession he fathered a child from an extramarital affair, New York Rep. Vito Fossella is facing public calls for his resignation. Secluded with his family, he must decide if he wants to keep his job badly enough to grapple with the lingering questions and fallout from the scandal.

In admitting the affair and a secret child Thursday, the Republican lawmaker indicated he planned to stay in Congress for months to come, but there are signs he could be out much sooner: House Minority Leader John Boehner pointedly said he expected Fossella to make a...

By J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE (AP)

This could be the Supreme Court term, one court watcher joked recently, that Justice John Paul Stevens remembers he is a Republican.

A 1975 appointee of President Gerald Ford, Stevens is regarded as the anchor of the court's liberal wing. But he has joined with his more conservative colleagues in three high-profile cases that defied predictions they would showcase deep ideological divisions on the court.

Last term was marked by an unusually high number of 5-4 decisions, and many experts believed this term's notable cases would produce similar outcomes.

But the biggest...

By J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE (AP)

This could be the Supreme Court term, one court watcher joked recently, that Justice John Paul Stevens remembers he is a Republican.

A 1975 appointee of President Gerald Ford, Stevens is regarded as the anchor of the court's liberal wing. But he has joined with his more conservative colleagues in three high-profile cases that defied predictions they would showcase deep ideological divisions on the court.

Last term was marked by an unusually high number of 5-4 decisions, and many experts believed this term's notable cases would produce similar outcomes.

But the biggest...

By Petr David Josek (AP)

The military command overseeing the nation's most elite forces has moved away from a contentious plan that gave it broad control over anti-terrorism operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and other hot spots around the globe.

The expanded authority for U.S. Special Operations Command in Tampa, Fla., was hammered through by former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld well before he resigned in November 2006. The shift caused friction among leaders at other warfighting organizations who saw it an intrusion into their geographic domains.

Navy Adm. Eric Olson, the command's senior officer...

By (AP)

Embattled and embarrassed by the confession he fathered a child from an extramarital affair, New York Rep. Vito Fossella is facing public calls for his resignation. Secluded with his family, he must decide if he wants to keep his job badly enough to grapple with the lingering questions and fallout from the scandal.

In admitting the affair and a secret child Thursday, the Republican lawmaker indicated he planned to stay in Congress for months to come, but there are signs he could be out much sooner: House Minority Leader John Boehner pointedly said he expected Fossella to make a...

By Steven Senne (AP)

The U.S. military is reinforcing the sides of its topline mine-resistant vehicles to shore up what could be weak points as troops see a spike in armor-piercing roadside bombings across Iraq, The Associated Press has learned.

The surge in attacks is putting the mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicles (MRAPs) to the test, and so far they are largely passing. Statistics reviewed by the AP show that while bombings involving the deadly penetrating explosives have jumped by about 40 percent in the past three months, deaths in such bombings have dropped by as much as 17...

By Kimberlee Hewitt (AP)

So close and yet so far: Tiny Crawford is sort of like a bridesmaid at arm's length from Jenna Bush's wedding Saturday.

All of the action is at President Bush's 1,600-acre ranch seven miles outside this one-stoplight town.

Friday night's rehearsal dinner was even farther away _ 54 miles from the ranch in a town called Salado, meaning the more than 200 Bush family and friends invited to the nuptials might never even set foot downtown Crawford.

"It's a private ceremony. It's an exciting time for the Bush family," White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said Friday. "T...

By Haraz N. Ghanbari (AP)

The Associated Press has learned that the Pentagon is recommending changes in the handling of troops' remains. The change comes after it was revealed that crematoriums contracted by the military are used for both human and animal cremations.

A military official says there have been no instances or charges that human and pet remains were mixed. But officials are now recommending that troops' remains be sent on to their local funeral homes for cremation in order to avoid any appearance of a problem.

The Dover Air Force Base Port Mortuary, where troops' remains arrive from the b...

By Pat Sullivan (AP)

So close and yet so far: Tiny Crawford is sort of like a bridesmaid at arm's length from Jenna Bush's wedding Saturday.

All of the action is at President Bush's 1,600-acre ranch seven miles outside this one-stoplight town.

The more than 200 Bush family and friends invited to the nuptials might never even set foot downtown.

"It's a private ceremony. It's an exciting time for the Bush family," White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said Friday. "They're all beginning to converge here in Texas and in Crawford and I know the president and Mrs. Bush are really looking f...

By Alice Keeney (AP)

The U.S. military is reinforcing the sides of its topline mine-resistant vehicles to shore up what could be weak points as troops see a spike in armor-piercing roadside bombings across Iraq, The Associated Press has learned.

The surge in attacks is putting the mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicles (MRAPs) to the test, and so far they are largely passing. Statistics reviewed by the AP show that while bombings involving the deadly penetrating explosives have jumped by about 40 percent in the past three months, deaths in such bombings have dropped by as much as 17...

By KHALID MOHAMMED (AP)

Blackwater Worldwide, the security contractor blamed by an angry Iraqi government for the shooting deaths of 17 civilians, is not expected to face criminal charges _ all but ensuring the company will keep its multimillion-dollar contract to protect U.S. diplomats.

Instead, the seven-month-old Justice Department investigation is focused on as few as three or four Blackwater guards who could be indicted in the Sept. 16 shootings, according to interviews with a half-dozen people close to the investigation.

The final decision on any charges will not be made until late summer at...

By M. Spencer Green (AP)

Valerie Plame is trying to resurrect a lawsuit against those in the Bush administration she says illegally outed her as a CIA operative in 2003.

Plame says her CIA cover was blown as retribution for her husband's criticism of the Iraq war. She says that violated her constitutional rights.

A federal judge dismissed Plame's lawsuit last year on procedural grounds. Her lawyers asked a federal appeals court Friday to force the judge to consider the merits of the case.

Plame and her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, sued Vice President Dick Cheney; his former chief...

By CHARLIE RIEDEL (AP)

The Bush administration is urging a federal appeals court to keep meatpackers from testing all their cattle for mad cow disease.

Government lawyers told a three-judge panel Friday they should reverse a lower court ruling that allowed Kansas-based Creekstone Farms Premium Beef to conduct more comprehensive testing to satisfy overseas customers.

The Agriculture Department currently tests less than 1 percent of slaughtered cows for the disease. It argues that more widespread testing does not guarantee food safety and could result in a false positive that scares...

By Merrill Sherman (AP)

Democrats' plans to help hundreds of thousands of homeowners struggling with rising subprime mortgage rates and plummeting house values could be sidetracked by President Bush's threatened veto and the backing of many congressional Republicans.

Opponents of the plan say more prudent homebuyers and renters shouldn't be called upon to bail out borrowers who gambled on ever-rising housing prices and lost.

"The American people don't want to make their neighbor's payment when they're having trouble making their own," said Rep. Randy Neugebauer, R-Texas.

The Democratic-co...

By Merrill Sherman (AP)

The House on Thursday passed a massive homeowner rescue plan to provide cheaper, government-backed mortgages to half a million debt-ridden borrowers and bolster an economy crippled by the housing crisis.

Defying veto threats from President Bush, the House approved the measure by a vote of 266-154, with 39 Republicans _ mostly from areas suffering worst from housing woes _ supporting it.

It would let the Federal Housing Administration take on up to $300 billion in new mortgages so that financially strapped borrowers facing foreclosure could refinance.

The plan by Rep....

By Luis M. Alvarez (AP)

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday the U.S. military was stepping up preparations for a relief mission in Myanmar, but he said he couldn't imagine air dropping aid without permission from the closed regime.

His comments followed those earlier Thursday by Ky Luu, director of the U.S. Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance, that an air drop was one option being considered as Myanmar's junta continued to stall on accepting assistance from the United States.

Gates said the military was moving aircraft, ships and Marines closer to Myanmar in case permission is granted to...

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