Your quick look at the week that was on WhiteHouse.gov.

Eggs, Actors, and Athletes: The First Family celebrated Easter by hosting the 133rd White House Easter Egg Roll on Monday. 30,000 people from all 50 states and the District of Columbia got to attend, and were welcomed by a day chock full of special events and activities. This year's theme was "Get Up and Go," in keeping with the First Lady's Let's Move! initiative.

Helping Storm Victims in the South: Violent storms struck a number of southern states this week, leaving hundreds dead and thousands more with devastated homes and communities. The President directed recovery efforts from the White House, and traveled to Alabama with the First Lady to meet with families and recovery leaders. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano was in St. Louis to survey the damage done to the airport and city. FEMA posted online resources for helping recovery workers and victims.

Ed. Note: Visit the FEMA blog to find ways to get assistance if you were affected by the recent storms.

Watch the President's full remarks here.

The President stood with Alabama officials this afternoon to discuss what was clearly a sobering tour of Tuscaloosa (watch video from the tour):

Well, Michelle and I want to express, first of all, our deepest condolences to not just the city of Tuscaloosa but the state of Alabama and all the other states that have been affected by this unbelievable storm.  We just took a tour, and I’ve got to say I’ve never seen devastation like this.  It is heartbreaking.  We were just talking to some residents here who were lucky enough to escape alive, but have lost everything.  They mentioned that their neighbors had lost two of their grandchildren in the process.

There were stories like that not only all over town, but across the state and even the region, and the President praised the “resilience” of the people he had met even as they were surrounded by tragedy. He commended all the Alabama officials who have been working with the federal government and pledged that the work would continue well after the swarms of television cameras left:

Rating for the Race to the Top Commencement Challenge finalists will close TODAY at 11:59 p.m. EDT. 

Visit WhiteHouse.gov/Commencement now to watch the finalists’ videos, read their essays, and give each finalist a rating on a scale of 1-5 (5 being the best).  Your ratings will help us narrow down the pool to the top three finalists and President Obama will pick the winning school from the top three finalists.

Head over to WhiteHouse.gov/Commencement to submit your ratings now and be sure to check back on Monday, May 2 to find out which schools made the top three. 

Editor's Note: This was originally posted on The Department of Homeland Security blog.

The devastating storms and tornadoes that have swept across Missouri, Alabama and other parts of our nation this week are a vivid reminder that disasters of all kinds can strike at any time, and it is vital that all of us, including members of our nation's emergency management team and the American public, are prepared to act.

Yesterday, I traveled to St. Louis to tour the Lambert-St. Louis International Airport, which suffered severe damage when tornadoes struck the region last weekend. During my visit, I had the opportunity to meet with some of the heroic TSA workers who were on duty during the tornadoes and played a key role in helping the airport re-open quickly. Additionally, FEMA teams were already on-site to assess the damage and assist with the process of getting the airport fully functional again.  At my direction, FEMA also has deployed personnel to the state’s emergency operation center to help coordinate assistance and work side-by-side with its state and local partners.

While in St. Louis, I also joined Secretary Arne Duncan and Missouri Governor Jay Nixon at Carnahan High School of the Future to participate in the Great Central U.S. ShakeOut--the largest-ever, multi-state earthquake drill to be held in the United States, and the first major drill to take place along the New Madrid Seismic Zone, which was the site of one of the worst earthquakes in U.S. history nearly 200 years ago.  In total, 2,644 K-12 schools and 117 colleges participated in the ShakeOut, along with businesses, local, state and federal government agencies, child care centers, and many other organizations.  The exercise will go a long way in helping us be prepared in the event of a major earthquake.

Watch the First Lady's full remarks here.

Today is Take our Daughters and Sons to Work Day. The Executive Office of the President celebrated by encouraging staff to bring their children to work with them at the White House. Over 150 children took part in a program designed to encourage young people to explore the different paths they can take to create their own future. The theme for this year’s event was Invent Your Future: A Day at the White House for Tomorrow’s Leaders.

The day began with the children taking the same Oath of Office their parents took on their first day in the EOP. They were then treated to a slideshow presentation from the White House Photo Office, showing the President and Vice President at work in Washington, DC and around the country. The children also learned first-hand what it is like to work for the United States Secret Service, the National Park Service, the White House Pastry Chef, and the Office of Science and Technology Policy. The highlight of the event was a question and answer session with First Lady Michelle Obama, where the children asked about her job as First Lady, and First Mom. Some of the great questions included: What is her favorite sport (tennis); what is her first favorite book (Song of Solomon); and what is Bo’s favorite activity (walking the White House grounds or cuddling with the First Lady).

A special thanks to all those who helped the children of the EOP take another step toward inventing their future.

Hilary Alley is the Associate Director of the White House Office of Management and Administration.

Last week, Federal agencies released, for the first time, their scorecards on energy and environmental performance.  This marked an important milestone towards achieving the President's sustainability goals under Executive Order 13514 on Federal Leadership in Environmental, Energy and Economic Performance.  By establishing benchmarks, these scorecards help guide agencies' 2011 sustainability plans to save energy, improve the environment, and save money.  Today, we mark the next milestone in this process by releasing the first-ever comprehensive Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions Inventory for the Federal Government, which accounts for the GHG emissions associated with the Federal Government’s operations in 2010.

Today’s report shows that the economy posted the seventh straight quarter of positive growth, as real GDP, the total amount of goods and services produced in the country, grew at a 1.8 percent annual rate in the first quarter of this year.  While the continued expansion is encouraging, clearly, faster growth is needed to replace the jobs lost in the downturn.

Some key components of GDP continued to expand in the first quarter. Consumer spending rose 2.7 percent at an annual rate, boosted by a 2.9 percent increase in real disposable income that was due in part to the cut in payroll taxes. Equipment and software investment increased 11.6 percent. Spending components that subtracted from GDP included construction of nonresidential structures (-21.7 percent), federal spending (-7.9 percent), and state and local government spending (-3.3 percent). On the production side, goods production rose at a 9.3 percent, roughly consistent with the previously-reported 9.1 percent increase in manufacturing industrial production.  

These data indicate that the measures put in place by this Administration – such as the payroll tax cut and business incentives for investment – are helping to foster growth.   We will continue to work with Congress to find ways to reduce spending, so that we can live within our means and focus on the investments that are most likely to help grow our economy and create jobs – investments in education, infrastructure, and clean energy.

Austan Goolsbee is Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers

April 27, 2011. (by Carlos Llano, Official Miami-Dade College Photos)

Today at a community conversation at Miami-Dade College, the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics and the U.S. Department of Education released the report Winning the Future: Improving Education for the Latino Community. The President will be delivering a commencement address at Miami-Dade College Friday evening. To view the report, click HERE.

The report shows that Hispanic success in education and in the labor market is of immediate and long‐term importance to America’s economy. It also shows that Hispanics have the lowest education attainment level overall of any group in the U.S. Hispanics are by far the largest minority group in today’s American public education system, numbering more than 12.4 million in the country’s elementary, middle and high schools. Nearly 22 percent, or slightly more than 1 in 5, of all pre‐K-12 students enrolled in America’s public schools is Hispanic, but they face persistent obstacles to educational attainment. Less than half are enrolled in any early learning program. Only about half earn their high school diploma on time; those who do complete high school are only half as likely as their peers to be prepared for college and only 4 percent have completed graduate or professional degree programs.

As part of the community conversation in Miami today, Senior Obama Administration officials met with dozens of educators and community leaders, to exchange ideas and outline strategies to meet President Obama’s goal for the nation to have the best-educated workforce in the world by 2020.

April 27, 2011. (by Carlos Llano, Official Miami-Dade College Photos)

Alejandra Campoverdi is the Deputy Director of Hispanic Media.

Editor’s Note: Champions of Change is a weekly initiative to highlight Americans who are making an impact in their communities and help our country rise to the many challenges of the 21st century.

It is an honor to be named a Champion of Change by the White House for my work with school nutrition programs in the Pacific Northwest.  Last Friday I joined a roundtable meeting with Administration officials and five other chefs from around the nation to discuss best practices for working with schools and teachers through the Chefs Move to Schools program. 

We have an extraordinary opportunity in this country to influence a lifetime of healthy eating habits beginning with children and teens.  Schools provide a perfect setting, both in the classroom and in the cafeteria.  Chef volunteers with Chefs Move to Schools are ready to share their expertise to get kids excited about tasty, healthy foods. 

In the classroom chefs can teach students through demonstration or hands-on cooking experiences.  It could be something as simple as seasonal produce show-tell-and-taste, or a hands-on activity to build cooking confidence.  Chefs in the classroom can also collaborate with the cafeteria to promote new healthy school menu items.