This week, the President traveled to Afghanistan to sign an historic Strategic Partnership Agreement, visit with our troops, and address the American people about responsibly ending the war. The President also traveled to Fort Stewart to sign an Executive Order to protect service members and their families from deceptive marketing practices, spoke at the annual White House Correspondents Dinner, welcomed the Prime Minister of Japan, and spoke at the Building and Construction Trades conference.

Though Cinco de Mayo isn't officially celebrated until Saturday, today President Obama hosted a reception marking the holiday at the White House.

One hundred fifty years ago, an outnumbered band of Mexican troops faced an invading French army twice its size. But on May 5, 1862, at the Battle of Puebla, the smaller army crushed the larger force.

President Obama told the crowd:

When the news of the Mexican victory at Puebla reached this house, this country was in the midst of its own struggles. But soon after, the U.S. lent assistance to help Mexico definitively expel the French from their land. And ever since, the United States and Mexico have lived intersecting and overlapping histories. Our two countries share the ties of history and familia and values and commerce and culture. And today, we are more united than ever -- in friendship and in common purpose.

Right now, there are more than 50 million Americans of Latino descent -- one sixth of our population. You’re our neighbors, our coworkers, our family, our friends. You’re starting businesses. You’re teaching in classrooms. You’re defending this country.  You’re driving America forward. 
 
And for our part, we know that securing our future depends on making sure that all Americans have the opportunity to reach their potential. 

Read the full remarks here.

Dancers watch as President Barack Obama delivers remarks at a Cinco de Mayo event in the Rose Garden of the White House, May 3, 2012. (Official White House Photo by Sonya N. Hebert)

Summer Jobs+ is a call to action for businesses, non-profits, and government to work together to provide pathways to employment for young people in the summer of 2012. It's about helping people find their first jobs.

Jimmy Fallon is the host of NBC's Late Night and an alum of Saturday Night Live. For all his success as an entertainer, his first job was anything but glamorous -- he worked at a grocery store where it was his responsibility to keep the floor mats clean.

But that experience taught him a valuable lesson. Watch:

So far, employers have listed more than 300,000 jobs, mentorships, and other employment opportunities this summer through Summer Jobs+.

You heard about Jimmy Fallon's first job. Now go find yours.

Learn more

• Watch Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis talk about her first job.
• See the list of participating employers and organizations
• Add opportunites to the Summer Jobs+ Bank
• Check out a range of web and mobile apps designed to connect young people to jobs.

Note: This live session of Office Hours has concluded. Check out the full question and answer session below or at Storify.com

This is National Nurses Week, when we recognize the significant contributions that nurses make to keeping America healthy.  It’s also a time to celebrate the ways the new health care law, the Affordable Care Act, is helping invest in nurses.  Many of the new health initiatives in the law would not be possible without them. 

To talk about National Nurses Week and what the health law means for nurses, we’ll be hosting a session of Office Hours on Monday, May 7th at 3:30 pm EDT with Mary Wakefield, a Registered Nurse and Administrator of the Health Resources and Services Administration, which runs many of the programs that help train and support nurses. Have questions about the new law and nurses? 

Here’s how White House Office Hours work:

• Ask your questions now and during the live event on Twitter with the hashtag #WHChat
• Follow the Q&A live through the @WHLive Twitter account
• If you miss the live session, the full session will be posted on WhiteHouse.gov and Storify.com/WhiteHouse

So, stop by for Office Hours at 3:30 p.m. EDT on Monday, May 7th with Mary Wakefield and be sure to follow @WhiteHouse on twitter for the latest news and more opportunities to engage.

President Barack Obama greets doctors and nurses following his remarks about health care reform in the East Room of the White House. March 3, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Chuck Kennedy)

Today, on the train up to Philadelphia for the announcement of the Summer Jobs+ bank, I had the chance to think about my first summer job and what it meant to me and my family.

I grew up in a modest neighborhood just outside of Los Angeles. It was an industrial community of blue-collar, working people… some of the hardest-working people I’ve ever met.

My parents raised me and my six siblings with little money … but lots of love. And the same could be said for the other kids in the neighborhood. We didn’t have much. But we had each other. So to get ahead, we had to work twice as hard, and to find a summer job, we sometimes had to look twice as hard.

In my teens, I worked as an aide in my community supervising and mentoring youth in various programs and delivering lunches to needy students.  I also spent a summer working in a library—stacking and cataloging books and helping my classmates select books to read.

I remember feeling very important.

I also remember the dignity that came with that first paycheck.

I met role models during those jobs that helped me become the first member of my family to go to college. And they helped put me on a lifelong career path. I began working with children.  Then I helped high school graduates apply to college and get financial aid. From there, I was elected to the Rio Hondo Community College Board in Whittier, the California Assembly and eventually Congress.

And I wouldn’t be the nation’s first Latina Secretary of Labor—if it wasn’t for the summer work experiences I had growing up.

That’s what summer jobs can do for young people—especially in underserved communities. So keeping summer jobs programs alive and well isn’t just part of my job now, it’s personal.

On Tuesday, President Obama landed in Kabul to sign a strategic partnership agreement with President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan that provides a framework for our relationship with the country over the coming decade. President Obama also stopped by Bagram Air Base to meet with troops -- and addressed the American people about the end of the war there, as well as the transition to Afghan control that will begin taking place as U.S. troops leave the country.

White House Photographer Pete Souza traveled with the President to document the historic trip. Check out a gallery of his images below.

President Barack Obama greets U.S. troops at Bagram Air Field after a surprise visit to Afghanistan, May 1, 2012. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

President Obama made a surprise visit to Afghanistan, where he signed an historic agreement between the United States and Afghanistan that defines how the partnership between the United States and Afghanistan will be normalized as we look beyond a responsible end to the war. 

After his meeting with President Karzai at the Presidential Palace in Kabul, President Obama headed to Bagram Air Base, where he met with U.S. troops serving in that country. He thanked them for the sacrifices that they have made -- and that their families have made -- over the past decade of war, and paid tribute to their successes:

When we see our homeland violated, when we see our fellow citizens killed, then we understand what we have to do. And because of the sacrifices now of a decade, and a new Greatest Generation, not only were we able to blunt the Taliban momentum, not only were we able to drive al Qaeda out of Afghanistan, but slowly and systematically we have been able to decimate the ranks of al Qaeda, and a year ago we were able to finally bring Osama bin Laden to justice.

That could have only happened because each and every one of you, in your own way, were doing your jobs. Each and every one of you -- without a lot of fanfare, without a lot of fuss -- you did your jobs. No matter how small or how big, you were faithful to the oath that you took to protect this nation. And your families did their job -- supporting you and loving you and remembering you and being there for you. 

 And so, together, you guys represent what is best in America. And you're part of a long line of those who have worn this uniform to make sure that we are free and secure, to make sure that those of us at home have the capacity to live our lives. And when you're missing a birthday or you're missing a soccer game or when you're missing an anniversary, and those of us back home are able to enjoy it, it's because of you.  

And I'm here to tell you, everybody in America knows that.  And everybody in America appreciates it. And everybody in America honors it. And when the final chapter of this war is written, historians will look back and say, not only was this the greatest fighting force in the history of the world, but all of you also represented the values of America in an exemplary way.

For forty years, the White House has opened its doors and welcomed visitors from across the country to tour the White House grounds and gardens. This year, we invited our photo enthusiast followers on Google+ to join us for the first ever White House Google+ Photowalk.

Bo makes a surprise appearance at the first White House Photowalk during Spring Garden Tours on the South Lawn of the White House. View this photo and more by Natalia on Google+: http://goo.gl/zGfG9 April 21, 2012. (by Natalia Stone)

Thirty people, some from nearby and others from as far as Florida and California, spent the day at the White House and captured it all in pictures. During the visit, our photowalkers toured the South Lawn and Kitchen Garden, met White House photographer Sonya Herbert and were surprised by a very popular member of the Obama Family, First Dog Bo.

Later, the group stopped by Eisenhower Executive Office Building where they had the chance to sit down with Chief Official White House Photographer Pete Souza. Pete spent time talking through some of his photos and answered questions about everything from gear to what it takes to capture a great photo.

View the full gallery on the White House Google+ page, or browse even more photos with the hashtag #WHPhotowalk.

Experience the first White House Photowalk in pictures and be sure to follow the White House on Google+ for upcoming chances to engage.

Over the past year, the Federal Government has been working to implement President Obama’s directions for a 21st-century regulatory system, which he described in Executive Order 13563, “Improving Regulation and Regulatory Review.”  Executive Order 13563 requires U.S. regulators, to the extent permitted by law, to select approaches that maximize net benefits; choose the least burdensome alternative; increase public participation in the rulemaking process; design rules that are simpler and more flexible, and that provide freedom of choice; and base regulations on sound science. Executive Order 13563 also calls for an ambitious, government-wide “lookback” at existing rules, with the central goal of eliminating outdated requirements and unjustified costs.

Today, President Obama has built on Executive Order 13563 by signing a historic Executive Order on Promoting International Regulatory Cooperation.  The new Executive Order will promote American exports, economic growth, and job creation by helping to eliminate unnecessary regulatory differences between the United States and other countries and by making sure that we do not create new ones.  

As I discuss in an op-ed in today’s Wall Street Journal, the order makes clear that in eliminating such differences, we will respect domestic law and will not compromise U.S. priorities and prerogatives. Even while insisting on those priorities and prerogatives, we can eliminate pointless red tape. Today’s global economy relies on supply chains that cross national borders (sometimes more than once), and different regulatory requirements in different countries can significantly increase costs for companies doing business abroad. As the President’s Jobs Council recently noted, international regulatory cooperation canreduce these costs and help American businesses access foreign markets.  Such cooperation can also help U.S. regulators more effectively protect the environment and the health and safety of the American people.