President Barack Obama presents the Presidential Medal of Freedom to President Shimon Peres of Israel during a ceremony and dinner in the East Room of the White House, June 13, 2012. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

In a ceremony at the White House on Wednesday, President Obama awarded the Medal of Freedom to Shimon Peres, the President of Israel. 

“The man, the life that we honor tonight is nothing short of extraordinary,” President Obama said. 

Peres began his career in 1947, serving in the Haganah, the predecessor to the Israel Defense Force. He was elected to the Knesset at age 36. Through the course of the next half century, he twice served as Prime Minister and once as Acting Prime Minister. In 1994, he won the Nobel Peace Price with Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat. 

President Bill Clinton, Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright (another honoree of the Medal of Freedom in 2012), and Elie Wiesel (another winner of the Nobel Peace Prize) were among those in attendance for the presentation. 

The Medal of Freedom was established by President Kennedy and is presented to those who have made "an especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of the United States, world peace, cultural or other significant public or private endeavors." 

President Peres joins an illustrious group of world leaders -- including Margaret Thatcher, Nelson Mandela, and Vaclav Havel -- who previously been presented with the medal. 

Watch.

Tomorrow, the President will sign an Executive Order to make broadband construction along Federal roadways and properties up to 90 percent cheaper and more efficient.  Currently, the procedures for approving broadband infrastructure projects on properties controlled or managed by the Federal Government—including large tracts of land, roadways, and more than 10,000 buildings across the Nation—vary depending on which agency manages the property. The new Executive Order will ensure that agencies charged with managing Federal properties and roads take specific steps to adopt a uniform approach for allowing broadband carriers to build networks on those assets.  It will also allow service providers to deploy broadband while roads are under construction, a practice that hugely cuts costs.

Additionally, at an event beginning at 9am ET tomorrow, the White House will announce that nearly 100 partners—including cities, national research institutions, and industry supporters—have formed a new public-private partnership called “US Ignite.” The US Ignite Partnership will create a new wave of services that take advantage of state-of-the-art broadband networks running up to 100 times faster than today’s Internet.  By bringing together government agencies, private companies, and communities, the partnership aims to accelerate the development of applications for advanced manufacturing, medical monitoring, emergency preparedness, and a host of other services. These applications will improve services to Americans, drive job creation, promote innovation, and create new markets for American businesses.

The President’s Executive Order and the US Ignite partnership are a two-pronged approach to help speed the delivery of connectivity to communities, businesses, and schools across the Nation. “By connecting every corner of our country to the digital age,” President Obama said. “We can help our businesses become more competitive, our students become more informed, and our citizens become more engaged."

Learn more about US Ignite’s current projects in Cleveland, OH, Chattanooga, TN, and Clemson/Portland.

For a complete list of US Ignite’s partners and initiatives across the country, check out their interactive map.

Learn more:

Read about additional actions President Obama has taken to support middle class Americans

We've been talking about President Obama’s proposal to cut through the red tape that is preventing many homeowners from refinancing their mortgages and saving hundreds of dollars each month.

And we've been listening as people from around the country share their thoughts about why mortgage relief is such a big deal.

Here's what one group of homeowners had to say:

Leah from New York: My husband and I bought our house, our family first home, with our savings and with help from our family to make the down payment, on February 18th, 2008. By September 2008, we were underwater for nearly $25,000 at a 5.75% interest rate on a fixed 30 year mortgage. We paid our mortgage every month, we've never missed a payment, and our taxes are paid in full. Our income has gone down, our mortgage on a once $215,000 home has stayed the same and our credit card debt continues to grow. There must be a way out.

Gene from Oregon: With so many people unemployed or in low paying jobs, and with this poor economic climate, it just makes good sense to let folks keep a little more money in their pockets through affordable refinancing plans instead of paying out every nickel in exorbitant monthly mortgage payments. A two or three hundred dollar monthly savings on such payments could make an incredible difference in boosting people's sense of self-worth, their self-confidence, confidence in the American way of life, as well as increasing the diversification of their spending.

Barbara from Connecticut: We are among the many who work and pay their mortgage, we are involved members of our community. We are so close to walking away from our underwater situation. It will be a loss for us, the investors in our mortgage loan and our neighborhood. Multiply this throughout the country and it's a major contributing factor to a stalled economy in the U.S.A.

Jody from Ohio: I bought a fixer-upper in 2008, one I could afford until I got laid off in 2011 and have not found my feet yet. I have to say I didn't have the best credit at the time so I did not get a great rate. I also fell down a few times trying to find my feet (no luck and a lot of bills). I still have my house and I'm up to date on the payments. But not on all of my bills. I cannot find a job, I'm older and everyone I know is saying the same thing. A few more dollars a month saved on my house payment would only help me pay all the other things I owe, on my way to learning how to live on a lot less.

These people have already spoken out in support of mortgage relief. Will you join them?

Elder abuse comes in many forms. It is recognized by experts as a public health crisis for which there are no socio-economic borders. Millions of older Americans are abused, neglected, or exploited each year, and estimates suggest that a large majority of these cases go unreported.

To shed light on this problem, June 15th has been designated as World Elder Abuse Awareness Day, with 2012 marking the 7th anniversary of World Day.

This year, on June 14th, the White House Office of Public Engagement, in collaboration with federal partners from the Administration for Community Living/Department of Health and Human Services, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and the Department of Justice, is hosting a day-long symposium to highlight the problem of elder abuse, neglect, and exploitation.

The White House Photo Office just released their latest batch of behind-the-scenes photos, following President Obama to Afghanistan, the NATO meeting in Chicago, the G-8 Meeting at Camp David, and around the White House. Check out a few of the images below, then head over to Flickr to see all 84 images in the gallery.

This week, the Federal Reserve released its Survey of Consumer Finances showing the depth of the recession’s impact on family finances. The numbers are a tough and brutal snapshot of the financial crisis and housing bubble that President Obama inherited. Based on other, more frequent data, the entire decline in household wealth took place before President Obama came into office and it has risen every year since he came into office. Nevertheless, these data show that wealth still has not fully recovered from the worst recession since the Great Depression and reinforces how much more work we have to do.

The Federal Reserve conducts the Survey of Consumer Finances every three years so the latest numbers compare family finances in 2007 and 2010. Although the Survey of Consumer Finance is a useful gauge of household finances, it does not record exactly when the changes took place nor does it provide the most timely data. To look more deeply into these questions, this blog post uses another Federal Reserve survey—the Flow of Funds—which has the advantage of providing quarterly numbers and covering the period up through the first quarter of 2012. These data show:

• The entire drop in household wealth between 2007 and 2010, the period covered by the Survey of Consumer Finances, occurred in 2008—before the President took office. Household wealth fell 24 percent between 2007-Q3 (which is roughly the quarter covered by the Survey of Consumer Finances which is conducted over the second half of the year) and 2009-Q1. Household net worth grew by 15 percent between 2009-Q1 and 2010-Q3, following the extraordinary range of actions in economic recovery, housing, the financial sector, and the auto industry. This increase, however, was still not enough to make up for the declines in 2008—which is most likely why the Survey of Consumer Finances recorded a decline for the full 2007 to 2010 period.
• Household wealth has risen every year President Obama has been in office—by a total of 23 percent overall. In addition to the increases that occurred during 2009 and the first part of 2010, household net worth has increased another 6 percent since 2010-Q3 (roughly when the 2010 Survey of Consumer Finances was conducted), for a total increase of 23 percent since President Obama took office.

Prizes have a long history of driving important breakthroughs: Napoleon's 1800 Food Preservation Prize resulted in the invention of canning; the 1927 Orteig Prize helped inspire Charles Lindbergh to make the first nonstop flight from New York to Paris. More recently, the 2011 Wendy Schmidt Oil Cleanup X Challenge spurred an Illinois company to create a cleanup method for oil slicks that is four times more effective than any previous one.

It is with that powerful history in mind that today, in Washington, hundreds of leaders from the White House and Federal agencies joined their peers from some of the Nation's most recognizable companies and organizations to develop strategies to use prizes and competitions as a key method to spark innovation and deepen citizen engagement.

You may ask: Are prizes still relevant? Absolutely. New social media tools have enabled smarter and more cost-effective approaches, and the public sector has begun to take advantage of prizes as a way of tackling some of the most perplexing challenges that affect us all – with promising results.

President Barack Obama holds a town hall meeting at the Seed Savers Exchange in Decorah, Iowa, on the first day of a three-day bus tour in the Midwest, Aug. 15, 2011. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

Today, President Obama talked to local TV reporters from communities around the country with significant rural populations. These interviews come as the White House released a report noting progress that has been made in the agricultural economy and detailing the steps the Obama Administration has taken to help strengthen the farm economy and support jobs in rural America. The report was developed by the White House Rural Council, the Council of Economic Advisors, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In addition, the President announced new investments to help rural small businesses expand and hire.

One year ago today, President Obama established the White House Rural Council in order to better coordinate federal programs and maximize the impact of Federal investment to promote economic prosperity and improve the quality of life in rural communities. It truly is exciting that in just one year, more than a dozen new policy initiatives have been launched to assist rural America. One of those initiatives was a new commitment to invest in rural businesses through the Small Business Administration’s Small Business Investment Company (SBIC) program, at no cost to tax payers. Today the President announced that more than $400 million has already been invested this fiscal year in these businesses through the SBIC program, and that nearly $2 billion in additional funding will be invested by the end of fiscal year 2016.

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.

As the Cabinet Secretary in the White House, Chris Lu is President Obama’s primary liaison to the Cabinet departments and agencies, helping to coordinate policy and communications strategy. In the video below he talks about his first summer job, as an office assistant at a federal research lab in Maryland, where his responsibilites included mopping up the mess after safety showers were tested. Chris says he still has those mop skills, and he also retains the appreciation he learned for the important work federal employees do every day.

Watch Secretary Chris Lu talk about his first job here:

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

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

Learn more

• Watch Valerie Jarrett, Senior Advisor to the President, talk about her first job
• Watch Cecilia Munoz, Director of the White House's Domestic Policy Council, talk about her first job.
• Watch Jimmy Fallon talk about his first job.
• See the list of participating employers and organizations
• Check out a range of web and mobile apps designed to connect young people to jobs.