Questions linger over checkpoint breakdowns at White House dinner 
Getting to the president is not supposed to be this easy.
The White House said late Friday that Michaele and Tareq Salahi, the Virginia couple auditioning for a Bravo reality show, not only got past layers of experienced, executive-branch security but also shook the president's hand in the Blue Room of the White House during the Obamas' first state dinner. Late Friday, the White House also released a photo of Michaele Salahi's audience with the president, with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh smiling nearby.
The security breach has caused hand-wringing inside the White House, bewilderment among Tuesday night's guests -- and late on Friday, prompted an apology from the Secret Service.
Gate Crashers Met Obama At State Dinner With India
Filed at 6:34 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A couple who penetrated layers of security to enter a State Dinner at the White House this week without an invitation met U.S. President Barack Obama in the receiving line, a White House official said on Friday.
The Washington Post first reported that a Virginia couple not on the official guest list, Tareq and Michaele Salahi, crashed the White House party but were never seated at a table in the South Lawn tent where the dinner was held.
4 relatives shot dead at Fla. Thanksgiving party
JUPITER, Fla. — Four people including a child in bed were shot to death during a family Thanksgiving gathering and a manhunt was under way across South Florida early Friday for a male relative suspected in the slayings.
Police said that 17 relatives were in the house when the shootings were reported around 10 p.m. Thursday in Jupiter, a small coastal town about 90 miles north of Miami.
Jupiter Police Sgt. Scott Pascarella said they were looking for Paul Michael Merhige, 35, of Miami. Merhige is a cousin of the 6-year-old victim, McKayla Sitton, police said.
Was president in danger from dinner crashers?
WASHINGTON — The Secret Service maintains that President Barack Obama was never in danger at a state dinner after an uninvited Virginia couple got through security, but it wouldn't comment on whether anyone is screened for radiological or biological weapons.
Edwin Donovan, a Secret Service spokesman, said Thursday the agency doesn't discuss the levels of security screening at the White House.
Donovan had said earlier that Michaele and Tareq Salahi went through the same security screening for weapons as the 300-plus people invited to the dinner Tuesday for Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
UPDATE 1-US shoppers hit Black Friday sales, budgets pared
* U.S. shoppers hit stores at midnight for Black Friday
* Many have trimmed budgets further
* Up to 134 million shoppers expected this weekend
Signs of life in stores as holiday shopping begins
The nation's shoppers took advantage of deals on toys and TVs with some renewed vigor in stores and online on Black Friday after a year of concentrating their spending on basic necessities.
Though the first numbers won't be available until Saturday, early reports indicated bigger crowds than last year, with people buying more and even throwing in some items for themselves.
It was an encouraging sign for retailers, which have suffered through a year of sales declines, and perhaps also for the broader economy, which could use a kickstart from consumer spending.
Obamas' Uninvited Guests Prompt an Inquiry
WASHINGTON — The Secret Service is investigating how a couple aspiring to be reality-show celebrities managed to appear at President Obama’s first state dinner without being on the guest list, provoking questions about security at the White House.
The inquiry was begun after a Virginia couple, Michaele and Tareq Salahi, slipped past multiple layers of high-level White House security Tuesday night and managed to rub shoulders, literally, with Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and the White House chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, among others, at Washington’s most exclusive social event this year.
Edwin M. Donovan, a spokesman for the Secret Service who spent his Thanksgiving Day dealing with phone calls from reporters, would not discuss the investigation in detail but said the initial focus was on “a Secret Service checkpoint which did not follow proper procedure to ensure these two individuals were on the invited guest list.”
Attorney says dinner crashers shouldn't need him
WASHINGTON — The couple who crashed a White House dinner shouldn't need legal help, an attorney who knows them said Thursday, as the Secret Service remained quiet publicly about the eye-catching security breach.
"They just went to a party. They didn't do anything wrong," Paul Morrison, a Virginia attorney who has represented Michaele and Tareq Salahi in the past, told The Associated Press.
A Secret Service investigation of the security breach, now under way, will help determine whether Morrison is right about the lack of legal liability. But the main focus was on the agency itself.
Obama's Thanksgiving proclamation
President Barack Obama's Thanksgiving Day proclamation, as released by the White House:
What began as a harvest celebration between European settlers and indigenous communities nearly four centuries ago has become our cherished tradition of Thanksgiving. This day's roots are intertwined with those of our nation, and its history traces the American narrative.
Today, we recall President George Washington, who proclaimed our first national day of public thanksgiving to be observed "by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God," and President Abraham Lincoln, who established our annual Thanksgiving Day to help mend a fractured nation in the midst of civil war. We also recognize the contributions of Native Americans, who helped the early colonists survive their first harsh winter and continue to strengthen our nation. From our earliest days of independence, and in times of tragedy and triumph, Americans have come together to celebrate Thanksgiving.
Network Cameras Followed White House Crashers
WASHINGTON — The cable network Bravo confirmed on Thursday that its cameras were following — and filming — an aspiring reality-show couple who managed to attend President Obama’s first state dinner at the White House on Tuesday.
In a statement to The New York Times on Thursday, Bravo said that Half Yard Productions, the producers for the series “The Real Housewives of D.C.,” was under the impression that Michaele and Tarek Salahi, two polo-playing devotees of Washington’s social swirl and on-line social networks alike, had been invited to the biggest and most exclusive soiree to take place in Washington this year.
“The cast of ‘The Real Housewives of D.C.’ has not been finalized,” Bravo said in the statement. “Michaele Salahi is under consideration as a cast member, as such Half Yard Productions were filming the Salahis on that day. Half Yard was only aware that per the Salahis they had been invited as guests.”
