Ever since the contested presidential election in Florida in 2000 -- when hanging chads and Supreme Court intervention kept him from victory -- former Vice President Al Gore has been a political rock star in Democratic circles. 

President Obama made it official over the weekend -- access to his e-mail address is limited to a very small circle.

Thinking of investing in a big-budget Hollywood movie but afraid to take the financial risk? Well the Obama administration’s $900 billion stimulus package could include a tax break for you.

Speculation in Washington is that Hollywood got axed last night on a $246 million tax break because of a long-simmering feud. It all started in 2004, Bill Thomas, former Republican chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee and congressman from Bakersfield, exempted moviemakers from a bill that allowed other industries to write off 50% of their equipment costs under bonus depreciation rules. Why?

Fascination about President Obama’s heavily-encrypted mobile device – so guarded that he has yet to show it in public – keeps growing. As we reported here the other day, the president only got to keep his Blackberry-like device by agreeing to limit the number of his pen-pals.   At the posh Alfalfa Club dinner last weekend, Obama told the glittery crowd, "It's a very exclusive list. How exclusive? Everyone look at the person sitting on your left. Now look at the person sitting on your right.

Read my story here.

Bill Thomas, the former and formidable chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee when Republicans ran Congress, called tonight to say that, despite Washington speculation, he has no beef with Motion Picture Assn. of America President Dan Glickman.   Sen.

For 70 years, musicians and record companies have done everything they can to get AM and FM radio stations to play their songs. Now, they want radio stations to pay them for it.   In the opening salvo of what could be a contentious fight in Congress, the music industry this week introduced a bill to close what it calls a loophole in U.S. copyright law that exempts over-the- air broadcasters from paying performers.

 President and Mrs. Obama and their two girls got a rapturous reception Friday night when they made their first appearance at the Kennedy Center, the crown jewel of Washington’s arts community. 

President Obama isn’t the only one doing town hall meetings these days.   John Conyers, the Michigan Democrat and chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, was in Los Angeles Friday night for the Grammy Town Hall Meeting. Conyers warned the crowd that there would be “a serious struggle” in Congress this year over whether to force FM and AM radio stations to pay musicians a performance fee, as cable and satellite radio already do. The reason for Conyers’ concern: the powerful National Assn.