Breaking: White House Shooting Suspect Arrested

A suspect in Friday's White House shooting is now in police custody.

Police arrested Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez, 21, this afternoon in connection to the shooting. Two bullets struck the White House, one cracking a window in the Obama family living quarters, the Secret Service said Tuesday.

President Obama was traveling to a summit in Hawaii at the time. No injuries have been reported.

The Secret Service discovered an assault rifle registered to Ortega-Henandez on Friday, minutes after hearing shots fired near the White House. ABC7/TBD reports that Ortega's family in Idaho Falls, Idaho reported him missing on Oct. 31. He has an arrest record in three states, according to U.S. Park Police.

-Joseph Rabinowitz

White House Opens Gates for Garden Tours

On any given day in Washington, one can see crowds of sightseers gather outside the White House’s age-old gates for a glimpse of what lies beyond. This past weekend, however, those gates were opened for the Executive Mansion's 39th annual fall garden tour.

The event, which has been a little-known staple in Washington, was started in 1972 by First Lady Patricia Nixon as a way to showcase the White House grounds to the nation and the world.

Visitors strolled around the South Lawn driveway, passing by magnolia trees planted by President Andrew Jackson, the Kennedy and Rose Gardens and informational placards telling the tale of the ever-evolving White House landscape.

The newest addition to the grounds, the Kitchen Garden, was prominently showcased. Planted by First Lady Michelle Obama in 2009, the garden now supplies the vegetables for all of the Obamas family dinners as well as for meals at Miriam's Kitchen in Foggy Bottom, an organization devoted to feeding the Districts homeless.

The President’s Own Marine Band provided the public with an assortment of music to add an air of officialness to the event that only the White House can provide.

Although no numbers are available for how many people actually attended the tours, press liaisons noted that they expected bolstered attendance compared to previous years because of people in town for the Dr. Martin Luther King Memorial Dedication, as well as the George Washington and Georgetown Universities parents weekends.

For those who missed the tours, The White House will open it’s gates again for its annual spring tours in April.

Gibbs Recounts Hard Times in White House, Emphasizes Youth Vote in 2012

Former White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs
Photo: James Reed

Robert Gibbs, former White House Press Secretary and outside adviser to President Obama’s reelection campaign, energized a room full of College Democrats for the upcoming 2012 elections Tuesday evening. Gibbs briefly reminisced on his tenure as press secretary, during which he held more than 250 press briefings, before talking about the state of the economy.

“Our fiscal house is a mess... This is not your normal recession,” Gibbs told students at Dorothy Betts Theatre. Gibbs pointed to the falling strength of the dollar, noting that the income average in 2011 is about the same as 1996. “Your parents are paying your 2010-2011 GW tuition on a 1996 income,” said Gibbs.

Shiah Shahmohammadi, the GW College Democrats Communications Director, decided to host Gibbs as a speaker in order to rally their members toward the reelection of President Obama.

“Mr. Gibbs is an important figure in politics today. Not only was he the spokesperson for the nation's highest office for two years, but he is also an integral part of the reelection campaign of Barack Obama,” Shahmohammadi said. “The GW College Democrats chose Mr. Gibbs to be our kick-off speaker because he has the ability to excite our membership and encourage them to get involved with our organization as well as the 2012 campaign.”

During his speech, Gibbs pointed to the events of the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010 as a challenge for himself and the press, calling it “three of the most hardest months in the White House.” During the spill, Gibbs said he learned much about the oil industry and claimed to know more that than anyone who works for such a company.

Looking to 2012, Gibbs asked students a series of questions pertaining to their voting and social habits.

“This election is as much important as the last election,” Gibbs said emphatically. Gibbs, devoted some time to voting trends over the last decade, and particularly noted the shortfall in youth voting in 2010. In 2008, the youth votes comprised eighteen percent of the electorate, while in 2010 it was only eleven percent.

During the question and answer period, Gibbs noted a briefing featuring both President Obama and former President Clinton regarding the tax deal. Gibbs said his first thought when he first saw the two presidents walking past his office was “Holy Christ.” The presidents wanted access to the briefing room on a Friday evening.

“It was really cool getting the insight of someone who not only was a top White House insider for two years but the President’s main gatekeeper to the press,” said sophomore College Democrat member Scott Challeen. “My favorite part about hearing from former White House insiders like that is not so much the descriptions and specifics of their jobs, but the funny personal stories from the job.”

"Government Girl" Returns to GW

Stacy Parker Aab, a former GW student, returned to the Marvin Center Wednesday night for a book reading and signing for her memoir Government Girl. The book focuses on her life in politics, from interning at the White House as a freshman living in Thurston Hall to working in advance for President Clinton after the end of his administration. Aab began her political career by volunteering to aid the Inaugural organizing committee that was headquartered in the Marvin Center. After that January she was accepted for an internship at the White House.

A year after graduating, Aab returned to the White House as an aide. It was spring, 1998 - the Monica Spring. At Wednesday's event she read a portion of the book detailing her own scandal of that spring, when the details of her drug use were questioned by the FBI. Other readings included an "ode" to Secret Service agents and an account of her time with President Clinton in Nigeria in 2001. These passages, Aab said, meant the most to her. An audience member asked her what her greatest learning experience was, and Aab replied that it was coming to GW. Her gratitude to the university was overwhelmingly evident. To GW, she owes the title "Government Girl."