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The Obama administration's Climate Data Initiative, unveiled Wednesday, is a bid to provide the public with as much federal data as possible about climate change.

With Congress shunning legislation to curb global warming, President Obama on Wednesday launched a new online resource to help businesses, citizens, and communities plan for climate change.

Staff writer

Noelle Swan writes for the national news desk at the Monitor. She previously worked on the Business and Family pages as a writer and editor.

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The Climate Data Initiative aims to ease access to federal data on climate issues including rises in sea level, storm surges, extreme heat, and drought. The hope is that Americans will use the data to create better public and private preparedness plans.

The website is a work in progress, with some components still under construction. For example, a click on the "coastal flooding" tab yields a description of what will be available, though there is no indication when the data will go live.

The Climate Data Initiative marks a next step on Mr. Obama's pledge last June to address climate change. The president and Democratic leaders have highlighted the issue several times in recent months, despite congressional opposition from most Republicans and red-state Democrats.

"Climate change is a fact," Obama said during his 2014 State of the Union Address. "And when our children's children look us in the eye and ask if we did all we could to leave them a safer, more stable world, with new sources of energy, I want us to be able to say, 'Yes, we did.' "

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Obama's Climate Data Initiative: Congress gridlocked? Empower the public.

President Barack Obama says finding out what happened to the missing Malaysia Airlines plane is a top priority for the U.S.

In his first public comments on the mind-boggling disappearance, Obama said Wednesday that every available U.S. resource is being used in the search, including the FBI, the National Transportation Safety Board and others who deal with aviation. Finding the plane will take time because the search area is so vast, he said, but the U.S. will continue working in close cooperation with the Malaysian government, which is leading the investigation, "to see if we can get to the bottom of this."

Flight 370 had 239 passengers and crew members on board when it disappeared March 8 on a night flight from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Beijing.

"We have put every resource that we have available at the disposal of the search process," Obama said in an interview with Dallas-Fort Worth television station KDFW. He said the nation's thoughts and prayers were with the grieving families. Three Americans were aboard the flight.

"We're going to keep on working with the international community" to try to determine what happened to the plane, Obama said. The president has been getting daily updates on the status of the search and the investigation, and U.S. contributions to the search effort, White House press secretary Jay Carney said.

In the interview, Obama also addressed rampant speculation and multiple theories about what may have happened to the aircraft, blaming it on the many unanswered questions about the mysterious disappearance nearly two weeks ago of the Boeing 777. He acknowledged that it's a "tough situation."

"It's a big piece of planet that we're searching and sometimes these things take time, but we hope and pray that we can get to the bottom of what happened," he said.

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Obama: Finding Missing Plane a Top US Priority

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President Barack Obama is picking Michigan State to win the NCAA men's basketball championship over defending champion Louisville.

In what has become an annual March Madness tradition at the White House, Obama filled out a bracket in a segment broadcast on ESPN Wednesday.

Florida and Arizona rounded out Obama's Final Four picks. But he said the talents of Michigan State coach Tom Izzo made him pick the Spartans to go all the way.

Obama said he knows his picks aren't imaginative but expressed hope they'd help him win his pool this year. He noted that he hasn't had a lot of luck with his picks in the past.

Last year he correctly picked Louisville to play in the championship game, but wrongly said the Cardinals would lose to Indiana.

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Obama Picks Michigan St as Men's Basketball Champ

President Obama's NCAA Final Four consists of Louisville, Florida, Arizona, and Michigan State. How good is Obama's record on selecting NCAA finalists?

President Obama, an avid basketball fan, revealed his NCAA Tournament 2014 Men's Final Four picks to ESPN.

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His selection: The Louisville Cardinals, the Florida Gators, Arizona Wildcats, and the Michigan State Spartans.

Today, he also told ESPN that he expects Michigan State to beat Louisville in the finals.

The unspoken strategy behind his choices: Experience. All four of his 2014 picks have veteran players in leadership roles. And as in previous years, his choices are both savvy and conservative. Florida and Arizona are No. 1 seeds. Louisville and Michigan State are No. 4 seeds, but both have finished the season strong.

"I know these are not imaginative picks, but I think they're the right ones," Obama told ESPN.

How good is the president as "Bracketologist-in-Chief"?

He's had his ups and downs. On average, Obama has correctly predicted slightly under 30 percent of Final Four teams correctly, according to The Hill.

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Obama's 2014 NCAA Final Four picks: How good is 'Bracketologist-in-Chief'?

Obama and Putin talk about finding diplomatic solution to Ukraine crisis
Obama and Putin talk about finding diplomatic solution to Ukraine crisis videolarn The President comments on Crimea #39;s vote to break from Ukraine and join R...

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