Obama Administration Warns the Left: You will Not Like Our Budget. Top White House officials are warning liberal and labor leaders to brace themselves for President Obama's budget proposal.  Gene Sperling, director of the National Economic Council, sought in meetings last week to lift the left's gloom about Washington's crackdown on spending by promising that the president this year will focus on job creation rather than deficit cutting. Obama staffers sought to present their budget plan as a glass half full. According to sources familiar with the briefings, they promised that the president will focus on jobs and the economy, instead of deficit-cutting, which dominated last year's debate on Capitol Hill. The Hill  

Chamber Officials Push for Legislative Action in Election Year. The top lobbyist at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce rejected the conventional wisdom that nothing gets done in an election year, arguing Thursday that lawmakers need to act to spur vital economic growth. "We don't want this year to be a wasted year in Washington," R. Bruce Josten said at a news conference. Josten, along with Chamber President Tom Donohue, offered a laundry list of legislative priorities for the coming year, from action on the expiring Social Security payroll tax cut to a major reauthorization of highway programs and the Federal Aviation Administration. Congressional Quarterly

Can We Save the Whales by Putting a Price on Them? Every year, a group of anti-whaling nonprofit organizations that includes Greenpeace, Sea Shepherd, and the World Wildlife Fund spend, by conservative estimates, some $25 million on a variety of activities intended to end commercial whaling. And every year, commercial whaling not only continues, but grows....Now, an economist and two marine scientists writing in the January 12 issue of the journal Nature suggest a new strategy that they believe could save whales by putting a price on them. Science Daily 

DOD's Strategy for Arctic Lacking, Agency Reports. The Defense Department lacks a clear strategy for ensuring it will have the resources to operate in the Arctic, which is gaining strategic importance as melting ice opens new shipping possibilities and potential access to untapped natural resources, according to a Government Accountability Office report. While the DOD has begun to assess the capabilities needed to better operate in the Arctic's harsh environment, the report said, it needs to better prepare to meet the challenges of navigating in the Arctic, where the U.S., Russia and other nations are competing for control of potentially valuable resources. Stars and Stripes  

Denmark Appoints Arctic Ambassador. Denmark appointed its first permanent arctic ambassador whose primary task will be to coordinate activities connected to the country's arctic strategy. Ambassador Klavs Holm is appointed to the post and will, according to Foreign Minister Sovndal, ensure the Danish National Community a visible position in the international debate on the Arctic. Barents Observer 

Plenty of Interest in Oil Exploration in the Arctic- Norway. Norway has seen considerable interest in its upcoming licensing round for oil exploration in its Arctic areas, the country's energy minister told a conference on Tuesday. "There has been a lot of interest in the concession round," Ole Borten Moe, the minister of petroleum and energy, said. Reuters 

Russia Warming at Alarming Pace. Temperatures in Russia in the past century rose at twice the rate of warming in the rest of the world, the emergencies ministry said. "Despite ongoing discussions in the scientific community about the nature and long-term outlook for global climate change, the fact of global warming itself is uncontroversial," the ministry said in its forecast of emergency situations in 2012. "Average warming in Russia in the past 100 years was 1.5 to two times higher than overall global warming," the forecast read. The Economic Times 

Arctic Ocean May be Approaching 'Tipping Point.' The Arctic Ocean might look like an isolated body at the top of the world, but several multi-year investigations have found deep interconnections with the Pacific and Atlantic oceans -- and new evidence that the polar sea may be poised to undergo a dramatic change in structure and life, senior climate oceanographer Eddy Carmack told the opening session of an annual marine science conference in Anchorage. "Are we approaching a tipping point -- a new state?" Carmack said to several hundred scientists gathered at the Alaska Marine Science Symposium in the Hotel Captain Cook ballroom. "In the Arctic, the non-linear future is here." Alaska Dispatch 

Canada Urged to Clarify Polar Policies as Arctic Council Meets. Sixteen years after the eight-nation Arctic Council was born at an international meeting in Ottawa, organizers of a Toronto conference that begins Tuesday are urging Canada to clarify its polar ambitions before taking a second turn chairing an organization widely viewed as key to shaping the future of the contentious region. But Mary Simon, the national Inuit leader who helped create the council and became its first leader in 1996, is also urging arctic countries to maintain the body's original vision of protecting the northern environment - increasingly viewed as a potential resource treasure house - and serving the needs of indigenous people who have inhabited the circumpolar world for millennia. Montreal Gazette

Arctic Council has Boosted Cooperation in the Arctic: Survey. The results of a new survey on the effectiveness of the Arctic Council shows the organization has made a definite impact on how the world views the Arctic. But the survey also found the intergovernmental body of Arctic states still has a way to go before realizing its full potential. Two researchers from the University of Lapland in Finland prepared 21 questions and circulated them last winter to individuals and groups who have been active in the Arctic Council's affairs. Nunatsiaq Online

Canada Takes Over Leadership of Arctic Council Next Year, But Is It Ready? Canada is being urged to get its ducks - or should that be ptarmigan - in a row as it prepares for its two-year gig as head of the Arctic Council next year. "Canada can play a leadership role in a way that not only advances the public interest in Canada but also Canada's standing in the world," former Yukon premier Tony Penikett. Penikett is chairing a conference in Toronto this week to help set out the Canadian agenda for its term in the rotating council chairmanship, which begins in April 2013. YAHOO! News