NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — President Michele Bachmann has a promise: $2 gas.

“Under President Bachmann you will see gasoline come down below $2 a gallon again,” Bachmann told a crowd Tuesday in South Carolina. “That will happen.”

Sure, politicians promise all kinds of things on the campaign trail. But Bachmann, a leading contender for the 2012 Republican nomination, is wading into truly tricky territory.

The price Americans pay at the pump is tied to the crude oil market — a global system largely beyond the reach of Washington.

It’s certainly true that prices — now about $3.50 a gallon on average — have risen since President Obama took office.

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama says one answer to high gasoline prices is to spend money developing renewable energy sources.

“That’s the key to helping families at the pump and reducing our dependence on foreign oil” in the long term, he said Saturday in his weekly radio and Internet address.

Washington (CNN) — Flanked by parents whose children were killed in automobile accidents, congressional lawmakers Tuesday again launched a campaign for federal licensing standards for teenage drivers.

Holding a poster-sized photograph of his daughter Michelle — a fatality at the age of 15 — a sobbing Ray Sanderbeck of Medina, Ohio, told a news conference, “Today I hold her in my arms and ask you to support the STANDUP act.”

HOUSTON — Rep. Gabrielle Giffords got a dramatic send-off from her hometown Friday as throngs of sign-carrying well-wishers lined the streets to wave at the ambulance taking the wounded congresswoman from the hospital to the airport, where she was flown to Houston just two weeks after she was shot.

The trip by ambulance, jet and helicopter took her to a Houston hospital where she will undergo weeks of rigorous rehabilitation.

Washington (CNN) — The United States plans to send more than 1,000 Marines to Afghanistan soon, a U.S. military official told CNN on Thursday.

The Marines will support the expansion of security efforts in southern Afghanistan, and they will be on the ground for only a few months, the official said.

“We intend to keep the pressure on the Taliban throughout the winter and take advantage of the security gains already achieved,” the official said.

(CNN) – Rep. Danny Davis, a Democrat from Illinois and mayoral candidate in Chicago has a message for former President Bill Clinton: Butt out.

Davis, a onetime ally of Clinton’s, issued a strongly worded statement Tuesday, in which the Chicago Democrat said he is “seriously concerned and disturbed” by the news Clinton plans to throw his weight behind ex-Obama chief of staff Rahm Emanuel and make a campaign stop in the Windy City next month.

WASHINGTON, Oct 13 — As part of an effort to boost the number of American college graduates, President Obama on Wednesday asked Congress to make permanent a tax credit to help make higher education more affordable.

The American Opportunity Tax Credit (AOTC) was part of the stimulus program passed soon after the president took office and it is due to expire this year. The White House estimates the cost of making the credit — which provides up to $2,500 a year to college students — at $58 billion over the next ten years.

ATLANTA — More than 13 million students and 1 million educators will share $3.4 billion from the second round of the federal “Race to the Top” grant competition, the U.S. Education Department said Tuesday.

The department chose nine states — Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Maryland, New York, North Carolina, Ohio and Rhode Island — and the District of Columbia for the grants. Education Secretary Arne Duncan said 25,000 schools will get money to raise student learning and close the achievement gap.

Washington (CNN) — Just five days before the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina’s devastating assault on the Gulf coast, millions of dollars are heading to public and private projects for Louisianans still trying to recover, two top Obama administration officials said at a news conference Tuesday.

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano and Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Craig Fugate detailed how, courtesy of the federal disaster recovery fund established under the Stafford Act, seven projects in Louisiana will receive more than $26.8 million to contribute to the rebuilding process.

WASHINGTON — Congress is moving rapidly just weeks before the start of the school year to speed billions of dollars in emergency education aid to states in hopes of reversing the layoffs of tens of thousands of teachers.

Some $10 billion in aid to school districts is set to flow after a 61-39 Senate vote Thursday — to be followed quickly by a House vote next week — in hopes that it will come in time for many school districts to reconsider teacher layoffs.

Thursday’s vote was a hard-earned but partial victory for Democrats and President Barack Obama. Advocates said it could save the jobs of up to 300,000 teachers, police and other public workers.