Wednesday marked a milestone for the Barack Obama administration.

It marked 100 days since President Obama took the oath of office as the nation’s 44th president, the first African-American to ever hold the position.

How has the president done in his first 100 days? Quite well for the most part, according to experts in a variety of fields contacted by Wave reporters in recent weeks.

Obama won passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, an unprecedented $787 billion federal stimulus package designed to put the nation’s economy back on track. The act, which Obama signed into law Feb. 17, aims to create and save 3.5 million jobs and extend an immediate tax cut to 95 percent of American workers.

Much of the stimulus package revolves around large-scale investments in infrastructure, green technology and scientific research. Funds earmarked for California include $2.6 billion in highway funding for resurfacing roads; $1.1 billion for investment in mass transit, $4.6 billion for education; and a $224.5 million infusion into the state energy program.

Economist Darrell Williams, a former UCLA professor who earlier this year launched TheLoop21.com, a Web site that disseminates financial news from a Black perspective, said “The media have evaluated Obama’s every move, but given the severity of the crisis, I think his 100 days have been good in a number of ways. First, despite all the wrangling about the stimulus package, it was a remarkable accomplishment to get a piece of legislation like that passed.”

President Obama’s first 100 days as commander-in-chief saw him take major steps toward resolving two major military conflicts inherited from his predecessor.

One of the most popular and scrutinized pledges Obama made during his path to the presidency dealt with the withdrawal of combat troops from Iraq. Just over a month into his presidency, Obama announced that all combat forces would be ordered out of Iraq by Aug. 31, 2010.

According to the plan, a transitional force of about 35,000 soldiers will remain to ensure a smooth transition, while the still-developing democratic Iraqi government assumes complete responsibility for the nation’s defense.

Obama has also announced plans to increase the number of troops in Afghanistan by 17,000 this summer.

The war in Afghanistan has long been overshadowed by the conflict in Iraq, but recent actions by the Taliban have led the president to believe the terrorist network based there is mounting a resurgence. According to reports released by the United Nations, there was a 39 percent increase in the number of Afghan civilian deaths last year. Of the 2,118 civilian fatalities, 55 percent are believed to have been caused by militants.

Obama received high marks from a Southland congresswoman for taking care of security on the home front as well.
Rep. Loretta Sanchez, D-Garden Grove, who is the vice chairwoman of the House Committee on Homeland Security and chair of the subcommittee with primary jurisdiction over border issues, gives the Obama administration high marks for its handling of security matters.

She has been particularly impressed by the president’s outreach to the people of the Middle East, which she said has “successfully reiterated the administration’s position that America is not at war with the Muslim world.”

Sanchez also singled out the work of Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, who angered some conservatives this month when the department issued a warning on a possible rise in right-wing extremism.

On April 15, the former Arizona governor appointed onetime California education secretary Alan Bersin as DHS Assistant Secretary for International Affairs and Special Representative for Border Affairs.

“In the area of border security, I am pleased that … Napolitano’s new Southwest border initiative includes several of my subcommittee’s recommendations,” said Sanchez, who also sits on the Subcommittee on Emerging Threats, Cybersecurity, and Science and Technology. “In particular, her plan includes an increase in the personnel and equipment resources we need to help curb arms and currency smuggling along the U.S.-Mexico border.”

Few elements of Obama’s energy agenda have seized headlines during the first 100 days of his presidency. Team Obama has spent the past three months crafting and launching a series of initiatives with the intent of keeping the nation lighted, cooled, heated and moving during the years to come.

Not surprisingly, many of these plans have profound implications for energy-hungry Los Angeles. This was evident less than a week after Obama took the oath of office. On Jan. 26, in one of the first of several reversals of policies of the (second) Bush administration, Obama signed an executive order instructing the Environmental Protection Agency to reconsider California’s application to establish carbon-emission standards that are stricter than those set by the federal government.

Serious discussions of energy policy could also be found during Obama’s first trip to the Southland as president, when he toured Pomona’s Electric Vehicle Technical Center, which he said “is testing batteries to power a new generation of plug-in hybrids that will help end our dependence on foreign oil.”

After co-sponsoring civil rights legislation as a U.S. senator and touching on such issues over the course of his campaign, President Obama has taken on employment discrimination in his first 100 days in office and may soon sign a hate crime bill.

With civil and women’s rights advocates looking on as he sat for his first White House bill-signing ceremony, Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 just eight days into his term. The bill toughens Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by extending the 180-day statute of limitations for filing pay discrimination lawsuits; it also enables victims of pay discrimination — based on race, color, religion, sexual orientation, gender and national origin — to receive back pay for up to two years preceding the filing of a claim.

On another front, Obama could soon sign the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009, also referred to as the Matthew Shepard Act. The bill, which was expected to be the subject of a Wednesday vote in the House of Representatives, would expand current hate-crimes laws and authorize the attorney general “to provide technical, forensic, prosecutorial, or other assistance in the criminal investigation or prosecution” of any crime “motivated by prejudice based on the actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability of the victim, or is a violation of the state, local, or tribal hate crime laws.”

It would also ease the way for federal intervention against such crimes, and grants would be awarded to state, local and Indian law enforcement to assist in designing programs that attack the issue beginning at the grade-school level.

André Herndon, John Moreno, Arin Mikailian, Arnold Adler, Olu Alemoru and Leiloni De Gruy contributed to this story.