NATIONAL BRIEFS

WASHINGTON: New at the White House

It's the grind that every politician dreads: working the phones hour after hour, asking for campaign money. Of all the things fans of Julianna Smoot have to say about the Obamas' new social secretary, the most telling may be that she could make even "the ask" seem fun. "She'd place the call, get the person on the phone for you and just make you feel good about it," says former Democratic Sen. Tom Daschle of South Dakota, whose losing re-election campaign in 2004 pulled in millions with her as fundraiser. Smoot's first day as overlord of the White House social scene is Monday. The Obamas have selected someone with an enviable list of not-on-the-resume qualities that have everything to do with her track record as a fundraiser. By all accounts, she's girl-next-door nice, disarming, fun, creative. But also hyperorganized, direct, driven, competitive. Smoot, 42, spent the past year as chief of staff to U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk. She is taking over the Social Office from Desiree Rogers, a fashion-forward Chicago confidante of the Obamas who resigned after little more than a year. Rogers' service was marked by a series of successful high-wattage social events, but her tenure was marred by the blowup over the party-crashers at the Obamas' first state dinner and a general sense that she acted too much like a celebrity. Smoot comes across as the anti-diva. Think J. Crew, not Comme des Garçons. Smoot grew up in North Carolina, the daughter of a golf pro dad and a schoolteacher mother, and still keeps a Southern accent that charms Northerners.

CALIFORNIA: Agreement on solar site

Cash-strapped farmers in the state's agricultural heartland and environmentalists at odds over water rights and wildlife protections finally agree on something: that thousands of acres of cracked, salty farmland is the perfect site for a sprawling utility-scale solar farm. The 47 square miles proposed for the Westlands Solar Park in remote Kings and Fresno counties is just one of dozens of unfinished solar projects in California, but renewable energy analysts say it is a rare one that enjoys the broad support of environmental groups such as the Sierra Club, powerful agriculture interests and state government.

OKLAHOMA: Spring snow takes 5 lives

More snow fell Sunday as part of a powerful storm blowing through Oklahoma and the southern Plains. It fell across northeast Oklahoma, northwest Arkansas and southwest Missouri, with some places reporting 8 to 12 inches. At least five deaths in four states have been blamed on the weather.