WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is showing singer-songwriter Carole King that she has friends at the White House.

By Pedro da Costa and Alister Bull WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve's monetary stimulus is helping the economy recover but the central bank needs to see further signs of traction before taking its foot off the gas, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said on Wednesday. A decision to scale back the $85 billion in bonds the Fed is buying each month could come at one of the central bank's "next few meetings" if the economy looked set to maintain momentum, Bernanke told Congress. But minutes from the Fed's most recent meeting released on Wednesday showed the bar was still relatively high. ...