President Obama held a press conference this afternoon, his first since the end of April. In his opening remarks, Obama discussed the NSA surveillance controversy and announced four steps to help assure Americans that their civil liberties are protected, including "appropriate reforms" to phone-related portions of the Patriot Act, working with Congress to "build greater confidence" in the FISA court process, make public the Department of Justice's legal rationale for the collection efforts (with a "website" for "further transparency"?) and an outside panel of experts to deliver a report on further reforms by the end of the year.
Then it was on to the questions: