This page features brief excerpts of stories published by the mainstream
media and, less frequently, blogs, alternative media, and even obviously
biased sources. The excerpts are taken directly from the websites cited in
each source note. Quotation marks are not used.
Source: Politico
Jan 17, 2009
Barack Obama may get to keep his BlackBerry, but David Axelrod is losing his IM.
The lawyers broke the bad news to Obama aides at a briefing Friday morning convened by incoming Deputy White House Counsel Cassandra Butts: Not only are they leaving the modern world to enter a White House where some of the clunky desktop computers still run Windows 2000 but — worst of all — they'll be forced to surrender a form of communication staffers have relied on for the last two years to communic
Source: New York Daily News
Jan 17, 2009
At President Franklin Roosevelt's inaugural in 1933 amid the depths of the Great Depression, he rallied demoralized Americans by proclaiming, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."
Within 100 days, Roosevelt's New Deal was up and running.
Barack Obama is studying the lessons of Roosevelt to meet the challenge of restoring public confidence in the nation's battered economy - and in his program to rebuild it.
When he steps into the Oval O
Source: NYT
Jan 17, 2009
The National Park Service and an organization representing victims’ families have reached a deal to buy the most critical piece of land needed for the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, Pa.
Driven by a goal of getting a deal done before President Bush leaves office on Tuesday, the park service and the organization, Families of Flight 93, reached an accord late Friday with Svonavec Inc., the quarry company that owns the 274-acre parcel at the heart of the site where United A
Source: WaPo
Jan 17, 2009
Now we get to hear Barack Obama give an inaugural address: seen from the Mall, from bleachers, from a distant seat in a winter tree (weather permitting), he will be another in a long history of tiny humans up there, bustling around against the shoulder-y bulk of the Capitol....
Analysts of Obama's oratory cite the influence of African American preaching tradition, but the influence is older, rooted like a mangrove in the swamp of the nervous system.
"It's about the
Source: BBC
Jan 17, 2009
The birthplace of Victorian explorer Henry Morton Stanley is being asked if it wants to honour him with a memorial.
Stanley was born in Denbigh, Denbighshire, and also lived as a child in a workhouse in nearby St Asaph.
He is best known for finding the missing explorer David Livingstone in east Africa in 1871, greeting him with the words, "Dr Livingstone, I presume?"
Despite his Denbighshire connections, Stanley has never been commemorated in t
Source: BBC
Jan 17, 2009
One of the UK's largest hauls of Iron Age gold coins has been found in Suffolk.
The 824 so-called staters were found in a broken pottery jar buried in a field near Wickham Market using a metal detector.
Jude Plouviez, of the Suffolk County Council Archaeological Service, said the coins dated from 40BC to AD15.
They are thought to have been minted by predecessors of the Iceni Queen Boudicca.
Source: CBS
Jan 17, 2009
As Barack Obama prepares to become the first African American U.S. president, Russ Mitchell profiles four you men who stood up for their rights at the height of the Civil Rights Movement.
Source: CBS
Jan 17, 2009
Barack Obama's arrival in Washington by train today harkens back to the inaugural White House trip of the former President who is Obama's political idol: Abraham Lincoln. In 1861, our 16th President rode the rails through New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania en route to the capital.
"He called it 'my circuitous journey,'" says Lincoln biographer Harold Holzer, an author or editor of 33 books about Lincoln, including his recently published "Lincoln: President-Elect.
Source: Bloomberg News
Jan 17, 2009
“Everyone wants to be Lincoln,” says Harold Holzer, who has written or edited more than 20 books on Lincoln and the Civil War. “Is Obama overdoing it? Maybe.”
For most of the 144 years since Lincoln’s death, presidents of all political persuasions have tried to enlist Lincoln’s reputation for honesty and courage in support of their own ambitions. Leaders “see in Lincoln’s suffering validation of the criticism they have to endure,” Holzer says.
Still, the election of Ame
Source: AP
Jan 17, 2009
Barack Obama has said he's standing on the shoulders of George Hickman and his trailblazing colleagues.
Now Hickman and friends will join Obama as he becomes president Tuesday.
The 84-year-old Hickman is one of the original Tuskegee Airmen, the country's first black military pilots and ground crew, who fought in World War II. They returned home to discrimination, exclusion from victory parades — and, as Hickman recalls, the humiliation of being pushed off sidewalks in the Sou
Source: BBC News
Jan 17, 2009
Thousands of people are expected to take part in global celebrations marking the 800th anniversary of Cambridge University.
A specially-commissioned light show charting the university's history will start the celebrations later.
Church bell-ringers around the world will also simultaneously play a new piece composed for the occasion.
The university, which has produced more Nobel Prize winners than any other institution, has organised a number of events throu
Source: CNN
Jan 17, 2009
To kick off the inauguration, President-elect Barack Obama is following the train route Saturday that his political hero Abraham Lincoln took to assume his presidency.
The 137-mile journey from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Washington, D.C., retraces the train route taken by Lincoln in 1861.
Before boarding the train, Obama attended a town hall meeting in Philadelphia, where he implored Americans to commit to a new declaration of independence -- from ideology and bigot
Source: IHT
Jan 17, 2009
President George W. Bush leaves office next week with no evidence that public opinion toward him is softening during his final days in power, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.
When asked about Bush's performance over the last eight years, 22 percent of Americans said they approved. That matched Bush's job-approval rating for much of last fall, the lowest marks of his presidency. Seventy-three percent disapproved of his performance in the new poll, slightly higher
Source: CNN
Jan 17, 2009
In the last couple of years, several best-selling books have focused on the life and political skills of the nation's 16th president. And one man in particular has taken a particular interest in not just reading about the Illinois politician, but also modeling himself politically after him.
That man: Barack Obama, who will be sworn in as the nation's 44th -- and first African-American -- president Tuesday.
Obama will also be the first president to use the Lincoln Bible
Source: Independent (UK)
Jan 17, 2009
The largest hoard of prehistoric gold coins in Britain in modern times has been discovered by a metal detectorist in East Anglia.
The 824 gold staters, worth the modern equivalent of up to £1m when they were in circulation, were in a field near Wickham Market, Suffolk. Almost all the coins were minted by royal predecessors of Boudicca, the warrior queen of the Iceni tribe who revolted against Rome in AD 60.
The solid gold staters – each weighing just over 5g – were made bet
Source: http://blogs.tampabay.com
Jan 16, 2009
The News Service of Florida reports that advocates of a proposed "Confederate heritage" specialty license tag in Florida will file a lawsuit against the state because the Legislature last session failed to include the controversial tag in a list of new plates.
A complaint expected to be filed Tuesday with U.S. District Court by the Sons of Confederate Veterans, Florida Division, alleges that legislative inaction is unconstitutional. The group claims it submitted the necess
Source: Newsweek
Jan 16, 2009
Imagine—just for a second—that it's 2020, and George W. Bush has restored his reputation. (I know, it's hard to imagine, but be creative.) Now try to answer this question: what would it take to actually make that happen?
The easy answer is that somehow between now and then, Iraq becomes a flourishing democracy, a source of cheap oil for the U.S., and a staunch ally in fending off the spread of terrorism in the region. Or that—by some sort of miracle—the American economy recovers, an
Source: Spiegel Online
Jan 16, 2009
Over 400 years after the death of Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe, scientists in Prague are preparing to exhume his body. Was Europe's most renowned scholar poisoned with mercury? A Danish scholar claims to have decoded the murderer's diary.
Walls of people formed to watch a funeral procession pass through the streets of Prague on Nov. 4, 1601. A herald carrying a billowing damask flag was followed by 12 imperial guards bearing a coffin covered with black satin. The man inside wore a
Source: AP
Jan 16, 2009
MADRID, Spain -– A chance discovery of a medieval clay oven has revealed that Moorish architects used powdered animal bones to protect the walls of fortresses close to the Alhambra Palace in southern Spain.
The finding represents the first evidence of powdered bones being used in protective coats, or patinas, in Moorish architecture, said Granada University geologist Carolina Cardell, who headed a yearlong scientific research project at the site.
"We know this meth
Source: BBC News
Jan 16, 2009
Carolyn McKinstry was almost killed in a racist church bombing in
segregated Alabama in the 1960s. The BBC's Matthew Price asks her what the
forthcoming inauguration of America's first African-American president,
Barack Obama, means to her.
Carolyn McKinstry was on her way through the church to its office when she
saw the four girls through the open door to the washroom."Good morning," she said, and went upstairs.
When she reached the top, the phone rang. Normally there woul
