Obama rides rails to capital, as onlookers cheer  —  Featured Topics: - Barack Obama - Presidential Transition  —  PHILADELPHIA - President-elect Barack Obama, cheered by onlookers along the train route Abraham Lincoln took nearly a century and a half earlier, undertook the final leg …

RNC candidates turn up the partisan heat on Obama  —  WASHINGTON (CNN) - Despite the climate of national goodwill surrounding Barack Obama as he prepares to take the oath of office, two of the candidates vying to lead the Republican National Committee unleashed harsh attacks against the president-elect on Friday.

The Only Thing We Have to Fear . . .  is Obama.  —  Barack Obama is the apostle of hope.  But he also arouses the flipside of hope—fear.  And while the fear he stirs may turn out to be unfounded, it's not irrational.  People don't know who Obama really is or where his ideological center of gravity rests …

Barnicle Man, Barnicle Man, Doing The Things That Barnicles Can  —  Matthew Yglesias at Think Progress catches this Mike Barnicle/Mika Brezenski exchange on “Morning Joe”: … http://www.youtube.com/watch?  v=1MEjX6ITLqY  —  Yup, sure is a disgrace to journalism when you're anonymous ...

By Request: Missing the Trees  —  John Bedell writes: … I grew up in an apartment in Manhattan and didn't actually realize how much I like to have a little greenery around until I moved to a rowhouse neighborhood in DC and got my hands on a small backyard.

Ethics cloud still hangs over Rangel  —  A herd of tax reporters trails Charles B. Rangel everywhere he goes these days, like a team of pilot fish feasting on whatever morsels the raspy, talkative Ways and Means Committee chairman casts aside.  —  Late last year, that media herd was feasting …

Hamas and Hezbollah supporters return to Calgary's Jewish neighbourhood  —  I don't get it.  Glenmore Landing is private property; with a word RioCan, the landlord, could demand that the pro-Hamas and pro-Hezbollah goons, who now gather there weekly, leave.  That's what mall security does when teens loiter on skateboards.

The Growing Foreclosure Crisis  —  One oft-repeated assertion no longer holds true.  Those in trouble are not, primarily, lower-income borrowers.  The foreclosure crisis has become a wave, afflicting neighborhoods of every stripe — but particularly communities created by the boom itself.

‘Drug-crazed idiot’ Boy George jailed for 15 months for chaining male escort to wall and beating him … Boy George was jailed for 15 months yesterday for falsely imprisoning a male escort.  —  The former Culture Club singer - real name George O'Dowd - shackled Audun Carlsen to a wall …

For a Power Lawyer, a New High-Wire Act  —  WASHINGTON — During 40 years in politics, Gregory B. Craig has learned the art of the balancing act.  —  As a Harvard student in 1968, he was enthralled by Allard K. Lowenstein, the antiwar candidate who preached change from within.

Inaugural Panel Sells Exclusive TV Rights  —  Barack Obama's inaugural organizing committee has struck deals with three television networks to the tune of more than $5 million, giving the networks exclusive access to inaugural events.  But the arrangement is prompting questions …