NEWS STORIES:
1. Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks/ war on terror
The moment that changed the world. And every American. A quick attack to Afghanistan and, two years later, an invasion of Iraq that divided a nation united after 9/11.

2. Hurricane Katrina
A devastation matched only by the devastating images of the dead and homes lost — and the devastating government response.

3. Global recession
Greed and bailouts became the buzzwords of the decade. Apparently, we hadn’t quite had enough nostalgia for the 1980s.

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By the time Sarah Palin’s autobiography — “Going Rogue: An American Life” — officially hits book stores on Tuesday — there’ll be a legion of titles waiting to cash in, from unauthorized biographies to critical essays to a tongue-in-cheek coloring book.

That doesn’t even include the picture book “Terminatrix: The Sarah Palin Chronicles” — which superimposes her head on paintings and famous photos — and a boomlet of self-published books.

“There is something about her which is very hard not to be drawn into,” says Colin Robinson, co-publisher at OR Books, which is putting out a collection of essays pulled together by two senior editors at The Nation. “It might be a sort of adoration. Or it might be that one is appalled. But you can’t stop watching.”

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The current scandal which has engulfed ACORN (the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) is bad news for community organizers.

AP says ACORN plans to sue the filmmakers who caught ACORN workers in several states on tapes advising actors (posing as a pimp and prostitute) how to lie to receive housing aid and tax benefits.

The lawsuit from the Baltimore ACORN workers claims the filmmakers damaged ACORN’s reputation and violated Maryland’s wiretap law. The IRS and the U.S. Census bureau have cut ties to ACORN and congressional leaders voted earlier this month to cut off federal funding for the organization.

What ACORN did was wrong, but their acts threaten to harm those still making efforts to help the poor and disadvantaged persons in real need.

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What would you change Baltimore’s slogan to?

“Baltimore: Better Than D.C.”
Corinne Gwarcyk, 20, Towson

“There’s a bench on Fayette that’s been changed [from past slogan ‘The City That Reads’] to ‘The City That Breeds.’ I think that’s pretty good.”
James F., 22, Baltimore

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11:04
James Taylor’s in the house!

11:02 p.m.  The mainstage. Still no sign of James Taylor, but this is where he’llbe performing. I’m in line for more champagne. At least it’s good. Itbetter be for $7 a glass.

9:59 p.m.I’m amazed at how many different generations are represented at this event. There are people here my age, couples I imagine have been married 50 years and everything in between. It’s so refreshing to be surrounded by politically like-minded people, though. I’ve spent the past two years defending him to my friends and family, but at this ball, everyone is clearly a fan of Obama.The one thing that is a shame about being so far away from all of the other balls is that I can’t bump into any friends. I just got a text who was at the Youth ball at the Hilton, but if we were both at the Convention Center, I’m sure we could’ve met up.

9:49 p.m.”Liquid Pleasure” out of New York is playing old Motown covers and we’re dancing fools. These ladies are definitely my kind of partiers.

9:44 p.m.
The opening act has started.

9:36 p.m.
As more people pour in, they have started to project a slideshow of what we think are Annie Liebowitz portraits. There were a few of the first family, but other than that, I’m not understanding the significance.

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8:56 p.m.
Finally inside!

8:53 p.m.
It’s not too busy inside yet.

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8:08:I also made friends in line. Dan (a Goucher alum) took this snap of me waiting in the cold. Two other ladies in front of me are from Columbia. I think my fingers are frost bitten, so I’m putting my gloves back on. Hopefully we’ll be inside soon. Dan hypothesizes 8:30.

8:37

The line is wrapped all the way around the escalator now, but I just
heard cheering and we’re starting to creep forward. With any luck, my
next update will be inside.

8:01

We’re about to go. Stephen’s not feeling well, so we don’t know how long we’re going to be at the ball, but he’s really being a trooper. It was my plan to case the Metro station before we got to my friend’s house to see whether it was worth trying to park down there. As we got closer, however, I decided to leave it up to chance. I’ve allotted extra time to get down here both today and on Sunday when I came to pick up the tickets and wound up sitting around twiddling my thumbs both times, so I’ve decided to once again just leave early and hope we get to where we need to go in the timeframe that we need to be there. On the tickets, it says that the doors open at 8 and the event starts at 10. I’m not exactly sure what that means, but I know that I don’t want to miss anything, so the one thing that I’m not trying to be this time is fashionably late. I will be sufficiently pleased if I can just see the Obamas and James Taylor. I’m not really concerned about much else.

A few things that my mother suggested that we’re not going to do are as follows:

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Were you there, or were you watching it on TV or your computer, or listening to it on the radio? What were you thinking?