The Obamas may be on vacation this week, but the news hasn’t taken a break.

The Justice Department is expected to release a report Monday disclosing details of prisoner abuse that were gathered in 2004 by the CIA’s inspector general but never before made public. According to published reports, the department has recommended re-opening nearly a dozen prisoner-abuse cases.

A review of the cases threatens to weigh down the Obama administration, which is already involved in deeply partisan battles over healthcare and climate change legislation.

The healthcare reform debate rages on, with Republicans pushing a healthcare bill of rights for seniors and Democrats threatening to use congressional procedure to bypass the need for 60 votes to pass healthcare legislation in the Senate.

Today is also the last day for car buyers to take advantage of the popular “Cash for clunkers,” as the program’s $3 billion budget runs out of gas.

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Photo credit: Reuters/Jason Reed (view of Martha’s Vineyard from Air Force One)

When Governor Mark Sanford walks out of the woods tomorrow, he’s sure for a big surprise.

The governor of South Carolina went hiking on the Appalachian Trail last Thursday to clear his head after a tough legislative session, according to his aides. Nothing odd in that - politicians need time off as much as anyone. Trouble is, when Sanford left he didn’t tell his aides where he was going. He didn’t tell the state’s lieutenant governor either. Or his wife.

His disappearance sparked speculation about his whereabouts, although Fox News reported he did call to check in two days into the trip. Tomorrow he is due to emerge from the trail and return to work and he will doubtless face many questions. For a possible presidential candidate in 2012, the distraction could prove awkward.

And it won’t help that the father of four sons was away from home on Father’s Day.

PHOTO CREDIT: REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst: South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford arrives for a dinner held for the National Governors Association at the White House in Feb. 22, 2009.

What's in U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's wallet? Not much.

While testifying in front of a House Appropriations Subcommittee on Capitol Hill Thursday Geithner was shown a $50 Billion Zimbabwean bank note (rendered worthless by Zimbabwe's hyperinflation) by U.S. Representative John Culberson (R- TX) and asked if he had ever seen one himself. Geithner immediately pulled a piece of Zimbabwean currency out of his own pocket and showed it off to the committee. At the next break in the hearing I approached Geithner and asked how he happened to have a piece of foreign currency in his pocket. His response was "I often have some foreign currency in my wallet. Want to see?" He pulled a very thin and mostly empty wallet from his pocket.

Amongst many empty slots in the thin weathered leather wallet there could be seen three credit or debit cards with Visa and Mastercard logos (all inserted into the wallet upside down so that the card issuers could not be seen) and an old and yellowed looking identification card of indeterminate origin.

From inside the wallet Geithner extracted a small pile of receipts and paper including a New York City MTA farecard, pointing out that there were European Euros tucked amongst the paper.

Notably not seen in the U.S. Treasury Secretary's wallet? Any U.S. dollars.

- Photo Credits:  Jim Bourg/Reuters  (U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner puts a piece of foreign currency back after showing off the contents of his wallet to a photographer during a break in his congressional testimony in Washington, May 21, 2009.)

Barack Obama will be the host with the most on Inauguration Night. After his expected swearing-in ceremony earlier in the day on January 20, he’ll host seven inaugural balls and attend three more for a grand total of 10.

Moving among the various official parties won’t necessarily require a motorcade, though: six of them are being held in the vast Walter E. Washington Convention Center. These include Obama’s home states ball, hosted by the president-elect for invited guests from Hawaii and Illinois; Vice President-elect Joe Biden’s home states ball for guests from Delaware and Pennsylvania; the Mid-Atlantic regional ball, the Midwest regional ball, the Western regional ball and the neighborhood ball, which is for Washington DC residents and other guests.

The bargain event of the night may be the youth ball, hosted by Obama for guests aged 18-35 at the Washington Hilton, with tickets available at $75. Most of the other balls cost $150.

Rounding out the list are the Eastern ball, to be held at Union Station; the Southern ball, at the National Guard Armory, and the Commander-in-Chief’s ball for enlisted active duty and reserve military personnel, at the National Building Museum.

That last location is particularly appropriate for military guests. Before it was a museum, it was known as the Pension Building, built to serve the needs of Union veterans after the Civil War.

REUTERS/Paul Hanna (Man with Obama mask parties in Madrid)

President-elect Barack Obama woke up today in the tony Hay-Adams Hotel, across Lafayette Park from the White House.

Soon after sunrise, a black SUV was spotted carrying Obama’s younger daughter Sasha to her first day at Sidwell Friends School elementary campus in suburban Bethesda, Maryland. Older daughter Malia will go to Sidwell Friends’ middle school campus in Washington DC.
The Obamas arrived in Washington late Sunday, an extra-early move so the girls could start school at the beginning of the semester. Most presidents-elect arrive on January 15. That’s when the Obama family will move into Blair House, directly across the street from the White House. The new first family moves into the executive mansion on Inauguration Day, January 20.

Top news on morning TV shows was New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson’s withdrawal as Obama’s chosen commerce secretary in the face of a legal inquiry. Richardson, a former Democratic  presidential candidate, has denied wrongdoing in connection with the investigation of a California-based financial company that had done business with the New Mexico state government.

U.S. TV news shows offered a bit of chatter about Obama’s plan for up to $310 billion in tax cuts for businesses and the middle class as part of an economic stimulus package.

Obama goes to Capitol Hill today for discussions with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi or California and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada. The new Congress will be sworn in on Tuesday, launching the political year.

For workaday Washingtonians, the advent of the Obamas is more than politics. It’s a traffic story. On the first working Monday of the new year, commuters are faced with street closings and restricted access around the Hay-Adams.

REUTERS/Jason Reed (Hay Adams Hotel in Washington)

REUTERS/Steve Marcus (Bill Richardson in Las Vegas)

WASHINGTON - Israeli air attacks in Gaza dominate morning talk shows and front pages of major U.S. newspapers. The attacks pushed up oil prices by more than $3 a barrel to over $40. Gold prices also moved higher. Nevertheless, U.S. stock index futures pointed to a higher open on Wall Street in what is expected to be a light trading.

President-elect Barack Obama remains in Hawaii and President George W. Bush is at his ranch in Texas.

Winter weather extremes and dismal holiday shopping season featured on morning talk shows.

Those who really enjoyed 2008 — there must be a few of you out there — will be glad to hear that the year will last a little bit longer.  The world’s timkeepers are preparing to add a special “leap second” on Wednesday just before the clock strikes midnight to take into account the slowing of the earth’s rotation.

REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun (Israeli tanks move just outside the northern Gaza Strip)

WASHINGTON - The G20 leaders found themselves in a predicament faced by many a family when trying to assemble everyone in one place at one time for a snapshot. Someone inevitably spoils the first take.

The leaders of the advanced and developing countries gathered in Washington on Saturday to talk about the global financial crisis started the day with a group photo.

They filed in to the National Building Museum and lined up smiling for the cameras to capture their bonding.

Then it was time to leave and head into the first meeting to discuss the world’s worst financial meltdown in decades and search for solutions.

But as they stepped off the stage confusion reigned, and they all turned back for another shot.

Argentina’s President Cristina Fernandez had arrived late and missed the first photo.

So they all smiled politely once again, now the group was complete, for a quick second take.

An apologetic Fernandez turned to her neighbors and said “gracias.”

Photo credit: REUTERS/Yuri Gripas

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono hailed Barack Obama on Friday for an election victory he said inspired the Southeast Asian nation where the president-elect spent four years as a youth.

“He spoke our language, knew our culture, ate our food, played with Indonesian friends from various ethnic backgrounds and through all this he experienced the inner soul of Indonesia,” Yudhoyono said in a speech in Washington.

 Students at Besuki Elementary School, Obama’s old school in Jakarta, danced euphorically while teachers wept at news of his election victory, said the Indonesian president.
Yudhoyono told his U.S.-Indonesia Society audience he came to Washington carrying an album of old photos of Obama and his assembled by childhood friends to give to the president-elect.

“There is no better story, no better example, of the virtue of people-to-people connections than the powerful impact of Barack Obama’s election to today’s Indonesians,” he said.

REUTERS/Stringer (Indonesian students dispaly pictures of U.S. President-elect Barack Obama)

CHICAGO- Call it the e-fireside chat.

U.S. President-elect Barack Obama plans to continue his close links with the Internet by making the weekly radio address into a YouTube video that he will post on his Web site www.change.gov, aides said on Friday.

Obama, who takes office on Jan. 20, will record this Saturday’s Democratic weekly radio address as his first video and audio address. He will continue the tradition during his presidency.

“No president-elect or president has ever turned the radio address into a multimedia opportunity before,” said transition spokesman Nick Shapiro.

“This is just one of the many ways that President-elect Obama will communicate directly with the American people and make the White House and the political process more transparent.”

Obama, the first president-elect with a MySpace and Facebook profile, used the Internet to his advantage during the long two-year presidential campaign, breaking all records in part by his highly successful effort to raise money online.

Shapiro said in addition to regularly videotaping the radio address, the Obama White House will also conduct regular question and answer chats online as well as video interviews.

Transition office officials said the goal was to put a face on the new administration and its members.

One of the first videos that will be put up on the Webster is of Valerie Jarrett, one of Obama’s close advisers and a co-chair of the transition effort.

REUTERS/Jason Reed (Obama speaks with campaign worker in Reno, Nevada)

CHICAGO - Anybody seen President-elect Barack Obama lately?

The press pool covering him sure hasn’t.

As he delves deeply into planning his transition to the White House, Obama has been keeping a low-profile in Chicago, after his high-profile visit to the White House on Monday.

He was seen publicly on Tuesday when he laid a Veteran’s Day wreath with disabled Iraq war veteran Tammy Duckworth.

But that’s been about it. On Thursday morning, Obama dropped his two daughters off at their school in the morning. They hopped out of the vehicle, but Obama did not.

He went to his fitness center for a workout. Photographers sprinted to try to get his picture as he walked into the place, to little avail. 

What about his arrival at his transition office? Nope, the motorcade took him to an underground garage.

It has been like that all week. On Tuesday, to avoid attracting a crowd at his barber shop, the barber was brought to him and he got his hair cut at a friend’s apartment.

What to make of this? Nothing really, except that photographers are getting a workout running to get in place for a brief glimpse of him, and having nothing to show for it.

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Photo credit: Reuters/Kevin Lamarque (Obama sign hands outside his transition office in Chicago)