Inauguration

The following poem was delivered by inauguration poet Richard Blanco during ceremonies for  President Obama's second inaugural Monday. The text of the poem was provided by the Presidential Inaugural Committee. "One Today" One sun rose on us today, kindled over our shores, peeking over the Smokies, greeting the faces of the Great Lakes, spreading a simple truth across the Great Plains, then charging across the Rockies. One light, waking up rooftops, under each one, a story told by our silent gestures moving behind windows.

WASHINGTON - President Obama's second inaugural committee raised a little more than $43 million to put on the official festivities surrounding his January swearing-in, backed by major donations from some of the country's biggest corporations, according to a report filed with the Federal Election Commission. The total brought in by the 2013 Presidential Inaugural Committee was $10 million less than the amount raised in 2009 for Obama's first inauguration, a reflection of the scaled-down nature of this year's event.

This inauguration will be unique. The same chief justice that selected the president will swear him in. ROYCE D. STAUFFER Carpinteria

The Producers Guild of America honored nine people for their contributions to the advancement of digital entertainment and storytelling in an event held in the Bel Air mansion of entrepreneur Elon Musk. The Digital VIP awards celebration attracted some Hollywood notables, including Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studios Chief Creative Officer John Lasseter, Oscar-winning actor Morgan Freeman and Bill Westenhofer, the visual effects supervisor whose team at Rhythm & Hues won an Academy Award this year for work on "Life of Pi. " But it was an acrobat dubbed "Champagne Girl" who arguably received the most of the attention at Thursday's night celebration, dangling upside-down from a chandelier and pouring bubbly as the 100 or so guests snapped photos.  Indeed, the whole event had the atmospherics of a Baz Luhrmann film.

Here is a transcript of President Obama's second inaugural address, as provided by the White House in advance of his speech: Vice President Biden, Mr. Chief Justice, Members of the United States Congress, distinguished guests, and fellow citizens:  Each time we gather to inaugurate a president, we bear witness to the enduring strength of our Constitution.  We affirm the promise of our democracy.  We recall that what binds this nation together...

TV viewers had a message for President Obama and his second inauguration: Been there, seen that. Ratings on the three cable news networks Monday plunged compared with four years ago, when Obama was swept into office on a message of hope and change. A combined total of 6.7 million viewers watched CNN, Fox News and MSNBC during the half-hour starting at 8:45 a.m. Pacific time, when a reelected Obama took the oath of office and gave his address. That was a 61% drop compared with the same period in 2009.

BOULDER, Colo. - While his campaign aides like to say they take nothing for granted, President Obama showed off a little confidence Sunday as he worked the crowd at a Boulder, Colo., restaurant. Obama didn't quite predict he would swear in for a second term after the election, but he did predict the weather at the inauguration. As Obama chatted up diners at the Buff restaurant, a breakfast and lunch place near the University of Colorado campus, Jim Osborne stood up from his meal to greet the president.

VATICAN CITY - Huge crowds gathered in St. Peter's Square and spilled into side streets Tuesday morning as Pope Francis prepared for his official inauguration as leader of the Roman Catholic Church and its 1.2 billion followers. Up to a million people are expected to jam into and around this tiny city-state to witness the highly ceremonial event, which will also be attended by royalty, government leaders and religious figures from around the world. Pilgrims began camping out overnight to claim a spot from which to watch the installation of the 266th pope in the church's history and the first from the Americas.

Re "Fundraising beat goes on for Gov.," Dec. 3 Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said he is going to build a stronger, unified California. I have an idea for a great start. Go ahead and raise the same amount of money it would take to finance the inaugural ceremony that the governor has envisioned. But instead of actually having a Hollywood production and grand luncheon, give the money to support California residents in need. Of course, you need to let the donors know your intentions -- any other pretense would be dishonest.

Re "Invocation draws mixed reviews," Jan. 21 The Times says Rick Warren's inaugural invocation got "mixed reviews" -- he mollified gay-rights supporters and yet dared to invoke the name of Jesus and utilize the Lord's Prayer. This is a mixed-up critique. To whom is prayer offered? Where in the Bible (or any sacred Scripture) does prayer to a deity require pleasing supporters of gay rights? Where do Scriptures affirm that prayers to God should appease atheists? The Bible does offer a litmus test for prayers to be acceptable to the Father.

VATICAN CITY - Huge crowds gathered in St. Peter's Square and spilled into side streets Tuesday morning as Pope Francis prepared for his official inauguration as leader of the Roman Catholic Church and its 1.2 billion followers. Up to a million people are expected to jam into and around this tiny city-state to witness the highly ceremonial event, which will also be attended by royalty, government leaders and religious figures from around the world. Pilgrims began camping out overnight to claim a spot from which to watch the installation of the 266th pope in the church's history and the first from the Americas.

VATICAN CITY - Amid elaborate ritual and ancient symbols of Christendom, Pope Francis began the first official day of his pontificate Tuesday by setting out a vision for the Roman Catholic Church of mutual caring and of concern for the environment, urging followers to pay special attention to society's poor and neglected. Before tens of thousands of pilgrims and dignitaries gathered for his inauguration in St. Peter's Square, the pontiff made clear that his papacy would reflect the themes of service and love of nature so closely identified with the saint after whom he named himself, Francis of Assisi.

LONDON -- John Kerry used the first stop on his first foreign tour as secretary of state to urge Syrian opposition parties to join a proposed meeting this week in Rome that will seek solutions to that country's protracted civil war. Joined by his British counterpart, Foreign Secretary William Hague, Kerry stressed the urgency of working with Britain and the U.N. toward peace in Syria and the broader Middle East. Referring to the meeting later this week of the Friends of Syria, a group of countries seeking a resolution to the Syrian crisis, Kerry said: “I want our friends in the Syrian opposition council to know we are not coming to Rome simply to talk.

Hadiya Pendleton knew she lived in a big world. And the more of it she saw, the better. After returning from Washington, D.C., where the Chicago teenager performed as a majorette during last week's inauguration festivities, she had her eye on her next destination: Paris. For family and friends of the 15-year-old sophomore, who was fatally shot Tuesday in a park near her school on Chicago's South Side, their Hadiya is gone, but her dreams and their memories are not. The victim's mother shook her head and wiped away heavy tears during an interview Tuesday with  WFLD-TV in Chicago: “I'm not worried about where she's going.

The announcement for various wine events and tastings usually comes in so early, I'll stash the release away, planning to write about the event a couple of weeks before it takes place. Now I'm finding out that's all wrong, because tickets sell out fast, especially to the events that don't require mega-bucks to attend. So here it is: Tickets went on sale a couple of days ago for Family Winemakers of California 's annual Southern California tasting. This year -- the fifth -- it takes place Saturday, March 9, and Sunday, March 10, and shines the light on 175 producers from small, family-owned wineries.

While many fashion observers seemed delighted by  Michelle Obama's Inauguration Day and night outfits -- such as the Jason Wu gown shown here -- Bridget Foley writing on wwd.com, doesn't like the first lady's secrecy ahead of time. Not. One. Bit. She is especially critical of the first lady's office soliciting clothing choices from a reported 15 designers: "What woman in search of an event dress has a short list of 15 favorites? Mrs. Obama isn't an indulged starlet primping for the Oscars, nor should she behave like one. Women everywhere have big events for which they select a single dress in advance of the moment.

President Obama's second inauguration will be Jan. 21. The swearing-in ceremony will no doubt be a hot ticket -- though if past inaugurations are any indication, the actual experience will more likely be freezing cold for those observing outdoors. The Newseum in Washington is offering what could be a happy medium -- physical proximity to the actual event but in the warmth of an indoor viewing location.  The museum said Wednesday that it is offering an inauguration viewing package for $100 that will include a live feed of the swearing-in ceremony on a big screen and a direct view onto Pennsylvania Avenue as the president makes his way to the White House.

I'm just back from Washington, after a weeklong trip to cover the inaugural festivities. And by cover , I mean walking for miles in bone-chilling cold and waiting for hours with hundreds of thousands of strangers to watch the proceedings on giant video screens. Inauguration morning may have looked good on TV. The pomp, the crowds, the soaring rhetoric, the patriotic songs. In real life, it involved rising before dawn to navigate barricaded streets with confused crowds given faulty directions by clueless volunteers and out-of-town police.

If the Pasadena Playhouse had decided to adopt a theme song when a dire economy and longstanding debts forced it to cease operations for most of 2010 while it tried to claw its way back to solvency, "Stand by Me," the 1961 pop-soul classic sung by Ben E. King, would have fit the situation precisely. It turns out that Mike Stoller, who co-wrote and co-produced "Stand by Me," among dozens of other indelible hits of the 1950s and 1960s on which he teamed with his partner, the late Jerry Leiber, was paying attention, along with his wife, musician Corky Hale Stoller.