Inaugurations

The tattoos on his body still identify him as a member of the Five-Deuce Broadway Crips. His homeboys in South-Central Los Angeles know him as Cue Bone. Police computers show that he served three years for manslaughter. But all that will be forgiven next week when Charles Rachal boards a plane for Washington, D.C., where a complementary hotel room and tuxedo await his arrival as one of 50 "Faces of Hope" invited to Bill Clinton's presidential inauguration.

PARIS - France's new president, Francois Hollande, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have opposing ideas of how to solve Europe's crippling public debt crisis - she austerity, he spending and growth - so a clash was in the cards Tuesday. Instead, Hollande's welcome to Berlin just hours after he took office was brisk but warm, even if he was late for dinner. Hollande - whose initial flight to Berlin was hit by lightning, causing him to briefly return to an air base outside Paris to switch planes - and Merkel met for an hour before dining together.

As many as 2 million people are expected to descend on the National Mall on Tuesday to witness the presidential inauguration of Barack Obama, but most of the country will experience the event on television. The broadcast and cable networks will begin coverage well before the start of the swearing-in ceremony, at 8:30 a.m. Pacific time. Reporting will begin at dawn in Washington and continue on most networks into the night. All times listed are PST.

MOSCOW - President-elect Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that he would resign as chairman of the United Russia party after his inauguration in early May and indicated that outgoing President Dmitry Medvedev should serve as both prime minister and leader of the party. Medvedev stepped down after one term as president to allow Putin, who was serving as prime minister, to again seek the presidency, which he held for two terms before Medvedev's tenure. Putin was elected last month after a lengthy series of demonstrations in which tens of thousands of opponents took to the streets to demand an end to Putin's rule and to call United Russia "the party of swindlers and thieves.

The election may be over, but the Hollywood ATM is still kicking out the cash. And if all goes as planned, the entertainment industry money will help put on an inaugural bash like never before. According to records posted on the Internet by President-elect Barack Obama's transition team, the inaugural committee is raking in the cash through private donations to help fund items such as fireworks and American flags for what's shaping up as the Biggest Show on Earth.

The huge television audience that tuned in to watch President Obama's inauguration Tuesday flocked mostly to the coverage on NBC and ABC, according to Nielsen Media Research. CNN also scored strong viewership, beating its cable news competition and edging out CBS. Between 7 a.m. and 2 p.m. PST, 37.8 million people watched the inauguration coverage on 17 broadcast and cable networks, according to Nielsen. That made Obama's inauguration the most-watched since 1981, when a record 41.

TODAY 5 a.m.: Reception for the diplomatic corps at Georgetown University 7 a.m.-1 p.m.: America's Reunion on the Mall continues 7 a.m.: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day observance at Howard University 9 a.m.: Faces of Hope luncheon at Folger Library. President-elect Bill Clinton and Vice President-elect Al Gore host luncheon for 50 people they met during the campaign 11 a.m.: Tennessee Street Festival for family, friends and staff of Gore at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts 4:30 p.m.

Herbert Hoover's inauguration was the first broadcast live on radio, and Harry Truman's was the first shown on television. Today, if all goes as planned, President Clinton's second inaugural will be the first to be carried over the Internet. The Presidential Inaugural Committee, in a partnership with the Public Broadcasting Service, has set up an official inaugural website at http://www.pbs.org/inaugural97.

Like so many presidents before him, Barack Obama has invited a revered guest to his inauguration: God. Although the Constitution forbids the government from establishing religion, faith is once again figuring prominently into the nation's grandest political pageant, just as it has over the course of American history.

The swearing-in of Barack Obama came off without a security-related hitch Tuesday, but underneath the calm veneer, federal authorities were intensively investigating a report that a group of Somalia-based militants wanted to launch some kind of inauguration-related attack.

This story has been updated to include comments from the Romney campaign. WASHINGTON -- Inauguration Day may be nine months away, but that's not stopping Mitt Romney from cashing in on the possibility that he could be president-elect by then. In a fundraising plea circulated by a Georgia supporter and obtained by Buzzfeed , the campaign was said to be “asking people who are able to make a $50,000 contribution to do so today and become a 'Founding Member' of Romney Victory,” a new joint fundraising committee that allows Romney to rake in larger donations than he had been collecting through his single campaign committee.

Men in pressed suits and polished shoes, some carrying holy books and sporting beards, rushed past concrete barricades and hurried beneath a silver dome to begin setting laws for a nation that for generations had oppressed and imprisoned many of those now rising to power. Egypt's new parliament held its inaugural session Monday, and a sense of wonder was mixed with the gravity of a country still under military rule and beset by economic turmoil. Dominated by the Muslim Brotherhood, once banned from running for office, the chamber echoed with the raucous voices of a burgeoning political era that is replacing the specter of Hosni Mubarak's corrupt secular government.

Officials for Circuit of the Americas, a $300-million racetrack being built in Texas for Formula One's return to the U.S. market, said Sunday they have launched the ticketing process for buying premier seats to the inaugural race Nov. 18. After considerable uncertainty in recent months about whether the track would get Formula One approval to put on the race, the series put the race on its 2012 calendar and construction has accelerated at the...

Sitting on a table collecting dust in the UCLA football office is the Bruins' claim to fame under Coach Rick Neuheisel: the EagleBank Bowl trophy. Outside of the head coach's office is another memento: a large team photo taken in front of the United States Capitol building, the Bruins' postcard moment from their only bowl game under Neuheisel. Waiting on Thursday night in Tucson is the opportunity to move toward more impressive hardware and a better photo-op. The Bruins, as has been the case much of this season, have another can't-lose game when they face Arizona.

Will Power wrapped his hand around a big bottle of champagne, shook it up, let the bubbly fly and took a long drink. What better way to celebrate a perfect weekend? Power put on a masterful performance Sunday over a difficult street course to win the inaugural Baltimore Grand Prix. The Australian deftly negotiated hairpin turns and confidently gripped the wheel over bumpy roads to earn his second consecutive victory and career-high sixth of the season. Power had the best time in Friday's practice session, captured the pole Saturday, then led in 70 of the 75 laps to earn the $35,000 top prize.

Radar L.A., the international theater festival of contemporary performance that came to a close Sunday, was part of a glorious convergence of panels, conferences and festivals that put L.A. at the center of the theatrical universe last week. Theater folk from far and wide were milling around REDCAT and the Los Angeles Theatre Center (LATC) as though they were their homes away from home. It was Eli Broad's vision of downtown as a vibrant cultural nexus come true, except the pedestrian stream was preponderantly bubbly performing arts types rather than modish gallery-hoppers.

If Barack Obama is going to bring the country out of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, he'll have to wait until at least Wednesday. The inauguration of the 44th U.S. president won't be a day of productivity for many businesses in Southern California and around the nation, but rather a day of celebration. And for one Los Angeles public relations firm, today will be a day of waffles.

This Sunday, Brady Lowe and his traveling porkapalooza, Cochon 555, rolls into the former St. Vibiana's Cathedral in downtown L.A. on a mission to make a party out of everything pig. The inaugural Los Angeles event, already sold out, raises the bar for dining festivals, linking five heritage pig farmers, five vintners and five local chefs. Each chef is challenged to create a snout-to-tail feast for 400 guests, who will serve as judges alongside a selected panel. The goal is to introduce patrons and chefs to new brands and breeds, but mostly it's a primal and competitive show of butchery, ambitious cooking and lavish feasting.

The NFL on Tuesday released its 2011 schedule. Question is, should it be written in pencil? Commissioner Roger Goodell, for one, sounded encouraged after a day of mediation aimed at resolving a labor dispute that could put the season in peril. "We have every intention of playing the full schedule," he said, "and that's why we're releasing it as we normally do. " The season is scheduled to begin Thursday, Sept. 8 at Green Bay, when the Packers host New Orleans, a game that pits the past two Super Bowl champions.