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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Washington Monument set to reopen April 1


A view of the Washington Monument through the pillars of the National World War II Memorial, is shown in 2003 in Washington.
 (File/Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)
Compiled from wire reports The Spokesman-Review

Washington The Washington Monument will reopen to the public on April 1 after the completion of security upgrades, the National Park Service announced Friday.

The monument has been closed since Sept. 7, when the $15 million project began. The security improvements include vehicle barriers and a new lighting system.

Visitors will be able to travel by elevator to the top of the 555-foot tall monument when it reopens, but the surrounding 55 acres will remain off-limits until late June, said Vikki Keys, superintendent of the National Mall and memorial parks.

The Park Service is erecting a temporary kiosk, where timed tickets will be available each day on a first-come, first-served basis.

The reopening will coincide with the Cherry Blossom Festival, which is expected to bring about 1 million people to the capital.

‘Branding’ campaign under way for an international U.S. agency

Washington The U.S. Agency for International Development is moving smartly on its “branding” campaign, which is designed to make absolutely sure that people receiving U.S. aid know who it’s from.

Nongovernmental groups operating overseas in nasty places are not too happy with putting the USAID logo on their cars, comparing it to a bull’s-eye for bad guys to shoot at. The agency says it will allow exemptions in some cases.

Meanwhile, though, folks at the agency have hats and lovely lapel pins they are to wear proudly to let everyone know where they work. There are great T-shirts, polo shirts, baggage tags and other items – and a 94-page manual explaining how this is to work.

The United States, it seems, is not the only country working to improve its “branding” programs. The lapel pins – “USAID” and “From the American People” – have a little tag on each plastic envelope that says “Made in China.”

The white baseball-cap tags say the same, with a China label inside that also alerts us to “hand wash only” – though machine washing is not a huge danger in the Third World.

John Edwards releases his first podcast on his Web site

John Edwards may be out of office, but that doesn’t mean you still can’t hear him.

The former vice presidential candidate this week released his first podcast, an online audio recording featuring Edwards and his wife, Elizabeth, chatting about the NCAA basketball tournament, her breast cancer treatments, his opposition to President Bush’s Social Security plans and (pander alert) his respect for bloggers.

“I also want to say that I know bloggers have really taken a leading role in this effort to fight to protect Social Security,” Edwards says, mentioning a few names and sites, such as www.thereisnocrisis.com. The 25-minute recording is available on his Web site, www.oneamericacommittee.com.

Edwards, who is running a poverty center at the University of North Carolina and is believed to be pondering another run for the White House, wasn’t known for his tech savvy during his 2004 campaign. But he is now one of the few politicians to venture into the world of podcasting. It is populated, mostly, by otherwise anonymous individuals who have posted recordings of themselves discussing everything from God to wine. Their audio files can be heard online or downloaded onto portable digital audio players. Democrat Donnie Fowler was the first politician to launch a podcast, during his unsuccessful bid earlier this year to become chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

Podcasting is not just for Democrats. The Republican National Committee has released its own podcasts on www.gop.com – although they will sound familiar to anyone who has watched the party’s Web video series “Off the Record.” They are the audio portions of those interviews with GOP politicians.

“Additional podcasts will be available soon,” the RNC Web site said.

James Madison papers posted online with over 12,000 pages

Washington James Madison, often called the “Father of the Constitution,” did not think the Constitution needed a bill of rights. Public pressure was so great that he decided it would be politically necessary, so he made a speech in the First Federal Congress proposing 19 changes, 10 of which passed.

Madison’s “Notes for a Speech in Congress” of June 8, 1789, were posted online Friday, along with about 12,000 other pages from his papers preserved in the Library of Congress. Some are in code, including letters to President Thomas Jefferson, for whom Madison served as secretary of state.

The collection has Madison’s correspondence with George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, James Monroe and other founding fathers. His notes from the convention of 1787 that drafted the Constitution are there, too, as are his notes from the legislative session in his native Virginia that ratified it.

Madison’s letters and notes cover his two terms as the fourth president, including the War of 1812, when an invading British force burned down the White House, the Capitol and much of Washington, forcing him and his wife, Dolley, to flee.

There is a copy of Jefferson’s notes from the Continental Congress of 1776, including his own copy of the Declaration of Independence as Congress amended it. Jefferson’s original version had an attack on King George III of England for vetoing attempts to stop the importation of slaves; it was omitted by Congress, to Jefferson’s great indignation.

The papers long have been available to scholars and other interested readers, but it took a trip to Washington and application to the library to see the documents.

The library also has the papers of 22 other presidents, which are gradually being put on line. Those of Washington, Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln are already available in the collection of more than 10 million digital pages called “American Memory.”

Newt Gingrich to appear in Vegas at the Silverton casino

If you are on the Vegas Strip next month and get shut out for tickets to Wayne Newton, you could have a fallback with a different Newton. Former House speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., is playing at Vegas next month, with an April 14 appearance at the Silverton casino, just a few miles south of the Strip.

The Silverton said Gingrich will appear to “tell his inspiring story.”