Barack Obama

Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii to Barack Obama, Sr. (born in Nyanza Province, Kenya) and Ann Dunham (born in Wichita, Kansas). Barack Hussein Obama (born August 4, 1961) is the junior United States Senator from Illinois and a member of the Democratic Party.

Obama grew up in culturally diverse surroundings. He spent most of his childhood in the majority-minority U.S. state of Hawaii and lived for four years in Indonesia. Obama delivered the keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention while still an Illinois state legislator. Since announcing his candidacy in February 2007, Obama has emphasized ending the Iraq War and implementing universal health care as campaign themes.

As a member of the Democratic minority in the 109th Congress, Obama co-sponsored the enactment of conventional weapons control and transparency legislation, and made official trips to Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Obama's parents separated when he was two years old and later divorced. His father went to Harvard University to pursue Ph.D. studies, then returned to Kenya, where he died in an auto accident when the younger Obama was twenty-one years old.

Progress on Douglass Bridge

While some of you are sitting in traffic on I-295 and Pennsylvania Avenue because of the Douglass Bridge shutdown, construction crews are working two 10-hour shifts each day to get the job done on schedule. Bridge workers maneuver concrete form near new intersection. (Robert Thomson) Ardeshir Nafici, the acting associate direction of the District Department of Transportation, and project manager Chase Cox led a tour Wednesday morning across the top of the bridge. If you do a 360-degree turn up there, the Anacostia waterfront area looks like one continuous work zone, and that's been one of the challenges on the bridge project: Coordinating with the utility companies and developers who also are working along the South Capitol Street corridor on projects like the new Nationals stadium. Ardeshir Nafici, left, and Chase Cox discuss the project. (Robert Thomson) Nafici says that's been going remarkably well, and the bridge reconstruction is on