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.

Friday, February 01, 2008

TODAY'S HIGHLIGHTS
Immigration Battle Divides Ariz. GOP
PHOENIX -- The protesters gather every morning before dawn, monitoring the entrance to a fenced compound called the Macehualli Work Center. They are trying to shut the place down. They wave placards and take photos of anyone driving in to pick up the day laborers who congregate there. They want...
(By Joel Achenbach, The Washington Post)

Obama Is Racing Against the Clock
Short Calendar Favors Clinton
(By Alec MacGillis and Anne E. Kornblut, The Washington Post)

Debate Grows on Pause in Troop Cuts
U.S. Leaders Differ on Pace Of Withdrawals
(By Ann Scott Tyson, The Washington Post)

Acceptance Slow for Bush's Space Plan
With Some Scientists Skeptical, NASA Turns to Advertising Firm to Generate Appeal
(By Marc Kaufman, The Washington Post)

More Today's Highlights

POLITICS
Immigration Battle Divides Ariz. GOP
PHOENIX -- The protesters gather every morning before dawn, monitoring the entrance to a fenced compound called the Macehualli Work Center. They are trying to shut the place down. They wave placards and take photos of anyone driving in to pick up the day laborers who congregate there. They want...
(By Joel Achenbach, The Washington Post)

Acceptance Slow for Bush's Space Plan
With Some Scientists Skeptical, NASA Turns to Advertising Firm to Generate Appeal
(By Marc Kaufman, The Washington Post)

Obama Is Racing Against the Clock
Short Calendar Favors Clinton
(By Alec MacGillis and Anne E. Kornblut, The Washington Post)

U.S. Loses Jobs For First Time In Five Years
Pressure Mounts to Pass Stimulus Plan
(By Neil Irwin, The Washington Post)

Microsoft Bids $44.6 Billion To Buy Yahoo
Runaway Dominance Of Google Forces Offer
(By Peter Whoriskey and David Cho, The Washington Post)

More Politics

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NATION
Acceptance Slow for Bush's Space Plan
Four years after President Bush called for Americans to return to the moon and then voyage on to Mars, NASA is spending hundreds of millions of dollars to design, build and test the spacecraft that would make it possible.
(By Marc Kaufman, The Washington Post)

Grand Jury Subpoenas Times Reporter Over Book Sources
(By Dan Eggen, The Washington Post)

Immigration Battle Divides Ariz. GOP
Many Activists Despise McCain
(By Joel Achenbach, The Washington Post)

U.S., Poland Closer to Deal on Missile Defense
(By Karen DeYoung, The Washington Post)

CIA Sets Changes To IG's Oversight, Adds Ombudsman
(By Joby Warrick, The Washington Post)

More Nation

WORLD
After Months of Relative Calm, 2 Deadly Blasts Rock Baghdad
BAGHDAD, Feb. 1 -- Amid so much that cannot be trusted, so much that is dangerous to do, Hassan Jarbou had begun to find some solace every Friday in the act of buying birds.
(By Joshua Partlow, The Washington Post)

Germany Rebuffs U.S. On Troops in Afghanistan
Refusal to Shift Deployment A Setback for NATO Effort
(By Craig Whitlock, The Washington Post)

Bolivia's Burning Question: Who May Dispense Justice?
Draft Constitution Would Allow Indigenous Groups To Judge and Punish
(By Monte Reel, The Washington Post)

Immigration Battle Divides Ariz. GOP
Many Activists Despise McCain
(By Joel Achenbach, The Washington Post)

Kenyan Rivals Agree on Measures to End Post-Election Violence
(By Stephanie McCrummen, The Washington Post)

More World

METRO
Testimony at Hearing Seals Fate of Arlington Psychiatrist
The hearing was entering its 10th hour Thursday night when Arlington County psychiatrist Martin H. Stein learned that his 40-year career as a practicing physician was effectively over.
(By Sandra G. Boodman, The Washington Post)

U.S. Input Sought to Save Rail To Dulles
Kaine Expresses Readiness to Work With Regulators
(By Amy Gardner, The Washington Post)

Mount Pleasant's Growing Pain
An Outdoor Trash Bin At a Latino Restaurant Proves an Unlikely Trigger Of an Ideological Clash In a D.C. Neighborhood
(By N.C. Aizenman, The Washington Post)

Montgomery Politician Headed Council and Board of Education
(By Miranda S. Spivack, The Washington Post)

Bush Proposes Giving D.C. $32 Million More To Boost School Reform
(By David Nakamura, The Washington Post)

More Metro

BUSINESS
Defense Dept.'s Weapons Programs Faulted
The Defense Department's major weapons programs have suffered cost overruns in the billions of dollars, years-long delays and quality shortfalls because of poor acquisition practices by the department, according to a report released yesterday by the Government Accountability Office.
(By Dana Hedgpeth, The Washington Post)

Exxon Mobil's Profit in 2007 Tops $40 Billion
(By Steven Mufson, The Washington Post)

U.S. Loses Jobs For First Time In Five Years
Pressure Mounts to Pass Stimulus Plan
(By Neil Irwin, The Washington Post)

All Fired Up
Camping Gear Sold To Tailgaters to Get Them . . .
(By Ylan Q. Mui, The Washington Post)

After Months of Relative Calm, 2 Deadly Blasts Rock Baghdad
(By Joshua Partlow, The Washington Post)

More Business

TECHNOLOGY
Rare Cable Rupture 'a Wake-Up Call' for India
NEW DELHI, Feb. 1 -- In the heart of an industrial zone and up an ordinary flight of stairs, young computer engineers buzzed with activity Friday in front of a huge screen tracking Internet connectivity in this country's booming service sector.
(By Emily Wax, The Washington Post)

Area Police Weigh Value of YouTube as Tool
(By Daniela Deane, The Washington Post)

Microsoft Bids $44.6 Billion To Buy Yahoo
Runaway Dominance Of Google Forces Offer
(By Peter Whoriskey and David Cho, The Washington Post)

Microsoft-Yahoo Union Would Still Be No. 2
(By Mike Musgrove and Cecilia Kang, The Washington Post)

A Boost to Big Advertisers, Maybe Not to Smaller Ones
(By Frank Ahrens, The Washington Post)

More Technology

SPORTS
Hot Jazz Trumps Depleted Wizards
Antawn Jamison scores 31 points in his first game since being named to the All-Star team, but the Jazz pull away in the fourth quarter to beat the Wizards, 96-87.
(By Ivan Carter, The Washington Post)

Fate Had Hand in Changing Courses
(By Les Carpenter, The Washington Post)

Capitals Running Out of Superlatives for Ovechkin
(By Tarik El-Bashir, The Washington Post)

Three Redskins Seek Hall Votes
'Underrepresented' Super Bowl-Winning Team Appears to Have Support This Year
(By Mark Maske, The Washington Post)

Hokies and Cavaliers Are in a Poll Reversal
(By Adam Kilgore, The Washington Post)

More Sports

STYLE
The Accompanists
Both are confident and funny, opinionated and very smart. Both are Ivy League lawyers with working-class roots. Both have formidable identities independent of their formidable partners. Both are history-making spouses of history-making presidential candidates.
(By Peter Slevin, The Washington Post)

Brit's Dad in Control for Now
(The Washington Post)

West's Travel Topped Other Smithsonian Directors'
Review Found Cost of Trips By Former Indian Museum Leader Five Times the Average
(By James V. Grimaldi and Jacqueline Trescott, The Washington Post)

Wesley Snipes Fights Taxman To a Draw
Action Star Found Guilty Only of Lesser Charges
(By Linton Weeks, The Washington Post)

'Hannah Montana' In 3-D, Keeping It One-Dimensional
(By Adam Bernstein, The Washington Post)

More Style

EDITORIALS
Political Stimulus
THERE ARE two ways to look at the package of tax and spending measures that emerged from Chairman Max Baucus's Senate Finance Committee this week: as an economic stimulus plan for the country or as a political stimulus plan for the Democratic Party. As the latter, it was arguably superior to the ...
(The Washington Post)

Heart Choices
A cholesterol drug study suggests that consumers have been lured into overspending.
(The Washington Post)

Narrowing the Gap
Montgomery school programs are getting the job done.
(The Washington Post)

More Editorials

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