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We are one. Three simple words often repeated but rarely realized. Today President-elect Barack Obama’s call for unity transcended eloquent rhetoric and became a tangible reality as hundreds of thousands of people gathered for the Opening Inaugural Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial. People stood shoulder-to-shoulder on both sides of the Reflecting Pool, past the World War II Memorial and beyond the Washington Monument.

They came, they saw, and only some had to wait.

#inaug09 is your key to getting and giving all the information you'll need about Barack Obama's inauguration.

That's the Twitter "hash tag" that allows Inauguration Report, a collaborative effort by American University, National Public Radio and CBS News, to pool together and display inauguration reports by anyone with a cell phone or a computer in real time.

And it's so easy.

American Observer Reporter Nick Schwellenbach explains the Inauguration Report project and how to use the Inauguration Report iPhone Application.

From Dupont Circle to the National Museum of American History: The American Observer took a bike, a car and the metro and made the test.

It's cold and rainy, sure signs of winter and December. And of course December, means Christmas, complete with mistletoe, wreaths and trees.

After the Christmas presents are opened, most people turn their focus to celebrating the New Year. However, Jessica Solomon, an American University Public Affairs graduate student, will shift her focus this year to celebrating matunda ya kwanza — meaning Kwanzaa or “first fruits.”

A foreigner's firsthand tale of spending Christmas in the Middle East and now in Washington D.C.

Even before the economy turned south, many people were looking for ways to simplify their Christmas celebrations.

Free range farming may not mean the animals are as free as you think. Some local farmers prefer the term "pastured" to describe their humane and environmentally beneficial farming philosophy.