Oath Of Office

Shirley Sears Chater, described by her new boss as a woman of skill, vision and tenacity, took the oath of office yesterday as commissioner of the Social Security Administration at its Woodlawn headquarters.The 60-year-old educator will oversee a work force of more than 68,000, including more than 14,000 in the Baltimore area."If only Shirley Chater can do for America what she did for Texas Women's University," Donna E. Shalala, secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, said before swearing in the new SSA chief.

Kenneth O'Donnell, aide to President John F. Kennedy, stepped into a small cubicle at Parkland Hospital, where Vice President Lyndon Baines Johnson nervously waited with his wife and several aides to learn the condition of the president. Kennedy had been shot as his motorcade made its way through downtown Dallas on a sun-splashed November autumn afternoon. "He's gone," O'Donnell said to Johnson, who through an assassin's hand had become the 36th president of the United States. It was 1:30 p.m. Central Standard Time, Nov. 22, 1963.

KARZAI TAKES OATH OF OFFICE Hamid Karzai was sworn in yesterday as Afghanistan's first popularly elected president. Read the story and find The Sun's archived Afghanistan coverage. www.baltimoresun.com/afghan BALCO STEROIDS SCANDAL Read the latest and get archived coverage of the steroids scandal rocking Major League Baseball and track and field. www.baltimoresun.com/steroids

A tremendous crowd filled Washington for Barack Obama's presidential inauguration yesterday, surpassing by many estimates the mark set more than four decades ago when 1.2 million people are thought to have watched Lyndon B. Johnson take the oath of office in 1965. Early indications were that easily more than a million people, and perhaps 2 million, may have journeyed to the National Mall and surrounding areas for the swearing-in of the first African-American president. The National Park Service - long relied on to calculate crowds for large Washington events - is expected to provide a firmer estimate later in the week, according to a spokesman.

Aretha Franklin to bring soul to the inauguration Aretha Franklin, Yo-Yo Ma, the San Francisco Boys Chorus and the San Francisco Girls Chorus will all be part of the entertainment at Barack Obama's inaugural ceremony. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who heads the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, announced yesterday the program for the 56th presidential inauguration, which will take place at the west front of the Capitol. The invocation will be offered by The Purpose-Driven Life author Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif.

Maryland is losing out on casino benefitsI totally disagree with The Sun's position of "no casinos, period."Maryland politicians and The Sun must wake up and realize that casinos will bring tourists, economic growth, and if properly managed, money into the state, city and local government coffers for education, health care, etc. (In St. Louis, an admission charge to the casinos is collected and goes directly to education.)As a property owner in Dorchester County, I have seen the impact of the new and improved Route 50 and the bypasses.

From The Sun May 16-22, 1843May 17: Towards evening yesterday, a rumor was prevalent about town to the effect that a man named McDermott, living on the York Road, on the preceding evening, killed his wife by a blow with a chair.May 19: M. La Baume ascertained that washing the teeth with vinegar and a brush will in a few days remove the tartar, thus obviating the necessity for filing or scraping them which so often injures the enamel.From The Sun May 16-22, 1893May 16: At about a quarter before three o'clock Sunday morning there was a terrific explosion of dynamite at Texas, Northern Central Railroad, causing intense excitement and arousing households within a radius of ten miles.

There were no precedents, of course, for the first presidential inaugural address. Everything was up to George Washington. In 1789, there were no models anywhere for an elected head of state. There were not yet cliches.Washington took the oath of office in New York, addressing members of the Senate and the House of Representatives in Federal Hall on Wall Street. He convincingly said that he was abandoning retirement for the presidency only with the greatest reluctance. After 208 years, his remarks seem notable for their humility and their formality.

Clay C. Opara will be sworn in Tuesday as the newest delegate in the General Assembly after the 41st Democratic Central Committee met yesterday and appointed him to the position.Mr. Opara's selection by the five-member committee to replace Del. Margaret H. Murphy long has been considered a formality. The appointment of the 30-year-old lawyer was brokered by the political clubs that control the district's Democratic committee. So apprised, House Speaker Casper R. Taylor Jr. has set aside time Tuesday to give Mr. Opara the oath of office.

Four years ago, Anne Arundel County Executive Janet S. Owens promised to protect farmland, improve education and live up to high standards every day of her stewardship. At her second inaugural event, set to take place today at the Chesapeake Center for the Creative Arts in Brooklyn Park, the Democrat is expected to draw upon the same themes in outlining an aggressive agenda for the next four years. Owens will take the oath of office - which is the same for every elected official, judge and political appointee in the county - from Circuit Court Clerk Robert P. Duckworth.

Aretha Franklin to bring soul to the inauguration Aretha Franklin, Yo-Yo Ma, the San Francisco Boys Chorus and the San Francisco Girls Chorus will all be part of the entertainment at Barack Obama's inaugural ceremony. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who heads the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, announced yesterday the program for the 56th presidential inauguration, which will take place at the west front of the Capitol. The invocation will be offered by The Purpose-Driven Life author Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif.

The invisible man stepped back into the spotlight last night, if only for an hour. President Bush had been fading from view for months. In this campaign season, Americans seem far more interested in who will be their next president than they are in the current one. The speech in Washington yesterday that generated the most electricity wasn't Bush's final State of the Union. It was Teddy Kennedy endorsing Barack Obama. So, it might have been at least a mild shock to viewers to see Bush on TV and realize that he still has a year left in his term.

As inauguration day nears, Sheila Dixon's biggest problem ought to be finding the right shoes to brandish at the ball. Or fending off questions about a certain developer pal, the one who went all the way to the Bahamas to help the future mayor celebrate her 50th birthday, whose projects got city land, money and tax breaks with Dixon's arm-twisting, whose company hired the fishy subcontractor that employed Dixon's sister, whose offices were raided the...

We are in peril, trying to write today's column, but we see the possibilities. We want to make progress, but that requires partnership. We shall put aside our differences, though, for that is the only way to achieve our dream of One Column. We have woken to a new day, and we have gone to another inauguration. Which is why we are suffering inauguritis, that condition afflicting those who have been to two inaugurations in a row. It has rendered us unable to say the word I rather than we, and we find ourselves speaking in that lulling rhythm of the inaugural address, where every this has a parallel that - and, optimally, they are alliterative.

CHICAGO -- Amid all his current troubles, President Bush probably has not spent much time contemplating the wisdom of James K. Polk. But had he engaged in that uncommon pastime a couple of years ago, he wouldn't have all these troubles. President Polk, elected in 1844, had an eminently successful first term, achieving all of the four goals he had set out when he arrived in the White House: reducing tariffs, creating an independent treasury, settling a dispute with Britain over the Oregon boundary and acquiring California from Mexico.

Delivering the oath of office in a voice hoarse from cancer treatments, a frail-looking Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist symbolized yesterday what could become the biggest battle in President Bush's second term - the looming possibility of a partisan fight over vacancies on the Supreme Court. The president's inauguration marked Rehnquist's first public appearance since October, when he began treatments for thyroid cancer. Rehnquist, 80, leaned heavily on a cane, and the tube from his tracheotomy surgery was visible at the loose collar of his signature judicial robe, its distinctive four gold stripes on each sleeve.

Bill Clinton's inaugural week began with missiles and bomb hitting Iraq, switching the headlines from his triumphant entry into Washington to a final use of force by President Bush against Saddam Hussein. The question now becomes whether Mr. Clinton will order further attacks after he takes his oath of office tomorrow.This, obviously, was not the way he planned it. The packed schedule of glittering events in Washington, the focus of his campaign on domestic affairs, the exhilaration of a new generation coming to power all pointed to one long celebration comparable to John F. Kennedy's inauguration 32 years ago. Instead, the nation will be casting anxious thoughts toward the Persian Gulf, as it did in 1981, when Ronald Reagan's accession brought the dramatic release of U.S. embassy hostages from Iran.

When Parris N. Glendening takes the oath of office as governor of Maryland today, there will be some noteworthy differences from his first inaugural four years ago.There will be no lingering doubts about the results of the election. There will be no "Wind Beneath My Wings," the sentimental ballad that prompted snickers in 1995. For the first time in more than a half-century, Louis L. Goldstein will not attend the inauguration. And a new chief judge, whose appointment was a milestone in Maryland history, will administer the oath.

RAMALLAH, West Bank -- Mahmoud Abbas, formally taking office as head of the Palestinian Authority, used his inaugural address yesterday to urge Israel to return to peace negotiations "so that we can end, once and for all, the historic conflict between us." Abbas, who was elected by an overwhelming margin Jan. 9, took the oath of office a day after Israel suspended official contacts with Palestinian leaders after an attack Thursday by militant groups in Gaza that left six Israelis dead.

Baltimore's outwardly tough-as-nails City Council president began her second term yesterday showing a softer side in a speech during which she was moved to tears at moments, gave heartfelt thanks to God and suggested that she is not nearly as fearsome as her black belt in karate might suggest. "Sometimes they think I'm the toughest of all," Sheila Dixon said, referring to her council staff. "I'm actually the gentlest of anyone you can imagine. But I want the best for Baltimore." Dixon and the 14 other members of the smaller, reconfigured council were sworn in during a two-hour ceremony at City College, a location Dixon said she chose to highlight their commitment to Baltimore public schools.