Steve Koff of the Cleveland Plain Dealer is looking for anyone who can spare a room, couch, floor space for a couple colleagues coming into town to cover the inauguration festivities. One colleague can pay up to $200 a night — which might only buy a cardboard box under 395 on e-Bay right now. Can anyone offer help?

Also, glad to send out your requests if you have colleagues looking for temporary housing.

-Thomas Burr RRA President

The Senate has posted a site to apply for credentials for covering the inauguration here: http://www.senate.gov/galleries/daily/

Also, we’re making plans for an event looking at how to cover the inauguration for those of us who haven’t done that before. I’m tentatively looking at Dec. 8 as a possible date for the event and will keep you all informed.

We’ve teamed up with the National Press Foundation on an event Nov. 20 that I think should help many of us as we cover the transition to the Obama administration and the new Congress. Details below.

http://www.nationalpress.org/programs3516/programs_show.htm?doc_id=716989

The New President and Congress - Register Online!

Program Date: November 20, 2008 8:30 AM - 1:30 PM

Location: Sixth-Floor Boardroom Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars 1300 Pennsylvania Ave. NW

Contact name: Maha Masud Contact email: maha@nationalpress.org

The National Press Foundation will host a free, half-day seminar for journalists in Washington D.C. that looks at progress in transition planning following the historic Nov. 4 election, , and at the likely relationship of the new President and Congress. This on-the-record event aims to offer reporters, editors, broadcasters and producers fresh story ideas, sources and historic context for covering the earliest days of the new presidency. In collaboration with The Center on Congress at Indiana University and the Regional Reporters Association, the program will analyze the prospects for cooperation and conflict in executive-legislative relations in 2009, drawing on lessons learned in past transitions of presidential power.

Confirmed speakers include Washington Post columnist David Broder; former Congressman and CCIU Director Lee Hamilton; James P. Pfiffner, Professor of Public Policy at George Mason University and author of “The Strategic Presidency: Hitting the Ground Running;” and journalist Martin Tolchin. A light breakfast and buffet lunch will be provided. There is no charge to attend, but reservations are required.