Barack Obama

WASHINGTON (AP) - Tuesday is for celebrating. Wednesday Barack Obama gets down to business, with a schedule packed with diplomacy, war discussions and economic meetings. Obama has been promising major changes on "Day One" of his administration. Among them, giving the Joints Chief of Staff a new mission to end the Iraq war "responsibly and deliberately but decisively. " A top adviser says that's what Obama plans to do Wednesday. Obama also recently told USA Today he will assemble a team on Day One to deal with violence in Gaza and other Middle East problems.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) - Barack Obama says that his grandmother has died. The Democratic presidential candidate announced the news in a joint statement with his sister Maya Soetoro-Ng. He said his grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, had died peacefully after a battle with cancer. He said: "She was the cornerstone of our family, and a woman of extraordinary accomplishment, strength, and humility. She was the person who encouraged and allowed us to take chances. " The candidate learned of her death Monday morning while he was campaigning in Jacksonville, Fla. He planned to go ahead with campaign appearances.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Continuing a White House ritual, President George W. Bush is leaving a note in the Oval Office for President-elect Barack Obama, wishing him well as he takes the reins of the executive branch. Bush wrote the note on Monday and left it in the top drawer of his desk. The White House is not providing the intimate details of the message the two-term Republican left for the incoming Democrat. White House press secretary Dana Perino said the theme of the note is similar to what Bush has said since election night about how Obama is about to start a "fabulous new chapter" in the United States, and that he wishes him well.

WASHINGTON (AP) - The silence between Barack Obama and Bill Clinton has been broken. Obama's campaign said two men spoke by telephone Monday. It was their first conversation since the Democratic primary campaign ended with Obama defeating the former president's wife. Obama spokesman Bill Burton said they had a "terrific conversation" and that the Illinois senator looks forward to seeing the former president on the campaign trail. Hillary Rodham Clinton has been helping Obama by encouraging her supporters to back his campaign.

WASHINGTON (AP) - President-elect Barack Obama is naming his longtime friend and supporter Valerie Jarrett to be his White House senior adviser. Jarrett, who hired Michelle Obama for a job in the Chicago mayor's office years ago, is one of the president-elect's closest friends and advisers. Her name has been floated for several top administration jobs. But Obama settled on the senior adviser role, said a person close to the president-elect and willing to speak only on background because the decision has not been officially announced.

WASHINGTON (AP) - President-elect Barack Obama says there can't be any "idle hands" at a time when so many people are enduring hardships. During a visit to an emergency homeless shelter for teens in the nation's capital, Obama said that given the "crisis" the nation is facing, "everybody's going to have to pitch in. " And he said Americans are "ready to do that. " He spoke of thousands of volunteer organizations and projects that are at work on this holiday in memory of Martin Luther King Jr., a day on which Obama is pushing for commitments to public service.

WASHINGTON (AP) - President-elect Barack Obama is likely to name Federal Reserve Governor Timothy Geithner as treasury secretary next week. An official close to the senator says the New York Federal Reserve president is the leading contender for the job and is likely to be nominated Monday. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because Obama hasn't finalized his decision. Read Geithner's Biography The development comes as Obama prepares for how he will grapple with a collapsing economy.

CHICAGO (AP) - President-elect Barack Obama says there isn't a "minute to waste" in solving the nation's economic crisis, which he says is likely to get worse before it gets better. As he named members of his economic team, Obama said there are extraordinary stresses on the financial system that require extraordinary responses. He called on Congress to start work on an aggressive plan when it is sworn in January, so that his administration can, as he put it, "hit the ground running.

Charleston, West Virginia (AP) - Hillary Rodham Clinton is the winner in West Virginia's Democratic primary. She takes home 16 of the state's 28 delegates. Barack Obama took away 7 delegates and is still the leader in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination. Clinton's spokesman says the primary results show that voters "don't want to be told that this thing is over. " He says the people of West Virginia sent a very clear message that Hillary Clinton is the best person to take on John McCain in the fall.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (AP) - Barack Obama all but erased Hillary Rodham Clinton's once-imposing lead among national convention superdelegates on Friday and won fresh labor backing as elements of the Democratic Party began coalescing around the Illinois senator for the fall campaign. Obama picked up the backing of nine superdelegates, including Rep. Donald Payne of New Jersey, a member of the Congressional Black Caucus who had been a Clinton supporter. In addition, the American Federation of Government Employees announced its support for Obama.