From the National Affairs Desk: The 2009 Presidential Inauguration: On Location Free Press Coverage by Kendra R. Chamberlain Free Press Correspondent (Editor's Note: Kendra Chamberlain, of “la Chupa Cabra” fame, served for many years as the Logistics Team for National Affairs Editor, David S. Lewis. Present for the mêlée that was Hurricane Katrina, and the months that Followed, Chamberlain was also present in Puerto Rico and for various other Free Press stories. This, her first Free Press story, was pulled as reluctantly from her as Teeth from a Wino. Look for more Kendra Chamberlain stories in the coming months.) WASHINGTON, DC – There were large traffic signs every twenty miles or so, indicating doom ahead: “Jan. 20 Inauguration Expect Delays Plan Ahead.” I was driving in on Monday, however, and there was hardly any traffic at all, at least not on the north side. I entered D.C at 3 pm, but it wasn’t until 4p.m. that I found my Washington, D.C. Press contact, head of the People's Media, the DC branch of the People's Media Center.

Update: 23 Jan 2009. We received a phone call from Leonard on 1/22. He was jumped by young gang members. He's been put in solitary, he says, and won't be released again into the general population. He was told by the FBI that he was the victim in the attack, the proof of this being a videotape. Assured that he'd enjoy all his privileges upon his transfer to USP-Canaan, he's now been told he'll be allowed only one phone call a month. Two attorneys attempted to get inside the prison to meet with Leonard, but their requests for legal visits were denied. Peltier is clearly being isolated from friends and family and even his attorneys.

Update: 24 Jan 2009. Sheila Dugan, Esq., an attorney residing in Pennsylvania and working with Peltier attorney Michael Kuzma was able to visit Leonard this morning for four hours. She saw his bruises. Leonard's chest still hurts. Leonard was not taken to a hospital to be examined after he was beaten by two other inmates.

Our new President and Vice President rode the rails to D.C., echoes of history in the air. Obama's deliberate choice of a train for his inaugural journey and Biden’s famed love for Amtrak raise hopes that the new Administration will make public transportation a priority. Unfortunately, the current recovery bill heads directly down the opposite track.

Transportation drives our oil dependence and our global warming impact. The sector is responsible for 70 percent of our oil consumption and second only to electrical generation in its global warming footprint. Congress finally raised fuel economy standards in the 2007 energy bill, for the first time in decades. And this will help. But far more needs to be done, and the current bill just cut allocations for intercity rail almost 80 percent from new House Transportation Committee Chairman Jim Oberstar's original proposal, and made similar cuts for public transit.

The welcome news that President Obama is taking steps to shut Guantanamo and right other Bush-era human rights abuses must quickly be joined by a proclamation of freedom for Leonard Peltier.

Peltier is the nation's best-known native activist and has become a global symbol of abject injustice and prison abuse. Imprisoned in the late 1970s for allegedly murdering two FBI agents, Peltier has never been given a fair trial. Federal authorities have quashed or destroyed thousands of pages of evidence that might have freed Peltier decades ago.

The Leonard Peltier Defense Offense Committee points out that "Amnesty International considers Leonard Peltier to be a political prisoner whose avenues of redress have long been exhausted....Amnesty International recognizes that a retrial is no longer a feasible option and believes that Leonard Peltier should be immediately and unconditionally released."

The committee adds that" Documents show that although the prosecution and government pointed the finger at Peltier for shooting FBI agents at close range during the trial in 1976, for three years the prosecution withheld critical ballistic test results