Danny Puff

WASHINGTON (AP) Formally embarking on his second term, President Barack Obama was set to take the oath of office Sunday surrounded by family in an intimate inauguration at the White House, 24 hours before re-enacting the ceremony in front of hundreds of thousands outside the Capitol.

The subdued swearing-in at the White House Blue Room is a function of the calendar and the Constitution, which says presidents automatically begin their new terms at noon on Jan. 20. Because that date fell this year on a Sunday, a day on which inauguration ceremonies historically are not held, organizers scheduled a second, public swearing-in for Monday.

A crowd of up to 800,000 people is expected to gather on the National Mall to witness that event, which will take place on the Capitol's red, white and blue bunting-draped west front. Chief Justice John Roberts, who famously flubbed the oath of office that Obama took in 2009, was on tap to swear the president in both days.

Vice President Joe Biden was to be sworn in earlier Sunday at the Naval Observatory, his official residence. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who was appointed by Obama during his first term, was to administer the oath of office.

Before the ceremony, Biden was celebrating an early morning Mass with friends and family. About 120 people were expected to be on hand to watch him place his hand on a Bible his family has used since 1893 as he takes the oath.

Biden was then to join Obama at Arlington National Cemetery for a wreath-laying ceremony.

Once the celebrations are over, Obama will plunge into a second-term agenda still dominated by the economy, which slowly churned out of recession during his first four years in office. The president will try to cement his legacy with sweeping domestic changes, pledging to achieve both an immigration overhaul and stricter gun laws despite opposition from a divided Congress.

But for one weekend at least, Washington was putting politics aside. Obama called the nation's inaugural traditions "a symbol of how our democracy works and how we peacefully transfer power."

"But it should also be an affirmation that we're all in this together," he said Saturday as he opened a weekend of activities at a Washington elementary school.

Only a small group of family members was expected to attend Obama's Sunday swearing-in, including first lady Michelle Obama and daughters Malia and Sasha. A few reporters were to witness the event.

Roberts was to administer the oath shortly before noon in the Blue Room, an oval space with majestic views of the South Lawn and the Washington Monument.

Named for the color of the drapes, upholstery and carpet, the Blue Room is not typically used for ceremonies. It primarily has been a reception room as well as the site of the only presidential wedding held in the White House, when President Grover Cleveland married Frances Folsum in 1886.

Later Sunday, Obama and Biden were to speak at a reception attended by supporters.

The president planned to save his most expansive remarks for Monday, when he delivers his second inaugural address to the crowd on the Mall and millions more watching across the country and the world. Obama started working on the speech in early December and was still tinkering with it into the weekend, aides said.

The president's address will set the stage for the policy objectives he seeks to achieve in his second term, including speeding up the economic recovery, passing comprehensive immigration and gun control measures and ending the war in Afghanistan. However, aides said Obama would save the specifics of those agenda items for his Feb. 12 State of the Union address.

The president launched a weekend of inaugural activities Saturday by heading up a National Day of Service. Along with his family, Obama helped hundreds of volunteers spruce up a Washington area elementary school.

Obama put on rubber gloves, picked up a paint brush and helped volunteers stain a bookshelf.

Obama added the service event to the inaugural schedule in 2009 and is hoping it becomes a tradition followed for future presidents.

Mrs. Obama, speaking to volunteers Sunday, espoused the importance of giving back in the midst of the weekend of pomp, circumstance and celebration.

"The reason why we're here, why we're standing here, why we're able to celebrate this weekend is because a lot of people worked hard and supported us, and we've got a job to do and this is a symbol of the kind of work that we need to be doing the next four years," Michelle Obama said at Burrville Elementary.

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Follow Julie Pace at http://twitter.com/jpaceDC

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LOS ANGELES (AP) "Holy windfall, Batman!" The Batmobile just sold for $4.2 million.

The original 19-foot-long black, bubble-topped car used in the 1960s "Batman" TV show sold at auction Saturday.

The Barrett-Jackson Auction Co. in Scottsdale, Ariz., revealed the selling price but says the winning bidder has not been disclosed.

The car's owner auto customizer George Barris, of Los Angeles transformed a one-of-a-kind 1955 Lincoln Futura concept car into the sleek crime-fighting machine. It boasted lasers and a "Batphone" and could lay down smoke screens and oil slicks.

The iconic car was used by Adam West who starred as the Caped Crusader and by Burt Ward, his sidekick Robin known for exclamations beginning with "Holy."

Barris' publicist says his client is pleased with the auction result.

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PARK CITY, Utah (AP) The Eagles picked the producer of their new Showtime documentary "The History of the Eagles" but they insist that's about all the control they had in the making of it.

"It's really not a film that represents our point of view so much," Glenn Frey said Saturday as the quartet spoke at the Sundance Film Festival hours before the film's premiere.

The film was directed by Alison Ellwood and produced by Alex Gibney, whose other documentaries include the Academy Award-winning "Taxi to the Dark Side" and "Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room."

"The History of the Eagles" will be shown in two parts on Showtime Feb. 15-16. It includes 40-year-old footage that was in the band's archives, as well as recent interviews with the band.

Henley said he was interested in someone making a documentary about the Rock and Roll Hall of Famers but was unimpressed with recent music documentaries. So, he asked to see the work of Oscar-winning documentary filmmakers and was led to Gibney.

From there, he worked to convince Gibney that he should tell the band's story, and they had "zero" influence on its outcome.

"We have a good story to tell and I think he's a great storyteller," Frey said, adding that Gibney told him, "We're going to make a movie, and we're going to tell the truth."

Don Henley said the band hasn't even seen the final cut yet. "I hope we like it," he joked.

Frey said what surprised him most about the film, and seeing the old footage, was "how much fun we had."

That may surprise people who are familiar with the band's well-documented discord, including their acrimonious breakup in 1982 (they got back together in 1994).

"Most of the things that have been written about this band have focused on conflict the journalism of conflict," Henley said. "It sells papers and magazines, but one thing that Glen said that people will see in this documentary is that we had a lot of fun. Some of it's not on film, and that's good."

"The bitter fighting that the media loved to talk about really didn't take place. We argued a lot, we discussed stuff a lot, and that tension had a lot of to do with the creative process," Walsh said. "We didn't hate each other; we didn't have fist fights, none of that."

Walsh, Henley, Frey and Timothy Schmit were expected to attend the premiere later Saturday.

Frey said the band might eventually make new music together. Their last album together was 2007's "Long Road Out of Eden."

"I think what we realized is how good we are together and how things have changed, and it would be a shame if we didn't try to find a way to create some more new music," Frey said. "People really like to hear us sing, we really do well, we still perform at a very high level, so for me, it would be great."

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Nekesa Mumbi Moody is the AP's global entertainment and lifestyles editor. Follow her at http://www.twitter.com/nekesamumbi .

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NEW YORK (Reuters) - Barbra Streisand will add the Film Society of Lincoln Center's Chaplin Award to her roster of honors, in recognition of her achievement as a director, writer, producer and film star, the group said on Friday.

Streisand, who shot to fame in the 1960s on Broadway and as a major recording star, will receive the honor at the 40th Annual Chaplin Award gala in New York on April 22 which will feature celebrity guests and a host of film and interview clips.

"The Board is very excited to have Barbra Streisand as the next recipient of The Chaplin Award," Ann Tenenbaum, The Film Society of Lincoln Center's board chairman, said in a news release.

"She is an artist whose long career of incomparable achievements is most powerfully expressed by the fact that her acclaimed 'Yentl' was such a milestone film."

The group cited Streisand as the first American woman artist to receive credit as writer, director, producer and star of a major feature film.

It also noted she is the only artist to receive an Academy Award, Tony, Emmy, Grammy, Directors Guild of America award, Golden Globe, National Medal of Arts and Peabody Awards, France's Legion d'honneur and the American Film Institute's Lifetime Achievement Award. She was also the first female film director to receive a Kennedy Center honor.

"We welcome her to the list of masterful directors who have been prior recipients of the Chaplin Award Tribute," added Tenenbaum, referring to luminaries such as Alfred Hitchcock, Billy Wilder and Martin Scorsese.

Stars ranging from Bette Davis and Elizabeth Taylor to last year's recipient, Catherine Deneuve, have received the award, which was renamed for its first recipient Charles Chaplin, who returned to the United States from exile to accept the commendation in 1972.

Streisand, 70, starred in such hits as "The Way We Were" and "Funny Girl," for which she won an Oscar, and went on to direct films including "The Prince of Tides" and "The Mirror Has Two Faces."

More recently she has returned to screen acting, in "Meet the Fockers" with Dustin Hoffman, Ben Stiller and Robert De Niro, and "The Guilt Trip," a Christmas 2012 release co-starring Seth Rogen.

(Reporting by Chris Michaud; Editing by Mohammad Zargham)

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PARK CITY, Utah (AP) As Dave Grohl took to the stage at the Park City Live, he gave the audience an expletive-laced warning: "It's going to be a long night."

But fans were rewarded Friday night as Grohl brought out members of the Foo Fighters, ex-bandmates in Nirvana, plus John Fogerty, Stevie Nicks, Rick Springfield, and several others in a three-hour plus concert that celebrated his directorial debut the film "Sound City."

Earlier Friday, "Sound City," a documentary about the music made at the recording studio of the same name, had its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival. "Sound City" includes interviews with some of the key musicians who made music at Los Angeles-based studio, including Nicks, Tom Petty, Paul McCartney and others.

At the packed concert, Grohl brought on stage some of those same players, named, appropriately enough, the Sound City Players. Fogerty performed some of his classics, including "Proud Mary," ''Traveling Band" and "Centerfield"; Springfield jammed with Grohl and others for his hits, including "Jessie's Girl" and "I've Done Everything for You"; and Nicks performed songs including "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around."

"I wish we could play 100 songs, but we have 17 musicians tonight," Grohl said at one point.

One of the concert's highlights came when Grohl brought out Cheap Trick's Rick Nielsen, Slipknot's Corey Taylor, his old Nirvana partner Krist Novoselic, and Pat Smear together for a set that included Taylor belting out the Fats Domino classic "Ain't That A Shame."

"This, without any (expletive) is a dream (expletive) come true for me," Taylor said, echoing the sentiments of many in the crowd as well.

The Sound City Players are featured on an upcoming album that came out of the documentary: "Sound City Real to Reel."

Grohl has more appearances scheduled for his Sundance film premiere this week, and the Sound City Players plan to perform other shows in the near future.

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http://www.soundcitymovie.com

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Nekesa Mumbi Moody is the AP's Global Entertainment & Lifestyles Editor. Follow her at http://www.twitter.com/nekesamumbi

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WASHINGTON (AP) Some of Washington's top chefs came together to salute the president ahead of the inauguration, in part because of the first family's influence on the culture around food.

Chicago-based Chef Art Smith opened his Capitol Hill restaurant Art and Soul for a late-night Chefs Ball expected to attract food fans of all stripes Saturday night with its relatively low ticket price of $75. Seven celebrity chefs teamed up for the charity event to prepare delicious bites for a sold-out crowd of more than 500.

From the White House garden to Michelle Obama's focus on healthy eating, Smith said the Obamas, more than any other first family, have embraced fresh American food and care about where food comes from.

"Can that little garden at the White House feed America? No. But you know what it can do? It can inspire America," Smith said. "Most importantly, it's that we as Americans all deserve good food, regardless of economic, social differences."

Smith was Oprah Winfrey's personal chef for years and competed on TV's "Top Chef Masters."

For his first inaugural ball, Smith cooked his trademark fried chicken. There would probably be a riot if he didn't, he said.

Guests included "Modern Family" actor Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Gayle King, co-anchor of "CBS This Morning" and Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn. The wait staff wore white bow ties from Ferguson's organization TieTheKnot.org to promote gay marriage rights in Illinois and across the country.

Chefs served up tiny lamb gyros, crab salad on a cornbread cracker and fried chicken and waffles on a stick, among other bites. The bar offered cocktails called "Stayin Put" and "Stickin Around."

Smith was joined by Washington restaurateurs Erik Bruner-Yang of Toki Underground, Scott Drewno of The Source, Todd Gray of Equinox Restaurant, Rock Harper of TV's "Hell's Kitchen" who helps lead the charity D.C. Central Kitchen and Mike Isabella, a "Top Chef All-Stars" finalist whose restaurants include Graffiato and Bandolero.

Isabella said he was new to Washington four years ago and that the city's food scene has come of age in the Obama era. He plans to open another restaurant later this year.

"I think D.C. is probably one of the biggest and fastest-growing culinary scenes in America," Isabella said. "It was a steakhouse town 10 years ago. Nowadays it's all about living in the city and being a part of the growth."

In the 1980s, Smith said he visited the Reagan White House when it was party central. The Reagans loved entertaining, he said, but all the cooking was French.

"America had not really discovered or embraced its food to say 'We are America. We are about our food. We are about this wonderful melting pot of people who have all come together and created this amazing culture,'" Smith said.

In the past 20 years, tastes have changed. As first lady, Hillary Rodham Clinton embraced American cooking, and Laura Bush brought Tex-Mex to the White House, Smith said. The Obamas have gone a step further to foster more conversation about fresh ingredients.

Isabella, who joined Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's inaugural American Chefs Corps last year to use food as a tool for diplomacy, credits the Obama administration with changing attitudes around food.

"I think they're the first to really indulge into the whole culinary scene, putting chef programs together for schools and kids, dining in restaurants around the city and really believing in food and farm-to-table," he said. "It's been a huge, huge help for us."

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MAPLEWOOD, New Jersey (Reuters) - The age-old call to beat swords into ploughshares is being answered in Newark, New Jersey by turning bullets into bling.

Guns and shell casings seized by the Newark Police are being melted down and made into bracelets by a jewellery company. A portion of proceeds from each sale goes to fund gun buy-back amnesty programs in New Jersey's largest city.

The company, Jewelry for a Cause, worked with Newark Mayor Cory Booker and the city police chief to design the "Caliber Collection".

It features steel bangles and cuffs, each engraved with the serial number of the illegal gun it was fashioned from. Brass pieces are made from casings swept from crime scenes in the city, which has a serious gun violence problem.

The sleek, simple line by designer Jessica Mindich has raised more than $20,000 since its debut on November 28, Booker said on The Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC this week.

He said the jewellery and buy-back programs are "not a cure-all, but everybody has the power to do something little, something small to make a difference."

The collection has gained added attention since the school shootings in Newtown, Connecticut prompted President Barack Obama to launch the biggest U.S. gun control push in generations.

The Caliber Collection is "a series of pieces that embody the gun's transformation from a destructive weapon to a powerful symbol of renewal," the Connecticut-based jewellery maker says on its website JewelryForACause.net.

Cuffs and bracelets are available with or without diamonds and range in price from $150 for the steel cuff to $375 for the brass bangle with diamonds.

(Editing by Barbara Goldberg and Andrew Hay)

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WASHINGTON (AP) Watch out Beyonce and Katy Perry. There's another diva set to perform during the inauguration festivities Lady Gaga.

A person familiar with the inauguration tells The Associated Press that the pop star will perform at Tuesday's ball for White House staffers. The source spoke on condition of anonymity because that person wasn't authorized to publicly reveal the information.

The staff ball is typically a private affair. During the last inauguration festivities, Jay-Z reportedly performed for that event.

According to one attendee, Jay-Z rapped a riff on one of his hit songs, "99 Problems but George Bush Ain't One," to the delight of the throngs of young staffers who worked to elect Obama in 2008.

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SALMON, Idaho (Reuters) - As cell phones, iPods and laptops creep steadily into every corner of modern life, America's national parks have stayed largely off the digital grid, among the last remaining outposts of ringtone-free human solitude.

For better or worse, that may soon change.

Under pressure from telecommunications companies and a growing number of park visitors who feel adrift without mobile-phone reception, the airwaves in such grand getaway destinations as Yellowstone National Park may soon be abuzz with new wireless signals.

That prospect has given pause to a more traditional cohort of park visitors who cherish the unplugged tranquility of the great outdoors, fearing an intrusion of mobile phones - and the sound of idle chatter - will diminish their experience.

Some have mixed emotions. Stephanie Smith, a 50-something Montana native who visits Yellowstone as many as six times a year, said she prefers the cry of an eagle to ring tones.

But she also worries that future generations may lose their appreciation for the value of nature and the need to preserve America's outdoor heritage if a lack of technology discourages them from visiting.

"You have to get there to appreciate it," Smith said. "It's a new world - and technology is a part of it."

Balancing the two aesthetics has emerged as the latest challenge facing the National Park Service as managers in at least two premier parks, Yellowstone and Glacier national parks, consider recent requests to install new telecommunications towers or upgrade existing ones.

There is no system-wide rule governing cellular facilities in the 300 national parks, national monuments and other units the agency administers nationwide. Wireless infrastructure decisions are left up to the managers of individual park units.

The agency's mission statement requires it to protect park resources and the visitor experience, but each individual experience is unique, said Lee Dickinson, a special-uses program manager for the Park Service.

"I've had two visitors calling me literally within hours of each other who wanted exactly the opposite experience: One saying he didn't vacation anywhere without electronic access and the other complaining he was disturbed by another park visitor ordering pizza on his cell phone," Dickinson said.

CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?

Wireless supporters say more is at stake than the convenience of casual phone conversations. Cellular providers say new wireless infrastructure will boost public safety by improving communications among park rangers and emergency responders.

They argue that the ability to download smartphone applications that can deliver instant information on plants and animals will also enrich park visitors' experiences.

"Our customers are telling us that having access to technology will enhance their visit to wild areas," said Bob Kelley, spokesman for Verizon Wireless, which is seeking to install a new 100-foot cell tower at Yellowstone.

Rural communities that border the national parks also stand to benefit from enlarged cellular coverage areas.

On the other side of the debate, outdoor enthusiasts worry that bastions of quiet reflection could be transformed into noisy hubs where visitors yak on cell phones and fidget with electronic tablets, detracting from the ambience of such natural wonders as Yellowstone's celebrated geyser Old Faithful.

Expanding cellular reception may even compromise safety by giving some tourists a false sense of security in the back country, where extremes in weather and terrain test even the most skilled outdoorsman, according to the National Parks Conservation Association.

Tim Stevens, the association's Northern Rockies director, said distractions like meandering moose already challenge the attention of motorists clogging park roads at the height of the summer tourist season.

"People brake in the middle of the road to watch animals. The added distraction of a wireless signal - allowing a driver to text Aunt Madge to say how great the trip is - could have disastrous consequences," he said.

Yellowstone already offers some limited mobile-phone service, afforded by four cellular towers previously erected in developed sections of the park.

But vast swathes of America's oldest national park, which spans nearly 3,500 square miles across the states of Wyoming, Montana and Idaho, still lack wireless reception in an age dominated by Wi-Fi and iPad users who expect access even in the most remote locations.

Park officials see definite signs that a portion of the roughly 3 million annual visitors to Yellowstone, which crafted a wireless plan in 2008, are finding the lack of cell phone coverage disconcerting.

Park spokesman Al Nash said he routinely fields calls from anxious relatives of Yellowstone visitors unable to contact their loved ones.

"They say, My gosh, my niece, daughter or parents went to Yellowstone, and we haven't heard from them for three days,'" he said.

(Reporting and writing by Laura Zuckerman; Editing by Steve Gorman and David Gregorio)

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WASHINGTON (AP) Presidential terms are measured by sweeping laws and stirring events, but legacies are about enduring ideas. The one Barack Obama has in mind will drive most everything he tries to do in the next four years: assuring that America is a place where anyone can make it.

There is no moonshot here, no call to end tyranny in our time.

What Obama wants written in the first paragraph of history is that he helped deliver a better life for the people struggling in the richest nation on earth.

His second-term agenda amounts to a wish list in support of that core idea, and this time, he is freer to define the issues.

Obama wants an immigration law that would deal firmly but compassionately with millions of illegal residents; an economic model that demands more money from the rich to shrink the debt; a tax system that is fairer and simpler for families; and a bigger emphasis on education and made-in-America energy.

The old problem of gun violence is suddenly on the list now, too, but only after an elementary school massacre led Obama into days of reflection. He concluded that the country is failing its people in another fundamental way, by not keeping even its children safe.

This is the playbook of a Democrat who thinks the basic compact between a nation and its people has been broken, who sees government as more of an aggressive force for good than a bureaucratic menace to society.

In the discussions that shape Obama's next moves, in the speeches that convey his thinking, the policy premise is usually boosting hope and genuine opportunity.

Many people have lost both.

"I've got one mandate," the president said after defeating Republican Mitt Romney in November. "I've got a mandate to help middle-class families and families that are working hard to get into the middle class. That's what the American people said: 'Work really hard to help us.'"

The American people, however, also returned Republicans to power in the House, setting up a giant clash of visions over the role of government.

Should Obama get bogged down in power struggles over the debt and spending, his overarching ideas may be shrunk along with his legacy. His influence is limited by his opponents in Congress, forcing him to scale back time and again, and frustrating him about the pace of progress.

Yet piece by piece, he is building what he is convinced voters want. He will use his powers, he says, to build a country where "you can make it if you try."

He does not have much time. Presidential capital fades after the second year of a second term.

What Obama does have is more freedom to pursue an agenda on his terms.

By the time he is sworn in again, Obama will have sworn off some of the problems he inherited.

The recession is over. So is the Iraq war, with the Afghanistan war winding down. Obama will never again have to worry about getting re-elected.

"He came into office when the American Dream was at its most maximum peril," said Obama confidant Robert Gibbs, recalling a collapsing job market and stock market. "Fixing that is likely to be a journey that will be the charge of the next several presidents. But it's his job to build a foundation."

Obama is halfway into that project.

It began with the milestones of his first term: a law extending health coverage to millions of people, taxpayer intervention to help a plummeting economy, consumer protections and Wall Street reform, and the appointment of two women to the Supreme Court, including the first Hispanic justice.

He also repealed the ban on gays serving openly in the military and became the first president to announce support of gay marriage.

Almost forgotten, by now, is the symbolism of Obama's presidency itself. He was the first black man to win the office.

"His progressive legacy is continuing the civil rights movements to the very last groups that have been marginalized," said Douglas Brinkley, a Rice University historian who has written extensively about presidents. "He is, in a way, trying to bring into the fold the last people who haven't made it."

Even when Obama looks back at the lowest moment of his re-election campaign, it is to bemoan his failure at explaining what his presidency is about. He told Time magazine that his flawed first debate against Romney never conveyed the stakes of a society in which too many have too little chance to succeed.

"Do we believe in an America that says some folks are more American than others or more worthy than others or more valued than others?" Obama said. "Or do we believe in an America where that Declaration (of Independence) means what it says: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident ... that all people are created equal?'"

Obama's legacy is already safe, Brinkley said, simply because he won again.

History is much kinder to presidents who got voter approval to finish what they started.

For Obama, Brinkley said, that means protecting Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security in a time when the country leans right-center and demands to contain the debt are soaring. "His role is to be the firewall," Brinkley said.

Even discussing one's legacy can be politically tricky for any White House.

The word itself can convey that the president is too focused on his place in history, or too close to nearing dreaded lame-duck status.

But Gibbs, who served as Obama's press secretary for the first half of the first term, said legacy-shaping is inherent in every big decision in the West Wing.

"People are exceedingly aware of the fact that, for better or worse, presidents are judged on their time in office," Gibbs said. "What are their ultimate, lasting contributions? Everybody understands that. Maybe it's the elephant in the room, but it's in each and every room."

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EDITOR'S NOTE Former AP White House Correspondent Ben Feller covered the presidencies of George W. Bush and Barack Obama

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