Sick transit

An insanely busy Friday for your humble host: while I was able to attend the morning and afternoon editorial meetings, in between (to make good on a long-standing commitment) I had to travel round-trip to Princeton, N.J., to give a luncheon speech to a group of 400 executives. Following our afternoon meeting, I will sit down for an interview with Steve Jobs -- he will be in Midtown Manhattan for the opening of the new Apple store, which I'm told must be seen to be believed. Tonight you'll hear from the man who is the core of Apple and the inventor of so much of our modern, computer-based life.

IN THE NEWS
Overnight developments at Guantanamo Bay will be the subject of a Pentagon teleconference this afternoon, and we'll cover the latest developments on that. We'll also look at where the "English Only" debate stands in light of what's been said by the White House and the Senate. It's a dicey, emotional and divisive issue.

Tonight I'll preview my upcoming whirlwind trip to Africa and back. We have producers and camera crews already traveling with Bono in Rwanda -- and judging by the vocal and instantaneous response to the post from there on this blog yesterday, interest is high. Thanks to the heroic efforts of our Director Brett Holey, we were able to receive videotape pictures from Africa overnight that were sent by laptop computer -- we'll show Bono's travels so far and lay out the stakes. We will also hear from Rick Warren -- we had a fascinating conversation -- albeit by satellite, as I've not yet had the pleasure of meeting him -- and he has high praise for Bono and especially for their joint mission.

TANZANIA CALLING
Bono made our afternoon editorial meeting a bit different than usual today by calling into it from Tanzania (though we strongly suspect that traveling producer Subrata De put him up to it). Via speakerphone, he laid out the issues as he sees them, and described the scene in the Africa he's come to know. He warned us that while he was on the phone with us, 150 French tourists walked into the hotel lobby. The French love their part time rock star resident. It made for an interesting start for today's meeting. I can't say that has happened before.

Anne Thompson will introduce us to a woman who is Making a Difference (as part of our popular series), and we'll preview tomorrow's mayoral election in New Orleans.

The trick is to get all our work done before the digital clocks in the studio and control room tick down to 6:30:00 EDT. We hope you will join us.