Live coverage of the Obama inauguration on FedLine

Service members and civilians rehearse on Jan. 11 for the Obama inauguration. Defense Department photo by Air Force Master Sgt. Cecilio Ricardo.

In case you haven’t heard, Barack Obama will be sworn in Tuesday. With as many as 2 million people expected to descend on Washington and temperatures topping out at a balmy 30 degrees Fahrenheit, the event will likely be a frozen madhouse. If you’ve decided to stay away from Capitol Hill that day, then well, you’ve got more common sense than us at Federal Times.

We’ll have three reporters on the scene. Congressional reporter Rebecca Neal nabbed the official press pass allotted for Fed Times and will be right up front as Obama takes the oath of office. My girlfriend pulled some strings and got us tickets for the Blue Section — it’s standing room only on the Southwest side of the Capitol, but judging from this map, we should have a pretty good view. And government operations reporter Gregg Carlstrom doesn’t have a ticket, but he’ll be on the edge of the action, talking to people (hopefully including some federal employees enjoying their day off) catching a glimpse of the historic day.

We plan to file live, up-to-the-minute accounts on FedLine throughout the day. All indications are that the wireless network will be clogged with thousands of people sending pictures, so we’ll be using Twitter to update FedLine via cell phone text messages.

So if you’re staying warm and indoors on Jan. 20, keep refreshing FedLine for the latest inaugural news.