Grace Fuller

President-elect Barack Obama is urging Congress to postpone the Feb. 17 switch from analog to digital television broadcasting, arguing that too many Americans who rely on analog TV sets to pick up over-the-air channels won’t be ready.

In a letter to key lawmakers Thursday, Obama transition team co-chair John Podesta said the digital transition needs to be delayed largely because the Commerce Department has run out of money for coupons to subsidize digital TV converter boxes for consumers. People who don’t have cable or satellite service or a new TV with a digital tuner will need the converter boxes to keep their older analog sets working.

Obama officials are also concerned that the government is not doing enough to help Americans — particularly those in rural, poor or minority communities — prepare for and navigate the transition.
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Lindsay Lohan is supposedly still on the wagon, but that hasn’t stopped her from uncorking a mighty fine whine.

“You know what’s hard?” the underemployed, drama-addicted starlet, 22, bellyaches in the February issue of Interview (the chat was conducted by Lauren Hutton). “I want to give back. I want to do all the things that will make me feel fulfilled. But whenever I do those things, people think it’s a press stunt or something.”

Lohan, who reportedly rang in the new year by publicly brawling with squeeze Samantha Ronson, blames the paparazzi for making her life difficult, insisting that “there’s really no way of hiding from that,” even though actual do-gooders such as Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are able to disappear — with six kids in tow — for extended periods of time.
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