2014 news: 01/27/14

Monday, 27 January 2014

Luxury basements. Can you dig it?

Luxury basements are an increasingly common addition to high-end properties in London. The number of dig-down projects has increased by more than 500% over the last 10 years in the borough of Chelsea and Kensington alone.

Swimming pools, bowling alleys, gyms, saunas and games rooms are some of the most popular features of basement extensions.

Tight space and strict planning laws dictate that the facade of London neighborhoods must maintain their original character. This has led to residents extending beneath their properties instead of building outwards and upwards.

A luxury basement lounge in the plush Hampstead district of London. Underground extensions are now becoming increasingly common in more modest neighborhoods such as Hammersmith, Clapham and Wandsworth.

On the outside, this house in a quiet Fulham street seems to be exactly like it's neighbors.

On the inside, however, a large basement extension hosts a lounge, bathroom, laundry room and spare bedroom.

A stylish home cinema in a London basement added by expert dig-down company, London Basement.

Most extensions drop one or two floors beneath the original house, however, some extravagant projects have been known to go as far as five floors down. These developments are the exception rather than the rule, however.

Wealthy London residents are extending many floors beneath their homes

The aim is to increase their value and provide extra room

Tight space and strict planning laws make extending upwards or outwards difficult

Some have installed swimming pools, gyms and cinemas in their extended basements

London (CNN) -- When you can't build up there's only one solution -- build down.

At least that's the theory in some of London's wealthiest neighborhoods.

The UK capital is in the midst of a luxury basement boom, with well-heeled residents and developers excavating large areas underneath their homes and gardens.

Some have used the extra space gained to install the likes of cinemas, gyms, wine cellars, golf simulators, bowling alleys and even swimming pools.

In the stylish borough of Chelsea and Kensington alone, there were 450 basement applications in 2013, according to figures provided to CNN by the local council. That's a 46% increase on 2012 and more than 500% increase on 2003 figures.

Reports indicate a similar story in nearby Westminster as well as Hammersmith and Fulham.

"People have been piling into the basement sector" in recent years, explained Stephen Merritt, managing director of specialist dig-down firm, London Basement. "We're probably doing around 30 to 40 projects a year now. (Clients) are definitely pushing the envelope more and more ... to create new basement space."

'Wish Town' offers smarter living

Israeli tech boom fuels 'Golden Kilometer'

Kurdish capital's property boom

A lack of room and strict planning laws dictate that the facade of many of London's picturesque Victorian, Edwardian and Georgian-era neighborhoods must maintain their original character and outward appearance.

This annuls the possibility of large extensions upwards and outwards. The simplest alternative therefore is to go down, Merritt explained.

"The price per square foot (of basement extension) in areas we work in is probably £400 to £500 per square foot (between $660 and $830 per sq ft). The extra space this brings is probably worth double that," he added.

As the UK property market heats up again, the extra value a kitted-out basement can provide is clearly an appealing option for investors and homeowners.

But while underground digs are an increasingly common sight, the general concept of extending down is not new to London. Merritt says his company alone has been excavating in plush areas like Kensington since the mid to late 90s.

The difference today, however, is that the projects are becoming increasingly luxurious and ambitious. They have also spread to more modest, although still attractive neighborhoods, such as West Kensington, Wandsworth, Clapham and Fulham.

In some famous cases the operations extend as many as five stories underground.

Property mogul Leonard Blavatnik as well as composer Andrew Lloyd Webber have both reportedly excavated large areas beneath their palatial London properties in recent years.

Billionaire mobile phone mogul John Caudwell, meanwhile, has applied to dig beneath two mansions in the city's Mayfair district, replacing an existing basement pool and sauna area while extending further down.

These so called "iceberg basements" are the exception rather than the rule, however. Most extensions drop just one or two floors beneath the ground.

A mock-up of a London iceberg basement (Inez Torre/CNN)

"I think for any property with a value over £2 million ($3.2 million) a basement extension is certainly a consideration for the owners," explained Rob Atkins of London estate agency, Domus Nova. "If you've lived in a house for 15 and 20 years and you cannot get a move for the right value then it is an option that can suit that growing family.

"You are now expected to pay 7% stamp duty (a tax on land and property transactions) on a move of over £2 million. All in, then, it might cost you 10% of your sell or your purchase to move house so people are looking inwardly instead of moving," he added.

These trends are similarly noted by developer Blaze Stojanovski. He believes the investment in a basement extension can be a smart one if made in the right location. Stojanovski currently owns 28 properties around west London and has added 11 basement extensions in recent years.

India's city of contrasts

Bangkok's high rise development

World's tallest residential tower

"On a price per square foot basements are hugely expensive, which is why 10 years ago people weren't really building them," he said. "As Fulham and other areas have come up price wise we have got to a stage where it is cost effective to dig basements."

But while keen to stress his experience of the positives, Stojanovski is also quick to point out that adding a basement in just any old house won't work.

"If you get the wrong property you could easily break even or lose money," he continued. "You have to make sure that the property is on the right street and it can justify a big investment like a basement."

Neighbours and those nearby, however, aren't always as keen.

Horror stories abound in London's local papers of skips falling through streets as the earth beneath is hollowed out while complaints about the inconvenience of noise and dust from dig sites is common.

"Our members have become increasingly worried by the nastiness of having great big holes dug next door to them," said Terence Bendixson, honorary secretary of planning at the Chelsea Society.

Randa Hanna of the Belgravia Residents Association meanwhile described "a multitude of problems" for residents in her area. "There were cases of serial fraud (with builders). There have also been instances of flooding and problems for neighbors living next door to the work," she added.

A basement dig in Kensington, London

For the likes of Stojanovski and Merritt, these negative experiences are a genuine concern. Merritt believes there are few bad apples in the industry guilty of cutting corners but points to his own company's award-winning reputation as a considerate constructor.

As it stands, however, these complaints have done little to halt the attraction or number of applications for luxury basement digs.

There have been rumors regarding a changing of the rules to limit underground extensions but these have yet to to be implemented in any London borough.

Given the international diversity of London's wealthiest residents and property investors, Stojanovski can even see the trend for subterranean extensions spreading to cities in other countries where space is tight and demand high.

Many of his current tenants are from outside the UK, while the majority of his recent sales have been to wealthy foreign investors.

"These people will be living and getting used to living in houses with basements," he said. "They will consider that and probably talk about that when they go back home.

"Therefore I wouldn't be surprised if you see that kind of basement living incorporated in houses for example in Paris, Rome, Vienna or Moscow in the future," he added.

Tomb of ancient Egypt's beer maker

Time gentlemen, please: The tomb of the beer-maker to gods of the dead dates back to 1,200 BC.

Japanese archeologists unearth tomb of pharaonic beer brewer in Luxor

Hailed as one of the most significant finds of its time

Tomb of Khonso Em Heb painted with frescoes; beer would have been very different from today's

Egypt has struggled to keep tabs on its antiquities since 2011 revolution

(CNN) -- Imagine a warm brew of lager so heady you had to plunge a straw through the thick surface scum to get to the fermented liquor below.

Welcome to the favored brew of ancient Egypt's New Kingdom; a 3,200-year-old barley beer that a new archaeological find this month is shedding new light on.

A Japanese team headed by Jiro Kondo of Waseda University stumbled on the tomb of ancient beer-maker Khonso Em Heb while cleaning the courtyard of another tomb at the Thebes necropolis in the Egyptian city of Luxor.

The tomb, replete with highly colored frescoes, is being hailed as one of the most significant finds of recent times.

Egypt's antiquities minister Mohamed Ibrahim described Khonso Em Heb as the chief "maker of beer for gods of the dead" adding that the tomb's chambers contain "fabulous designs and colors, reflecting details of daily life... along with their religious rituals."

One fresco shows Khonso Em Heb -- who apart from being a brewer, headed the royal storehouses during the pharaonic Ramesside period (1,292--1,069 BC) -- making offerings to the gods along with his wife and daughter.

The newly discovered tomb is to be placed under tight security until the excavation work is completed, the ministry said in a press statement.

The frescoes depict daily life and religious rituals.

According to Professor Poo Mun Chou, a leading Egyptologist at Hong Kong's Chinese University, the discovery is not only significant in terms of what it tells archaeologists about life during the New Kingdom period of Ancient Egypt, but marks a new direction for Egypt's beleaguered antiquities ministry.

Still reeling from a disastrous break-in at the Cairo Museum in 2011 --- when looters smashed two mummies and made off with more than 50 artifacts --- Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities had slapped stringent restrictions on archaeological digs.

For Professor Poo, the latest discovery is a sign that archeology in Egypt may be returning to normal.

"The significance in this find is that for quite some time archaeologists haven't been able to excavate an intact tomb," he said.

This is a new find and is quite unexpected.

Poo Man Chou, Egyptologist

"An intact tomb will give us a more complete view of the funerary customs which can be compared with other tomb paintings."

He said the frescoes were well preserved.

"The Supreme Council of Antiquities has for some time had a policy of not excavating new tombs but preserving those tombs that have already been excavated.

"This is a new find and is quite unexpected."

Apart from the recent political turmoil in Egypt, which has led to a surge in the number of illegal digs and antiquities damaged by looters, Professor Poo said the sheer speed with which new discoveries were being made had meant the government was having difficulty keeping up with logging and preserving the finds.

First dinosaur bones in Saudi Arabia

An international team of scientists has discovered the first evidence of dinosaurs in Saudi Arabia. Dinosaur remnants are exceptionally rare in the Arabian Peninsula (enough "to fit inside a shoe box" according to Benjamin Kear, the study's lead author).

Kear and his team uncovered 72-million-year-old fossils -- the first was of a series of vertebrae from the tail of a "Brontosaurus-like" group of Sauropod dinosaurs called Titanosaurs.

The second fossils were that of a few teeth from a theropod or, more specifically, an Abelisaurid -- a bipedal carnivorous dinosaur some 20 feet long.

Kear, who has excavated in the region before, says he was following up a lead by oil geologists who stumbled upon an accumulation of fossils of giant marine reptiles.

Much of what is today the Arabian Peninsula was underwater during the age of dinosaurs, and those rare remains that were discovered were washed downstream and out to sea by rivers, probably during a flash flood long ago in the Late Cretaceous period.

An international team of scientists discovered the first evidence of dinosaurs in Saudi Arabia

Among the fossilized findings were the teeth of a carnivorous abelisaurid -- a 20-foot tall bipedal dinosaur

Scientists also uncovered the fossilized vertebrae from the tail of a "Brontosaurus-like" sauropod called a titanosaur

Experts say the new evidence could reveal more about the how the Earth was formed

(CNN) -- For palaeontologists, the Middle East has long proven a bit of a blind spot.

Evidence of dinosaurs has proven scarce, and what little surfaces from time to time have been traditionally difficult to itemize. That changed recently when an international team of scientists uncovered the first evidence of dinosaurs in Saudi Arabia near the coast of the Red Sea.

The findings were published last month in the scientific journal PLOS ONE.

"To say that finds (in the Arabian Peninsula) are rare is an understatement. What's been discovered, you could almost fit inside a shoebox," notes Dr. Benjamin Kear, a palaeontologist at Uppsala University in Sweden, and the study's lead author.

"The problem in the past is that what's been found are just bone fragments, and you can say they're dinosaur, and vaguely what kind, but we've been unable to reconstruct and assemble them. This is therefore the first time that we can confidently identify an Arabian dinosaur fossil with any degree of accuracy," he says.

Kear and his team uncovered 72-million-year-old fossils. The first was of a series of vertebrae from the tail of a "Brontosaurus-like" sauropod called a titanosaur, the second, a few teeth from a theropod. The latter belonged to an abelisaurid -- a bipedal carnivorous dinosaur some 20 feet long.

Kear, who has excavated in the region before, says he was following up a lead on potential dinosaur fossils found by oil geologists who stumbled upon an outcrop.

"They had found an accumulation of fossils that mostly weren't from dinosaurs, but rather giant marine reptiles," he says.

As it happens, much of the Arabian Peninsula was underwater when dinosaurs roamed the Earth, and those rare remains that were discovered were washed downstream and out to sea by rivers, probably during a flash flood long ago in the Late Cretaceous period.

There are a handful of blank spots on the dinosaur map, and the Arabian Peninsula is among the very biggest

Dr. Anne Schulp, Naturalis Biodiversity Center

"We systematically worked this area over the last few years in the hope that a dinosaur would turn up. It was a matter of time to be honest; dinosaurs do often turn up in marine rocks washed out to sea," he says.

"There are a handful of blank spots on the dinosaur map, and the Arabian Peninsula is among the very biggest blank spots," notes Dr. Anne Schulp, a palaeontologist and researcher at the Naturalis Biodiversity Center in the Netherlands. In 2008, Schulp led a team that unearthed the first dinosaur tracks found in the region near Sana'a, Yemen.

"Even the tiniest scrap of bone is something to get excited about," he says. "The picture is slowly filling in, but it's a very large area and there remains much more to be discovered."

This fossilized tooth belonged to an abelisaur -- a carnivorous, bipedal animal that stood 20 feet tall

$This fossilized vertebrae belonged once formed part of the tail of a \$

This fossilized vertebrae belonged once formed part of the tail of a "Brontosaurus-like" sauropod called a titanosaur

Louis Jacobs, a vertebrate palaeontologist and professor at Southern Methodist University, explains that the discovery could also help find much sought-after answers about the history of the Earth and its land formations.

Jacobs explains that when the fossils were first buried, Saudi Arabia was part of Gondwana -- the subcontinent that made up the southern half of Pangaea, and included parts of modern-day Africa.

"India started out much further south, and through time it moved north and slammed into Asia, creating the Himalayas. But it passed by the Arabian Peninsula about the time that dinosaurs lived," explains Jacobs.

"Part of the interest in dinosaurs from Arabia is to get at that relationship between Gondwana and India during that time."

Several factors explain the scarcity of dinosaur-related material in the Arabian Peninsula.

One issue is that the richest sites aren't always the most accessible. Fragments have previously been found in Syria (currently a no-go zone) and Yemen, which discourages certain travelers. Meanwhile, visitors to Saudi Arabia need a sanctioned invite.

Kear notes that in Saudi Arabia part of the problem is that the most prevalent types of rocks aren't the right types for capturing millennia-old land-based animals. He also notes that until recently, the country suffered from a lack of interest in this type of research.

"Let's say the geological view has been skewed in the past towards oil exploration," he says. Still, he says, paleontological research is gaining more traction, as evidenced by the government-run Saudi Geological Survey recently adding a palaeontology division.

"For the first time, you can see the work is going somewhere, and leading to a lasting legacy. In the future, we can expect to see Saudi dinosaur displays and museums so people inside the country can understand the riches they possess."

Athlete struggled with depression, killed herself

Sasha Menu Courey killed herself in 2011, about a year after she was allegedly raped

Questions are being raised about what the University of Missouri knew, and when

Courey's mother: "We lost our daughter ... but we can make a difference for others"

Columbia, Missouri (CNN) -- She went to the University of Missouri to fulfill her childhood dream of becoming a competitive swimmer.

Sasha Menu Courey made the team there, on scholarship, in 2009.

But the following year, something happened that changed the course of her promising college career -- something her parents didn't learn about until after she died.

"People were telling us that she had been raped and she wrote it in her journal," said Lynn Courey, Courey's mother.

Courey committed suicide in 2011.

Atty.: MO. Univ. not liable in rape case

In light of a 16-month investigation by ESPN's "Outside the Lines" program, new questions are being raised about what the university knew about the alleged assault, and when officials knew it.

The president of the university sent a letter to school officials late Sunday, saying that he is asking to hire independent counsel to conduct an investigation of the school's handing of the case.

The investigation has now also been referred to the Columbia Police Department from the University of Missouri Police Department.

"Our detectives will do the best they can with the investigation. It was not reported to us until now and we are almost four years behind," Sgt. Joe Bernhard, a Columbia police spokesman, told CNN.

"We can make a difference for others"

According to the ESPN report, in February 2010, after a night out drinking with friends, Courey said she went home with a former university football player -- off-campus -- and had consensual sex.

Months later, she told a rape crisis counselor and wrote in her journal that after the former football player left, another football player entered the room, locked the door and raped her.

Courey's parents say their daughter also talked about the alleged assault with a campus nurse and a campus doctor, 11 months after the attack.

The school never launched an investigation.

School officials say they weren't told about the suspected attack by either the nurse or the doctor because of a policy of not reporting sexual assaults without a victim's consent.

Courey's parents say their daughter had a long history of depression, and in the months after the alleged rape, she grew more and more despondent.

In 2011, Courey took her own life.

"We lost our daughter and we cannot bring her back, but we can make a difference for others," her mother said.

"The University did the right thing"

School officials say they later discovered and turned over to Courey's parents a transcript of Courey's conversation with the rape counselor. They also sent her parents a letter asking if they wanted the matter investigated. Officials say they got no response.

Courey's father, Mike Menu, said, "We did not feel supported in this letter. This letter was a check-the-boxes letter and, really to be honest, it did not deserve a response."

In its defense, the university is raising the issue of privacy.

"Victims of sexual assault need to know that they can seek medical care without the concern that reports will be made to police or campus officials without their consent. Otherwise some victims will be deterred from seeking medical care," it said in a statement.

"We continue to believe that the University did the right thing in trying to be respectful of Sasha's parents and determine their wishes. We think it is strange and inappropriate for the University to be criticized for not undertaking an investigation when Sasha's parents chose not to respond to our request for their input. If they wanted an investigation, they simply could have responded or made a report to law enforcement," it continued.

According to Title IX, a federal law that guarantees college men and women are protected equally on campus, universities are legally required to investigate allegations of rape -- even if the alleged victim is no longer alive.

Brett Sokolow, executive director of the Association of Title IX Administrators, said he doesn't get the sense there is any clear evidence of a coverup at this point.

However, he added: "I certainly feel that the university should have been a little more proactive at trying to bring in information and find out more."

CNN's Dana Ford and Michael Pearson contributed to this report.

These hotels don't want guests

Peninsula built this model of one of its Shanghai property's rooms at an off-site location in Hong Kong. Staff and special guests stayed overnight to test it out.

The mock-up rooms are used as testing grounds to ensure the real things, once released, are perfect. This is the finished product: a Deluxe Room, one of 235 rooms and suites at The Peninsula Shanghai.

The mock-up rooms are tested for up to a year before the designs are released for building in the properties. The process starts with an artist's rendering, such as this one, of a Deluxe Room at The Peninsula Shanghai, which opened in 2009.

The real Peninsula Paris is set to open its doors August 1. The Beaux Arts building on the Avenue Kléber, built in 1908, originally housed the Majestic Hotel.

Peninsula Paris rooms "tested" in Hong Kong before release

Mock-ups are identical to real rooms, and tested for a year

Location is a secret, CNN's David Molko first journalist given access

(CNN) -- It's a beautiful fall morning looking out over the Avenue Kléber, just a few blocks from the Arc de Triomphe.

I've checked into Room 309, a Grand Deluxe guestroom at The Peninsula Paris, on a brisk, blue-sky day that makes you want to stroll the streets with a stop at the boulangerie for a pain au chocolat, or two.

But that might prove difficult.

I'm not in Paris. I'm in Hong Kong, in an identical mock-up of the hotel's Paris rooms.

The room's large, with three-meter ceilings you might find inside a century-old Beaux Arts building.

Luxury hotel masters innovation

There's a dressing room that's as big as the oval-shaped white marble bathroom next door, where the clock above the vanity is set to Paris time.

In the bedroom, there's a stack of French magazines in a rack next to the sofa.

It does feel like I'm in the French capital, even down to the exact street views you get from the real property.

Peninsula's Paris hotel doesn't open until August, but the project team at The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels (HSH), Peninsula's parent company, designed and built this fully functioning model room back in 2011.

Test before release

This is where Peninsula tries out new ideas and technology for a full year, before releasing its designs into the world.

I'm the first journalist allowed access to see how the concept works. Such is the confidentiality surrounding these unseen rooms, I'm sworn to secrecy as a condition of my visit.

The Paris property's pictures aren't even made available to me.

This is basically a place to make mistakes, so they don't get made in the real world.

"What happens if you wake up in the middle of the night? Do you bump your knee on anything? If you're in the bathroom, does it all work?" asks Clement Kwok, CEO of HSH.

The Peninsula Paris is set to open its doors August 1, 2014.

For example, the "Dior grey" carpet originally laid will never see action. When the housekeepers came in to vacuum, it grew bald patches.

The built-in television cabinet flanked by a hidden mini-bar and built-in espresso machine (with bilingual instructions) replaces a design that featured a fireplace and an in-mirror hidden TV.

The team learned that watching TV during daylight hours was impossible, due to the glare from the mirror, which stretched up to the ceiling.

Eventually the fireplace was cut too, and the single-panel door design was revised because it was too heavy to lift.

What I see, and what will appear in Paris, are two ivory-colored panels that split and slide up and down.

Peninsula has been building these rooms at a location in Hong Kong with every new property or major renovation since the 1990s, including the construction of its tower rooms in Hong Kong (1994), and its hotels in Tokyo (2007) and Shanghai (2009).

To visit Shanghai, I just have to go next door, where the colors are richer and bolder, and the accents Art Deco, in keeping with the hotel's location on the Bund.

Tokyo's modern lines and Zen touches must be around here somewhere, though my hosts remain tight-lipped.

Rooms full of secrets

I later learn the Tokyo tester room has been demolished.

With construction in its final stages in Paris, and the Shanghai hotel open for more than three years, these rooms haven't seen as many visitors lately.

But in 2011 and 2012, the Paris mock-up would have been busy with members of management teams and special guests staying one or two nights.

Chairman Sir Michael Kadoorie, whose family opened the first Peninsula in Hong Kong 85 years ago, has stayed overnight in the Paris, Shanghai and Tokyo models.

Even couples have shared the king-sized bed.

Every detail the same, except the location.

At the end of their stay, guests are asked to fill out a questionnaire that can take hours to complete.

Executives give their suggestions directly to the project team, or, in the case of COO Peter Borer, experiment with changes themselves onsite.

Peninsula says Borer moved around and angled different sofas, armchairs, and coffee tables until he was satisfied with the setup.

There was also debate over the look and feel of the curved bathroom in Paris and whether it was worth the wasted space (its predecessors in Shanghai and Tokyo are rectangular, though the guestrooms have a similar overall layout).

Other changes were initiated from feedback that the room didn't feel "Parisian" enough.

The color scheme was changed from beige and bronze, to grey and chrome, and the wall coverings, carpet, and some of the furniture was adjusted.

And there were lots of other small tweaks, including the addition of a built-in reading light in a floor lamp.

A world of mock-ups

Peninsula isn't the only hotel company to build and test model rooms.

Starwood Hotels & Resorts which owns St. Regis, Westin, Sheraton, and others brands, has a design lab at its U.S. headquarters that features test rooms for some of its hotel lines, though not for each new property.

And while Peninsula won't disclose how much it costs to build, test, and maintain the model rooms, its CEO says they are an investment worth making.

"The purpose of doing all of this is not to add more gold and silver into the design," Kwok explains. "It is very focused on ergonomics, which is the sheer convenience of staying in that room and whether everything works."

My Paris stroll and fresh croissants will have to wait. I head down a short hallway past some Eiffel Tower-inspired art, open a mirrored door, and step back into the Hong Kong sunshine.

The Peninsula Paris, the luxury hotel group's 10th hotel, is set to open on August 1. Peninsula is also planning properties in London and Yangon, Myanmar.

Why wait for President Obama?

CNN correspondents, producers and contributors assess the state of the Union

President Obama will deliver the annual address on Tuesday night

CNN's Acosta: expect a feisty stance by Obama on executive actions

2014 is a time of transition for the economy, foreign policy, national security

Program note: CNN's live, comprehensive coverage of President Barack Obama's State of the Union address starts at 7 p.m. ET Tuesday. Go to CNN.com for complete coverage or take it with you on your iPhone, iPad or Android.

Washington (CNN) -- You can set your watch by it. Within minutes of the start of a State of the Union address, the President will offer his assessment -- almost always positive -- of where America stands.

"We can say with renewed confidence that the state of our union is stronger," President Barack Obama declared in the third paragraph of last year's speech.

But why wait for him to tell us how things are going this year? And don't presidents always spin it to make it sound as good as possible for their administration?

Instead, CNN asked its correspondents, producers, analysts and contributors to provide their assessment of the state of the Union as 2014 begins before Obama's speech on Tuesday night.

Here's how they see it:

The President's moment

Manchin: hope Obama focus on Economy

Crunch time for President Obama

Economy -- for many, a slow recovery

CNNMoney's Annalyn Kurtz reports that economic recovery continues from the recession Obama inherited, but so far it seems that only the rich are getting richer.

The presidency -- feeling feisty

CNN Senior White House Correspondent Jim Acosta reports that Obama and his team plan to use executive orders to bypass legislative gridlock in their declared "year of action."

Congress -- coming to life?

Darrell West, the vice president for governance studies at the Brookings Institution, writes that political expediency in an election year may bring some congressional cooperation rather than continued partisan stalemate.

The military -- under the budget gun

CNN's Tom Cohen reports there's no evident peace dividend for the U.S. military after ending the Iraq war and winding down combat operations in Afghanistan, due to budget cuts in Washington and a transition to a more modern armed forces.

Foreign policy -- U.S. still a leader?

CNN National Security Producer Jamie Crawford reports the Obama administration faces questions of a weakened role in world affairs despite a high-profile role in international talks involving several Middle East issues, as well as an increasing U.S. presence in Asia.

National security -- shifting post-9/11 posture

CNN Justice Producer Evan Perez reports that an evolving terrorist threat and classified leaks that disclosed U.S. surveillance programs are combining to bring changes to how the nation responded to the 9/11 attacks more than 12 years ago.

And on politics, we hear from two CNN contributors -- Democratic strategist Paul Begala and Republican strategist Alex Castellanos -- on where they see things heading into Obama's speech.

CNN's Ashley Killough contributed to this report.