Washington Whispers
OnStar? Help, I'm Lost in Baghdad
General Motors' little blue OnStar button might find its way into military vehicles if the Defense Information Systems Agency gets its way. It has asked GM for info about OnStar, the GPS-aided emergency response system in cars. DISA thinks OnStar might be able to help track vehicles on the battlefield for less than lots of fancy military technology. "It's not a market we've been pursuing," says OnStar President Chet Huber, who got to know some Pentagon players when he spent a year studying at National Defense University. "But we're happy to talk to them." That's no surprise: GM lost $8.6 billion last year and needs all the business it can get.
A Glorious Road to the White House
When President Bush and wife, Laura, want to get into a new movie, they don't just queue up a flick in the White House theater. In the case of Glory Road, the movie about the first all-black starting squad to win the NCAA championship, they invited the original team, the film producer, and some stars for popcorn and dinner. It happened last week, and we hear producer Jerry Bruckheimer and star Josh Lucas, who played Texas Western University coach Don Haskins, attended.
A False Start for the Wrong Dogs
Here's the weird moment of the week. White House photographers, affectionately called "photodogs," were called Wednesday to snap pictures of NASA's Return to Flight space shuttle crew as they visited with the president. As the photographers waited outside in the Colonnade for the call to the Oval Office, a staff aide kept them entertained by playing with Barney and Miss Beazley in the yard. Then they heard a loud whistle from President Bush and hustled to the Oval. But a laughing Bush turned them back: "Hey, I was only calling the dogs!"
Beauty and the Media Beast
What's the best training for handling a bunch of pushy reporters? Scarlotte (Deupree) Kilgore thinks she has the answer: the Miss America Pageant. "It was a fabulous and interesting experience," says the Miss Alabama and 2003 runner-up who just took a job in the Senate Periodical Press Gallery. "And interestingly enough, it was the perfect preparation for dealing with a little bit of everything, which comes in handy with this job!" The elegant 25-year-old isn't just a pretty face in the office that serves congressional reporters for weekly magazines and newsletters. She totally revamped the gallery's website and helped organize press coverage of the Hurricane Katrina hearings and President Bush's State of the Union address. But her pageant days are most likely over: Kilgore laughed off our suggestion of a Congressional Pageant. "I don't think so."
With With David E. Kaplan and Richard J. Newman
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