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The U.S. Labor Department says the nation's unemployment rate in December rose to a 16-year high of 7.2 percent. Employers cut 524,000 jobs during the month. The report also showed that 2.6 million jobs were lost in 2008, the most since 1945.

President-elect Barack Obama named Nancy Killefer as his chief performance officer. Her job will be to bring modern ideas of business efficiency to the White House. Obama also spoke of his plans to revive the economy without worsening the federal budget deficit.

Many other confirmation hearings took place on Capitol Hill Tuesday. Peter Orszag, President-elect Barack Obama's pick for director of the White House Office of Management and Budget; Shaun Donovan, his pick for secretary of Housing and Urban Development; Arne Duncan, his pick for Education Secretary; and Steven Chu, his pick for Energy Secretary, all appeared on Capitol Hill.

President-elect Barack Obama says despite the enormous task a head, he's as hopeful as ever that the U.S. will endure and prevail and fulfill the dreams of its founders. Obama addressed the crowd gathered for a celebrity-packed concert at the Lincoln Memorial Sunday. Some estimates put the attendance as high as several hundred thousand.

The first official inaugural event: a free concert at the Lincoln Memorial, with a cast of megawatt singers, rockers and actors. NPR's Debbie Elliott joins host Rebecca Roberts to talk about the scene at the Lincoln Memorial on Sunday.

Sen. Ted Kennedy became ill at a post-inauguration luncheon for President Barack Obama and was taken by ambulance to a hospital. Kennedy is battling a brain tumor. Meanwhile, 91-year-old Sen. Robert Byrd was also taken from the luncheon, but his staff say he is not ill.

Christopher Butler, a producer at Nickelodeon, witnessed the crashing of US Airways Flight 1549 that was en route to Charlotte, N.C., from LaGuardia Airport. He said he was sitting at his desk when a co-worker alerted him to what was happening.

Retired Gen. Eric Shinseki, President-elect Barack Obama's pick to head the Department of Veteran Affairs, has promised to modernize the agency. Shinseki appeared Wednesday before the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee at his confirmation hearing.

Intense fighting is still being reported throughout the Gaza Strip. Israeli forces are pushing deeper into neighborhoods in southern and eastern Gaza City. Witnesses say large groups of civilians in the south are fleeing their homes as Israeli ground troops, backed by attack helicopters, search the area for Hamas fighters.

Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee will question Attorney General nominee Eric Holder at his confirmation hearing Thursday. Holder has strong support in the Senate, but some Republicans on the panel say they will ask him about aspects of his private legal practice and some of his decisions while serving as deputy and acting attorney general under President Clinton.