...to bring you news of a new dawn - a new era in human civilisation.

Ding dong, Bush is out of the Whitehouse! With a flourish of stars and stripes and an extraordinary level of pomp and ceremony, America welcomed its 44th president into office yesterday. There's a Democrat back in charge at long, long last.

Being an American by birth, I've never felt quite so patriotic as I did while watching the televised version of the inauguration at work (or rather, catching the odd glimpse between writing stories). Of course, because it's always open season in the office where religion and Americans are concerned and because the ceremony had both of these in spades, there was a fair amount of mickey-taking, but I still felt proud. As one of the many, many spectators was quoted as saying - it's ok to be American again.

For eight years, we've waited, with bated breath. The whole world was on tenterhooks in the run up to the election. Now that the great day has come and gone, we're waiting again, this time to see what Obama can do.

Now let's just hope he doesn't screw it up.

But of course, nothing stops in Waltham Forest. We paused for a moment but it's been business as usual here at the WFG, what with one thing and another. The news agenda seems to have sprung back into life over the last couple of weeks, which means everyone has been as busy as...well, something very busy.

Shootings, high-profile criminal trials, children hit by cars - it's all happening right here. Finally, it seems to be a good time to be a journalist. We have the chance to bring the news to the public in a way we haven't had for weeks, even months. And one hopes, at least, that we can be sure of doing something useful.

The story of the child being knocked over, for example, centres around a four-year-old girl who was hit outside her school last week. Thankfully, she's all right, but her mother and the other parents and teachers at the school are now calling for speed bumps to be installed outside the school to keep unwary drivers in check.

They've tried before - the PTA has apparently lobbied the council on a number of occasions as three other children have also been knocked down - but the principal complaint here seems to be that there's been complete and utter inaction.

And as if to illustrate this point, the council came out with the rather strange claim that there have been no pedestrian injuries there in the last three years and that resources were being diverted to areas with "less adequate provision".

Right, ok.

One can but hope, therefore, that the article might do at least some good...