CNN Press Release - Jessica Yellin will join CNN’s White House unit, it was announced today by Sam Feist, Washington bureau chief and senior vice president. Yellin begins her new assignment as chief White House correspondent immediately.

“Jessica Yellin has emerged as one of the leading political reporters in Washington, ” said Feist. “Jessica’s assertiveness along with her clever insight made her one of the top reporters of the 2008 campaign and has already set her apart in her reporting on the 2012 campaign. We’re thrilled Jessica will now bring her outstanding political journalism to our White House coverage.”

“This is a dream assignment,” said Yellin. “I’m honored CNN is putting its faith in me and humbled by the responsibility of covering the White House during these challenging times—and as we head into an election. I look forward to providing our viewers an honest assessment of the policies and the politics that affect our lives everyday.”

Since January 2009, Yellin has served as national political correspondent, covering important stories on politics, policy and culture for various CNN programs, including The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer and John King, USA. In that role based in Washington, D.C., Yellin traveled the country, reporting on breaking political news, as well as political trends and happenings that impact Americans outside the nation’s capital. Yellin joined CNN as a Capitol Hill correspondent in August 2007.

As a member of the Peabody Award-winning Best Political Team on Television, Yellin’s reporting was prominent throughout the network’s 2008 and 2010 ‘America Votes’ election coverage. During the 2008 campaign, she traveled throughout the battleground states to cover key races and conduct interviews with the candidates. Yellin has also covered significant policy debates, including the push to reform the financial regulatory system. In 2010, she won a Gracie Award for her reporting on the intersection of women and politics.

Prior to CNN, Yellin was a White House correspondent for ABC News. She began with ABC in July 2003 and reported on politics and culture for such programs as World News, Good Morning America and Nightline. She has interviewed Presidents Bill Clinton and George H. W. Bush and first lady Laura Bush. She has also reported from around the globe, including Russia, China, Europe, Latin America and Mongolia.

Prior to joining ABC News, Yellin was an overnight anchor and correspondent for MSNBC. She covered the 2000 recount in Florida as a general assignment reporter at WTVT-TV in Tampa. She began her broadcast career in 1998 as a general assignment reporter for Orlando's 24-hour cable news channel, Central Florida News 13. In 1999, she was named morning anchor.

Yellin’s work has been published in The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Details and Entertainment Weekly. She was also a Los Angeles-based reporter for George Magazine.

Yellin graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Harvard University.

CNN Worldwide, a division of Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., a Time Warner Company, is the most trusted source for news and information. Its reach extends to nine cable and satellite television networks; one private place-based network; two radio networks; wireless devices around the world; CNN Digital Network, the No. 1 network of news Web sites in the United States; CNN Newsource, the world’s most extensively syndicated news service; and strategic international partnerships within both television and the digital media.

CNN Press Release - CNN will provide live programming of President Obama’s speech at 8 p.m. ET with Wolf Blitzer anchoring. Chief national correspondent John King and national political correspondent Jessica Yellin will provide coverage of the victims’ memorial service and the latest details about Saturday's tragedy in Tucson. Tonight’s coverage also will include historian Douglas Brinkley, CNN senior political analyst David Gergen, and former presidential speechwriter Michael Gerson.

Beginning at 8 p.m. ET, the President’s speech also will be live streamed on CNN.com and via the CNN App for iPad, and CNN App for iPhone and iPod touch.

CNN has won three awards at the 2010 Gracie Awards.

This year's ceremony, held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles, continued the 35 year tradition of celebrating programming created for women, and by women. The awards also honor individuals who have made outstanding contributions in electronic media.

The awards won by CNN:

• Outstanding Documentary: CNN Presents - Black in America 2
• Outstanding Hard News Feature: Jessica Yellin - Political Women
• Outstanding Talk Show - News: Larry King Live - Interview with Katherine Callaway Hall
  

HLN anchor Robin Meade also recorded a win with her program, HLN's only award this year:

• Outstanding Anchor - News or News Magazine: Robin Meade in Morning Express with Robin Meade
  

A full list of winners can be viewed online here.

CNN Press Release - CNN’s Wolf Blitzer will anchor special coverage of the confirmation hearings on Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s nomination to be associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court during the week of July 13. Beginning Monday at 10 a.m., CNN will provide comprehensive coverage during the opening statements as well as the days when Judge Sotomayor faces questioning from senators on Capitol Hill.

Blitzer will be joined by members of the Best Political Team on Television including senior political analyst Gloria Borger, senior political correspondent Candy Crowley, chief national correspondent John King, senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin, and national political correspondent Jessica Yellin. Senior congressional correspondent Dana Bash and congressional correspondent Brianna Keilar will report live from Capitol Hill to provide updates and reaction from members of Congress. In addition, CNN contributor Alex Castellanos and guest contributor Maria Echaveste will provide analysis and commentary throughout the coverage.

CNN’s coverage will allow viewers to simultaneously observe a wide variety of incoming live video feeds, relevant file video, graphics and other visual story-telling tools. In addition, King will use the Magic Wall to report on Sotomayor’s relevant decisions, legal briefs and other documents from her years on the bench.

A special edition of The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer will air at 4 p.m. on Monday, followed by regularly-scheduled programming of Lou Dobbs Tonight, Campbell Brown, Larry King Live and Anderson Cooper 360º, with a focus on the day’s happenings on Capitol Hill and a look ahead to the rest of the hearing.

Online, the Judge Sotomayor special report, located at www.CNN.com/Sotomayor, gives users access to an array of in-depth biographical information of the U.S. Supreme Court nominee, chronicling her life’s journey and career path. The special section features key case files from past rulings, sorted by topic so users can learn more about decisions she has made from the bench, as well as an interactive gallery of family snapshots that reveal her life in pictures.

When the confirmation hearings get underway, CNN.com will unveil a special series, which explores key aspects of Sotomayor’s life; from her roots in Puerto Rico to growing up in the Bronx, to entering the Ivy League and embarking on a career as prosecutor, to federal appellate judge and then becoming nominee to the highest court. Each weekday, CNN.com will publish a new story as well as special commentaries and video packages focused on one of these different parts of her life.

CNN.com Live, the Internet’s only live multi-stream video news service, also will stream the Sotomayor confirmation hearings live in their entirety.

CNN en Español will offer broad coverage of the Sotomayor hearings beginning on Thursday, July 9, with a preview special on Directo desde EE.UU. at 7:00 p.m. anchored by Patricia Janiot. This 30-minute special program, live from Washington, will review Sotomayor’s roots, her professional achievements and the facts that have made her a controversial candidate for the Court. On Sunday, July 12, at 1:30 p.m., correspondent Juan Carlos López will talk with a panel of experts to take a look at Sotomayor’s federal case rulings for clues on what judicial philosophy she may take to the highest court. Then, on Monday, July 13, the network will offer live coverage of the hearings with analysts weighing in throughout the day.

CNN International will also cover the live hearings and provide analysis from a global perspective.

CNN Radio will provide affiliates with special reports at the bottom of the hour beginning at 9:30 a.m. and running through the length of the hearing each day. There will be a one minute wrap-up at the end of the day, and this will also run in CNN Radio network newscasts. CNN Radio Capitol Hill correspondent Lisa Desjardins will be covering and providing affiliate live shots from Capitol Hill.

CNN Worldwide, a division of Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., a Time Warner Company, is the most trusted source for news and information. Its reach extends to nine cable and satellite television networks; one private place-based network; two radio networks; wireless devices around the world; CNN Digital Network, the No. 1 network of news Web sites in the United States; CNN Newsource, the world’s most extensively syndicated news service; and strategic international partnerships within both television and the digital media.

CNN Press Release - Special year-end editions of Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer, Reliable Sources and After Party will air in the final weekend of 2008, Saturday, Dec. 27 and Sunday, Dec. 28.

Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer: Best of 2008 will examine a remarkable year in news and look ahead at what is in store for 2009. CNN lead political anchor Wolf Blitzer will be joined by members of the “Best Political Team on Television” to look back at newsmaker interviews during the year of a historic election and a global economic crisis. Interviews with key political and business leaders including New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Sen. Hillary Clinton, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, Sen. John McCain, President-elect Barack Obama, Gov. Sarah Palin and CNN founder Ted Turner. Airing Sunday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. (ET), Blitzer and the panel will look ahead at the incoming Obama administration and discuss the future of the GOP.

Howard Kurtz hosts Reliable Sources: A Year in Review to examine coverage of the 2008 presidential campaign and changes in the news business. Kurtz will be joined by Amy Holmes, CNN political contributor; Bill Press, radio talk show host; Terence Smith, former PBS media correspondent; and Jessica Yellin, CNN national political correspondent. The one-hour program will air in its usual time slot, Sunday at 10 a.m. (ET).

After Party will be moderated by David Brody, CNN political contributor and correspondent for the Christian Broadcasting Network, and will air Saturday at 6 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. (ET). Brody will host Michelle Cottle, senior editor at The New Republic; Christopher Hayes, Washington editor of The Nation; Stephen Hayes, senior writer at The Weekly Standard and CNN political contributor; and Tara Wall, deputy editorial page editor at The Washington Times and CNN political contributor. Guests will discuss the ailing economy, President-elect Obama’s plans upon taking office, foreign policy and the conservative-progressive divide in the United States.

A transcript of the program will be available at http://www.CNN.com/transcripts and from the Federal Document Clearing House.

CNN Worldwide, a division of Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., a Time Warner Company, is the most trusted source for news and information. Its reach extends to nine cable and satellite television networks; one private place-based network; two radio networks; wireless devices around the world; CNN Digital Network, the No. 1 network of news Web sites in the United States; CNN Newsource, the world’s most extensively syndicated news service; and strategic international partnerships within both television and the digital media.

In the wake of its highly acclaimed coverage of the presidential election campaign, CNN is redeploying some of its Washington-based correspondents in preparation for the new Obama administration and the incoming 111th Congress.

“During the election, CNN’s political reporters established themselves as the class of television news, both cable and broadcast,” said David Bohrman, CNN’s senior vice president and D.C. bureau chief. “Now we’re positioning them in key roles that will ensure the most thorough and informative coverage as President Obama and Congress tackle the thorniest problems America has faced in our lifetimes.”

The changes come on the heels of the announcement that CNN’s lead political anchor Wolf Blitzer will remain with the network through the next presidential election cycle and chief national correspondent John King will anchor a four-hour programming block on Sundays starting in January.

The noteworthy changes include:
· Ed Henry, who has provided comprehensive coverage of the Obama transition,becomes senior White House correspondent after coveringthe past two years of the George W. Bush White House and spending two years as CNN’s congressional correspondent. Suzanne Malveaux, who distinguished herself with exceptional coverage of the Obama presidential campaign and reported a two-hour documentary on the president-elect, returns to the White House. She will also serve as a primary substitute anchor for The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer.Boston bureau chief and correspondent Dan Lothian, who reported extensively from the campaign trail in both 2004 and 2008, will become a White House correspondent as well.
· Dana Bash, who broke numerous exclusives while covering the Republican primaries and the McCain campaign, is named senior congressional correspondent. Bash has covered Congress for nearly a decade and was honored with the prestigious Dirksen Award in 2002. She will be joined on Capitol Hill by Brianna Keilar, who has served as a general assignment correspondent for the network for nearly three years and covered Capitol Hill and the White House during the election campaign.
· Jessica Yellin, one of the standouts of CNN’s presidential campaign coverage, becomes national political correspondent. In addition to The Situation Room, Campbell Brown: No Bias, No Bull and John King’s Sunday block, Yellin will file daily reports for CNN’s prime-time programming analyzing the most important stories on politics, policy and culture.
· Jill Dougherty is named foreign affairs correspondent. Dougherty,who covered the Clinton White House for CNN and then served as Moscow bureau chief and correspondent and managing editor for Asia/Pacific based in Hong Kong, will track Secretary of State nominee Hillary Clinton’s stewardship of American foreign policy.
· Correspondent Chris Lawrence, a veteran of the Navy Reserve who has spent four years as a general assignment correspondent in CNN’s Chicago and Los Angeles bureaus, becomes a Pentagon correspondent.
· Zain Verjee becomes news anchor for The Situation Room and will also file special reports for the program. While serving as CNN’s State Department correspondent for the past two years, Verjee traveled with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to more than a dozen countries, including Israel, Libya, Russia and South Korea. She also covered the violent conflicts in Kenya, her native country.
· Elaine Quijano shifts from the White House to general assignment correspondent to cover other Beltway issues while continuing to cover the White House. She will be joined by Kate Bolduan, who has been reporting for the network for months and officiallymoves from CNN’s Newsource affiliate service.

CNN Worldwide, a division of Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., a Time Warner Company, is the most trusted source for news and information. Its reach extends to nine cable and satellite television networks; one private place-based network; two radio networks; wireless devices around the world; CNN Digital Network, the No. 1 network of news Web sites in the United States; CNN Newsource, the world’s most extensively syndicated news service; and strategic international partnerships within both television and the digital media.

Jessica Yellin - Congressional Correspondent
CNN Domestic