Obama Security Swarms The Loop

Chicago Tribune:

The president-elect's security force was an unavoidable presence in the Loop on Monday morning as Barack Obama met with John McCain in Chicago's Kluczynski Federal Building.

Thirty-eight floors below, dozens of officers from Federal Protective Services patrolled the building's lobby and periphery. Armed agents checked the photo IDs of everyone who entered a metal barricade enclosing the majority of the plaza the building shares with a large post office and an Alexander Calder sculpture.

Several Chicago police officers kept watch over traffic in surrounding blocks, redirecting trucks away from streets around the building.

Most people who work in the area said the massive security effort presented only minor inconveniences: a longer wait at the metal detector to enter the Kluczynski Building or a change of location for cigarette breaks.

Read the whole story: Chicago Tribune