President Obama first orders in Oval Office.

The new White House has just sent out this release from Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, telling the public how Obama spent his first morning in the Oval Office:

At 8:35 AM, the President arrived in the Oval Office and spent 10 minutes alone in the office. He read the note left to him by President Bush that was in an envelope marked "To: #44, From: #43". At 8:45 AM, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel came in to discuss the schedule of today's events. The First Lady came into the Oval Office at 9:10 AM.

First new change: Dress code in the White House.

A photo of President Obama in the Oval Office this morning [see pic above] institutes a new dress code: The new president is not wearing a suit jacket. It was a rule during the Bush administration that no one ever enter the Oval Office without a jacket.

Second new change: WH aides pay freeze

CBS13:
President Barack Obama announced on his first day in office Wednesday that he is freezing the pay of the about a hundred White House employees who make over $100,000 a year.

The freeze would hold salaries at their current levels. It is part of a presidential memorandum being issued Wednesday when Obama attends a swearing-in for staff at the White House.

In a statement, Obama said "families are tightening their belts, and so should Washington."Aides making above $100,00 include the high-profile jobs of White House chief of staff, national security adviser and press secretary. Other aides who work in relative anonymity also fit into that cap, if Obama follows a structure similar to the one George W. Bush set up.

Third new change: First foreign leader phone call to Middle East.

Source: AFP American Edition

US President Barack Obama promised to work towards a "durable peace" in the Middle East during a phone call to Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas on Wednesday, Palestinian officials said.

Obama called the Palestinian leader a day after taking the oath of office and assured him that he intended "to work with him as partners to establish a durable peace in the region," Abbas's spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina told AFP.

Obama told Abbas that the president was the first foreign leader he called since taking office, Rudeina said.

"This is my first phone call to a foreign leader and I'm making it only hours after I took office," Rudeina quoted Obama as telling Abbas.