Obama describes the uprisings as "winds of freedom."

And he says the forces that swept Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak out of office should be aligned with the U.S. and with Israel.

ADDRESSING STUDENTS—President Barack Obama gestures while speaking at Miami Central Senior High School in Miami, March. 4. (AP Photo/Steve Mitchell)

YONKERS, N.Y. (AP)—The U.S. Department of Transportation and Consumer Reports magazine have released a poll that illustrates how widespread distracted driving is among young people and a plan to help fight it.

The poll says 63 percent of people under 30 acknowledge driving while using a handheld phone and 30 percent say they’ve sent text messages while behind the wheel. For those over 30, the percentages were 41 percent on the phone and 9 percent texting.

Only about a third of the young people said they feel such behavior is very dangerous.

SELMA, Ala. (AP)—Thousands of marchers marked the 46th anniversary of the “Bloody Sunday” voting rights confrontation in Selma.

Activists staged the annual commemoration of the historic demonstration by walking across the Edmund Pettus Bridge over the Alabama River on Sunday afternoon. Participants included U.S. Rep. John Lewis of Georgia, who was injured in the melee in 1965, as well as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Rev. Jesse Jackson.

46TH ANNIVERSARY—Congressman John Lewis addresses fellow members of the The Faith & Politics Institute gathered on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala., March 6, on the 46th anniversary of Bloody Sunday. Along with Lewis are U.S. Rep. Steny H. Hoyer, third from left, Jesse Jackson and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. (AP Photo/ Kevin Glackmeyer)

Law enforcement officers attacked civil rights demonstrators marching toward Montgomery across the bridge on March 7, 1965. The movement only grew, and the Selma-to-Montgomery march was held later in response.

The march is credited with helping build momentum for passage of the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Week of March 12-18

March 12

1773—This is the most probable date when Black explorer Jean Baptiste Pointe de Sable begins building the settlement which would eventually become the city of Chicago, Ill. The Haitian-born de Sable would over time become a man of considerable wealth owning commercial buildings, docks, trading posts and a mansion. De Sable was the product or a French man and an African woman. He died Aug. 19, 1818.

BENJAMIN BANNEKER, MALCOLM X and QUINCY JONES

1791—Pierre Charles L’Enfant is commissioned to design and layout the nation’s capital city—Washington, D.C. However, a dispute with President George Washington forces his departure the very next year. Thus, the final design and layout fell to Black inventor and mathematician Benjamin Banneker. Although two White men were nominally in charge of the project, historical records show that it was Banneker’s mathematical skills and his memory of L’Enfant’s plans that enabled the project to be completed.