Check in as we bring you updates and photographs from the Steps, Lerner, and the Press Room.

5:24 PM: Sarah Besnoff, George Krebs, and Peter Valerias are talking to us about the community service fair that’s still happening but no one is going to forfeit their spots on the steps. 

5:27 PM: Someone is speaking very quickly and softly now, there is literally no way to tell who it is. It’s quite windy out. 

5:32 PM: The mic keeps going out but Bwog heard the phrases “commuity lunch” and “not to be too corny, but to quote Martin Luther King…”

5:37 PM: There is a slideshow, with the theme of Service. Seems like the mic has been fixed, in any event. Steps are basically standing room only at this point, so latecomers have started to spread out on Low Plaza. 

5:53 PM: New Chris Colombo Kevin Schollenberg is sporting very dapper plaid suit. Let the record state that he is better dressed than Usher.

6:04 PM: Krebs introduces Bollinger. No one can hear a word he is saying. A few kids starting “shh-ing” other kids, but gave up with a half a second. Oh, and Bollinger’s done already. 15 people applauded, including Krebs.

6:10 PM: Media folk are standing on the edges of the crowd, so if for whatever reason you want to be interviewed about all this, head that way. Media will be watching the Summit in a “press receiving room” in Low, which is probably not what they were expecting.

6:13 PM: Here is McCain’s press release about Service, because that is, after all, why we are here. Service.

6:24 PM: Dems, CUGOP, and CPU are sending some doomed souls over to Fox News tonight, right into the open arms of Sean Hannity and Alan Colmes.  They’ll go on at 10 PM. Stay tuned for the Names of the Damned.

6:32 PM: Loudest cheering all night, in celebration of the Jumbotron.

6:36 PM: To read about Obamacain’s visit to Columbia, check here.

6:36 PM: None of the press can get into Low because the door is locked. The press room is conveniently located in the locked building, and there are frantic camera people running around asking us if we know of any alternate entrances. We do not.

6:37 PM: Oh dear god, the ServiceNation people need to get in Low but obviously it is locked. They are all on their phones, trying to find someone who knows what’s going on.

6:46 PM: So here are those names we promised you of which friends of yours are stopping by Hannity and Colmes Fox News tonight:

• Kaley Hanenkrat, BC ’11, Dems membership director
• Avi Edelman, CC ’11, Dems media director
• Sajaa Ahmed, CC ’10, CPR editor
• Lauren Salz, BC ’11, CUGOP executive director
• Jonathan Kaiser, CC ’10, CUGOP communications director

And, the best part, it’s being taped live outside the 116th gates tonight!

6:50 PM: Bwog found the entrance to Low, finally, and is sitting in a media room because there are outlets there. Here’s a photo of the media room. If you manage to sneak in, there’s free soda and food. 

6:55 PM: There’s a livefeed of Roone playing in this room. (According to our sources on the Outside, there’s still a Service Slideshow playing for the Steps audience.) So here’s what you need to know: people are milling about. That flag paneling we showed you yesterday? Turns out it’s symmetrical. No sign of Obama, McCain, Bollinger, Usher, James Franco, Jonathan Taylor Thomas, or anyone else you were hoping to see.

7:01 PM: Overheard from a security walkie-talkie: The flags are going to fly at half-mast.