> NBC’s Mara Schiavocampo is in Ghana ahead of Pres. Obama’s trip there later this week. On the DailyNightly blog she writes, “there will be tons of video which we’ll be filing for Nightly News and the Nightly News Web site. We’ll be blogging regularly right here and posting original text pieces at TheGrio.com.

> NBC’s Peacock Productions has entered into a development deal with award-winning columnist and author Solomon Jones. Jones is an author, journalist and producer who rose from homelessness to critical acclaim writing articles for the Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Magazine, before completing his first novel, “Pipe Dream.”

> In what has been an almost Jackson-free hour, NBC’s Andrea Mitchell is hosting her MSNBC show from Wasilla, Alaska today in the wake of Friday’s announcement by Gov. Sarah Palin that she would resign the office later this month. The Jackson news came in the form of a live news conference from the California court hearing on Michael Jackson’s estate.