President Obama will observe Memorial Day by laying a wreath at the Abraham Lincoln Cemetery in Elwood, Illinois, south of Chicago, instead of the traditional ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery. (Vice President Joe Biden will attend that service.) After several days beating back assertions that he was unengaged in the BP oil spill, Obama had a quiet holiday weekend in his hometown with few public events. Other events to remember the fallen include a B-17 scheduled to drop flowers over the Statue of Liberty in honor of the seven CIA employees killed in Afghanistan late last year.