Green Light For King Memorial.

The Obama administration gave the green light for construction to begin on the Mall for a long-delayed memorial to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. At a ceremony on the memorial's site, across the Tidal Basin from the Jefferson Memorial, Ken Salazar, the interior secretary, signed the construction permits. ''It is time to honor Martin Luther King Jr. right here in the nation's front door,'' Mr. Salazar said. Harry E. Johnson, the project's chief executive, said planners had raised $106 million of the expected $120 million cost of the memorial ( model is above), which is expected to be completed in August 2011. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]