As the Democratic National Convention gets under way, we're starting up a live blog to keep you up to date on the latest developments in Philadelphia.
Update 5:45 p.m.: Former Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin just presented the party's proposed platform. She is the co-chair of the committee that drafted the document over the past several months.
Update 5:22 p.m.: House Minority Leader Stacey Abrams, D-Atlanta, takes the stage at the Democratic National Convention at 6 p.m. Here are five things to know about Abrams.
Update 5:10 p.m.: Bernie Sanders has personally texted requests that supporters not disrupt the convention with protests, according to reports.
"I ask you as a personal courtesy to me to not engage in any kind of protests on the floor," Sanders texted supporters at 3:21 p.m.
Update 4:43 p.m.: Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, and not Debbie Wasserman Schultz, dropped the hammer shortly after 4 p.m. to gavel in the convention.
Georgia House Minority Leader Stacey Abrams, D-Atlanta, speaks at 6 p.m. Abrams is one of presumptive nominee Hillary Clinton's top Georgia supporters.
Update 2:43 p.m.: The job of opening the DNC today now falls to Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, according to WBAL-TV.
Rawlings-Blake is DNC secretary.
Update 1:50 p.m.: Embattled outgoing DNC head Debbie Wasserman Schultz won't gavel the convention to order this afternoon as initially planned, the Sun Sentinel reported.
The longtime Florida congresswoman, who faces a primary challenge, told the newspaper that the decision was in the interest of starting the four-day confab "on a high note."
She told the Sentinel:
"I stepped down the other day because I wanted to make sure that having brought us to this momentous day and to Philadelphia and planned the convention that is going to be the best one that we've ever had in our party's history that this needs to be all about making sure that everyone knows that Hillary Clinton would make the best president."
Update 1:34 p.m.: The crowd is now chanting "thank you, Bernie," as Sanders walks off stage. His last message to delegates: "We continue to fight."
Update 1:30 p.m.: In what was a remarkable scene just now, Sanders was booed by his own fervent supporters for saying the following: "And we have go to elect Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine." The crowd went nuts, some opposed to the booing shouted "With respect!" but Sanders just calmly waited. Soon enough, the crowd moved back to him: "We want Bernie! We want Bernie!"
Update 1:18 p.m.: Bernie Sanders was given a hero's welcome before a thousand supporters in a ballroom at the Pennsylvania Convention Center, hours before the start of the 2016 Democratic National Convention.
Sanders touted his victories at both the ballot box and in convention negotiations but has not addressed the controversy surrounding the hacked DNC emails.
Original post -- 12:50 p.m. -- The first few hours of the DNC have been dramatic.
First, outgoing DNC chairwoman and longtime congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz was booed by Bernie Sanders supporters and fellow Floridians, a sign her tenure may not last until even the end of the week, her initial plan.
Meanwhile, the FBI announced Monday it was launching a probe to determine the "nature and scope" of the DNC hack that led to the release of the 20,000 or so emails that got Wasserman Schultz in trouble in the first place.
“A compromise of this nature is something we take very seriously, and the FBI will continue to investigate and hold accountable those who pose a threat in cyberspace,” the agency said in a statement.
The Clinton campaign and some cyber security experts suggested over the weekend that the hack originated with the Kremlin, but the former walked back that rhetoric today.
“I think (Clinton), like all of us, we are reading the same reporting that you all are saying and we are reading what the experts are saying,” Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook told reporters.
The hacked emails -- which suggested that top DNC officials, including Wasserman Schultz, were opposing Bernie Sanders’ campaign and, at times, discussing ways to damage his run -- have put in jeopardy the party's carefully-crafted attempts at unifying following a divisive primary season.
Mook insisted Monday morning that the convention would be a display of unity.
“This is going to be a big contrast to what we saw in Cleveland last week,” he said.
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