How the Columbia tragedy unfolded — and led to NASA's tough transition

 Launch slideshow

Retrace the final, tragic flight of the space shuttle Columbia, from its launch to its catastrophic end on Feb. 1, 2003.

NASA observed its annual "Day of Remembrance" for fallen astronauts on Friday with ceremonies at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, as well as at Kennedy Space Center in Florida and other NASA centers. In this 10th-anniversary commentary, NBC News' longtime Cape Canaveral correspondent, Jay Barbree, looks back at the loss of the shuttle Columbia and its crew:

By Jay Barbree, NBC News

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — On the morning of that fateful Saturday, the first day of February 2003, the Columbia astronauts prepared their ship for its landing at their Florida launch site.
Touchdown was set for 9:16 a.m. Eastern time, and on Columbia's 255th trip around Earth in 16 days, commander Rick Husband was given the "go" to put on his brakes and leave orbit.  The senior astronaut was flying Columbia backward and tail-up when he ignited the ship's two orbiting maneuvering rockets. Twelve thousand pounds of thrust pounded against Columbia's forward speed for two minutes and 38 seconds.  The burn was "right on the nose," and it slowed the big shuttle's forward motion just enough to drop it out of orbit.
Columbia slammed into Earth's atmosphere at 400,000 feet over the Pacific Ocean.  This is when a spacecraft skips along the upper surface of the planet's air, much like a stone skipping across a lake. The first effects of re-entry heat can be felt when the shuttle penetrates the atmosphere.  Its surface grows hotter and hotter as it plows deeper and deeper into the thickening air. The plasma sheath around the shuttle is hotter than the molten lava pouring from Hawaii's Kilauea volcano.
In physics, plasma is a highly ionized gas containing an approximately equal number of positive ions and electrons.  The super-hot plasma is the product of friction created by a fast-moving object through air.  It first appeared to Columbia's astronauts as a faint salmon glow.  Nearing the California coast, Columbia was dropping like a rock. Its nose-up attitude was focusing the plasma's heat on the reinforced carbon-carbon panels covering the shuttle's nose and the leading edges of its wings.

 

Dec. 31, 2008: NASA releases information about what the astronauts went through in their final moments onboard the space shuttle Columbia in 2003. NBC's Tom Costello reports.

"This is amazing," pilot Willie McCool said.  "It's really getting, uh, fairly bright out there," he added, staring at the growing intensity of the fire outside.
Veteran commander Rick Husband smiled. It wasn't his first re-entry.  He knew this was only the beginning of the blast furnace that was yet to come.  "Yeah, you definitely don't want to be outside now," he told his pilot.
Columbia crossed the California coast at 8:53 a.m. Eastern time, 23 minutes away from its Florida touchdown.  Below, two news photographers had set up their cameras to get a view of the returning shuttle, but instead of seeing the perfect trail of plasma they expected, the photographers saw a big red flare shoot from underneath Columbia.
The two looked at each other. Was that thing coming apart?
Six minutes later, Columbia crossed the sky 40 miles above north central Texas. The super-hot plasma sped freely through a six-inch hole in Columbia's left wing, made by a chunk of falling tank foam on launch day. The blast melted the ship's inner structure.  America's first space shuttle was ripped into more than 84,000 pieces, killing Columbia's dedicated crew of seven.
Following a seven-month investigation, the Columbia Accident Investigation Board, chaired by retired Navy Adm. Harold W. Gehman Jr., issued a scathing report, confirming that the "the foam did it" and indicting NASA as a co-conspirator. The board declared that "the NASA organizational culture had as much to do with the accident as well as the foam." Its report cited eight missed opportunities to detect the problem during the flight, and identified schedule pressures and communications breakdowns as contributing factors.
NASA decided to retire its space shuttle fleet after meeting its obligations to complete the building of the International Space Station, and drew up plans for safer rockets and spacecraft.
President George W. Bush approved a new generation of space vehicles, aimed at sending astronauts to the moon under a project named Constellation. Then, along came Barack Obama. The new president canceled Constellation, and since then, NASA has struggled.
Today, 10 years after the Columbia tragedy, America's $6.6 billion Florida spaceport sits mostly idle. Several projects are trying to get started. Private companies are working on spaceships that could launch astronauts from U.S. soil again starting sometime in the next several years. NASA is developing a launch system that could be sending Americans beyond Earth orbit a decade from now. Meanwhile, about 8,400 NASA employees and contractors are caretakers of what was once the home of the world's leader in space exploration. Those with vision have moved on to more promising projects, while many of those who are left mark time and cut grass.
More about the Columbia tragedy:

• Leaders look back at Columbia, look ahead to Mars
• 10 myths surrounding the Columbia disaster
• Columbia's loss still serves as warning to NASA
• NASA celebrates its fallen astronauts
• Film finds uplifting story amid Columbia's loss
• Special report on the Columbia tragedy

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Jay Barbree is in his 55th year with NBC News as a space analyst, correspondent and consultant. He is the only journalist who covered all 166 flights by American astronauts from U.S. soil, and is now writing a book on Neil Armstrong's life of flight.

Leaders look back at the Columbia tragedy — and look ahead to Mars

By Alan Boyle, Science Editor, NBC News

President Barack Obama and NASA's leaders paid a 10th-anniversary tribute to the space shuttle Columbia's fallen astronauts on Friday — and pledged that the lessons learned would be applied to future space odysseys, including eventual trips to Mars.

"As we undertake the next generation of discovery, today we pause to remember those who paid the ultimate sacrifice on the journey of exploration," Obama said in a statement released by NASA. "Right now we are working to fulfill their highest aspirations by pursuing a path in space never seen before, one that will eventually put Americans on Mars."

The shuttle Columbia's catastrophic breakup on Feb. 1, 2003, killed seven astronauts, forced a two-year grounding of the three remaining space shuttles and led to stepped-up safety measures at the space agency. The disaster also led Obama's predecessor, President George W. Bush, to plan for the retirement of the shuttle fleet once construction of the International Space Station was complete. The last shuttle mission flew eight years later, in 2011.

Bush's space vision called for a new generation of vehicles to be built for trips back to the moon by 2020 — but Obama shifted the focus of exploration to a near-Earth asteroid in the mid-2020s, with trips to Mars and its moons starting in the mid-2030s.

'We will never forget'
In his own 10th-anniversary statement, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said the sacrifices made by the crew of Columbia's last mission will inspire future explorers.

"We will never forget these astronauts, nor all those who have lost their lives carrying out our missions of exploration — the STS-51L Challenger crew; the Apollo 1 crew; Mike Adams, the first in-flight fatality of the space program as he piloted the X-15 No. 3 on a research flight," Bolden said in an agency statement. "These explorers, and their families, have our deepest respect. We work every day to honor and build on their legacy and create the best space program in the world — to infuse it with the life and vitality that they worked so hard to achieve."

On Friday morning, Bolden laid a wreath in honor of the agency's fallen astronauts at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, where monuments to the Columbia and Challenger crews have been erected. Earlier in the week, he attended a spaceflight conference held in Israel to honor Ilan Ramon, that country's first astronaut, who died in the Columbia tragedy. The other victims included Columbia commander Rick Husband, William McCool, Michael Anderson, David Brown, Kalpana Chawla and Laurel Clark.

Memorial ceremonies also were conducted in Texas, where the Columbia wreckage fell to earth, and at Kennedy Space Center's visitor complex in Florida. The focal point of the Florida ceremony was the Space Mirror Memorial, which bears the names of NASA fliers who died in the line of duty.

Roots of the tragedy
At that ceremony, Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA's associate administrator for human exploration and operations, acknowledged that the roots of the Columbia disaster went "all the way back to the first shuttle launch in 1981." Even then, NASA knew that ice and pieces of foam insulation could fly off the shuttle's external fuel tank and strike the orbiter — but the fact that no severe damage was done "reinforced the idea that all was well," Gerstenmaier said.

That view changed dramatically when Columbia was felled. Investigators determined that the leading edge of Columbia's left wing was fatally damaged by a piece of flying foam during launch, setting the stage for the breakup 16 days later during atmospheric re-entry. NASA was reminded that "even small problems can surface as major failures," Gerstenmaier said.

"Ten years ago, it would have been easy to pull back from the frontier of space, and say it was too risky to pursue," he said. "Instead, we dedicated ourselves to improving how we pushed the boundaries of space exploration, and we vowed to continue with our eyes open. We cannot be afraid of risk, and we cannot be ignorant of it, either. Our lasting tribute to those we have lost is to carry on with the cause that they believed was worth the ultimate sacrifice."

Other speakers at the Florida ceremony included Evelyn Husband-Thompson, the widow of Columbia's commander, who has since remarried. She recalled how she and other family members anticipated the return of their loved ones on that fateful Saturday morning 10 years ago, only to be jolted into a nightmare of "fear, uncertainty and horror."

NASA
Evelyn Husband-Thompson, the widow of Columbia commander Rick Husband, speaks at a memorial ceremony conducted Friday at the Space Mirror Memorial at Kennedy Space Center's visitor complex.

"The grief journey has been difficult, complicated and surprising," she said. Over the past decade, she has drawn comfort from her friends, her family and her faith. She noted that the Columbia crew's legacy includes educational initiatives, scholarships, museum exhibits, and even the name of the airport near her home in Texas: Rick Husband Amarillo International Airport.

"Just as a forest fire reduces beautiful foliage to ashes, those ashes ultimately become nourishment for new, healthy growth," Husband-Thompson said. "There are indeed small, green shoots of hope that are springing up in our lives."

Phone of NYC mom missing in Turkey used twice in recent days: report

AP

Turkish men pin up a photo of Sarai Sierra, a New York City woman who disappeared while on vacation in Istanbul.

By Tracy Connor, Staff Writer, NBC News

The cellphone of a New York City mom missing in Istanbul has been used twice since she vanished, a Turkish newspaper reported Friday.
Sarai Sierra, 33, hasn’t been seen heard from since Jan. 21, the day before she was supposed to catch a flight home from a two-week vacation.

But police believe the amateur photographer is alive because her phone was used for a Skype call on Wednesday and turned on again Thursday, the Sabah newspaper reported, according to the Turkish daily Hurriyet.
Cops briefly detained a man who exchanged online messages with Sierra after meeting her online four months ago, contacted her while she was in Istanbul and made plans to rendezvous with her on a bridge she wanted to photograph, Hurriyet said.
The man reportedly told police the two never connected, and investigators are now hoping to question three other people she corresponded with on Facebook and Twitter.
Sierra left for her first trip abroad on Jan. 7 — flying solo after a close friend dropped out of the prepaid trip, her family has said.
Her husband, Steven Sierra, said his wife stayed in close contact, talking to him and their children, ages 9 and 11, by phone and Skype.
The last communication from her came Jan. 21, when she sent her sister a brief message saying she would be home the next day.
When she didn't show up at the airport, her husband called her hostel, which said her passport and other personal items were still there.
Police uncovered surveillance-camera footage of Sierra walking around Istanbul during her visit; she appeared to be alone and well.
Steven Sierra and Sarai's brother, David Jimenez, flew to Turkey earlier this week and turned over her online communications to police.
"I don't want to come home without my sister," Jimenez told NBC New York before the trip.

Kerry faces new battles as he takes foreign policy helm from Clinton

By Tom Curry, National Affairs Writer, NBC News

As John Kerry prepares to take his place Friday in the long line of leaders -- including Thomas Jefferson, Henry Kissinger and Hillary Clinton -- who have served as secretary of state, he and President Barack Obama will face some familiar overseas challenges from the past four years:

• Iran’s nuclear weapons ambitions;
• North Korea’s erratic nuclear-armed behavior;
• China’s growing economic power and its potential leverage as a holder of U.S. Treasury bonds;
• The horrific civil war in Syria which threatens to spill over into neighboring countries.

And there’s always the specter of a sudden, unexpected international crisis.
But there are also new and developing challenges for the administration and for Kerry, who will be sworn in Friday afternoon, such as the U.S. role in a country that few Americans have heard of or could find on a map: Mali, in north central Africa.
There, the Obama administration has broadened the post-Sept. 11 struggle against jihadists by sharing intelligence with the French, as well as providing them airlift and re-fueling support, to facilitate the French military intervention against Islamists.
This military assistance underscores again why the United States remains -- to use the well-worn phrase Clinton used in a farewell speech Thursday -- the “indispensable nation.”

On Wednesday, John Kerry said farewell to his Senate home of 27 years, as he prepares to take on a new role as Secretary of State. NBC's Brian Williams reports.

When the U.S. or its allies seek to intervene in a place such as Mali, only the United States has an adequate fleet of C-17 cargo planes and KC-135 tanker aircraft to make such an exercise of power possible; the French wouldn't be able to conduct the Mali operation by themselves.
This week the Obama administration also signed a "status of forces" accord with Mali’s next-door neighbor, Niger, allowing U.S. troops to operate in that country and suggesting a new chapter in U.S. engagement in Africa even as Obama is moving to withdraw most U.S. forces from Afghanistan.
The Mali operation is in part an outgrowth of the “lead from behind” U.S. role in the NATO operation to topple Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi.
Professor Michael Mandelbaum of the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University and author of “The Frugal Superpower” said last October, “In order to get the full benefits of tyrant removal, it may be necessary to put American troops on the ground and that we’re not going to do.”
But with Gadhafi removed from power, his weapons depots were “liberated” and his arms proliferated all over North Africa, including to jihadists in Mali and Algeria, where earlier this month a group of militants attacked a natural gas plant, killing dozens of hostages.
The Pentagon will be Chuck Hagel’s problem (upon confirmation as defense secretary) not Kerry’s, but the new secretary of state is especially worried that America’s role as military enforcer has been hurting its standing in the eyes of other nations.
Kerry told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in his confirmation hearing that “American foreign policy is not defined by drones and deployments alone. We cannot allow the extraordinary good we do to save and change lives to be eclipsed entirely by the role we have had to play since Sept. 11, a role that was thrust upon us.”
He also knows that the traditional U.S. role as a preacher of open economies, free trade and dependable sovereign credit is being undermined by its undisciplined fiscal policy, threatening, he said last week, “my credibility as a diplomat -- and our credibility as nation.”
Kerry’s role as a diplomat and international coalition builder will be difficult for another reason. In the past, when there was a specific threat, American leaders were able to form multinational coalitions to defeat that enemy, as in 1990, when Saddam Hussein’s armies invaded Kuwait.
But two new threats are more diffuse and can’t be attacked on a battlefield:

• Demographic pressure in the developing world: A surging younger generation in developing countries spurs conflict and unrest, particularly in the Middle East where those citizens have played a large role in the so-called “Arab Spring.” In his confirmation hearing, Kerry noted that in his visits over the years to Syria, “President Assad said to me, I have 500,000 kids who turn 18 every year, and I don't have a place to put them; I don't have jobs for them.”
• Climate change: How could Kerry persuade the Chinese to agree to enforceable commitments to curb greenhouse gas emissions that might cause disruption in an economy that demands job growth? All Kerry could offer last week is a hope that he and the leaders in Beijing “can find a better sense of the mutuality of our interests and the commonality of goals” so that they could work towards an international accord on greenhouse gas.

Analysis: Israel's airstrike likely to complicate Syria crisis

By Ayman Mohyeldin, Correspondent, NBC News

News analysis
There may have been confusion about the target of the attack, but there is no doubt who was behind a deadly airstrike in Syria early on Wednesday.
The Syrian government said Israeli fighter jets struck a research facility northwest of the capital Damascus, killing two people.
The Pentagon said Israeli war planes struck a convoy that was transporting weapons to Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.

 

Israeli forces conducted an airstrike on a convoy on the Syrian-Lebanese border Wednesday. NBC's Richard Engel joins Brian Williams with his analysis.

Either way, the action and its consequences could widen and complicate the ongoing Syrian conflict on multiple fronts.
It also raises questions about Israel's vulnerabilities: What was so important of a target that compelled Israel to act? And what was Israel afraid would fall into the hands of Hezbollah?
In recent days, Iran's ambassador to Syria and a senior aide to Iran's supreme leader both reiterated that an attack on Syria would constitute an attack on Iran. The comment was originally intended to dissuade western countries, specifically NATO, from taking any kind of action against Syria by force like they did in Libya.
Officials in Tehran referred to Syria as part of the 'axis of resistance' to Israeli and Western aggression across the region. If Iran's words are to be taken seriously, the recent Israeli attack on Syria would be a triggering mechanism for an Iranian response.
Both Iran and Syria, according to the Associated Press, have said they will respond. How, and when, is unclear.
It is unlikely the embattled Syrian regime -- and by extension its beleaguered military -- could undertake a full-blown confrontation with Israel.
Instead, Syria may rely on its allies across the region, including Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, Iran and Hamas in Gaza. However, those allies may calculate that there is not much to gain from acting on behalf of the Syrian regime.
Hamas is an offshoot of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, whose Syrian branch is engaged in the revolt against the Assad regime. It is unlikely Hamas will undertake any attack on Israel for the sake of a regime with which it is increasingly at ideological odds.
Hamas has even closed its Damascus headquarters since the uprising there began, focusing instead on its own struggle with Israel. More importantly, any unilateral action by Hamas would anger Cairo's domestically embattled Islamist government which has worked to maintain a fragile calm between Israel and Hamas.
Hezbollah is much more willing to defend the Syrian regime. Hezbollah has come to the tactical and moral defense of the Assad regime in the past two years.

 

Police detonate a rocket-propelled grenade that struck a house in Turkey believed to have come from across the border in Syria. NBCNews.com's Dara Brown reports.

However in the past, Hezbollah has also explicitly stated its weapons are for the defense of Lebanon only. It has repeatedly stated that Hezbollah does not fight for anything except the right to resist Israel's occupation of Arab lands. More importantly, there would be substantial backlash against Hezbollah within Lebanon if the entire state was dragged into a costly war with Israel.
The third possible actor in this drama is Iran. With all of the pressure it faces over its nuclear program in the international arena, Iran is unlikely to take any overt action to retaliate for the Israeli airstrike on its ally, Syria. However, to complicate matters, Iran my ramp up its support for the Assad regime by providing financial and military assistance.
Instead, Hezbollah and Iran may opt for covert operations across the globe. Recent attacks on Israeli interests in Bulgaria and India -- allegedly linked to Iran and its proxies -- have raised the stakes for direct action by Israel.
Many players in the region are dismayed by Israel’s airstrike. Even Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, which has previously supported the rebels, has condemned the airstrike.
The Syria regime has begun to exploit this by painting Israel’s airstrike as evidence of an alliance between Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar to protect Western hegemony across the region. The fact that those countries are providing money -- and, reportedly, weapons -- to rebels in Syria at the same time as Assad’s regime is being attacked by Israel is only reinforcing a perception there that Syria is the target of an international conspiracy.
That may slow down the public appetite for Assad's overthrow. It may also prove to be costliest consequence of Israel's attack.
Related:
Israeli attack in Syria could trigger Iran reaction
Biden to meet abroad with key figures in Syrian conflict

White House tries for new compromise on birth control

By Maggie Fox, Senior Writer, NBC News

The Obama administration is taking another stab at a compromise over the contentious issue of making employers pay for birth control, offering a way for women to get the coverage without forcing religiously affiliated organizations to pay for it.
The proposed new rule would have insurance companies provide the coverage free of charge through separate, individual health insurance policies. It’s not quite clear how much it would cost or who, exactly, would end up paying for it.
“Under the proposed accommodations, the eligible organizations would not have to contract, arrange, pay or refer for any contraceptive coverage to which they object on religious grounds, the proposed rule reads.
The 2010 Affordable Care Act requires all health insurers to pay for a woman’s contraceptive care without charging her anything. Religious organizations such as the Catholic Church, which oppose artificial birth control, have objected strongly. While churches and other overtly religious organizations were always exempted, things were a little fuzzier for religiously affiliated organizations, such as universities, and private employers who said they had their own personal conscientious objections.
Some employers who don’t oppose birth control in general oppose the requirement that products such as emergency birth control, which they equate with abortion, be supplied.
At least 44 lawsuits have been filed against the government over the issue, The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a legal organization helping oppose the mandate, says. It has been a big thorn in the side for the Obama administration.

A year ago the White House came up with a compromise but it did not settle the matter. The new approach tweaks it a little, leaving almost all the responsibility for covering women whose employers object up to private health insurance companies.
Some employers are self-insured, meaning they pay all the costs of health insurance for their workers. Usually, they employ an insurance company to administer the plan. The new compromise leaves it to these third-party administrators to sort out which insurance company will pay for a woman’s birth control through a separate policy.
The insurance company would get a break on user fees that will be charged to join the state health insurance exchanges – the marketplaces where people can go buy health insurance starting in 2014 if they cannot get coverage through an employer, Medicare, Medicaid, Tricare or some other public policy.
The White House argues that it in fact saves money to provide contraception for free. It costs way more to pay for a pregnancy, the administration argues. The Institute of Medicine said on 2011 that it would save the country money and make medical sense to cover birth control for free, so more people would use it.
“Women who work or go to school at these organizations will have free contraceptive coverage and will no longer have to pay hundreds of dollars a year that could go to rent,” said Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, of the Health and Human Services Department’s Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight.
Brooks admitted the administration doesn’t know how much the proposal would cost. “We have not estimated the cost. We certainly welcome comment on that,” she told reporters in a conference call.
The new rules also say religious organizations will be defined just as they are by the Internal Revenue Service.
Left-leaning groups welcomed the policy.  “As we go through this, we want to make sure that the details pan out, but it does seem as if it works,” Marcia Greenberger, Co-President of the National Women’s Law Center, told NBC News in a telephone interview. “Of course, women assume that contraception is part of their health care and it is widely accepted because it is almost universally used.”
"Today's draft regulation affirms yet again the Obama administration's commitment to fulfilling the full promise of its historic contraception policy," said Ilyse Hogue, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America.
“We know that Catholics in the pews support this position, as 98 percent of Catholic women use contraception and 58 percent of Catholics support insurance coverage for contraception,” said Louise Melling of the American Civil Liberties Union. “The ACLU will defend the health and religious liberty needs of employees and hopes the intense recent debate is now be behind us.”
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said it was studying the proposal. The Susan B. Anthony List, a political action committee that helps campaign for anti-abortion lawmakers, rejected the proposal.
“Once again, President Obama’s so-called ‘compromise’ is unacceptable – religious and moral freedom is not up for negotiation. There must be no religious ‘test’ by the government as to who, and what type of entities, are entitled to a conscience,” said the group’s Marjorie Dannenfelser. “The taking of human life is the antithesis of health care.”
HHS says 90 percent of American women use or have used birth control. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 10.7 million U.S. women use birth control pills. Despite this, CDC says nearly half of all pregnancies are unintended, which in turn can often lead to poor health for the mother and baby.
The proposals will be open for public comment for 60 days before they take effect.

Related:

• Free birth control under health law starts
• Sandra Fluke: It’s time to choose
• President Obama calls Georgetown student
• Women reject Rush's apology to student

Women’s Preventive Services Coverage and Religious Organizations

Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, most health plans cover recommended women’s preventive services, including contraception, without charging a co-pay or deductible.  The scientists and other experts at the independent Institute of Medicine provided recommendations to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) regarding which preventive services help keep women healthy and should be covered without cost-sharing. The IOM recommended covering contraception without a co-pay or deductible because there are tremendous health benefits for women that come from using contraception. In fact, nearly 99% of all women have relied on contraception at some point in their lives, but more than half of all women between the ages of 18 and 34 have struggled to afford it.
Today, the Obama Administration moved forward to continue to implement provisions in the health care law that would provide women contraceptive coverage without cost sharing, while taking into account religious objections to contraceptive services by certain religious organizations. The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) released today reflects the public feedback from comments on the Advance NPRM issued in March 2012.
Today’s proposals build on the ideas we laid out last year to provide women with coverage for recommended preventive care, including contraceptive services, without cost sharing, while also ensuring that non-profit organizations with religious objections won't have to contract, arrange, pay, or refer for insurance coverage for these services to their employees or students.
Details on these proposed policies are outlined below.  The Administration is seeking comment on these proposals and welcomes feedback from all Americans through April 8, 2013.

Exemption for Religious EmployersGroup health plans of “religious employers” are exempted from having to provide contraceptive coverage, if they have religious objections to contraception.
Today’s NPRM would simplify the existing definition of a “religious employer” as it relates to contraceptive coverage.
The NPRM would eliminate criteria that a religious employer:

1. have the inculcation of religious values as its purpose;
2. primarily employ persons who share its religious tenets; and
3. primarily serve persons who share its religious tenets.

The simple definition of “religious employer” for purposes of the exemption would follow a section of the Internal Revenue Code, and would primarily include churches, other houses of worship, and their affiliated organizations, as defined by Section 6033(a)(3)(A)(i) or (iii)
This proposed change is intended to clarify that a house of worship would not be excluded from the exemption because, for example, it provides charitable social services to persons of different religious faiths or employs persons of different religious faiths.  The Departments believe that this proposal would not expand the universe of employer plans that would qualify for the exemption beyond that which was intended in the 2012 final rules. 

Creating Accommodations for Non Profit Religious Organizations 

Consistent with the Advance NPRM, the NPRM proposes accommodations for additional non profit religious organizations, while also separately providing enrollees contraceptive coverage with no co-pays.  An eligible organization would be defined as an organization that:

1. opposes providing coverage for some or all of any contraceptive services required to be covered under Section 2713 of the PHS Act, on account of religious objections;
2. is organized and operates as a nonprofit entity;
3. holds itself out as a religious organization; and
4. self-certifies that it meets these criteria and specifies the contraceptive services for which it objects to providing coverage.

Under the proposed accommodations, the eligible organizations would not have to contract, arrange, pay or refer for any contraceptive coverage to which they object on religious grounds.
In addition, under the proposed accommodations, plan participants would receive contraceptive coverage through separate individual health insurance policies, without cost sharing or additional premiums.  The issuer would work to ensure a seamless process for plan participants to receive contraceptive coverage.
With respect to insured group health plans, the eligible organization would provide the self-certification to the health insurance issuer, which in turn would automatically provide separate, individual market contraceptive coverage at no cost for plan participants.  Issuers generally would find that providing such contraceptive coverage is cost neutral because they would be they would be insuring the same set of individuals under both policies and would experience lower costs from improvements in women’s health and fewer childbirths.
With respect to self-insured group health plans, the eligible organization would notify the third party administrator, which in turn would automatically work with a health insurance issuer to provide separate, individual health insurance policies at no cost for participants.  The costs of both the health insurance issuer and third party administrator would be offset by adjustments in Federally-facilitated Exchange user fees that insurers pay.
The NPRM also proposes that an eligible religious non profit organization that is an institution of higher education that arranges for student health insurance coverage may avail itself of an accommodation comparable to that for an eligible organization that is an employer with an insured group health plan.
The NPRM on women’s preventive services coverage is available here: http://www.ofr.gov/inspection.aspx.
For more information on women’s preventive services coverage, visit:  http://www.healthcare.gov/news/factsheets/2011/08/womensprevention08012011a.html.

Egypt could 'collapse,' army chief warns as violence continues

A state of emergency is imposed on three cities in Egypt as a top military official warns the country is on the brink of collapse following days of anti-government protests. NBCNews.com's Dara Brown reports.

By Tom Perry, Yasmine Saleh and Yusri Mohamed, Reuters

The struggle between political forces in Egypt could “lead to the collapse of the state,” the country’s army chief said Tuesday.

In a posting to the army’s Facebook page, General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said political and economic issues now represented a “real threat” to security.

"The continuation of the struggle of the different political forces ... over the management of state affairs could lead to the collapse of the state," General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said.

He added that the army would remain "the solid and the cohesive block" on which "the foundation of the state rests."

Al-Sisi, who is also defense minister, also said that the army had been deployed in cities along the Suez Canal primarily to protect the key global trade link.

Islamist President Mohammed Morsi has imposed emergency rule in an attempt to end days of clashes that have left at least 52 people dead.

But Egyptian protesters defied an overnight curfew in restive towns along the Suez Canal, attacking police stations.

Slideshow: Tempers flare in Egypt
 

On the second anniversary of the uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak, huge crowds take to the streets in five cities.

At least two men died Monday night or early Tuesday in fighting in the canal city of Port Said, the latest unrest in a wave of violence unleashed last week on the eve of the anniversary of the 2011 revolt that brought down autocrat Hosni Mubarak.

Cairo sky lit by flames
Political opponents spurned a call by Morsi for talks on Monday to try to end the violence. Instead, huge crowds of protesters took to the streets in Cairo and Alexandria, and in the three Suez Canal cities - Port Said, Ismailia and Suez - where Morsi imposed emergency rule and a curfew on Sunday.

"Down, down with Mohammed Morsi! Down, down with the state of emergency!" crowds shouted in Ismailia. In Cairo, flames lit up the night sky as protesters set vehicles ablaze.

The demonstrators accuse Mubarak's successor Morsi of betraying the two-year-old revolution. Morsi and his supporters accuse the protesters of seeking to overthrow Egypt's first ever democratically elected leader by undemocratic means.

Debris from days of unrest was strewn on the streets around Cairo's Tahrir Square, cauldron of the anti-Mubarak uprising.

Youths clambered over a burned-out police van. But unlike on previous mornings in the past few days, there was no early sign of renewed clashes with police.

In Port Said, men attacked police stations after dark. A security source said some police and troops were injured. A medical source said two men were killed and 12 injured in the clashes, including 10 with gunshot wounds.

"The people want to bring down the regime," crowds chanted in Alexandria. "Leave means go, and don't say no!"

Voters backed Islamists
Since Mubarak was toppled, Islamists have won two referendums, two parliamentary elections and a presidential vote.

But that legitimacy has been challenged by an opposition that accuses Morsi of imposing a new form of authoritarianism, and punctuated by repeated waves of unrest that have prevented a return to stability in the most populous Arab state.

Ed Giles / Getty Images
Protesters stand by a vehicle of the Central Security Forces that had been stolen then set alight during clashes near Tahrir Square in Cairo on Monday.

The political unrest in the Suez Canal cities has been exacerbated by street violence linked to death penalties imposed on soccer supporters convicted of involvement in stadium rioting in Port Said a year ago, which lead to the deaths of 74 people.

The president announced the emergency measures on television on Sunday. "The protection of the nation is the responsibility of everyone. We will confront any threat to its security with force and firmness within the remit of the law," Morsi said.

His demeanor infuriated his opponents, not least when he wagged a finger at the camera.

Some activists said Morsi's measures to try to impose control on the turbulent streets could backfire.

"Martial law, state of emergency and army arrests of civilians are not a solution to the crisis," said Ahmed Maher of the April 6 movement that helped galvanize the 2011 uprising. "All this will do is further provoke the youth. The solution has to be a political one that addresses the roots of the problem."


Related:
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Analysis: Egyptians fear decades of Brotherhood rule
PhotoBlog: Baton-wielding police threaten protesters as Egypt's stability teeters 

US Embassy compound in Turkey hit by 'terrorist' attack

NBC's Richard Engel reports witnesses in Turkey are saying a suicide bomber tried to enter the U.S. embassy in Ankara, getting as far as the first x-ray machine before detonating an explosive device. A Turkish guard was reportedly killed in the blast.

By Richard Engel, Aziz Akyavas and Ian Johnston, NBC News

A suicide bomber blew himself up at an entrance to the U.S. Embassy compound in Ankara, Turkey, on Friday, officials said.

U.S. State Department and Turkish interior ministry officials said the bomber and one other person were killed in the attack that took place at about 1:15 p.m. local time (6:15 a.m. ET).

"Clearly, it’s a terrorist attack," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said in a media briefing, adding that the U.S. condemns the hit in strong terms.

The bomber, who was wearing a suicide vest, made it to the first X-ray machine leading to the visa section, police sources said, and then detonated the device.

The Turkish security guard standing nearby was killed, but the two guards on the other side of the checkpoint, behind bulletproof glass, survived. In the immediate aftermath of the attack, sources had said three people were thought to have been killed.

Nuland said a Turkish citizen was hurt and is in "serious condition." Reuters reported this victim was a journalist on her way in to the embassy to meet U.S. Ambassador Francis Ricciardone. Several U.S. and Turkish staff members were hit by flying debris and treated at the scene.

Turkish television footage taken shortly after the attack showed smoke rising from the area and a heavily damaged door that led to a side street.

Nuland said the attack happened on an external perimeter access site whose level of security protection ensured that the strike wasn't worse.

Turkish Interior Minister Muammer Guler told reporters that the bomber belonged to an illegal leftist group, Reuters reported. He said the attacker could have been a member of the militant Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front or another leftist group.

The group has been designated a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union.

However, the White House said Friday that it was not yet clear who was responsible for the bombing, Reuters reported.

"The attack itself was clearly an act of terror," Jay Carney, White House spokesman, said in a briefing with reporters.

The State Department said the U.S. will cooperate with the Turkish side on the investigation into the attack.

Slideshow: Blast hits US Embassy in Turkey

 

 

A suicide bomber blew himself up at an entrance to the embassy compound in Ankara.


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Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, who was attending a ceremony in Istanbul when the blast happened, said the attack "shows that we need to fight together everywhere in the world against these terrorist elements."

In an emergency message Friday, the State Department said Americans were “advised to not visit the Consulates in Istanbul, Adana or the Embassy in Ankara until further notice.”

“The Department of State advises U.S. citizens traveling or residing in Turkey to be alert to the potential for violence, to avoid those areas where disturbances have occurred, and to avoid demonstrations and large gatherings,” the message said.

In Berlin on Friday, Vice President Joe Biden said that he appreciated an "expression of sympathy" over the attack from German Chancellor Angela Merkel, saying it reinforced the "very close counterterrorism cooperation that exists between Germany and the United States."

On Sept. 11 last year, U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans were killed in an attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, prompting concern about security for diplomats.

On Jan. 23, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that she took responsibility for not adequately protecting U.S. personnel in Benghazi. Her voice choked with emotion as she remembered the return of "flag-draped caskets" and putting her arms around relatives of those who died.

Nuland said on Friday that after Benghazi, every U.S. post in the world reviewed its security. She added that the embassy in Ankara is one of the posts due for a complete compound overhaul. The building housing the embassy was built in the 1950s and needs a full upgrade, Nuland said.
The Associated Press noted groups tied to al-Qaida had attacked U.S. and U.K. consulates in Turkey in the past:

Homegrown Islamic militants tied to al-Qaida have carried out suicide bombings in Istanbul, killing 58, in 2003. The targets were the British consulate, a British bank and two synagogues.

In 2008, an attack blamed on al-Qaida-affiliated militants outside the U.S. Consulate in Istanbul left three assailants and three policemen dead.

In the November 2003 attack on the British consulate, a suspected Islamic militant rammed an explosive-laden pickup truck into the main gate, killing British Consul-General, Roger Short, and his assistant, Lisa Hallworth.

The State Department says on its website that 15 people who claimed they were associated with al-Qaida were arrested in July 2011 for gathering explosive materials in preparation for an attack on the U.S. Embassy in Ankara.

Mehmet Ali Ozcan / EPA
Turkish police secure the area after an explosion at an entrance to the U.S. Embassy compound in Ankara Friday.

It added that the July plot and other incidents "show a willingness on the part of some terrorist groups to attack identifiably Western targets. The possibility of terrorist attacks, from both transnational and indigenous groups, remains high."

The State Department posting said the PKK Kurdish rebel group was the "most active terrorist organization in Turkey."

It said the PKK had historically targeted Turkish government and military interests, but had recently "threatened increased violent activity in Turkey’s urban areas, and there is credible information suggesting that it intends to continue targeting tourist areas as well."

Earlier this month, about 400 U.S. personnel arrived at Turkey’s Incirlik Air Base to support the deployment of a NATO Patriot missile battery to help defend the country from possible incursions by Syria’s forces during that country’s ongoing civil war.

Reuters, The Associated Press and NBC News Staff Writers John Newland, Alastair Jamieson and Becky Bratu contributed to this report.

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Related: 
From April 2011: US ally Turkey flirts with Mideast's 'bad boys'
After decades of oppression, Kurds get taste of freedom as Assad's troops flee

'Irrepressible icon': Former New York City Mayor Ed Koch dies at 88

One of the city's most outspoken politicians, Ed Koch was known for his no-nonsense, colorful personality. A lifelong Democrat, he became New York's 105 mayor, a job he said he wanted for life. He died of congestive heart failure Friday morning at the age of 88. NBC's Ron Allen reports.
By Matthew DeLuca, Staff Writer, NBC News

Former New York City Mayor Edward Irving Koch, a man as colorful as the city he helped save from financial ruin, died Friday of congestive heart failure. He was 88.

His brashness and thumbs-up confidence – and “How’m I doin?” greeting – became symbols of Gotham chutzpah over his three terms at the city’s helm. And while New Yorkers did not always answer Hizzoner’s trademark question in the affirmative, Koch couldn’t have cared less as he tried to govern a city that many thought was ungovernable. He finally left City Hall in 1989.

“I’m the sort of person who will never get ulcers,” he told reporters in 1978. “Why? Because I say exactly what I think. I’m the sort of person who might give other people ulcers.”

Reverend Al Sharpton, who locked horns with Koch through his time as mayor, praised the man he criticized as forthright in a statement on his passing.

“He would not patronize or deceive you,” said Sharpton, an MSNBC host, remembering that his first arrest for civil disobedience was at a 1978 sit-in protesting a Koch policy. “He said what he meant. He meant what he said. He fought for what he believed in.”

Born in the Bronx in 1924, Koch and his family soon decamped to Newark, New Jersey, where he spent his childhood. After graduating from high school at the age of 16, Koch returned to the city he loved and enrolled at the City College of New York, but his undergraduate studies were interrupted by World War II when he was drafted in 1943.

After serving as an infantryman in Europe, Koch enrolled at New York University Law School. He built up a law practice before he entered politics to support Adlai Stevenson’s presidential campaign in 1952.

Koch’s own political career began in earnest in the early 1960s, organizing for the Democratic party in Greenwich Village on Manhattan’s west side. In 1963, he ousted Tammany Hall chief Carmine DeSapio, winning a post as a district leader.

Slideshow: Ed Koch: 1924 - 2013

Ed Koch served 12 years as mayor of New York, from 1977-1989. He passed away on Friday at the age of 88, succumbing to congestive heart failure.






From 1969 to 1977, Koch served as a congressman representing New York’s 17th Congressional District. He mounted an unlikely run for mayor in 1977, ultimately defeating better-known candidates including incumbent Abraham Beame and congresswoman Bella Abzug.

Throughout his career, Koch was known for his Bronx-flavored bon mots. “If you agree with me on nine out of 12 issues, vote for me,” Koch once said. “If you agree with me on 12 out of 12 issues, see a psychiatrist.”

And he brought his forceful personality and attention to detail to the job of mayor, said New York City historian Fred Siegel.

“His campaign slogan was ‘Why not try competence?’ and he demonstrates it. He really knows the budget, he’s on top of things,” Siegel said of Koch’s first years in office. Later, however, Koch “lost interest in the details of running the city,” Siegel said.

Koch’s aspirations went beyond the five boroughs, but more illustrious offices eluded him. A bid for governor in 1982 was felled by Mario M. Cuomo.

Yet the same personality that helped bring Koch national fame also divided some New Yorkers against him over time.

In 2012, Koch recalled walking to the Brooklyn Bridge during a 1980 transit strike to exhort commuters. “I began to yell, ‘Walk over the bridge! Walk over the bridge! We’re not going to let these bastards bring us to our knees!’” Koch recalled.

“His mouth got in the way of his policies,” said investigative journalist Wayne Barrett, who chronicled the Koch years.

The mayor, however, remained forever close-lipped about the most private areas of his personal life, even as some speculated about his sexuality.

While opponents occasionally tried to make political hay of the whispers, Koch responded with silence: “Whether I am straight or gay or bisexual is nobody’s business but mine,” he wrote in his 1992 autobiography.

Koch’s final term was tarnished by corruption, as an scandal involving Queens Borough President Donald Manes threatened to ensnare the mayor, but never did. He lost a shot at a fourth term to the more reserved David Dinkins.

“The people have spoken,” Koch said on the occasion of his losing, “and they must be punished.”

But Koch, who became the first city mayor to host Saturday Night Live in 1983, did not allow his national profile to dim after losing the luster of the mayoralty. He also published a collection of newspaper columns critical of Rudy Giuliani in 1999 titled “Giuliani: Nasty Man.” And for two years in the late Nineties, he wore a black robe on the television show “People’s Court.”

On Friday, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo – the son of former governor Mario -- paid tribute to the man who won’t be leaving New York, even in death. (Koch bought one of Manhattan’s last burial plots for $20,000 in 2008.)

“No New Yorker has – or likely ever will – voice their love for New York City in such a passionate and outspoken manner than Ed Koch,” Cuomo said. “Mr. Mayor was never one to shy away from taking a stand that he believed was right, no matter what the polls said or what was politically correct.”

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said in a statement that the city had lost “an irrepressible icon, our most charismatic cheerleader and champion.”

Senator Charles Schumer lauded Koch as a man of whom New Yorker’s could be proud: “Every atom in his body lived, breathed, spoke, and exuded the city. He helped save the city and, perhaps most important of all, gave it confidence when it was beginning to doubt itself, which helped pave the way for the growth and prosperity we’re still experiencing today.”

Koch died around 2 a.m. Friday after battling a variety of illnesses. He had been hospitalized in September with anemia and in December with a respiratory infection, before his final hospitalization this week.

A funeral service will be held on Monday.


MSNBC's Mika Brzezinski reports that Ed Koch, the former three-term mayor of New York City, died of congestive heart failure, at the age of 88.
More from nbcnewyork.com:

• Former Mayor Ed Koch Dead at 88
• 23rd Street Subway Station Evacuated After Water Main Break
• Remembering Ed Koch, Emblem of a City
• Punishment of NJ School Bullies Upheld
• 41 Days Later, Missing Beagle Reunited With Family

Fixes explores solutions to major social problems. Each week, it examines creative initiatives that can tell us about the difference between success and failure. It is written by David Bornstein, author of “How to Change the World,” and founder of dowser.org, and Tina Rosenberg, contributing writer for The New York Times magazine and author of “Join the Club: How Peer Pressure Can Transform the World.” Readers with ideas for future columns can write to the authors at fixes@nytimes.com.
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 January 30, 2013, 8:00 am

Leading the Way Out of Debt

By TINA ROSENBERG

Adalberto Jaimes offers his clients personalized financial planning. Like private bankers and wealth managers, he helps people set their financial priorities and goals. He picks up the phone to negotiate deals and helps them take care of the paperwork.
Instead of working in a sleek Midtown bank, however, Jaimes’ office is a cubicle in the back of the Northern Manhattan Improvement Corporation in Washington Heights, where people can get services ranging from legal representation in eviction cases to asthma management. Jaimes, a native of Colombia, helps clients facing arrears in their rent, mountains of credit card debt, and credit scores that prevent them from renting apartments or getting jobs.
His services are free to clients. Jaimes is employed by Neighborhood Trust, a nonprofit that provides financial advice to low-income New Yorkers. Neighborhood Trust is the largest operator of New York City’s Financial Empowerment Centers, which were established in June, 2008. Jonathan Mintz, the commissioner of the Department of Consumer Affairs, said the centers were established to “take a look at the whole picture. How do you walk out of here not just literally with reduced debt, which is great, of course, but with your arms around your finances?”
Read more…

 January 23, 2013, 9:00 am

When Paying It Forward Pays Us Back

By DAVID BORNSTEIN

If you’ve listened to the debate on how the United States should avoid going over the “fiscal cliff” over the past months, you might believe that the government has only two options to address its budget woes — either slash social programs, as conservatives favor, or the liberal tack, raise taxes. That’s a myopic view, one that actually distorts the relationship between social programs and society at large. Many of the most effective ones are not a mere expense to be trimmed off a budget; they often can and do save considerable money for society. And they’d be even more economical in this regard if the government invested in their widespread adoption.

Often, to save money you need to change systems or add new functions, not eliminate them.

One such example is the Transitional Care Model (TCM), which provides planning and home follow-up by trained nurses for chronically ill Medicare patients during and after hospitalization. The TCM illustrates a key point. Often, to save money you need to change systems, or add new functions, not just cut things.
The TCM was developed over the past two decades by the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing to fill an urgent gap in our health system, one that is likely to be familiar to many readers: millions of chronically ill older patients (or their spouses, partners or children) are poorly prepared to take proper care of themselves or their loved ones after a hospital stay. (According to a recent report, there are more than 42 million unpaid family caregivers in the United States.)
Read more… 

January 16, 2013, 8:00 am

A Hospital Network With a Vision

By TINA ROSENBERG

As the United States struggles to find new business models for health care, some innovators are looking to other industries, ones that provide high-quality services for low prices. In a recent article in The New Yorker, for example, Atul Gawande suggests that the Cheesecake Factory restaurant chain — with its size, central control and accountability for the customer experience — could be a model of sorts for health care. That’s not as outlandish as it seems. The world’s largest provider of eye care has found success by directly adapting the management practices of another big-box food brand, one that is not often associated with good health: McDonald’s.

Aravind can practice compassion successfully because it is run like a McDonald’s.

In 1976, Dr. Govindappa Venkataswamy — known as Dr. V — retired from performing eye surgery at the Government Medical College in Madurai, Tamil Nadu, a state in India’s south. He decided to devote his remaining years to eliminating needless blindness among India’s poor. Twelve million people are blind in India, the vast majority of them from cataracts, which tend to strike people in India before 60 — earlier than in the West. Blindness robs a poor person of his livelihood and with it, his sense of self-worth; it is often a fatal disease. A blind person, the Indian saying goes, is “a mouth with no hands.”
Dr. V started by establishing an 11-bed hospital with six beds reserved for patients who could not pay and five for those who would pay modest rates. He persuaded his siblings to join him in mortgaging their houses, Read more… 

January 8, 2013, 9:28 pm45

For Drug Users, a Swift Response Is the Best Medicine

By DAVID BORNSTEIN

Ben W. Joseph was a trial judge in the Chittenden County Criminal Court, in Vermont, and he had a problem — one shared by judges across the country that results in billions of dollars of wasteful spending by governments every year. It was 2008, and substance abuse was soaring, particularly among young people whose drugs of choice were pharmaceuticals like OxyContin, a highly addictive pain killer that has an effect similar to heroin but is much easier to obtain. Each month in his Burlington courtroom, Joseph saw defendants who’d been arrested for drug-related offenses — from driving while heavily intoxicated to stealing to feed an OxyContin habit (an 80-milligram pill can cost $100 on the street).
Joseph saw how their lives spiraled out of control and created havoc for others. “I was seeing people who had drug and alcohol related charges come back over and over again,” he recalled. As the drug use intensified, so did criminality. “When people have serious alcohol and drug problems, it won’t take long before they’re stealing from their grandparents.” And when the pill market got tight, drug dealers pushed out more heroin.
What the defendants needed more than punishment was treatment. But delays in the justice system and lack of coordination with social service agencies meant that opportunities to intervene were regularly missed. Between a defendant’s arrest and trial, a case can drag on for a year or more.
Read more…

 December 19, 2012, 7:00 am23

At Year’s End, News of a Global Health Success

By TINA ROSENBERG

At this time of awful news of the needless death of children, there comes reason for optimism about the health of the world’s youngest.

Income and growth data don’t capture the tremendous gains in quality of life in poor countries.

Sierra Leone, Malawi, Laos, Bangladesh and Nicaragua are among the poorest nations in the world. The state of countries like these is often cited to illustrate the failures of development, the persistence of poverty. But here’s what has changed: Bangladesh dropped its death rate of children under 5 by two-thirds between 1990 and 2010. Child mortality is down by 56.5 percent in Malawi since 1990, 63.8 percent in Sierra Leone, 55.6 percent in Laos, and 61.9 percent in Nicaragua.
Read more… 

December 12, 2012, 8:00 am6

Moving Forward in Tough Times

By DAVID BORNSTEIN

Welcome to the second annual Fixes holiday season retrospective! Almost every week, over the past two years, we’ve covered a response to a social problem that’s noteworthy, usually because it’s producing better than expected results. We highlight these “positive deviants” because 1) they’re under-reported; 2) they show society not just what’s going wrong but how it might improve; and 3) they’re inherently interesting, like a good puzzle or whodunit. Because we get more leads than we can cover, we typically focus on initiatives that have a track record, evidence of effectiveness and potential for broader impact.
So, last week, I reached out to three dozen organizations we’ve covered to find out how they had fared during the past year. Even during this difficult economic period, I was struck by how many had augmented their work. It seems that, while we’ve been occupied with the economy, the election and Gangnam Style, some interesting changes have occurred under the radar. Here’s a roundup for 2012:
EDUCATION
On the education front, a number of groups have gained traction addressing this challenge: How can we nurture the social and emotional development of children? Roots of Empathy, which brings moms and babies into thousands of classrooms and builds empathetic capacity among children, expanded its work to Europe and the United States and saw its influence shape educational policies in Canadian provinces. Playworks, which shows schools how to improve recess, underwent a randomized controlled trial, and preliminary results indicate that its play-based program significantly reduces bullying, exclusionary behavior and class conflicts (teachers report that students take 27 percent less time transitioning from recess to learning activities). The Positive Coaching Alliance, which helps coaches teach character-building lessons through youth sports, now reports that it is reaching a million youths. (Check out P.C.A.’s free online e-Talking Points for coaches.) Read more…

December 5, 2012, 9:00 am

Putting Charities to the Test

By TINA ROSENBERG

December is giving season. According to Charity Navigator, charities surveyed reported that 41 percent of their annual contributions from individuals arrives between Thanksgiving and New Year.
How do you decide where to give? People want to give where their money will be used effectively, of course. For many, that means researching on Charity Navigator or the Better Business Bureau’s Web site to see which charities are well run and take only a small percentage of donations for administration or fund-raising needs.

Calculating efficiency is important, but some charities do useful things the numbers can’t capture.

Overhead does matter. But it is dwarfed by a different question: Is this group’s work effective?
“When people think of giving, they look at the issue of whether a charity has a 10 or 20 percent administration cost, and that makes the difference for them,” said Toby Ord, a researcher in moral philosophy at Oxford University and founder of an organization based there called Giving What We Can. “But in reality some things they could be funding are hundreds or thousands of times more effective than other things. People never guess there could be such large discrepancies. Instead of a 20 percent difference, there can be a 1,000 percent difference.”
Read more…

 November 28, 2012, 7:00 am16

The Power of Failure

By SARIKA BANSAL

Seven years ago, the consulting group Bridgespan presented details on the performance of several prestigious nonprofits. Nearly all of them had one thing in common — failure.  These organizations had a point at which they struggled financially, stalled on a project or experienced high rates of attrition.  “Everyone in the room had the same response, which was relief,” said Paul Schmitz, the chief executive of the nonprofit Public Allies.  “It was good to see that I wasn’t the only one struggling with these things.”

Transparency about what works and what doesn’t is crucial to eventual success.

As in any field, people who work in nonprofits, social enterprises, development agencies, and foundations experience failure on a regular basis.  People make hiring and budgeting mistakes.  Shipments arrive late, or not at all.  Organizations allow their missions to drift.  Technologies prove inappropriate for the communities meant to benefit from them.
“We are working in some of the most difficult places in the world,” said Wayan Vota, a technology and information expert who organized the third annual FAILFaire conference two weeks ago in Washington. “But failure is literally the ‘f-word’ in development.” The idea behind this FAILFaire, which was hosted by the World Bank, was to highlight, even celebrate, instances of failure in the field of social change as an integral part of the process of innovation and, ultimately, progress.
Some nonprofits are tempted to hide their failures, partially for fear of donor reaction. But most acknowledge that transparency about what works and what doesn’t is crucial to their eventual success.
“Not talking about [failure] is the worst thing you can do, as it means you’re not helping the rest of the organization learn from it,” said Jill Vialet, who runs the nonprofit Playworks.  “It gives [the failure] a power and a weight that’s not only unnecessary, but damaging.”  Vialet instead supports failing “out loud” and “forward,” meaning that the people involved in the failure should speak about it openly and work to prevent history from repeating itself.
Read more… 

November 21, 2012, 7:00 am42

What a Little Land Can Do

By TINA ROSENBERG

The poorest people in the world are those who don’t have land. In India, landlessness is a better predictor of poverty than illiteracy or belonging to castes at the bottom of society.  At least 17 million rural households in India are completely landless, living on others’ land and working as sharecroppers or day laborers tending other peoples’ crops.
Landlessness is a huge problem all over the world.  More equal distribution of land is a valuable goal — it is efficient in both fighting poverty and producing food.
But redistributing land is one of the most difficult and controversial of all political tasks.  A history of land reform is a history of revolution. The concentration of land in the hands of the rich is a prime source of conflict.  When a leftist movement has won, its first action has often been land reform — the further to the left the new government, the less likely it is to compensate landowners (and the more likely to shoot them, which was the norm in China and the Soviet Union).
But confiscatory land reform is not the only kind. Many programs have paid landowners market value for their land.  Perhaps the world’s most influential architect of a more democratic land reform is the University of Washington law professor Roy Prosterman, who founded the Rural Development Institute, now known as Landesa.  Prosterman and his group have worked with dozens of countries to design market-based land reform.  But his ideas, too, have been used for political ends; if you know Prosterman’s name, it’s because you’ve heard of Land to the Tiller, the United States-backed land reform in Vietnam during the war.  The United States adopted Prosterman’s ideas in Vietnam, the Philippines and El Salvador to turn peasants away from leftist guerrillas.

 

Landesa.orgTop, Land in West Bengal, India, before the Landesa micro-plot program was implemented in 2010; bottom, nearly two years later.

Today, political forces are arrayed against land reform. India, for example, had a land reform program since the 1960s that set ceilings on land ownership.  Read more…

November 13, 2012, 9:30 pm48

The Rise of the Social Entrepreneur

By DAVID BORNSTEIN

Recently, I wrote a column suggesting that, in the field of social change, we’re getting smarter. I went so far as to say that we may even be going through a new Enlightenment. I mentioned three ways we’re improving — employing new understandings about human behavior to get better results, using evidence more regularly to assess and guide problem-solving, and constructing integrated solutions to social problems. I also promised to highlight some other advances.

Individuals with great ideas can often accomplish what government or large organizations can’t.

Today, I’m focusing on a key innovation that underlies much of these gains: the recognition of the role played by entrepreneurs in advancing positive social changes. I don’t mean businesspeople solving social ills, but people spreading new approaches — through nonprofits and businesses, or within government — to address problems more successfully than in the past.
At times, it can be hard to believe that progress is happening. Most of our news focuses on problems, not creative responses to them. Moreover, in the wake of the presidential campaign, we are acutely aware of the bitter divisions that hamstring efforts to work together.
But the rhetoric of a political campaign is misleading. It makes us think we have to choose between government and business — as if those are the only tools in the box. We don’t. One of the most interesting stories in social change today is how much creative problem-solving is emerging from citizens scattered far and wide who are taking it upon themselves to fix things and who, in many cases, are outperforming traditional organizations or making systems work better. At Fixes, we’ve reported on dozens of creative efforts in education, health care, vocational training, prison reform, foster care — many of which have been initiated by citizens.
Read more…