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CAIRO -- With fighting now encroaching the suburbs of the Syrian capital, the conflict is entering into a new dimension for the first time in nearly 10 months.
Ayman Mohyeldin / NBC News
President Bashar Assad's regime is intensifying its violent crackdown on Syrian protesters, despite international pressure. NBC News' Ayman Mohyeldin is one of the few Western journalists to have been granted permission inside Syria in recent weeks, click to see some of his photos.
The Syrian military has regained control of the Damascus suburbs after rebel fighters over the weekend made strong advances around the capital, threatening the grip of President Bashar al Assad. The Syrian News Agency say security forces attacked "terrorist hideouts" in the Damascus countryside -- a loosely veiled acknowledgment that the fighting is now on the doorsteps of the capital.
But the attention on the capital and its outlying areas is a sign that rebel fighters who are part of the loosely knit Free Syrian Army have grown more brazen in their attacks as they go on the offensive against government troops. The fighting near the capital comes as a spike in violence has left several hundreds of people dead over the past five days. Both the government and opposition activists continue to blame each other for the violence that only seems to be escalating.
An Arab League monitoring mission tasked with making sure Syria complies with an Arab peace plan to end the violence has been suspended. Syrian opposition says this has given Assad the greenlight to crack down in the blackout of media and monitors.
Read more: Gunfire 'everywhere': Street battles rage in Damascus suburbs
Some Syrians say the Free Syrian Army has grown in strength as more supporters and defectors join its ranks buoyed by its will to fight on despite being overpowered and outnumbered. As their numbers grow, the Syrian military is increasingly fatigued and weary, according to opposition members. Time is the regime's enemy, they say.
President Bashar Assad's regime has slaughtered thousands of people since March, according to the United Nations. NBC's Ayman Mohyeldin reports.
But Syria's fault lines are now spilling over into the international arena. U.N. Security Council members are convening in New York on Tuesday to discuss endorsing an Arab League plan that calls on Assad to hand over power immediately. The biggest objection so far has come from Russia which sees such attempts as interference in Syrian domestic affairs.
Russia instead has gone on its own diplomatic offensive, offering to host negotiations between the Assad government and all of the opposition forces. But a member of the Syrian opposition tells me Russia's efforts are only so that it does not appear as an obstacle to the will of the international community without offering an alternative. The Syrian opposition will not enter into any dialogue with Assad's government without preconditions. At the top of its list of demands? The President must agree to step down from power immediately.
More from msnbc.com and NBC News:
Measuring blood pressure in both the right and left arm may be an effective way of catching a silent but serious disease of the blood vessels, a new review says.
The findings showed that a difference in systolic blood pressure between the arms was linked with an increased risk of peripheral artery disease (PAD), a condition that involves a narrowing of the arteries in the extremities, particularly the legs and feet.
When researchers examined study participants' systolic blood pressure readings, those who had a difference between their right and left arms of 15 millimeters of mercury (mm Hg) or more were 2.5 times more likely to have PAD than those who had a smaller difference between their arms, the researchers said. Systolic blood pressure is the "top" number in a blood pressure reading.
Early detection of PAD is important — while the majority of cases are silent, if the condition is detected, measures can be taken to reduce morality from related cardiovascular disease.
The findings support the need for it to become the norm to take blood pressure readings from both arms, said study researcher Dr. Christopher Clark, of Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry at the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom. Such tests could identify patients without symptoms at high risk for PAD who would benefit from further assessment or treatment, they say.
The researchers reviewed 28 studies that measured blood pressure in both arms of participants. The studies typically included patients at increased risk of cardiovascular disease, the researchers noted.
In addition to an increased risk of PAD, a 15mm Hg blood pressure difference between arms was also associated with a 70 percent increased risk of dying from cardiovascular disease and a 60 percent increased risk of dying from any cause.
Which arm has the higher pressure can vary between individuals, but it is the size of the difference that counts, not which arm is higher and which is lower, the researchers said.
More work is needed to determine whether a substantial difference in blood pressure between arms should prompt aggressive management of cardiovascular risk factors, Richard McManus, of the University of Oxford, and Jonathan Mant, of the University of Cambridge, both in the United Kingdom, wrote in an editorial accompanying the study.
"Ascertainment of differences should become part of routine care, as opposed to a guideline recommendation that is mostly ignored," McManus and Mant wrote.
The study and editorial will be published tomorrow (Jan. 30) in the journal the Lancet.
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Even though he has retired from military service, Irwin Stovroff continues to act heroically, helping injured vets recover by raising millions to sponsor guide dog training. NBC's Special Correspondent Chelsea Clinton reports.
By Mary Murray
NBC News
Boca Raton, Fla.
Irwin Stovroff is a true American hero – not only for what he did 70 years ago, but for what he accomplishes today.
During World War II, the 20-year-old airman was on his 35th bombing mission when the enemy shot down his B-24 Liberator over German-occupied France.
In Stovroff's home a photo hanging on the wall shows the exact moment his plane nosedived to the ground, billowing smoke. In the picture, taken by an airman flying in another bomber, tiny white dots depict the 10 crewmen who parachuted to the ground.
He remembers being scared and "cursing Hitler all the way down."
Landing right behind enemy lines, Stovroff and his crew were immediately captured by German forces. "This was one time I really did not think I was going to make it," he said.
He believes quick thinking helped save him. Stovroff said he threw away the dog tags that identified him as Jewish, and spent the next year in a Nazi POW camp before being freed by Russian forces. Upon returning to the U.S., Stovroff earned the Air Medal, the Purple Heart, and eventually, the Distinguished Flying Cross.
Knowing first-hand the horrors of war, the 89-year-old is now on a new mission -- helping wounded soldiers.
After learning that the federal government has no program to match injured soldiers with service dogs, Stovroff started a charity in 2007 called Vets Helping Heroes. Since then, he’s raised $3 million to supply vets with seeing-eye and therapy dogs.
"I really recognize what a dog can mean, what a dog can do for somebody," he told NBC’s “Nightly News.” "The dog is a true lifesaver."
The highly trained service dog, Stovroff said, can give the wounded warrior "mobility, independence and a companionship that he can't get from any other way."
Lt. Col. Kathy Champion served with distinction for 27 years and commanded a special combat unit in Iraq. After, returning home, she went blind from a mysterious virus she contracted in Iraq that attacked her spinal cord. At first, Champion shut herself off from family and friends.
Joseph Jones, Jr., a Vietnam War veteran, spends some quality time with guide dog Bruce, at the West Palm Beach VA Medical Center in Florida.
"I became a hermit in my own house," she said. "I quit school. I quit my job. I quit being social. I didn't want to talk to anybody. I stopped answering phone calls from my son and daughter. I didn't tell anybody what was wrong. I didn't want anyone to know I wasn't the soldier I had been."
Concerned friends forced her out of her shell and she applied for a service dog from Southeastern Guide Dogs, one of the country's leading training facilities.
Stovroff’s charity donated thousands of dollars to sponsor the dog, and Champion spent 26 days living and training with "Angel" at the facility's Florida campus. She described it as a "life-changing" event.
These cute puppies are in training and will eventually become service dogs for disabled veterans. NBC's Chelsea Clinton has the story on NBC "Nightly News with Brian Williams."
"She has granted me back the life that I felt was taken from me," the army veteran said about her yellow Labrador retriever.
Last year, Champion and Angel hiked the Grand Canyon. "She has taught me to trust," Champion said.
Stovroff also raised the funds to give retired Master Sgt. Mark Gwathmey a lifeline named "Larry."
After three tours of combat duty in Iraq, Gwathmey was constantly exposed to mortar fire and Improvised Explosive Devices that left the soldier with serious medical problems, including Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, a brain injury and severe seizures. Some days the seizures lasted up to eight hours.
"There were times he couldn't walk, couldn't talk. He didn't know who he was, who I was," his wife, Carolyn Gwathmey, recalled.
Life, she said, was so "dark and miserable" she feared her husband would take his own life. "As much love and support his family gave him, it wasn't enough," she said.
Larry not only gave her husband back his life, she said, but also saved his life.
"Larry gave him whatever humans couldn't," Carolyn said.
It’s much more than companionship. Larry can sense when Gwathmey will have a seizure, even hours before it happens, and the dog alerts the family and stands guard over Gwathmey, Carolyn said.
"If Mark tries to stand up, Larry gently forces him back on to the bed," she said.
This degree of training, however, does not come cheap. Costs to train a Southeastern Guide Dog can run as high as $70,000.
Dr. Michael Silverman from the West Palm Beach VA Medical Center argues that the value of a service dogs is priceless. He's speaking in particular about one loveable black lab named Bruce who roams the hospital halls and visits with World War II and Vietnam War veterans.
Bruce started out in the strenuous program at Southeastern but, like 50 percent of the dogs initially chosen to train as guide dogs, he didn't make the grade.
Even so, Bruce possesses a very special quality, so Stovroff sponsored him for another service career: Bruce is a hugger, all 62 pounds of him. He likes to lay his head on a patient's bed or on the patient's legs if the person is in a wheelchair. Bruce is also trained to give a proper hug, gently placing his paws on a patient's shoulders. At the moment, he's also learning how to give his paw for a more traditional handshake.
"Bruce has a calming effect with his unconditional, non-judgmental love. Patients become less agitated when Bruce is around. They look forward to his visits. He adds to the spirit of the day. He especially helps our vets who are a little afraid to interact with other people," Dr. Silverman said.
The use of therapy dogs to help soldiers heal both the visible and invisible wounds of war is not a new technique, he added. "The American Red Cross, after World War II, used pets in convalescent homes, to help our troops. So, this relationship goes back many, many years and it's a win-win."
Stovroff says every returning soldier in need of a service dog should be provided with one. And while he lobbies for federal funding for canine therapy, he's continuing to make a difference in the lives of more than 80 newly-wounded soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan. He calls his program "The Gift of Life."
"America needs to do more for the troops," Stovroff said. "It's our turn to fight for them."
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By Anne Thompson
NBC News
Last year, we brought you a story about the choice Yale University quarterback Patrick Witt had to make ... go to the final round of interviews for the Rhodes Scholarship or lead the Bulldogs against the Harvard Crimson in what is known as "the Game." Many of you watched our story and weighed in on what choice Witt should make.
Today, the New York Times reports that in the end Witt didn't have a choice.
Based on talking to a half dozen anonymous sources, the Times says the Rhodes Committee told Witt and Yale that his candidacy had been suspended because of an accusation of sexual assault and it would not go forward unless the university re-endorsed Witt.
In a statement released this afternoon Witt's agent says the Times incorrectly connects the two issues. Mark Magazu writes "To be clear, Patrick's Rhodes candidacy was never "suspended," as the article suggests, and his official record at Yale contains no disciplinary issues."
At issue is the timeline of events. Witt announced his decision to play against Harvard on November 13th. The question is when did he and Yale know that the Rhodes Committee knew about the accusation.
Witt's agent says as late as November 8th, Witt received an email from the Rhodes Committee asking him to make a choice. On November 10th, Witt gets an email from Yale officials remarking that if he withdraws he will still have a chance to re-apply for the scholarship.
The agent's statement says by the time Witt learned that the Rhodes Committee had been told of the accusation and wanted an additional reference letter from Yale, "Patrick had already informed Athletic Department officials that he intended to withdraw his candidacy due to the inability to reschedule his final interview, and that he would issue a statement to this effect following the Princeton game on November 12."
As for the young woman in this case, Witt says he knew her for many months and had "on-again, off-again relationship beginning in the Spring of 2011 and ending about two months before the informal complaint was filed."
At Yale, those who believe they are victims of some kind of sexual assault have two options beyond going to the police. They can make an informal or formal complaint to the university. Witt's accuser chose an informal complaint only and never went to the police. Under this process, Yale says there is no investigation, no taking of testimony, and no determination of guilt or innocence. While there could be an informal resolution, no one is disciplined because there is no determination of what happened. The informal complaint does not go on a student's record. And in this case, it is not on Witt's record.
Witt's agent says the quarterback requested a a formal inquiry but was denied "because, he was told, there was nothing to defend against since no formal complaint was ever filed. Further, while the committee can refer an informal complaint into a formal process if more substantial disciplinary action may be warranted, it did not do so in Patrick's case. At that time, all parties, including the University and Patrick, considered the matter ended."
This is a disconcerting turn in a story that attracted us all because of the enviable choice Patrick Witt had. It now has us all discussing the very difficult subject of allegations of sexual assault and how you talk about them when very little is on the record. So much about the accusation is protected by federal law, designed to shield the accuser and the accused. Remember, this accusation and its resolution were confidential.
When I last wrote about Patrick Witt, I told you how I brought my 11-year-old nephew Drew on the shoot. I hoped Witt would be a role model for Drew, someone who excels in both academics and athletics.
Honestly, I don't know what to say to Drew now. The Patrick Witt I met, and who Drew and I have seen since the shoot, has always been a gentleman, kind and courteous. The only way I know how to do this is keep searching for the truth. I promise to keep you updated.
Pakistan has closed crucial roads used to ferry supplies to U.S and NATO troops in Afghanistan -- leaving Pakistani drivers stranded and driving up the U.S. price tag for the war. NBC's Amna Nawaz reports from Peshawar.
PESHAWAR, Pakistan – The ring road in Peshawar is a rough ride: navigating certain stretches means dodging enormous potholes, steering clear of steep ditches and swerving to avoid the occasional brave soul who darts from one side of the road to the other.
Yet this has been, for the last decade, one of the main arteries on which convoys of trucks carrying supplies for U.S. and NATO forces have made their way into Afghanistan. Those ground lines of communication that run from Karachi's ports to two border crossings in Pakistan have been a fundamental part of the U.S.-Pakistan relationship, as has the air line of communication.
When the U.S.-Pakistan alliance was tested once again in late November after a U.S. cross-border air strike that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers, Pakistan reacted by shutting down the ground supply routes – a step they've taken before in protest to U.S. actions. The air lines of communication remain open.
But access to those crucial land routes has never been denied to the U.S. for this long, and the two accounts from the U.S. and the Pakistan military of the cross-border strike that prompted their closure are so starkly different that it's hard to see how they can be reconciled.
Even though the Americans have reduced their dependence on Pakistan's roads over the last few years by using alternative routes running through Russia and Central Asia, the cost of moving goods via air and on that northern route is much greater – reportedly six times more a month – than using Pakistan's routes.
Asif Hassan / AFP - Getty Images
This photograph taken on Dec. 18, 2011 shows a general view of the NATO supply of oil tankers stand parked near oil terminals in Pakistan's port city of Karachi.
It now costs about $104 million per month to send supplies through the longer northern route, according to Pentagon figures shown to the Associated Press. That is $87 million more than when the cargo was shipped through Pakistan.
Pakistan's government is conducting its own internal review of the alliance with the U.S., and officials here say no decision will be made about the supply lines until that review is complete and recommendations have been discussed by the government. Already, however, there are forces at work within Pakistan's religious and political parties to prevent the government from reopening those lines and re-engaging on the same level with the U.S.
Issue of nationalism
At a recent rally in Rawalpindi for the Pakistan Defense Council, made up of dozens of religious and political parties, leaders mentioned the NATO supply lines with the same fervor as they did deeply nationalistic issues such as divided Kashmir and the country’s nuclear weapons. The crowd of thousands cheered as speaker after speaker threatened that there could be countrywide protests should the government decide to reopen the supply lines.
"The NATO supply lines should not be restored at any cost," said Mohammad Abdullah Gul, chairman of the National Youth Conference and a member of the Pakistan Defense Council.
"Even if the government restores (them), we are not going to accept it. The people of Pakistan, we are going to mobilize. From Khyber to Karachi, they will be mobilized and they will stop the NATO supply lines," he said.
Retired Col. Nazir Ahmed is the spokesman for Jamaat-ud-Dawa, an organization which he describes as having a "purely Islamic platform."
He said that the NATO supply lines were "rightly" blocked, and should stay blocked "forever," unless the U.S. "comes to us on the basis of equality."
He was particularly outraged by the recent cross-border attack.
Asif Hassan / AFP - Getty Images
This photograph taken on Dec. 18, 2011 shows NATO's supply of oil tankers stand parked near oil terminals in Pakistan's port city of Karachi.
"After the aggression that the Americans committed on the Pakistan Army? They slaughtered and killed so many Muslim soldiers," said Nazir. "Every country has the right to defend its borders and its ideology."
For this segment of the population – frustrated by what they see as a decade of subservience to American policy in a deeply unpopular war here – a decision to reopen the supply lines is tantamount to a decision to put U.S. interests ahead of Pakistan's.
That sentiment felt by a growing number of Pakistanis who think the relationship with the U.S. has not benefitted their own country will make it difficult for Pakistan's leaders to publicly re-engage with the U.S., and reopen the supply lines in the same manner and under the same conditions as before.
Both U.S. and Pakistani officials say they remain committed to their alliance. How the NATO supply routes will fit into that alliance, however, is yet to be seen.
By Rehema Ellis
NBC News
Samantha Garvey, the homeless teen who was a semifinalist in the prestigious Intel Science competition, told me this week her mother "has been crying a lot." But unlike when the family was evicted from their home on New Year’s Eve, now she says it’s tears of happiness. After the news broke about how Samantha, 18, was able to stay focused on her studies even as her family was mired in turmoil, there has been an outpouring of admiration for her. She attended the State of the Union address, appeared on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show,” and on “TODAY.” Plus, there have been several offers to help her pay for college expenses.
What I learned this week from Samantha’s teachers and guidance counselors, however, is that this young woman who seems so poised in front of all the cameras did have moments when she struggled.
“She was always worried about her family. She was always worried about her brother and sister and the stress it was putting on them,” said Karin Feil, Samantha’s Brentwood High School guidance counselor.
Like any other senior, Feil told me, Samantha wondered, “‘How am I going to pay for prom? How am I going to get my yearbook? What about my class ring? What about my school pictures?”
Feil said there were times when Samantha wanted to cut back on her studies and just get a job to help support her family. She decided to stick with her first job, which is school, hoping that somehow her needs would be answered.
Still, it’s been tough.
Despite the fact that both her parents have jobs (Samatha's father is a cab driver, and her mother is a hospital worker), they’re part of America’s working poor. A few family hardships left them unable to keep up with the bills and they ended up homeless.
“My parents, they always said, ‘Keep your head up. If you look down and you just keep moping, nothing’s gonna come out of it.’ And I always took that to heart. And I just kept a positive mentality,” Samantha told me.
It’s a remarkable story of perseverance.
But even as we’ve celebrated Samantha, we haven’t heard much about the many other families who are just like hers. According to the latest figures from the Department of Housing and Urban Development an estimated 567,340 families were living in shelters in 2010. More than 141,600 children were in shelters on a single night.
Once a family loses its home, finding another one can be difficult. Often landlords want the first month’s rent along with the last month and a security deposit.
Samantha’s family, however, has gotten help from New York’s Suffolk County Office of Social Services. The agency offered them an affordable house through a regular county program that helps about 40 families every month move out of shelters. County officials say the need is growing every day. At some point, Samantha’s family will move on, and the county will use their space to help someone else. But it’s not clear how long it will take the Garveys to regain their footing.
While there have been offers to help Samantha pay for college, scholarship money cannot be used to pay old family bills. The Garveys have got to figure out a way to clear their debt if they hope to really get back on their feet.
Meanwhile, Samantha learned this week she was not chosen as a finalist in the science competition. But the attention showered on this 18-year-old has given her and her family a much needed boost and every reason to believe they’ve got a winning future ahead.
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After 42 years with NBC News, George Lewis has retired. NBC's Brian Williams reports.
“One more thing.” It’s something the late Steve Jobs used to say as he was introducing Apple’s latest gadgets, always saving the big surprise for the end of his presentation.
As I end 42 years at NBC News, they’ve asked me to write “one more thing” about my incredible journey — a career that’s taken me to all 50 states, 30-some countries and all of Earth’s continents with the exception of Antarctica. (Going there is on my bucket list of places to see.)
I’m often asked what’s the most memorable story of my career and, after thousands of stories, that’s difficult to answer.
April 30, 1975: NBC's George Lewis reports on the fall of Saigon from the USS Blue Ridge as evacuation efforts are underway.
It was certainly memorable when I got assigned to cover the U.S. Embassy hostage crisis in Tehran in 1979, a crisis that dragged on for 444 days as 52 Americans were held by Iranian extremists.
At one point, correspondent Fred Francis, producer Walter Millis and I were ushered into the embassy for an exclusive interview with one of the hostages, William Gallegos. On the way in, Fred and I both harbored fears that we, too, would be added to the roster of hostages, but that didn’t happen.
Instead, Gallegos gave us a compelling account of what life was like for the hostages, an interview that was aired in prime time back in the USA.
George Lewis reports on the legacy of Steve Jobs.
It was certainly memorable when, in the middle of the Tiananmen Square revolt of 1989, Chinese authorities let us set up our cameras near the balcony overlooking the square, a spot where, 40 years earlier, Chairman Mao had proclaimed the birth of a new, communist China. Looking down on the thousands and thousands of young people camped out there, I asked my colleague, Keith Miller, “Have you ever seen anything like this?”
He allowed as how he hadn’t. A few weeks later, the government decided the demonstrators were a threat to the People’s Republic and ordered the tanks into the square to crush the revolt. We had worn out our welcome by that time and had to keep our cameras hidden in order to record the deadly crackdown.
It was certainly memorable when, in 1993, we launched an NBC Nightly News series called “almost 2001” to explain the impending revolution in information technology. My producers and I discovered that NBC actually had Internet capability that had gone totally unused up to that point.
Nightly News
George Lewis on a story.
“We’re going to ask viewers hooked up to the Internet to send us email,” I explained to one of the executives in New York.
“What’s email?” he asked.
“It’s a system that allows people to send and receive messages on the Internet,” I replied.
“What’s the Internet?”
The conversation seems silly now, but remember, this was 1993.
April 18, 2006: The estimated 7.8 magnitude San Francisco earthquake struck without the faintest whisper of a warning 100 years ago today. NBC's George Lewis reports.
“We’re going to use the series to explain this Internet thing,” I said, “and we’re going to invite people to take it for a spin.”
Then we had to explain to anchor Stone Phillips how to tell people where to send their email.
“You want them to send it to ‘nightly’ at — that’s the little ‘a’ with a circle around it — nbc-dot-com. ‘Dot’ is Internet speak for a period.”
And with that, we launched the Peacock into the Internet age. Within moments of the airing of the first segment, our little email server was abuzz with responses from far and wide -- 8,000-plus by the time the series ended in Christmas week of 1993. And we didn’t get any spam at all. It hadn’t been invented yet.
Dec. 7, 2001: NBC's Tom Brokaw and George Lewis on the 60th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor and the emotional connection with 9/11.
It was certainly memorable when I climbed aboard an evacuation helicopter manned by U.S. Marines as South Vietnam fell to the communists in 1975. Vietnam had been my first assignment for NBC News, and I had returned to help write the final chapter. At that point, it was the biggest story I had covered since joining the network.
I was brought back down to Earth rapidly when, a few weeks later, I was vacationing in San Diego and a toll taker at the Coronado Bridge quizzed me:
“Aren’t you George Lewis?” the toll taker asked.
“Yes I am,” I replied.
“Didn’t you use to work here in local TV in San Diego?”
“Yes, I did,” I said, my ego swelling.
“What happened?” the guy asked. “Did you get out of the business?”
“Uhhh ...,” I muttered, searching for a comeback, “I’ve been out of the country.”
Moral of the story and advice to budding TV journalists: Never get too full of yourself, no matter how short or how long your career lasts.
And one more thing. Since I can’t completely hang up my spurs, I’ll return in six months as a part-timer. Having a backstage pass to history is a lifelong addiction, I fear.
Nightly News
George Lewis on assignment in Vietnam during the early days of his career.
On the first anniversary of the uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak's regime, hundreds of thousands poured into the revolution's symbolic center, Cairo's Tahrir Square. NBC's Ayman Mohyeldin reports.
Jeff J Mitchell / Getty Images
Temporary monuments are erected in Tahrir Square on Wednesday as thousands of Egyptians gather to mark the one year anniversary of the uprising that toppled President Hosni Mubarak.
They are scenes reminiscent of Egypt's 18-day revolution that toppled the 30-year rule of Hosni Mubarak.
Men and women, young and old, Muslim and Christian, rich and poor, secular and conservative … all back in the symbolic heart of Egypt’s revolution, Tahrir Square. They are also in cities all across the country.
But the unity seen during Egypt's revolution in 2011 has been replaced by widening differences over where the country stands one year later.
The difference revolves around the transition to democracy. Is it on the right path? Led by the right people? Genuine or simply cosmetic? Actions versus promises. Accomplishments versus rhetoric.
Wednesday marked the one-year anniversary of the beginning of the uprising that ousted Mubarak.
Some gathered in the square to celebrate that revolution. They said the past year had been one of transformation. They cited a newly elected lower house of parliament, new individual freedoms and an explosion of political parties running the gamut.
Those gathered Wednesday celebrated the accomplishments of the revolution. Those accomplishments cannot simply be dismissed. The pace of reform may be slow, but change has been tangible.
Those here commemorating the revolution argued change has been cosmetic. One regime has simply been replaced by another.
"We have changed the driver in the car, but you have not changed the car or its direction," one protester told me. "Only when the direction of the car changes will the revolution be considered successful," he added.
Related: Obama wants to boost Egypt aid quickly
Those commemorating the revolution said the anniversary should serve as a reminder of what Egyptians can accomplish when they are united. The past year has not lived up to its potential. They cited thousands of civilians in military trials as evidence that the ruling military council -- all appointed by Mubarak coincidentally -- has resorted to the same draconian measures as its predecessor. They said that in the past year, not a single senior officer of the internal security forces or minister has been convicted in the killings of around 800 protesters. So for them, Wednesday was about renewing demonstrations against the ruling military council.
The military council said it's holding the ship steady on the course to democracy. And while it has changed the timetable to elections a few times, it has done so only when events on the ground rapidly deteriorated and protests flared up. On one hand that showed it had been responsive to public sentiments and street protests; but on the other hand, it continued to act unilaterally when it came to fundamental issues concerning the process of reform. It retained exclusive power over the security services and the judiciary. It has refused to delegate powers and authority to the military-appointed prime minister or the newly elected lower house of parliament. At the same time, the military has issued a declaration of constitutional principles that many interpret as an attempt to retain powers after a new government is directly elected.
And of course… there are the new democratic realities that have emerged in post-revolution Egypt. New political parties, but not necessarily new political voices. The loudest so far has been that of the Muslim Brotherhood and the ultra-conservative Salafist movement. Between the two of them, they overwhelmingly won the majority of seats in parliament. Will their mandate from the people be seen as a direct order to challenge the military? Some argue the Islamists are content with the democratic process undertaken by the military because it has paved their way to power. They fear the two have cut backroom deals. The military will move the democratic process at a pace and under conditions favorable to Islamist parties at the expense of the lesser and weaker secular and liberal forces. In exchange, the Islamists will not mobilize their massive street support against the military or hold them accountable for past misdoings going forward.
So whether Egyptians celebrate, commemorate or reinvigorate their January 25 Revolution, one thing is for certain, it has been a remarkable year in the history of this country.
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Harvard researchers found exposure to common chemicals called PFCs may lower the number of antibodies in a child's body. NBC's Robert Bazell reports.
By Robert Bazell
NBC News
The study out today about certain chemicals and their effects on childhood vaccinations is groundbreaking. But it is not a reason for parents to panic.
Long ago animal studies found that chemicals called Perofluorinated Compounds (PFCs) could adversely affect the immune systems of animals. To its credit, the Environmental Protection Agency is working with the chemical industry to phase out most PFCs by the year 2015 on the basis of the animal studies. All too often industry and regulatory agencies have dismissed animal studies. What is significant about today’s study from the Harvard School of Public Health is that is shows that effects in animals can translate to people.
PFCs are in many things from food packaging to carpets. They build up over time in the environment and our bodies. The latest study—done on a population in a small fishing village in the Faroe Islands – found that the more PFCs moms and their children had in their blood, the weaker the antibody response was to childhood vaccines for diphtheria and typhoid.
Why no need to panic? Experts point out that there is no evidence that routine vaccinations are becoming any less effective in the United States even though the blood levels of people in the U.S. are similar to those in the study. And the chemicals are being phased out anyway. But it should make us wonder and perhaps look for more studies about all the other chemicals that are long lasting and building up all around us.
For more information on the Healthy Home Dream Team, the company featured in our broadcast that helps people remove potential dangers from their home, visit http://ronandlisa.com/.
Ron and Lisa Beres are healthy home consultants and authors of "Just Green It!" who advise people, like Michelle Schooley, on how to eliminate chemicals in their homes, making their environments healthier.
Martin Scorsese's "Hugo" leads the pack with 11 nominations followed by "The Artist," which received 10 nominations. Below, find a full list of the 2012 Academy Award nominees.
Best picture
“War Horse”
“The Artist”
“Midnight in Paris”
“Moneyball”
“The Descendants”
“The Tree of Life”
“The Help”
“Hugo”
“Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close”
Best actress
Glenn Close, “Albert Nobbs”
Viola Davis, “The Help”
Rooney Mara, “Girl With the Dragon Tattoo”
Meryl Streep, “The Iron Lady”
Michelle Williams, “My Week With Marilyn”
Best actor
Demian Bichir, “A Better Life”
George Clooney, “The Descendants”
Jean Dujardin, “The Artist”
Gary Oldman, “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy”
Brad Pitt, “Moneyball”
Best supporting actress
Berenice Bejo, “The Artist”
Jessica Chastain, “The Help”
Melissa McCarthy, “Bridesmaids”
Janet McTeer, “Albert Nobbs”
Octavia Spencer, “The Help”
Best supporting actor
Kenneth Branagh, “My Week With Marilyn”
Jonah Hill, “Moneyball”
Christopher Plummer, “Beginners”
Nick Nolte, “Warrior”
Max von Sydow, “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close”
Best director
Michel Hazanavicius, “The Artist”
Alexander Payne, “The Descendants”
Martin Scorsese, “Hugo”
Terrence Malick, “Tree of Life”
Woody Allen, “Midnight in Paris”
Best original screenplay
“The Artist”
“Bridesmaids”
“Margin Call”
“Midnight in Paris”
“A Separation”
Best adapted screenplay
“The Descendants”
“Hugo”
“The Ides of March”
“Moneyball”
“Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy”
Best foreign language film
“Bullhead”
“Footnote”
“In Darkness”
“Monsieur Lazhar”
“A Separation”
Best animated feature
“A Cat in Paris”
“Chico & Rita”
“Kung Fu Panda 2”
“Puss in Boots”
“Rango”
Best animated short film
“Dimanche/Sunday”
“The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore”
“La Luna”
“A Morning Stroll”
“Wild Life”
Best live action short film
“Pentecost”
“Raju”
“The Shore”
“Time Freak”
“Tuba Atlantic”
Best art direction
“The Artist”
“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2”
“Hugo”
“Midnight in Paris”
“War Horse”
Best cinematography
“The Artist”
“The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo”
“Hugo”
“The Tree of Life”
“War Horse”
Best costumes
“Anonymous”
“The Artist”
“Hugo”
“Jane Eyre”
“W.E.”
Best documentary feature
“Hell and Back Again”
“If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Libration Front”
“Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory”
“Pina”
“Undefeated”
Documentary short subject
“The Barber of Birmingham: Foot Soldier of the Civil Rights Movement”
“God is the Bigger Elvis”
“Incident in New Baghdad”
“Saving Face”
“The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom”
Film editing
“The Artist”
“The Descendants”
“The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo”
“Hugo”
“Moneyball”
Make-up
“Albert Nobbs”
“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2”
“The Iron Lady”
Original score
“The Adventures of TinTin”
“The Artist”
“Hugo”
“Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy:
“War Horse”
Original song
“Man or Muppet”
“Real in Rio”
Sound editing
“Drive”
“The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”
“Hugo”
“Transformers: Dark of the Moon”
“War Horse”
Visual effects
“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2”
“Hugo”
“Real Steel”
“Rise of the Planet of the Apes”
“Transformers: Dark of the Moon”
Courtesy of the Gipson family
Malik Gipson, left, with his great grandmother Elaine, and younger brother Michael.
By Jessica Blank
NBC News
Malik Gipson is not only celebrating his ninth birthday today, he’s also being honored for saving his two-year old brother from choking.
Malik and his younger brother, Michael, were visiting their great-grandmother at her home in Jonesboro, Ga., in December when Michael became envious of a piece of hard peppermint candy that Malik was eating. So Michael took a piece, put it in his mouth -- and started to choke.
Their great-grandmother, 66-year-old Elaine Pines, was watching Malik, Michael, and their 11-month old sister, Mariah, while the children’s parents worked outside in the front yard.
"Just as I looked around, Michael was slobbering at the mouth,” Pines told msnbc.com. “And I said, 'Malik! He swallowed it.'”
Seeing that his great-grandmother was holding their baby sister in her arms, Malik sprung to action and performed the Heimlich maneuver on his brother.
"I was scared. I was thinking he was going to pass away,” Malik said. “I grabbed him by the chest and kept doing the Heimlich maneuver and kept doing it until it came out.” On Malik’s third attempt, the peppermint flew across the floor.
At the time, Pines said, she was “a nervous wreck."
"Malik ran to get his mom and dad outside and told them what happened,” she said.
At first, Camellia and Tronte Gipson were confused by the sight of Malik in the front yard, holding a peppermint candy.
“We didn’t think it was anything at first, but when Elaine came to the door, she was shaking and frantic,” said Camellia Tronte. “But Michael still had color in his face and he was breathing, so we didn’t call an ambulance.”
Courtesy of the Gipson family
Camellia Gipson, Tronte Gipson and their children Malik, Michael, and Mariah.
“The night of the incident, we were sitting in the car, and Michael said, ‘Malik saved my life.’ And it brought me to tears,” said Camellia. “For a two-year old to say something like that, at that moment, it was very touching.”
In hopes of recognizing Malik’s bravery his parents called the Clayton County fire department. Camellia shared her son’s story, and the fire department organized a ceremony in honor of Malik today, his birthday.
“I’m going to the fire department to get an award. I’m excited,” Malik said. When asked where he learned how to do the Heimlich maneuver, Malik simply said, “I watched a TV show on Disney XD."
In a ceremony attended by the Gipson’s family and friends, Fire Chief Jeff Hood will present Malik with a certificate, rewarding him for his courage and bravery.
“Throughout my career in public safety and as Fire Chief, I have had the opportunity to shake the hand of many brave men and women that serve our community with honor, courage and commitment. Today, I have had the privilege to shake the hand of another brave young man, Malik Gipson,” Hood said in a statement provided to msnbc.com. “His actions were of those seasoned with maturity and that same honor and courage. Malik is an example to all his peers and even the professionals, that it is our dedication and commitment to one another that makes human life so dear.”
Malik will also be given a fireman helmet and a special tour of the Fire Department while surrounded by his friends, his relatives, and of course, his great-grandmother.
“I’m excited about him getting the award because he did a wonderful job,” Pines said.
Malik age 8, Michael age 2, and their baby sister Mariah 6 months
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Ali Arouzi / NBC News
By Ali Arouzi
NBC News
BANDAR ABBAS, IRAN
With each passing day, the tension between Iran and the West escalates over access to the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic waterway for oil exports at the entrance to the Persian Gulf.
Over the weekend “Nightly News” was given a rare opportunity to visit the port city of Bandar Abbas, the closest Iranian city to the Strait of Hormuz. We were the only foreign journalists allowed to visit the city, an area just a few miles from the Strait, and speak to the people who live there.
After flying into Bandar Abbas airport we jumped into a cab, and it did not take long for our driver, Jamshid, to start complaining about soaring inflation and the effect of U.S sanctions. He told us that the price of everything has gone up and he and his family are struggling to stay afloat.
Today, the European Union joined the United States in imposing heavy sanctions on the Iran oil and gas sector. The sanctions came one day after a U.S. aircraft carrier, the USS Abraham Lincoln, steamed through the crucial sea passage without incident, despite threats issued by the Iranian government three weeks ago.
A pair of Chinese-made shoes that Jamshid had bought for his daughter about three months ago now cost $40, nearly double what he previously paid. When we spoke about the presence of a large American fleet in the vicinity, Jamshid told me that his cousin had an opportunity to catch a glimpse of the 5th fleet and it scared him half to death because it was like a floating city. I asked Jamshid in what capacity his cousin had seen the 5th fleet, but he declined to tell me.
Ali Arouzi / NBC News
We approached people at a fish market, but when the camera came out people clammed up. The few people who did talk to us were not happy.
A fishmonger, who told us his name was Ali, said work had become prohibitively expensive. The price of fishing and materials has sky rocketed, he said, and people simply don’t have the money to buy fish because the price goes up daily.
Others spoke to us off-camera and said they fear war and don't know what to do. More boisterous members of the crowd said they had no fear and would fight till their last breath.
From there, we took to the waters, where we traveled through the Persian Gulf. Amid the plethora of oil tankers, it became obvious that this chokepoint also offered a lifeline for fishing boats, cargo boats and the multitude of unmarked Iranian speedboats that make a clandestine crossing every day loaded with smuggled consumer goods -- ranging from Chinese-made shoes to Japanese cars -- from the other side of the Gulf.
As far as many merchants and politicians are concerned, this is the most significant waterway in the world, and it's here in the Persian Gulf that America and Iran's resolve will be tested if they can't come to some sort of a compromise.
With 17 million barrels of oil traveling through the Strait of Hormuz every day, it's a tight squeeze: only 21 miles at its widest point, and its shipping lanes are even narrower. Inbound and outbound lanes are only two miles wide. This is where Iran can cause trouble if its oil sales are disrupted or it's attacked.
Ali Arouzi / NBC News
Today, lawmaker Mohammad Ismail Kowsari, deputy head of Iran's influential committee on national security told Iran’s Mehr news agency the Strait "would definitely be closed if the sale of Iranian oil is violated in any way."
Kowsari claimed that in case of the Strait's closure, the U.S. and its allies would not be able to reopen the route, and warned America not to attempt any "military adventurism."
Another senior lawmaker, Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh, told the news agency Iran has the right to shutter Hormuz in retaliation for oil sanctions, and that the closure was increasingly probable.
And Iran is preparing itself for that eventuality with war games involving the country’s Navy and Revolutionary Guards in the Persian Gulf becoming routine.
A senior commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guards said Saturday on state TV that the likely return of U.S. naval vessels to the region was "not a new issue and ... should be interpreted as part of their permanent presence." This may be seen as a sign of cooler heads prevailing while a last-ditch attempt is made to restart nuclear talks, but it does not indicate any change of stance on Iran’s nuclear program. If talks don't bear fruit, or if Iran is blocked from selling its oil, cooler heads won't prevail for long. One analyst, who spoke to NBC News on condition of anonymity, told me that if Iran can't sell its oil through the Gulf, it's not going to let anyone else do so.
Back on dry land, we visited the local bazaar where we spoke to a man who went by the name Koshrude, a veteran of the Iran-Iraq war. While we were setting up to interview him he argued with a client buying tea. The client complained that the goods were too expensive, but Koshrude said, "What can I do? The price of the dollar has gone up, so has the Dirham. We have sanctions and threats … it's not in my hands.”
The client reluctantly bought two boxes of Indian tea and left. Koshrude said, “The customer was right to complain, prices are staggering!”
When asked about the presence of the U.S. Navy in the area, Koshrude dismissed it as saber rattling at sea.
"We have seen these pressures before. We dealt with it and we will do so again," he said.
Our day was drawing to an end and hunger started to set in. In the true tradition of Iranian hospitality, Jamshid, our driver, insisted that we go to his house and have dinner with his family. He said, “It is my duty. You are guests in my town, and besides which the restaurants are too expensive.”
After our meal, he dropped us off at our hotel and bid us farewell. I could not help feeling very sorry for him because it's the working man that will pay disproportionally for Iran's standoff with the West.
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- Tracy Morgan hospitalized while attending Sundance Film Festival
By Amber Payne and Christina Caron
NBC News
More than two decades in the making, George Lucas’ passion project “Red Tails” hit theaters today after a long search to find a distributor that wanted to market an expensive film with an all-black cast.
Lucas spent $58 million of his own money to produce “Red Tails,” an action movie about the Tuskegee Airmen, the first all-African American aerial combat unit that paved the way for the integration of the U.S. armed services. It was a risky venture by Hollywood standards, and one that director Anthony Hemingway said carried enormous responsibility.
“I went to Tuskegee, Alabama and actually had the chance to look into the eyes of living history and when I looked into their eyes and connected with them it really it -- it registered and the weight of the world was on my shoulders at that point,” he said.
Hemingway told “Nightly News” it was “a struggle” to get the green light from a studio, but that didn’t come as a surprise.
“It’s not a shock that the system or Hollywood didn’t want to tell the story,” he said. “We’re thankful that George [Lucas] did what he did and had the passion to … help tell this story.”
Actor Terrence Howard, who plays Col. A.J. Bullard in the movie, told “Access Hollywood” “half” of the distribution studios rejected the movie, telling filmmakers, “No, we don’t know how to market it.”
“And it's like 'Why?'” he asked. “You just market it, it's an action movie. It’s an all black cast. And the white guys are the bad guys. And it's like, you market it. It's just a movie.”
Eventually 20th Century Fox signed on as a distributor. Writer and filmmaker Tyler Perry, best known for his top grossing movies “Diary of a Mad Black Woman” and “Madea’s Family Reunion,” threw his support behind the film, posting a statement on his website that read, “Unfortunately, movies starring an all-African American cast are on the verge of becoming extinct. THAT’S RIGHT, EXTINCT!”
Perry saluted Lucas, writing, “George decided to take a huge risk by entirely funding the movie and releasing it himself. What a guy! For him to believe so strongly in this story is amazing.”
Although Perry raved about the film, saying he “loved it,” critics have blasted everything from the writing to the combat visuals. A review in the Christian Science Monitor called the movie “blatantly inauthentic” and a blog on the New York Times Magazine website said the film “starts off promisingly enough” but “the script seems afraid to just let the action do the work, instead filling every scene with macho banter and bluster of the most generic kind.”
But Nate Parker, who plays Marty 'Easy' Julian in the film, told “Nightly News” the fact that Lucas bankrolled the film “speaks to his understanding that everyone needs to tell their own stories.”
Parker added, “One of the things George[Lucas] told me, before we started filming, he said, ‘When I wanted to do ‘Star Wars,’ no one wanted to help’ …. and even when I finished people watched and they said, ‘It’s not going to work,’ and then it became Star Wars, he said, ‘You know, you’re doing something right when everyone tells you, ‘You can’t do it.’”
Before shooting on location in Europe, Hemingway and producer Rick McCallum put the actors through a rigorous boot camp to simulate preparation for war and build the brotherhood.
Parker joked about the bonding experience. "If you can imagine several African American men in the Czech Republic, you know, in the snow, in tents, in military garb, eating rations every day, no cell phones uh, it was -- I still haven't forgiven them for it," he said.
“Red Tails” certainly isn’t the first film about the famed Tuskegee Airmen, but according to Roscoe Brown, a former squadron commander in the 332nd Fighter Group, it’s the first to move beyond the well-told story of racism that led to the group’s formation, and focus instead on the combat mission,
“[George Lucas] takes us right to Ramitelli, Italy, where we did most of our flying,” Brown told “Nightly News.”
The former fighter pilot, now 89, served as a consultant on the film and can still recall war stories as though they happened yesterday.
The “penultimate mission” of the 15th Air Force, he said, was on March 24th, 1945: a 1600 mile round trip mission to Berlin and back to Italy to bomb a German factory that produced tank parts.
“When I got close to Berlin, I saw these jet planes coming up. And because of the instinctive work that we'd done in practice, I said, ‘Drop your tanks and follow me,’” he recalled. “I came away from the bombers, the jets were coming up here, and I then made a hard right turn and caught the jet-- in my lead with my electronic gunner, brr-- boom. And that was it. He bailed out-- that was the first jet that was shot down over Berlin, although some had been shot down before. So I'm very proud, I'm one of 15 pilots in the whole Air Force that shot down jets in World War II.”
“Red Tails” tells the real-life war stories of Brown and his squadron mates, as they battle the Nazis over Europe, and racism at home.
“In my generation, every day was a fight to prove yourself,” Brown said. “You had to strive for excellence every single day. I come from that generation where the black press would say, ‘First black to do this, first black to become a professor, first black to be in opera.’”
The filmmakers, like the real airmen, know what it’s like to want to prove their detractors wrong.: In this case, Hollywood and its doubts about a black action movie.
“We did everything we could have done to make this the best film that it can be,” Hemingway said. “We all want it to succeed but it’s in God’s hands at this point and we really hope everyone comes out and supports it.”
Getty Images
Etta James in 1993
Etta James' performance of the enduring classic "At Last" was the embodiment of refined soul: Angelic-sounding strings harkened the arrival of her passionate yet measured vocals as she sang tenderly about a love finally realized after a long and patient wait.
In real life, little about James was as genteel as that song. The platinum blonde's first hit was a saucy R&B number about sex, and she was known as a hell-raiser who had tempestuous relationships with her family, her men and the music industry. Then she spent years battling a drug addiction that she admitted sapped away at her great talents.
The 73-year-old died on Friday at Riverside Community Hospital, with her husband and sons at her side, De Leon said.
"It's a tremendous loss for her fans around the world," he said. "She'll be missed. A great American singer. Her music defied category."
Getty Images
Etta James in 1965.
She had been hospitalized earlier in the year. although she had returned home on Jan. 5. James had been ill for some time.
James' spirit could not be contained — perhaps that's what made her so magnetic in music; it is surely what made her so dynamic as one of R&B, blues and rock 'n' roll's underrated legends.
"The bad girls ... had the look that I liked," she wrote in her 1995 autobiography, "Rage to Survive." "I wanted to be rare, I wanted to be noticed, I wanted to be exotic as a Cotton Club chorus girl, and I wanted to be obvious as the most flamboyant hooker on the street. I just wanted to be."
Despite the reputation she cultivated, she would always be remembered best for "At Last." The jazz-inflected rendition wasn't the original, but it would become the most famous and the song that would define her as a legendary singer. Over the decades, brides used it as their song down the aisle and car companies to hawk their wares, and it filtered from one generation to the next through its inclusion in movies like "American Pie." Perhaps most famously, President Obama and the first lady danced to a version at his inauguration ball.
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The tender, sweet song belied the turmoil in her personal life. James — born Jamesette Hawkins — was born in Los Angeles to a mother whom she described as a scam artist, a substance abuser and a fleeting presence during her youth. She never knew her father, although she was told and had believed, that he was the famous billiards player Minnesota Fats. He neither confirmed nor denied it: when they met, he simply told her: "I don't remember everything. I wish I did, but I don't."
She was raised by Lula and Jesse Rogers, who owned the rooming house where her mother once lived in. The pair brought up James in the Christian faith, and as a young girl, her voice stood out in the church choir. James landed the solos in the choir and became so well known, she said that Hollywood stars would come to see her perform.
But she wouldn't stay a gospel singer for long. Rhythm and blues lured her away from the church, and she found herself drawn to the grittiness of the music.
"My mother always wanted me to be a jazz singer, but I always wanted to be raunchy," she recalled in her book.
She was doing just that when bandleader Johnny Otis found her singing on San Francisco street corners with some girlfriends in the early 1950s.
"At the time, Hank Ballard and the Midnighters had a hit with 'Work With Me, Annie,' and we decided to do an answer. We didn't think we would get in show business, we were just running around making up answers to songs," James told The Associated Press in 1987.
And so they replied with the song, "Roll With Me, Henry."
When Otis heard it, he told James to get her mother's permission to accompany him to Los Angeles to make a recording. Instead, the 15-year-old singer forged her mother's name on a note claiming she was 18.
"At that time, you weren't allowed to say 'roll' because it was considered vulgar. So when Georgia Gibbs did her version, she renamed it 'Dance With Me, Henry' and it went to No. 1 on the pop charts," the singer recalled. The Gibbs song was one of several in the early rock era when white singers got hits by covering songs by black artists, often with sanitized lyrics.
After her 1955 debut, James toured with Otis' revue, sometimes earning only $10 a night. In 1959, she signed with Chicago's legendary Chess label, began cranking out the hits and going on tours with performers such as Bobby Vinton, Little Richard, Fats Domino, Gene Vincent, Jerry Lee Lewis and the Everly Brothers.
"We would travel on four buses to all the big auditoriums. And we had a lot of fun," she recalled in 1987.
James recorded a string of hits in the late 1950s and '60s including "Trust In Me," "Something's Got a Hold On Me," "Sunday Kind of Love," "All I Could Do Was Cry," and of course, "At Last."
"(Chess Records founder) Leonard Chess was the most aware of anyone. He went up and down the halls of Chess announcing, 'Etta's crossed over! Etta's crossed over!' I still didn't know exactly what that meant, except that maybe more white people were listening to me. The Chess brothers kept saying how I was their first soul singer, that I was taking their label out of the old Delta blues, out of rock and into the modern era. Soul was the new direction," she wrote in her autobiography. "But in my mind, I was singing old style, not new."
In 1967, she cut one of the most highly regarded soul albums of all time, "Tell Mama," an earthy fusion of rock and gospel music featuring blistering horn arrangements, funky rhythms and a churchy chorus. A song from the album, "Security," was a top 40 single in 1968.
Her professional success, however, was balanced against personal demons, namely a drug addiction.
"I was trying to be cool," she told the AP in 1995, explaining what had led her to try heroin.
"I hung out in Harlem and saw Miles Davis and all the jazz cats," she continued. "At one time, my heavy role models were all druggies. Billie Holiday sang so groovy. Is that because she's on drugs? It was in my mind as a young person. I probably thought I was a young Billie Holiday, doing whatever came with that."
She was addicted to the drug for years, beginning in 1960, and it led to a harrowing existence that included time behind bars. It sapped her singing abilities and her money, eventually, almost destroying her career.
It would take her at least two decades to beat her drug problem. Her husband, Artis Mills, even went to prison for years, taking full responsibility for drugs during an arrest even though James was culpable.
"My management was suffering. My career was in the toilet. People tried to help, but I was hell-bent on getting high," she wrote of her drug habit in 1980.
She finally quit the habit and managed herself for a while, calling up small clubs and asking them, "Have you ever heard of Etta James?" in order to get gigs. Eventually, she got regular bookings — even drawing Elizabeth Taylor as an audience member. In 1984, she was tapped to sing the national anthem at the Olympic Games in Los Angeles, and her career got the resurgent boost it needed, though she fought addiction again when she got hooked on painkillers in the late 1980s.
Drug addiction wasn't her only problem. She struggled with her weight, and often performed from a wheelchair as she got older and heavier. In the early 2000s, she had weight-loss surgery and shed some 200 pounds.
James performed well into her senior years, and it was "At Last" that kept bringing her the biggest ovations. The song was a perennial that never aged, and on Jan. 20, 2009, as crowds celebrated that — at last — an African-American had become president of the United States, the song played as the first couple danced.
But it was superstar Beyonce who serenaded the Obamas, not the legendary singer. Beyonce had portrayed James in "Cadillac Records," a big-screen retelling of Chess Records' heyday, and had started to claim "At Last" as her own.
An audio clip surfaced of James at a concert shortly after the inauguration, saying she couldn't stand the younger singer and that Beyonce had "no business singing my song." But she told the New York Daily News later that she was joking, even though she had been hurt that she did not get the chance to participate in the inauguration.
James did get her accolades over the years. She was inducted into the Rock Hall in 1993, captured a Grammy in 2003 for best contemporary blues album for "Let's Roll," one in 2004 for best traditional blues album for "Blues to the Bone" and one for best jazz vocal performance for 1994's "Mystery Lady: Songs of Billie Holiday." She was also awarded a special Grammy in 2003 for lifetime achievement and got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Her health went into decline, however, and by 2011, she was being cared for at home by a personal doctor.
She suffered from dementia, kidney problems and leukemia. Her husband and her two sons fought over control of her $1 million estate, though a deal was later struck keeping Mills as the conservator and capping the singer's expenses at $350,000. In December 2011, her physician announced that her leukemia was terminal, and asked for prayers for the singer.
In October 2011, it was announced that James was retiring from recording, and a final studio recording, "The Dreamer," was released, featuring the singer taking on classic songs, from Bobby "Blue" Bland's "Dreamer" to Guns N' Roses "Welcome To the Jungle" — still rocking, and a fitting end to her storied career.
Was "At Last" your wedding song? Share your memories of James' music on Facebook.
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