The United States, the European Union and the U.N. have imposed tough economic sanctions against Iran –- blocking access to the international banking system and hurting sales of Iranian crude oil -– as a way to persuade Tehran to abandon its nuclear program. 

In the short term, the harsh sanctions have had an impact on Iran’s economy -– inflation has gone through the roof, and the unemployment rate is staggering, especially among young Iranians. Prices of consumer goods have doubled, tripled, even quadrupled in some cases, according to consumers. 

The business community is in disarray, and as things keep getting worse, it’s all people are talking about.

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Barely getting by 
At the Tajrish Bazaar in North Tehran on a recent afternoon, Ahmed, a 31-year-old unemployed man, poured his heart out to me. Speaking on the condition of anonymity, as all those interviewed for this story did because of the political sensitivity of speaking out in Iran, he told me his story. 

He said he has been unemployed for the past year, doing odd jobs, and that he barely makes enough to feed himself, let alone his wife and children. The lack of jobs and the extraordinary rise in food prices have hamstrung him. But he was most worried about what the crippled economy is doing to the youth of Iran, who he said are turning to crime and drugs if they can’t find work. 

In Iran, appearance is everything. How you dress and wear your beard says a lot about your politics. 

As I talked to Ahmed, who was dressed in Western-style clothes, another man looked on disapprovingly. He had a full dark black beard and was dressed in conservative black clothes. He was listening to everything Ahmed said and wanted to talk to us, although he declined to give us his name.

He said that people like Ahmed were making excuses and were lazy. He argued that the economy had become tougher, but no more so than the Iranian people were used to over the years. He blamed the U.S. for the bad economy, accusing President Barack Obama of unfairly trying to squeeze Iran. But he said that in the end, the rough economic times had taught Iran to be more self-reliant. 

“We need to tighten our belts for now and weather this storm with the West as we have always done. And we will be victorious again,” he said.

New sanctions' real impact
The most recent international sanctions have targeted Iran’s crude oil and banking sectors. In addition to harsh U.S. measures, 27 countries in the European Union agreed in January to ban Iranian oil imports –- giving countries until July 1 to terminate their deals. They also put a freeze on assets belonging to the Central Bank of Iran and a ban on trade in gold and other precious metals.  

Anthony Cordesman, who holds the Burke chair in strategy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and is a long-time Iran watcher, said that despite years of sanctions against Iran, the most recent ones have had the greatest impact –- partly because they target banking.

The banking sanctions “have had the most popular, or broad, impact. Right now Iran can’t even operate on the international clearinghouse.”   

“I think that this is the first time that sanctions have really had a major bite. Up to now, they have all been fairly limited,” said Cordesman.  “But beginning in November, and it’s just beginning to bite, you can’t bank internationally effectively, you can’t move money. You don’t have a stable conversion rate –- but the rial [Iran’s currency] is way down, so your savings are of very uncertain value unless you’ve invested in property.  You don’t know what’s going to happen to your business. You have to be very cautious about how much money you can spend on a marriage for your children or their education.” 

He added that we really won’t begin to see the full impact of the sanctions until summer, when they have all gone into effect.  “So everyone knows it’s getting worse, but no one knows yet how serious.” 

Vali Nasr, the incoming dean at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, explained how these sanctions differ from 30 years of sanctions that mostly targeted imports into Iran. 

“The new set of sanctions targeting Iran’s oil industry, central bank, ability to conduct international financial transactions, are of a different nature largely because they are going after the government’s source of income –- the ability to sell oil or receive money for oil,” said Nasr. “So these have had an impact because they have caused extensive inflation inside Iran. They’ve caused the government to scrap a variety of projects, which has caused unemployment.  

“There is no doubt that economic hardship has become much more pronounced. And there is on top of that a layer of uncertainty. So there is significant economic hardship that is hitting the lower rung of society and the Iranian middle class,” said Nasr.
 
Back in Tajrish Bazaar, Roya, a well-dressed woman in her 60s wearing a Hermes scarf for a hijab and carrying a Louis Vuitton bag, explained how even she is being hit by the economic uncertainty. While she is a wealthy Iranian living in the leafy suburbs of affluent North Tehran, she said her purchasing power has been halved by the struggling economy. 

“Everything has doubled in price,” Roya said. “My son lives in Los Angeles, and it’s cheaper to go shopping there -- amazing. Things have become difficult for me even though I am among the better off Iranians. I can’t imagine how difficult it is for folks downtown.” 
When I asked her what the solution was, she replied sarcastically, “That’s for the country’s economists to figure out.”

Close to the bone
For international relations analysts, like Cordesman and Nasr, getting reliable information on what’s going on in Iran is very difficult. Both analysts said that basically all of their information on the impact of the current sanctions is anecdotal. 

“You have to rely on anecdotal information especially because the Iranian government does not have an interest in revealing how painful the sanctions are. They may admit that they are hurting, but they don’t want to put numbers out there,” said Nasr. 

But it’s not all doom and gloom for the regime. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad often touts during public events that Iran has a record $90 billion in foreign exchange reserves, as well as untold reserves of gold, silver and precious stones. 

Even though experts estimate that Iran has seen a decline in sales of about 300, 000 barrels of oil per day as a result of the sanctions, this has been offset by a 15 percent rise in crude prices. 

And the effect and pain of sanctions have not been distributed evenly. While blue-collar workers in downtown Tehran can expect to eat meat once a month only as a treat, North Tehran is awash with Mercedes and Porsche SUVs costing as much as $500,000 after the import tax has been paid.    

Will the sanctions achieve goal?
So the question remains as to whether the sanctions will achieve their goal: curtailing Iran’s nuclear program.

“The sanctions have had an impact of getting Iran to the negotiating table. Iran came to Istanbul [the site of the latest diplomatic talks] with much more seriousness than in the past,” said Nasr. 

But he added that the sanctions alone won’t be enough for Iran’s leaders to give up a program they have invested heavily in –- both financially and in terms of building the nuclear program as a point of national pride.  “Just because the Iranian public dislikes this regime –- that does not mean that they dislike the nuclear program. They don’t see this as the regime’s nuclear program, they see it as Iran’s nuclear program,” said Nasr.  

In order for the sanctions to work, Nasr explained, the U.S. and other parties at the table need to give something back -– otherwise it would just seem like Iran is surrendering to the West’s demands, not an easy sell at home. 

“Until now, the whole approach has been stick-heavy and carrot-poor. And the sticks are very explicit and the carrots are vague. And maybe that was necessary to get their attention and to show that we meant business. But now going forward -– [the U.S.] can’t ask [Iran] for concrete concessions –- like stop this, stop that -– but not put concrete things on the table, like this sanction will be lifted.  If all the concessions are on the Iranian side and what they get is just a promissory note, I don’t think it will fly.”   

“End of the day, these two countries have not had a single thing they’ve agreed on or done together in the last 30 years. So you couldn’t expect them to actually be able to conclude a deal without some sort of reciprocal, trust-building, concrete steps going forward.”

Msnbc.com’s Petra Cahill contributed to this report. 

More world news from msnbc.com and NBC News:

• Germany's Pirate Party rides wave of popularity
• 'Scapegoated'? Westerners held over massacre
• Anxious Greeks withdraw $894 million in a day
• In China, English teaching is a whites-only club
• Beer-swilling bride sparks controversy in New Zealand
• Oh la la! A look at France's fascinating first ladies
• 'Puppet': Al-Qaida chief issues message on Yemen
• 'Everything has doubled in price': Iran sanctions bite

Follow us on Twitter: @msnbc_world

By Stacey Naggiar and Dr. Nancy Snyderman
NBC News

For parents of babies and toddlers, safety is always on the mind.  But despite parents’ best efforts, some common household products can be an unlikely source of danger.  Two studies published Monday in the journal Pediatrics describe the hazards associated with popular button batteries as well as with bottles, pacifiers and sippy cups.  

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Swallowed batteries

The first study looked at a terrifying increase in the number of pediatric emergency department visits for battery-related injuries.  Researchers at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio found that the number of children under the age of 18 visiting emergency departments for these injuries doubled in the last 20 years, to an average of one visit every three hours. The growing trend of products that require 3V 20-mm lithium button batteries is likely to blame for these staggering numbers.  The study found that the injuries mostly involved the use of toys, hearing aids, watches, calculators, flashlights and remote controls. 

The problem with these button batteries that’s different from other batteries is that they set up a current inside the body, causing dangerous complications.  If a button battery is ingested, it can cause damage in as little as two hours and sometimes there are no initial symptoms. Radiologists have a small window of time to distinguish whether the foreign object is a coin or a battery.  They look for a ring near the edge of the object as the tell-tale sign that it’s a battery. 

But some experts say that’s not enough, the battery industry should put a distinctive mark such as an ‘X’ or a skull and crossbones on both sides, so radiologists can tell the difference right away.  Once diagnosis is confirmed, these patients are immediately taken into surgery and the battery is removed.  The window of safety is narrow, no more than three hours.

Dr. Ian Jacobs, a pediatric otolaryngologist at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, says he sees these cases all too often and that most of the time parents are completely surprised when they find out what their child has swallowed. 

“These batteries can erode through the front wall of the esophagus and into adjacent structures like the aorta and cause a massive fatal bleed,” he said. 

Dr. Jacobs is heading up a task force with the American Bronchoesophagological Association to design better labeling and safety features for products with button batteries as well as to increase public awareness.  

Battery safety tips

• Limit exposure to products with button batteries in children under 5 years old
• Tape battery compartments closed
• Keep remotes, car keys and other objects with button batteries out of children’s hands
• If there is any question as to whether or not the child swallowed a battery, get to the emergency room ASAP

 

Bottles, binkies and sippy cups

The second study looked at injuries associated with bottles, sippy cups and pacifiers (also known as binkies), over a 20-year period.  The researchers, also at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, found that an average 2,270 children per year visit emergency departments for injuries related to those three products.  In more than 86  percent of these cases, the injury was caused by a fall and in over 70 percent of the cases the injury body part was the mouth.  The good news is that product malfunction was only to blame in 4.4 percent of cases.  The researchers recommend that parents follow the American Academy of Pediatrics guidelines for transitioning children from bottles to cups as well as the appropriate times to say bye-bye to binkies. 

Safety tips for using bottles, sippy cups and pacifiers

• Use pacifiers during infancy to help prevent sudden infant death syndrome
• Discontinue pacifier use at 6 months  to prevent ear infections
• Discontinue pacifier use at age 3 to prevent dental problems
• When the child is 1 year old, transition from a bottle to a lidless cup 
• Keep kids seated when they are drinking from a bottle or sippy cup

 

What we're following: 

- Executive who oversaw $2 billion trading loss at JPMorgan Chase leaves

- Yahoo CEO out following resume scandal

- Nearly 50 bodies found on Mexico highway

And did you see...

- ER visits double as more kids swallow batteries

- 24-hour daycare opens for the super busy

- Columbia University janitor graduates with honors

 

 

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By Dexter Mullins
NBC News 

When Paula Assou first started figure skating, she cried.

“I was terrified of skating,” she said. But that didn’t keep her off the ice. “I wanted to try skating as something new and to overcome something I was really afraid of.”

That was nearly six years ago. Now, at age 16, Assou is part of Figure Skating in Harlem's junior synchronized skating team. The girls recently won their first gold medal in a regional competition.

Sharon Cohen founded Figure Skating in Harlem in 1997. It was the first program in the nation to pair figure skating with academics, and since then it has grown to serve thousands of girls, ages 6 to 18. A former competitive figure skater, Cohen was teaching ice skating to girls in East Harlem for about seven years when she decided to start the organization she now runs full-time.  With the help of grants and donations, Figure Skating in Harlem teaches about 200 students a year.

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“We ended up starting this organization that really had education as its core focus and figure skating as the hook,” Cohen said. “So the girls get the physical benefit of fitness and grace and artistry through skating, which is very unique and not truly accessible to kids especially from inner-cities. And they also get core educational lessons that help them to get into some of the best colleges.”

To stay on the ice, the girls must maintain a minimum of a B average. The girls come after school to get help with homework, receive tutoring, and practice their skating technique. The organization also teaches financial literacy and writing, and offers communications classes.

Of all the students enrolled in the program, 85 percent have maintained at least the required B average, while 31 percent are straight-A students.

“They go on to four-year colleges and have gone onto places like Spelman College and Howard University. We have a student on a full academic scholarship to Brown University,” Cohen said.

For students like Paula, Figure Skating in Harlem was just a way to enhance the talents she already had.

“I've always been a really strong student and I just think skating strengthened that because I had to work hard to stay in the program, and in order to maintain my grades,” she said. “When I started out I was really shy and quiet, and I wasn't very vocal, and I also came from a school and a summer camp where I was bullied a lot because I was smart and because I was quiet. So coming here was just a way for me to escape from that.”

Figure skating can be a very expensive sport, even for recreational skaters. According to Cohen, it can cost $40,000 to $50,000 to train an elite skater at the highest levels. Even for a recreational skater, the costs can be in the low thousands. High costs like that make sports like skating out of reach for a lot of students, especially those in the inner-city.

“We're looking at kids who wouldn't have the opportunity because financially they're in an obstacle from their parents to provide them with this sort of sport, which is tremendously expensive,” Cohen said.  “Nobody is turned away because they can’t pay.”

To help make the sport affordable, the organization only charges $350 in tuition and provides the girls with skates, a place to study and learn, and access to career-building experiences.

Last year, Cohen took some of the girls to meet Supreme Court Justice Sonja Sotomayor. Just a few weeks ago, the organization received a letter from First Lady Michelle Obama commending them for their hard work. The group has also brought in top executives from companies like Viacom, MTV, UPS and more to expose the girls to the opportunities that are out there.

Sharendalle Murga, who joined the organization 10 years ago, was thinking of becoming a doctor, so last year Figure Skating in Harlem arranged for her to see a live surgery. And when she heard about the girls who met Sotomayor, she began to consider what else she could do.

“Some of the girls went to Washington last year and when they came back I thought maybe I want to be a lawyer,” she said. “All these different trips that we go on, they open my mind, so I'm not really sure what I want to be yet, but all of these things they help me.”

Cohen says those type of experiences are what the group is all about.

“What's so beautiful is that so many girls have come through our program, thousands since we began 15 years ago, that the young ladies now don't think it's odd at all to be a figure skater in Harlem,” she said. “So by having this organization, they've come to realize that anything is possible.”

To find out more about Figure Skating in Harlem, visit their website figureskatinginharlem.org.

 

What we're following: 

- Suspected kidnapper Adam Mayes dead, 2 girls found unharmed

- JPMorgan Chase discloses $2 billion in losses due to "flawed" hedging strategy

- Egypt watches their first-ever TV presidential debate

And did you see...

- World War II fighter plane found in Sahara

- TIME's breastfeeding cover has everyone talking

- George Clooney raises $15 million for President Obama

 

 

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In an effort to show support to veterans returning to civilian life, a new campaign, called “Got Your 6,” was launched Thursday by heavy hitters across the entertainment industry, including actors, newscasters, broadcast and cable news networks, studios and talent agencies.

“On behalf of the entire entertainment industry, we are proud to be engaging with our veterans through the Got Your 6 Campaign,” Ron Meyer, president and chief operating officer of Universal Studios and U.S. Marine Corps veteran, said in a statement. “Together, we are uniting to bring awareness to this incredibly important issue of bringing our country’s trained leaders home to be a valued part of our communities across the nation.”

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(Msnbc.com is a joint venture of Microsoft and NBC Universal.)

The campaign focuses on six pillars -- jobs, education, health, housing, family and leadership.

“Got your six” is a military expression meaning “I’ve got your back.”

The campaign debuted with a public service announcement that features, among others, Alec Baldwin, Michael Douglas, Tom Hanks, Sarah Jessica Parker and Bradley Cooper.

“Over the next five years, more than 1 million service members will return to civilian life,” said Chris Marvin, director of civilian-military partnerships for ServiceNation, a unit of the non-profit organization coordinating Got Your 6. “As we welcome this generation of veterans home, it is crucial that we view them and their families as leaders and civic assets, said Martin, a former Army Blackhawk helicopter pilot wounded in Afghanistan.

For more information, visit the campaign’s website here.

 

What we're following: 

- Suicide car bombers kill 55 in Syria

- Indonesian rescuers find bodies near wreckage of jet that disappeared

- U.S. officials: Yemen terror group may have made more underwear bombs

And did you see...

- U.S. Justice Department plans to sue Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio

- Olympic torch lit at birthplace of the Games

- Lichtenstein's "Sleeping Girl" sells for nearly $45 million

 

 

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What we're following: 

- Insider who thwarted underwear bomb plot was supposed to carry it out

- North Carolina approves ban on same-sex marriage

- Six-term Senator Richard Lugar defeated in Indiana primary

And did you see...

- Jet disappears from radar near mountain in Indonesia

- Gun parts, ammo found hidden inside stuffed animals at airport

- Nevada issues license for driverless car

 

 

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What we're following: 

- Maurice Sendak, author of "Where the Wild Things Are," dies at 83

- Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says terrorists seek more perverse ways to kill

- Israel forms unity government amid Iran tensions

And did you see...

- Your commute may be hurting your health

- Addicted to your cellphone? You may have nomophobia

- Rick Santorum endorses Mitt Romney for president

 

 

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By Dan Shepherd
NBC News 

KEY LARGO – A steamboat featured in the classic 1951 movie “The African Queen,” has found new life in the Florida Keys, put back into service after a strenuous renovation project by the husband and wife team of Lance and Suzanne Holmquist of Key Largo, Fla.

The couple, who own a local charter boat company, told NBC News they had no idea the amount of time and effort involved in getting it restored at the back of the dusty boatyard in Key Largo, but for Lance, keeping it historically accurate was important to him and his family. 

"To me, keeping it as close to correct was my goal.  It was a labor of love and I enjoyed it very much," said Lance, 51. "It just made me feel great, and a lot of people were very interested in the boat and I feel privileged to even do it." 

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Suzanne, a 36-year-old film history buff, said she had underestimated the impact the boat would have on the community.

"It didn't really become apparent until we were just weeks into it and we'd taken the boat home.  People were just showing up in droves at the boatyard to see her being worked on, and then we realized, 'Oh my goodness, she really is special.'"

The ship, powered by a temperamental boiler and clattering old steam engine, was built in 1912, the same year as the Titanic. Before the trusty work boat made its debut in the film starring Humphrey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn, it was used to ferry missionaries, mercenaries and cargo in the Belgian Congo on Lake Victoria. 

"It just seems that even if you knock her down she just keeps coming back time and time again, so I just think you just really can't knock her down," Suzanne said. "She's just going to keep coming back."

Suzanne and her husband invested more than $75,000 in renovating the African Queen, which has been fully outfitted with a new boiler and steam engine. The ship now glides through the canals of Port Largo, with the occasional steam whistle blow to remind people that she's alive and well, sailing the world again.

Jimmy Hendricks, Jr., who also lives in Key Largo, owns the boat and leases it to the Holmquists. He said he couldn't be happier with how the renovation turned out.  His dad, Jim Hendricks, Sr., bought the African Queen in 1982 after rescuing it from a horse pasture in Ocala, Fla.  For a while, it even sailed the sea at various nautical events around the world, including England, Ireland, New York and Australia.  

"I can't imagine a greater tribute to my father than that whistle blowing on a daily basis ... I think he's smiling,” he said. “She's (the African Queen) a piece of history, it's a piece of history that needs to move forward."

The African Queen sails almost every day of the week, filled with tourists and loyal film aficionados looking to recapture some of the movie's original magic. Phyllis Frey drove 500 miles round-trip from her home in Vero Beach, and says it was well worth the time. 

"There's nothing else like it in the world, it's one of a kind.  You can see in the movie how much Bogart loves this boat ... it was his life, he was connected to it," she said.  "It's the same thing here, you can see Suzanne and Lance putting all that love and work into this.”

And Lance sees the excitement every time the passengers get on the boat. 

"People are thrilled to be on this boat,” he said. “They are traveling from all over Florida at the drop of a hat.  And when they sit here, they're just thrilled, you know.  They're thrilled... she's old, she's rustic looking, it's not a luxury cruise, but they're just thrilled to be on her.”

It is, indeed, a thrill to be on her but, more importantly, this tough, old boat is once again in a starring role.

 

By Joyce Ho
NBC News

Spring's early arrival brought a welcome respite from winter, but for allergy sufferers the warm weather also brings a new round of sniffling and sneezing. New research suggests pollen counts are not only higher this year, but also more potent. 

Taking medication is an option, but there are other ways to cope with the allergen onslaught without simply resorting to pills and prescriptions. So if you're one of the 31 million Americans with seasonal allergies, check out the tips below to help minimize the effects of hay fever.  

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1) Keep pollen out of the house: Close windows and doors to prevent the pollen from coming in. Change vents on air conditioners and vents and wash bedding and rugs every week in hot water.  Vacuum two times a week and don’t forget to wear a mask while cleaning or dusting. If you are still experiencing allergies in your house, use a dehumidifier or an air filter indoors.

2) Prevent pollen accumulation on your body: Shower before going to bed because pollen can stick on your clothes and hair, and don't forget to clean your eyeglasses and sunglasses frequently. 

3) Plan your time outdoors: Pollen counts are highest between 5 a.m. and 10 a.m. and tend to be lower in the late evening. Pollen also accumulates in the air during warm breezy days as opposed to cool rainy ones. Check the weather and pollen count forecast to schedule your exercise routine and other time outdoors.

4) Cover your eyes and mouth: Some people choose to wear a bandanna and/or goggles while exercising outdoors.

5) Clean your pets: Pets can track in pollen from outdoors, so be sure to groom your pets regularly.

Read more from msnbc.com: 

• Miserable spring allergies? Why that's a good sign
• Need spring allergy relief? Avoid these top 5 mistakes
• 5 Allergy Fighters You May Not Have Heard Of
• 10 Food and Herb Fixes for Spring Allergies

 

 

What we're following: 

- Detectives probe murder at Churchill Downs

- Secret U.S. program releases Afghan insurgents in exchange for peace pledges

- Vladimir Putin sworn in again amid protests

And did you see...

- VP Biden says he is "absolutely comfortable" with same-sex marriage

- Army wife watched husband die on Skype, wife says bullet hole was in closet behind him

- Al-Qaeda releases video of U.S. hostage

 

 

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iPhones, Nintendos and Kindles — devices synonymous with "fun" — are taking a new role in the classroom, thanks to a new trend in education called Bring Your Own Technology – or BYOT.

BYOT programs — like the one at Georgia’s Coal Mountain Elementary School — encourage students to bring in their own personal mobile technology — including iPads, Kindle Fires, netbooks — even gaming devices — to use during class.

“It’s really a simple thing,” says Tim Clark, District Technology Specialist for Forsyth County School District. “Kids have technology in their pockets and [are] taking them to school, but trying to hide them from teachers and from their parents. What we’re trying to do is have the kids take them out of their pockets and use [them] for instruction.”

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Technology can be incorporated into lessons in various ways — serving as a research tool, providing access to educational games and allowing students to create multimedia presentations. Clark says students who don’t have their own devices, or opt not to bring them, can use district-owned laptops and electronic resources.

He says the program encourages participation and interaction because “it’s not a solitary type of activity where every child is buried in their device … it increases collaboration. It increases communication with the teacher. The teacher sees immediate feedback from the student’s work and the students are able to overcome other difficulties.”

Tracey Abercrombie, a fifth grade teacher at Coal Mountain, has been impressed with the program in general and praises the difference it has made with her special education students. “I’ve got one [student] who has trouble getting [information],” Abercrombie says. “He can get the ideas formed but there’s a bit of difficulty getting them out verbally. There’s something about typing it, having it come up on that screen. All of a sudden the barrier is gone.”

Clark says incorporating students’ personal devices in the classroom not only enhances learning, but teaches responsibility. “All of this is putting the responsibility on the shoulders of the students and [we’re] also trying to teach them and guide them to use their devices more effectively…not only taking care of their device and being careful not to drop it, but also wanting to make sure they know where it is at all times so it’s not stolen. [Using] it appropriately so they don’t post inappropriate pictures, so they don’t text inappropriate message to each other.”

Those involved with the program say students aren’t the only ones with something to gain from BYOT. For example, Clark says teachers “can learn alongside their students instead of having to determine all of the ways that their students should learn … they get to ask questions and discover all these new uses of the devices themselves."

Abercrombie agrees and has seen her teaching style change since the program began.

“I thought my role was give them all the knowledge that I’ve got about something and use that textbook and my knowledge together," Abercrombie said. "Now I realize that’s not my job at all. My job is to facilitate them. My job is to point them in the right direction, give them the tools they need and — wow — they can do so much more.”

Before launching BYOT in Forsyth County Schools, teachers and administrators explained the program’s structure and ground rules to parents and students. At first, Kara Laurie, who has two children at Coal Mountain Elementary, was apprehensive about allowing her kids to bring their devices to school. She says her initial reaction was that it “was a horrible idea … I had the normal parent concerns, you know, are things going to get broken? Are they going to get lost or stolen? And what about those kids that don’t have technology that they could take to school?”

But as the program got underway, she saw “how much the kids were able to do with it in the classroom. I found that it was a phenomenal idea.”

“We had to sit down as a class, as a team, and really define our rules because [the students are] used to using it any way at home,” Abercrombie says. “They’re used to … putting everything on Facebook, so we had to have a little talk about … different ways to use these devices in school.”

Amy Anderson, another parent of two, was comforted by the district’s approach to the program. Her fourth grader uses a netbook in class, while her first grader has a Nintendo 3DS. “The administration "set some very clear ground rules at the beginning and we had to sign an agreement as parents and they had to sign an agreement as students that they would only stay on,” Anderson recalls. The students "have to be on the school network which has all of the filters. If they don’t abide by those, if they use them when they are not supposed to, if they use them incorrectly, then they lose that privilege of being able to bring it in.”

In 2010, seven schools in Forsyth County School District began BYOT programs. This year, all 35 of the district’s schools are participating. While it is a relatively new idea, BYOT already exists in schools across the country, in states like Texas, Minnesota and Ohio.

Clark says the district has received positive feedback, along with interest in the program.

“I’m receiving messages from other districts that would like to come and see the implementation of bring your own technology in their schools … we recently held a tour of BYOT in our district … we had over 100 visitors on that tour. They were not only other districts, but also vendors wanting to understand how it’s impacting [the students].”

As far as student reaction, Clark says “the students love it…[they] have their devices, they’re learning how to use them in a more responsible way, and they’re being critical thinkers and very creative with their devices in ways that they never would have used them on their own.”

The supermoon of 2012 is over, but the joys of moongazing are not. Even though Saturday night's lunar showing was the biggest and brightest of the year, the views are nearly as good anytime around the full moon — tonight, for example.

Photographs of the supermoon sight streamed out over online channels, including Twitter feeds, Facebook updates, blog postings and slick slideshows (such as our own roundup). They also streamed into msnbc.com's FirstPerson in-box. I've put together a selection of 10 submissions here.

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The kind of supermoon we saw last night isn't exactly a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence. The phenomenon, also known as a perigee moon, can be seen whenever the full moon occurs while it's near the closest point of its elliptical orbit around Earth. Last night, the moon was just 221,802 miles away from Earth, or about 15,000 miles closer than average. The moon's angular size was 14 percent wider than it is at maximum distance, and it was 30 percent brighter than minimum moonshine.

If we define a supermoon as the biggest, brightest full moon of a given year, next year's supermoon will be almost as good as this year's, on June 23, 2013. The supermoon of 2014 will be brighter, and the 2016 supermoon will outdo last year's, which got the moongazing fad started. EarthSky News has the schedule for the next few years. Some rightly note that the moon is worth watching on every night of the year, and that the full moon isn't necessarily the best time to see all the detail the lunar disk can offer. But there's nothing wrong in having an annual holiday devoted to moongazing, is there?

The next big sky event is coming up on May 20, when the new moon blots out most of the sun to create an annular solar eclipse. A wide swath of the Asia-Pacific region and North America will see a partial eclipse, while folks situated along a narrow track of territory extending from China across to the Oregon-California coast and down to Texas can witness a "Ring of Fire," in which the moon's disk covers all but the thin rim of the sun's disk. That'll be an amazing thing to see, but make sure you use proper eye protection. You can get the details from my eclipse viewing guide, and learn more about the appeal of an annular eclipse.

There's an astronomical connection between this weekend's supermoon and this month's "Ring of Fire": Because the moon was nearly as close as it can come for the full-moon phase, it's nearly as far out as it can go for the new-moon phase. Thus, the moon's apparent size is significantly smaller than usual when it tries to covers up the sun — and that's why we have a ring of fire rather than the fully blacked-out sun of a total eclipse. For that, we'll have to wait until November. Stay tuned in the weeks and months ahead for more about all these astronomical phenomena, plus June's last-in-a-lifetime transit of Venus.

More about the supermoon:

• Slideshow: Greatest hits from the supermoon
• How big is that supermoon anyway?
• Wonders of sun, moon and sky
• Five moon mysteries
• Five moon myths

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Many thanks to all our FirstPerson photographers, including Lynn Schneider, John McNamara, Josh Warner and Mitzi Easley.

Alan Boyle is msnbc.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.

The 101-year-old heiress who funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars to help John Edwards cover up his extramarital affair thought the whole operation was "foolish" but was having a "wonderful time," the middleman in the payments said Friday.

The witness, Bryan Huffman, was an interior designer for Rachel "Bunny" Mellon, the centenarian heiress to the Mellon banking fortune who was a major supporter of Edwards' 2008 presidential campaign.

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Through Huffman, Mellon gave Edwards aides $725,000 to help conceal the candidate's fling with campaign videographer Rielle Hunter, falsely labeling the checks as furniture purchases made by Huffman.

• Full trial coverage on msnbc.com
• Analysis by Hampton Dellinger

The checks were known inside the campaign as "Bunny money," Huffman testified at Edwards' trial in U.S. District Court in Greensboro, N.C., where he is charged with six felony counts of accepting about $1 million in illegal and unreported campaign donations from Mellon and another wealthy supporter.

"She said that we were awfully foolish with the 'furniture business'" — so called because Mellon wanted to hide the payments from her lawyer, who thought she had already given enough money to Edwards, Huffman said.

"But we were having a wonderful time doing it," he said.

In fact, Mellon didn't mind that Edwards was having an affair, Huffman said. But she was irked at times because "she thought that you should probably pay for your girlfriend yourself."

Eventually, Mellon's outlook turned to loud disapproval when Andrew Young — a top assistant to Edwards and now his chief accuser — asked her for $40 million to $50 million to start a foundation after his presidential bid collapsed in January 2008.

"She was rather apoplectic at the size of the request," Huffman said, quoting her as having said, "I cannot believe that the senator wanted me for my money all along."

Edwards called her later and smoothed things over with Mellon by denying he knew how much Young had asked for, which in turn annoyed Young.

"Just call me throw-me-under-the-bus Andrew," Huffman quoted Young as having said.

Mellon isn't expected to testify, but the manager of her estate, Alex Forger, was called to the stand Friday afternoon and testified that when he learned what the "furniture" checks were really for, he was told "that's the way they wanted it."

"The money was for the senator's special need," Forger said.

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Follow US News on msnbc.com on Twitter and Facebook

BEIJING – Although blind human rights activist Chen Guangcheng has been cast into the international spotlight since his April 22 escape from house arrest and subsequent journey to the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, he still remains an unfamiliar name — even to the majority of Chinese citizens, thanks to the country’s tight control of the press and social media. 

On Friday, the U.S. and China seemed to have forged the outlines of a tentative deal to end the diplomatic standoff that would let Chen travel to the U.S. with his family for a university fellowship. In the meantime, Chen’s fate still hangs in the balance.

So what exactly did he do to anger Chinese authorities so much in the first place? It all began with Chen’s foray into social activism nearly 16 years ago, when he began fighting against the Linyi government. 

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Challenging authority

Born on Nov. 12, 1971, Chen grew up in a small village called Dongshigu, near Linyi City in eastern province of Shandong, approximately 400 miles from Beijing. He lost his sight after a severe fever when he was only a few months old. 

He enrolled in Qingdao High School for the Blind in 1994 and graduated in 1998. It was during this time that he had his first experience questioning authority.  

Deal nears on China activist Chen as US offers college fellowship

In 1996 Chen traveled to Beijing to challenge the Linyi government’s taxing of disabled people even though a 1991 law exempted them from taxation. He won the appeal. 

He kept fighting and in 1997 he irritated the local government again by appealing on behalf of his fellow villagers in a Beijing court to stop Linyi from breaking land laws.

Chen pursued these cases all without a formal law degree; he was a self-taught lawyer who had studied acupuncture and massage at Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine from 1998 to 2001. His mother originally wanted him to become a masseur, the most common job for blind men in China, but he insisted on taking law classes on the side.

In September 2003, Chen sued the company that runs the Beijing subway system for making him buy subway tickets, despite the fact that the law said the subway should be free for disabled people. Chen again won the lawsuit.

Chinese crackdown on dissident's family and friends

Fighting abusive enforcement of the one-child policy
But what really brought Chen into the crosshairs of the Chinese government were his efforts to expose harsh illegal measures by local authorities in his hometown, Linyi,  as they enforced China’s strict population control policy known as the "one-child policy." 

Chen married Yuan Weijing in 2003 and their first son was born that year; in August 2005, they had a daughter. Some say the fact that they had two children, in defiance of China’s one-child policy, explains why Chen became interested in protesting family planning. 

In 2005, the Linyi government started a campaign to "strictly enforce" the one-child policy by arresting and beating up women who broke the family planning law, forcing them to have abortions or sterilizations, heavily fining them and even arresting the relatives of those who had escaped to other cities. Chinese national laws prohibit such harsh acts.

Chen and Yuan investigated the cases and filed a class action lawsuit, while also revealing the brutality to the media. The lawsuit was rejected, but through Chen’s work the brutality of Linyi officials was exposed and drew attention from both domestic and international press. 

(In particular, a Washington Post story in 2005, “Who Controls the Family?” first drew international attention to Chen’s crusade. And apparently, in thanks for that story, one of Chen’s first calls to the international media after leaving the U.S. embassy this week went to the Washington Post). 

China censors 'Shawshank' as Clinton heads to Beijing amid dissident drama

Jail, then oppressive house arrest
After Chen refused negotiations with local officials to cease his activism, Chen was taken away by the police in March 2006. He was then officially arrested in June, and sentenced to four years and three months in prison for "destruction of property and disturbing public order." His trial was a controversial one because his lawyers were detained by Yinan police on the eve of the trial, leaving him defenseless in court.

During his jail sentence, in July 2008, his wife Yuan issued a public letter to Chinese President Hu Jintao, in which she said: "I hope the country’s leader can feel the insult and helplessness I have in my everyday life. I hope the leader will listen to a jailed blind man’s concern about the country’s future." 

Chen was released from prison in 2010, but then he and his wife were subjected to house arrest which included constant 24-hour video surveillance. In February 2011 he smuggled out a video showing his life under house arrest. 

"I was in a small prison, and now I am in a larger prison," Chen says to the camera in the hour-long video, which shows security agents peering over walls into the family’s home.  

According to another video Chen released after his recent escape from house arrest, he estimated that authorities spent as much as 60 million yuan ($9.5 million) to keep him locked up.

True belief in the rule of law
During his one-and-half year long house detention, hundreds of people, including both Chinese and foreign journalists, lawyers, friends and human rights advocates, attempted to visit Chen but were all driven away, often violently by the thugs watching him day and night. 

In December 2011, Hollywood actor Christian Bale made an effort to see him along with a CNN crew and he was shoved away. 

Chen’s supporters say that ultimately his goal is to see that China lives up to the rule of law that already exists there. 

Blind dissident's case a 'hot potato' for US-China relations

"Chen Guangcheng is someone who really believes in rule of law, and he wants to put what’s written in the law into practice," said Zeng Jinyan, a long-time friend of Chen family and also a human rights activist. "While so many people who can see are still talking about securing personal safety, Chen, a blind man, is already in action." 

"People who know Chen say he is a Gandhi-esque figure and has a deep optimism that China will inevitably become a country ruled by law,” professor Susan L. Shirk, an expert on Chinese politics at the University of California in San Diego, told NBC News. “He is not a dissident, agitating for a change in government — he just wants China to enforce its own laws."  

Many people attribute Chen’s ordeal to local government enforcement, arguing what they do is out of the ordinary, while many other believe it’s an order from the very top. 

"Evidently, local officials in Linyi concluded that Chen would somehow threaten local stability if he were free to move about and speak up. Beijing did not intervene even when it realized that the actions of the Linyi officials were creating a national and international embarrassment," Kenneth Lieberthal, leading China expert at Brookings Institution, told NBC News. "The enormous reluctance by Beijing to intervene in these types of local decisions is the rule, not the exception." 

A woman identifying herself as the Colombian prostitute at the center of a scandal involving U.S. Secret Service agents spoke publicly about the incident for the first time on Friday, telling a Colombian radio network that, had she been a terrorist, she could have easily pried loose details of President Barack Obama’s planned visit to Cartagena from the liquored-up agents. 

“At that moment, if I had wanted to, or if I had been part of one of those terrorist groups, it's obvious I would have been able to get everything," the woman, Dania Londono Suarez, told Caracol Radio. 

Suarez said the Secret Service personnel did not consume drugs, but “bought alcohol like one buys water” while partying at a discotheque in the tourist destination before inviting some of the “escorts” to return with them to the Hotel Caribe, where many members of Obama’s security detail were staying.

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Suarez said she didn't know if there were other girls or how many agents were involved. "I was at the bar with another girl, but left with him by myself. I was the only one." 

 

 

Suarez said she made clear that she expected to be paid before departing with the agent whose refusal to pay her led to exposure of the misconduct. 

“I was at a disco and he came over and told me 'sex,'" she said. "... I said, 'Baby, Cash, Money,' that I wanted money. He said, 'OK, baby. How much?' 'Eight hundred.' He told me, 'Eight hundred. OK, let's go. Come, come to hotel.'

"It was obvious. I can't believe he would be so dumb or so stupid to think I wasn't going to charge him money."

But she said that the agent had a change of heart when they awoke in his room about 6 a.m.

Watch the most-viewed videos on msnbc.com 

“When he was drunk he was the nicest guy, but when he woke up sober, he was another person,” Suarez said. “When I asked him for the money, he told me ‘Let go, bitch.’ He pushed me into the hallway and closed the door. He wouldn't come out. I kept pounding on the door. Hotel security came.  The called the head of the hotel's security and I explained what happened to him on the phone.” 

Suarez, who has a 9-year-old son, said she traveled to Dubai after the incident but had returned to Colombia despite concern that she could face retaliation from the tarnished Secret Service personnel. 

"I fear they will retaliate against me," she said. "I left my country, practically fled. Yes I am scared. I fear or my family and for my son. No one has threatened me, no one has come to see me, but their marriages have been wrecked, they're sharp shooters, because I've been doing some research and I know they do that."

She also said her career as an escort is over: "I do not plan to that ever again," she said. "They ruined my life. They should have never published my pictures, my name." 

Related stories:

Colombia hookers not tied to cartels, terrorists, source tells NBC

Some Secret Service agents agree to lie detector tests in prostitution scandal

NBC: Prostitute's $50 fee for two agents triggered Secret Service scandal

Members of elite unit among those suspended in Colombia

The Secret Service has declined to comment on the interview. According to an official with the Secret Service the agency is close to completing its internal investigation of the incident, which occurred prior to the Summit of the Americas on April 14-15. 

The 12 Secret Service personnel at the center of the investigation were among 175 members of the service in Colombia during Obama’s visit. They were among 135 staying at the Hotel Caribe, the source said.

Seven of those members of the agency have resigned, one has been terminated and one has retired, NBC News has reported previously. Three others have been cleared of serious misconduct but given administrative punishment.  

Meantime, a separate investigation into U.S. military personnel who were allegedly involved in the incident has been concluded and forwarded to a commander for review, military and defense officials tell NBC News. 

According to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, the U.S. military investigator looking into the incident zeroed in on a dozen uniformed personnel assigned to the security operation -- seven Army personnel (six Special Forces Green Berets and one White House communications specialist); two Navy bomb detection specialists, two Marine dog handlers and one member of the Air Force whose duties were not specified. 

SOUTHCOM commander Gen. Douglas Frazier will review the report and determine what, if any, punishment should be meted out. Once he formally accepts the findings of the investigation, he has four options: 

• Clear any or all the individuals of any wrongdoing.
• Administrative action (a letter of reprimand, usually a career-ender).
• Non-Judicial punishment (reduction in rank and pay).
• Criminal charges and court martial. 

In the Uniformed Code of Military Justice, consorting with or procuring the services of a prostitute is prohibited and considered a criminal act.

Erika Angulo is an NBC News producer based in Miami; NBC's Chief Pentagon Correspondent Jim Miklaszewski and Kristen Welker of NBC's Washington, D.C., bureau also contributed to this report.

More world news from msnbc.com and NBC News:

• Deal nears on blind China activist as US offers fellowship
• Meet Monsieur Caramel Pudding, likely French president
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• Suicide bombers kill 12, wound 110 in Russia
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• End of nuclear? Japan to shut down last reactor
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- Junior Seau's family decides to allow his brain to be studied 

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- Yankees' Mariano Rivera tears his A.C.L., career may be over

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By Duncan Golestani
NBC News

JORDAN VALLEY -- Faisel Njoom undoubtedly has the best house in Auja. Drinking iced tea in the shade of his garden he talks with pride at being the biggest land owner in the village and the oranges and bananas that he once grew on his farm. Only later, standing in one of his dry and dusty fields in the Jordan Valley, does he become angry.

“Life without water is not a life,” he said as the sun began to set. “This land without water is like all the other deserts. We were born working this land.”

He says he couldn’t keep farming because the irrigation channels to his land began drying up in 2000. He, and many charities, blame the digging of a new well near the Auja Spring, designed to serve a nearby Israeli settlement.

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For first time in many years there is water flowing in the spring long after winter has finished because rainfall has increased by a fifth over the last year. Otherwise, the spring would now be dry. Almotaz Abadi, a consultant to the Palestinian Water Authority, explained that, rainfall is the biggest factor contributing to water availability, but the Auja Spring has been adversely affected by other factors, principally the new well.

The reminder of how plentiful water used to be in Auja has reignited resentment -- a feeling shared widely among Palestinians in the occupied territories. The World Bank and international charities accuse Israel of denying enough water to the Palestinians. Ironically, it’s a situation made worse by the Oslo Peace Accords.

The Oslo II agreement in 1995 set up a joint water committee to oversee management of the aquifers in the West Bank. It was supposed to encourage consensus, but a World Bank report in 2009 concluded Israel dominated the process, taking 80 percent of the water resources.  (In recognizing that the Palestinian Water Authority’s powers were severely limited, the report also criticized its management abilities).

Agriculture is key to the Palestinian economy and its third largest employer. But it could be much bigger. The World Bank found that problems with irrigation are holding the sector back, especially when combined with the Separation Barrier cutting off land and access to wells.

Many Palestinians see this water divide as a way of increasing their dependency on Israel. Amnesty International estimates some 180,000 to 200,000 Palestinians living in rural communities have no access to running water. It means many have to buy water from Israeli tankers at high prices.

Israelis complain of water scarcity too. After much persuasion with an armed guard, NBC News was allowed to film inside Yitav, an Israeli settlement in the West Bank. It is indeed a green outpost in the desert, but the settlers say it comes at a high price – which they pay with their utility bills.

Israel’s Water Authority disputes the claims made by the World Bank and other charities. At their offices in Tel Aviv we were shown a map of locations where licenses have been granted for Palestinian wells, but never pumped. “You have to know most of the Palestinian cities in the West Bank have better access to water than residents in Amman, the capital of Jordan,” said Baruch Nager, Head of Water Administration for the West Bank.

Both sides have hydrological data to support their side of the argument, which makes it particularly hard to resolve.

Water is a ‘final status issue’ in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. No decisions will be taken on how control of the water is divided until there is a peace agreement. That, of course, has never looked further away.

By Chris Jansing, NBC News correspondent 

SPENCERVILLE --  Jennifer Ramirez remembers it so vividly: the excitement, at 15, of having her first boyfriend.  Then the fear, when she found out she was pregnant.

"I was in the tenth grade,” she said. “And I remember when I found out, it took me at least, like, two weeks to tell my parents."  

When she finally did tell them, they worried that Jennifer's dream of being the first person in her family to graduate college had ended.

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"I had all these emotions going through myself. I didn't know what I was gonna do,” said Jennifer, who is now 23.  “I was so worried about school. I was just really scared."

The odds were certainly against her.  Less than two percent of girls who get pregnant before they turn 18 have a college degree by the age of 30.  But Jennifer knew it wasn't just her future at stake, it was her newborn son's, too.

So she began the uphill journey -- to raise Jordan while working and getting her degree at the University of Maryland at College Park. She says it was daunting, even, at times, overwhelming. Then she heard about Generation Hope.

The nonprofit is the brainchild and labor of love of Nicole Lynn Lewis, who was just a teenager herself when she got pregnant in 1998. But two and a half months after Nicole's baby girl was born, she started classes at William and Mary.

"And I was sitting in classrooms with, you know, people who were my age that were worried about, maybe the party that was going on Saturday night," recalled Nicole, who lives in Columbia, Md. “And I was concerned with, you know, what am I cooking for dinner? Am I gonna get to my daughter in time?

There were plenty of naysayers, who never thought she could pull it off.  But four years later, Nicole graduated. Then, when she was 29 years old, she founded Generation Hope in March 2010 to help other pregnant teens do the same.

The first-ever class has seven teen girls, chosen from 12 applicants. 

If they're attending a two year college they get $1,200 a year, for a four year school, it's $2,400. The very first application was from a girl who became pregnant at 12. "And that was a huge shock for all of us," Nicole said, still reeling from the memory.  "It really brought home for me the need for our program. Because I can't see telling a young woman who's 12 years old that her life is now over.”

And that was the message Jennifer Ramirez needed to hear.  She was willing to work to assure a better future for herself and her son.  Generation Hope's scholarship definitely helped ease her financial burden.  Still, it's the emotional burden, teen moms will tell you, that can be even worse.  So Generation Hope matches each teen with a mentor.

Suzanne Simpson, 49, is not the kind of person Jennifer would usually come across; a lawyer and president of the Howard County women's bar association in Maryland.  They both admit that the first time they met, they were both very nervous. Jennifer laughs now, remembering, "But when I saw her, she was wearing all this jewelry. And I was just, like, ‘Oh, we're a match made in heaven.’” 

And it turns out, though they're more than 20 years apart, their sons are almost the same age.  The boys play together.  They talk.  Jennifer calls Suzanne a role model. Suzanne says she gets back even more than what she gives.  And there's a lesson for everyone in their story, young and old.

"Everything happens for a reason," said Jennifer, with wisdom beyond her years. "So, take the good, and the bad, and make it great."

And so she has. Jennifer will get her college degree later this month.  In her heart, she said always knew she could do it.  Generation hope made sure she didn't have to do it, alone.

Visit http://www.supportgenerationhope.org/ to learn more.

 

By John Yang and Carol Eggers
NBC News

PHOENIX — It was something Lee and Al Rose had planned for years: selling the big house where they’d lived for nearly two decades and moving into a retirement community. When they decided they were ready, the bottom dropped out of the real estate market.

“We had it up for sale for two-and-a-half years,” Al, a retired executive, recalled. “And we just kept dropping the price, dropping the price, dropping the price. We were getting frustrated.”

And the unit they’d reserved at nearby La Loma Village was sitting empty all the time, not generating monthly fees for the community’s not-for-profit operator, Sun Health.

That’s when Sun Health stepped in. In exchange for promising to use the proceeds from the house sale to pay the upfront entrance fee, the Roses could move into their new apartment — and Sun Health would fix up the Roses’ home and try to sell the house themselves. If they couldn’t sell it in 90 days, Sun Health would buy it.

The house was gone in two months.

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Lee Rose said it was a great relief “to get rid of it and not have any worries or responsibilities. You moved out, handed in the key and let them handle it from there.”

The real estate bust has hit retirees especially hard because so many of them were planning to use the proceeds from the sale of their house to buy spots in retirement communities, which costs an average of about $250,000, according to the National Investment Center for the Seniors Housing and Care Industry. Steve Maag, director of Continuing Care Communities for LeadingAge, an umbrella association for not-for-profit senior groups, estimates that as many as 60 percent of the nation’s 1,900 continuing care centers offer some sort of assistance such as home staging and repair programs or no-interest bridge loans.

Most common is staging -- professional help to make a house more appealing to potential buyers.

“We can help stage their house so it really is not only going to sell quickly, but it’s going to sell for the maximum price,” said Dan Rexroth, CEO of John Knox Village in Lee’s Summit, Mo., outside Kansas City.

John Knox is paying Cindy Murphy to help Jerry and Sherry Mustapha get ready to put their house on market for a move into the retirement community. She helped them clear their cluttered basement and do some redecorating.

“She has organized and put things against the wall and thrown away we don’t know how much stuff,” said Sherry Mustapha, a retired nursing professor. “It just looks so much better.”

“It will very definitely help move the house,” said her husband, Jerry Mustapha.  

Sun Health’s “home exchange” program is one of the most comprehensive being offered.  Since it began in 2010, 14 new residents of Sun Health’s three Phoenix-area communities have used it. To qualify, the mortgage has to have been paid off to avoid the complications of dealing with a lender.

Sun Health and the owners agree on a sales price. “We guarantee them a floor,” explained Sun Health COO Sharon Grambow. If the house sells for more than that, she said, the owners get the extra money.

“If we have to sell the house for less, it’s at our risk,” said Grambow.

In only six cases Sun Health had to take title to a house and in no case has the house sold for less than the agreed price.

Sun Health also pays to get the house ready to sell. Once the owners move into the retirement community, “we take over,” Grambow said. “We go in and we may completely redo the interior of the house, strip out old wallpaper, redo carpet, paint, landscape -- whatever’s necessary.”

In the Roses’ case, Sun Health replaced dated wallpaper with a fresher look.

For Sun Health, the cost and financial risk is worth it to fill empty units and generate monthly fees. Because of the real estate bust, “we’ve gone from waiting list to vacancies and we have to get people into our communities at the right time.”

NBC Nightly News desk assistant Craig Stanley contributed to this report.

Watch more of Nightly News' Road to Retirement series:

• Tips for financing your retirement
• VIDEO: Not your father’s golden years -- the elusive dream of a worry-free retirement
• VIDEO: Baby boomer women are least prepared for retirement financially

 

 

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- Gunman, 4 people killed in Arizona shooting 

- Chinese activist now wants to leave China

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