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Japan has vowed not to give up on freeing two of its citizens thought to be held in Syria by Islamist extremists "until the very end" despite the fact that a deadline for a $200 million ransom payment has long passed.

Meanwhile, Tokyo says it is trying to verify a video purporting to show hostage Kenji Goto holding a photo of beheaded fellow captive Haruna Yakaw.

The kidnappers claiming to be from the self-declared Islamic State gave Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe 72 hours to produce the ransom to prevent Goto, 47, and Yakaw, 42, from being executed. That deadline passed on Friday and there has been no confirmed word from the captors.

Yasuhide Nakayama, a deputy foreign minister sent to Amman, Jordan, was quoted by The Associated Press as saying he "is working around the clock to coordinate efforts to save the hostages.

"We will not rule out any possibility, and we are verifying all information thoroughly," he said, according to AP. "We will not give up. I believe it is my duty to ensure we will definitely get them back home, and I will do my utmost to do so."

The Telegraph reports that Abe met Friday with his National Security Council to discuss the crisis as "Japan has scrambled for a way to secure the release of Goto, a journalist, and Yukawa, an adventurer fascinated by war. Japanese diplomats had left Syria as the civil war there escalated, adding to the difficulty of contacting the militants holding the hostages."

As we reported earlier, the $200 million sum demanded by the kidnappers is equivalent to the amount of money Japan pledged in non-military aid to countries in the region facing threats from the Islamic State militancy.

Islamic State

kidnapping

Japan

Through Xiaopao (Tadpole), Yan relates the history of Gugu, the narrator's aunt — once a legendary midwife famous for her modern medical training. Gugu, so busy that she never ate a meal sitting down, brought thousands of children into the world in her golden years, when Mao Zedong believed that it was the patriotic duty of all Chinese families to have as many children as possible.

But famine, shifting politics, an unlucky engagement, Japanese occupation, the Communist revolution and the slow coming of state-directed capitalism force Gugu to constantly alter her role in the village — from brilliant midwife bringing life to Gaomi, to the head of the communist family planning committee, responsible for the forced abortions of China's one child policy, which she calls, "China's greatest contribution to humanity" in an attempt to justify the terrible things the state has forced her to do.

Xiaopao grows from a young boy who — in one of the book's most beautifully evocative scenes — eats coal during the famine and makes it delicious in his memory, to a middle-aged man living in a place that he barely recognizes. Gugu dies and is reborn. Yan has a half-streak of Gabriel Garcia Marquez in him, offering a world that is, by turns, magical without the realism or grimly real and stripped of all magic. The sprawling cast of Gaomi village lives surrounded by luck and demons and superstition, and it is only the intrusions of the real world, the modern world, the distant world of politicians, soldiers and cadre leaders, that pierce this veil and force them to confront the terrible bleakness around them.

In this, Yan has written a book which details a moment in history peopled by loyal communists and heroic children of the revolution, but still manages to offer a critique of that system — not directly, but simply by showing a world stripped of wonder and too full of death for magic to last. Xiaopao's letter to his unnamed friend becomes like a message in a bottle, set adrift and saying look at how we once were and see what you have made us now.

The goal of the filmmakers is to show the world a different side of Haiti. "So often when you hear about Haiti, you expect that it's going to be a sad story," says Jeffers. "But Haiti has a remarkable cultural legacy. We hope people can see there's much more."

Like the little-known sport of machete fencing. The martial art form mixes European fencing with traditional African stick-fighting. The machete is the weapon of choice because it is ubiquitous throughout Haiti and the Caribbean, Witherspoon says. "You often see a machete leaning up against the back door, in the kitchen, in the yard."

She considers it the "pocket knife of the Caribbean" while Jeffers calls it the "Excalibur."

The art is rooted in the Haitian Revolution of 1791-1804, when slaves used their farm tools to successfully revolt against French colonizers. "The history isn't very clear, but it's our understanding that before the slaves rebelled against the French, some of the underclass had trained with the French army to fight off the Spanish so a lot of them knew how to fence," says Jeffers.

As for Avril, he says his skill with the machete was a gift from his father and teacher — and from his ancestors. He says their spirits visited him and passed on their knowledge.

The Professor died in December, shortly after the film was completed. Only a handful of masters remain. Most consider machete fencing a family tradition that should be taught only to a few loyal students in secret. "It was not something to be shared," Jeffers says.

i i

The Professor's pupils practice with wooden sticks, not sharp blades. Richard Patterson/Courtesy of Sundance Insitute hide caption

itoggle caption Richard Patterson/Courtesy of Sundance Insitute

The Professor's pupils practice with wooden sticks, not sharp blades.

Richard Patterson/Courtesy of Sundance Insitute

Avril had a different attitude. He instructed roughly six students each day, including his sons, grandchildren (they practiced with sticks), nieces, nephews and a few others in his community. The fact that he opened his training sessions to the filmmakers — and essentially the world — is rare.

Jeffers first saw Avril in a video posted on the social media site Reddit by Michael Rogers, founder of the Haitian Machete Fencing Project. Jeffers and his production crew teamed up with the organization and headed to Haiti in 2013 for some training of their own.

Avril had his own style of fencing. "It was never about striking hard, it was about a certain amount of flow," Jeffers recalls. "He would say, 'This is not karate.'"

In fact, it's all about defense and Avril says so in the film: "I don't use this gift to kill people."

Of course, when you're dealing with machetes, minor injuries happen — small cuts to the fingers and face. A dab of rum from the bottles Avril often carried to training sessions, and the match would start over.

The film crew started a Kickstarter campaign to rebuild Avril's home, which was severely damaged during the 2010 Haiti Earthquake. A new building sits where the old home once was. And now the Alfred Avril Memorial Fund has been set up to help his family.

With the master gone, his sons, Jean-Paul and Roland, may take over the training.

"Anytime I go," Avril says prophetically in the film, "it is in their hands."

fencing

sundance

Papa Machete

Haiti

The number of Americans buying autos approached a record high last year. It's one more sign of how much the economy is improving.

But there's a big potential downside that's evoking comparisons to the subprime mortgage boom. Auto dealers are extending loans to a growing number of people with weak credit, and more of them are having trouble making payments.

When Chris Westervelt moved from Texas to Alaska to take a job, he decided to trade in his Mazda for a car that could handle snow and ice.

"I started looking at vehicles that had four-wheel drive capabilities and I ended up settling on a Jeep Wrangler," Westervelt says.

He went to a dealer and test drove a car. "They said, 'Go ahead and take the Jeep home, you know, come back sometime tomorrow and, you know, we'll get everything settled,' " Westervelt says. "So, after driving around a little and coming back, the store manager actually got a little aggressive with me. He's like, 'You've already put 200 miles on my Jeep. What am I going to do? I can't resell this,' " Westervelt says.

Planet Money

4 Reasons Subprime Loans Are Back (For Cars)

All Tech Considered

Your Car Won't Start. Did You Make The Loan Payment?

Westervelt agreed to buy a car. But when he tried to negotiate the loan, he discovered that — thanks in part to a billing dispute with his cell phone company years before — his credit score was low.

The dealer "just said that, based on whatever merits that they judge on, that I did not meet their requirements," Westervelt says.

He was offered a loan with an 18 percent interest rate, which he was able to bring down a bit after his mother cosigned the loan. The monthly payment was far more than he'd hoped to spend.

Economist Mark Zandi of Moody's Analytics says more people like Westervelt are taking out auto loans. "We're seeing a lot more lending and a lot more lending to people with lower credit scores — so-called subprime auto lending," Zandi says.

He says the auto boom is one reason the economy is doing better — but it has come at a cost. The number of subprime borrowers missing payments is at its highest level since 2008.

Chris Kukla of the Center for Responsible Lending says the increase in auto lending has clear echoes of the subprime mortgage boom of the mid-2000s. It's driven by investors seeking higher returns.

"Americans are borrowing more to buy a car and so in order to make it more 'affordable,' they have to stretch out those loan terms," Kukla says.

Auto financing officials say comparisons to the mortgage market are misguided. Jack Tracey of the National Automotive Finance Agency says the subprime boom was fueled by the erroneous assumption among investors that housing prices would always rise. He says no one thinks that about autos, which depreciate quickly.

"That's just not been the case with the auto financing market. Securitizations have performed through bad times and now in the good times. There's no reasonable expectation that this industry would blow up," Tracey says.

Subprime Loans For Car Buyers Buoy U.S. Sales

He says the rise in subprime auto lending is an outgrowth of the fact that more people are returning to the workforce.

"The ability to provide auto financing — be it prime or nonprime — is very important for our economy and for the health of our citizens in keeping people employed and money coming in," Tracey says. "Not everybody can get on a bus and go to a job. Most people in the country need to have transportation."

Zandi, the economist, doesn't dispute that and he says people shouldn't exaggerate what's happening. For one thing, the auto industry is a lot smaller than the mortgage market.

"I wouldn't send off red flares at this point, but I think we should be shining a very bright light on practices in the industry just to make sure that things are being done properly so that this does not become a problem in the future," Zandi says.

He says that as subprime auto lending rises, it's important to remember one lesson from the housing bust: Regulators need lots of information about what's happening in the markets, and they need to monitor it closely before troubles get out of hand.

auto loans

car loans

subprime mortgages

Cars

The number of Americans buying autos approached a record high last year. It's one more sign of how much the economy is improving.

But there's a big potential downside that's evoking comparisons to the subprime mortgage boom. Auto dealers are extending loans to a growing number of people with weak credit, and more of them are having trouble making payments.

When Chris Westervelt moved from Texas to Alaska to take a job, he decided to trade in his Mazda for a car that could handle snow and ice.

"I started looking at vehicles that had four-wheel drive capabilities and I ended up settling on a Jeep Wrangler," Westervelt says.

He went to a dealer and test drove a car. "They said, 'Go ahead and take the Jeep home, you know, come back sometime tomorrow and, you know, we'll get everything settled,' " Westervelt says. "So, after driving around a little and coming back, the store manager actually got a little aggressive with me. He's like, 'You've already put 200 miles on my Jeep. What am I going to do? I can't resell this,' " Westervelt says.

Planet Money

4 Reasons Subprime Loans Are Back (For Cars)

All Tech Considered

Your Car Won't Start. Did You Make The Loan Payment?

Westervelt agreed to buy a car. But when he tried to negotiate the loan, he discovered that — thanks in part to a billing dispute with his cell phone company years before — his credit score was low.

The dealer "just said that, based on whatever merits that they judge on, that I did not meet their requirements," Westervelt says.

He was offered a loan with an 18 percent interest rate, which he was able to bring down a bit after his mother cosigned the loan. The monthly payment was far more than he'd hoped to spend.

Economist Mark Zandi of Moody's Analytics says more people like Westervelt are taking out auto loans. "We're seeing a lot more lending and a lot more lending to people with lower credit scores — so-called subprime auto lending," Zandi says.

He says the auto boom is one reason the economy is doing better — but it has come at a cost. The number of subprime borrowers missing payments is at its highest level since 2008.

Chris Kukla of the Center for Responsible Lending says the increase in auto lending has clear echoes of the subprime mortgage boom of the mid-2000s. It's driven by investors seeking higher returns.

"Americans are borrowing more to buy a car and so in order to make it more 'affordable,' they have to stretch out those loan terms," Kukla says.

Auto financing officials say comparisons to the mortgage market are misguided. Jack Tracey of the National Automotive Finance Agency says the subprime boom was fueled by the erroneous assumption among investors that housing prices would always rise. He says no one thinks that about autos, which depreciate quickly.

"That's just not been the case with the auto financing market. Securitizations have performed through bad times and now in the good times. There's no reasonable expectation that this industry would blow up," Tracey says.

Subprime Loans For Car Buyers Buoy U.S. Sales

He says the rise in subprime auto lending is an outgrowth of the fact that more people are returning to the workforce.

"The ability to provide auto financing — be it prime or nonprime — is very important for our economy and for the health of our citizens in keeping people employed and money coming in," Tracey says. "Not everybody can get on a bus and go to a job. Most people in the country need to have transportation."

Zandi, the economist, doesn't dispute that and he says people shouldn't exaggerate what's happening. For one thing, the auto industry is a lot smaller than the mortgage market.

"I wouldn't send off red flares at this point, but I think we should be shining a very bright light on practices in the industry just to make sure that things are being done properly so that this does not become a problem in the future," Zandi says.

He says that as subprime auto lending rises, it's important to remember one lesson from the housing bust: Regulators need lots of information about what's happening in the markets, and they need to monitor it closely before troubles get out of hand.

auto loans

car loans

subprime mortgages

Cars

SkyMall, the reliable in-flight catalog that always reliably greets you in the seatback pocket, is falling victim to technological innovation.

The company behind the catalog that sold you your own lawn garden yeti, or a hot dog bun toaster, or a special ramp for your aging pet has filed for bankruptcy. The Chapter 11 filing from SkyMall LLC and its parent company, Xhibit Corp., says a retail marketplace transformed by Amazon and others is to blame. And analysts say that with more and more airlines offering in-flight WiFi and the FAA allowing broader use of electronic devices, interest in SkyMall waned.

A signature SkyMall item: The hot dog bun toaster. SkyMall hide caption

itoggle caption SkyMall

Bloomberg reports the company and its affiliates "listed as much as $50 million in liabilities and as much as $10 million in assets in Chapter 11 filings in Phoenix Thursday."

The odes to SkyMall are already showing up online. From Wired's Emily Dreyfuss:

"SkyMall was our babysitter. Our distraction. When we got older we delighted in mocking the absurdity of it, how ridiculous and unnecessary was everything in its pages. In this way, we explained to each other that we were maturing, that we weren't dumb little kids anymore. When I became a teenager–embarrassed by everything and everyone–I'd tease the boys for liking anything in the catalogue."

They say the only things certain in life are death and taxes, but for an estimated 650 million air travelers a year, the certainty was finding SkyMall in our seatback pockets. It's unclear when the airlines will stop supplying the catalogs.

If you have SkyMall memories to share (or a favorite SkyMall product you'll miss), please leave your memories in the comments, send me a tweet @elisewho or drop me a note at ehu@npr.org.

in-flight

skymall

Thai legislators installed by the country's military junta have voted to impeach ousted Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra on charges of criminal negligence related to her government's failed effort to prop up the price of rice.

The premier, who was removed from office by a Thai court days before the rest of her government was swept from power in a military coup last May, was also banned from politics for five years — a move widely seen as an effort to nullify the threat she and her popular brother, former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, pose to the current regime. Thaksin was ousted by a similar coup in 2006.

"Democracy has died in Thailand today, along with the rule of law," Yingluck said in a statement released on her Facebook page after the decision of the National Legislative Assembly.

"The move to destroy me is still on-going and I face it now," she wrote in a translation by The Bangkok Post. "(But) I am strongly determined to fight until the end to prove my innocence, regardless of what the outcome may be."

Yingluck, whose party has won every election since 2001, has been living in self-imposed exile, mainly in Dubai, since the coup. However, she was present in Thailand for the legislature's decision. If found guilty, she faces a possible 10-year jail sentence.

As Reuters notes: "The moves could stoke tension in the politically divided country still living under martial law after the military seized power."

The rice subsidy program that landed Yingluck in hot water was "a popular but troubled scheme to pay farmers double the market price for their rice crop. The scheme is believed to have incurred losses of around 10bn ($15 billion)," according to The Guardian.

However, since the former leader's electoral base is concentrated in the country's rice-growing northeast, many in Thailand viewed the program as a give-away to supporters.

Even so, the current government led by Prime Minister Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha, who led the May coup, has offered similar subsidies to rubber growers in the country's south, an area from where he draws support. On Thursday, Prayuth's government ordered banks to provide business owners nearly a billion dollars to buy natural rubber from farmers in an effort to boost prices.

Thaksin Shinawatra

Yingluck Shinawatra

coup

Thailand

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (BAS) has moved the Doomsday Clock two minutes closer to disaster. It now stands at three minutes before midnight.

The BAS was created in 1945 by the scientists who had participated in the Manhattan Project, developing the atomic bomb. They came up with the Doomsday Clock in 1947, after the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings, to alert the public to the dangers of nuclear proliferation. Midnight represents a global catastrophe.

Since the clock's creation, it's been adjusted 18 times — sometimes further from midnight to reflect improvement.

The scientists moved the clock toward destruction today because they are worried about climate change and efforts to modernize nuclear weapons stockpiles. The BAS expressed particular concern over rising sea levels. The last time it was at the 11:57 p.m. mark was in 1984, when tensions escalated between the U.S. and the Soviet Union.

The Doomsday Clock's minute hand was last moved in January 2012, when it was pushed by a minute to five till midnight.

I'm trying to sleep on a straw mat in the village in Northern Ghana where I'm a Peace Corps volunteer. It's the best way to keep cool when there's no air-conditioning and nighttime temps are in the 80s.

Lots of people are outside sleeping in center of the compound where I'm living. They're talking. Their babies are crying. I try to zone them out and am almost at the dream state. Then I hear "aninwula."

That's the evening greeting.

No matter the time of day or night, most Ghanaians would be seriously insulted if you ignore their greeting.

And this just wasn't any Ghanaian. It was an elderly woman. To properly greet an elder requires not just a verbal response but a respectful squatting stance. So I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes and stood up in order to squat. After a polite exchange — I squatted, she squatted — she moved on, and I was able to lie down and try to get back to sleep.

Nothing interferes with greetings for the people of the village, who are predominantly of the Dagomba ethnic group. Even the semblance of a greeting by someone passing by means everyone has to respond. Also, the younger person in the encounter should be the one who initiates the greeting (although on that hot night, the elderly woman started things off, because I was sleeping).

And if you're out walking and someone starts to greet you, you have to slow down or even stop to demonstrate respect. On a motorbike? Stop and hop off if you can. Otherwise, give a wave and speak the greeting.

Peace Corps volunteer Kiley Shields pronounces "n naa"0:01

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Peace Corps volunteer Kiley Shields pronounces "n naa"

Fortunately, the response to any greeting is easy to remember: "n naa." It sounds exactly as it's spelled. And don't ask what it means. Well, actually, I did ask Haruna Abukari, who's teaching me to speak the local Dagbanli language. He said there's no English equivalent. And he stressed how important it is to greet and respond: "The Dagombas feel recognized and respected if you greet them. So greetings enhance your bonding with them."

So when someone calls out "antire" or "good morning." I respond, "n naa." Another greeter asks how your recent travels went, "naa gorim?" I say, "n naa." Or maybe you'll be asked how your mother is? "N naa." Returning from fetching water and carrying a massive pail of water on your head? There's a special greeting for that: "naa kuliga" (roughly translated as "how'd it go with the water").

The stance assumed is just as important as the verbal back-and-forth. It's okay to remain upright when greeting someone of roughly the same age. For someone a bit older, a bit of stooping is appreciated. For respected folks, elderly people and the chief, squatting is necessary.

This puts me in an awkward cross-cultural limbo. As the sole foreigner, or siliminga, in town, I'm in the respected category, so most people squat when they greet me. I also squat to return the respect — I don't want to start off my tenure as a Peace Corps volunteer by insulting anyone. That means we all wind up stuck in a squat with me respectfully repeating "n naa naa naa."

Ending the squat-off can be tricky. Do I get up first and risk insulting an elder? Or does an elder stand first and risk insulting the foreign visitor? The local person sometimes takes pity on me and signals that it's okay to arise.

Greeting a chief is a whole different ritual. You can identify the chief in official ceremonies in the Northern Region because he sits "enskinned," literally on a dried and stretched animal skin. Never speak directly to the chief; rather go through the interpreter at his side. This even goes for locals — though they speak the same language, only the interpreter can communicate directly with the chief. When greeting a chief, people squat low.

There's more, but I'll just leave you with this — if you ever find yourself stuck in Ghana's Northern Region with nothing to say? Squat and go, "n naa."

peace corps

Ghana

Shiite Houthi rebels remain positioned outside the residence of Yemen's president despite reports of a deal that would have seen them withdrawing in exchange for major concessions. Today's developments raises doubts about the scope of a solution to the unrest that has engulfed the U.S. ally.

As we reported Wednesday, the deal called for the Houthis to withdraw from parts of the capital, Sanaa, including President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi's house, and to free his chief of staff, Ahmed Awad bin Mubarak, who was abducted over the weekend. In exchange, Hadi agreed to concessions. In the past, the Houthis have demanded that the constitution be amended, and their representation in parliament and state institutions expanded.

Witnesses and an Associated Press reporter said heavily armed rebels were stationed today outside Hadi's home, west of Sanaa. There also appeared to be no sign rebels had freed Mubarak.

We reported Wednesday on the background to this week's violence in Sanaa:

"The Houthis, who follow a strain of Shiite Islam that is close to the dominant Sunni strand of Islam, were created as a movement in 2004. They have called for greater autonomy for the north of Yemen and for the past year have pushed south toward the capital, capturing territory. The group is considered to be close to Iran. Last September, the Houthis reached Sanaa and took control of the city."

A politburo member for the Houthis, whose official name is Ansarullah, told Reuters the president's concessions were in line with a deal reached with his group in September.

"The latest agreement is a series of timed measures to implement the peace and partnership accord, which shows that Ansarullah were not planning to undermine the political process," politburo member Mohammed al-Bukhaiti told Reuters. "The agreement is satisfactory because it confirms what is most important in the partnership agreement."

He told Reuters the withdrawal of the gunmen and Mubarak's release could happen in the next three days if the authorities implement the agreement fully.

The unrest raises questions about the future of Yemen, a key U.S. ally in the war on terrorism. The country is home to al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, regarded as the most successful al-Qaida franchise. Although the Shiite Houthis are opposed to al-Qaida and are battling them across the country, the group is also opposed to the U.S. and is said to be backed by Iran.

houthis

Yemen

NPR — along with seven public radio stations around the country — is chronicling the lives of America's troops where they live. We're calling the project "Back at Base."

At a time when the Department of Defense budget is under pressure, some military bases are re-examining how they operate to find ways to save.

And increasingly, base officials are looking west to a model established at the Presidio of Monterey, an installation on California's Central Coast where the Army has a unique relationship with the city. Over time, millions of dollars have been saved.

The Presidio is home to the Defense Language Institute where the military teaches nearly two dozen languages including Pashto, Hebrew and Korean. This Army installation is so close to Monterey that houses and streets of the outside community dead end at the Presidio's gate.

"If you think about it, the Presidio sits inside the City of Monterey boundaries," says George Helms, the city's general services superintendent.

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Back At Base

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His department is based right on the installation, where it handles everything from building remodels to street and sewer maintenance for both the city and the Army.

Helms says the main goal of this partnership — known as the Monterey Model — is to keep the base in the community by keeping costs down for the Army.

"Most of the good ideas come from the line of staff who see things happening every day, and then come back to me and say, 'let's try this...I think we can make it more efficient'," he says.

For example, it used to be when things went wrong with card key locks used on the installation, the Army had to replace them at a cost of $700 apiece. But Helms' staff figured out a way to fix them for just $70.

"The day that you become complacent is the day it becomes too expensive to operate this installation and then we become very susceptible to a [Base Realignment and Closure] action," Helms says.

And that gets to the heart of what initially motivated this unique partnership between the city and the Army. Twenty years ago, the nearby Fort Ord Army Base closed. It was one of the largest bases ever shut down under BRAC. It resulted in a $500 million dollar loss to the region.

i i

An aerial view from March, 2014, shows the Presidio of Monterey located in Monterey, Calif. The Army base, which is home to the Defense Language Institute, has partnered with the city in an effort to curb costs. Natela A. Cutter/U.S. Army via Flickr hide caption

itoggle caption Natela A. Cutter/U.S. Army via Flickr

An aerial view from March, 2014, shows the Presidio of Monterey located in Monterey, Calif. The Army base, which is home to the Defense Language Institute, has partnered with the city in an effort to curb costs.

Natela A. Cutter/U.S. Army via Flickr

City officials worried other area military installations like the Presidio would be future targets of the unpredictable BRAC process.

"It's so complex. I think no one can tell you what the rationale is," says Hans Ulsar, who was part of the team that worked on the city's first contract to provide lower cost services to the Army in 1998.

Ulsar is now Monterey's assistant city manager and says while the city can't exactly BRAC proof itself, there are some things it can control.

"One of those elements is cost of operating a base, so we hope we contribute to that by having a lower cost for our military base," he says.

As a contractor, the city saves the federal government money by not adding on a profit to the services it provides. The city and the Army also share equipment. That means lower prices on everything from resurfacing streets to purchasing lamp posts. It all adds up to a savings of roughly $2 million a year for the Army.

"There's an evolution happening in the military of how we look at installations," says Tim Ford, CEO of the Association of Defense Communities, a D.C. based nonprofit. "I think we're starting to move away from this idea that a base has to be a city unto itself. That it has to provide all of these services separate from the community."

Ford says partnerships being developed elsewhere include the sharing of everything from garbage collection to plowing snow. Helms says it just makes sense.

"Why would you stop at the gate?" Helms says. "Why would you have a fence line separate your maintenance?"

Since this started nearly 15 years ago, the Monterey Model has inspired partnerships elsewhere in the Army, and now the Air Force is exploring the idea, too.

Military

Army

What do you have when the State of the Union response is assigned to an English-only advocate — but then is reprised in Spanish by someone who supports a pathway to citizenship for immigrants here unlawfully?

You have some explaining to do, that's what.

Congressional Republicans found themselves in that awkward spot Wednesday, after reporters learned that newly elected Miami Rep. Carlos Curbelo's Spanish-language response to President Obama's address was not a strict translation of Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst's English response. That's how Curbelo's speech originally had been advertised last week: "Rep. Curbelo will be delivering the Spanish-language translated address of Sen. Joni Ernst response."

But by Tuesday afternoon, the House GOP's website no longer had that sentence, and Curbelo's speech wound up diverging from Ernst's in a dozen areas, according to a Miami Herald review. Those differences included biographical details (Curbelo obviously did not grow up on an Iowa farm; nor was he ever a young girl) but also some policy issues. Chief among them: immigration.

Ernst, who reportedly supported English-only efforts as a county auditor and a state senator in Iowa, did not address the topic. Curbelo, who during his campaign supported the Senate-passed immigration overhaul, called for "permanent solutions" to our immigration system, according to the Herald translation.

"Let's also work through appropriate channels to create permanent solutions to our immigration system — to secure our borders, modernize legal immigration and strengthen our economy," Curbelo said.

Democrats made hay from the disparate messages, but Republicans said it was no big deal. Michael Steel, a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner, said both Ernst and Curbelo "spoke of the GOP vision of commonsense solutions and greater opportunity for everyone in this country — framed by their unique stories and experiences."

He added: "It's been done the same way since we started doing a Spanish-language response. No change."

The episode illustrates a core problem for the party. As its top leaders found in a 2013 report analyzing why Republicans lost the 2012 presidential election, the party must broaden its reach to Latinos and other minorities or face continuing problems in nationwide elections. Yet the party's base is now centered in the South and in rural districts in the rest of the country dominated by older, more conservative white voters. House members from those districts overwhelmingly oppose any citizenship opportunities for immigrants in this country illegally. Many minority voters, particularly Latinos, strongly support an immigration overhaul that includes such a pathway.

Carlos Curbelo

Joni Ernst

Immigration

GOP

State of the Union

Organizers say as many as 60,000 people could attend an anti-Islamization rally in the eastern German city of Leipzig in what could be one of the biggest protests there since pro-democracy marches a quarter-century ago.

NPR's Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson, who is in Leipzig, tells our Newscast unit:

"Organizers of the anti-Islam protest say they have two goals: One is to show the German government they won't be silenced, just like the protesters who brought down the East German government 25 years ago. They also say they are snubbing Muslim extremists who are accused of threatening one of the Dresden leaders of the anti-Islam movement earlier this week."

The protests — and counterprotests — in Dresden were canceled following threats.

Soraya says about 4,000 police officers from around the region have arrived in downtown Leipzig to prevent expected clashes between the demonstrators and their opponents. Nineteen counterdemonstrations are registered with authorities for this evening.

Deutsche Welle reports that a combined 100,000 people could take to the streets this evening.

The protests in Leipzig are being organized by LEGIDA, an organization that is allied with PEGIDA, short for Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West, which has marched in German cities with mixed success.

The news from Leipzig comes as German prosecutors opened an investigation into one of the PEGIDA's leaders.

Bild, a mass-circulation newspaper, printed a photograph of a man it said was Lutz Bachmann, 41, posing as Adolf Hitler, and other news reports said a man with his name had called refugees "animals" and "scumbags" on Facebook. Bachmann has previously denied he is racist, and said the picture of him posing as the Nazi leader was "a joke."

"Preliminary proceedings have been opened," a spokesman for state prosecutors in Dresden told Reuters. "The suspicion is of incitement to popular hatred."

Germany is still struggling to come to term with its World War II-era actions.

"Anyone who puts on a Hitler disguise is either an idiot or a Nazi," Deputy Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel, a Social Democrat, told Bild. "People should think carefully about running after a Pied Piper like this."

As we have previously reported, Germany's political and cultural elite has condemned PEGIDA's rise with Chancellor Angela Merkel recently saying "xenophobia, racism, and extremism have no place in this country."

Legida

Pegida

Germany

Google massive investment in SpaceX gives the tech giant another avenue for its goal of proving Internet access to remote parts of the Earth, and it gives Elon Musk's company money to continue its research on space transport, reusability and satellite manufacturing.

In a statement Tuesday, Space Exploration Technologies said Google and Fidelity had together invested $1 billion, giving them just under a 10 percent share in the company. It also boosts SpaceX's valuation to $10 billion.

Google and Fidelity join existing SpaceX investors Founders Fund, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Valor Equity Partners and Capricorn.

Bloomberg explains the deal:

"By teaming up with SpaceX, Google would be seeking to gain an edge over rivals such as Facebook Inc., which is working on projects to deliver Internet service to underserved regions by building drones, satellites and lasers. WorldVu Satellites Ltd., backed by Qualcomm Inc. and Virgin Group, has begun a similar effort."

Spreading the Internet to remote parts of the world is one of Google's stated goals. As part of this effort, it officially launched Project Loon in 2013. Under that plan, the project's balloons float in the stratosphere, forming a network that would allow people to connect to the Internet on their phones and other devices. Last year, Google bought Skybox Imagining, a company trying to build a network of microsatellites, for $500 billion.

Musk has said SpaceX's ultimate goal is to build a settlement on Mars, but for now the company launches satellites for NASA and others. In an interview with BusinessWeek last week, Musk said he wants to build a network of communication satellites to orbit Earth and offer Internet across the world.

The Wall Street Journal lists some hurdles the deal faces:

"One big technical and financial challenge facing the proposed venture is the cost installing ground-based antennas and computer terminals to receive the satellite signals. That issue has bedeviled some earlier Internet-via-satellite projects and threatens to complicate Google's efforts, satellite industry officials and consultants say.

"Another unanswered question is how SpaceX plans to transmit Internet signals to Earth. The company isn't believed to control rights to radio spectrum."

Other major companies that have space programs include Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic, which is focused on space tourism, and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos' privately held Blue Origin, which is working to lower the cost of spaceflight.

Elon Musk

SpaceX

Google

If you want to be a pessimist about the shape the world's in, just tune into the news. It seems like we're living in an age of terrorism, war, refugees, hostages and natural disasters.

If you want to look on the rosy side, read Michael Elliott's essay on Time.com: "The Age of Miracles." The former journalist, now head of Bono's global advocacy group One, tells of the progress he's seen: from the dramatic drop in the death of children under 5 to the incredible growth of cellphones in Africa.

Goats and Soda

More Birthdays For Kids Under 5 Around The World

Elliott is in the Swiss Alps this week for the World Economic Forum, which starts on Jan. 21 in the city of Davos. Some 2,500 world leaders and visionaries are there trying to figure out how to solve the world's overflowing plate of problems, from poverty to climate issues. We spoke with Elliott about his goals – and his optimism.

How do you manage to look on the bright side in these difficult times?

I am struck by how far we've come. When I am talking to a group of 20 or 25 people, I always say, if there were this many people sitting around a table 10 or 12 years ago and everyone had HIV/AIDS, and we said, "What do you think the next 10 years will be," they would say there's going to be a pandemic, [AIDS] will wipe out the middle class in Africa, there's a hidden burden of disease in India. And here we are 10 years on and we can literally use the phrase "the beginning of the end of AIDS." That is completely astonishing.

It's the more than one's natural optimism — it's facts and data. But I do wake up believing that the world is a little better today than it was yesterday.

My sense is that many Americans are a bit more pessimistic about the world's progress than you are.

You probably have to see it up close. I lived for a few years in Hong Kong. In Asia, the improvement in people's lives is very tangible: the transition from a hut that is open to a house that is at the mercy of the seasons to a handheld fan to a room fan to central heating to central air-conditioning. The transition from having scooters to having a car, from working 6 1/2 days a week to 6 days a week to 5 days, to having vacations, to going to Australia for a week. When you live in Asia you're very conscious that literally hundreds of millions of people have gone through this transition in not much more than a lifetime. You're very conscious of the dreams they have for their kids, the opportunities that are present for their children that were not present for their parents.

Particularly in greater China there is this astonishing sense of an unlocking of women's potential. I've seen in Beijing old women hobbling around with bound feet. I now live in the middle of Georgetown [in Washington, D.C.], and there are absolutely brilliant mainland Chinese scholars at Georgetown University whom I see making their way down M Street and looking at their cellphones. That is a phenomenal shift in a remarkably short period of time.

And you say now you're seeing a similar upward swing in Ethiopia.

I worked for the Economist for years. The way economics reporters do a test of economic activity is count the number of cranes. Last time I was in [the capital] Addis Adaba the sky was just a forest of cranes. Everywhere you looked someone was building something, with all the dust and mayhem and half-built roads and potholes that that implies. So it's a muddle in some ways but a muddle of tremendous activity and drive and progress.

At Davos this week, the goal is to come up with SDGs — sustainable development goals. There has to be a better phrase!

I know what you mean. It is not perhaps the word that is going to get millions of people behind banners marching in the street. I can see why the U.N. in its wisdom went in this direction but sure, I take your point.

Any alternatives to offer?

Goals for a better future for the planet and its people. Basically that's what we're trying to do. The international community, which has not been real great at doing big agreements in the last few years on trade or climate or many other things, really has an opportunity here to step up and do something substantial.

What's one of the most important goals?

A lot of us are concentrating on the elimination of extreme poverty by 2030, and on an agenda that stresses child health and maternal health.

How do you define extreme poverty?

In statistical terms it means living on $1.25 a day. In real terms it means backbreaking labor, it means lack of secure shelter. And those two words are both important: the lack of shelter and the lack of security — from the weather and from other things that visit danger upon you, whether that's the natural environment or rampaging warlords or troops.

Extreme poverty will often mean going to bed genuinely feeling hungry, and it will certainly mean going to bed tired. I was asked to be a judge of a photographic competition in Hong Kong, and the topic they gave the photographers was poverty.

Now this is Hong Kong. Hong Kong is not a place of the grinding poverty you see in sub-Saharan Africa. But the really extraordinary thing in all the photographs is how tired people looked, the sheer exhaustion of getting through the day when you don't have the resources in terms of food, clothing, shelter and security. One of the consequences is you're just bloody exhausted.

I'm sure you must always get questions about Bono's commitment to global activism.

We obviously don't like talking about that too much. He can talk about it himself. His passion, commitment, leadership and inspiration and engagement on these causes are mind-blowing.

At Davos, do people ever feel guilty about gathering in Switzerland (with I assume plenty of good food) to discuss poverty?

You know I've heard every joke about Davos over the years, every single one. But it does remain this extraordinary collection of two-and-a-half thousand people. It's a very efficient week to get a lot done in a short space of time.

Bono

poverty

Davos

A Palestinian man stabbed at least 11 people on a bus in central Tel Aviv today, wounding three of them seriously, before he was shot in the leg by Israeli police who took him in for questioning.

The Associated Press, citing a hospital spokeswoman, said 11 people had been stabbed. But the Haaretz newspaper, citing the ambulance service, put the number at 12.

Haaretz identified the Palestinian as 23-year-old Hamza Mohammed Hasan Matrouk from the West Bank city of Tuklarem. He had entered Israel illegally. He was taken to hospital for treatment and for, the newspaper reported, further questioning by police and Shin Bet, Israel's internal security service. The newspaper quoted unnamed sources as saying the man did not belong to any Palestinian group.

But Mickey Rosenfeld, an Israeli police spokesman, described Matrouk as a "terrorist" and the stabbings as a "terrorist attack." The AP quoted police as saying Martouk had confessed, saying the attack was in response to last year's Gaza war and tensions surrounding a sacred site in Jerusalem that the Jews call Temple Mount and the Muslims the Noble Sanctuary.

Haaretz has more: "The attack took place on Bus number 40 on Menachem Begin Road, a major thoroughfare in Tel Aviv, near the Ma'ariv Bridge. Three other people were moderately wounded, and five of the casualties were in light condition, according to Magen David Adom emergency services. A further five were suffering from shock."

News reports say Matrouk boarded the bus at the Old Central Bus Station and began stabbing people, including the driver, after the bus had passed two stops. He mananged to get out and run before being chased down and shot in the leg. He will be taken to court in the city of Ariel.

The AP described the incident as the "latest in a series of 'lone-wolf' Palestinian attacks that have plagued Israel in recent months, killing about a dozen people, including five people killed with guns and meat cleavers in a bloody assault on a Jerusalem synagogue."

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blamed Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas for today's attack, saying Abbas "is responsible for ... the incitement."

Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that controls the Gaza Strip, praised the attack, but did not claim responsibility.

Palestinians

Israel

"After a breakthrough year for America, our economy is growing and creating jobs at the fastest pace since 1999," President Obama said less than a minute into his State of the Union address Tuesday.

The Two-Way

'Tonight, We Turn The Page': Obama Lays Out 2015 Agenda

Politics

Transcript: President Obama's State Of The Union Address

His economic victory lap was fueled by cheap gas: "We are as free from the grip of foreign oil as we've been in almost 30 years," he said.

Democrats roared.

And then Obama pointed to where he wants to steer the economy: toward greater economic equality. He wants to get there by spending more on child care, education and infrastructure. He would pay for that by imposing more taxes on capital gains, inherited assets and big banks.

"This country does best when everyone gets their fair shot, everyone does their fair share, and everyone plays by the same set of rules," he said.

But business groups and conservative economists questioned the touted fairness of the White House plans.

John Makin, an economist with the conservative American Enterprise Institute, said in a statement that Obama's tax plan was a "purely political package that modestly shifts the tax burden to higher-income households, or the ambiguously defined 'rich.' "

What Obama Wants

Before getting into the back and forth, let's first look at Obama's goals. He wants Congress to:

Collect more taxes from wealthy individuals and major financial institutions.

Create more tax credits to help pay for child care and community college.

Build and repair more ports and bridges.

Help lower-income workers with a higher minimum wage and paid sick days.

Increase access to retirement savings plans offered by employers.

Expand trade with other countries.

Obama said these efforts would help reverse the trend toward greater income inequality. He asked: "Will we accept an economy where only a few of us do spectacularly well? Or will we commit ourselves to an economy that generates rising incomes and chances for everyone who makes the effort?"

What Critics Say

The Two-Way

Republicans' Responses Take Shots At Obamacare, Push Keystone XL

Business responses generally ranged from the dismissive to the disdainful. Here's an example of the brush-off, this one aimed at the proposed fees to be imposed on financial institutions with assets of more than $50 billion:

Obama's plan is "political posturing — and not a serious policy proposal. In our view, chances of this proposal passing are low," according to an analysis by Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, Inc., an investment bank.

The National Center for Policy Analysis, a conservative research group founded by wealthy individuals, condemned efforts to raise the minimum wage and add paid sick days. "These additional costs to hiring will make employers less likely to hire," NCPA senior fellow Pam Villarreal said in a statement.

Not all of Obama's critics were conservatives. Many liberals object to Obama's call for expanded trade. For example, Bill Waren, a trade policy analyst for Friends of the Earth, said that if Obama were to win expanded trade authority, his administration would "push deals through Congress that would trade away strict environmental and health standards for the greed of corporate polluters."

What Supporters Say

Liberals cheered Obama's proposals for higher taxes, particularly for big banks. It would "make the financial system safer and more stable, reducing the risk of another crash and bailouts, which will benefit all Americans," Dennis Kelleher, CEO of Better Markets, a Wall Street watchdog group.

Christine Owens, who heads the National Employment Law Project, a group that advocates for low-wage workers, said Congress should follow Obama's lead and raise the federal minimum wage. "If 2014 was the year of putting people back to work, 2015 should be the year of raising their pay," she said.

What Others See

Why Europe's Economy Threatens Global Growth

3 min 30 sec

Add to Playlist

Download

China's Economy Grows At Slowest Rate In 24 Years

4 min 11 sec

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While Congress braces for battles over taxes and spending, the rest of the world looks on at U.S. economic problems that seem enviably small. European and Asian leaders are scrambling to fight off recessions and budget troubles that far outstrip ours.

On Tuesday, PricewaterhouseCoopers released its 18th Annual Global CEO Survey. Company bosses ranked the United States as their most important market for growth in the coming year — placing the USA ahead of China for the first time since the survey began five years ago.

"After a breakthrough year for America, our economy is growing and creating jobs at the fastest pace since 1999," President Obama said less than a minute into his State of the Union address Tuesday.

The Two-Way

'Tonight, We Turn The Page': Obama Lays Out 2015 Agenda

Politics

Transcript: President Obama's State Of The Union Address

His economic victory lap was fueled by cheap gas: "We are as free from the grip of foreign oil as we've been in almost 30 years," he said.

Democrats roared.

And then Obama pointed to where he wants to steer the economy: toward greater economic equality. He wants to get there by spending more on child care, education and infrastructure. He would pay for that by imposing more taxes on capital gains, inherited assets and big banks.

"This country does best when everyone gets their fair shot, everyone does their fair share, and everyone plays by the same set of rules," he said.

But business groups and conservative economists questioned the touted fairness of the White House plans.

John Makin, an economist with the conservative American Enterprise Institute, said in a statement that Obama's tax plan was a "purely political package that modestly shifts the tax burden to higher-income households, or the ambiguously defined 'rich.' "

What Obama Wants

Before getting into the back and forth, let's first look at Obama's goals. He wants Congress to:

Collect more taxes from wealthy individuals and major financial institutions.

Create more tax credits to help pay for child care and community college.

Build and repair more ports and bridges.

Help lower-income workers with a higher minimum wage and paid sick days.

Increase access to retirement savings plans offered by employers.

Expand trade with other countries.

Obama said these efforts would help reverse the trend toward greater income inequality. He asked: "Will we accept an economy where only a few of us do spectacularly well? Or will we commit ourselves to an economy that generates rising incomes and chances for everyone who makes the effort?"

What Critics Say

The Two-Way

Republicans' Responses Take Shots At Obamacare, Push Keystone XL

Business responses generally ranged from the dismissive to the disdainful. Here's an example of the brush-off, this one aimed at the proposed fees to be imposed on financial institutions with assets of more than $50 billion:

Obama's plan is "political posturing — and not a serious policy proposal. In our view, chances of this proposal passing are low," according to an analysis by Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, Inc., an investment bank.

The National Center for Policy Analysis, a conservative research group founded by wealthy individuals, condemned efforts to raise the minimum wage and add paid sick days. "These additional costs to hiring will make employers less likely to hire," NCPA senior fellow Pam Villarreal said in a statement.

Not all of Obama's critics were conservatives. Many liberals object to Obama's call for expanded trade. For example, Bill Waren, a trade policy analyst for Friends of the Earth, said that if Obama were to win expanded trade authority, his administration would "push deals through Congress that would trade away strict environmental and health standards for the greed of corporate polluters."

What Supporters Say

Liberals cheered Obama's proposals for higher taxes, particularly for big banks. It would "make the financial system safer and more stable, reducing the risk of another crash and bailouts, which will benefit all Americans," Dennis Kelleher, CEO of Better Markets, a Wall Street watchdog group.

Christine Owens, who heads the National Employment Law Project, a group that advocates for low-wage workers, said Congress should follow Obama's lead and raise the federal minimum wage. "If 2014 was the year of putting people back to work, 2015 should be the year of raising their pay," she said.

What Others See

Why Europe's Economy Threatens Global Growth

3 min 30 sec

Add to Playlist

Download

China's Economy Grows At Slowest Rate In 24 Years

4 min 11 sec

Add to Playlist

Download

While Congress braces for battles over taxes and spending, the rest of the world looks on at U.S. economic problems that seem enviably small. European and Asian leaders are scrambling to fight off recessions and budget troubles that far outstrip ours.

On Tuesday, PricewaterhouseCoopers released its 18th Annual Global CEO Survey. Company bosses ranked the United States as their most important market for growth in the coming year — placing the USA ahead of China for the first time since the survey began five years ago.

Are you thinking about tax day yet? Your friendly neighborhood tax preparer is. IRS Commissioner John Koskinen declared this tax season one of the most complicated ever, partly because this is the first year that the Affordable Care Act will show up on your tax form.

Tax preparers from coast to coast are trying to get ready. Sue Ellen Smith manages an H&R Block office in San Francisco, and she is expecting things to get busy soon.

"This year taxes and health care intersect in a brand-new way," Smith says.

For most people who get insurance through work, the change will be simple: checking a box on the tax form that says, "Yes, I had health insurance all year."

Shots - Health News

Tax Time Gets New Ritual: Proof Of Health Insurance

But it will be much more complex for an estimated 25 million to 30 million people who didn't have health insurance or who bought subsidized coverage through the exchanges.

To get ready, Smith and her team have been training for months, running through a range of hypothetical scenarios. She introduces "Ray" and "Vicky," a fictional couple from an H&R Block flyer. Together they earn $65,000 a year, and neither has health insurance.

i i

An H&R Block flyer with fictional couples representing possible scenarios of what people might encounter reconciling their taxes under the Affordable Care Act. H&R Block hide caption

itoggle caption H&R Block

An H&R Block flyer with fictional couples representing possible scenarios of what people might encounter reconciling their taxes under the Affordable Care Act.

H&R Block

"The biggest misconception I hear people say is, 'Oh, the penalty's only $95, that's easy,' " says Smith, but the Rays and Vickys of the world are in for a surprise. "In this situation, it's almost $450."

That's because the penalty for being uninsured in 2014 is $95 or 1 percent of income, whichever is greater. Next year, it's 2 percent. Smith says the smartest move for people to avoid those penalties is to sign up for insurance before Feb. 15, the end of the health law's open enrollment period.

But a lot of people may not think about this until they file their taxes in April. For them, it will be too late to sign up for health insurance and too late to do anything about next year's penalty, says Mark Steber, chief tax officer for Jackson Hewitt Tax Services.

"They're kind of stuck," says Steber. "Quite frankly that's a very difficult discussion."

Steber's team at Jackson Hewitt is also role playing with tax advisors to prepare them for delivering bad news, in case taxpayers want to blame the messenger.

Lou Graham works at an H&R Block office in Hartford, Conn., and he is facing the same concerns. He is bracing to tell some people who got a subsidy all year long that it was actually too generous — maybe they made more money than they originally estimated. And, soon, they'll have to pay the government back.

i i

ACA Penalties Infographic H&R Block hide caption

itoggle caption H&R Block

ACA Penalties Infographic

H&R Block

"I'm going to tell a client, 'I'm sorry, $300 of your return is not going to be yours.' Well, that will send them right through the roof," Graham says.

Like his colleague Smith in California, Graham is afraid some people may be completely unaware of the penalty for not having insurance.

That means Graham may have to deliver two pieces of bad news. First, he'll tell them they owe a penalty for 2014, and then he'll tell them it's too late to sign up for 2015. "So they're going to get stymied twice," he says.

Graham says he also hopes to guide people to some good news. A lot of people may not know that they're able to get an exemption from the law's mandate to get insurance, and it's his job to pull it out of them.

A client could say to him, for example, "'I didn't have insurance for six months, but you know what? I had got a notice that my electricity was going to be cut off.' Well, you fall into a hardship case," says Graham. "Those things need to be explored and not many people want to bring that forward."

Bringing it forward it important. Tax preparers like Graham can only help if tax filers seek them out, and most people don't - not this early, at least, he says. "People don't really start thinking about tax work until they get their W-2s in their hands."

That presents a real crunch. Most people won't get those W-2s until the end of January. That gives them just two weeks before the Obamacare clock runs out on them on February 15.

This story is part of a reporting partnership with NPR, WNPR, KQED and Kaiser Health News.

Internal Revenue Service

CAlifornia

Affordable Care Act

taxes

Connecticut

Even in the best of times, it's hard to tell if anyone is in control of Yemen.

It's a particularly pressing question today amid reports that Shiite Houthi rebels have seized the presidential palace in the poor, unstable nation at the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula. Some government officials called it a coup, while the rebels said it wasn't. But there's been no official word on the status of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi.

The larger question is what all this could mean as Yemen goes through its latest upheaval. Here's a quick look at some of the potential ramifications:

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A Weak President: President Hadi has never been able to fully establish his authority since he came to power in 2012 in the wake of sustained protests that forced out Ali Abdullah Saleh, who had ruled for more than three decades. Like most other Arab uprisings, Yemen's revolutionary spirit has faded as the country lurches from one crisis to the next.

Houthi rebels, known as the Partisans of God, seized on Hadi's weakness and reached the capital, Sana, last September. The two sides negotiated an awkward deal that allowed the rebels to control parts of the city.

The Houthis had checkpoints at some government buildings, at the airport and near the presidential palace itself. This unusual arrangement was fraught with problems and collapsed when the Houthis abducted the president's chief of staff on Saturday.

Even if Hadi somehow survives this drama, it has only reinforced the notion that he has limited power at best.

i i

Female demonstrators hold up posters of Yemen's president during a pro-government demonstration in August in Sanaa. The rebels took over the presidential palace on Tuesday. Mohammed Huwais/AFP/Getty Images hide caption

itoggle caption Mohammed Huwais/AFP/Getty Images

Female demonstrators hold up posters of Yemen's president during a pro-government demonstration in August in Sanaa. The rebels took over the presidential palace on Tuesday.

Mohammed Huwais/AFP/Getty Images

Who Are The Houthis?: The Houthis are an offshoot of Shiite Islam that is known as Zaydism, and they have put together a militia that has been fighting the central government on and off for the past decade.

The Houthi leader, Abdulmalik al-Houthi, 33, is considered a saint by his followers. The militia, which is widely believed to be backed by Iran, claims it is willing to work with other groups in Yemen and would like a democracy.

But the majority Sunnis feel threatened by the minority Houthis, whose rise could easily lead to increased sectarian friction in Yemen, the poorest of the 22 Arab countries.

"Yemen could become another Afghanistan — a failed state dominated by warlords and extremists, and with even fewer prospects for the young revolutionaries who just three years ago thought their nightmare had ended," Middle East analyst Robin Wright wrote in The Wall Street Journal.

i i

A Yemeni man walks amid the debris inside a heavily damaged house near the presidential palace on Tuesday. Mohammed Huwais/AFP/Getty Images hide caption

itoggle caption Mohammed Huwais/AFP/Getty Images

A Yemeni man walks amid the debris inside a heavily damaged house near the presidential palace on Tuesday.

Mohammed Huwais/AFP/Getty Images

Setback For The U.S.: Just four months ago, President Obama described Yemen as a success story in the fight against terrorism. The U.S. has been working closely with Hadi, and the clear priority has been targeting al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP.

This took on added urgency following the recent mass shooting at the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris. AQAP claimed responsibility for the carnage.

Al-Qaida in Yemen has been linked to several major international plots and is widely seen as the most dangerous al-Qaida franchise at present. The U.S. has carried out more than 100 drone strikes against militants in Yemen since 2002, including 23 last year.

The U.S. says it needs a reliable partner in Yemen and the latest sign of chaos could make it even more difficult for the U.S. and its allies to track al-Qaida in Yemen.

A Blow To Saudi Arabia: Aside from Yemen itself, Saudi Arabia is probably the country most distressed by the turmoil in Yemen, its southern neighbor.

The Saudis are always nervous about Yemen's instability seeping across the border. The Saudis strongly backed Hadi as president and are staunchly opposed to the Houthis. Last year, the Saudis declared the Houthi militias to be a terrorist organization.

Yemen is also a key battleground in the larger regional conflict between the Saudis, who see themselves as the leader of Sunni Islam, and Iran, the center of Shiite Islam. Tuesday's developments just made the fight a little more intense.

Greg Myre is the international editor for NPR.org. Follow him on Twitter @gregmyre1.

Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula

Yemen

In so many ways, Jan. 20, 2009, was a frightful day to be taking the oath of office.

The U.S. economy was in free fall as Barack Obama rose to deliver his inaugural address. "We are in the midst of crisis," he said. "Homes have been lost, jobs shed, businesses shuttered."

Exactly six years later, Obama is returning to Capitol Hill to deliver a State of the Union address at 9 p.m. ET. He is expected to highlight the economic progress that has been made since that frigid Day One — and call for more changes.

But Thomas Donohue, CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, warned in a speech last week that it's not yet time for anyone "to take a victory lap." More must be done to help the economy because "beyond the near term, the outlook is less certain," he said.

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Obama To Call For Tax Hike On The Wealthy In State Of The Union

So would it be fair for Obama to do some celebrating on Tuesday? Or will he need a legislative victory this year on tax-code changes to leave a lasting economic legacy?

To sort it out, let's break up 2009's biggest economic problems into four categories:

1) The Financial Crisis

In January 2009, many financial institutions were buried in bad loans. Markets were melting down, with the Dow Jones average of industrial stocks plunging from its pre-crisis high of 14,165 down to 6,547.

The Obama administration set out to restore confidence by managing the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), passed by Congress in late 2008. At the time, many feared the bank bailout might cost taxpayers a fortune.

The opposite happened. Obama's Treasury wrapped up that program last month, after posting a profit of about $15 billion. And the Dow stock average has nearly tripled since early 2009.

Still, some critics — including some in the president's own party — worry that many banks remain too big while others say they are too regulated. "Nearly two dozen financial regulators ... often conflict, compete and fail to work together," Donohue said.

2) The Jobs Plunge

In January 2009 alone, employers cut nearly 800,000 workers. Throughout 2009, the job slashing would continue until the unemployment rate hit 10 percent that October.

Today, the unemployment rate is down to 5.6 percent, and private-sector employers have added jobs for 58 straight months — the longest streak on record.

Still, 2.8 million long-term unemployed workers haven't seen a paycheck in more than six months. The labor-force participation rate is down, and as House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, noted recently, workers are struggling with "stubbornly flat paychecks."

3) The Housing Catastrophe

The brutal foreclosure crisis knocked millions out of their homes and helped push down prices by about 30 percent nationwide. Since then, housing prices have rebounded, although in most cities, they remain well below their 2006 heights.

This is perhaps the most positive indicator for the future: far fewer people are falling behind now on their mortgages. In 2010, the "serious" delinquency rate for mortgages hit 4.2 percent, meaning millions of homeowners were at least three months behind on their payments. The latest reading, in November, showed the delinquency rate was down to 1.9 percent.

Still, critics say the White House did too little to help housing, and note that the homeownership rate was 69 percent in 2004; now it's just 64.4 percent.

4) The Deficit/Debt Outlook

Early in the Obama era, Congress passed a massive stimulus program. That increased spending, along with reduced tax revenues, sent the deficit soaring in fiscal 2009 to $1.4 trillion, or 9.8 percent of GDP.

In fiscal 2014, the deficit was down to just $483 billion, or 2.8 percent of GDP.

But while the annual shortfall is down, there are no revenue surpluses in sight, so the government keeps adding to its debt — the sum of all deficits that have piled up over time. The debt ended fiscal 2014 at $17.8 trillion, compared with $10 trillion in fiscal 2008.

Obama's Legacy

At this point in the recovery, most business leaders and economists agree Obama is presiding over a dramatically improving economy — helped by low inflation, low interest rates and steady job growth. As Donohue said, "investing, hiring and consumer spending are all firming up."

But as for having a positive impact on the economic lives of coming generations, the White House needs accomplishments that can't easily be undone by future presidents. For example, Franklin D. Roosevelt built an enduring legacy by creating the Social Security system. Ronald Reagan slashed marginal tax rates. Bill Clinton signed the North American Free Trade Agreement.

The Obama administration's Affordable Care Act will affect many business and workers for years to come, but that's more of a social-welfare change than an economic legacy.

To make a lasting economic mark, Obama wants to reduce skills and income gaps. And he hopes to use tax-code changes to shift some money from the wealthy to the lower and middle class.

On Saturday, the White House said Obama will call on Congress to increase the taxes paid on profits from the sale of property or investments to 28 percent, up from, 23.8 percent rate, and impose new taxes on some inherited assets.

Those revenues would pay to expand tax credits for education and child care — and for families in which both spouses work.

Republicans, who control both the House and Senate, were quick to reject the idea. "More Washington tax hikes and spending is the same, old top-down approach we've come to expect from President Obama that hasn't worked," said Michael Steel, a spokesman for House Speaker Boehner.

Still, Republicans also want to build an economic legacy. They'd like to expand trade, reform the corporate tax code and change entitlement programs. To do any of that, they will need to get Obama to sign legislation, or win over enough Democrats to override vetoes.

With a new two-year Congress now in session, and Obama entering his final two years in office, everyone has some incentive to compromise enough to make the kinds of changes that Americans children and grandchildren will remember.

President Obama

State of the Union

In so many ways, Jan. 20, 2009, was a frightful day to be taking the oath of office.

The U.S. economy was in free fall as Barack Obama rose to deliver his inaugural address. "We are in the midst of crisis," he said. "Homes have been lost, jobs shed, businesses shuttered."

Exactly six years later, Obama is returning to Capitol Hill to deliver a State of the Union address at 9 p.m. ET. He is expected to highlight the economic progress that has been made since that frigid Day One — and call for more changes.

But Thomas Donohue, CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, warned in a speech last week that it's not yet time for anyone "to take a victory lap." More must be done to help the economy because "beyond the near term, the outlook is less certain," he said.

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So would it be fair for Obama to do some celebrating on Tuesday? Or will he need a legislative victory this year on tax-code changes to leave a lasting economic legacy?

To sort it out, let's break up 2009's biggest economic problems into four categories:

1) The Financial Crisis

In January 2009, many financial institutions were buried in bad loans. Markets were melting down, with the Dow Jones average of industrial stocks plunging from its pre-crisis high of 14,165 down to 6,547.

The Obama administration set out to restore confidence by managing the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), passed by Congress in late 2008. At the time, many feared the bank bailout might cost taxpayers a fortune.

The opposite happened. Obama's Treasury wrapped up that program last month, after posting a profit of about $15 billion. And the Dow stock average has nearly tripled since early 2009.

Still, some critics — including some in the president's own party — worry that many banks remain too big while others say they are too regulated. "Nearly two dozen financial regulators ... often conflict, compete and fail to work together," Donohue said.

2) The Jobs Plunge

In January 2009 alone, employers cut nearly 800,000 workers. Throughout 2009, the job slashing would continue until the unemployment rate hit 10 percent that October.

Today, the unemployment rate is down to 5.6 percent, and private-sector employers have added jobs for 58 straight months — the longest streak on record.

Still, 2.8 million long-term unemployed workers haven't seen a paycheck in more than six months. The labor-force participation rate is down, and as House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, noted recently, workers are struggling with "stubbornly flat paychecks."

3) The Housing Catastrophe

The brutal foreclosure crisis knocked millions out of their homes and helped push down prices by about 30 percent nationwide. Since then, housing prices have rebounded, although in most cities, they remain well below their 2006 heights.

This is perhaps the most positive indicator for the future: far fewer people are falling behind now on their mortgages. In 2010, the "serious" delinquency rate for mortgages hit 4.2 percent, meaning millions of homeowners were at least three months behind on their payments. The latest reading, in November, showed the delinquency rate was down to 1.9 percent.

Still, critics say the White House did too little to help housing, and note that the homeownership rate was 69 percent in 2004; now it's just 64.4 percent.

4) The Deficit/Debt Outlook

Early in the Obama era, Congress passed a massive stimulus program. That increased spending, along with reduced tax revenues, sent the deficit soaring in fiscal 2009 to $1.4 trillion, or 9.8 percent of GDP.

In fiscal 2014, the deficit was down to just $483 billion, or 2.8 percent of GDP.

But while the annual shortfall is down, there are no revenue surpluses in sight, so the government keeps adding to its debt — the sum of all deficits that have piled up over time. The debt ended fiscal 2014 at $17.8 trillion, compared with $10 trillion in fiscal 2008.

Obama's Legacy

At this point in the recovery, most business leaders and economists agree Obama is presiding over a dramatically improving economy — helped by low inflation, low interest rates and steady job growth. As Donohue said, "investing, hiring and consumer spending are all firming up."

But as for having a positive impact on the economic lives of coming generations, the White House needs accomplishments that can't easily be undone by future presidents. For example, Franklin D. Roosevelt built an enduring legacy by creating the Social Security system. Ronald Reagan slashed marginal tax rates. Bill Clinton signed the North American Free Trade Agreement.

The Obama administration's Affordable Care Act will affect many business and workers for years to come, but that's more of a social-welfare change than an economic legacy.

To make a lasting economic mark, Obama wants to reduce skills and income gaps. And he hopes to use tax-code changes to shift some money from the wealthy to the lower and middle class.

On Saturday, the White House said Obama will call on Congress to increase the taxes paid on profits from the sale of property or investments to 28 percent, up from, 23.8 percent rate, and impose new taxes on some inherited assets.

Those revenues would pay to expand tax credits for education and child care — and for families in which both spouses work.

Republicans, who control both the House and Senate, were quick to reject the idea. "More Washington tax hikes and spending is the same, old top-down approach we've come to expect from President Obama that hasn't worked," said Michael Steel, a spokesman for House Speaker Boehner.

Still, Republicans also want to build an economic legacy. They'd like to expand trade, reform the corporate tax code and change entitlement programs. To do any of that, they will need to get Obama to sign legislation, or win over enough Democrats to override vetoes.

With a new two-year Congress now in session, and Obama entering his final two years in office, everyone has some incentive to compromise enough to make the kinds of changes that Americans children and grandchildren will remember.

President Obama

State of the Union

The group that calls itself the Islamic State, in a direct address to Japan's prime minister, is threatening to kill two Japanese hostages unless it gets $200 million within 72 hours. The demand in a video posted online comes as Shinzo Abe is visiting the Middle East.

The video shows the two men — purported to be Haruna Yukawa, who was captured in August 2014, and freelance journalist Kenji Goto Jogo, who was last heard from on Twitter in October when he said he was in Syria — in orange jumpsuits. There is a rocky hill in the background and a masked militant, clad in black, standing between them.

"To the prime minister of Japan: Although you are more than 8,000 and 500 kilometers (5,280 miles) from the Islamic State, you willingly have volunteered to take part in this crusade," the militant says. "You have proudly donated $100 million to kill our women and children, to destroy the homes of the Muslims ... and in an attempt to stop the expansion of the Islamic State, you have also donated another $100 million to train the (apostates)."

That sum is equivalent to the amount Japan pledged in nonmilitary aid to countries in the region facing threats from the Islamic State.

The militant who is brandishing a knife in the video resembles and sounds like the British man in other Islamic State videos in which hostages have been beheaded. Three Americans — James Foley, Peter Kassig and Steven Sotloff — and two Britons — David Haines and Alan Henning — have been killed by the group since last year. Their beheadings have been filmed.

It's unclear if Japan will pay the $200 million to free the hostages.

"Their lives are the top priority," Abe said in Jerusalem.

He said he was sending Yasuhide Nakayama, state minister for foreign affairs, to Jordan to deal with the situation, Japanese media reported.

"It is unforgivable," said Abe, who is on a six-day tour of the Middle East. "Extremism and Islam are completely different things."

The Islamic State also holds British photojournalist John Cantlie, who has appeared in the group's propaganda videos. It also holds a 26-year-old American aid worker.

The Islamic State, which is also known as ISIS or ISIL, controls large parts of Iraq and Syria. But in recent days, the group has suffered setbacks from airstrikes by the U.S. and its allies.

Islamic State

ISIS

Japan

If Elkhart County, Ind. was the symbol of the recession, then Ed Neufeldt became the face of the unemployed worker.

He introduced President Obama at a town hall meeting at Concord High School in February 2009. It was Obama's first big trip in office. At the time, Elkhart had the dubious distinction of having the highest unemployment rate in the country, bumping up against 20 percent.

It was the recreational vehicle capital of the world, except no one was buying RVs.

Neufeldt wore a suit he borrowed from his brother-in-law as he and Obama walked on stage together. Neufeldt was nervous; his pastor had come over the night before to pray to give him strength. As the crowd chanted "Obama, Obama," the president turned to Neufeldt and said "go ahead." He had to say it three times.

"Good afternoon everyone," said Neufeldt, introducing himself. "On September the 17th, 2008, all of the employees of Monaco Coach were informed that due to the economy, they would be closing their doors."

Neufeldt was suddenly unemployed after 32 years working in the RV industry. Two of his daughters and sons-in-law were in the same rough spot.

"I am hoping, and praying, and believing that President Obama will put the people in Elkhart County, and the country, back to work," Neufeldt said to cheers.

Obama was there to promote the $800 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. $170 million in stimulus money would go to Elkhart County, according to ProPublica.

Fast Forward To Today

Six years later, Neufeldt, 68, is behind the wheel of a Kia, driving around Elkhart County.

In 2009 Ed Neufeldt was an unemployed RV worker who introduced President Obama at an event in Elkhart Indiana. Today he works three part time jobs. If he was the face of the recession back then, today he's the face of a recovery that left some people behind. Hear his story tomorrow on @morningedition.

A photo posted by Tamara Keith (@tamarakeithnpr) on Jan 19, 2015 at 7:15am PST

"You know, I am going to turn down here and show you some of the plants that were closed down," he says. "The one over there in 2009, there was nobody in that building."

Before the crash, Neufeldt and thousands of others reported for work before dawn in these big warehouses, building RVs. As the recession hit, a number of major employers went bankrupt.

Gus Feiler's company, Williamsburg Furniture, makes couches, sleeper sofas and captain's chairs for RVs.

"We lost 75 percent of our volume overnight," says Feiler, sitting in his office. "It was not a recession — it was a damned depression."

He went from 140 employees to 40, and the ones who were left took huge pay cuts. Feiler says he refinanced everything he could just to keep the doors open.

And now?

"Those of us that were lucky enough to survive, we're back," says Feiler, not quite smiling.

In Elkhart, there's a mantra: the RV industry is the first to feel a recession and the first to recover.

In Feiler's three massive, interconnected buildings, more than a dozen women rapidly sew upholstery, and there are saws buzzing and nail guns firing. Captain's chairs for high-end motor coaches are flying out the doors again.

"It is good to hear that noise again," says Feiler. "2009, 2010 were very silent — turn your stomach."

Feiler says his big problem now is finding employees. He'd hire 30 more today if he could.

If You Can Pass A Drug Test, You Can Get A Job

As Neufeldt drives by those once-abandoned warehouses, it's clear from the smoke stacks and the parking lots full of pickup trucks that they're humming again too.

"Evidently, by the looks of the cars there, they've got people working at all these buildings," says Neufeldt. He's on the way to work too.

Today, the unemployment rate in Elkhart County, Ind. is right around 5 percent. That's a bit better than the national average and almost back to what it was before the recession. The saying is that, if you can pass a drug test, you can get a job in Elkhart; Neufeldt has three jobs, all part-time.

"Yeah, everybody's working that wants to work," he says, before getting to the painful kicker: "Really, I drew more on unemployment than I'm making working these three jobs now."

That's not exaggerating. He made more money during the six months he received unemployment benefits than he makes now, despite working more than 50 hours a week.

Neufeldt's main job is stocking shelves for a local bread company, going store-to-store and moving the older loaves to the front.

"You've got to make everything look pretty," Neufeldt says as he methodically shifts around loaves and hotdog buns.

He also works at a grocery store, and in the evenings he cleans a doctor's office. Neufeldt remembers that before the recession hit, his wife told him he had it made.

"I was 62 at the time. She said, 'just work about three more years, we got a great 401(k) going,' " says Neufeldt. "And I think I lost maybe $50,000 when we had that crash."

A Recovery That Left Some Behind

If Neufeldt was the face of the unemployed worker six years ago, today he's the face of a recovery that left some people behind.

"Ed is a survivor," says Larry Thompson, the long-time mayor of Nappanee, Ind., at the southern end of Elkhart County. "You know, he was going to do whatever it took."

Thompson stood in abandoned RV factories and wondered if his community would ever come back. Now, thanks to an improved national economy and lower gas prices, the RV industry is booming again, and Elkhart County right along with it.

"Whatever full employment is, we're close," says Thompson.

The mayor, who describes himself as a "small-town Republican mayor," gladly competed to bring stimulus money to his county. The so-called green jobs didn't last, but the upgrades to the sewer plant made a lasting difference. Ultimately, he has mixed feelings about the Recovery Act.

"But it gave us hope that if we just hang in there and work hard and all work together, this thing will come back," says Thompson.

It gave Neufeldt hope too. He believed in that guy he introduced in the high school gym, even though he never voted for him. But now Neufeldt gets upset when he thinks about how divided the country is.

"If we go out somewhere, which is not very often, they'll say, 'oh did you know Ed introduced President Obama?' " Neufeldt says he used to be kind of proud. "Now I say 'shhh, don't tell anybody!' "

This is the president's challenge: The economy is back, but it is far from perfect. And when you ask people in Elkhart County where the credit goes, they don't talk about President Obama or his policies — they talk about the free-enterprise system, and a community that stuck together.

If Elkhart County, Ind. was the symbol of the recession, then Ed Neufeldt became the face of the unemployed worker.

He introduced President Obama at a town hall meeting at Concord High School in February 2009. It was Obama's first big trip in office. At the time, Elkhart had the dubious distinction of having the highest unemployment rate in the country, bumping up against 20 percent.

It was the recreational vehicle capital of the world, except no one was buying RVs.

Neufeldt wore a suit he borrowed from his brother-in-law as he and Obama walked on stage together. Neufeldt was nervous; his pastor had come over the night before to pray to give him strength. As the crowd chanted "Obama, Obama," the president turned to Neufeldt and said "go ahead." He had to say it three times.

"Good afternoon everyone," said Neufeldt, introducing himself. "On September the 17th, 2008, all of the employees of Monaco Coach were informed that due to the economy, they would be closing their doors."

Neufeldt was suddenly unemployed after 32 years working in the RV industry. Two of his daughters and sons-in-law were in the same rough spot.

"I am hoping, and praying, and believing that President Obama will put the people in Elkhart County, and the country, back to work," Neufeldt said to cheers.

Obama was there to promote the $800 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. $170 million in stimulus money would go to Elkhart County, according to ProPublica.

Fast Forward To Today

Six years later, Neufeldt, 68, is behind the wheel of a Kia, driving around Elkhart County.

In 2009 Ed Neufeldt was an unemployed RV worker who introduced President Obama at an event in Elkhart Indiana. Today he works three part time jobs. If he was the face of the recession back then, today he's the face of a recovery that left some people behind. Hear his story tomorrow on @morningedition.

A photo posted by Tamara Keith (@tamarakeithnpr) on Jan 19, 2015 at 7:15am PST

"You know, I am going to turn down here and show you some of the plants that were closed down," he says. "The one over there in 2009, there was nobody in that building."

Before the crash, Neufeldt and thousands of others reported for work before dawn in these big warehouses, building RVs. As the recession hit, a number of major employers went bankrupt.

Gus Feiler's company, Williamsburg Furniture, makes couches, sleeper sofas and captain's chairs for RVs.

"We lost 75 percent of our volume overnight," says Feiler, sitting in his office. "It was not a recession — it was a damned depression."

He went from 140 employees to 40, and the ones who were left took huge pay cuts. Feiler says he refinanced everything he could just to keep the doors open.

And now?

"Those of us that were lucky enough to survive, we're back," says Feiler, not quite smiling.

In Elkhart, there's a mantra: the RV industry is the first to feel a recession and the first to recover.

In Feiler's three massive, interconnected buildings, more than a dozen women rapidly sew upholstery, and there are saws buzzing and nail guns firing. Captain's chairs for high-end motor coaches are flying out the doors again.

"It is good to hear that noise again," says Feiler. "2009, 2010 were very silent — turn your stomach."

Feiler says his big problem now is finding employees. He'd hire 30 more today if he could.

If You Can Pass A Drug Test, You Can Get A Job

As Neufeldt drives by those once-abandoned warehouses, it's clear from the smoke stacks and the parking lots full of pickup trucks that they're humming again too.

"Evidently, by the looks of the cars there, they've got people working at all these buildings," says Neufeldt. He's on the way to work too.

Today, the unemployment rate in Elkhart County, Ind. is right around 5 percent. That's a bit better than the national average and almost back to what it was before the recession. The saying is that, if you can pass a drug test, you can get a job in Elkhart; Neufeldt has three jobs, all part-time.

"Yeah, everybody's working that wants to work," he says, before getting to the painful kicker: "Really, I drew more on unemployment than I'm making working these three jobs now."

That's not exaggerating. He made more money during the six months he received unemployment benefits than he makes now, despite working more than 50 hours a week.

Neufeldt's main job is stocking shelves for a local bread company, going store-to-store and moving the older loaves to the front.

"You've got to make everything look pretty," Neufeldt says as he methodically shifts around loaves and hotdog buns.

He also works at a grocery store, and in the evenings he cleans a doctor's office. Neufeldt remembers that before the recession hit, his wife told him he had it made.

"I was 62 at the time. She said, 'just work about three more years, we got a great 401(k) going,' " says Neufeldt. "And I think I lost maybe $50,000 when we had that crash."

A Recovery That Left Some Behind

If Neufeldt was the face of the unemployed worker six years ago, today he's the face of a recovery that left some people behind.

"Ed is a survivor," says Larry Thompson, the long-time mayor of Nappanee, Ind., at the southern end of Elkhart County. "You know, he was going to do whatever it took."

Thompson stood in abandoned RV factories and wondered if his community would ever come back. Now, thanks to an improved national economy and lower gas prices, the RV industry is booming again, and Elkhart County right along with it.

"Whatever full employment is, we're close," says Thompson.

The mayor, who describes himself as a "small-town Republican mayor," gladly competed to bring stimulus money to his county. The so-called green jobs didn't last, but the upgrades to the sewer plant made a lasting difference. Ultimately, he has mixed feelings about the Recovery Act.

"But it gave us hope that if we just hang in there and work hard and all work together, this thing will come back," says Thompson.

It gave Neufeldt hope too. He believed in that guy he introduced in the high school gym, even though he never voted for him. But now Neufeldt gets upset when he thinks about how divided the country is.

"If we go out somewhere, which is not very often, they'll say, 'oh did you know Ed introduced President Obama?' " Neufeldt says he used to be kind of proud. "Now I say 'shhh, don't tell anybody!' "

This is the president's challenge: The economy is back, but it is far from perfect. And when you ask people in Elkhart County where the credit goes, they don't talk about President Obama or his policies — they talk about the free-enterprise system, and a community that stuck together.

We tend to think of fugitive slaves ... individually running away, hiding in the woods during the day and traveling at night. But Gay's records indicate that certainly by the 1850s, when the transportation system was well-matured, many of these fugitives escaped in groups, not just alone. ... And they escaped using every mode of transportation you can imagine. They stole carriages — horse-drawn carriages — from their owners, they went out on boats into [the] Chesapeake Bay, little canoes, and tried to go north. Large numbers of them came either on boat from Maryland or Virginia, places like that — they stowed away on boats, which were heading north, often assisted by black crew members — ... or by train. The railroad network was pretty complete by this point and quite a few of these fugitives managed to escape by train, which is a lot quicker than going through the woods. ...

The records that [Gay] kept give a real sense of the ingenuity of many of these fugitives in figuring out many different ways to get away from the South.

On fugitives leaving family behind

Everybody left somebody behind, whether it was a child, parents, brothers, sisters, cousins, et cetera. ... Occasionally you did have family groups managing to escape together, but obviously escaping with a young child would be a rather difficult thing — it would make it much more likely you'd be captured. So this record and other documents of the time are full of rather heartbreaking stories of people who got out and then had to figure out, "Well is there any way I can get some of my relatives [out]." That was not very easy most of the time. ...

Most of the slaves who escape and who are mentioned in this record are young men — men in their 20s, basically. ... Maybe a quarter were women. ... This is part of the human tragedy of slavery that even the act of escaping put people in an almost insoluble kind of dilemma.

On the typical dangers on the way to freedom

The whole South was kind of an armed camp. There were obviously police forces around, there were slave patrols. These were people whose job was to watch out on the roads for slaves who were off their farms or plantations for any reason. ...

Then there was the general status of slaves, you might say. Under the law ... every white person was supposed to keep their eyes open for slaves who were violating the law in some way. You could be stopped by any white person and be asked to show your papers. If a slave was on the road in some way they had to have "free papers" to prove they were a free person or some kind of pass from their owner giving them permission to go to a town or to visit another plantation or something like that.

“ The Underground Railroad was interracial. It's actually something to bear in mind today when racial tensions can be rather strong: This was an example of black and white people working together in a common cause to promote the cause of liberty.

- Eric Foner, author of 'Gateway To Freedom'

Frederick Douglass — who escaped from Maryland before the Underground Railroad was really operative in a strong way in 1838 — ... he wrote in his autobiography about the fear that he felt [that] every white person might be after him. ...

There were professional slave catchers, some of whom went to the North. I give stories of people who were seized in Philadelphia or New York City, sometimes without any legal process at all, and just grabbed and taken to the South, back to slavery.

On how the Underground Railroad was organized

We think of [the Underground Railroad] as a highly organized operation with set routes and stations where people would just go from one to the other, maybe secret passwords. It wasn't nearly as organized as that. I would say it's better described as a series of local networks ... in what I call the "metropolitan corridor of the East," from places like Norfolk, Va., up to Washington, Baltimore, in places in Delaware, Philadelphia, New York and further north. There were local groups, local individuals, who helped fugitive slaves. They were in communication with each other. Their efforts rose and fell. Sometimes these operations were very efficient; sometimes they almost went out of existence. The Philadelphia one basically lapsed for about seven or eight years until coming back into existence in the 1850s.

So one should not think of it as a highly organized system. ... What amazed me is how few people can accomplish a great deal. In New York City, I don't think more than a dozen people at any one time were actively engaged in assisting fugitive slaves, but nonetheless, they did it very effectively. ... I developed a great deal of respect for what a small number of people can do in very difficult circumstances. After all, they are violating federal law and state law by helping fugitive slaves.

On the myth that white abolitionists were the heroes

The No. 1 myth, which I don't think is widely held today but certainly had a long history, is that the Underground Railroad, or indeed the entire abolitionist movement, was [the] activity of humanitarian whites on behalf of helpless blacks — that the heroes were the white abolitionists who assisted these fugitive slaves. Now, they were heroic — and I admire people like that who really put themselves on the line to do this — but the fact is that black people were deeply involved in every aspect of the escape of slaves. ...

In the South, [escapees] were helped by mostly black people, slave and free. When they got to Philadelphia or New York City, local free blacks assisted them all the way up. ...

The Underground Railroad was interracial. It's actually something to bear in mind today when racial tensions can be rather strong: This was an example of black and white people working together in a common cause to promote the cause of liberty.