We’ve invited Elling to answer three questions about other artists nominated for the Grammys. [Copyright 2012 National Public Radio]

Speaking in the White House Briefing Room flanked by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, the president said he was not backing away from the “core principle” that “women will still have access to free preventive care that includes contraceptive services — no matter where they work.”

But at the same time, he said, “we’ve been mindful that there’s another principle at stake here — and that’s the principle of religious liberty.”

The original proposal would have made churches, synagogues and other houses of worship exempt, but not religion-sponsored hospitals, universities and charities.

His contraceptive coverage 2.0 will allow those latter institutions to also opt out, but women will be guaranteed no-cost access to contraception by a requirement that the institution’s insurance company offer the coverage instead.

“The result will be that religious organizations won’t have to pay for these services, and no religious institution will have to provide these services directly,” Obama said. “But women who work at these institutions will have access to free contraceptive services, just like other women, and they’ll no longer have to pay hundreds of dollars a year that could go towards paying the rent or buying groceries.”

Women’s groups were pleased by the announcement.

“Today’s announcement makes it clear that President Obama is firmly committed to protecting women’s health,” said Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America.

But more important, the new proposal brought back into the fold many of those who had reluctantly split with the president over the policy.

“I am pleased that the White House has taken further steps to ensure that all women have access to affordable contraception and to ensure that religious organizations will not be asked to violate their beliefs in the process,” said Tim Kaine, former head of the Democratic National Committee, now running for a swing-state Senate seat in Virginia.

The announcement also won back Sister Carol Keehan, president of the Catholic Health Association, a key ally in getting the 2010 health law passed.

“The framework developed has responded to the issues we identified that needed to be fixed,” she said in a statement.

But not everyone was satisfied. NPR’s Barbara Bradley Hagerty reports that while the head of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops called the shift “a first step in the right direction,” other church officials weren’t so charitable. Archbishop Thomas Wenski of Miami labeled the president’s change “a smoke screen” that obscures issues of religious freedom.

And the reaction from Republicans on Capitol Hill was predictably harsh.

“They’re not sorry they violated the First Amendment; they’re sorry Americans didn’t agree with them when they did,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. “This whole episode demonstrates why politicians should not be the ones to make determinations about religious beliefs and is just another reason why the deeply flawed health law needs to be repealed.”

Some of the most restrained reactions came from those who would be most affected — the insurance companies.

In a statement, the insurance industry trade group America’s Health Insurance Plans said only that “we are concerned about the precedent this proposed rule would set. As we learn more about how this rule would be operationalized, we will provide comments through the regulatory process.”

Other industry onlookers were less reticent.

“There is no free lunch, and there is no free contraception,” said Robert Laszewski, an insurance industry consultant.

He said there is simply no way that insurers will actually pay for the benefits and that they will end up passing the cost back to their customers, including the religious entities who are supposedly being excused.

“We’re going to play a game called, ‘You didn’t tell us to do it so we won’t bring this up,’ ” he said.

And even those with a somewhat more charitable view of the proposal are still worried, such as Helen Darling, president of the National Business Group on Health.

“It isn’t clear exactly how it’s going to work,” said Darling, whose group represents large employers.

Darling said she’s happy the president found a formula that seems to satisfy many in the women’s health-vs.-religious employer divide, but that doesn’t mean that formula will necessarily be a workable one.

“The logistics will be a little bit complicated, there’s no question about that,” she said. [Copyright 2012 National Public Radio]

Last week, Russia and China blocked a U.N. resolution that would have supported the Arab League peace proposals. Since then, the violence has only intensified.

Like other international diplomats, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu is still reeling from Russia and China’s refusal to back the Arab League proposal’s to solve the crisis in Syria.

“It was a typical Cold War picture, which we do not like to see. And we will pay the price. Today we have 12,000 refugees in Turkey,” he says. “Tomorrow, I don’t know how many.”

Davutoglu says Turkey’s borders will remain open to anyone escaping Assad’s regime. He says he wants to do more to help people inside Syria.

“If this humanitarian tragedy continues, of course there should be some ways for the accessibility of food and medicine for these people,” Davutoglu says. “And here the international community has the responsibility to protect innocent people.”

Though he won’t say how, he insists this is not another Libya and that there is no talk of military intervention. Davutoglu says he still holds out hope that Russia will make a new assessment now that Assad seems to have broken his promises and intensified the shelling of Syrian cities.

Davutoglu says Turkey, too, had held out hopes that Assad would be a reformer, but gave up on that idea last year.

He says Turkey hoped that Assad would be a Gorbachev, referring to Mikhail Gorbachev, the reformist Russian leader. “But he preferred to be Milosevic of Syria,” Davutoglu says, referring to Slobodan Milosevic, the ousted Serbian leader who was facing charges of war crimes when he died in prison at The Hague in XXXX.

And Homs today, Davutoglu says, looks a lot like Sarajevo under siege.

The Turkish foreign minister is to meet Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Monday. State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland said the U.S. and its partners are trying to put together a “friends of Syria” group. Though they haven’t settled on a name or a venue for their first meeting, they know what they want.

“The goal of all of the countries and partners that we expect will participate in this is to support the kind of plan that the Arab League put forward, which spoke very clearly about a democratic transition in Syria,” Nuland said.

But just how to get there will be a challenge, says Andrew Tabler of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

“The question is what can this group really do to stop the killing in Syria and what can it do to get humanitarian relief to those who are dying. And that’s where they are coming up with far, far fewer answers than people would expect, given the degree of carnage in Syria,” Tabler says.

The armed opposition might be able to play a role in setting up humanitarian corridors or buffer zones, Tabler says. But so far the U.S. has kept the Free Syrian Army, the anti-government forces, at arms length. He says there is much debate in Washington about that position now.

“If the U.S. is assisting the Syrian opposition, what do they do concerning its armed element? Do you provide nonlethal assistance, lethal assistance?” Tabler says. “Whatever it is, it is a fact on the ground that the U.S. is struggling to deal with. And they are going to need to do that, if they are going to hope to drive the death tolls down and hopefully improve the situation in the short term.”

Davutoglu, the Turkish foreign minister, estimates that 40,000 soldiers have defected from the Syrian army. And though some have gone to Turkey, Davutoglu says his country is not arming or training them. He did not want to talk about tactics under discussion now, saying only his overall goal is to promote a new Syria, where people can chose their leader.

“The Syrian people should decide for the regime, not Bashar Assad himself alone. Syria is not the personal property or family property of Bashar Assad,” Davutoglu says.

And the Turkish official says it’s vital now for the world to send a signal to Syrians that they are not alone. [Copyright 2012 National Public Radio]

And he kept his Mitt Romney powder dry, preferring instead to attack establishment Republicans who have not embraced the Gingrich campaign. To put it mildly.

That establishment, Gingrich charged, is “managing the decay” of the party, and sees his campaign as a “mortal threat” to their insider Washington lives.

“We intend to change Washington,” the former House speaker said, “not accommodate it.”

Delivering a version of his familiar stump speech, Gingrich faced a lukewarm crowd that he managed to bring around with his trademark mix of humor, history, media jabs and a laundry list of promises whose only omission was his plan to build a lunar colony.

These are the bold ideas, Gingrich said, after ticking off the legislation he would repeal, the federal agencies he’d close, and the study commissions he has planned.

He acknowledged his lack of money and organization, but said he’s undeterred.

“We are running a people campaign,” Gingrich said, with little money, but with “a plan.”

“We need to teach the Republican establishment a lesson,” he said.

Gingrich’s address followed speeches earlier in the day by two of his three rivals for the GOP presidential nomination: former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum. Texas Rep. Ron Paul did not attend the event. [Copyright 2012 National Public Radio]

Under the new rule, employers with a religious objection to offering contraceptive coverage as part of their health care plans wouldn’t have to provide it directly. Instead, the requirement to provide that coverage free of charge would fall on the insurance companies.

Some Catholics believe the president’s new rule resolves the religious liberty issues. But others, including key bishops, say it is smoke and mirrors.

‘A First Step’ Or Nothing ‘Substantial’?

In a statement, Timothy Dolan, the head of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said the president’s new rule is “a first step in the right direction.” He said the bishops are reserving judgment until they see the details.

But Archbishop Thomas Wenski already sees big problems ahead. Wenski, who heads the Catholic archdiocese of Miami, has said in the past that he couldn’t comply with the health care mandate. Friday’s announcement has not changed his mind.

“I think what he’s offered today is a smoke screen in which he has decided to kick the can down the road in the hope that the controversy will go away,” Wenski says. “I think he is mistaken.”

Wenski says this is a unilateral decision. The White House didn’t consult the bishops, as far as he knows. He says the rule still mandates that employees of Catholic charities, hospitals and universities receive birth control coverage.

“I don’t believe he’s offered us anything really substantial,” Wenski says. “We still have serious issues and these are issues of religious freedom.”

Wenski notes that shifting the burden to insurance companies doesn’t solve the religious liberty problems either — since many dioceses and charities are self-insured, and would be violating their religious principles.

Ending A Stalemate?

But Sister Carol Keehan, who heads the Catholic Health Association, was cheered by the White House response.

“I think that they listened to us and they heard the things that we were most concerned about, and we’re pleased,” she said.

Keehan, whose association oversees some 600 Catholic hospitals, believes everyone wins. Women get the health care they want, the church does not have to pay for or endorse birth control, and the stalemate is ended. Now, she says, the country can implement health care reform, which has at its core a principle dear to the church — helping the poor and uninsured.

The Rev. Thomas Reese, a Jesuit priest at Georgetown University’s Woodstock Theological Center, agrees. For the past few weeks, he says, the bishops have dominated the debate. They’ve drawn support from both conservative and liberal Catholics.

“The bishops were getting support because people saw this as a religious liberty issue. They were not supporting the bishops in their opposition to contraceptives,” he says.

Reese believes that by ensuring that religious groups do not have to pay for or recommend birth control coverage, that religious liberty issue has gone away. And in the end, most Catholic women want, and use, birth control.

Archbishop Wenski of Miami says the two sides will keep talking, but in the end, there’s only one right outcome: “The best thing would be rescission — to take back the whole mandate and go back to the status quo before.”

That’s something the administration has said it will not do. [Copyright 2012 National Public Radio]

Forty-three-year-old Wayne Elise is a conservative and a real life dating guru. He’s otherwise known as the “Libertarian ‘Hitch.’”

“Conservative people have a hard time hooking up,” Elise says. “They have a hard time meeting people sometimes because they’re way too serious.” Have a sense of humor, Elise advises his audience. “Be yourself and avoid being mundane.”

His tips could benefit anyone, regardless of their politics. But then, maybe that’s the point. John Hawkins blogs for Right Wing News, and he invited Elise to the conference.

“It’s not all that different,” Hawkins says. “Conservative dating. They’re still people.” They still have questions about sex, and how to approach someone you’re attracted to. And Elise is full of answers.

Learn how to flirt, he tells the relatively few women in his audience. And guys, “be more sexual.” “That doesn’t mean like, you go and say ‘Hey, you wanna have sex?’” Elise says. “It does mean hey, tell a girl why you find her attractive.”

And don’t be afraid to look outside your own political circles for a partner. “People mostly stick to their own group, and that’s a shame,” he says.

CPAC attendee Jacqueline Otto agrees, but only up to a point. “What wouldn’t work is if you’re a conservative and the other person just doesn’t care,” Otto says. “The other person doesn’t value what it means for you to be conservative.”

What’s important, says John Hawkins, is that there’s room for amicable debate. “It has to be the sort of thing where they’re okay with you thinking Al Gore’s a moron, and you’re ok with them not liking Sarah Palin,” he says.

And you need to enjoy spending time doing other, non-political things together. Elise suggests strolling through downtown Manhattan taking Polaroid pictures of each other.

But 31-year-old Ryan Horn had another idea: a gun range. He says shooting some rounds with his girlfriend was a major part of his wooing process. “That’s what worked on our second date and I think it will work on our fourth and fifth,” he says. Horn says that’s where they’ll be spending Valentine’s Day, too. [Copyright 2012 National Public Radio]

Tacitly acknowledging that his past positions on abortion rights and health care mandates have made him suspect with a swath of his party’s base, Romney used his speech to describe his “path to conservatism” as a mix of family values, faith and his “life’s work” in business.

“I know conservatism because I’ve lived conservatism,” Romney told the receptive American Conservative Union crowd that packed the ballroom at a Washington hotel. “I want to get my hands on Washington, D.C.”

Focusing his fire almost exclusively on President Obama, Romney made perhaps his most impassioned and complete case to date for his candidacy, which, despite superior organization and money, has failed to catch fire with the base.

He tailored his language to place himself as one with his audience, frequently invoking “we conservatives” and “as conservatives.”

“This election is a defining moment for America, for the conservative movement,” he said, a time to “go forward shoulder to shoulder.”

What distinguishes the candidates running for the GOP nomination, he said, is the “nature of our life’s experiences.” He stressed his 25 years in business, and elicited applause when he said he was “not ashamed to say” he was successful at it.

He also defended his tenure as governor in Massachusetts, and characterized himself as the only candidate who has not worked in Washington. (He did try to get there twice before, running for the U.S. Senate in Massachusetts in 1994, and for the GOP nomination in 2008.)

“I fought against long odds in a deep blue state,” he said. “But I was a severely conservative governor.”

Romney’s much-anticipated speech came at a critical moment for the former Massachusetts governor, who, after big victories in Florida and Nevada, was snubbed last week by Republican primary and caucus-goers in three state presidential contests.

He’s also been taking fresh and hard fire from the surging Rick Santorum, who won those contests in Missouri, Colorado and Minnesota — though none added to his presidential delegate count.

In a speech earlier in the day, Santorum, a former Pennsylvania senator, without naming Romney, ripped into him for his support of a health care overhaul in Massachusetts that served as a model for Obama’s health care legislation.

Republicans, Santorum said, can’t cede the “Obamacare” issue before the general election race even begins. He characterized the Massachusetts plan approved when Romney was governor as the “stepchild of Obamacare.”

It’s become the major refrain from Santorum, who, backed by his wife and six of his seven children, drew thunderous applause and a few standing ovations.

Santorum also hit on what has been a common theme at this year’s convention: how to define “electability” — someone who can appeal to the broad middle needed to win a general election, or someone whose staunch conservative bona fides can excite the party.

“We need conservatives now to rally for a conservative to go into November to excite the conservative base,” he said, “to pull with that excitement moderate voters, and to defeat Barack Obama in the fall.”

Romney took a fairly big step Friday in his attempt to position himself as that conservative and to convince his harshest critics that he’s one of them.

“Let’s do it together,” he said.

Later Friday, GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich will get his star turn at the convention, ready, like Santorum, to direct his fire at Romney, too. [Copyright 2012 National Public Radio]

The massive, powerful and deadly saltwater crocodile — the world’s largest living reptile — is the evolutionary triumph of 50 million years of natural selection. And in Darwin, the crocodile is equally dreaded and beloved.

Crocodylus porosus was hunted to near extinction in the last century. But in 1974, the Australian government put the species, known affectionately as the “Australian salty,” under federal protection.

Today, the salty’s population has rebounded to near pre-colonial numbers. An estimated 100,000 are thriving in the sluggish estuaries and billabongs, or backwaters, of the Northern Territory — also known as Australia’s “Top End.”

A Big Comeback

“Our main thing we do now is full-time crocodile management in the Top End,” says Tom Nichols, a wildlife ranger with the Northern Territory government parks and wildlife service. The job has its occupational hazards. An irate crocodile took a chomp out of Nichols’ left hand nine years ago. His hand was sewn up and he went back to work.

The Northern Territory’s crocodile rangers capture between 250 and 300 saltys a year. The rangers nab them in floating traps in Darwin Harbour and wrestle them out of populated areas. The rangers then zip-tie and duct-tape their jaws and sell the animals to crocodile farms.

“We are finding crocs in areas we never found ‘em before, such as right in the town of Darwin itself,” Nichols says. “We find ‘em in swimming pools and in backyards. We have a 24-hour callout number and we’re forever getting calls at this time of year during the wet season,” when saltwater crocodiles like to move into fresh water.

Dwyn Delaney, an outdoorsman and gun fancier, owns a Western wear store in Darwin. Like some others in the Northern Territory, he’s concerned the salty population may have come back too strong.

“They’re everywhere. You fall in the drink, in rivers, you wanna get outta there real quick,” Delaney says.

He feels it’s time to start culling the crocodiles to reduce their numbers. And Delaney, whose shop is full of dead animal heads, would be happy to volunteer. “I am armed to the teeth here,” he says.

There have been five confirmed fatal croc attacks since 2005 in the Nothern Territory, and two unconfirmed deaths in which the bodies were never recovered. In the most recent confirmed case, in April 2010, an 11-year-old girl was swimming in Lambells Lagoon when she was — in local parlance – “taken” by a crocodile.

That was the last straw for the territory. Alarmed wildlife managers initiated a safety and awareness program called Crocwise, complete with public service announcements and stern signs warning which water holes are unsafe for swimming.

A Fraught, But Symbiotic, Relationship

Darwin residents fear the crocodile, but they also admire it — and some depend on it for their livelihoods. Australian crocodile farms exported 52,000 skins in 2010, and the region boasts a dozen river tours, known as “croc cruises,” where boatloads of tourists can watch a behemoth salty leap from the river for meat on a stick from only a few feet away. It’s a riveting sight — the largest adult males can reach 20 feet in length and weigh more than a ton.

And crocodiles sell newspapers.

Matt Cunningham, editor of the NT News, puts a croc photo on the front page several times a week. The newspaper is famous throughout Australia for its carnivorous journalism.

“As far the NT News goes, there’s no such thing as too many crocodile stories,” Cunningham says. “Crocodiles are amazing beasts. Darwin is one of the few places in the world where man and crocodile live, sort of, side by side.”

Would-be crocodile hunter Delaney is all too familiar with the local abundance of crocodile stories.

“The only thing that’ll get a croc off the front page of that paper is a dingo story or a cyclone,” he says.

Or, adds Cunningham, the first sting of the season from another deadly aquatic neighbor: the box jellyfish. [Copyright 2012 National Public Radio]

The Vatican endorsed the symposium — called “Toward Healing and Renewal” — the aim of which was changing the culture of how the church deals with cases of pedophile priests.

One of the highlights was a late-afternoon penitential mass on Feb. 7 — apparently the first time a senior Vatican official conducted a service to ask the forgiveness of abuse victims.

In his homily, Cardinal Marc Ouellet, who runs the Vatican’s congregation for bishops, called the crisis “a source of great shame and enormous scandal.”

“The first step on this road is to listen to them carefully and to believe their painful stories,” he said.

A Victim Speaks

But there was only one victim to listen to at a symposium that gathered many bishops and religious superiors. Marie Collins, 65, recalled how she was raped as a 13-year-old by a hospital chaplain in her native Ireland.

In her prepared remarks, Collins described how “those fingers that would abuse my body the night before were the next morning holding and offering me the sacred host.”

And she insisted on accountability for the harm and destruction done to victims through cover-ups and mishandling of cases.

“The guidelines must have something backing them in the way of a penalty or a consequence for any religious leader or bishop who decides not to implement them,” she said.

American Cardinal William Levada, who heads the Vatican office that deals with clerical sex abuse, delivered the keynote address. He defended Pope Benedict XVI, saying he has been instrumental in cracking down against pedophile clergy.

“Unfortunately, the pope has had to suffer attacks, especially by the media over these past years in various parts of the world, when he should receive the gratitude of us all, in the church and outside it,” Levada said.

But the cardinal acknowledged that the more than 4,000 cases reported to his office in the past decade revealed the inadequacy of applying canon law alone.

The Vatican, however, has yet to rule that all abusive priests be reported to civil authorities – whether required by law or not.

Critics Say It’s Not Enough

Several victims’ advocates criticized the symposium as “cheap window-dressing.” They have long demanded that the Vatican make public decades of secret files on clergy sex offenders and their enablers.

One symposium speaker, the Vatican’s prosecutor in sex abuse cases, Monsignor Charles Scicluna, said canon law already provides sanctions for bishops who do not report predator priests.

But Vatican analyst John Allen of the National Catholic Reporter wonders whether the sanctions will be applied.

“I don’t think the problem is law,” Allen says. “I think the problem is will to enforce it. We have heard senior Vatican personnel commit themselves to a tough new standard of accountability for bishops, too. The question is going to be, ‘Are we actually going to see that enforced in the real world?’”

Still, Allen says that the symposium could be a sign that within the Vatican, on the issue of clerical sex abuse, the center of gravity is moving away from the deniers and toward the reformers. [Copyright 2012 National Public Radio]

In recent years, dozens of new angel investor groups have formed to finance startup companies that banks and venture capitalists deem too risky in this post-recession era. Today, there are about 350 angel investment groups across the country — 50 of them formed after the recession started in 2008.

Kelly Fitzsimmons is the co-founder of an angel-supported startup. As waiters in white shirts and black ties take drink orders, Fitzsimmons makes her way across the Milwaukee social club’s shiny, red tile floor. Over five years, this group of investors has given Fitzsimmons more than $1 million for HarQen, her fourth Milwaukee startup. HarQen is a Web-based service that records voice conversations and allows users to take notes, share photos or slides, and then quickly retrieve key passages once the conversation is over. Right now, it’s used mainly for job interviews by staffing companies.

“We text, we email, we tweet,” Fitzsimmons says, “and yet when a conversation is vital, we stop texting, and we pick up the phone and we talk.”

At least that’s what Fitzsimmons hopes we do. Tonight, she’s asking Silicon Pastures to open their checkbooks yet again. She says angels have become a lifeline for entrepreneurs who can’t get a bank loan or don’t have the cash to bootstrap a company on their own.

‘The Guts Of The American Experience’

Silicon Pastures is one of more than 20 angel investor groups in Wisconsin. That makes for an awful lot of money in the dairy state, considering you have to be a millionaire to join an angel group.

Tim Keane is director of the Golden Angels, another Milwaukee investor group. He says such groups allow investors to spread the risk and bet on ventures they may know nothing about.

“We had a deal a couple of years ago that was [an] advanced generator of hydroxyl radicals for purifying water,” Keane says. “And the guy said that to me, and I thought, ‘Hmm, I wouldn’t know a hydroxyl radical if it shook my hand.’ “

But another member of the group did know about hydroxyl radicals and encouraged fellow investors to pour money into the company. Keane says the group genuinely cares about helping good local companies grow by providing guidance and networking, in addition to cash. He says Golden Angels’ investments over seven years have generated thousands of new jobs in Wisconsin.

“All growth in this economy comes from startups; it comes from people forming new companies and new ideas and taking risks,” Keane says. “To me, that’s the guts of the American experience.”

After their latest meeting in Milwaukee, Silicon Pastures investors likely won’t put their checkbooks away for long. In a few weeks, entrepreneurs in the field of telemedicine will pitch to the group, hoping for cash to turn their startups into profitable businesses. [Copyright 2012 Milwaukee Public Radio]