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If you want to observe one of Washington's most delicate balancing acts, look no further than President Obama's effort to assert leadership on immigration legislation without its coming to be identified as a new Obamalaw.

Because they're keenly aware of how nearly any legislative effort that becomes known as the president's baby almost immediately makes his political foes hellbent on stopping it and denying him a victory, Obama and other White House officials have been committed to letting Congress take the lead on major legislation like immigration reform.

His challenge is to show just enough presidential leadership on an issue he campaigned on but not so much that he fires up those opposed to him on general principle, the Senate immigration legislation or both.

That's why, at a Tuesday event at the White House, he seemed to be using a style used to describe his approach to Libya — leading from behind. The president emphasized that the legislation the Senate is considering isn't his but the Senate's. True, he supports much that's in it. But he was speaking not as an author of the legislation, but as a fan.

With a bipartisan array of allies of an immigration overhaul behind him in the White House East Room, representing business, organized labor and immigrant-rights activists, the president said:

"So there's no reason Congress can't get this done by the end of the summer. Remember, the process that led to this bill was open and inclusive. For months the bipartisan Gang of Eight looked at every issue, reconciled competing ideas, built a compromise that works. Then the Judiciary Committee held numerous hearings. More than a hundred amendments were added, often with bipartisan support. And the good news is every day that goes by, more and more Republicans and Democrats are coming out to support this common-sense immigration reform bill.

"And I'm sure the bill will go through a few more changes in the weeks to come. But this much is clear: If you genuinely believe we need to fix our broken immigration system, there's no good reason to stand in the way of this bill."

The president could have added, as he has in the past on other issues, that his support for the bill shouldn't be reason to oppose it, but why state the obvious?

By now, Obama has plenty of experience with that balancing act.

On gun control, an issue precipitated by December's Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, a shocked and angry nation compelled him to take charge on the issue, which he did with Vice President Biden's task force and its wide-ranging recommendations.

But the realities of gun politics — and the fears Obama evokes for many gun owners who believe he wants their guns — argued against a gun-control effort spearheaded by him. So he got behind the more narrow and ultimately unsuccessful background-check legislation championed by Republican Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Democratic Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania.

By the end of the sequester fight, Obama also had taken a back seat to Congress, preferring as the deadline approached to use his bully pulpit to warn Americans of the difficulties the cuts would bring instead of negotiating with congressional Republicans.

Even as he seeks to keep his political adversaries from blocking his priorities, Obama is still capable of mocking them. On Tuesday, he appeared to do just that while subtly raising the possibility that race might be a factor in resistance to the current crop of immigrants.

"The notion that somehow those who came through Ellis Island had all their papers right" (long laughter from the audience) "you know, had — had — had checked every box and followed procedures as they were getting on that boat — they were looking for a better life, just like these families."

In the end, if an immigration bill finally becomes law, Obama will be able to take some credit. After all, he did win re-election by campaigning on fixing the nation's broken immigration system. And, of course, there would be the instantly historic photos of him signing the legislation.

But he doesn't want too much credit, at least not right now.

"Medellin has undergone a transformation in the last few years, what we call a metamorphosis because of its dimensions," said Mayor Anibal Gaviria. "All this in 20 or 25 years. We went from being the most violent city in the world to today being in the top 25."

The city built new, modern schools and futuristic libraries. There were new parks, complete with bike lanes and public squares. But the most famous innovation has been the use of gondolas and ski lifts to move tens of thousands of people each day, connecting them to a modern metro.

The city also found another way for residents to get around in neighborhoods built on mountainsides: an escalator that rises up the Comuna 13 district, taking residents 1,300 feet up toward their homes.

Astrid Ramirez, age 38, is among those who gush about the investments. She lives in a district that used to take an hour to get to, riding a bus along narrow streets that rose up into the mountains. Now, she spends a quiet few minutes riding above it all in a cable car.

"It's very good because it saves time from the traffic jams and it also saves money because you can ride really far for very little money," she said.

'Still Worried'

But despite the improvements to mass transit, Ramirez expresses concern about crime.

"On the theme of security, here in Medellin?" she said, frowning. "In all of Medellin? I think it's bad. There are too many gangs that want to take over the neighborhoods."

Indeed, Luis Fernando Quijano, an expert on crime and gangs, says that Medellin remains a dangerous city.

There are still warring drug traffickers, he says. He also talks of people who went missing and are likely dead, and the 9,000 residents who were forced from their homes last year because of crime.

"I'm still worried," he said.

Quijano said that extortion of small businesses remains serious, and that witnesses are afraid to talk to the police because of what street hoods might do to them.

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NPR's Uri Berliner is taking $5,000 of his own savings and putting it to work. Though he's no financial whiz or guru, he's exploring different types of investments — alternatives that may fare better than staying in a savings account that's not keeping up with inflation.

Reckless bets on real estate can cause trouble. They can, for example, help to bring down the global economy. But many financial advisers say including some real estate in an investment or retirement portfolio is a good idea. It adds diversification.

And real estate prices are rising. Here's one way to tell: The house-flipping shows are back on cable. Buy, remodel, sell, repeat. We've been there before, and it didn't end happily. And yet prices fell so hard during the crash — 50 percent or more in some parts of the country — that a rebound just makes sense. Real estate watchers are divided on whether fundamentals justify further price increases or whether the market is getting too frothy again.

Josh Dorkin runs a real estate investment website called Bigger Pockets. I asked him what kind of real estate bet I can make for $1,000. His advice: Be careful.

"We're kind of in a bubble once again," he says. "We've got these low interest rates; we've got the big money funds coming into the market. And of course if you're savvy and know what you're doing, there's always going to be an opportunity."

Dorkin runs me through my options.

"You could go and flip a house. Of course, you'd need to go out and take out a high-risk loan more likely than not to do that and of course doing that is really kind of like running a job in itself."

Range of REITs

Curious about some of Uri's other REIT holdings?

Storage units: When the housing market picks up, people move more often. They need someplace to stash their stuff for a while. They want more space, and they rent it from storage unit companies that are REITs.

Data centers: Data centers are like unfurnished apartments for digital information. They're secure and climate controlled with plenty of reliable power. With more companies using the cloud, demand for these digital apartments is growing.

Parents steer their kids to media for all kinds of things: as a distraction so they can make dinner, to teach letters and numbers, and for pure entertainment. There are also times when parents rely on books, TV, museums and other media when they aren't quite sure how to approach a difficult topic by themselves.

Linda Ellerbee is the queen of hard subjects. Domestic abuse, Sept. 11, alcoholism and living with HIV are among the many tough issues she's covered in the 22 years since she's hosted NickNews on Nickelodeon. The show is written for 9- to 13-year-olds, and Ellerbee says her one rule of thumb is don't dumb it down.

"Our viewers are smart people," she says. "They are merely younger, less experienced and shorter." They also possess a more limited vocabulary, but Ellerbee she still uses words they might not know, like "intervention" or "hijacking."

"If I'm going to use a word that I think a 10-year-old might not understand," she says, "I either explain what the word means or use it in such a way that it's absolutely clear what the word means. I don't change the word."

NickNews is also known for letting kids do the talking: Children who've experienced all kinds of difficulties go on air to explain what their lives are like and how they're coping. Ellerbee says it's an effective way to explain a hard subject to young people. But, she cautions, don't do it too soon.

"That's why we haven't gone to Newtown yet to do a show with those kids or, you know, about what happened," she says. "It's about timing. You need to sort of let some things settle."

For the producers of Glee, meanwhile, the right time was four months after Newtown. Last April, the Fox series did an episode in which the high school goes on lockdown when a student's gun goes off. Some Newtown, Conn., residents urged people in the community to boycott the show.

“ The way adolescent brain works is such that 'bad things happen to other people' ... So what I think ['Glee'] did was to strike empathy and understanding amongst that age group.