In a June 27 "Crime" blog post, Justin Peters originally stated that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is 20 years old. He is 19.
In a June 27 "Future Tense" blog post, Jason Bittel left the "s" off of Geriatrics in the American Geriatrics Society.
In a June 27 "Future Tense" blog post, Jason Bittel originally omitted the word "Democratic" from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
In a June 27 "Moneybox" blog post, Matthew Yglesias misspelled Nicola Fuchs-Sch?ndeln's last name.
In a June 26, "Frame Game," William Saletan misidentified the litigants who sought to reinstate California?s ban on gay marriage. They were petitioners, not the plaintiffs.
In a June 26 ?Jurisprudence,? Jessica Winter defined the Scalia-ism "lynch mob" as an epithet used by opponents of marriage equality. Scalia employs it as an epithet used by proponents of marriage equality.
In a June 26 "Moneybox" blog post, Matthew Yglesias described the Federal Reserve's dual mandate as including "maximum unemployment." The Fed is supposed to maximize employment and minimize unemployment.
In a June 26 ?Technology,? Will Oremus misspelled the surname of LinkedIn product lead Brad Mauney.
In a June 26 ?Weigel? blog post, Emma Roller wrote that Glenn Greenwald has citizenship in Brazil. He is living in Brazil on a permanent visa.
In the June 25 ?Interrogation? of Pedro Almod?var, June Thomas asserted that the director?s brother, Agust?n, didn?t make a cameo appearance in the 1995 film The Flower of My Secret. In fact, he is seen in the press room of El Pa?s newspaper.
In a June 25 ?Weigel? blog post, David Weigel misspelled John Dickerson?s last name.
In a June 24 "Crime" blog post, Justin Peters stated that Edwin Ernesto Rivera Gracias has a round, unmemorable baby face. Jose Manuel Garcia Guevara is the baby-faced fugitive in question.
In a June 24 Mad Men ?TV Club,? Hanna Rosin misstated that Sally got kicked out of school. She was suspended.?
Slate?strives to correct all errors of fact. If you've seen an error in our pages, let us know at?corrections@slate.com. General comments should be?posted?in our Comments sections at the bottom of each article.
Intel has had a prominent role in the consumer solid-state drive (SSD) market since it launched its 80GB X25-M solid-state drive back in 2009. The chip giant has followed up with refreshed devices at regular intervals, most recently with the SSD 335 Series. The 180GB 335 Series drive we're reviewing today is the second SKU to launch; Intel shipped a larger 240GB model last December. This new drive is a decent performer, but its reliance on older controller technology leave it wedged in the middle of the pack.
There's not much difference between the new SSD 335 Series drives and the 330 Series, which launched a little over a year ago. Both the 330 and 335 families use the SandForce SF-2281 controller. Both offer SATA 6G support, a three-year warranty, and the same base performance specs (500MBps sequential read and 450MBps sequential write). The older drive uses 25nm MLC NAND, while the newer 335 Series is based on Intel's 20nm NAND. SSDs aren't known for drawing much power, but the 335 is specced as having a maximum power draw of 350mW, with idle power consumption of 275mW. That's significantly less than the SSD 330 Series, which was specced for 850mW under load and 600mW in idle.
Save for the reduced power consumption, the shift to 20nm NAND is mostly an advantage for Intel, rather than a direct benefit to consumers. The 20nm NAND is significantly smaller than 25nm NAND, which means Intel can fit more memory chips on a given silicon wafer. The shift to smaller manufacturing geometries (also called nodes) is one reason why the price of SSDs has dropped precipitously in the past few years. The new 20nm NAND chips (shown to scale in the image above), are just 40% the size of the 34nm NAND Intel was using four years ago.
Intel drives tend to carry a fair amount of additional (overprovisioned) Flash. The 180GB SSD 335 actually contains 192GB of RAM; the additional 12GB is rotated into use as blocks of the original 180GB wear out and need to be retired. One of the downsides to using NAND built on a smaller process is that the memory can't handle as many program/erase cycles. Despite this trend, Intel rates the SSD 335 is as robust as the previous SSD 330 family.
We compared the 180GB Intel SSD 335 against the Samsung 840 Pro Series 256GB and the OCZ Vector Series VTR1-25SAT3-256G. Our review unit was tested using an Asus P877V-Deluxe motherboard with 8GB of DDR3-1600 and an Intel Core i7-3770K CPU. The P877-V Deluxe offers multiple SATA controllers from Intel and Marvell; all of the drives were connected to Intel's 6G SATA port.
Of principle interest here is whether the 335's older SandForce controller can keep up with newer options from OCZ and Samsung. The SF-2281 controller has mostly been popping up in budget drives of late, and SandForce is expected to launch a new SF-3000 controller series later this year.
The performance figures for AS-SSD and SiSoft Sandra tests reflect a drive's performance in a particular type of data workload. Sequential read/write tests measure an SSD's capabilities when reading or writing a large block of contiguous data. A single large movie or ISO image will test a drive's sequential performance (assuming that the target drive isn't badly fragmented). In AS-SSD, the Intel 335's sequential read speeds weren't far off the OCZ Vector and Samsung 840 Pro (465MBps compared to 509 MBps and 518 MBps, respectively), but sequential write performance was significantly lower. The Intel 335 managed 252MBps, while the OCZ Vector clocked in at 495MBps and the Samsung 840 Pro scored 481MBps.
The 4K read/write tests ascertain the performance of an SSD or HDD when reading and writing small chunks of data. These small read/writes are vital to the everyday performance of a storage solution. The "64 Threads" test in AS-SSD means that the benchmark program spins off 64 separate 4K read/write tasks. This stretches the controller's ability to manage such workloads, but also provides a more realistic performance metric?an operating system is constantly reading and writing data to multiple services and programs simultaneously. The Intel 335 lagged behind the OCZ and Samsung drives at 203MBps read and 214MBps write. The OCZ Vector logged read/write speeds of 359MBps and 304MBps with the 840 Pro at 381MBps read, 299MBps write.
The random read/write performance data from SiSoft Sandra that we also quote is a measure of a drive's sustained performance when reading and writing a contiguous block of information to a randomly chosen location. These metrics are important because they collectively measure the different types of storage tasks an SSD or HDD performs, even if they don't represent user workloads.
SiSoft Sandra again shows the Intel 335 competing well in read performance (485MBps, while the OCZ Vector and Samsung 840 Pro both tie at 530MBps). Write performance is the drive's weak spot -- the Intel 335's SF-2281 controller turns in 225MBps in random write performance. That's less than half the OCZ Vector's 509MBps random write or the Samsung 840 Pro's 507MBps.
Finally, there's PCMark 7, which is a different type of test. The benchmark uses real storage workloads created by recording traces of hard drive activity when playing games, loading music or video, or copying files. These traces are used to measure the performance of storage products in comprehensive real-world scenarios.
The difference between SSDs in PCMark 7 tends to be much smaller than what we see in other synthetic tests. The Intel 335 scored a 5214, compared to a 5419 for the OCZ Vector and a 5588 for the Samsung 840 Pro. The gap between the Intel SSD 335 and the other drives is roughly ~7%.
Right now, the Intel 335 Series 180GB is selling for about $175, or just under $1 per GB. That compares fairly well to the cost-per-GB of an OCZ Vector ($269 for 256GB at NewEgg) or the Samsung 840 Pro ($249 for 256GB at NewEgg). The OCZ and Samsung options, however, are significantly faster than the Intel 335 Series. The SF-2281 controller has migrated to budget SSDs for a reason; it was cutting edge when it debuted in 2011, but its performance has been surpassed by other products.
That doesn't mean the Intel 335 is devoid of strong points. Intel has over-provisioned the drive by about 6.7%, which is fairly high for consumer hardware. The company has a reputation for high-quality NAND flash, and the included SSD toolbox software interfaces well with Windows and can auto-optimize an OS installation to run on solid state storage as well as manually triggering the TRIM command.
When push comes to shove, however, the Intel 335 Series 180GB SSD is in a bit of a no-man's land. There are budget drives, like Samsung's 840, that offer a lower cost per GB. There are higher-performing drives for the same cost per GB. If you can grab one of the 180GB or 240GB drives on sale, or if you're fond of Intel-branded products, then the Series 335 180GB SSD is a good option. Other buyers will find newer hardware a better deal.
A bear broke into a Tennessee zoo earlier this week.
A neighbor called the Knoxville Zoo late Monday night and alerted a ranger, saying there was a bear in a nearby park, according to Tina Rolen, assistant director of marketing at the zoo.
A short while later, the ranger saw what he presumed to be the same bear climbing over a fence and into the zoo.
But it was unclear where, exactly, the ursine interloper wound up.
The ranger had to wake up the zoo?s four resident bears on Monday to conduct a "nose count."
?They weren?t too happy with us,? said Rolen. After multiple sweeps the next morning, zoo employees once again counted only the four bears that are supposed to be there.
Rolen said the bear was probably a black bear, based on what is native to Knoxville.
?He must have left as quickly as he came,? said Rolen.
While the zoo has encountered dogs, cats and other small animals trying to break in, Rolen said a bear visit was ?a first for us.?
However, she wasn?t surprised since numerous bear sightings have been reported in the area recently.
Rolen said because it is breeding season and because the bears are in the process of ?fattening up? to get ready to hibernate, they are more likely to ?roam around the area? looking for food and mates.
?They can sneak up on you? but usually ?they really don?t want any part of us, they?re afraid of us,? said Rolen, adding that their diets consist mostly of berries, acorns and insects.
A chairman of the Bear Specialist Group and expert on human-bear relations, John Beecham, said in an email, ?bears moving through urban areas do not pose much of a threat to people.?
From what the ranger could see, the bear was about 150 to 200 pounds, leading him to believe he or she was quite young, Rolen said.
Beecham explained, ?In some cases, you will find young bears and females living in close proximity to urban areas because it provides [them] with a level of security that they don't have when competing with large males in wilder environments.?
But Rolen had come up with her own, slightly less-scientific reasoning. ?We do have one of the best bear habitats in the country. Word is out in the bear community that our bears are spoiled,? she said.
There's more than a few enterprises that have an eye on filling the void in the RSS market left by Google's curious withdrawal. Digg is one of those hoping to woo Mountain View's refugees and has updated its iOS app to incorporate its experimental new service, which offers direct imports from Google Reader. It's available from the App Store right now, but we'd be remiss if we didn't mention that there are other, ahem, AOL-sanctioned, alternatives.
Republican Senator from Arizona John McCain (L) and Democratic Senator from New York Chuck Schumer (R) talk with the media outside the Senate chamber after the immigration bill passed a crucial vote to move forward to a final vote in the US Capitol in Washington, DC, USA, 27 June 2013. (Photo by Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA)
The Senate passed a comprehensive immigration reform bill with bipartisan support on Thursday, the culmination of months of negotiations between Democratic and Republican senators. But their effort faces diminishing prospects in the Republican-led House, where Speaker John Boehner reiterated on Thursday that he would not vote on the Senate?s bill.
The bill passed on a 68-32 vote presided over by Vice President Joe Biden. Every Democratic senator voted ?aye? along with 14 Republicans, including the GOP members of the bipartisan ?Gang of Eight? who negotiated the bill: Marco Rubio of Florida, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, and John McCain and Jeff Flake of Arizona.
?The finish line is very close to here,? Majority Leader Harry Reid said in a speech immediately preceding the vote. ?Down this very long hallway to the House of Representatives.?
In an effort to bring more Republicans on board and put pressure on the House to follow their lead, Democrats agreed to back an amendment by GOP senators Bob Corker and John Hoeven adding $38 billion to border security. While its passage brought some Republicans into the fold, it fell just short of reformers? stated goals of attracting 70 or more votes. And if the goal was to make the House feel compelled to act, they haven?t shown much willingness to do so.
Related: DOMA decision to end exile of gay couples abroad
While Reid said he was ?confident? that Congress would follow suit, recent developments have pro-reform lawmakers concerned that House Republican leaders are souring on a broad immigration bill along the Senate?s lines. On Thursday, Boehner set the bar high for a vote on any immigration legislation, saying that it would have to first garner support from a majority of Republicans.
?The House is not going to take up and vote on whatever the Senate passes,? Boehner told reporters. ?We?re going to do our own bill through regular order, and it will be legislation that reflects the will of our majority and the will of the American people.?
Few political observers believe there are enough GOP votes in the conservative House, whose members are mostly insulated from Latino voters in safe seats, to pass a bill with a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. Recently, the House Judiciary Committee has started work on legislation aimed at criminalizing and deporting undocumented immigrants with help from local authorities, a policy modeled on Arizona?s SB 1070 law, which helped spark a backlash from Latino voters around the country. They could follow through with several smaller bills on high-tech visas and guest workers, but Senate Democrats and Latino groups are unlikely to support anything short of a comprehensive package that includes a citizenship component.
The Senate?s bill includes four main components. First, it would provide limited legal status to undocumented immigrants who register with the government, pay a fine, and pass a background check. It would also give many of them the option to apply for a green card after 10 years and citizenship after 13 if they stay out of legal trouble and learn English. Second, it would crack down on illegal hiring by requiring businesses to check whether their employees are authorized to work using the government?s E-Verify system. Third, it would overhaul the legal immigration system, allowing businesses to hire low-skilled workers for jobs they can demonstrate Americans won?t take and encouraging high-skilled foreign-born graduates to stay in the United States by making it easier to acquire a visa. Finally, the bill would massively expand the nation?s border security apparatus by doubling the border patrol to 40,000 agents, building hundreds of miles of fence, funding a slew of new technology to stop illegal crossings, and instituting a system to track undocumented immigrants who overstay their visas.
These components are all designed to work together as a unit. The legalization and worker visa components are an acknowledgement that existing undocumented immigrants have become a permanent part of the national fabric and that many businesses, especially agriculture, require migrant labor to function. In exchange, the border security and E-verify portions are intended to discourage future illegal entry.
And with that, Dish is (seemingly) out of the running: following a decision to back away from buying Sprint, the satellite TV giant has also withdrawn its bid for Clearwire. The company is bowing out due to a "change in recommendation" at Clearwire -- in other words, shareholders now prefer Sprint's recently sweetened offer. Between that and Sprint's lawsuit, we're not expecting Dish to make another acquisition attempt, especially when Softbank's acquisition of Sprint (and thus Clearwire) could close in a matter of weeks.
June 27, 2013 ? Gemini Observatory's Planet-Finding Campaign finds that, around many types of stars, distant gas-giant planets are rare and prefer to cling close to their parent stars. The impact on theories of planetary formation could be significant.
Finding extrasolar planets has become so commonplace that it seems astronomers merely have to look up and another world is discovered. However, results from Gemini Observatory's recently completed Planet-Finding Campaign -- the deepest, most extensive direct imaging survey to date -- show the vast outlying orbital space around many types of stars is largely devoid of gas-giant planets, which apparently tend to dwell close to their parent stars.
"It seems that gas-giant exoplanets are like clinging offspring," says Michael Liu of the University of Hawaii's Institute for Astronomy and leader of the Gemini Planet-Finding Campaign. "Most tend to shun orbital zones far from their parents. In our search, we could have found gas giants beyond orbital distances corresponding to Uranus and Neptune in our own Solar System, but we didn't find any." The Campaign was conducted at the Gemini South telescope in Chile, with funding support for the team from the National Science Foundation and NASA. The Campaign's results, Liu says, will help scientists better understand how gas-giant planets form, as the orbital distances of planets are a key signature that astronomers use to test exoplanet formation theories.
Eric Nielsen of the University of Hawaii, who leads a new paper about the Campaign's search for planets around stars more massive than the Sun, adds that the findings have implications beyond the specific stars imaged by the team. "The two largest planets in our Solar System, Jupiter and Saturn, are huddled close to our Sun, within 10 times the distance between the Earth and Sun," he points out. "We found that this lack of gas-giant planets in more distant orbits is typical for nearby stars over a wide range of masses."
Two additional papers from the Campaign will be published soon and reveal similar tendencies around other classes of stars. However, not all gas-giant exoplanets snuggle so close to home. In 2008, astronomers using the Gemini North telescope and W.M. Keck Observatory on Hawaii's Mauna Kea took the first-ever direct images of a family of planets around the star HR 8799, finding gas-giant planets at large orbital separations (about 25-70 times the Earth-Sun distance). This discovery came after examining only a few stars, suggesting such large-separation gas giants could be common. The latest Gemini results, from a much more extensive imaging search, show that gas-giant planets at such distances are in fact uncommon.
Liu sums up the situation this way: "We've known for nearly 20 years that gas-giant planets exist around other stars, at least orbiting close-in. Thanks to leaps in direct imaging methods, we can now learn how far away planets can typically reside. The answer is that they usually avoid significant areas of real estate around their host stars. The early findings, like HR 8799, probably skewed our perceptions."
The team's second new paper explores systems where dust disks around young stars show holes, which astronomers have long suspected are cleared by the gravitational force of orbiting planets. "It makes sense that where you see debris cleared away that a planet would be responsible, but we did not know what types of planets might be causing this. It appears that instead of massive planets, smaller planets that we can't detect directly could be responsible," said Zahed Wahhaj of the European Southern Observatory and lead author on the survey's paper on dusty disk stars. Finally, the third new paper from the team looks at the very youngest stars close to Earth. "A younger system should have brighter, easier to detect planets," according to the lead author Beth Biller of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy.
"Around other stars, NASA's Kepler telescope has shown that planets larger than the Earth and within the orbit of Mercury are plentiful," explains Biller. "The NICI Campaign demonstrates that gas-giant planets beyond the distance of the orbit of Neptune are rare." The soon-to-be-delivered Gemini Planet Imager will begin to bridge this gap likely revealing, for the first time, how common giant planets are in orbits similar to the gas-giant planets of our own Solar System.
The observations for the Campaign were obtained with the Gemini instrument known as NICI, the Near-Infrared Coronagraphic Imager, which was the first instrument for an 8-10 meter-class telescope designed specifically for finding faint companions around bright stars. NICI was built by Doug Toomey (Mauna Kea Infrared), Christ Ftaclas, and Mark Chun (University of Hawai'i), with funding from NASA.
The first two papers from the Campaign have been accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal (Nielsen et al. and Wahhaj et al.), and the third paper (Biller et al.) will be published later this summer.
The NICI Campaign team is composed of PI Michael Liu, co-PI Mark Chun (University of Hawaii), co-PI Laird Close (University of Arizona), Doug Toomey (Mauna Kea Infrared), Christ Ftaclas (University of Hawaii), Zahed Wahhaj (European Southern Observatory), Beth Biller (Max Planck Institute for Astronomy), Eric Nielsen (University of Hawaii), Evgenya Shkolnik (DTM, Carnegie Institution of Washington), Adam Burrows (Princeton University), Neill Reid (Space Telescope Science Institute), Niranjan Thatte, Matthias Tecza, Fraser Clarke (University of Oxford), Jane Gregorio Hetem, Elisabete De Gouveia Dal Pino (University of Sao Paolo), Silvia Alencar (University of Minas Gerais), Pawel Artymowicz (University of Toronto), Doug Lin (University of California Santa Cruz), Shigeru Ida (Tokyo Institute of Technology), Alan Boss (DTM, Carnegie Institution of Washington), and Mark Kuchner (NASA Goddard), Tom Hayward and Markus Hartung (Gemini Observatory), Jared Males, and Andy Skemer (University of Arizona).
Tomfoolery, the mobile app lab founded by ex-Yahoo and AOL execs that aims to make enterprise apps capturing some of the light and free nature of consumer services, is today debuting its first product: Anchor, a real-time conversation app. Tomfoolery has two aims for Anchor, which is coming out first as an iOS and web app: for it to become a central repository for all kinds of work conversations; and for Anchor to become, literally, the anchor for its bigger strategy to create many more enterprise services down the line.
Does Chris Brown like jail? Because he sure seems determined to get sent there. The singer, who has been on probation since pleading guilty to assaulting Rihanna in 2009, has once again been accused of skirting the law. This time, he's being charged with hit-and-run and driving without a valid license. If a judge rules that he violated probation, Brown could end up in prison for four years. Which, in California-celebrity time, is probably around 32 minutes. But still! Jail!
In a 5-4 ruling, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that the petitioners who brought the appeal on Prop 8 to the 9th Circuit had no standing to do so.
Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the majority opinion on this one, which you can read in full here, and he was joined by Justices Scalia, Ginsberg, Breyer, and Kagan. Suffice it to say, there is a lot of legalese in the opinion that basically comes down to whether a petitioner has standing in state court versus federal court, and he concludes that the proponents of Prop 8 never had that standing to appeal the 2010 decision of federal Judge Vaughn Walker. And since the California attorney general at the time (Jerry Brown) refused to defend Prop 8, it wasn't up to some random citizens to try to do so. To wit:
It was their ?unique legal status? as official proponents?not an agency relationship with the people of California?that petitioners claimed ?endow[ed] them with a significantly protectable interest? in ensuring that the District Court not ?undo[ ] all that they ha[d] done in obtaining . . . enactment? of Proposition 8.... More to the point, the most basic features of an agency relationship are missing here. Agency requires more than mere authorization to assert a particular interest. ?An essential element of agency is the principal?s right to control the agent?s actions.? ... Yet petitioners answer to no one; they decide for themselves, with no review, what arguments to make and how to make them. Unlike California?s attorney general, they are not elected at regular intervals?or elected at all. ... As one amicus [brief by Walter Dellinger] explains, ?the proponents apparently have an unelected appointment for an unspecified period of time as defenders of the initiative, however and to whatever extent they choose to defend it.? ...
We have never before upheld the standing of a private party to defend the constitutionality of a state statute when state officials have chosen not to. We decline to do so for the first time here. Because petitioners have not satisfied their burden to demonstrate standing to appeal the judgment of the District Court, the Ninth Circuit was without jurisdiction to consider the appeal. The judgment of the Ninth Circuit is vacated, and the case is remanded with instructions to dismiss the appeal for lack of jurisdiction.
Kennedy composed the dissenting opinion, discussing the standing question, and was joined by Alito, Thomas, and Sotomayor. Strangely, this means that the swing vote everyone was counting on, Kennedy, is here actually defending California's initiative process, but he's not exactly talking about the merits of the Prop 8 case, or gay marriage, at all. He writes:
In the end, what the Court fails to grasp or accept is the basic premise of the initiative process. And it is this. The essence of democracy is that the right to make law rests in the people and flows to the government, not the other way around. Freedom resides first in the people without need of a grant from government. The California initiative process embodies these principles and has done so for over a century.
This appears to open the door for gay marriages to resume in California, as the SF City Attorney, Dennis Herrera, is expected to discuss at a news conference this morning. Per SCOTUSblog, if you carefully read Roberts' opinion, it finds that the proponents had no standing to appeal, but it does not question their standing to bring the challenge in the original 2010 case. "The Supreme Court only found no standing by the Prop 8 proponents to appeal. It did not question the standing of the Prop. challengers to challenge the law. So the district court had jurisdiction; the court of appeals did not."
SF Mayor Ed Lee posted this simple tweet upon hearing the news:
Sen. Wendy Davis, D-Fort Worth, reacts after she was called for a rules violation during her filibusters of an abortion bill, Tuesday, June 25, 2013, in Austin, Texas. Davis was given a second warning for breaking filibuster rules. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Sen. Wendy Davis, D-Fort Worth, reacts after she was called for a rules violation during her filibusters of an abortion bill, Tuesday, June 25, 2013, in Austin, Texas. Davis was given a second warning for breaking filibuster rules. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Hundreds line up to enter the Senate Chamber spills into multiple levels of the rotunda as Sen. Wendy Davis, D-Fort Worth, filibusters in an effort to kill an abortion bill, Tuesday, June 25, 2013, in Austin, Texas. The bill would ban abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy and force many clinics that perform the procedure to upgrade their facilities and be classified as ambulatory surgical centers. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Sen. Wendy Davis, D-Fort Worth, left, votes against a motion to call for a rules violation during her filibusters of an abortion bill, Tuesday, June 25, 2013, in Austin, Texas. Davis was given a second warning for breaking filibuster rules by receiving help from Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, with a back brace. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Sen. Tommy Williams holds up a finger to vote yes for giving Sen. Wendy Davis, D-Fort Worth, a rules violation during her filibusters of an abortion bill, Tuesday, June 25, 2013, in Austin, Texas. Davis was given a second warning for breaking filibuster rules by receiving help from Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, with a back brace. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Sen. Wendy Davis, D-Fort Worth, filibusters in an effort to kill an abortion bill, Tuesday, June 25, 2013, in Austin, Texas. The bill would ban abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy and force many clinics that perform the procedure to upgrade their facilities and be classified as ambulatory surgical centers. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) ? Amid the deafening roar of abortion rights supporters, Texas Republicans huddled around the Senate podium to pass new abortion restrictions, but whether the vote was cast before or after midnight is in dispute.
Hundreds of protesters cheered, clapped and shouted for the last 15 minutes of the special legislative session in an attempt to run out the clock before senators could vote on the bill that is expected to close almost every abortion clinic in the nation's second most populous state.
While Democrats as well as assembled reporters watched clocks on their mobile phones tick past midnight, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst said the voting began just before. The bill now goes to Gov. Rick Perry, who directed that the legislation be taken up in the special session and is expected to sign it into law.
Democrats immediately predicted a legal challenge.
"It's questionable to vote when no one can hear to even know if a vote is taken," said Sen. Kirk Watson, D-Austin.
One of the state's most conservative lawmakers, Houston Republican Sen. Dan Patrick, insisted the vote was valid.
"Had that not happened, everyone would have known what was happening," he said.
Sen. Wendy Davis, D-Fort Worth, spent most of the day staging an old-fashioned filibuster, attracting wide support, including a mention from President Barack Obama's campaign Twitter account. Her Twitter following went from 1,200 in the morning to more than 20,000 by Tuesday night.
Davis' mission, however, was cut short.
Rules stipulated she remain standing, not lean on her desk or take any breaks ? even for meals or to use the bathroom. But she also was required to stay on topic, and Republicans pointed out a mistake and later protested again when another lawmaker helped her with a back brace.
Republican Sen. Donna Campbell called the third point of order because of her remarks about a previous law concerning sonograms. Under the rules, lawmakers can vote to end a filibuster after three sustained points of order.
After much back and forth, the GOP voted to end the filibuster minutes before midnight, sparking the raucous response from protesters.
If signed into law, the measures would close almost every abortion clinic in Texas, a state 773 miles wide and 790 miles long with 26 million people. A woman living along the Mexico border or in West Texas would have to drive hundreds of miles to obtain an abortion if the law passes. The law's provision that abortions be performed at surgical centers means only five of Texas' 42 abortion clinics are currently designated to remain in operation.
In her opening remarks, Davis said she was "rising on the floor today to humbly give voice to thousands of Texans" and called Republican efforts to pass the bill a "raw abuse of power."
Democrats chose Davis, of Fort Worth, to lead the effort because of her background as a woman who had her first child as a teenager and went on to graduate from Harvard Law School.
In the hallway outside the Senate chamber, hundreds of women stood in line, waiting for someone to relinquish a gallery seat. Women's rights supporters wore orange T-shirts to show their support for Davis.
The filibuster took down other measures. A proposal to fund major transportation projects as well as a bill to have Texas more closely conform with a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision banning mandatory sentences of life in prison without parole for offenders younger than 18 did not get votes. Current state law only allows a life sentence without parole for 17-year-olds convicted of capital murder.
Twice in the first six hours, anti-abortion lawmakers questioned Davis about the bill, presenting their arguments that it would protect women or that abortions were wrong. Davis answered their questions but did not give up control of the floor.
"This is really about women's health," said Sen. Bob Deuell, who introduced a requirement that all abortions take place in surgical centers. "Sometimes bad things can happen."
Davis questioned then why vasectomies and colonoscopies aren't also required to take place in such clinics. "Because I've been unable to have a simple question answered to help me understand how this would lead to better care for women, I must question the underlying motive for doing so," she said.
Davis read testimony from women and doctors who would be impacted by the changes, but who were denied the opportunity to speak in a Republican-controlled committee. During one heart-wrenching story describing a woman's difficult pregnancy, Davis choked up several times and wiped away tears.
The bill would ban abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy and force many clinics that perform the procedure to upgrade their facilities and be classified as ambulatory surgical centers. Also, doctors would be required to have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles ? a tall order in rural communities.
"If this passes, abortion would be virtually banned in the state of Texas, and many women could be forced to resort to dangerous and unsafe measures," said Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Action Fund and daughter of the late former Texas governor Ann Richards.
___
Senate Bill 5: http://www.legis.state.tx.us/BillLookup/history.aspx?LegSess=831&Bill=SB5
___
Follow Chris Tomlinson on Twitter: http://twitter.com/cltomlinson
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) ? Texas' lieutenant governor late Tuesday suspended a senator's filibuster against wide-ranging abortion restrictions, but Democrats moved quickly to appeal the decision and set off a parliamentary fight over the rules.
Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst halted the filibuster after determining Democratic Sen. Wendy Davis had strayed off the topic when she talked about a sonogram bill passed in 2011 and how the new abortion restrictions only compounded the anti-abortion laws in Texas.
Democrats immediately appealed the decision and set off a heated debate over rules. Austin Democratic Sen. Kirk Watson appeared to be positioning himself to launch a new filibuster on Dewhurst's decision.
Wearing pink tennis shoes to prepare for nearly 13 consecutive hours of standing, Davis began the day with a one-woman filibuster to block a GOP-led effort to impose stringent new abortion restrictions across the nation's second-most populous state.
The filibuster began at 11:18 a.m. CDT Tuesday and continued until 10:03 p.m., less than two hours before the midnight deadline marking the end of the 30-day special session.
Rules stipulate she remain standing, not lean on her desk or take any breaks ? even for meals or to use the bathroom. But she must also stay on topic, and Republicans pointed out a mistake and later protested again when another lawmaker helped her with a back brace.
Republican Sen. Donna Campbell called the third point of order because of her remarks on the sonogram law. Under the rules, lawmakers can vote to end a filibuster after three sustained points of order.
If signed into law, the measures would close almost every abortion clinic in Texas, a state 773 miles wide and 790 miles long with 26 million people. A woman living along the Mexico border or in West Texas would have to drive hundreds of miles to obtain an abortion if the law passes.
In her opening remarks, Davis said she was "rising on the floor today to humbly give voice to thousands of Texans" and called Republican efforts to pass the bill a "raw abuse of power."
Democrats chose Davis, of Fort Worth, to lead the effort because of her background as a woman who had her first child as a teenager and went on to graduate from Harvard Law School.
In the hallway outside the Senate chamber, hundreds of women stood in line, waiting for people in the gallery to give up their seats. Women's rights supporters wore orange T-shirts to show their support for Davis, and Dewhurst reminded those in the gallery that interrupting the proceedings could results in 48 hours in jail.
Davis tried to stay comfortable and sharp by shifting her weight from hip to hip and slowly walking around her desk while reading notes from a large binder on her desk. When a male protester stood in the Senate gallery and shouted, "Abortion is genocide," Davis continued talking uninterrupted as the man was removed by security.
If the filibuster succeeds, it could also take down other measures. A proposal to fund major transportation projects as well as a bill to have Texas more closely conform with a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision banning mandatory sentences of life in prison without parole for offenders younger than 18 might not get votes. Current state law only allows a life sentence without parole for 17-year-olds convicted of capital murder.
Twice in the first six hours, anti-abortion lawmakers questioned Davis about the bill, presenting their arguments that it would protect women or that abortions were wrong. Davis answered their questions but did not give up control of the floor.
"This is really about women's health," said Sen. Bob Deuell, who introduced a requirement that all abortions take place in surgical centers. "Sometimes bad things can happen."
Davis questioned then why vasectomies and colonoscopies aren't also required to take place in such clinics. "Because I've been unable to have a simple question answered to help me understand how this would lead to better care for women, I must question the underlying motive for doing so."
Davis read testimony from women and doctors who would be impacted by the changes, but who were denied the opportunity to speak in a Republican-controlled committee. During one heart-wrenching story describing a woman's difficult pregnancy, Davis choked up several times and wiped tears.
The bill would ban abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy and force many clinics that perform the procedure to upgrade their facilities and be classified as ambulatory surgical centers. Also, doctors would be required to have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles ? a tall order in rural communities.
"If this passes, abortion would be virtually banned in the state of Texas, and many women could be forced to resort to dangerous and unsafe measures," said Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Action Fund and daughter of the late former Texas governor Ann Richards.
Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, said the Democrats never should have been allowed to put Republicans "in a box" and complained that many in the Senate GOP were "flying by the seat of their pants."
But the bill's bogging down began with Republican Gov. Rick Perry, who summoned lawmakers back to work immediately after the regular legislative session ended May 27 but didn't add abortion to the special session to-do list until late in the process. The Legislature can only take up issues at the governor's direction.
Then, House Democrats succeeded in stalling nearly all night Sunday, keeping the bill from reaching the Senate until 11 a.m. Monday.
Debate in that chamber included lawmakers waving coat-hangers on the floor and claiming the new rules are so draconian that women are going to be forced to head to Mexico to have abortions.
At one point, the bill's sponsor, Republican Rep. Jodie Laubenberg of Spring, errantly suggested that emergency room rape kits could be used to terminate pregnancies.
___
Senate Bill 5: http://www.legis.state.tx.us/BillLookup/history.aspx?LegSess=831&Bill=SB5
___
Follow Chris Tomlinson on Twitter: http://twitter.com/cltomlinson
NEW YORK (AP) ? Brad Pitt is getting his action franchise after all.
A person close to Pitt's "World War Z" told The Associated Press on Monday that Paramount Pictures is likely to develop a sequel to the apocalyptic zombie thriller. The person was not authorized to announce the plans and spoke on condition of anonymity.
"World War Z," based on Max Brooks' novel, was always intended to spawn a trilogy for Pitt, who stars as a United Nations inspector. But that seemed in doubt when the film ran significantly over budget, the ending had to be reshot and reports of turmoil among the filmmakers surfaced.
But the film opened strongly over the weekend, earning $66.4 million domestically and another $45.8 million internationally. That put it on course to easily recoup its production budget of about $200 million. Reviews, too, have been mostly positive, and the film earned a B+ CinemaScore from moviegoers over the weekend.
Pitt, who's also a producer on the film, has spent recent weeks traveling around the world to aggressively promote "World War Z." When asked about the possibility of sequels in an interview last week, Pitt said there was plenty of fodder.
"We've got so many good story lines stemming from the book or inspired by the book and then just generated from our own powwows," he said. "It might still be fun. We've got enough material, that's for sure."
___
Follow AP Entertainment Writer Jake Coyle on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jake_coyle
Sunday is Father's Day. Rather than marking it with declarations about why our fathers are the greatest, or how-to guides on buying Dad the best ties or tools, Yahoo News solicited first-person anecdotes about the more difficult moments or memories we have of our fathers. Here's one reader's story.FIRST PERSON | As the youngest of three children, I was definitely Daddy's little girl. I learned early on that there wasn't much a good, "Daddy, please" wouldn't get me. ...
Working backward: Computer-aided design of zeolite templatesPublic release date: 17-Jun-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Jade Boyd jadeboyd@rice.edu 713-348-6778 Rice University
Rice scientists apply drug-design lessons to production of industrial minerals
HOUSTON -- (June 17, 2013) -- Taking a page from computer-aided drug designers, Rice University researchers have developed a computational method that chemists can use to tailor the properties of zeolites, one of the world's most-used industrial minerals.
The research is available online and will be featured on the June 21 cover of the Royal Society of Chemistry's Journal of Materials Chemistry A. The method allows chemists to work backward by first considering the type of zeolite they want to make and then creating the organic template needed to produce it.
The findings are the latest from the laboratory of Michael Deem, Rice's John W. Cox Professor of Bioengineering and professor of physics and astronomy. Deem's group has previously identified the zeolites best-suited for removing carbon dioxide from power plant exhaust, and they have also used supercomputers to create a database of potentially synthesizable zeolites -- some 2.6 million in all.
In the new study, Deem and co-authors Ramdas Pophale and Frits Daeyaert created a computational procedure to identify small organic molecules that can be used to synthesize zeolites.
"We began working on this three years ago," Deem said. "It's basic research, and we illustrated it by applying it to known zeolites. The approach could be used by industry to produce new types of zeolites."
Zeolites are common minerals. About 40 varieties occur naturally, and there are more than 150 man-made types. All zeolites are made of silicon, oxygen and aluminum, but the atomic arrangement of the three varies slightly in each type. These subtle molecular differences lead to significant variations in the chemical properties of each zeolite. As a result, several million tons of zeolites are used each year in processes such as refining of petroleum into gasoline or separation of air into oxygen and nitrogen and products as diverse as cat litter, cement, laundry detergent, water filters, animal feed and chemical separators.
Several million tons of natural zeolites are mined globally each year, but industry also uses a number of synthetic varieties. Producers create these in large process tanks.
"The silicon is either in a gel or in solution, and it condenses to make the zeolite crystal," Deem said. "The current thinking is that the crystal nucleates from an amorphous cluster of silicon oxide that's maybe 3-5 nanometers in size. Once the nucleus of the crystal forms, it continues to grow, and producers regulate the crystalline pattern by including organic molecules in the original solution."
These molecules are called "organic structure directing agents," or OSDAs. The zeolite crystal grows around the OSDAs. Intense heat is used to burn away the OSDAs and open the pores that give the zeolite its characteristic chemical properties.
In the new study, Deem, Pophale and Daeyaert created a procedure for designing OSDAs that would make a particular type of zeolite.
"We begin with a library of organic fragments -- molecules that you could buy from a chemical supplier," Deem said. "Next, we have the computer apply a range of chemical reactions to each of the molecules in the library to build up an OSDA from these individual fragments. We then evaluate each candidate OSDA based upon a number of criteria. For example, is it easy to synthesize? Is it stable in solution? Can it withstand the conditions in the zeolite production vessel? How well, energetically, does it stabilize the zeolite?"
Deem said the method was designed to be practical for industry.
"Our inspiration for this is what people have done in drug design," he said. "Drug designers learned the hard way that they could build perfectly shaped molecules, atom by atom, but that it was completely impractical to produce those ungainly molecules in bulk. As a result, they pioneered this idea of searching whole libraries of known compounds and feasible reactions to find drugs that are both efficacious and practical to produce. There are at least 55 drug candidates that have been discovered by this approach."
Deem's new method for designing OSDAs is similar, and he hopes it may one day allow researchers to produce one of the 2.6 million theoretically possible zeolites that his group identified in its 2011 study. For example, the crystalline structure of some zeolites features a chiral, twisting pattern that can be either right- or left-handed. The resulting zeolite crystals are mirror opposites. Researchers can make mixtures of these materials today, but they can't make pure right-handed or left-handed crystals. With Deem's new method, it may be possible to create an OSDA to make only left- or right-handed varieties.
"Breaking that chiral symmetry would be very exciting," Deem said. "It would highlight the broad range of possibilities of this OSDA design method."
###
The research was funded by the Department of Energy.
High-resolution IMAGES are available for download at:
http://news.rice.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/0621-ZEO-art-lg.jpg
CAPTION: Rice University scientists have created a computational procedure to identify small organic molecules (purple) that can be used to guide the growth of zeolite crystals (yellow).
A copy of the Journal of Materials Chemistry A article is available at:
http://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2013/ta/c3ta10626h
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Working backward: Computer-aided design of zeolite templatesPublic release date: 17-Jun-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Jade Boyd jadeboyd@rice.edu 713-348-6778 Rice University
Rice scientists apply drug-design lessons to production of industrial minerals
HOUSTON -- (June 17, 2013) -- Taking a page from computer-aided drug designers, Rice University researchers have developed a computational method that chemists can use to tailor the properties of zeolites, one of the world's most-used industrial minerals.
The research is available online and will be featured on the June 21 cover of the Royal Society of Chemistry's Journal of Materials Chemistry A. The method allows chemists to work backward by first considering the type of zeolite they want to make and then creating the organic template needed to produce it.
The findings are the latest from the laboratory of Michael Deem, Rice's John W. Cox Professor of Bioengineering and professor of physics and astronomy. Deem's group has previously identified the zeolites best-suited for removing carbon dioxide from power plant exhaust, and they have also used supercomputers to create a database of potentially synthesizable zeolites -- some 2.6 million in all.
In the new study, Deem and co-authors Ramdas Pophale and Frits Daeyaert created a computational procedure to identify small organic molecules that can be used to synthesize zeolites.
"We began working on this three years ago," Deem said. "It's basic research, and we illustrated it by applying it to known zeolites. The approach could be used by industry to produce new types of zeolites."
Zeolites are common minerals. About 40 varieties occur naturally, and there are more than 150 man-made types. All zeolites are made of silicon, oxygen and aluminum, but the atomic arrangement of the three varies slightly in each type. These subtle molecular differences lead to significant variations in the chemical properties of each zeolite. As a result, several million tons of zeolites are used each year in processes such as refining of petroleum into gasoline or separation of air into oxygen and nitrogen and products as diverse as cat litter, cement, laundry detergent, water filters, animal feed and chemical separators.
Several million tons of natural zeolites are mined globally each year, but industry also uses a number of synthetic varieties. Producers create these in large process tanks.
"The silicon is either in a gel or in solution, and it condenses to make the zeolite crystal," Deem said. "The current thinking is that the crystal nucleates from an amorphous cluster of silicon oxide that's maybe 3-5 nanometers in size. Once the nucleus of the crystal forms, it continues to grow, and producers regulate the crystalline pattern by including organic molecules in the original solution."
These molecules are called "organic structure directing agents," or OSDAs. The zeolite crystal grows around the OSDAs. Intense heat is used to burn away the OSDAs and open the pores that give the zeolite its characteristic chemical properties.
In the new study, Deem, Pophale and Daeyaert created a procedure for designing OSDAs that would make a particular type of zeolite.
"We begin with a library of organic fragments -- molecules that you could buy from a chemical supplier," Deem said. "Next, we have the computer apply a range of chemical reactions to each of the molecules in the library to build up an OSDA from these individual fragments. We then evaluate each candidate OSDA based upon a number of criteria. For example, is it easy to synthesize? Is it stable in solution? Can it withstand the conditions in the zeolite production vessel? How well, energetically, does it stabilize the zeolite?"
Deem said the method was designed to be practical for industry.
"Our inspiration for this is what people have done in drug design," he said. "Drug designers learned the hard way that they could build perfectly shaped molecules, atom by atom, but that it was completely impractical to produce those ungainly molecules in bulk. As a result, they pioneered this idea of searching whole libraries of known compounds and feasible reactions to find drugs that are both efficacious and practical to produce. There are at least 55 drug candidates that have been discovered by this approach."
Deem's new method for designing OSDAs is similar, and he hopes it may one day allow researchers to produce one of the 2.6 million theoretically possible zeolites that his group identified in its 2011 study. For example, the crystalline structure of some zeolites features a chiral, twisting pattern that can be either right- or left-handed. The resulting zeolite crystals are mirror opposites. Researchers can make mixtures of these materials today, but they can't make pure right-handed or left-handed crystals. With Deem's new method, it may be possible to create an OSDA to make only left- or right-handed varieties.
"Breaking that chiral symmetry would be very exciting," Deem said. "It would highlight the broad range of possibilities of this OSDA design method."
###
The research was funded by the Department of Energy.
High-resolution IMAGES are available for download at:
http://news.rice.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/0621-ZEO-art-lg.jpg
CAPTION: Rice University scientists have created a computational procedure to identify small organic molecules (purple) that can be used to guide the growth of zeolite crystals (yellow).
A copy of the Journal of Materials Chemistry A article is available at:
http://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2013/ta/c3ta10626h
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
SAO PAULO (Reuters) - As many as 200,000 demonstrators marched through the streets of Brazil's biggest cities on Monday in a swelling wave of protest tapping into widespread anger at poor public services, police violence and government corruption.
The marches, organized mostly through snowballing social media campaigns, blocked streets and halted traffic in more than a half-dozen cities, including Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte and Brasilia, where demonstrators climbed onto the roof of Brazil's Congress building and then stormed it.
Monday's demonstrations were the latest in a flurry of protests in the past two weeks that have added to growing unease over Brazil's sluggish economy, high inflation and a spurt in violent crime.
While most of the protests unfolded as a festive display of dissent, some demonstrators in Rio threw rocks at police, set fire to a parked car and vandalized the state assembly building. Vandals also destroyed property in the southern city of Porto Alegre.
Around the country, protesters waved Brazilian flags, dancing and chanting slogans such as "The people have awakened" and "Pardon the inconvenience, Brazil is changing."
The epicenter of Monday's march shifted from Sao Paulo, where some 65,000 people took to the streets late in the afternoon, to Rio. There, as protesters gathered throughout the evening, crowds ballooned to 100,000 people, local police said. At least 20,000 more gathered in Belo Horizonte.
The demonstrations are the first time that Brazilians, since a recent decade of steady economic growth, are collectively questioning the status quo.
BIG EVENTS LOOM
The protests have gathered pace as Brazil is hosting the Confederation's Cup, a dry run for next year's World Cup soccer championship. The government hopes these events, along with the 2016 Summer Olympics, will showcase Brazil as an emerging power on the global stage.
Brazil also is gearing up to welcome more than 2 million visitors in July as Pope Francis makes his first foreign trip for a gathering of Catholic youth in Rio.
Contrasting the billions in taxpayer money spent on new stadiums with the shoddy state of Brazil's public services, protesters are using the Confederation's Cup as a counterpoint to amplify their concerns. The tournament got off to shaky start this weekend when police clashed with demonstrators outside stadiums at the opening matches in Brasilia and Rio.
"For many years the government has been feeding corruption. People are demonstrating against the system," said Graciela Ca?ador, a 28-year-old saleswoman protesting in Sao Paulo. "They spent billions of dollars building stadiums and nothing on education and health."
More protests are being organized for the coming days. It is unclear what specific response from authorities - such as a reduction in the hike of transport fares - would lead the loose collection of organizers across Brazil to consider stopping them.
For President Dilma Rousseff, the demonstrations come at a delicate time, as price increases and lackluster growth begin to loom over an expected run for re-election next year.
Polls show Rousseff still is widely popular, especially among poor and working-class voters, but her approval ratings began to slip in recent weeks for the first time since taking office in 2011. Rousseff was booed at Saturday's Confederations Cup opener as protesters gathered outside.
Through a spokeswoman, Rousseff called the protests "legitimate" and said peaceful demonstrations are "part of democracy." The president, a leftist guerrilla as a young woman, also said that it was "befitting of youth to protest."
WIDE ARRAY OF GRIEVANCES
Some were baffled by the protests in a country where unemployment remains near record lows, even after more than two years of tepid economic growth.
"What are they going to do - march every day?" asked Cristina, a 43-year-old cashier, who declined to give her surname, peeking out at the demonstration from behind the curtain of a closed Sao Paulo butcher shop. She said corruption and other age-old ills in Brazil are unlikely to change soon.
The marches began this month with an isolated protest in Sao Paulo against a small increase in bus and subway fares. The demonstrations initially drew the scorn of many middle-class Brazilians after protesters vandalized storefronts, subway stations and buses on one of the city's main avenues.
The movement quickly gained support and spread to other cities as police used heavy-handed tactics to quell the demonstrations. The biggest crackdown happened on Thursday in Sao Paulo when police fired rubber bullets and tear gas in clashes that injured more than 100 people, including 15 journalists, some of whom said they were deliberately targeted.
Other common grievances at Monday's marches included corruption and the inadequate and overcrowded public transportation networks that Brazilians cope with daily.
POLICE SHOW RESTRAINT
The harsh police reaction to last week's protests touched a nerve in Brazil, which endured two decades of political repression under a military dictatorship that ended in 1985. It also added to doubts about whether Brazil's police forces would be ready for next year's World Cup.
The uproar following last week's crackdown prompted Sao Paulo state Governor Geraldo Alckmin, who first described the protesters as "troublemakers" and "vandals," to order police to allow Monday's march to proceed and not to use rubber bullets.
The protests are shaping up as a major political challenge for Alckmin, a former presidential candidate, and Sao Paulo's new mayor, Fernando Haddad, a rising star in the left-leaning Workers' Party that has governed Brazil for the past decade. Haddad invited protest leaders to meet Tuesday morning, but has so far balked at talk of a bus fare reduction.
The resonance of the demonstrations underscores what economists say will be a challenge for Rousseff and other Brazilian leaders in the years ahead: providing public services to meet the demands of the growing middle class.
"Voters are likely to be increasingly disgruntled on a range of public services in a lower growth environment," Christopher Garman, a political analyst at the Eurasia Group, wrote in a report.
(Additional reporting by Esteban Israel and Eduardo Sim?es; Editing by Paulo Prada)
![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
Public release date: 17-Jun-2013
Share ]