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)
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Public release date: 17-Jun-2013
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