Suspension

Due to nobody donating, receiving little to no feedback, and almost no help, I have decided to suspend the blog for an undetermined amount of time so I can focus on other things.

Kenny.

Chevron, Transocean Charged in Brazilian Oil Spill

By Jeb Blount and Joshua Schneyer

Brazil/New York - A Brazilian federal prosecutor filed criminal charges on Wednesday against Chevron and drill-rig operator Transocean for a November oil spill, raising the stakes in a legal saga that has added to Chevron's woes in Latin America and could slow Brazil's offshore oil boom.

Prosecutor Eduardo Santos de Oliveira also filed criminal charges against 17 local executives and employees at Chevron and Transocean, owner of the world's largest oil rig fleet. Among the defendants is George Buck, 46, a U.S. national in charge of Chevron's operations in Brazil, the prosecutor's office said in a statement.

"The spilling of oil affected the entire maritime ecosystem, possibly pushing some species to extinction, and caused impacts on economic activity in the region," Santos de Oliveira, a prosecutor in the oil district of Campos de Goytacazes, said in the filing. "The employees of Chevron and Transocean caused a contamination time bomb of prolonged effect."

The charges stem from a 3,000-barrel leak in the Frade field, about 120 km (75 miles) off the coast of Rio de Janeiro state. They include: failure to realize protocols to contain the leak; failure to take steps to kill the well and stop the drilling process; breach of licenses, legal norms and regulation, including altering documents; and failure to meet legal and contractual duties.

Chevron and Transocean strongly disputed the charges.

"These charges are outrageous and without merit," Chevron said in a statement. "Once all the facts are fully examined, they will demonstrate that Chevron and its employees responded appropriately and responsibly to the incident."

Transocean "strongly disagrees with the indictments," said spokesman Guy Cantwell.

Chevron said it stopped the leak in four days. None of the oil that leaked into the Atlantic reached shore or interfered with marine life, it said.

In November, the same prosecutor filed an $11 billion civil lawsuit over the spill, the largest environmental suit in Brazil's history. Chevron has already been fined around 200 million reais in fines ($110 million) for the spill by environmental and oil regulators.

Chevron's shares dropped 1.1 percent to $107.91 on Wednesday, to their lowest in nearly a month. Transocean's US-traded shares dropped 1.1 percent to $56.77.

Observers warned that the criminal charges could spook foreign companies attracted to Brazil's offshore oil boom and slow development of more than 50 billion barrels of reserves discovered here since 2007.

"These charges are being used by those who want to shut out foreign investment and vilify foreign companies," said Adriano Pires, head of energy think tank Brazilian Infrastructure Institute, and a former oil regulator.

The Chevron leak was less than 0.1 percent of the size of the 4 million-barrel BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. Transocean also owned the rig in that spill. Past Brazilian oil spills by state-run Petrobras, including some larger ones, have never prompted criminal charges.

Chevron's troubles in Brazil could force it to rethink its Latin American strategies. A shortage of trained workers, engineers and equipment have driven up costs in Brazil and Chevron faces an $18 billion environmental verdict in Ecuador.

Oliveira's filings allege that Transocean's Sedco 706 rig, which drilled the well that leaked, had "grave" equipment failures that were detected by Brazil's national petroleum agency, the ANP.

In addition to Buck, prosecutors leveled criminal charges against other Chevron and Transocean employees, including five other Americans, five Brazilians, two Frenchmen, two Australians, a Canadian and a Briton. Among them was Guilherme Dantas Rocha Coelho, 38, the Brazilian head of Transocean's operations in the country.

All were ordered to turn in their passports last Saturday and remain in the country. Each individual will be required to post 1 million reais ($550,000) bail and each company 10 million reais ($5.5 million) to ensure payment of future fines.

JAIL TIME UNLIKELY

Prison sentences could be as lengthy as 31 years, the filings said. Oliveira told Reuters in January that jail terms for the oil workers would be unlikely and a "last resort." On Wednesday, however, he said the executives should be jailed.

"Yes, I want them to serve the full time and if they don't it won't be for any lack of effort by the Federal Prosecutors' Office," he said at a news conference in Rio de Janeiro.

Under Brazilian law, a judge must examine the charges and determine whether to proceed with formal indictments, a process that could take days or weeks. Either way, Chevron and Transocean likely face years of legal action in Brazil, one of the world's most promising oil frontiers.

Few individuals or companies have ever been convicted of environmental crimes in Brazil, and fewer have gone to jail.

ROUSSEFF WARNS OIL COMPANIES

The charges come less than a week after Chevron asked for and received permission to temporarily stop production at Frade after finding new seeps on the sea floor. It was producing 61,500 barrels a day, down from about 80,000 before the November spill.

Chevron has spent more than $2 billion developing Frade, Brazil's largest foreign-operated field in which the No. 2 U.S. oil company owns a 52 percent stake. Brazil's Petrobras owns 30 percent and a Japanese group led by Inpex and Sojitz owns 18 percent.

The prosecutor alleges that Chevron and Transocean ignored signs that their drilling could blast through rock and the seabed as they tapped into a high-pressure reservoir in an area whose faults and fissures made it prone to an underground blowout. Chevron has said it encountered reservoir pressure levels far above those in previous wells.

Chevron has downplayed the potential for further environmental damage from the Frade incident, but has pledged to carry out a study of the field's geology before asking regulators to resume production. Prosecutors said there could be further leakage, citing evidence of damage to the oil reservoir. A technical report by ANP has not been made public.

Chevron said on Wednesday that oil from the new seabed seep differs chemically from crude spilled in November, and that the two leaks are unrelated. Prosecutors allege the newest leak, measured at less than a barrel of oil, is a worrisome complication of the earlier spill. Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, a former energy minister who also served as chairwoman of the Petrobras board, warned oil companies on Wednesday that they must strictly follow security procedures in Brazil. "On this question there can be no exceptions to being within safety limits and knowing them, to never test them and never go beyond them," she said in Rio at the swearing in ceremony for the new head of oil regulator ANP.

U.S. Intel: Water a Cause for War in Coming Decades

By Matthew Lee

Washington D.C. - Drought, floods and a lack of fresh water may cause significant global instability and conflict in the coming decades, as developing countries scramble to meet demand from exploding populations while dealing with the effects of climate change, U.S. intelligence agencies said in a report released Thursday.

An assessment reflecting the joint judgment of federal intelligence agencies says the risk of water issues causing wars in the next 10 years is minimal even as they create tensions within and between states and threaten to disrupt national and global food markets. But beyond 2022, it says the use of water as a weapon of war or a tool of terrorism will become more likely, particularly in South Asia, the Middle East and North Africa.

The report is based on a classified National Intelligence Estimate on water security, which was requested by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and completed last fall. It says floods, scarce and poor quality water, combined with poverty, social tension, poor leadership and weak governments will contribute to instability that could lead the failure of numerous states.

Those elements "will likely increase the risk of instability and state failure, exacerbate regional tensions, and distract countries from working with the United States on important policy objectives," said the report, which was released at a State Department event commemorating World Water Day.

Clinton, who unveiled a new U.S. Water Partnership that aims to share American water management expertise with the rest of the world, called the findings "sobering."

"These threats are real and they do raise serious security concerns," she said.

The report noted that countries have in the past tried to resolve water issues through negotiation but said that could change as water shortages become more severe.

"We judge that as water shortages become more acute beyond the next 10 years, water in shared basins will increasingly be used as leverage; the use of water as a weapon or to further terrorist objectives, also will become more likely beyond 10 years," it said.

The report predicts that upstream nations — more powerful than their downstream neighbors due to geography — will limit access to water for political reasons and that countries will regulate internal supplies to suppress separatist movements and dissident populations.

At the same time, terrorists and rogue states may target or threaten to target water-related infrastructure like dams and reservoirs more frequently. Even if attacks do not occur or are only partially successful, the report said "the fear of massive floods or loss of water resources would alarm the public and cause governments to take costly measures to protect the water infrastructure."

The unclassified summary of the intelligence estimate does not identify the specific countries most at risk. But it notes that the study focused on several specific rivers and water basins. Those included the Nile in Egypt, Sudan and nations further south, the Tigris and Euphrates in Iraq and the greater Middle East, the Mekong in China and Southeast Asia, the Jordan that separates Israel from the Palestinian territories, the Indus and the Brahmaputra in India and South Asia as well as the Amu Darya in Central Asia.

New Foot-and-Mouth Disease Strain Hits Egypt:FAO

Egypt - A new strain of foot and mouth disease (FMD) has hit Egypt and threatens to spread throughout North Africa and the Middle East, jeopardizing food security in the region, the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said on Thursday.

There have been 40,222 suspected cases of the disease in Egypt and 4,658 animals, mostly calves, have already died, the FAO said in a statement citing official estimates.

"Although foot-and-mouth disease has circulated in the country for some years, this is an entirely new introduction of a virus strain known as SAT2, and livestock have no immune protection against it," the Rome-based agency said.

Vaccines are urgently needed as 6.3 million buffalo and cattle and 7.5 million sheep and goats are at risk in Egypt, the FAO said.

"The area around the Lower Nile Delta appears to be severely affected, while other areas in Upper Egypt and the west appear less so," Juan Lubroth, FAO's Chief Veterinary Officer, said, calling for strong action to prevent the spread of the disease.

FMD is a highly infectious and sometimes fatal disease that affects cloven-hoofed animals such as sheep, goats, cattle, buffalo and pigs. FMD is not a direct threat to humans.

Meat and milk from sick animals are unsafe for consumption, not because FMD affects humans, but because foodstuffs entering the food chain should only come from animals that are known to be healthy, the FAO said.

Egypt has some reserves of its own vaccines, but these do not protect against the SAT2 strain. The country could need regional support in mobilizing effective ones, the FAO said.

With vaccines sometimes taking up to two weeks to confer immunity, joint efforts to boost biosecurity measures to limit the spread of the disease are urgently needed, said the FAO whose emergency team visited Egypt last week.

Such measures include limiting animal movements and avoiding contact with animals from other farms; avoiding purchasing animals in the immediate term since they could have come from contaminated sources, preferably by burning carcasses.

U.S. TB Infections Drop to Record Low: CDC

By  Julie Steenhuysen

United States - U.S. cases of tuberculosis fell 6.4 percent in 2011 to an all-time low, but missed a national target of eliminating the disease as cases among foreign-born individuals persisted, health officials said on Thursday.

Unless factors change significantly, the United States will not be able to eliminate TB - meaning fewer than one case per one million people - until the year 2100, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"Addressing the increasing difference between TB rates in foreign-born and U.S.-born persons is critical for TB elimination," the CDC said in its weekly report on death and disease, which was released ahead of World TB Day on March 24.

Overall, U.S. TB rates last year fell to 10,521 reported cases, or 3.4 cases per 100,000 people, the lowest level since national reporting began in 1953, the CDC said.

Despite these gains, the airborne infection is proving difficult to tame in some populations, especially among foreign-born individuals, blacks, Asians and people infected with HIV.

TB rates were 12 times higher among people born outside the United States. Of these infected individuals, more than half of the cases originated in just five countries: Mexico, the Philippines, Vietnam, India, and China, the CDC said.

Compared with whites, TB rates were seven times higher for Hispanics, eight times higher for blacks and 25 times higher for Asians last year.

Four states - California, Texas, New York and Florida - account for nearly half of all TB cases in the United States, according to the report.

TB is caused by the Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacteria. It can be cured with antibiotics but they must be taken daily for months to be effective. Because people do not always take the drugs as directed, multiple drug-resistant strains have emerged.

Cases of TB that are resistant to at least two common treatments, known as multidrug-resistant TB, accounted for 109 of all U.S. TB cases in 2010, the most recent year for which there are data. Foreign-born individuals accounted for 90 of these cases.

There were 4 cases of extensively drug-resistant TB - an infection that resists the most highly effective drugs - reported in the United States in 2010, all among foreign-born people.

The World Health Organization estimates that a third of the world's population is infected with the bacteria that cause TB. Last year, TB made nearly 9 million people sick and killed some 1.45 million people, according to WHO.

Indybay Journalists Charged with Felony: Conspiracy to Make Media

Santa Cruz - District Attorney Bob Lee has embarked on a full frontal assault against independent media in Santa Cruz by including four regular contributors to the independent news website Indybay.org amongst the eleven people charged with multiple felonies and misdemeanors after the occupation of a vacant bank building on November 30th, 2011. District Attorney Lee apparently believes it is his duty to dictate how events such as the occupation of the vacant bank at 75 River Street should be reported on by the media, and if he does not approve of the coverage, then journalists risk the DA bringing charges against them.

Bradley Stuart Allen and Alex Darocy are Indybay photojournalists and Indybay editors who were reporting on the occupation. No charges nor arrests were made at the time, but warrants were issued over two months later on February 8th, 2012 — for Bradley, Alex, and nine other individuals. Alex was arrested at his home before he could submit to the surprise warrant. Bradley and Alex were originally charged with felony vandalism, felony conspiracy, and two counts of misdemeanor trespass, but after a three-day preliminary hearing starting March 13th the felony vandalism charge against both was dropped. Alex and Bradley remain out of police custody on their own recognizance.

Selective Prosecution

On the face of it, the misdemeanor trespass charges filed against both Alex and Bradley for documenting the occupation from inside of the building seem in line with a February 8th press release from the DA which declared that the "District Attorney's Office remains committed to enforcing the law." But the DA fails to mention that his office is not committed to enforcing the law consistently and that the charges against Alex and Bradley are clearly a case of selective prosecution. District Attorney Lee knows full well that a staff photographer for the Santa Cruz Sentinel newspaper likewise shot photographs from inside of the occupied bank building, yet Lee has chosen not to file any charges against him. Why would a District Attorney pursue such a selective prosecution?

Viewpoint Discrimination

Upon reading court filings and hearing statements made by the District Attorney during the preliminary hearing for Bradley and Alex, it is apparent that District Attorney Lee believes he is entitled to dictate the terms of media coverage in Santa Cruz County. In a brief filed prior to the preliminary hearing, DAs Lee and Rebekah Young wrote this about Alex's and Bradley's coverage of the occupation: "Their postings contain no interviews (or even attempted interviews) with representatives from the police, with the property owners, or with members of the community who might not have been in favor of the group's conduct." This is clearly viewpoint discrimination on the part of the District Attorney. According to Bob Lee's logic, if journalists do not interview police for a story, then somehow those journalists' rights and privileges as members of the media no longer matter.

Conspiracy to Make Media

As for the most serious remaining charge, felony conspiracy, District Attorney Lee has offered absolutely no supporting evidence of a criminal collusion. The DA has not argued that Alex and Bradley had prior knowledge that the building would be occupied. The DA simply asserts that the mere act of newsgathering at an announced demonstration, which turned into an unannounced building occupation, constitutes felony conspiracy to promote trespass and vandalism. In the same preliminary hearing supplemental brief referenced above, the DA wrote: "The defendants' presence and postings... aided and abetted the organization's occupation of the property." From this, District Attorney Lee takes another leap by claiming that Bradley and Alex "effectively serv[ed] as the media arm of the organization; the group's propagandists." The "conspiracy" is nothing more than reporting on a newsworthy event.

Ben Rice, who is representing Bradley, states, "As the control of 'news' is increasingly controlled by the '1 percent' we have to stop the government from deciding who or what sources may lawfully provide alternate sides to important stories. At Bradley's preliminary hearing, we presented evidence from expert witnesses that Indymedia and Bradley are legitimate news sources. We provided evidence that Bradley has been using his skill as a photojournalist for ten years to examine many of our world's most perplexing social problems. Bradley's focus on those issues is particularly important because so many of them are ignored by mainstream media. The judge's determination to keep the conspiracy charge alive should give all journalists pause."

Free Alex and Bradley! Independent Media Is Not a Crime!

The National Press Photographers Association (NPAA) and The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press (RCFP) wrote a Letter Brief addressed to the court seeking dismissal of charges. In a related joint press release, the NPAA and RCFP wrote: "This is just the most recent case where journalists have been interfered with and arrested while covering Occupy Wall Street protests throughout the country. In almost every case, those charges — ranging from disorderly conduct and obstruction of governmental administration to trespass — have been dismissed or the defendant journalists have been acquitted." So why is Bob Lee pursuing these charges, at taxpayer expense, unless to unfairly promote one journalistic viewpoint over another by deterring independent journalists from closely reporting on social justice movements as they happen.

Stop the harassment and intimidation of independent journalists! Drop the charges against Bradley Stuart Allen and Alex Darocy now!

NASA Considering Space Station for Mars Dry Run

By Marcia Dunn

Cape Canaveral - The International Space Station may provide the setting for a 500-day pretend trip to Mars in another few years.

NASA said Tuesday that consideration is under way to use the space station as a dry run for a simulated trip to and from Mars.

It would be patterned after Russia's mock flight to Mars that lasted 520 days at a Moscow research center. Six men were involved in that study, which ended late last year. They were locked in a steel capsule.

NASA's space station program manager Mike Suffredini said before astronauts can fly beyond low-Earth orbit, they'll have to spend more than six months aloft at a time. That's the typical stint for space station crews. Five hundred days is more than 16 months.

The human endurance record of 14 months was set by a Russian cosmonaut aboard the Mir space station in the mid-1990s. Only two others — both Russians — have spent as long as a full year in space.

No NASA astronaut has spent more than seven months in space on a single mission.

Suffredini doesn't expect any such Mars simulation aboard the space station to occur any sooner than two to three years. Physical as well as psychological questions will have to be addressed before anything of that sort is attempted, he said.

Steps are under way, however, for such an effort, and scientists and flight surgeons already are working on it. The goal would be to have all the data in hand so the space station can be used as a Mars test bed before its projected demise in 2020 or thereafter.

Suffredini said he expects the consensus ultimately will be to simulate "at least the first leg of a trip to a distant planet."

NASA's future for manned exploration is up in the air as the debate drags on as to where astronauts should head in the decades ahead: the moon, asteroids and/or Mars. The cost promises to be a major factor, along with the development of rocketships big enough to travel so far.

Eviction Date Set for Occupy Porto Alegre

By Clarinha Glock

Porto Alegre, Brazil- In this southern Brazilian city that has an international reputation as a pioneer in environmental policies and citizen participation, the city government has set an eviction date for the small protest movement that is occupying the central square.

But the protesters say they are not leaving.

The Occupy Porto Alegre group has occupied the central Praça da Matriz square for three months, as of Tuesday.

But municipal environment secretary Luiz Fernando Záchia says they had asked him to be able to complete a three-month stay and then leave on their own on Wednesday Mar. 21.

However, if that doesn’t happen, and "if the office of the public prosecutor decides they should leave and a legal order to that effect is issued, the park guard service can act," Záchia said.

But on their blog, the movement said that no agreement had been reached with the city government and they did not plan to pack up their camp and pull out, because the protest action is protected by the Brazilian constitution.

Occupy Porto Alegre, inspired by the 2011 Arab Spring and Spain's "Indignados" movement, met in January with the representatives of several other Occupy and Indignados movements during the Thematic Social Forum, an outgrowth of the World Social Forum.

The demonstrators set up their tents on Dec. 20 in the central Praça da Matriz, which is surrounded by the Palace of Justice, the seat of the government of the state of Rio Grande do Sul, the state legislature and the metropolitan cathedral.

This square has traditionally been the site for rallies and demonstrations, with groups ranging from landless peasants to the teachers’ union frequently gathering here to protest.

But now, some 30 people have been taking turns staying in the group’s tents, which draw visitors and the curious and have become a hub of debate on clean energy, organic food and human rights.

Students, professionals, craftspeople, street artists, the unemployed – everyone here leads by example, preparing nutritious, natural meals with food provided by market stallholders in exchange for help loading and unloading trucks.

Like the rest of the Occupy movements around the world, also inspired by Spain’s Indignados movement, which emerged in May 2011, the Porto Alegre movement prefers not to have formal leaders. The participants all speak for the group, and decisions are adopted in assembly.

Mauricio, a 19-year-old student of social sciences at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, came to the square as soon as he heard about the camp. "This is a form of protest against unbridled competition; we’re demonstrating for peace," he told IPS.

The schedule of activities has included meetings with environmentalists to discuss the controversial reform to Brazil’s forestry code, which is making its way through Congress, and the impacts caused by the huge hydroelectric dams under construction in the Amazon jungle and other parts of the country.

Members of the group will take part on Friday Mar. 23 in a public hearing on the Paiquerê hydroelectric dam to be built on the Pelotas river between the cities of Bom Jesús in Rio Grande do Sul and Lages in the neighbouring state of Santa Catarina, in southern Brazil.

"The hydropower plant is close to being approved," said Luís, a 22-year-old biologist. "We’re going to argue that it is unconstitutional, because it threatens endangered species and the Mata Atlântica (Atlantic rainforest)," an ecosystem that once stretched over much of the eastern edge of Brazil but now survives only in small degraded patches and protected areas.

"They’re going to flood 4,000 hectares and destroy araucaria (Brazilian pine) trees that are hundreds of years old. The area is an ecological corridor," he told IPS.

Municipal environment secretariat staff visited the camp twice, on Mar. 9 and 12, with the intention of evicting the Occupy movement. On both occasions the demonstrators told them that all decisions were reached by consensus in assembly, and that there was a lengthy schedule of activities to celebrate the camp’s three-month anniversary.

Secretary Záchia has been trying to avoid a confrontational tone. "You have to understand that this is a democratic city that has room for all movements, large or small. It’s not up to me to say who has the privilege of staying," he told IPS.

Porto Alegre was a pioneer of environmental policies in the 1970s; in 1989 it developed the world’s first full participatory budgeting process; and in 2001 it became a global reference point as the site of the World Social Forum (WSF).

But the occupy movement "is also petering out in other cities," Záchia said. "And I repeat: they were the ones who set the Mar. 21 departure date. All I am supposed to do is organise my park maintenance team, to go in on the 22nd and do the necessary work, because conditions in the square have deteriorated."

The secretariat’s staff have found damages to the vegetation in the square, as well as destruction of some portions of the mosaic-style Portuguese pavement or calçada portugesa.

There have also been complaints from "dozens" of local residents because the tents have been set up in the shadiest places, which is a problem during the heat of the southern hemisphere summer, the official said.

The demonstrators respond that they have talked to the people who use the park. "Their requests that we clear some parts have been addressed," said another protester, Analise. "We cleared paths so they can walk through without any problems."

The group’s web site provides links to related movements in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, as well as Spain, Britain and the United States, which are preparing for a major global day of action on May 1, International Workers Day.

But until then, and before joining forces to tackle broader fights, the Occupy Porto Alegre activists will have to battle for the very survival of their movement. "Our strategy was to ask to be allowed to stay until Mar. 21," Alfeu, 21, told IPS. "But the idea is to not leave," said another demonstrator.

New Hampshire House to Weigh Gay Marriage Repeal Vote

By Norma Love

Concord, New Hampshire - New Hampshire lawmakers are considering whether to take the first step toward making their state legislature the first one to repeal a gay marriage law, even as the governor threatens a veto.

But regardless of the final outcome of the push to repeal the 2-year-old gay marriage law, both sides are pledging to continue fighting into the fall elections.

The bill, scheduled for a House vote on Wednesday, calls for repealing gay marriage in March 2013 and replacing it with a civil unions law that had been in place in 2008 and 2009. Gay marriages occurring before the repeal took effect would still be valid, but future gay unions would be civil unions. The bill also would allow voters could weigh in through a nonbinding November ballot question.

If the House passes the repeal measure, it would go to the Senate; both houses are controlled by Republicans. Democratic Gov. John Lynch has promised to veto the bill if it reaches his desk.

A two-thirds vote of the Legislature is required to override a veto. Opponents of a repeal have lobbied hard in the House in the hopes of achieving a narrower margin if the bill passes on Wednesday. The House would be the first chamber to take up an override vote if Lynch vetoes the bill, and if it failed to muster two-thirds, the measure would die.

Repeal opponents hope to solidify what they argue is public support for gay marriage, while supporters hope to reverse the law in a region of the country that gay rights groups have strength.

The National Organization for Marriage has pledged to spend $250,000 to help lawmakers running for re-election who support repealing the law. On the other side, the New Hampshire Republicans of Freedom and Equality PAC is raising money to back Republicans who vote to retain it.

If the law is repealed, a lawsuit is expected to be filed arguing New Hampshire's law discriminates against gays who no longer can get married.

Democrats enacted both the civil unions and gay marriage laws when they controlled the Legislature, and Lynch signed both. After Republicans took control of the House and Senate in 2010, repeal legislative was introduced, but held over until this year.

The repeal legislation, sponsored by state Rep. David Bates, would ensure the 1,906 existing same-sex marriages would remain valid if the gay marriage law is repealed. Bates said it would replace the current "illegitimate definition" of marriage with one defining it as between one man and one woman.

Same-sex marriage is legal in New York, Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, Maryland, Washington and the District of Columbia. New Jersey lawmakers recently passed a gay marriage bill, but the governor vetoed it. An override vote could come as late as January 2014.

Since 1998, 31 states have had ballot measures related to same-sex marriage, and opponents have prevailed in every state. Those states include Maine, where voters in 2009 rejected the state's gay-marriage law.

Last month, a federal appeals court declared California's same-sex marriage ban to be unconstitutional. The ruling could mean the bitterly contested, voter-approved law will be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Omega-3 Fats Tied to Less Cancer-related Fatigue: Study

Worldwide - Breast cancer survivors who eat a healthy dose of omega-3 fats - found largely in oily fish like salmon, tuna and mackerel - may have some extra energy throughout their day, according to a U.S. study.


Many people treated for cancer have lingering fatigue even years after their therapy ends, and while there's evidence that good sleep habits and regular exercise can help, other options are still needed, said researchers whose findings appeared in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.


Exactly what causes cancer survivors' long-term fatigue is unclear, but there's evidence that chronic inflammation in the body may play a role, said Rachel Ballard-Barbash of the U.S. National Cancer Institute, who worked on the study.


"Results link higher intake of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids, decreased inflammation and decreased physical aspects of fatigue," Ballard-Barbash and her colleagues wrote.


Omega-3 fats are thought to lessen inflammation, and research suggests that's especially true if the omega-3 replace some of the omega-6 fatty acids that make up a large share of the typical U.S. diet.


Omega-6 fats are found in margarine, vegetable oils and an array of snack foods, sweets and fast food. Too much omega-6 is thought to promote inflammation.


For their study, Ballard-Barbash and her colleagues looked at the relationship between omega-3 intake and fatigue among 633 breast cancer survivors.


Overall, 42 percent of the women were considered "fatigued" three years after their diagnosis -- and the problem was more common in those with higher blood levels of an inflammation-related protein called CRP.
Women who got more omega-3 in their diets had lower odds of fatigue, particularly if they used fish oil pills.

Of women who got the most omega-3 relative to omega-6, at least partly from fish oil supplements, about 23 percent were considered fatigued. That compared with 49 percent of women who did not use supplements and had the lowest omega-3 intake relative to omega-6.


Of course, other factors may separate the fish and fish-oil lovers from other people. But when the researchers accounted for factors like women's age, race and weight, higher omega-3 intake was still linked to lower odds of fatigue.

Ballard-Barbash said it's still too early for people with cancer-related fatigue to invest in fish oil pills but adding some fish to the diet might be wise.


"Consuming fish a couple times a week - particularly fatty fish - is already recommended to the general public, for overall health," she said, adding that women who are not physically active already should perhaps look into taking up an exercise routine to deal with fatigue.

Museum Confirms Still Life It Holds is By Van Gogh

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — A still life once thought to be by Vincent van Gogh but later downgraded to the work of an anonymous artist because of doubts about its authenticity is indeed by the tormented Dutch impressionist, researchers said Tuesday.

The process leading to the confirmation reads like a cold case detective story, with a new X-ray technique helping experts re-examine what they already knew about the painting and draw on a growing pool of scholarly Van Gogh research.

A detailed X-ray of an underlying painting of two wrestlers and knowledge of the painter's period at a Belgian art academy combined to lead a team of researchers to conclude that "Still life with meadow flowers and roses" really is by Van Gogh.

The painting is owned by the Kroeller-Mueller Museum in the central Netherlands and was being hung there Tuesday among its other Van Gogh works.

There was no real eureka moment for the team of experts studying the still life and the underlying image of wrestlers, said Louis van Tilborgh, a senior researcher at Amsterdam's Van Gogh Museum who took part in the confirmation process.

"All the pieces just fell into place," he told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.

The painting, on a 100 centimeter by 80 centimeter (40x31 inch) canvas, was bought by the Kroeller-Mueller Museum in 1974 as a Van Gogh. The work was thought to come from the artist's period living with his brother Theo in Paris from late 1886.

"But when they hung it (in the museum), doubts crept in" about its authenticity, said Van Tilborgh.

Experts thought the canvas was too large for that period, the depiction of a vase brimming over with flowers and yet more flowers lying on a table in the foreground was too exuberant, too busy. The signature was in an unusual position for Van Gogh — the top right hand corner.

With the doubts piling up, the museum in 2003 decided to attribute the painting to an anonymous artist instead of to Van Gogh.

But the detective work did not end there.

An X-ray taken five years earlier had already revealed an indistinct image of the wrestlers and continued to interest researchers.

Now, a new more detailed X-ray has shown the wrestlers in more detail, along with the brush strokes and pigments used. They all pointed back to Van Gogh.

"You can see the wrestlers more clearly and the fact that they are wearing loin cloths," said Van Tilborgh.

Having models pose half naked was a defining characteristic of the Antwerp academy where Van Gogh studied in early 1886. So was the size of the canvas, the Kroeller-Mueller Museum said in a statement.

Vincent wrote to his brother about needing the large canvas, new brushes and paint. Theo helped the penniless artist buy the materials and a week later Van Gogh wrote back that he was delighted with the painting of two wrestlers.

Van Tilborgh said the brush strokes and pigments in the wrestlers painting also corresponded with what experts now know about Van Gogh's work in Antwerp.

The wrestlers also help explain the "uncharacteristic exuberance" of the floral still life, the Kroeller-Mueller Museum statement said — Van Gogh had to cover up all of the old image with his new work.

The detective work is described in a new publication by the Van Gogh Museum titled "Rehabilitation of a flower still life in the Kroeller-Mueller Museum and a lost Antwerp painting by Van Gogh."

Norway Leads Calls for EU Ban on Fish Discards

By Fiona Harvey

Norway - Giving up the wasteful practice of discarding edible fish at sea is not only possible, but can result in greater profits for fishermen, according to the fisheries minister in Norway, which has banned the practice.

Up to two-thirds of the fish caught in some European waters are thrown back dead because of the way the EU's common fisheries policy works. Proposals to end the waste have faced opposition from fishing groups and some EU member states, several of which attempted to scupper the ban at a meeting in Brussels on Monday. In the end, the attempt to block a ban on discards did not materialise, in part because of strong opposition from the public and high-profile campaigns such as FishFight initiative spearheaded by the TV chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. But the issue will be discussed by European legislators several times this year before going to a final vote.

It is 25 years since Norway introduced a ban on discards amid the steady decline of the Arctic cod. As a result, stocks of the species have recovered.

The experiences of Norway, which is outside the EU, should be taken as an example to member states, says the country's fisheries minister. Lisbeth Berg-Hansen. She told the Guardian: "I hope the rest of Europe will see this ban can be possible. Fishermen saw it as difficult at first but they have seen the quick results of this ban – the quota got bigger year by year."

Some fishermen, mainly in companies with industrial-scale vessels, want to keep the present discards arrangement because they can maximise their profits by throwing back lower value, though edible, fish.

Berg-Hansen said Norway's discards ban was introduced as part of a package of measures that meant fishermen saw other benefits, and shared in the bigger catches that were allowed as the species recovered. "We looked at the problem as a whole, took scientific advice and used several different methods," she added.

Technology was used extensively: selective gear meant smaller fish slipped through the net, preventing juveniles being caught and helping to avoid by-catch. Some fishing grounds were also closed temporarily to allow stocks to recover, particularly in areas where there was a high proportion of young fish.

The amount of allowable by-catch was also curtailed, with rules brought in which meant that fishermen netting a large amount had to change location to avoid breaking the law. Fishing was more closely monitored, and the value of any fish caught in contravention of the regulations was made forfeit to the state.

One key part of the plan, said Berg-Hansen, was public backing of the ban – there was a growing outcry in Norway over the huge quantities of cod being discarded, particularly at a time when stocks were dwindling. "People saw that discarding fish is an absolute waste and irresponsible resource management," she said.

Four Rare White Rhinos Die Sudeenly in Australian Zoo

Sydney - Four rare white rhinoceroses have died in recent weeks at an Australian zoo after displaying mysterious neurological problems such as stumbling, officials said Wednesday.

The Taronga Western Plains Zoo near the New South Wales state city of Dubbo said in a statement that it had begun a veterinary investigation to pinpoint the cause of the deaths and is working with rhino specialists in Africa and North America.

The four rhinos — Izizi, Aluka, Intombi and her daughter Amira — began showing signs of neurological problems two weeks ago, an unnamed zoo official told Australian Associated Press.

The first rhino died soon after the symptoms became apparent and the fourth died over the weekend, the official said.

Three other rhinos survived, zoo spokesman Mark Williams said. Williams declined to answer further questions.

The zoo's general manager, Matt Fuller, said bacterial infections, snake venom, toxins and many types of viruses have been ruled out as possible causes.

Fuller said in a statement that no other species at the zoo had been affected by the illness and the surviving rhinos, which have been placed in quarantine, are healthy.

"The rhino keepers and veterinary staff know and care for every individual in the herd, so this has been a huge shock, and we're all very sad and supporting each other through this difficult time," Fuller said.

Fuller said results of a microscopic examination of tissue from the rhino carcasses may be available next week, but he added that it could take several weeks to get results from virology cultures.

According to the World Wildlife Fund, white rhinos are classified as near endangered with an estimated 20,000 in the wild in Africa. The zoo's rhinos are from the southern white subspecies found in South Africa and Kenya.

Intombi and Aluka were brought to the zoo from the Kruger National Park in South Africa in 2003. Amira and Izizi were born in captivity.

Their ages ranged from around 7 to 16 years.

Fuller was not immediately available for comment on Wednesday.

Soldier's Lawyer Known for "Humanizing" Clients

By Gene Johnson and Phuong Le

Seattle - A day before the public learned the name of the soldier accused of methodically slaughtering 16 civilians in Afghanistan, his lawyer called a news conference and sketched a different portrait of Robert Bales: that of a loving father and devoted husband who had been traumatized by a comrade's injury and sent into combat one too many times.

The move was classic John Henry Browne. The charming, sometimes brash, media-savvy defense attorney had yet to even meet his client and was already attempting to shape public perceptions.

"His best work is not in a court of law, but really in a court of public opinion. He's a master at humanizing his client, and that's an important role," said Dan Satterberg, chief prosecutor in Seattle's King County, where Browne is based. "He is accessible and quotable. And he loves to talk to the media. He doesn't waste any time getting a positive portrayal of his client."

Six-foot-6 and seven times married, with a penchant for long, white scarves, Browne cuts a flamboyant figure in Seattle legal circles and has represented some notorious criminals, including serial killer Ted Bundy and the teenage thief known as the Barefoot Bandit.

Browne, 65, has obtained remarkable results for some of his clients, but his aggressive courtroom style can also rub prosecutors and judges the wrong way. In a drug case last summer, a mistrial was declared after he questioned the judge's competence in open court and a juror was overheard saying he wanted to punch the lawyer in the nose.

His new client, Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, a 38-year-old Army sniper from Washington state, could be charged as early as this week in the March 11 shooting rampage, a crime that has strained relations between the U.S. and Afghanistan and threatened to alter the course of the war.

Browne met with Bales for the first time Monday, conferring with him behind bars at Fort Leavenworth, Kan. While any trial is months away, some wonder whether the lawyer's sometimes abrasive behavior will sit well with the more formal culture of a military court, in which the jury consists entirely of soldiers.

By his own count, Browne has appeared in military court only three times in a career of more than four decades.

"He pushes prosecutors and judges, and his success is partially due to that," said John Wolfe, who worked for Browne in the 1970s. "His zealousness can cause people to make mistakes." But he added: "I fully expect he's going to adapt his style to the decorum required in a military trial."

Allen Ressler, a Seattle attorney who went to American University Law School with Browne and was his law partner years ago, put it this way: "He's not always the most pleasant human being in the world, but he knows what he needs to do to get results."

Browne has been known to turn around in court and roll his eyes if he dislikes what he is hearing from the judge. In the drug case that ended in a mistrial, he simply refused to continue participating because he disagreed with several rulings. He sat down and did the same thing in a 1979 murder case.

"He makes harsh statements sometimes, statements some people feel might be disrespectful," Wolfe said. "If he thinks a judge is out of line, he'll say, 'You're out of line.' He is passionate about his defense work, and when he thinks it's appropriate, he'll call a spade a spade."

Though friendly with reporters, Browne can at times be prickly with them, and isn't above calling one a "pest" for telephoning too often.

Several colleagues say that he clearly enjoys the publicity from big cases but that his real motivation lies deeper, in a belief in his clients and their right to a fair trial.

"John has always had high-profile cases because he's really good," said Anne Bremner, a Seattle lawyer who was Browne's fifth wife. "But often in high-profile cases, they can be a platform for important discussions on broad issues. Being part of that public discussion and potential institutional changes is important to him."

Most recently, Browne represented Colton Harris-Moore, the Barefoot Bandit who stole airplanes, boats and cars during a two-year run from the law. By painting a picture of the thief as someone who had been neglected as a boy, Browne and his co-counsel persuaded a judge to give Harris-Moore a prison term at the low end of the sentencing range — seven years.

Browne was so persuasive the judge called the defendant "a triumph of the human spirit" simply because Harris-Moore grew up to be a thief rather than, say, a serial killer.

One of Browne's biggest cases involved Washington state's worst mass murder, the slaying of 13 people at a Seattle gambling club in 1983. At the end of the trial, Browne had the mother of his client, Benjamin Ng, bow to the jurors and ask them to spare his son from execution, recalled Bremner. Ng was sentenced to life in prison.

In the 1970s, Browne came to represent Bundy when he was under investigation for killings in Washington state. Bundy ultimately confessed to dozens of murders around the country and was executed in Florida's electric chair in 1989.

A Tennessee native, Browne graduated from the University of Denver, then got his law degree in 1971. He worked as an assistant attorney general in Olympia, Wash., and then as chief trial attorney in the public defender's office in Seattle before entering private practice.

He has benefited from the assistance of a series of sharp associate lawyers, most recently Emma Scanlan, who has handled many of the nuts and bolts of their cases while leaving the public pronouncements to him.

So far, Browne is doing a good job countering the portrait of Bales that has emerged in leaks from anonymous U.S. officials, said Dan Conway, a former Marine and a military lawyer. But talking so much about his client — for example, saying that Bales remembers little about the attack — is risky, Conway said.

Military investigators have sole access to witnesses in Afghanistan and can start collecting evidence to contradict Browne's suggestion that the shootings may have been what psychiatrists call a dissociative event.

"You want to humanize your client, but you don't want to give away the whole playbook," Conway said

Court: Tobacco Health Lables Constitutional

By Terry Baynes

 

United States - A U.S. law requiring large graphic health warnings on cigarette packaging and advertising does not violate the free speech rights of tobacco companies, a federal appeals court ruled on Monday.

Cigarette makers had sued to stop the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's new labeling and advertising requirements on grounds the rules violated their First Amendment right to communicate with adult tobacco consumers.

But the Cincinnati-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit upheld the bulk of the FDA's new regulatory framework, including the requirement that tobacco companies include large warning images on cigarette packs.

The decision comes on the heels of a Washington, D.C., judge's ruling in a different, but related, case that rejected the FDA requirements and seems to set up a clash over the constitutionality of the FDA rules.

Floyd Abrams, a lawyer for Lorillard, noted the difference in tone in the two rulings and said the 6th Circuit case, the Washington case, or both, would likely end up in the U.S. Supreme Court.

The difference in the two cases is that the FDA had not introduced the specific images when the companies filed the 6th Circuit suit. While the Washington suit focused on the images, the appeals court addressed the larger issue of the FDA's regulatory power.

"There can be no doubt that the government has a significant interest in preventing juvenile smoking and in warning the general public about the harms associated with the use of tobacco products," Judge Eric Clay wrote for the three-judge 6th Circuit panel.

Congress passed the law in 2009 and ordered the FDA to adopt specific warning-label regulations. The labels must be in color, must cover the top 50 percent of a cigarette pack's front and back panels, and must cover the top 20 percent of print advertisements.

After tobacco companies, including R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co and Lorillard Inc's Lorillard Tobacco Co, sued to block the law, the FDA unveiled nine images to go on cigarette packs, including graphic pictures of dead bodies, diseased lungs and rotting teeth. The companies accused the government of forcing them to disseminate an anti-smoking message in order to stigmatize and embarrass already-informed consumers.

The appeals court panel's two-judge majority disagreed with the companies on the label requirement, finding that the fact that the specific images might trigger disgust does not make the requirement unconstitutional.

The majority did note that it was only addressing the constitutionality of the statute on its face, and not the specific images that the FDA introduced after the suit was filed.

DISSENT ON IMAGES

Judge Clay, who wrote the main opinion upholding most of the FDA regulations, dissented, however, on the graphic label ruling. He called the rule "simply unprecedented." While the government can require a product manufacturer to provide truthful information, "it is less clearly permissible for the government to simply frighten consumers or to otherwise attempt to flagrantly manipulate the emotions of consumers as it seeks to do here," Clay wrote.

On February 29, D.C. district judge Richard Leon ruled that the FDA's images violated the tobacco companies' free-speech rights. He found that the warning labels were too big and that the government has numerous other tools at its disposal to deter smoking, such as raising cigarette taxes or including simple factual information on the labels rather than gruesome images.

The Obama administration appealed that ruling to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on March 5.

Lorillard lawyer Abrams says Monday's appeals court decision does not necessarily conflict with the Leon's decision.

"The court made clear it was focusing on the statute as written, as opposed to the implementation of it," Abrams said.

The Department of Justice did not immediately provide comment.

The 6th Circuit also upheld other FDA regulations, including restrictions on the marketing of "light" cigarettes, on the distribution of free tobacco samples, and event sponsorship. The court struck down a rule barring the use of color and graphics in tobacco advertising.

"We are pleased the 6th Circuit Court of Appeal upheld the continued use of colors and imagery in our advertisements," said R.J. Reynolds spokesman Bryan Hatchell.

Brazil Refuses to Allow 17 American Executives to Leave Country Over OIl Spill

By Noel Brinkerhoff and David Wallechinsky

Brazil - Chevron and another American company are under attack from the government of Brazil after allowing an oil leak from an offshore well.

Seventeen executives from Chevron and oil platform operator Transocean face criminal charges for an oil discharge, about 110,000 gallons, which occurred last November. The equivalent of about 3,000 barrels, it so far pales in comparison to the 4 million-barrel BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. Transocean was also held partially responsible for that disaster.

The 17 include George Buck, chief operating officer for Chevron’s Brazilian division. Buck and the others have been told by Brazilian prosecutors to turn over their passports and remain in the country.

When more oil was spotted in the water on Friday near the original leak, Chevron agreed to suspend production, which had been turning out more than 60,000 barrels of oil a day, even after the November incident.

Prosecutors also have filed a civil lawsuit seeking $11.2 billion in damages from Chevron, which has accused the government of overreacting to the size of the spill. Prosecutor Eduardo Santos de Oliveira told Reuters that Chevron executives may face criminal charges for drilling in an unsafe location or an unsafe manner.

Opposition Grows to Obama's Refusal to Reveal Secret Patriot Powers

 By Noel Brinkerhoff

 

United States - Congressional Democrats, the media and civil libertarians are continuing their fight with President Barack Obama over his administration’s secret interpretations of the Patriot Act.

 

Senators Ron Wyden of Oregon and Mark Udall of Colorado, who sit on the Senate Intelligence Committee, wrote to Attorney General Eric Holder last week claiming a classified intelligence operation based on the Patriot Act interpretation is not as critical to national security as the administration says.

 

Wyden and Udall also wrote that Americans would be “stunned” if they knew what the government was really doing based on the legal theory being employed through the Patriot Act. In October, Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Illinois) said that the government’s use of “Section 215 is unfortunately cloaked in secrecy. Some day that cloak will be lifted, and future generations will ask whether our actions today meet the test of a democratic society: transparency, accountability, and fidelity to the rule of law and our Constitution.”

 

The Department of Justice has insisted that revealing anything about the secret spy program could “cause exceptionally grave damage to the national security of the United States.”

 

Federal lawyers are trying to dismiss two lawsuits, one by The New York Times and the other by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, that seek to force the administration into disclosing how the Patriot Act has been interpreted.

Nation's Biggest Spy Center Settles into Utah

By David Wallechinsky and Noel Brinkerhoff

 

Utah - Officially called the Utah Data Center, the enormous facility under construction will eventually house one million square feet of computers. Its mission will be to intercept, decipher, analyze and store large volumes of communications collected by the NSA from around the world.

 

Everything from private emails to cell phone calls to Google searches and more will be stored at the center, which is scheduled to operational in September 2013. It will also collect the details of financial transactions, big and small, secret communication of foreign governments, suspected terrorists and, perhaps, just about everybody else.

 

“It is, in some measure, the realization of the ‘total information awareness’ program created during the first term of the Bush administration—an effort that was killed by Congress in 2003 after it caused an outcry over its potential for invading Americans’ privacy,” according to James Bamford in an excellent article in Wired. Bush went ahead anyway, enlisting the aid of the telecoms, and the Obama administration has moved the strategy forward.

 

The Utah Data Center will also be a center for cryptanalysis—code breaking—since one of its primary targets will be password-protected and intricately encrypted information.

 

The Data Center is expected to have at least 200 full-time employees and cost $40 million a year to maintain.

China Bans "Sex" and "God" Claims By Health Suppliments

China - China will ban health supplement makers from naming their products after sex, God or eternal life, state media said on Tuesday, in an attempt to stop an unregulated industry from using vulgarity and superstition to sell pills.

China's State Food and Drug Administration will outlaw words it classed as "vulgar or linked with superstition, such as: sex, God, immortal," from the names of health products, according to the report on official news agency Xinhua.

The report did not say when the ban will take effect.

The terms "powerful", "magical results", "miraculous" and "extraordinary" will also be proscribed, it said.

For years, China has been plagued by a series of cases involving quality concerns over food and drugs that have alarmed many of its citizens.

The government has tried to restore confidence in the country's goods by pledging repeated crackdowns on the loosely regulated food and drug industry, in response to rising consumer complaints about bogus medical guarantees and inadequate drug supervision.

Zheng Xiaoyu, former head of the State Food and Drug Administration, was executed in July 2007 for taking bribes and dereliction of duty after a series of drug safety scandals on his watch.

Hostile Takeover: Parents Seek Control of Failing School in Education Reform

By Stephanie Simon

Adelanto, California - Desert Trails Elementary School in the impoverished town of Adelanto, California, has been failing local kids for years. More than half the students can't pass state math or reading tests.

On Tuesday, the school board will discuss a radical fix: a parent takeover of the school.
 
For the moms and dads, it's a local, and intensely personal, debate. But their little school at the edge of the Mojave Desert has also become a flash point in a high-stakes national struggle over the future of public education, one that pits powerful teachers unions against some of world's wealthiest philanthropies.

Desert Trails, with children in kindergarten through 6th grades or roughly aged 5-12, could be the first school in the country to invoke the concept known as "parent trigger."

A 2010 California law permits parents at the state's worst public schools to band together and effectively wrest control from the district.

The parents can enact dramatic changes, such as firing teachers, ousting the principal, or converting the school into a charter institution run by a private management company. Several other states are considering similar laws.

Desert Trails has had high turnover in the principal's office. Parents complain about difficulty getting their children extra help when they fall behind. Just 31 percent of third-graders are proficient in reading and 14 percent score in the lowest level, "far below basic," in state testing.

A determined group of Desert Trails parents is leading the charge, with substantial help from a well-funded activist group, Parent Revolution. The trigger advocates say they have collected signatures from a majority of families in support of closing down the school this summer and reopening it as a charter school in the fall, to be run by a partnership of parents, teachers and the school district.

An equally determined group of parents, supported by both state and local teachers unions, aims to stop them. They say Desert Trails can be improved without being destroyed.

The parent-trigger battle is perhaps the most dramatic yet in an intensifying fight over the nation's $500-billion-a-year investment in educating kids.

BIG NAMES, BIG MONEY

Over the past decade, several of the nation's wealthiest philanthropists, who see public schools as needing transformative change, have shifted the terms of the education debate. Microsoft founder Bill Gates, Los Angeles developer Eli Broad and the Walton family, heirs to the Wal-Mart fortune, have poured billions of dollars into promoting aggressive reforms.

Their prescriptions, many of which have been adopted by the Obama administration, include expanding charter schools, tying teacher pay to student test performance and making it easier to fire teachers.

Unions see many of those reforms as an existential threat not only to their members, but to the very nature of public education. Charter schools are free public elementary or secondary schools that operate independently from the local school district. They often do not employ union teachers, and are typically run by a private management company.

Critics note that some charters are run by for-profit companies that don't open their books to show the public how they're spending tax dollars.

"There's an agenda that basically wants to take apart public education," said Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers.

Union leaders complain that the reformers have little research to prove their overhaul tactics will work -- and that existing data show less-than-stellar results.

One chain of charter schools heavily backed by foundation money, for instance, is Green Dot - which founded the predecessor to Parent Revolution. Many of the 14 Green Dot charter schools in California have shown impressive academic progress, but all still fall below the state median on standardized test scores. Half rank lower -- many far lower -- than Desert Trails.

Nationally, studies suggest that charter schools rarely outperform regular public schools of similar demographics.

"Too many people on the outside are advocating for things that don't change student learning," said Dennis Van Roekel, president of the National Education Association, which represents 3 million public-school employees.

But to the outside reformers, it's the unions who have their heads in the sand, blocking efforts to remake a public education system that for too long has left too many kids behind. Teachers unions spend tens of millions a year on campaign donations and state and federal lobbying, giving them considerable clout among politicians, especially their traditional allies on the Democratic left.

The Gates and Broad foundations continue to pour huge sums into improving existing public schools; the Gates Foundation, for instance, has pledged $100 million to revamp teacher training, evaluation and pay in Hillsborough County, Fla. Foundation officials say they have no intention of destroying teachers' union or privatizing public schools en masse.

At the same time, however, they say they are committed to experiments like parent trigger.

A SEAT AT THE TABLE

Trigger backers say the mechanism isn't intended to convert local schools into charters in every case. Parent Revolution is working with several parent groups in California that have used the threat of pulling the trigger as leverage to negotiate more modest changes, such as cleaning up filthy school bathrooms.

At Desert Trails, the trigger team is negotiating with the district in hopes of reaching a solution that stops short of moving to a fully independent charter school.

"When big decisions about schools are made, there typically are only two players at the table, the teachers union and the district," said Ben Austin, executive director of Parent Revolution. "What we're saying is, we need a third seat at the table for parents. Before, when they complained, they'd be told to go do a bake sale. Parent trigger utterly changes the game."

Parent Revolution started small, reporting assets of just $91,000 at the end of 2009, the year it began pushing parent trigger in California. When the law passed in early 2010, major philanthropies, including the Gates, Broad and Walton Foundations, pledged substantial donations.

Parent Revolution reported nearly $4 million in grants in 2010, the most recent year tax records are available.

The group has used the money to rally parents to consider using the trigger at low-performing schools across California. "At every step of this process Parent Revolution is here to support you," the group promises in a 12-page parent handbook.

Parent Revolution has also expanded to promote trigger laws nationwide. The group recently flew several parent activists from Buffalo, N.Y. to Houston, Tex., for a training session.

Members were also in Florida earlier this month, mixing it up in a bruising political battle over a trigger bill. The mostly Democratic activists at Parent Revolution teamed with former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, a Republican, along with parents and lobbyists representing charter schools to promote the law.

They also worked with an aggressive new ally, StudentsFirst. Founded last year by Michelle Rhee, the former superintendent of Washington, D.C. public schools, the political advocacy group boasts 1.2 million members -- including Florida moms who flooded legislators with emails and rallied at the capitol. In other states, Rhee has run TV ads to push her agenda, which includes eliminating teacher tenure and supporting parent trigger.

Rhee says she is well on her way to raising $1 billion, though she will not discuss her funding sources.
Lining up against the parent trigger law in Florida were the teachers union, the Florida PTA and a rival group of fired-up moms, including Rita Solnet, a mother of three who says she distrusts charter schools. Solnet co-founded Parents Across America, an activist group that has received $25,000 from the nation's biggest teachers union, but says she spent her own money to fly to Tallahassee and knock on lawmakers' doors to lobby against parent trigger.

"These schools were built by the taxpayers of the past to support the taxpayers of the future," Solnet recalls saying. "You have no right to turn them over" to for-profit charter school corporations.
The Florida parent trigger bill narrowly failed.

In Adelanto, a fast-growing community of 32,000, Parent Revolution rented a house to serve as trigger headquarters and sent staff to help organize. Many parents were receptive to the campaign. Some said they had been trying for years, to no avail, to get improvements at the school, where nearly all the students are low-income minorities, mostly Latino and African-American.

BATTLE OVER PETITIONS

"We feel like we haven't been heard," said Doreen Diaz, a mother of two. "Unless we stand up and fight for our children's education, no one else will."

State law lets parents take over if they gather signatures from parents representing at least half the students at the school. Diaz and the trigger team did so.

But their opponents, backed by the teachers union, promptly challenged dozens of signatures as invalid. Some angry parents said they didn't want Desert Trails to become a charter. Others complained the trigger team had little to offer beyond vague promises that new management would make the school better.

"Where are their lesson plans?" asked Kimberly Smith, a former teacher at Desert Trails who now sends her two children there. "What is the curriculum?... How is it better?"

The school board has not yet ruled on whether the trigger petitions are valid. While the board will take public comment Tuesday, negotiations are continuing and no vote has yet been set on certifying the petitions.

Meanwhile, the daily routine continues at Desert Trails. Fifth graders are memorizing multiplication tables. Sixth graders are diving into "The Phantom Tollbooth." There are reading logs to complete and spelling lists to memorize.

Chrissy Alvarado, a mother of two students at Desert Trails, says she worries the bitter fight will be distracting. "That's what concerns me," she said -- "that our little school got brought into politics."