Supreme Court to hear case on protests
Justices will rule on suit by parents of soldier whose funeral was marred by anti-gay religious demonstrators.
March 09, 2010|By David G. Savage

Reporting from Washington — The Supreme Court agreed Monday to decide the outer limits of free-speech protection for protests and to rule on whether a dead soldier's family can sue fringe religious protesters who picketed near their son's funeral carrying signs that read, "Thank God for dead soldiers."

By Mary Beth Marklein, USA TODAY
College students on more than 100 campuses nationwide plan walkouts, rallies and other actions Thursday to protest budget cuts, layoffs and tuition increases, which they say erode quality of education and limit access.

Students in at least 32 states are expected to join the grass-roots campaign. It has been bubbling up since demonstrations last fall in California, where students, faculty and unions protested plans for a 32% tuition increase amid the state's fiscal crisis.

"Students saw that there was an opportunity to do something in their own states because the budget cuts didn't happen just in California," says Monique Teal of the United States Student Association, which represents student governments.

University of California regents increased fees as planned. But Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed that at least 10% of annual state spending go to the UC and California State University systems.

Most of today's efforts focus on public education, where enrollments are growing most rapidly and tuition has risen fastest. But some private schools, including the University of Chicago and Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Fla., are protesting issues such as campus spending decisions and low pay for campus workers.

"The biggest thread that ties these protests together is the current financial crisis in higher education," says Angus Johnston, who teaches history at City University of New York and tracks protests on his blog, student activism.net.

Among demands:

•The University of Illinois-Chicago and University of Minnesota are calling on high-level campus administrators to take pay cuts — "chop from the top," they say — rather than lay off workers and junior faculty.

•Michigan students statewide plan to rally at the Capitol in Lansing to demand that state scholarship funding be restored.

•University of Connecticut students, who say recent protests helped limit next year's tuition increase to 5.6% despite proposals as high as 7.5%, plan to train students in lobbying the state Legislature.

•Students at the University of Maryland-College Park and Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond plan to raise concerns about the effect of budget cuts on quality.

"We're seeing more classes taught by adjuncts and grad students who aren't getting paid (fairly). We're seeing larger class sizes, and some kids in certain majors ... can't get all the courses they need in four years," says Maryland junior Jon Berger.

California State University chancellor Charles Reed says federal stimulus money kept the effect of budget cuts on his 23-campus system to a minimum. But "students are paying more and getting less, and they have every right to be outraged about that."

Barack Obama on the verge of US health care victory

Protestors from the “tea party” movement held angry protests outside the Capitol against legislation that has exposed a acrimonius philosophical divide. Opponents of the changes have condemned an expansion of government because most Americans would be compelled to buy insurance and those who could not afford it would benefit from substantial subsidies. Supporters see health care as a right not a privilege that the world’s richest nation is obliged to provide.

potpuno je covek promasio poentu. ovo samo znaci da su u SAD protesti redovna stvar i da postoji sloboda okupljanja za razliku od rusije gde je to incident i gde organizatori protesta mogu da zavrse u zatvoru

Oni protestvuju za svakavke gluposti, zastitu zivotinja i sl.

,kazu americki eksperti iz protestovanja...

амерошупкољупци

potpuno je covek promasio poentu. ovo samo znaci da su u SAD protesti redovna stvar i da postoji sloboda okupljanja za razliku od rusije gde je to incident i gde organizatori protesta mogu da zavrse u zatvoru