Word: sao
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...recent years, however, a suburb of Sao Paulo came up with a new approach to help curb the nation's nasty collective hangover. In Diadema, a gritty, industrial city of almost 400,000 people, Mayor Jose de Filippi Junior passed a law in 2002 that forced almost all of the city's 4,800 bars and restaurants to stop selling alcohol between the hours of 11 pm and 6 am. The effect has been stunning. Since the law kicked in, "the number of murders fell by 47.4%," said Regina Miki, the city's social-services chief. "The number of road...
...Filippi believes the strategy has saved more than two hundred lives, but its benefits are also economic. Many of the companies who shied away from investing in a city rated the most violent in the state of Sao Paulo in 2000 now feel they can do business there safely. For 20 consecutive months, Diadema led the state - Brazil's industrial heartland - in the number of jobs created, and it is gaining a reputation as a model of abstinence and urban renewal...
...system. Hardliners are arguing for a crackdown, while liberals counter that nothing will change unless the government attacks the country's epic social and economic inequality. But the question is not just what to do but how. Roughly a third of all Brazil's prisoners are locked up in Sao Paulo state; between 800 and 1,000 more prisoners are jailed each month and the system is stretched to the breaking point. "We'd need to build a new prison each 15 days to hold these new inmates," Mazina said. "And then we'd need to hire and train people...
...Since taking office in 2003, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has pledged to tackle both Brazil's security malaise and the inexcusable social conditions that have bred the gang violence. His opponent in the upcoming October election, former Sao Paulo governor Geraldo Alckmin, has boasted the state had triumphed over organized crime. The Sao Paulo crisis is likely to shine the spotlight on both their records."You can't say the PCC want to benefit one candidate or another, but there 's no doubt that they are smart and well-informed and that they know authorities are more vulnerable...
...Whatever action is taken, it is unlikely that the PCC will quietly fade away. The group runs most of Sao Paulo's 109 jails and will continue to challenge the state unless they are allowed to retain some control over an empire that includes drug trafficking, armed robbery and kidnapping, said Renato Simoes, a human rights expert who has followed the rise of the group. "I think it's a power struggle," said Simoes, a Sao Paulo state congressman who serves on the state's Human Rights Commission. Whatever happens, Paulistas are afraid, and with good reason. Marcola, Macaroni...