The first child sex abuse lawsuit against former Penn State football coach Jerry Sandusky was filed Wednesday. The alleged victim, now an adult, claims Sandusky sexually abused him more than 100 times between 1992 and 1996. The suit also names the university and the Second Mile charity as defendants. Msnbc’s Thomas Roberts reports.

PHILADELPHIA — Former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky sexually abused a young boy more than 100 times after meeting him through the charity he founded, then threatened the boy’s family to keep him quiet about the encounters, according to a lawsuit filed Wednesday.

The lawsuit identifies the plaintiff, now 29, only as John Doe. It claims Sandusky abused the boy at the coach’s State College home, at Penn State facilities and on at least one bowl game trip.

The plaintiff is not among eight victims named in a grand jury report released earlier this month that detailed a series of alleged assaults involving Sandusky and boys as young as 10. Sandusky has acknowledged showering and embracing young boys but denies molesting them.

 According to the lawsuit, Sandusky gave the boy gifts, travel and privileges after meeting him through his charity, The Second Mile, in 1992, when the boy was 10. The abuse began shortly after and lasted until 1996, the suit said, occurring in “multiple occasions and multiple locations.”

In a written statement released Wednesday, the plaintiff says he’s taking legal action because he doesn’t want other kids to be abused.

“The people at Penn State and Second Mile didn’t do the things they should have to protect me and the other kids. I am hurting and have been for a long time because of what happened but feel now even more tormented that I have learned of so many other kids [who] were abused after me,” the statement says. “I want other people who have been hurt to know they can come forward and get helpand help protect others in the future.”

Sandusky is charged with abusing eight boys, some on campus, over 15 years, allegations that were not immediately brought to the attention of authorities even though high-level people at Penn State apparently knew about at least one of them.

‘Extreme and outrageous conduct’
The lawsuit filed Wednesday continues, “Penn State’s and Second Mile’s conduct in employing Sandusky, holding out its premises as a safe environment for children when it had reason to know it could be a dangerous place for children, and thereby causing Plaintiff to be raped by Sandusky constituted extreme and outrageous conduct that was atrocious and went beyond all bounds of decency.”

The scandal has resulted in the departure of school President Graham Spanier and longtime coach Joe Paterno. Athletic Director Tim Curley has been placed on administrative leave, and Vice President Gary Schultz, who was in charge of the university’s police department, has stepped down.

Schultz and Curley are charged with lying to the grand jury and failure to report to police, and Sandusky is charged with child sex abuse. All maintain their innocence.

The plaintiff is represented by attorney Jeffrey Anderson, a longtime advocate against child sex abuse. Anderson held a news conference Wednesday in Philadelphia, where the suit was filed.

Sandusky’s lawyer did not immediately return messages seeking comment.

• Read the civil complaint: John Doe A Against Penn State, Sandusky and Second Mile

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The apple and grape juice your kids are drinking may have arsenic at levels high enough to increase their risk of cancer and other chronic diseases, according to a new study by Consumer Reports.

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A full 10 percent of the juices tested by the magazine had arsenic levels higher than what is allowed in water by the Food and Drug Administration.

“What we’re talking about here is not about acute affects,” Urvashi Rangan, senior scientist at Consumer Reports, told TODAY’s Savannah Guthrie. “We’re talking about chronic effects. We’re talking about cancer risk. And so, the fact that 10 percent of our samples exceeded the drinking water standard underscores the need for a standard to be set in juices.”

The fear is that over time arsenic will accumulate in children’s bodies and raise their risk of cancer and other serious illnesses, Rangan explained.

The new report echoes a



study commissioned by Dr. Mehmet Oz

back in September. When Oz reported his findings on his popular television show, the FDA responded by calling Oz’s study flawed and “extremely irresponsible.”

Story: Statements made in response to TODAY report on arsenic levels in apple and grape juice

One of the issues the FDA had with Oz’s study was its failure to separate out measurements of inorganic and organic arsenic. Studies have linked inorganic arsenic to a variety of cancers. But many consider organic arsenics – especially the types commonly found in seafood – to be safe.

As far as Consumer Reports is concerned, that’s a head-in-the-sand approach.

“Questions have been raised about the human health effects of other types of organic arsenic in foods, including juices,” the magazine noted. “Use of organic arsenic in agricultural products has caused concern. For instance, the EPA in 2006 took steps to stop the use of herbicides containing organic arsenic because of their potential to turn into inorganic arsenic in the soil and contaminate drinking water.”

Beyond this, there’s evidence that organic arsenic converts into the inorganic form when chickens consume feeds that contain the compound, Consumer Reports researchers noted.

For its new study Consumer Reports tested 88 samples of apple and grape juices sold around the nation. Included among those tested were popular brand name juices like Minute Maid, Welch’s and Tropicana.

The study found five samples of apple juice and four of grape juice that had total arsenic levels exceeding the 10 parts per billion (ppb) federal limit for bottled and drinking water. “Most of the total arsenic in our samples was inorganic,” Consumer Reports noted.

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The brand with the lowest arsenic level was Welch’s Pourable Concentrate 100% Apple Juice (1.1-4.3 total arsenic ppb). Other juices with low arsenic levels include: America’s Choice Apple; Tropicana 100% Apple; and Red Jacket Orchards 100% Apple.

Current FDA guidelines require water to have no more than 10 ppb of inorganic arsenic. The agency also has standards for juices and those allow higher levels of the compound – 23 ppb. The level is allowed to be higher because it’s assumed that people will consume more water than juice in the course of a normal day.

Rangan took exception to that line of thinking because the standard is based on how much water an average adult will drink in a day. “It’s not about a child who weighs far less,” she told Guthrie.

The new findings add to a growing body of evidence suggesting that juices may not be as safe as we think. Rangan pointed to an FDA study that found arsenic levels at 86 parts per billion in a baby apple juice.

A spokesperson for the Juice Products Association said she found the new report reassuring since it found no sample that tested higher than what is currently required by the FDA for juices.

“They showed that the juice samples they tested met the Food and Drug Administration’s limit on arsenic in juice,” toxicologist Gail Charnley told Guthrie. “The toxicologists and the food safety experts at the FDA set that limit in a precautionary public health based kind of way. And the food industry is committed to meeting those limits.”

The new report might prompt the FDA to change its standards for juices. In a written statement, the agency explained its response to the new data.

“We welcome the research that Consumer Reports has undertaken and look forward to reviewing the data that formed the basis for their story and their recommendations,” the agency noted. “We continue to find the vast majority of apple juice tested to contain low levels of arsenic, including the most recent samples from China. For this reason, FDA is confident in the overall safety of apple juice consumed in this country. By the same token, a small percentage of samples contain elevated levels of arsenic. In response, FDA has expanded our surveillance activities and is collecting additional data”

If that leads the FDA to change its standards for juices then the juice manufacturers will comply, Charnley said.

That was all good news to Oz.  If we look at how the nation handled a similar problem two decades ago, it’s clear that we can make a difference for our kids, he said.

“Twenty-five years ago we had a problem with lead in America,” Oz told Guthrie. “And we have over the last generation been able to reduce by 90 percent the amount of lead that our kids are exposed to and that is found in their blood.  As a doctor it makes me much more confident that we can do the same thing for arsenic.”

Linda Carroll is a regular contributor to msnbc.com and TODAY.com. She is co-author of the new book “The Concussion Crisis: Anatomy of a Silent Epidemic”

© 2011 MSNBC Interactive. 
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John Hinckley Jr. in 2003.

Urging a judge not to loosen restrictions on out-of-hospital visits by John Hinckley, who shot President Ronald Reagan in 1981, Justice Department lawyers on Wednesday said Hinckley browsed through books about Reagan and presidential assassins at a Virginia bookstore in July.

Hinckley visited a Barnes and Noble store in Williamsburg, Virginia, where his mother lives, but later told his doctors that he went to see a movie, “Captain America,” federal prosecutor Sarah Chasson said at the beginning of a court hearing on Hinckley’s request to be allowed longer unsupervised visits to Williamsburg, his mother’s hometown.

“He has a long history of deceptive and secretive behavior,” Chasson said. Secret Service agents watched him browse through the books, she told the court.

Two years ago, a federal judge allowed Hinckley to make 12 visits to his mother’s home, each lasting nine nights. Having completed that series of trips, both Hinckley and doctors at a Washington mental hospital are proposing more visits of longer duration.

Such a plan would eventually lead to “the goal of fully transitioning Mr. Hinckley there,” said his lawyer, Barry Levine of Washington, DC.

“Lack of candor about attending a movie does not make him dangerous,” Levine told federal judge Paul Friedman on Wednesday.

Hinckley was found not guilty by reason of insanity for attempting to assassinate President Reagan outside a Washington hotel in 1981. Since then, he’s been a patient at St. Elizabeths Hospital. At the urging of his doctors, Judge Friedman granted Hinckley permission, beginning in 2003, to leave the hospital grounds for short visits. The judge has gradually approved longer visits with less supervision from Hinckley’s doctors.

The hospital is now seeking permission for him to make two 17-day visits to his mother’s home and six more visits of 24 days each.  If those are successful, the hospital wants the discretion to place him there on convalescent leave permanently.

Hinckley has been volunteering at a mental health hospital in Williamsburg and has obtained a driver’s license, though he is under court orders to have a responsible custodian with him while driving.

The Justice Department strongly opposes the request for expanded visits, arguing that his treatment record reveals behavior patterns “that universally have been recognized as risk factors for Hinckley’s future violence.”

Government lawyers say he has been deceptive with his doctors, not only about his visit to the bookstore but also about his interest in women. He searched the Internet for pictures of his female dentist but falsely claimed she wanted him to see her photos, the Justice Department says, and gave conflicting responses about whether he wanted to marry his current girlfriend.

While the visits to Williamsburg were intended to aid in his therapy and allow him to gradually adjust to society, “After three years of regular visits to his mother’s hometown, Hinckley has failed to show that he has integrated into the community or that he has taken the initiative necessary to complete the task,” the Justice Department says.

But, says Hinckley’s lawyer, he has completed every one of his court-approved visits “without any adverse occurrence or risk of danger” and is entitled to pursue his “constitutionally guaranteed rights to treatment and to be held in the least restrictive environment consistent with safety.”

Hinckley, who is 56, is attending the federal court hearing. His mother was expected to attend later during the proceedings. Hinckley’s father died in 2008.

Pete Williams is NBC News’ justice correspondent. Joel Seidman is an NBC News producer.

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Mohsin Raza / Reuters

Residents, including shopkeepers and businessmen, hit the ground with their sandals to express their anger while shouting anti-American slogans during a demonstration in Lahore on Thursday.

American gunships launch a strike across the Afghan border into Pakistan, hitting a Pakistani check post and killing 11 soldiers. U.S. officials say the attack was in response to insurgent firing. Pakistan calls the attacks “unprovoked and cowardly.”  That was in June of 2008.

Three Pakistani soldiers are killed at their border post as a result of an American helicopter strike. U.S. officials say they were targeting insurgents who were launching mortar rounds into Afghanistan. Pakistan protests by blocking the supply route for U.S. and NATO convoys. That was in September of 2010.

The details of exactly what happened during Saturday’s early morning hours in Pakistan’s Mohmand tribal agency, on the border with Afghanistan, are still unclear, but the story line is familiar.

This time, U.S. officials say they took fire from across the border in Pakistan and called in air support, reportedly checking with their Pakistani counterparts before authorizing a strike. Pakistani officials say they were never consulted, that their pleas to NATO to stop the attack once it had started were ignored, and responded by again shutting down the supply routes.

One thing that is certainly different this time is the death toll: 24 Pakistani soldiers were killed in this latest incident, including two officers, making it the deadliest incident of its kind since Pakistan and the U.S. declared an alliance in 2001. The higher death toll, according to analysts, means more pressure on Pakistan’s military and civilian leaders to react strongly.

There is no debating that U.S.-Pakistan relations have taken a beating over the last year. But have they hit rock bottom? Or is this just the new “all-time low?”

---

Ispr / AFP – Getty Images

An image released by Pakistan’s Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) on Nov. 30, 2011 shows a Pakistani army post reportedly targeted by NATO helicopters resulting in the deaths of 24 Pakistani soldiers.

Last straw in a tough year
The condemnation from Pakistan over the latest attack has been swift and unrelenting.

Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, Pakistan’s Army Chief, called the attack “unacceptable.” Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani said it was “an assault on the sovereignty of Pakistan,” and pledged to conduct a complete review of all diplomatic, political, military and intelligence cooperation with the U.S. In addition Pakistan announced it would boycott next month’s Bonn Conference on Afghanistan.

Amid the rising anger, Pakistan’s military released a set of images Wednesday which it says shows the remote border posts attacked by NATO helicopters and fighter jets on Saturday.

“They’re taking a tougher line than they have before,” said Hasan Askari Rizvi, a Lahore-based defense analyst. “They’re staking out a strong position to demonstrate within a domestic context that they can protect Pakistan’s interests.”

That, according to Rizvi, is even more important to the government and military establishments now, in a year when they’ve both lost credibility following a series of humiliating actions by the U.S.

Back in March, U.S. pressure to release CIA contractor Raymond Davis, who shot and killed two Pakistanis, forced Pakistan to take the domestically unpopular action of negotiating his exit in the face of intense public anger.

Then came the unilateral, American operation in May to capture and kill Osama Bin Laden within miles of Pakistan’s premier military academy which forced Islamabad to choose between confessing involvement or admitting incompetence.

Former U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen’s September accusation that Pakistan’s largest intelligence agency uses the militant Haqqani network as a “veritable arm” to launch attacks on U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan left the relationship even further strained, and Pakistan’s Army brass feeling “betrayed,” according to military sources.

This latest incident, according to multiple Pakistani officials, has forced the country to rethink its engagement with the U.S. “We cannot be just a subject of abuse and attack,” said one military official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“Both of these entities – the government and military – have been discredited,” said Rizvi. “Within Pakistan they are discredited because of U.S. actions across their borders. Outside, they are discredited because the U.S. is saying they are helping the Taliban.”

Public relations problem
But according to some, the government and military’s credibility problem may be partly their own making.

“The problem is that there’s not really a source of information that’s geared to inform,” said Dr. Christine Fair, who focuses on South Asian political and military affairs at Georgetown University. “They’re geared to massage perceptions of events, and the Pakistani government love taking their citizens for a ride on the victim bus.”

A growing sense of anti-Americanism in Pakistan over the last decade has been fanned by a dominant, conservative Islamic, public discourse, said Rizvi – a sentiment the establishment has tapped into from time to time to pursue its own national interests. That’s how a discussion about a potential U.S. aid package devolves into talk-show debates about America respecting Pakistan’s sovereignty. Or the discovery of al Qaida’s leader hiding in Pakistan turns into national outrage that the borders were breached by the U.S.

“In Pakistan, there are only two entities that publicly support good relations with the U.S.: One is the military, the second is the federal government,” said Rizvi. “You don’t find any other political party or major society group openly supporting the ‘War on Terror’ or relations with the U.S.”

What about the billions in U.S. aid?
One question many Americans ask is: “Why do Pakistanis hate us so much if we give them so much money? “
Despite the fact that billions of dollars in U.S. aid and reimbursements have gone to Pakistan in the last decade, anti-U.S. feelings within the population are running higher than ever.

Opposition leader Imran Khan has capitalized on those frustrations, channeling them into a groundswell of political support in recent months and a 68 percent approval rating, according to one recent poll. Separately, a poll conducted exclusively in Pakistan’s tribal regions last year found almost 80 percent opposed the “war on terror.” The Pew Research Center’s 2010 Global Attitudes project showed a mere 17 percent of all Pakistanis polled held a favorable view of the U.S. and nearly 60 percent described the U.S. as an enemy.
 
American money has been used to fund everything from education projects to agricultural development, but money has been slow to hit the ground and has not been used in ways that directly affect most Pakistanis.

According to the Congressional Research Service, of the $20.7 billion allocated for Pakistan between FY2002 and FY2012, only $6.5 billion was “economic-related.” The vast majority, $14.1 billion, was “security-related,” and the lion’s share of that, $8.8 billion, was military reimbursement for operations supporting the US/NATO mission across the border in Afghanistan, known as “Coalition Support Funds,” or CSF.

Asif Hassan / AFP – Getty Images

Supporters of Pakistani cricketer turned politician Imran Khan’s party, the Movement for Justice, shout slogans during a protest in Karachi on Thursday against the cross-border NATO air strike on Pakistani troops.

Rizvi said that most Pakistanis fail to benefit from U.S.-funded projects, and very little is known among the everyday citizenry about just how American money is being used on the ground – a problem, he says, that is one of “public relations.”

“Over the last few years, a lot of funding has gone to state educational facilities, to improve facilities, enable professors to go to other countries for conferences, but very few people know that its American money,” said Rizvi. “The [Pakistani] government doesn’t tell them it’s American money, they create the impression that the government is making this possible for them.”

That same “public relations” strategy has meant that the establishment has failed to mobilize domestic support for the war on terror, despite the fact that 30,000 Pakistanis have died in terror-related incidents since 2001. Losses in that war – accidental or deliberate – are therefore met with greater public anger, by a population that believes its military is fighting an American war.

Treading lightly
In the days since the latest tragic border clash, there has been a flurry of high-level efforts made by U.S. diplomatic, military, and intelligence officials to reach out to their Pakistani counterparts.

The U.S. and NATO are using careful language. NATO called the incident “tragic and unintended.” A joint statement by the U.S. Departments of Defense and State expressed “deepest condolences” and “sympathies” from Secretaries Leon Panetta and Hillary Clinton. Officials have pledged to fully investigate what actually transpired on the ground. 

Following the incidents in 2008 and 2010, the U.S. and Pakistan found enough common ground to continue working together. The strong language being used and decisions being taken by Pakistani officials suggest it won’t be as easy this time around.

Prime Minister Gilani has already made clear that “business as usual will not be there.” But U.S. officials and analysts express confidence that, with enough time and enough concessions, the two sides will ultimately be forced to find a way forward once again.

Pakistan relies on U.S. money and international support to bolster its economy, said Rizvi, and the U.S. relies on Pakistan’s cooperation to stabilize Afghanistan.

“They will both realize that they need each other. They will have to tolerate each other,” he said.

That may come at a price. Some believe the U.S. will have to take steps to pacify elements that have supported it in the past – issuing a public apology, or agreeing to not publicly rebuke Pakistan any longer, among other possibilities.

Despite ongoing investigations, Georgetown’s Fair believes both sides’ dependence on one another means the focus will be on moving forward, not definitively determining the facts.

“There is no answer to this that’s going to be helpful,” says Fair. “I don’t believe we’re ever going to get to the bottom of what actually happened.”

See a Photo Blog: Pakistan releases first images of border posts attacked by NATO

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WASHINGTON — Massive amounts of greenhouse gases trapped below thawing permafrost will likely seep into the air over the next several decades, accelerating and amplifying global warming, scientists warn.

Those heat-trapping gases under the frozen Arctic ground may be a bigger factor in global warming than the cutting down of forests, and a scenario that climate scientists hadn’t quite accounted for, according to a group of permafrost experts. The gases won’t contribute as much as pollution from power plants, cars, trucks and planes, though.

Todd Paris
 / 
University of Alaska, Fairbanks

The permafrost scientists predict that over the next three decades a total of about 45 billion metric tons of carbon from methane and carbon dioxide will seep into the atmosphere when permafrost thaws during summers. That’s about the same amount of heat-trapping gas the world spews during five years of burning coal, gas and other fossil fuels.

And the picture is even more alarming for the end of the century. The scientists calculate that about than 300 billion metric tons of carbon will belch from the thawing Earth from now until 2100.

Adding in that gas means that warming would happen “20 to 30 percent faster than from fossil fuel emissions alone,” said Edward Schuur of the University of Florida. “You are significantly speeding things up by releasing this carbon.”

Usually the first few to several inches of permafrost thaw in the summer, but scientists are now looking at up to 10 feet of soft unfrozen ground because of warmer temperatures, he said. The gases come from decaying plants that have been stuck below frozen ground for millennia.

Schuur and 40 other scientists in the Permafrost Carbon Research Network met this summer and jointly wrote up their findings, which were published in the journal Nature on Wednesday.

“The survey provides an important warning that global climate warming is likely to be worse than expected,” said Jay Zwally, a NASA polar scientist who was not part of the study. “Arctic permafrost has been like a wild card.”

When the Nobel Prize-winning panel of climate scientists issued its last full report in 2007, it did not even factor in trapped methane and carbon dioxide from beneath the permafrost. Diplomats are meeting this week in South Africa to find ways of curbing human-made climate change.

Schuur and others said increasing amounts of greenhouse gas are seeping out of permafrost each year. Some is methane, which is 25 times stronger than carbon dioxide in trapping heat.

In a recent video, University of Alaska Fairbanks professor Katey Walter Anthony, a study co-author, is shown setting leaking methane gas on fire with flames shooting far above her head.

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“Places like that are all around,” Anthony said in a phone interview. “We’re tapping into old carbon that has been locked up in the ground for 30,000 to 40,000 years.”

That triggers what Anthony and other scientists call a feedback cycle. The world warms, mostly because of human-made greenhouse gases. That thaws permafrost, releasing more natural greenhouse gas, augmenting the warming.

There are lots of unknowns and a large margin of error because this is a relatively new issue with limited data available, the scientists acknowledge.

“It’s very much a seat-of-the-pants expert assessment,” said Stanford University’s Chris Field, who wasn’t involved in the new report.

The World Meteorological Organization this week said the worst of the warming in 2011 was in the northern areas — where there is permafrost — and especially Russia. Since 1970, the Arctic has warmed at a rate twice as fast as the rest of the globe.

The thawing permafrost also causes trees to lean — scientists call them “drunken trees” — and roads to buckle. Study co-author F. Stuart Chapin III said when he first moved to Fairbanks the road from his house to the University of Alaska had to be resurfaced once a decade.

“Now it gets resurfaced every year due to thawing permafrost,” Chapin said.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Gregory Bull / AP file

The Rev. Billy Graham speaks on stage at Flushing Meadows Corona Park in New York on June 25, 2005.

Evangelist Billy Graham has been admitted to a North Carolina hospital for evaluation and treatment of possible pneumonia. The 93-year-old preacher was last hospitalized in May for five days with pneumonia.

Graham served as an adviser to presidents and toured the world for his famous crusades. He now spends much of his time at home near Asheville and occasionally meets with Christian leaders and old friends.

Here is the statement from the evangelist’s organization:

Asheville, NC, November 30, 2011  – Evangelist Billy Graham has been hospitalized at Mission Hospital in Asheville, N.C., near his home in Montreat, for evaluation and treatment of his lungs. Upon admittance, he was alert, smiling and waving at hospital staff.

Mr. Graham’s personal physician, Lucian Rice, MD, said that Mr. Graham’s condition is stable. The pulmonologist treating Mr. Graham, Mark Hellreich, M.D., said that Mr. Graham is being tested for possible pneumonia.

 Mr. Graham was previously hospitalized for successful treatment of pneumonia in May, 2011. He resumed his ongoing program of physical therapy and normal activity shortly after release, according to his staff. This included finalizing his most recent book, “Nearing Home,” published last month, and beginning work on a new project reaffirming the evangelistic message he has preached for more than 60 years.

While no date has been set for discharge, Mr. Graham is looking forward to returning home to spend the upcoming Christmas holidays with his family.

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Lucy Nicholson / Pool via EPA

LAPD officers search a protester arrested outside City Hall in Los Angeles early on Wednesday.

 

 

Updated at 3 p.m. ET: Police in Los Angeles proclaimed a successful and peaceful removal of the two-month-old Occupy LA encampment at city hall during a press conference on Wednesday morning.

“The world was watching… and what the world saw was an elegant operational plan that was brilliantly executed by America’s finest police force,” said Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck. 

NBC Los Angeles reports that there were at least 290 arrests in the overnight operation ending around 5 a.m. PT. The final holdouts at the encampment — a dog and three people in a tree house — were removed by officers using a Bomb Assault Tactical Control Assessment Tool — basically a souped-up forklift.

Updated at 9:00 a.m. ET: Los Angeles Police Lieutenant Andy Neiman said before officials raided the Occupy camp, some protesters had been reported to be storing human waste at the site for unknown reasons. He later said police entering the camp encountered “a horrible stench.”

City workers put up concrete barriers to wall off the park while it is restored. As of 8:10 a.m. ET, the park was clear of protesters, said LAPD officer Cleon Joseph.  Police used a cherry picker to pluck five men from trees. Two others were in a tree house — one wore a crown and another taunted police with an American flag.

Meanwhile, in Philadelphia, protesters swiftly vacated their camp without a single arrest, officials said.

Updated at 6:32 a.m. ET: At 6:09 a.m. ET, NBC Philadelphia reported that Occupy protesters were marching through the streets toward Rittenhouse Square. “Traffic is blocked” and “some of the city’s mass transit has been halted,” its website said.

Updated at 6:25 a.m. ET: Two Philadelphia police officers were taken to hospital with minor injuries following a “scuffle” with anti-Wall Street protesters while clearing the city’s Occupy encampment, authorities told NBC Philadelphia.

Updated at 5:50 a.m. ET: Police arrested about two dozen roving marchers who left the Occupy Philadelphia encampment early Wednesday after officers evicted protesters, The Associated Press reported. Police began pulling down tents at about 1:20 a.m. ET after telling demonstrators they had to leave.

Updated at 5:45 a.m. ET: Four injuries have been reported during the operation to clear the Occupy LA site, NBC Los Angeles said. Two people were transported to a local hospital but the extent of their injuries was not immediately known.
Updated at 4.45 a.m. ET: Occupy LA protester Opamago Cascini, 29, tells CNS why he’s ready to go to jail: “It’s easy to talk the talk, but you gotta walk the walk.”

Updated at 4:33 a.m. ET: According to NBC Los Angeles, about 1,700 LAPD officers are on the scene as Occupy LA encampment is dismantled.

Updated at 4:20 a.m. ET: A LAPD public information officer tells KNBC’s Conan Nolan that some cops are helping Occupy protesters to pack up their belongings. “Everybody is being very cooperative,” the PIO added.

Updated at 4:13 a.m. ET: KNBC’s Beverly White says a local church has opened its doors “to give sanctuary to the 99 percent.”
Updated at 4:10 a.m. ET: In a statement, LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa says: “We have taken a measured approach to enforcing the park closure because we have wanted to give people every opportunity to leave peacefully. I ask that anyone who remains in the park to please leave voluntarily.”

He says a “First Amendment area” will remain open on the Spring Street City Hall steps while the park is closed.
“Once the park is cleared, it will be repaired and returned to all Angelenos to exercise their First Amendment rights,” Villaraigosa added.

Updated at 12:45 a.m. ET: A raid on Occupy LA’s City Hall encampment appeared imminent Tuesday night as several local news sources reported that Los Angeles Police were gathering at Dodger Stadium.
The Los Angeles Times reported that Mayor Villaraigosa said he decided to evict the protesters after learning that children were staying in the camp.
“The chaos out there could produce something awful,” he told The Times, because of reports of assaults and other incidents.
Occupy LA’s Facebook page said city buses would be staged near City Hall between 8 p.m. and 4 a.m., NBC station KNBC reported.
Read coverage from NBC Los Angeles.
“This is a monumental night for Los Angeles. We’re going to do what we can to protect the camp,” said Gia Trimble, member of the Occupy LA media team on Monday night.
She said she thought a lot of people would stay and risk arrest, adding, “We’re really committed to this.”
PhotoBlog: Occupy LA protesters build a ‘stronghold’
Members of the National Lawyers guild had legal observers on hand for any possible eviction that may occur.
Meanwhile, in Philadelphia, Occupy protesters on Dilworth Plaza appeared to be complying with a final warning from police to leave.
A message posted on the police Twitter account, @Phillypolice, said the department “thanks #occupyphilly for their cooperation. We’re here to protect constitutional rights and ensure public safety.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.

• Meet Nashville’s square-dancing Occupiers

 Read coverage from NBC Los Angeles.

PhotoBlog: Occupy LA protesters build a ‘stronghold’

Kevork Djansezian / Getty Images

Members of Occupy LA, including some wearing gas masks, link arms as they await eviction in front of City Hall late Tuesday.

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Christopher Berkey for msnbc.com

Samantha Blanchard works in the Occupy Nashville protest camp on Monday.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Compared to “Occupy” protests on the coasts, the rebel encampment tucked between Tennessee’s War Memorial Plaza and the Statehouse – a few dozen tents adorned with American flags and even a libertarian one – has a decidedly Southern feel.

While protesters in New York, California and elsewhere may often pass their downtime playing drums, meditating or knitting, their Tennessee counterparts could be playing football, hosting a square dance, flying kites, skateboarding or welcoming opponents with cookies. 

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And if conversations on the coasts tend toward left-wing political theory, such as anarchy, Marxism and socialism, protesters here work on bridging a different divide: uniting the “blue” and “red” factions in their local audience.

“We do have a lot of conservative voices in this camp and the thing that is really appealing to all of us is we believe in the common ties that bind us,” said Samantha Blanchard, a 30-year-old office administrator who was sheltering in a tent as rain poured down on a frosty, grey Sunday afternoon. 

“This is a place where if people were really going to come together and form that ‘purple’ (combination of blue and red political affiliations) that everybody lusts for, it’s going to probably happen in this camp.” 

• More than 200 arrested as police raid Occupy camps

While occupiers in several other cities have been forced to retreat, Nashville’s protest – a core group of about 90 and a looser support network of 400 part-timers — has survived two attempted evictions on Oct. 28-29.  Fifty-five people were arrested on misdemeanor charges of criminal trespassing that were eventually dismissed, said William P. York II, one of the attorneys who represented them. 

Among them was 64-year-old Bill Howell, regional organizer for the Tennesseans for Fair Taxation.

‘I’ve been treated like a rock star’
Howell, who said he had never been arrested before, had planned for the moment, leading other protesters in a reading of the Declaration of Independence before he was taken into custody.

Christopher Berkey for MSNBC

Bill Howell, 64, a regional organizer of Tennesseans for Fair Taxation, at the Occupy Nashville protest camp on Monday, Nov. 28. The “23″ tag signifies that he was the 23rd protestor arrested in Nashville.

Reaction to the “Occupy Nashville” protest has been varied, he said, with “some people going by honking and hollering, ‘Get a job!’ and you know all the usual stuff. In my community, in some circles, I’ve been treated like a rock star,” he said chuckling, as a train horn blared in the background.

A preliminary injunction has allowed the camp to remain for now, but a status conference will be held with a federal judge on Feb. 3. However, protesters say “side attacks” have continued, with city inspectors warning about food preparation safety standards and the state attempting to deny them port-a-potties, which was revealed in emails obtained under Tennessee’s open records law, said another one of the Occupy Nashville attorneys, William W. Hunt III.

But efforts to squelch the movement only served to fire up “couch occupiers,” said Jason Steen, 32, an office administrator.

“We had a good number of people here, but it suddenly turned into a First Amendment issue when Governor (Bill) Haslam started evicting everyone for curfew rights,” he said, estimating that the camp size has more than doubled to about 60 tents in the wake of the arrests.

Though Steen has a home, he spends most of his time at the camp and sometimes sleeps there.

“I just feel that strong about it because if we don’t have people down here for when all the legislators are in session and looking out their windows … what kind of impact are we going to have?”

One of those drawn in over First Amendment concerns was Jon Louis, who describes himself as a right-winger with some liberal social tendencies. He said he grew “irritated” as he watched state troopers arrest protesters.

Christopher Berkey for msnbc.com

Samantha Blanchard, Matthew Hamill and Jon Louis spend time in the Occupy Nashville protest camp on Monday.

Louis, who said some on the right have cast him as a “plant” in the movement while friends have taken to calling him a “hippie,” noted that he does not agree with all of the views put forward at the camp and that it took him a while learning about it before he joined.  

“There’s some like minds here and there’s also, you know, a melting pot of different opinions,” he said, noting he was “trying to get to the more right conservative South … mindsets and try to explain it to them, that we aren’t just a bunch of lefties (because) I’m most certainly not a lefty.”

Three goals
Despite the range of political beliefs represented in the camp – and  Nashville’s reputation as a liberal bastion in the state — the protesters have winnowed their “goals” down to three, which are printed on a blue index card and handed out to visitors. They are: ending corporate personhood, getting money out of politics and supporting Occupy Wall Street.

“It’s a lot more conservative here so we definitely have to tailor our approach and our message,” said Elli Whiteway, a 21-year-old college student. “… We kind of pride ourselves on being a common denominator movement … that’s been our approach, just trying to be, not exactly centrist, but applicable to both sides of the political spectrum.”

That approach hasn’t won over all conservatives.

The Vanderbilt College Republicans organized a protest at the camp on Nov. 3 – which the occupiers said they welcomed with cookies and open dialogue.

“We wanted to make known that not all the youths are with the movement, as is perceived by many. Their demands will do nothing but add to the burgeoning debt already on our shoulders,” Stephen Siao, the group’s president, wrote to msnbc.com in an email. “We think the Occupy Nashville movement is misguided — they should be protesting at the White House, not at the State Capitol or Wall Street. It’s this administration’s policies that are prolonging this dreadful economy.”

He also said that while Occupy Nashville “might have one or two members who claim to be conservative,” the “core of conservatism is personal responsibility, and that is completely the opposite of their demands. We don’t believe prosperity should be punished.”

At a General Assembly meeting on Sunday, the protesters shivered, stamped their feet and huddled together to keep warm in 45-degree temperatures while outlining upcoming protests, addressing financial donations and discussing a planned two-day meeting of all the state’s occupations – about a dozen total from towns and cities – for this weekend.

On the sidelines, Michael Custer, a 47-year-old father of four and self-described rabble-rouser, said that Nashville brings a “unique perspective” to the global movement but also has some additional challenges.

Christopher Berkey for MSNBC

Michael Custer shakes his hands in approval during the General Assembly at the Occupy Nashville protest camp on Monday, Nov. 28.

“We’re the incubation place for Martin Luther King’s nonviolent struggles. This is his test kitchen. … So we have some unique perspective on the nonviolent aspect of these types of struggles,” he said. “The South is generally a lot more laidback and a lot more difficult to motivate. But as you can see … we are out here in the cold and rain so obviously there are quite a few of us that are motivated.”

Custer said he will always be “vocal,” but others are not as willing to express their opinions.

“People are terrified of government, they are terrified to the point that they won’t speak out. They’ll tell you what they think behind closed doors,” he said. “I think a lot of that’s held over from the old Klan days where when you spoke out, they came and beat you up, or tried to kill you.”

‘Express yourself’
With other camps across the country shut down by authorities in recent weeks or facing the threat of eviction, “it really gives us an opportunity to step in and just become one of the most action-oriented occupations,” said Matt Hamill, 26, a self-described political conservative who works for Radio Free Nashville and hosts a weekly radio show on the movement.

Those actions include even lighter fare, such as a square dancing event with a live band held recently in the plaza.

“(It) really kind of hit home … (that) this is what occupying is about,” Hamill said of the livestream of the event, which garnered positive feedback from supporters around the country. “… You should be allowed to express yourself however you want to and not have to worry about anybody coming in and trying to silence your voice or shut you down.”

Blanchard also noted that people in the chat were saying they needed to see such a lighthearted event, that it was “so cathartic to see a camp having fun.”

“I feel like in a lot of ways … Nashville is starting to become maybe a bit of a tender spot or a hearthstone for other occupiers,” she added. “We’re like the little heartbeat, the little southern hospitality of the movement.”

Related stories: 

Defying calls to leave, Occupy LA protesters build a ‘stronghold’

To demand or not to demand? That is the ‘Occupy’ question

Homeowner taps ‘Occupy’ protest to avoid foreclosure

Faces of the Tea Party (revisited): Views on the election and the ‘Occupy’ movement

 Dissension among the ranks at Occupy Wall Street

‘Occupy’ protesters find allies in ranks of the wealthy

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Karen Bleier / AFP – Getty Images file

The US Federal Reserve building is seen in Washington, DC. The Federal Reserve joined with some of the world’s major central banks to shore up the global financial system’s liquidity.

Central bank action on Wednesday to ease severe funding strains for the world’s private banks may help cushion a brewing global credit crunch but it only buys some wiggle room for governments trying to resolve the euro debt crisis and keep banks lending.

The intervention by top central banks from the world’s richest countries — including the U.S. Federal Reserve, European Central Bank, Bank of Japan and Swiss National Bank — involved lowering the cost of emergency U.S. dollar funding for banks and expanding currency swap lines between countries.

Although partly aimed at easing seasonal year-end financing conditions in an already stressful environment, the move was an important show of unity among the central banks.

It also reveals the level of international official concern about the threat of the ongoing euro and banking crisis to global economic activity at large and comes the same day as China’s central bank eased credit for its commercial lenders for the first time in three years.

The European Central Bank is also widely expected to cut interest rates again next week.

Although the instant market reaction to the moves was positive – equity, commodities and risky debt markets rallied while the dollar weakened — the moves underscore the close correlation between the euro crisis and a renewed banking crunch.

They illustrate the fear that both are combining to deliver another double whammy to world growth.

“There was a very dark mood developing at the back end of last week,” said Mark Cliffe, chief economist at ING. “With the dire scenarios doing the rounds the last few days, it’s all the more important they step in with aggressive measures to support the banking system and show they’re beginning to confront the financing problems of the sovereigns as well.”

RBS economist Silvio Peruzzo said the move was “very welcome” and “helps at the margin.” Wayne Kaufman at New York firm John Thomas Financial said it was “all terrific news for short-term traders.”

But does it change anything for investors increasingly bamboozled by the euro zone crisis and its threat to market risk sentiment.

Bit of help
On a technical level, the intervention makes it cheaper for non-U.S. banks to tap local central banks for dollars that have become increasingly scarce and expensive on open markets due to rising mistrust of bank balance sheet exposure to European government bonds.

“It’s been clear for some time that funding in the dollar market has been drying up,” said Richard Batty, investment director at Standard Life Investments in Edinburgh.

“Reducing funding costs and making more liquidity available is helpful. But the solvency issue remains.”

The best illustration of current stress is the euro/dollar cross currency swap rate, which has soared since August to levels not seen since Lehman Brothers went bust in 2008. It fell back slightly after the central bank action Wednesday.

The problem for European banks and some others is that just as their previously “riskless” government assets are being questioned they are also are being forced to build capital ratios quickly, in Europe’s case to a minimum 9 percent by the middle of next year.

But the balance sheet uncertainty makes raising new debt and equity finance for many banks almost impossible, or at least prohibitively expensive. The upshot is a reduction of lending and a selling of bonds and loans that is transmitting the squeeze to governments, businesses and households everywhere.

Some analysts estimate European banks could reduce lending by up to 3 trillion euros by the end of next year.

The upshot could see western economies slip back into a another recession next year and drag the developing world with them.

So market reaction to Wednesday’s move was based on relief that someone was trying to do something about it.

“This is providing the banks with liquidity, playing the lender of the last resort for banks,” said Jan Poser, chief economist at wealth manager Sarasin.

“It’s not the cure. Equities are driven because people think after this action there won’t be immediate bank failure and recession may be shallow.”

CNBC’s Steve Liesman has the details on the Fed and central banks around the world launching a coordinated move to boost liquidity.

Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

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Msnbc.com staff and news services

Stocks rocketed Wednesday after the Federal Reserve said it was joining other major central banks in injecting more money into the global financial system.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed above 12,000 for the first time Since Nov. 15.

According to preliminary calculations, the Dow ended trading 490.05 higher, or 4.24 percent, to 12,045.68. The SP 500 rose 51.77, or 4.31 percent, to 1.246.96. The Nasdaq was finished 104.83 higer, or 4.17 percent, to 2,620.34.

The move by the central banks of of Europe, the U.S., Britain, Canada, Japan and Switzerland is intended to keep credit freely available around the world. Lending has tightened as the eurozone’s financial crisis has dragged on.

China also reduced bank reserve levels to release money for lending.

“The central banks of the world have resolved that there will not be a liquidity shortage,” said David Kotok, chairman and chief investment officer of Cumberland Advisors, told the Associated Press. “And they have learned their lessons from 2008. They don’t want to take small steps and do anything incrementally, but make a big bold move that is credible.”

Borrowing rates for European nations have skyrocketed on concerns that the European debt crisis has engulfed nations such as Italy which are too big to bail out. Borrowing rates for Italy, Spain and others have soared.

Banks need dollars to fund their daily operations. Their access has dried up as U.S. money market funds reduced their lending to European banks.

However, the New York Times reported, the move by the central banks underscored the depth of the problem.

“The markets are breathing a sigh of relief,” said Stanley A. Nabi, chief strategist for the Silvercrest Asset Management Group.

But the coordinated action also signaled that the problem had reached a crisis point, he said, and that the central banks recognized there was a “lot of danger” in letting the current situation continue.

In other financial news, stocks great day happens despite Standard Poor’s Ratings Services lowered its credit ratings for many of the world’s largest financial institutions on Tuesday, including the biggest banks in the U.S.

Bank of America Corp. and its main subsidiaries are among the institutions whose ratings fell at least one notch Tuesday, along with Citigroup Inc., Goldman Sachs Group Inc., JPMorgan Chase Co., Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo Co.

Related: Today’s market movers

 

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