The Golden Report

TOP STORY: Zuccotti Park in New York City’s Lower Manhattan is open again at this hour, per a court order, after being cleared and closed by the New York City Police Department in an early morning raid.

Zuccotti is considered the birthplace of the “Occupy” movement, which began two months ago this week under the name “Occupy Wall Street” and has grown to encompass cities across the United States- including Washington, DC, Portland, Ore. and Oakland, Calif.- and the world.

Shortly after 1am, Mayor Michael Bloomberg gave the order to clear the park. Over 150 people were arrested and the operation concluded before daybreak. The Mayor’s office released a lengthy statement just before 7am and Bloomberg appeared on camera just after 8am. Throughout the day, lawyers for the city and the protestors have battled in court over when and in what manner protestors should be allowed to return to the park.

This evening, the New York State Supreme Court sided with the city and said that protestors are allowed to return to the park but may be prohibited from carrying tents inside, thus making it impossible to replicate the conditions that have come to define Occupy Wall Street over the last eight weeks. Tonight, there are reports that over 750 people have crowded- standing- into the park.

The New York Times has a compelling account of the carefully planned police operation, including below:

“Officials had prepared by watching how occupations in other cities played out. A major disaster drill was held on Randalls Island, with an eye toward Zuccotti. Officials increased so-called disorder training — counterterrorism measures that involve moving large numbers of police officers quickly — to focus on Lower Manhattan.”

“The last training session was on Monday night, on the Manhattan side of the East River. The orders to move into the park came down at the “last minute,” said someone familiar with the orders, which referred to the assignment only as “an exercise.”

“The operation on Tuesday involved officers from various police units, including boroughwide task forces — scores of mobile officers who are usually used to flood high-crime neighborhoods.”

“Emergency Service Unit trucks with klieg lights and loudspeakers gathered at Pike Slip and the Franklin D. Roosevelt Drive, near the Manhattan Bridge, before moving out. The lights and prerecorded messages booming from the loudspeakers seemed to cow many protesters. As the community affairs officers moved into the park in their light-blue windbreakers, many protesters simply gathered their belongings and left.”

“No tents were touched until 1:45 a.m., the police said, giving the protesters time to gather their belongings. Other teams of officers were seen gathering on the perimeter to move in if arrests were needed in the park.”

“As the police moved west through the dense tangle of protesters’ personal belongings, including luggage and plastic lawn and leaf bags stuffed with clothing, crews from the Sanitation Department followed, scooping up what was left behind.”

“No arrests were made in the park until about 3:30 a.m., Mr. Kelly said. The clearing operation was complete about 75 minutes later, the police said.”

“…About 142 people were arrested in the park. Most of the arrests were for “disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.”

THE WASHINGTON POST now has a countdown clock on its homepage until the time when the Congressional Supercommittee is charged with reaching a minimum $1.2 trillion deficit reduction agreement. 8 days remain.

A BLOOMBERG POLL released this morning finds a statistical four-way tie in the Iowa Caucuses (now just six weeks away). As we mentioned last night, this poll is the latest to suggest that NEWT GINGRICH has improbably revived a struggling campaign to within striking distance of front-runner status.

Of course, Gingrich is just the latest candidate to claim this mantle in the 2012 race. Recall that frontrunners thus far have included Donald Trump, Sarah Palin, Mitt Romney, Rick Perry, Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain and, now, Newt Gingrich.

The Bloomberg Iowa Poll:

• Cain 20%
• Paul 19%
• Romney 18%
• Gingrich 17%
• Perry 7%
• Bachmann 5%
• Santorum 3%
• Huntsman 1%

REAL CLEAR POLITICS provides an average of all recent polling data. Mitt Romney still leads the field, but only by 0.7 points, over Herman Cain. Gingrich is strongly in third place and, Perry is struggling to prevent falling in the abyss of lower-tier candidates.

• Romney 22%
• Cain 21.3%
• Gingrich 17.6%
• Perry 9.9%
• Paul 7.3%
• Bachmann 4.1%
• Santorum 1.9%
• Huntsman 1.3%

WALL STREET:

• Dow up 17 to 12,096
• Nasdaq up 28 to 2,686
• S&P 500 up 6 to 1,258

APPLE today named Arthur Levinson, who is chairman of the pharmaceuticals company Genentech Inc, as its new board chairman. The chairman’s position was one created for (and by) Steve Jobs when he stepped aside as CEO in August of this year. The Board also named Rober Iger, who is President and CEO of Disney, as a director. Tim Cook remains Apple’s CEO.

GIFFORDS: In his new book published this week, Mark Kelly, the astronaut husband of Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, openly blasts Speaker of the House John Boehner who, Kelly says, has only sent a single get-well card in the 11 months since the shooting and did not visit Giffords when he was in Houston in April to attend a NCAA college basketball game.

As The Hill reported this afternoon, Kelly writes in the book, “Considering that she was a member of Congress and he was the highest-ranking member, we thought he’d ask to visit Gabby or at least give a call to see how she was doing. Our only contact with him had been a simple get-well card he’d sent a few days after Gabby was injured.”

Kelly and Giffords sat for their first television interview last night on 20/20 with Diane Sawyer.

CBS: After a first report by Brian Stelter in Monday’s New York Times, CBS News announced today that they are completely revamping the morning program The Early Show, which is set to relaunch on January 09.

The new program- which will go by a new name- will be co-hosted by late night PBS staple and veteran journalist Charlie Rose and Gayle King, a former Connecticut local news anchor who went on to work with her best friend, Oprah Winfrey, on her daytime talk show.

King will co-host the second hour of the 7-9am program with Rose, and Rose will co-host the first hour with current co-host Erica Hill. Under new management, CBS is attempting to refocus the morning program, which as been chronically stuck in third place in the ratings, with a more “hard news” format, while also keeping it conversational. Chris Licht, the former Executive Producer of MSNBC’s Morning Joe, is now the EP of the new CBS morning broadcast.

FINALLY: Duke’ men’s basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski tonight set a new record for wins as a Division One coach, with a 74-69 win over Michigan State. It was Krzyzewski’s 903rd victory. His lifetime record is now 903-284, including four national championships. He surpasses former Indiana & Texas Tech head coach Bob Knight, who has held the record since 2008.