UC-Davis Spokeperson:

Claudia Morain, a UC Davis spokesperson, told The Huffington Post that [. . .] that the officers were essentially trapped (the videos suggest otherwise) and had to transport several of the arrested students. "The pepper spray was used because they needed to get out of there," she said [. . .] "The police tried to use the least force that they could," Morain explained.

UC-Davis Campus police chief:

UCD Police Chief Annette Spicuzza [. . .], who observed the events on the Quad, said that she was “very proud” of her officers.

Oh by the way, the rationale for the action?

Chancellor Linda Katehi [said that . . .] while she appreciated the peaceful nature of recent protests, liability concerns and limited staffing to supervise protesters meant the encampment must come down.

(Emphasis supplied.) Liability concerns? This helped, I'm sure.

"Safety" concerns:

UC Davis Police Chief Annette Spicuzza said officers used force out of concern for their own safety after they were surrounded by students. “If you look at the video you are going to see that there were 200 people in that quad,” said Chief Spicuzza. “Hindsight is 20-20 and based on the situation we were sitting in, ultimately that was the decision that was made.”

Yes. Look at the video.

Last night, I made an "investment" that there would be less than 70 total points scored in the Oklahoma State-Iowa State game. I've been "investing" on Okla State all year but the line was 28 on the road, so I laid off. On my mind was the news earlier in the day that Oklahoma St.'s head woman's basketball coach and his assistant had died in a plane crash. I was thinking if it is on my mind, I imagine it was on the mind of the Okla St. athletes.

Okla. St., who was positioned to play in the BCS championship game if they could beat Oklahoma at the end of the season, lost in 2OT to Iowa State last night. The BCS is yet again in disarray. We need only one more occurrence to make it perfect chaos - LSU losing to Arkansas. Then you would have 3 one loss SEC West teams. There should be a playoff, and the players should be paid with the windfall.

Here are my picks today - Missouri -18 over Texas Tech, Cal +19 over Stanford (3 units), Miami (Fla) -1 over South Florida, Cinn. -3 over Rutgers, Oregon -15 over USC (3 units), Ohio State -7 over Penn State (3 units), Tennessee +1½ over Vandy (2 units), BC +25 over Notre Dame (2 units), Florida State -17 over Virginia (2 units), Texas A&M -31 over Kansas (2 units)

5pm update - forgot the best bet - Oklahoma (-16) over Baylor (10 units). Game is tonight.

Open Thread.

Mercedes Benz has an assembly plant in Tuscaloosa, Al. One of the company's managers from Germany came to Alabama on business. He ended up in jail for violating Alabama's new immigration law. Why? His rental car was stopped for not having an appropriate tag and he didn't have his driver's license on him, only his German identification card.

Alabama's new immigration law requires police to check citizenship status when conducting a traffic stop. Anyone without proper papers gets arrested.

"If it were not for the immigration law, a person without a license in their possession wouldn't be arrested like this...." Previously, drivers who lacked licenses received a ticket and a court summons....

The manager was released when an associate brought his passport and German driver's license to the police department.

What a stupid law. Not being in possession of a driver's license should result in a ticket, not an arrest. [More...]

Sad news for Joe Paterno. As if this month hasn't been bad enough, his son says he has been diagnosed with a treatable form of lung cancer.

I'm sending good thoughts his way. Hopefully the media will focus on the more important aspect of the story -- Sandusky -- and give the Paternos some privacy to deal with this terrible illness.

Busy day. Here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

Update: LA Sheriff says Robert Wagner is not a suspect.

Who didn't love Natalie Wood? What an icon.

The Los Angeles Sheriff's Department will hold a press conference today to announce they are re-opening the investigation into Natalie Wood's drowning death 30 years ago. The decision is reportedly based on new recollections by the skipper of the boat, Dennis Davern, on the 30th anniversary of her death.

L.A. County Sheriff Lee Baca told The Times that homicide detectives want to talk to the captain based on comments he had made recounting the case on its 30th anniversary. Baca did not detail what the captain said regarding the case.....A law enforcement source added that the department had recently received a letter from an unidentified "third party" who said that the captain had "new recollections" about the case.

[More...]

The White House is threatening to veto the defense spending bill over the House-Senate compromise on indefinite detention.

More here and here.

Congress passed a temporary funding bill today to avoid a government shutdown.

Thousands crossed the Brooklyn Bridge tonight, as union workers joined the OWS protesters. NYPD arrested hundreds today, it's a scene that is replaying all across the country.

• Good photos here
• Photos of New York Arrests here
• Live cam (thankfully no sound) at Brooklyn Bridge here.
• Listen to NYPD Special Operations Division and Traffic Scanner live here
• Follow arrests at #OccupyArrests.

Downtown Denver is a mess. 30 minutes ago there were police cars everywhere, blocking traffic, even driving the wrong way down one-way streets without using their sirens. Buses couldn't move, every street between Stout and Larimer on 14th and 17th had 4 to 5 police cars. There were no protesters I could see, just a mess of police cars and lanes blocked. Not one news station is reporting on it.

Anyone know what this is about?

Can you imagine how happy the Obama reelection team would be if they got to face Newt Gingrich next year? True, if they could pick who they face, it would be Bachmann or Cain, but avoiding Romney, or even Perry, would be unbelievably fortunate. And yet, Rasmussen Reports says it's Gingrich time:

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of Likely Iowa Republican caucus-goers shows Gingrich with 32% followed by former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney at 19%. Georgia businessman Herman Cain, who led in Iowa last month, drops to third with 13% of the vote. Texas Congressman Ron Paul draws 10% of the vote in Iowa, while Texas Governor Rick Perry and Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann each grab six percent (6%). Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum draws support from five percent (5%) of caucus-goers while former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman picks up two percent (2%). Only one percent (1%) would prefer some other candidate and six percent (6%) more are undecided.

To be sure, Ras is wholly unreliable and what ax they are grinding is important to know. But how great would it be if Gingrich was the GOP nominee?

Regular readers know that my speculative view was that President Obama never really cared about whether a public insurance program would be included in the vaunted exchanges. If they were in, he was ok with that. If they weren't, he was ok with that too. He mouthed a preference for the "public option," but never did anything to try and get it in (by contrast, he fought hard for a tax on so-called "Cadillac" health insurance plans.) I never paid much attention to the "Obama dealt the public option away" stories. Whether he did or didn't, by making clear he was not going to fight for it, he made its demise pretty likely.

That said, Jonathan Bernstein's questioning of the "Obama killed the public option" story bothers me -- not because he questions the story, but because his claims regarding what he accomplished are clearly overblown. The title of Bernstein's piece is "Obama never secretly killed the public option. It’s a myth." Bernstein has no way of knowing this. What he attempts to do, with some success, is undermine the story that it has been demonstrated that Obama in fact "killed the public option." I think he did a good job of debunking that claim. What he has not done is provide any evidence that "Obama did not kill the public option." I do not think "the President killed the public option." But I am positive Jonathan Bernstein has not disproven the claim.

Speaking for me only