The arrests occurred after about 100 protesters took control of 2nd Avenue South and 6th Street South in downtown Minneapolis after rallying at the U.S. Bank building for more than an hour.

The protest was partly a bid to set up tents at the occupation at Hennepin County Government Center Plaza, a request that the Hennepin Count Sheriff’s Department, which controls the occupied plaza, has denied. A medic said he hasn’t yet seen injury from the cold, but that hypothermia was becoming more of a risk as temperatures plummet.

Protesters carried three wooden-framed structures dressed in transparent plastic from the plaza to the sidewalk of U.S. Bank building across the street, then to the intersection on the other side of the building.

In the building, it was business as usual as office workers lunched, but outside, U.S. Bank set up a security cordon to control who entered the building, initially denying media access. All private areas of the plaza were also fenced off.

Despite the security, protesters willing to be arrested said they were able to sneak inside and almost set up a tent on the 12th floor before being escorted out, but not arrested, by security.

Protester Katrina Plotze said she was willing to be arrested to stand against the influence of corporations and banks.

“I think it is interesting we have not been arrested and that we’ve been occupying this intersection,” Plotze told protesters as she stood near a tent set up in the intersection early in the occupation. “That shows that police and the city know about the 99 percent of this country is on our side.”

When protesters initially took the intersection, police destroyed one of the see-through tents, smashing it into pieces. Protesters occupied the intersection peacefully, with police blocking off traffic on all four sides.

After almost one and a half hours, police announced that protesters who didn’t leave would be arrested, the seven who chose to go to jail sat in tents in the middle of the street until they were led away by police.

Don Gerten, 65, wasn’t involved in the civil disobedience. Instead he joined the demonstration with a sign reading “We were promised a future. Where is it?”

Gerten described himself as a “basically conservative veteran.”

“If you asked if I’d be doing this six months ago, I’d say you were crazy, but this country is in such bad shape you’ve got to do something,” he said. “Things get so bad you got to do something.”

Demonstrators had agreed to erect the tents in defiance of a county ban on the structures. The county said the tents would pose a public safety risk because “illegal activity” could go unnoticed inside them.

In response, demonstrators constructed tents with clear plastic sheeting and called them “transparent structures.” The tents also held a political message, which demonstrators chanted while carrying them to the southern lawn: “Our tents our transparent, unlike the one percent!”

Dozens linked arms around the tents before 5 p.m. Saturday. After 5:30 p.m., Nick Espinosa, an OccupyMN organizer, issued a warning: police said they had five minutes to dismantle them. Anthony Guidotti, 20, took the megaphone and offered a space for people to pray for anyone who faced arrest, “No matter your spirituality.” They sang “We Shall Overcome.”

No police came. They unlinked arms. After 9 p.m., a local news station on scene was broadcasting the night as a “victory” for OccupyMN.

Many were awoken, though, at 1:10 a.m., when roughly 50 officers emerged from the Government Center, Espinosa estimated. He called out code red—the demonstrators had made a plan in the case of police action—and around 70 linked arms around three of the transparent tents, he said. (Some had brought their own opaque camping tents).

“People…sat down around a group of three of the transparent structures in a symbolic defense of our transparency as the 99 percent and what we’re doing,” said Espinosa, 25. “Which is trying to protect our health and safety while addressing [Hennepin County’s] concerns about visibility inside the tents.”

Hennepin County Sheriff's Deputies have recorded and photographed protesters throughout the occupation.

Police took all the tents but made no arrests. “They’ve pretty much been policing themselves,” Hennepin County Sheriff Rich Stanek said of the demonstrators on Sunday, in a brief interview. Stanek would not say how many authorities were involved in the police action or why authorities waited until after 1 a.m. to commence it.

Unconnected to the tent issue, officials arrested Melissa Hill early in the evening—the first arrest since the demonstrations began. An activist who was working as a legal observer at the demonstration, Hill had been banned from Hennepin County property after chalking on it. Police booked her for trespassing. Hill’s bail was set at $50 and she was released from custody just after midnight on Sunday.

Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Lisa Kiava deferred specific questions about the police action to a news release that states, in part, the county erected an open-air canopy to protect the public from poor weather. Demonstrators say the canopy doesn’t provide enough protection from the cold and isn’t large enough.

“County policy accommodates the First Amendment rights of residents on county property, while protecting the free use of government buildings by the public and employees,” the news release states. “As always, conduct on county property that violates county policy, Minneapolis city ordinance or state law is not allowed.”

On Sunday afternoon in a planning committee, several dozen demonstrators deliberated for hours about how to carry on a protest with Minnesota’s winter looming while sending a message in response to the confiscation of the tents, which several compared to a foreclosure. The committee voted to eventually set up tents across the street, on the plaza in front of U.S. Bank, within the next two days. Anyone could set up cardboard boxes if they needed shelter in the meantime—a move that would still defy the county’s ban.

“There’s a plaza that’s city property; it’s out of Sheriff Stanek’s jurisdiction,” said Espinosa. “We found Sheriff Stanek just not that willing to work with us to find a solution to us needing our health and safety covered for this Minnesota winter and the weather as it’s getting colder and rainy on us.”

More than 50 people gathered in front of Brainerd City Hall, holding signs reading “America’s middle class: too big to fail” and “tax Wall Street,” according to the Brainerd Dispatch.

Josh Brewster of Brainerd was holding a sign that read “Tax the richest 2 percent.” He said he attended the demonstration because he wants a future for his children. Nothing, not even a little rain, was going to keep him away Wednesday, he said.

In Duluth, more than 100 people braved a rainstorm in Lake Superior Plaza, according to the Duluth News Tribune.

Anne Fryberger of Duluth, an investment adviser and former broker who has been in the business for 25 years, held a sign saying she supported the Occupy Wall Street objective.

“I’m not against capitalism. I’m against the part of capitalism that can’t get enough and gets more and more by taking it from everyone else,” she said. “The whole system is predatory. I believe the middle class is losing ground in this country and we need to stop it.”

Duluth police told the News Tribune that protesters have been advised that they won’t be allowed to camp overnight on public property.

KIMT 3 also has a story on a group that’s organizing in Rochester, having held three meetings now, with the most recent happening in the storefront of Zeus Auto Repair.

Zane Zodrow told the station that he was “tired of politics being driven 100 percent by money instead of by principle and what the American public wants.”

Wonkette gets its digs in on the “esteemed statistical clearinghouse,” USA Today, coming to North Dakota’s defense:

[O]ne arrives at this metric by dividing the number of political corruption convictions in the past ten years by the number of residents. Thus, low-population states with normal-sized governments are disproportionately “corrupt,” as evidenced by the shameful badge of corruption affixed to neighboring South Dakota and Montana. Meanwhile, the truly corrupt states (Rhode Island, anyone?) emerge a shade better, because they never bother to arrest, or god forbid convict, their political criminals. Instead, they elect them Mayor of Providence.

In a conversation with Harris on November 11, the charges state, Blagojevich said he knew that the President-elect wanted Senate Candidate 1 for the open seat but “they’re not willing to give me anything except appreciation. [Expletive] them.”

The criminal complaint against Blagojevich and Harris (pdf) shows how Blagojevich felt about Obama; as it’s not-safe-for-work, I’ll hide it after the jump.

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ROD BLAGOJEVICH said that the consultants (Advisor B and another consultant are believed to be on the call at that time) are telling him that he has to “suck it  up” for two years and do nothing and give this “motherfucker [the President-elect] his  senator.  Fuck him.  For nothing?  Fuck him.”  ROD BLAGOJEVICH states that he will put “[Senate Candidate 4]” in the Senate “before I just give fucking [Senate Candidate 1] a  fucking Senate seat and I don’t get anything.”  (Senate Candidate 4 is a Deputy Governor of the State of Illinois).

As commenters are sure to note — in 3, 2, 1 — the criminal complaint references Tony Rezko, the former Democratic party fundraiser convicted on multiple charges of fraud and bribery. Rezko, who will be sentenced on Jan. 6, did some fundraising for Obama and at one time was his neighbor, selling a parcel of land he and his wife owned to Obama in a deal some say gives the appearance that Obama received a a favor in the purchase. At that time, Rezko was already under federal investigation; Obama has called the deal “boneheaded.” None of the 170 references to Rezko in the criminal complaint reference Obama in any way. US Attorney Fitzgerald stated that Obama is in no way implicated, a point of view others share.

According to a 76-page affidavit, Blagojevich asked for the following in exchange for the Senate appointment: “A substantial salary for himself at a either a non-profit foundation or an organization affiliated with labor unions. Placing his wife on paid corporate boards where he speculated she might garner as much as $150,000 a year. Promises of campaign funds — including cash up front. A cabinet post or ambassadorship for himself.”

According to reports, Blagojevich was recorded as saying, “if . . . they’re not going to offer anything of any value, then I might just take it.” Later that day, speaking to Advisor A, Blagojevich said: “I’m going to keep this Senate option for me a real possibility, you know, and therefore I can drive a hard bargain.” He added later that the seat “is a [expletive] valuable thing, you just don’t give it away for nothing.”

The following is a portion of a 12-page press release by U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald (PDF):

CHICAGO – Illinois Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich and his Chief of Staff, John Harris, were arrested today by FBI agents on federal corruption charges alleging that they and others are engaging in ongoing criminal activity: conspiring to obtain personal financial benefits for Blagojevich by leveraging his sole authority to appoint a United States Senator; threatening to withhold substantial state assistance to the Tribune Company in connection with the sale of Wrigley Field to induce the firing of Chicago Tribune editorial board members sharply critical of Blagojevich; and to obtain campaign contributions in exchange for official actions – both historically and now in a push before a new state ethics law takes effect January 1, 2009.

Blagojevich, 51, and Harris, 46, both of Chicago, were each charged with conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and solicitation of bribery. They were charged in a two-count criminal complaint that was sworn out on Sunday and unsealed today following their arrests, which occurred without incident, announced Patrick J. Fitzgerald, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, and Robert D. Grant, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Bothmen were expected to appear later today before U.S. Magistrate Judge Nan Nolan in U.S. District Court in Chicago.

Actually, part of the answer is explained in the documentary. For example, all those congressional junkets to posh resorts in Scotland, the south of France, Florida and elsewhere? Yes, the congressmen had to fill out forms about their travel, but they were all sequestered

“I can’t imagine this loan would’ve ever passed if we had due process.”

Taxpayers Go Trick-or-Treating

Washington, D.C. Much scarier than the prospect of being haunted by the undead is the prospect of being spooked by a record $8.6 trillion national debt.  In the Halloween spirit, Citizens Against Government Waste provides a list of who deserves taxpayer tricks and treats.

more inside

Trick:  To Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) for helping to secure a $2.3 billion loan from the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) for a company for whom he was a lobbyist: the Dakota, Minnesota, and Easter Railroad (DM&E).  Sen. Thune had earlier increased the FRA’s budget from $3.5 to $35 billion in apparent anticipation of the loan.  With a poor safety record and revenues of less than $200 million, DM&E does not appear capable of making the annual $246 million payment, leaving taxpayers with the scary prospect of having to cover the shortfall.

The press release is here. See also David Williams’ companion piece, “The Rail Subsidy That Could“. In it he writes:

The loan makes no sense from a fiscal, security, or commonsense standpoint. The most confusing, and relevant, aspect to taxpayers is the financing. Currently, DM&E has revenue of less $200 million. According to BearingPoint (a strategic consulting firm), this loan would require an annual payment of $246 million on top of the $15 million from another loan. To put this number in perspective, the Chrysler bailout was valued at $1.5 billion. The numbers alone signal a red flag to stop this handout in its tracks. A senior manager at BearingPoint stated, “This loan finances a project with many financial uncertainties, ultimately calling into question whether or not DM&E can repay the loan.”