Police Surround "Occupy Oakland"; U.S. Facing Second Credit Downgrade
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.</s>COSTELLO: And good morning to you. Breaking news out of Oakland, California, to tell you about.</s>CHO: That's right. You look at the pictures here live. Kind of a tense situation there. Police have arrested more than two dozen people in the "Occupy" tent city there. Protesters have been in this area called Frank Ogowa Plaza for about two weeks. As you can see there, police put on gas mask and there's been some smoke released. Again, more than two dozen people have been arrested. The "Occupy Wall Street" protests began, you'll recall, in New York City back on September 17th. The protesters outraged at what they call the top 1 percent of the country. But some critics have said that unlike the Tea Party movement, they have been disorganized about finding a solution to the problem. Nonetheless, the "Occupy" protests have spread not just around this country, but around the world to more than 80 countries, hundreds of cities. And we are monitoring this story very closely, again, out of Oakland, California.</s>COSTELLO: This situation in Oakland is pretty serious. This is a camp near 14th Street and Broadway. You see police in riot gear there. They dispense something that spewed smoke. We're not sure what it is. But you can probably guess. They have been trying to get these people to leave for weeks in Oakland because the problems we have been hearing about here in New York City with public urination and garbage. They say that the "Occupy Oakland" people are, you know, making the rat problem in this area worse and they want the people to clear out. They gave them a letter the other day, saying, please, desist and leave. And, of course, the protesters refused. So, some of them are sitting down and getting arrested, which is apparently what they want to happen.</s>CHO: More than 100 riot police. And, remember, it's 5:00 in the morning there and you're looking at live pictures. Obviously, the situation which has been tense now for a few weeks reached a boil. More than two dozen protesters arrested today. And again, this is a situation we're following very, very closely and we'll bring more as we get more details into our news room.</s>COSTELLO: Let's head to Atlanta now and check in with Jacqui Jeras. Good morning, Jacqui.</s>JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Hey, good morning, guys. We're looking at some drizzly, wet conditions this morning across the Great Lakes and in the Upper Midwest. And this is going to be the real focus of where a lot of the wet weather is going to be today and impacting your travel. So, if you're still heading out the door yet, make sure you have your umbrella with you and make sure you take a little extra time as the roadways are slick. We have been seeing rain along I-94, as well as along I-39. Green Bay down towards Milwaukee, even into Radford (ph). Chicago, you're staying dry for the most part. The rain should move in later on today, and we're just starting to see this move into the Detroit area, as well. Again, mainly light, but enough to kind of be a nuisance overall this morning. So, major delays are going to be expected this afternoon. Over an hour in Chicago, not only do you have some of that light rain to deal with, but also, very windy conditions. We also have wind in Boston. Minneapolis looking for showers especially this afternoon. The wind in Dallas and Kansas City, although, a warm wind, and Denver looking at some afternoon showers. The only delay currently that we have to report is at Newark. It's about a 15-minute departure delay, so it's not major and it's not weather related, at least, not at this time. All right. Let's talk a little bit more about the delays in Denver that we're expecting. You're going to start out as rain later on today, but overnight tonight and into tomorrow, that's going to change over to some snow. We've got winter storm warnings in effect. This is after hitting 80 degrees yesterday, Denver. 80. That was a record high for you. So, hard to believe by tomorrow we'll be lucky it hit 40. Several inches of accumulation expected in Denver. You get up into the high country. We could be talking about well over a foot, possibly as much as two feet for a few of you. Of course, keeps a lot of people happy when you're talk about the ski season. All right. The nation's mid section, this is our big storm system that we're going to be watching over the next couple days. That cold air filtering in back behind it and on the south side of it, it's very warm, dry air which is moving in. That's why temperatures here are going to be a good 10 to 20 degrees above where you should be for this time of the year. Eighty-three degrees in Kansas City for the end of October. You guys have that snow in the end of October before, so that's really good. Eighty in Memphis, 72 in Chicago before that cold front moves on through. Brings you back down into the 50s. All right. There was a spectacular display last night of the aurora borealis. If you have a chance to see it, if not, get over to your TV. Look at that. Just amazing colors. You could see the green, the blue, the purples as well as some of the red up there. This is not a necessarily a rare event, but what was more unusual about this is that this was seen in the southern parts of the United States. Usually, you have to be way up there into the northern tier of the U.S., but people in Atlanta saw it. People in Alabama saw it. There are reports in Arkansas, as well as Ohio. So, really, a lot of people got to see this beautiful, spectacular display. Kind of a weak ejection from this solar storm overall, but, man, look at the results. Isn't that beautiful, guys?</s>COSTELLO: That was beautiful. You're right. I could sit here and watch it all day.</s>JERAS: All day, over and over. And never gets old. It's so beautiful.</s>CHO: Too bad that Rob Marciano isn't there to witness that in Atlanta. I understand he's filing an investigative report out of Denver on the ski slopes.</s>JERAS: Oh, that could be the case. I'm not sure. Maybe a quick trip, because I think he's back tomorrow.</s>COSTELLO: What he deserves. Jacqui, thanks.</s>CHO: United States could be just a couple months away from another credit downgrade. The problem, a Congressional Super Committee charged with crafting a debt reduction plan may be too divided to get anything done. Here's Lisa Sylvester.</s>LISA SYLVESTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The 12 members of the Super Committee share one thing in common. Strong ties to their party caucus and political base. That kind of division makes it challenging to find common ground and Wall Street seems to know that. A new Bank of America Merrill Lynch report says the deficit commission is, quote, "very unlikely to come up with a credible deficit reduction plan." The committee is more divided than the overall Congress. The Merrill Lynch report forecasts an additional downgrade from another major ratings agency by the end of the year if the Super Committee fails to act. University of Maryland professor, Peter Morici says that's a scenario he also sees playing out.</s>PROF. PETER MORICI, UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND: We're getting to budget dysfunction. We need a whole restructuring of how the federal government spends money in its relationship with the states regarding health care, Medicaid. That's not happening. So, the credit rating agencies are quite correct to say the United States is not AAA and even less.</s>SYLVESTER: Standard & Poor's in August lowered the U.S. rating a notch from AAA to AA. S&P; left the door open to further rating cuts if there's less reduction in spending than agreed to. Moody's and Fitch rating still scored the U.S. government (ph) AAA, but Moody's has a negative outlook and has also warned a risk of a downgrade if further fiscal consolidation measures are not adopted in 2013. But the way the committee was set up by Congress, there is something called sequestration, a trigger if the Super Committee deadlocks or the president vetoes their proposal.</s>JAMES HORNEY, CENTER ON BUDGET & POLICY PRIORITIES: What happens then is in the first year, that year, you get about a nine percent cut in defense spending and in nonexempt domestic spending. On the domestic side, things like Social Security, Medicaid are exempt, a lot of other things aren't'.</s>SYLVESTER: Things like Medicare, homeland security spending in addition to defense cuts. That would take effect in 2013. The Merrill report predicts a lot of uncertainty for investors and the markets ahead. On the day the S&P; downgraded the U.S. credit rating, the stock market dropped seven percent. (on-camera) Most of the work of the Super Committee has been done behind closed doors. Now, there is a public hearing scheduled for this Wednesday, but they only have about five more weeks to go than Congress has until December 23rd to vote on whatever proposals the committee comes up with. It's a tall order to get all of this done. Lisa Sylvester, CNN, Washington.</s>COSTELLO: Still to come this morning, prosecutors for Conrad Murray as an inept and opportunistic doctor who's responsible for the death of Michael Jackson. Now, the defense will try to convince the jurors otherwise.