With many encampments still setup around the country, it is to be expected that there will be stories of occupations having Thanksgiving at their camps. Occupy Wall Street is preparing 5,000 meals that will be served on Thanksgiving. It will be part of a celebration that will also include music performances.

OccupyWallSt.org writes the food will be served as part of an “open feast.” They plan to serve the food in Liberty Park. A locally owned family business, Texas BBQ, will be serving 2,000 of the meals. The rest of the meals will come from “supporters and food from the People’s Kitchen at Occupy Wall Street.”

An organizer says of the plans: “Many people have given up so much to come and be a part of the movement because there is really that much dire need for community. We decided to take this holiday opportunity to provide just that – community.”

On Black Friday, actions will take place as part of a campaign to encourage shopping at “mom-and-pop shops” instead of Big Box stores that typically pay their workers very low wages and openly oppose any attempts to unionize labor at store branches. For example, Occupy Seattle will be demonstrating at Wal-Mart stores. Occupy Boise in Idaho will send “consumer zombies” to silently demonstrate. And Occupy Chicago plans to sing “revamped Christmas carols” that urge shoppers to “buy local.”

Firedoglake’s premier live blog continues. I have just wrapped up my Northeast tour. Next week, I will be publishing a report on each of my visits to Occupy Albany, Occupy Maine, Occupy Boston, Occupy Providence, Occupy Hartford and Occupy New Haven. Each of these camps were introduced to the Occupy Supply fund and many of the occupiers that received donations are very grateful for the support.

Here is a Twitter list to follow for the latest updates from occupations all over the country.

10:29 PM Here is a copy of the “letter” or NYPD order that was given to officers in response to complaints from the press.

An excerpt:

Policing incidents from crime scenes to major public events places a great burden on both line and supervisory personnel. Members of the service must respect, however, the public’s right to know about these events and the media’s right of access to report on these events. Members of the service who unreasonably interfere with media access to incidents or who intentionally prevent or obstruct the photographing or videotaping of news in public places will be subject to disciplinary action

6:54 PM Apparently, NYPD sent a letter to the AP, which AP is covering. It says internally officers have been ordered not to interfere with the press at protests. A copy of the letter is not included in the news article so the public does not get to know right now the specifics of the NYPD order or how the NYPD apologized and tried to make things right if they even did in the letter.

I would like to see the AP publish the letter. Or, someone who has the letter should leak it.

6:42 PM The New School study center (in New York) is occupied.

5:39 PM The Occupy movement wins another victory: in Columbia, South Carolina, where Gov. Nikki Haley tried to shut down Occupy Columbia, a judge just ruled in favor of the occupation. They are allowed to return to statehouse grounds under protection of a temporary restraining order. The TRO is in effect until December 1 (like the TRO in effect in Boston) and—the best part—the TRO gives them the right to have sleeping bags and, for the first time, tents.

More here.

5:37 PM And just when you thought this farce could not get any funnier or ridiculous, the officer that inspected the WikiLeaks Truck at Broadway & Cedar tonight was polite. His name was Officer Polite.

5:09 PM The WIkiLeaks Truck has been found. From the Twitter feed, Clark Stoeckley, who owns the truck, tweets a photo that says, “NYPD parked it at a bus stop, gave me a ticket, then towed it the next day.” The photo shows Vincent Boccio of the NYPD lied to him when he said last Thursday that the truck was at Mike’s Towing on Thursday. This truck was towed in the West Village on Friday.

A series of tweets provides more details on the games NYPD was playing.

A judge, whom is supposedly sympathetic to OWS, dropped all of his parking tickets. The truck needs a new battery. And, Stoeckley is delivering blankets to storage, which is what he tried to do last week when he was arrested for dropping off supplies.

5:06 PM In Logan International Airport in Boston waiting for a flight to Chicago. My Northeast tour is complete. Perhaps, I will be back to see a few occupations I was unable to get to on this trip but it is time to move on. I have plans for Thanksgiving.

1:35 PM Occupy Wall Street will be putting out a benefit album that will feature: Jackson Browne, Crosby & Nash, Devo, Third Eye Blind, Warren Haynes, Lucinda Williams, Toots & the Maytals, Yo La Tengo and others. The album will also supposedly feature some drummers of the occupation. And, Michael Moore plans to sing for the album.

1:31 PM Police have moved in on Occupy Toronto in the past hours. And a group of occupiers have chained themselves inside tents.

1:18 PM Destroyed books that were put on display during press conference on Occupy Wall Street library (via @OWSLibrary)

1:15 PM The UC Board of Regents plan to propose “‘drastic’ budget reductions and a massive increase of fees” at a meeting on Monday. Occupy Cal protesters plan to shut down campuses in response.

via @TheOther99

1:02 PM Major press conference on NYPD and city’s destruction of the Occupy Wall Street library wrapping up. Attorney Norman Siegel states property from the eviction filled 26 sanitation trucks. More than 4000 books were taken and 79% of those books were destroyed or never returned. One of the books lost in the eviction was Bloomberg by Michael Bloomberg.

Siegel called on Mayor Bloomberg and the city to replace the destroyed or lost books and create a new space for the Occupy Wall Street library. As Ryan Devereaux of Democracy Now! tweets, “The People’s Library wasn’t just well-stocked and organized, it was a legitimate community resource open to everyone in the neighborhood.”

Siegel noted to the media that it was not right for the police to violate the rights of journalists during the eviction.

Here is audio of Siegel at the press conference.

12:48 PM Occupy Richmond gets a zoning violation. This is just another example of how cities are suppressing occupations. The notice of violation was given to Raymond Boone, a newspaper publisher who “offered his lawn next-door to Mayor Dwight Jones’ residence to the protesters after the city cleared them from a downtown plaza on Oct. 31.”

12:43 PM Pepper-spraying is just one police weapon that can be used on the Occupy movement. Rania Khalek for AlterNet has a post on other hypermilitarized weapons police can utilize.

12:39 PM Bryce Covert on how student debt constrains life choices.