Park Police arrested 11 people in Washington’s McPherson Square as they cleared the tents from one of the last remaining Occupy sites in the United States. According to David Schlosser, spokesperson of the United Sates Park Police, one of those arrested was charged with felony assault on a police officer and assault with a deadly weapon. The person has allegedly hit an officer in the face with a brick last Saturday evening. The injured officer was treated at a hospital.

Three other Occupy protesters were charged with assault on a police officer. The Park Police will continue in clearing the park of unsanitary conditions as they faced no untoward incidents Sunday. It was Saturday night when the demonstrators vowed not to leave the premises and urged people to remain nonviolent in their protest.

The Occupy D.C. has been low-key because of the way the authorities handled the protesters. But around 100 arrests have already been made since it started. Demonstrators created havoc on Capitol Hill and they managed to close down K Street Northwest, which is the power corridor of Washington lobbying.

Over the past weeks, officials have been concerned about the cost of monitoring the camps. They were also worried about the unsanitary kitchens, trash and rats, especially around the McPherson camp.

The Catholic Church criticized the White House defense of the new rules that would require religious employers to provide contraception to their workers with regards to the government’s health insurance plans. According to Anthony Picarello, general counsel of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, White House’s information is misleading and wrong. He added that the bishops would pursue all legal avenues available to bring an end to this mandate.

The Department of Health and Human Services announced last month as part of an effort to guarantee that women would get free healthcare services, which include breast pumps, cervical cancer screening, and contraception. They require employers to include the services in their company health insurance plans by August.

Religious organizations can ask for an exemption if the rule violates their beliefs but not if they employ large number of people who don’t share the same beliefs. A Catholic hospital or university with large number of non-Catholic workers must include free contraception in its employees’ health insurance.

The rule change sparked outrage from various religious organizations. Aside from the Catholic bishops, it was criticized by the evangelical Christians, Orthodox Jews and other religious groups. The Catholic bishops branded the rule changes as a violation of conscience.

The unemployment rate in the United States fell in January to a record low in the last three years. At the same time, payrolls increased more than expected. These changes casted doubts on the Federal Reserve’s plan to keep the interest rates low until late 2014.

The jobless rate fell to 8.3 percent, which is the lowest level since February 2009. The Labor Department announced that the nation had a 243,000 increase in jobs, which is the biggest in the past nine months and has exceeded the forecast made by analysts. Service industries grow the most.

Stocks and bond yields jumped on optimism that the US economy would weather the European debt crisis as the labor market improves that led to an increase in household spending. The data showed that factories and retailers increased and this could boost President Barack Obama’s re-election bid. The announcement was made after Fed Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke stated that unemployment rate’s decline would be slow.

Standard and Poor’s 500 index increased 1.5 percent to 1,344.90 at the close of the trading in New York. This is the best start to a year since 1987. The index is up 6.9 percent in 2012. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note is up to 1.92 percent from 1.82 percent.

Republicans in the House said that senior officials at the Justice Department should have known about the controversial strategies employed at the failed operation to track illegal firearms deals to Mexico because the information were readily available to them. President Barack Obama’s administration has been criticized for over a year over the Fast and Furious operation that was designed to determine how guns were smuggled from Arizona to Mexican drug cartels.

It turned out that US agents lost track of weapons. As many as 2,000 weapons were sold by gun dealers to people believed to be part of the Mexican drug cartels. But as of January 2011, fewer than 600 were recovered.

The Fast and Furious ran from late 2009 until early 2011. It came to light after two weapons from the operation were found in Arizona in December 2010 near the scene of a shootout between the US Border Patrol and illegal immigrants that killed agent Brian Terry.

Republican Representative Darrell Issa, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, released a memo that described how other federal authorities were already tracking down the gun smugglers of the drug cartel a year before Terry was killed.

Issa and the other Republicans on the committee said that senior Justice Department officials could have known guns were sold without adequate surveillance from wiretap apps and the information they had about a similar sting during the Bush administration called Wide Receiver.

At least 400 Occupy protesters were arrested in Oakland after they fought with the police, who in turn fired tear gas and bean bag projectiles. This is the largest number of arrests made in a single day since protests started last year.

Authorities said that the official number of arrests was between 200 and 300 but an Oakland emergency operations center released a statement that raised the number to more than 400. It added that the Oakland Police would announce a more precise number later on Sunday.

Riot police battled with the demonstrators, which resulted to three officers and a protester injured. It started in the afternoon when the activists wanted to take over a downtown convention center. The battles lasted into the night.

Oakland became the flashpoint of the national Occupy protests against economic inequality, which began last year in New York. It spread to several cities across the United States. Most protests have been peaceful and it sparked national debate regarding how the country’s wealth is held by the richest 1 percent of the population. President Obama is trying to take advantage of the situation by proposing higher taxes on millionaires.

Protesters focused on Oakland after former Marine Scott Olsen was injured during a protest in October. He was supposedly hit in the head by a tear gas canister but authorities never issued an official statement with regards to the incident.

President Barack Obama wants to implement tax incentives for companies to bring home manufacturing jobs back in the country. He also wants to limit tax breaks for companies that send jobs abroad. He gave the statement last Wednesday among executives from chemical, aerospace and furniture companies.

President Obama said that the United States was starting to see the reversal to the trend of outsourcing. He said that the new trend of insourcing is likely to begin soon. He noted that manufacturing jobs in the country has been on the raise for the past two years after more than a decade of losses.

The president didn’t release any details of the tax cut proposals, which would need the approval by Congress. He repeated his call on legislators to approve the one-year payroll tax extension. He added that the increase of labor costs in China would decrease its advantage over the United States in the manufacturing sector.

The president said that recent trade deals with Colombia, South Korea, Panama, and Colombia would open up new markets for American exports. Analysts said that the changes in tax policy would play a minor role with regards to the companies’ decision on where to build their manufacturing facilities. Rising labor costs abroad could help the trend.

The Obama administration wants a faster way to reunite Americans with their illegal immigrant spouses and children. This has been pursued by advocates but blocked by Republicans who doesn’t want that type of legislation to be passed in Congress.

At present, illegal immigrants have to leave the United States before they can appeal to the federal government to waive the three to ten year ban to legally come back to the country. The length of the ban depends on the period that the person stayed illegally in the United States.

Last Friday, the Obama administration proposed a change in the rule that would allow spouses and children to ask the government to decide on their waiver request before they were deported back to their country in order to return to the United States the legal way.

The illegal immigrants are still required to go back to their home countries to complete their visa process but getting the provisional waiver in advance would decrease the time they would spend out of the United States from months to just days or weeks. This would minimize the bureaucratic delays that would separate Americans from their families. At present, it would take up to six months for the government to process a waiver.

Once a user who uses the same password for the email and Facebook is compromised by the Ramnit worm, the attacker could then access both accounts. This is why security experts advise people to use different passwords for each web site.

Facebook assured its users that it has the situation under control. The social network giant said that its security experts have reviewed the data and most of the information was obsolete. They also began remedial steps for affected users.

The Los Angeles police advice people to be alert on Sunday as several cars were set on fire. Fire officials said that at least five accidents were reported in Los Angeles on New Year’s Eve and early Sunday. Two arsons were reported in West Hollywood. On Saturday, an arson attack was reported in Burbank, which brought the total number of arson incidents to 39 since Thursday.

No arrests have been made with regards to the arson attacks, most of which started with cars that spread to homes and carports. Police spokesman Cleon Joseph said that the police are taking this matter seriously and hopes to get the suspect into custody. He urged the residents to be on the lookout for someone acting suspiciously.

Los Angeles Police Department Commander Andrew Smith said that detectives are working overtime to collect evidence and go through all the clues. They are working around the clock in order to solve the arson cases.

As of this writing, no one was seriously hurt from the arson attacks but a firefighter had to be treated for injuries suffered while trying to control a fire and another person also suffered minor injuries last New Year’s Eve. Authorities declined to release information on how the fires were started and detectives said they have the tapes from the security cameras at the site of some of the blazes.

The end of 2011 can be marked by signing a major defense bill by President Obama. This event happened in spite of serious reservations” on provisions concerning the relations of the Unites States of America and Russia, imposing sanctions against Iran and interrogations of terrorist suspects. But still there are representatives in Congress who consider that restrictions should be used and applied in relation to the counter-terrorism professionals.

One more provision evoked criticism and this provision is closely related to the imposing sanctions on foreign financial firms that are associated with dealing with Iran’s central bank. The opponents say that these sanctions will increase the prices for oil which could prevent the economy from recovering. Obama also commented negatively on the suggestion of the Congress to present a report before sharing the information on a U.S. ballistic missile defense system with the Russian Federation.

Obama assured the Congress that his Administration will interpret and implement section 1244 in the way that would not interfere with the President’s constitutional authority to conduct foreign affairs and avoids the undue disclosure of sensitive diplomatic communications.” Considering Signing statements, it allows presidents to raise constitutional objections to circumvent Congress’ intent.

Military officials from the Pentagon warned Iran not to disrupt oil shipments in the Persian Gulf as Iran threatened to interfere with the passageway. Pentagon spokesman George Little said that the Strait of Hormuz is a vital economic lifeline needed for the stability in the region. It is 34 miles wide and 20 percent of the world’s oil shipments go through it.

Lt. Rebecca Rebarich, spokeswoman of the U. S. Navy’s 5th fleet, warned Iran with regards to its plan to disrupt shipments in the strait. She said that the U. S. Navy would have a robust presence in the region and would counter any actions that hinder the freedom of navigation.

The warnings came as Iranian officials issued threats that it would use the passageway to retaliate if the West imposes sanctions towards Tehran’s oil exports. The sanctions were due to the suspicions that Iran is still developing its nuclear program.

Last Tuesday, Iran’s Vice President Mohamed Reza Rahimi threatened to close the passageway, which would cut off oil exports, if the West imposes sanctions on his country’s oil shipments. AS the tension in the region builds up, the Iranian navy is currently on a 10 day naval exercise. This includes dispatching warships and drones over the Strait of Hormuz.