Since Occupy Olympia’s first days of occupation, there have been dozens of tents, usually between 110 and 150. A recent survey conservatively estimated between 60 and 70 homeless residents are currently living at the encampment. One may alternately view the profound sight of this encampment in downtown Olympia as either a source of inspiration or a visible gaping wound exposing our society’s massive shortcomings.

The next stage of the Plan B saga moves to the courts. Even before last week’s controversial decision keeping the morning-after pill behind the pharmacist’s counter, and requiring women under 17 to secure a prescription before purchase, a coalition led by the Center for Reproductive Rights planned to take the government to court over age restrictions for the drug. Today, that hearing takes place.

A report today reminds us Newt Gingrich was responsible for securing passage of the huge unpaid for Medicare Drug Act of 2003 that added hundreds of billions to federal debt. Now he’s proposing a massive tax cut that would reward the rich and create over a trillion dollars in annual deficits.

If European banks need $154 billion in cash to meet new capital requirements and backstop losses on sovereign debt, and investors are unlikely to be a source for raising cash, then banks really have nowhere else to turn except their national governments. And that may get problematic in a hurry.

According to a USA Today/Gallup poll of voters in swing states, President Obama is trailing both Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich. The “swing states” polled were : Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin. Bad news for Obama, but maybe even worse for Mitt Romney.

Two major year-end pieces of legislation were readied yesterday, and in this case, House and Senate negotiators reached agreement on the measures, expecting to pass them by the end of the week. First, appropriators agreed to a $1 trillion omnibus spending bill covering the rest of the fiscal year (to September 30 of next year) on domestic spending. They also agreed on the defense spending bill, which still allows indefinite detention of suspects.

The House will vote on their payroll tax cut bill today, legislation loaded with ideological measures and poison pills. It’s legislation Harry Reid, the Senate Majority Leader, has already said cannot pass the upper chamber. Like so many times before, the House believes that they can pass message legislation as long as it contains something Democrats want and gain the advantage on the final product.

Senator Rand Paul is a apparently a huckster for right wing fantasy groups, including the National Association for Gun Rights, which wants you to give them $1,000 to defeat Obama’s “gun grabbing” efforts at the United Nations.

According to some forecasts, the Eurozone crisis, continued fiscal cutbacks at the state level, and a potential fiscal drag from the expiration of stimulus measures, would actually sag growth and probably increase the unemployment rate in early 2012. That would put 8% completely out of reach.

News Roundup from Monday night, December 12, 2011. The Supremes to decide democracy, hucksters and fraudsters — and that’s just the GOP — Yurps not right, bankster rips off kids, and much more.