The high point of tomorrow will not be the Rose Parade itself, but rather the after-march (usually the refuge of the religious groups–the parade is secular) when Occupy Los Angeles will prance its 70-person manned puppet, an octopus made from plastic bags, down the parade route.

This media pool drew mainstream media into the inner circle, where they were treated to a display of courteous policing and nonviolence by the police. Even I was impressed by the police. The operation was smooth and efficient and tactical.

“Then the pool media was divided from the regular media, and kept in the inner circle. They were not present to witness the brutality and violence enacted by LAPD officers who were kettling and running after protestors in order to beat them outside the park and mainstream media attention. LAPD smoothly kept MSM from witnessing this, and tried to control other media by constant kettling and dividing of the crowd.”

Under the LAPD’s guidelines, the OccupyLA media team–which includes photographers, videographers, livestreamers and reporters is not credentialed.

There is no Spanish-language media in the pool in a city where 4.7 million people are Spanish speaking. As Monday morning’s midnight-plus-one deadline drew near, there were news crews from the BBC and a Tokyo station present, as well as KMEX (Spanish language). I saw KTLA which was live streaming and had a helicopter overhead, KNBC, KABC, KCBS/KCAL and stringers in unmarked vans. Reporters I ran into included ones from the LA Times and USC’s Daily Trojan, and dozens of people live streaming and taking pictures for blogs and independent media. Oh and Andrew Breitbart was there talking to some dudes with scarves over their faces.

Occupy LA has received their official, “Time To Go” notice from the city for midnight Monday morning, and many people, including the cops, the mayor, and the majority of Occupiers hope that whatever goes down doesn’t involve nasty gas, truncheons and/or rubber bullets.

At a press conference this afternoon broadcast live on ABC 7 (a truncated version here), Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said. “The Occupy encampments have changed the one-sided conversation, the movement has awakened the country’s conscience…After this initial success the movement is now at cross roads. It is time for Occupy LA to movement from this piece of parkland.”

He cited public health, public safety and the security of encampment.

I arrived at Keiner Plaza in downtown St. Louis at around 2 pm in anticipation of the scheduled march in cooperation with the National Day of Action Thursday. After I arrived I milled through the crowd looking for familiar faces. I saw a couple of the homeless men that have been there since the beginning, one of them recognized me. We shook hands and talked a bit. He said it was a big day for the Occupy movement in St. Louis. Then I signed in and asked the greeter how many people they were expecting, she said around 750. There were a lot of unions there and each one “occupied” a section of Keiner Plaza. You could feel the electricity in the air.

Thursda,y in two separate actions, several hundred people participated in a march organized by Good Jobs LA, with folks from Occupy LA, SEIU and citizens joining in as part of a general day of action to protest police actions in New York and elsewhere; planned arrests went off without a hitch. Later in the afternoon, a large group from Occupy LA marched back to the Bank of America branch and some folks were arrested. There was no violence in either action.

Occupy LA still has needs: They are out of most medical supplies, including bandages, both adhesive and elastic; single use antibiotic ointment packs; powdered electrolytes like Emergen-C; hand sanitizer; alcohol wipes; single use saline eye drops; Lysol; bleach wipes; tear-off paper covers for exam tables; latex-free gloves; Maalox or other liquid antacids. Blankets are especially important as it gets colder. Thanks to Firedoglake’s Occupy Supply Fund and a private donor, I can pick up some of these items, but more are constantly needed by the LA medics, and by medics at other Occupys.

Occupy Los Angeles is feeling the effects, both positive and negative, of its growth. Sanitation costs –hauling out garbage and cleaning the porta potties– are taking up most of the donations, and meals must now be delivered from restaurants or “catered” by certified kitchens in order to comply with the health department until the proper permits are in place. Occupy LA’s cook staff did have access to a kitchen for the first two weeks andthey are still looking for another. Pizza is still coming in and people are also relying on their own resources, providing food for themselves and those around them.

Friday, as the News Corp. Board of Directors held their annual shareholders meeting, close to two hundred demonstrators from Good Jobs LA, Brave New Foundation, NABET-CWA, Media and Democracy Coalition, Media Alliance, and Media Action Center joined with Occupy LA, AAVAZ.org, Free Press and Common Cause to protest the media giant’s behavior -including having politicians on their payroll as media commentators and authors, phone hacking and bribery, one-sided reporting, use of faulty statistics, bad governance, and most especially, not acting in the public interest.

Media activist Sue Wilson rallied the crowd when she told them that a local Fox channel in Florida went to court and received a ruling that a news broadcast over our public airwaves does not have to be true.