SEATTLE -- The governors of Washington state and Rhode Island have filed a petition with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration that would allow doctors to legally prescribe marijuana as a medical treatment.

Christine Gregoire of Washington and Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island are asking for the DEA to reclassify marijuana as a schedule 2 drug from schedule 1 -- where it is listed alongside heroin and ecstasy -- which would make it legal for doctors to recommend its use and pharmacists to supply it.

"Poll after poll shows an overwhelming majority of Americans now see medical marijuana as legitimate," said Gregoire of Washington, where pot-dispensing clinics have become popular in the 13 years since the state allowed them.

"Sixty percent of voters in our state said yes on a 1998 ballot measure. An ever-growing number of doctors now tell thousands of suffering patients they may find relief from the unique medicinal qualities of cannabis."

Washington and Rhode Island are two of 16 U.S. states which allow the sale of medical marijuana in some fashion, even though the drug is still illegal under federal law.

The governors' petition will require the Federal Drug Administration to conduct a new scientific review and analysis of recent advances in cannabis research since the last time the FDA reviewed the matter in 2006.

A spokesman for the DEA did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

After a long night for police and protesters, Occupy encampments in Los Angeles and Philadelphia were empty Wednesday morning. The cities were dealing with the aftermath of the two-month occupations — legal battles and park clean-up. And though the mass roundup in Los Angeles remained largely nonviolent, it sparked debate over whether jail officials were being unnecessarily punitive.

The Los Angeles police worked throughout the night to process the 292 people arrested, all but two of whom who were booked for refusing to leave City Hall and nearby intersections after the city declared those to be unlawful assemblies. Bail for the misdemeanor charges was set at $5,000 each.

Masked sanitation workers hauled away 25 tons of debris from the lawns around Los Angeles City Hall after police raided the protesters' camp in the middle of the night and arrested more than 300 people.

In Philadelphia, dozens of police patrolled a plaza outside City Hall after sweeping it of demonstrators and arresting 50.

Mass arrest
Because of the large number of arrests in Los Angeles, protesters were taken to three different jail facilities for booking, and spokesmen who were reached said they did not know how many remained in custody at 2 p.m. PST.

Hacking groups launch 'Operation Robin Hood'

A bail bondsman in Los Angeles said that he had received three calls from family members on behalf of protesters, but that he couldn’t help until they were completely processed. He said that could take up to 24 hours.

“We are not able to move forward on these bonds is because they are still processing people in,” said Greg Rynerson, an owner of Rynerson’s Bail Bonds. The procedures — getting fingerprinted, photographed, run through background checks — normally take one to six hours after arrest, he said.

“But when you have this kind of volume, I imagine the jail staff is completely overwhelmed,” he said.

By accounts from both sides, the police operation in Los Angeles remained largely peaceful. There was one arrest for interfering with a law enforcement officer and one for battery on a police officer, according to LAPD public information officer Andrew Smith.

“The people who were arrested pretty much were volunteers to be arrested — as they have at other rallies,” Smith said.

At a news conference Wednesday morning, Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck proclaimed his officers' operation a success.

Lucy Nicholson / Reuters

A Los Angeles police officer walks through the vacated site of Occupy LA outside City Hall on Wednesday. Demonstrators were camped here for two months to protest economic inequality and financial system excesses.

"The world was watching… and what the world saw was an elegant operational plan that was brilliantly executed by America's finest police force," Beck said.

NBC Los Angeles reported that the final holdouts at the encampment — a dog and three people in a tree house — were removed by officers using a Bomb Assault Tactical Control Assessment Tool — basically a souped-up forklift.

The operation might help Los Angeles police shed their bad reputation for abuse.

“On Los Angeles — it is no longer the most violent police force in America,” said attorney Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights, a non-profit human rights litigation organization in New York.The National Lawyers Guild, which has been supporting the Occupy protesters, condemned the arrests, peaceful or not.

LA police: 'Brilliantly executed' raid on Occupy camp

“The Los Angeles Police Department is deliberately refusing to release anyone arrested in the Occupy raids with a notice to appear,” said Carol Sobel, NLG board member. “The city is holding them in jail on $5,000 bail until they can be arraigned by a judge, which can take up to 48 hours. This punishes people for exercising their First Amendment rights.”

Protesters posting on the Occupy Los Angeles website disagreed about whether the police action was peaceful. Participants were urging protesters to send in raw video footage they collected to document alleged abuses.

There have been no formal complaints about police treatment in the action, said Bruce Borihanh, an LAPD spokesman.

Looking ahead, the city of Los Angeles was dusting off a landscaping plan for the park around city hall, timely grounds work that will effectively prevent people from using it, according to a senior city hall staffer who said was not authorized as a spokesperson.

What’s next for occupiers?
Protesters across the nation were pondering how to proceed with the movement's “occupation” phase ending.

In the past few weeks, police broke up encampments in other cities as Portland, Ore., Oakland, Calif., and New York, where the sit-down protests against social inequality and corporate excesses began in mid-September, The Associated Press reported.

Demonstrators are still at it in places like Boston and Washington, which each had encampments of about 100 tents Wednesday. Dozens of protesters are fighting eviction from a community college campus in Seattle.

The camps may bloom again in the spring, organizers told the AP, and next summer could bring huge demonstrations at the Republican and Democratic presidential nominating conventions, when the whole world is watching. But for now they are promoting dozens of smaller actions, such as picketing the president in New York and staging sit-ins at homes marked for foreclosure.

"We intend to use this for what it is — basically six months to get our feet underneath us, to get strong," said Phil Striegel, a community activist in San Francisco.

Protesters elsewhere also refuse to concede defeat.

Meet Nashville's square-dancing Occupiers

In New York City on Wednesday evening, groups of marchers threaded their way through traffic to demonstrate at the Sheraton Hotel, where President Barack Obama was due to speak. They included a group of "peace grannies," people playing drums and other instruments, and others carrying American flags and Occupy signs. 

Protesters in Philadelphia planned a march from the city's well-to-do Rittenhouse Square to police headquarters Wednesday afternoon and also called for a "victory march" for Friday or Saturday, the AP reported.

"Occupy Philly is alive and well," said Katonya Mosley, a member of the group's legal collective. She said members have been communicating via list serves, text messages and email and planned to continue meeting in cafes and other spaces. Local groups have also offered to donate space for the protesters to continue meeting, Mosley said.

While one faction received a permit for a scaled-down protest across the street, she said, Occupy Philadelphia as a whole hasn't decided whether to go that route. The city has said any new permit would include a ban on camping.

In St. Louis, protesters whose camp was broken up by police on Nov. 12 planned to march to the Federal Reserve Bank office on Thursday. John Mills, a technical writer, called the dissolution of the camp a minor setback.

"It's dampened some spirits, but I think people are just as passionate, just as excited and just as ready for change as they were before," Mills said.

Click here to follow Kari Huus on Facebook.

AP file

The San Francisco law to ban including toys with children's meals is targeted at McDonald's Happy Meals.

Samantha Graff, a senior staff attorney with Public Health Law & Policy, which drew up the law that was eventually adopted by San Francisco, told SF Weekly — which first reported the novel strategy — that McDonald's response "allows them to continue marketing this unhealthful food to children in the midst of an obesity crisis."

Eric Mar, the member of the Board of Supervisors who led adoption of the law, called the 10-cent charge a "marketing ploy," but he told The Associated Press that he didn't plan to seek any changes to address the tactic.

Ashlee Yingling, a spokeswoman for McDonald's, said all of the company's U.S. stores would offer Happy Meals with apples and smaller servings of french fries by March.

ATLANTA -- More than a week after Robert Champion's death from suspected hazing, the parents of another victim are stepping forward.

Madison Hunter contacted 11Alive News after hearing Champion's parents speak Tuesday. He and Kimberly Hunter said their daughter Bria, a freshman clarinet player in the Marching 100 at Florida A&M University, was also a victim of hazing and was hospitalized only weeks before Champion's death. 

On Nov. 19, 26-year-old Champion collapsed shortly after the band performed at the Florida Classic. He was taken to a hospital where he later died. Witnesses say he was vomiting and complained he was unable to breathe before he collapsed. The Orange County sheriff believes hazing was involved.

See video and read the original story at 11Alive.com

The Hunters said they only know bits and pieces of what happened to their daughter, but they say it began with a phone call home in early November. Kimberly could tell something was wrong with her daughter, but didn't know the extent until she saw Bria that weekend.

"She walked towards me in the car, and she was walking stiff-legged," Kimberly recalled. "Then she tried to get into the car, and she couldn't bend her legs to get in. She basically told me they had been punching her in her legs."

A trip to the hospital proved Bria had a fractured thigh bone and damaged knee. Bria's parents contacted director Dr. Julian White and said he immediately took action. Of the 26 students suspended leading up to this year's Florida Classic, Madison Hunter said nearly a dozen were connected to hazing against his daughter.

"You need to be punished like a criminal. That's what I'd like to see happen," he said. "If they had taken heed to what happened to my daughter two weeks earlier, it shouldn't have even gotten to the point where Robert Champion died."

Both Champion and Hunter are graduates of Southwest DeKalb High School. 

Hunter's case is under investigation by the Tallahassee Police Department.

Related stories

Florida A&M band director fired after suspected hazing

Attorney: FAMU band employs 'culture of hazing'

WASHINGTON -- Urging a judge not to loosen restrictions on out-of-hospital visits by John Hinckley, who shot President Ronald Reagan in 1981, Justice Department lawyers on Wednesday said Hinckley browsed through books about Reagan and presidential assassins at a Virginia bookstore in July.

Hinckley visited a Barnes and Noble store in Williamsburg, Virginia, where his mother lives, but later told his doctors that he went to see a movie, "Captain America," federal prosecutor Sarah Chasson said at the beginning of a court hearing on Hinckley's request to be allowed longer unsupervised visits to Williamsburg, his mother's hometown.

"He has a long history of deceptive and secretive behavior," Chasson said. Secret Service agents watched him browse through the books, she told the court.

Two years ago, a federal judge allowed Hinckley to make 12 visits to his mother's home, each lasting nine nights. Having completed that series of trips, both Hinckley and doctors at a Washington mental hospital are proposing more visits of longer duration.

Such a plan would eventually lead to "the goal of fully transitioning Mr. Hinckley there," said his lawyer, Barry Levine of Washington, DC.

"Lack of candor about attending a movie does not make him dangerous," Levine told federal judge Paul Friedman on Wednesday.

Dr. Tyler Jones, the director of psychiatry at St. Elizabeths Hospital, testified that in July when Hinckley went to the bookstore instead of going to see the movie, he stopped in front of a shelf of books about the McKinley assassination, the Reagan assassination attempt, Reagan speeches and John F. Kennedy.

Jones testified on cross examination from prosecutors that Hinckley looked at but "did not pick up or read" the books about Reagan or presidential assassins. Jones also testified that Hinckley initially lied about seeing the movie.

But he said that when Hinckley's medical treatment team received a Secret Service monitoring report about the incident, they confronted Hinckley about his deception.

Jones testified that Hinckley told the team he "understood that it was a big deal" but asked the team to "cut him some slack."

As a result of Hinckley's deception, his medical team reduced the time he can spend with his mother in Williamsburg for Christmas and he will lose some unaccompanied time there as well.

Hinckley was found not guilty by reason of insanity for attempting to assassinate President Reagan outside a Washington hotel in 1981. Since then, he's been a patient at St. Elizabeths Hospital. At the urging of his doctors, Friedman granted Hinckley permission, beginning in 2003, to leave the hospital grounds for short visits. The judge has gradually approved longer visits with less supervision from Hinckley's doctors.

The hospital is now seeking permission for him to make two 17-day visits to his mother's home and six more visits of 24 days each.  If those are successful, the hospital wants the discretion to place him there on convalescent leave permanently.

Hinckley has been volunteering at a mental health hospital in Williamsburg and has obtained a driver's license, though he is under court orders to have a responsible custodian with him while driving.

The Justice Department strongly opposes the request for expanded visits, arguing that his treatment record reveals behavior patterns "that universally have been recognized as risk factors for Hinckley's future violence."

Government lawyers say he has been deceptive with his doctors, not only about his visit to the bookstore but also about his interest in women. He searched the Internet for pictures of his female dentist but falsely claimed she wanted him to see her photos, the Justice Department says, and gave conflicting responses about whether he wanted to marry his current girlfriend.

John Hinckley Jr. in 2003.

While the visits to Williamsburg were intended to aid in his therapy and allow him to gradually adjust to society, "After three years of regular visits to his mother's hometown, Hinckley has failed to show that he has integrated into the community or that he has taken the initiative necessary to complete the task," the Justice Department says.

But, says Hinckley's lawyer, he has completed every one of his court-approved visits "without any adverse occurrence or risk of danger" and is entitled to pursue his "constitutionally guaranteed rights to treatment and to be held in the least restrictive environment consistent with safety."

Hinckley, who is 56, is attending the federal court hearing. His mother was expected to attend later during the proceedings. Hinckley's father died in 2008.

Pete Williams is NBC News’ justice correspondent. Joel Seidman is an NBC News producer.

Yavapai County, Ariz., Sheriff's Office

Andri Jeffers, 26, is charged with one count of attempted robbery, with a toy penguin.

Sometimes the best reporting comes straight, no chaser, directly from the cops. As the Yavapai County, Ariz., Sheriff's Office reports with a straight face:

On November 23, 2011, at approximately 6:15 PM, Yavapai County Sheriff's Office deputies responded to a reported robbery at the Chevron Station in the 2700 block of Highway 69, Dewey-Humboldt. The Chevron employee stated that a female entered the mini-mart with her right hand concealed under her sweater, claiming she had a bomb, and demanding cash from the register. ...

Just after 7:15 PM, deputies located (Andri) Jeffers at her home in the 2900 block of North Kings Highway West, Castle Canyon Mesa. Jeffers was confirmed as the suspect initially by the surveillance photo and also identified by the clerk. Jeffers admitted to her participation in the robbery. Deputies learned the item she held under her shirt was a toy penguin. She was arrested and booked at the Camp Verde Detention Center for one count of Attempted Robbery.

You can read the full arrest report here. (.pdf)

Two shoppers at an Atlanta-area Wal-Mart have reported being pricked by hypodermic needles hidden in clothing, prompting an investigation by Georgia sheriff's officials who are urging others to be cautious.

A third shopper found a broken syringe in the pocket of a pair of pants at the Wal-Mart in Cartersville, about 45 miles northwest of Atlanta,  but was unharmed, according to Sgt. Jonathan Rogers, a spokesman for the Bartow County Sheriff’s Office.

Rogers said the first incident was reported Nov. 22, when a woman bought a pair of footed pajamas at the store for her daughter. When the girl was putting on the clothes at home, she reported being stuck in her right pinky by a syringe, according to the police report.

When the officer asked whether she had been stuck in the foot area, the child said she was "unsure because I freaked out."

In another case, reported Nov. 27, a woman said that while shopping at the store two days earlier, she opened a package of bras and her finger was stuck by a needle. After telling the store manager, she was advised to seek medical attention and get checked for hepatitis and HIV.

Rogers said the sheriff’s department was reviewing store security footage for any clues in the case.

"We’re trying to identify who may have done that and why they might have done that," he said. 

He said neither victim had any "medical issues that we know of," after the incidents. The syringes, which were all recovered, appear to have been unused, Rogers said.

Wal-Mart said it was working with law enforcement on the investigation, and taking extra precautions, such as adding staff in the women's apparel area.

"We're committed to getting to the bottom of it," said Dianna Gee, a Wal-Mart spokesperson. "We do believe it's an isolated situation involving this particular store."

Meanwhile, Rogers urged shoppers to be vigilant as they examine clothing.

"You naturally want to be careful putting your hands into places where you can’t see them," he said.  

More news and other features:
Case of the drowned million-dollar car to go to trial 

How to make an honest profit in politics

Give me all your money or my penguin will explode

Michael Nagle / Getty Images

People walk and bike along a path during the mild autumn weather in Prospect Park on Nov. 27 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City.

NEW YORK -- The Northeastern United States, the world's largest heating oil market, is set to post its warmest November in a decade, and the mildest for some cities like Boston in over 30 years, forecasters said this week.

The Northeast and East North Central regions, including Chicago, Cleveland and St. Louis, had their warmest November since 2001, Pennsylvania-based forecaster Planalytics said.

Boston was the warmest since 1975, while Indianapolis was the warmest in over 50 years.

Overall, forecasters expect this November to be the fifth-warmest since records began in 1950.

The mild weather was a result of "autumn being autumn" and not a sign of a weakening La Nina weather pattern - expected to continue through winter - or a harbinger of what's to come this winter, according to New York-based Weather 2000 meteorologist Michael Schlacter.

While November's mild weather aided U.S. retailers as shoppers took to the streets, it pressured demand for natural gas to fire furnaces and power plants.

Cash gas prices slid to their lowest levels in more than two years, while gas futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange slid to 11-month lows.

Heating oil prices, meanwhile, were weaker, but concerns about supply disruptions due to recent refinery closures limited the downside, market sources said.

The Southwest coast was the coolest since 2004, with Los Angeles the coolest since 2000, the forecaster said.

Weather 2000's Schlacter noted that while New York City had a "warm" November, it was not "off the charts" or historic in nature.

"Even just this past decade we've had some tremendous swings in weather in November temperatures. We're not that much warmer than 2009 or 2006. We are going to top those, but we're still in the same ballpark as the last five years," Schlacter said.

Overall this November will fall behind November 2001, and will likely be the fifth-warmest on recent record, Schlacter said. MDA EarthSat meteorologist Rick Groh agreed.

All the forecasters noted that cooler weather in the U.S. West would likely skew the overall national average.

"The tremendous cool in the West will likely dilute the impressiveness of the warmth for the nation as a whole," Schlacter said.

Forecasters were quick to note that November weather patterns were not necessarily indicative of how the entire winter will turn out.

Forecaster WSI has called for the mildest winter in five years, lowering heating demand expectations.

U.S. government forecasters said a strengthening La Nina would grip the country for a second straight winter, causing colder and wetter weather in the most northern states and drier, warmer conditions throughout the drought-ravaged South.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said it expects the La Nina weather phenomenon that results in cooler ocean temperatures in the Equatorial Pacific, to become the most dominant factor influencing weather across the country, but added that a change in pressure called the Arctic Oscillation could make it difficult for forecasters to predict more than a week or two in advance.

The volatile condition could produce dramatic short-term swings in temperatures. Arctic Oscillation can generate strong shifts in the climate patterns that could overwhelm or amplify La Nina's typical impacts, NOAA said.

Weather 2000 was calling for a below-normal period from December through March for the nation as a whole, with the Ohio Valley and Great Lakes area the focal points of the coolest weather.

"Last year was very impressive. It's probably not going to be as cold as last year, but could be similar to the 2008-2009 winter for the nation as a whole. The winters the last four years have been in that slightly cool direction and that's where we're leaning this year," Schlacter said.

"Chicago, which had a very, very warm November, just like New York, is already starting this new transition. It's a very slow progress and the Interstate-95 corridor on the East Coast is going to have to wait about six or seven days into December until we catch up with that," he said.

"Everything between the Rockies and the Appalachians are doing a 180 flip starting today or yesterday, compared to what was going on in November, which just shows how quickly things can change," Schlacter added.

MDA EarthSat said the December through February winter period would be normal to slightly above-normal for the Northeast and near to slightly-below normal for the Midwest, above-normal in Texas and below-normal on the West Coast and in the Rockies.

By Rehema Ellis
NBC News

From the moment you walk into the Waldorf School of the Peninsula there are clear signs that something different is happening.

Allysun Sokolowski, a third-grade teacher,  greets each one of her 29 students by name and shakes their hand as they enter the classroom. It's easy for her because she's known these kids at the Los Altos, Calif., school for a while.

"I've been teaching the same children from first grade, second grade and now we're in third grade. And I will teach these children all the way through eighth grade," she said.

It's the Waldorf way.

Teachers establish a strong bond with students. As a result, Waldorf teachers quickly point out there's no need for tests or grades.

"I don't need grades to know how well they're doing," said Sokolowski. "I know their strengths, I know their weaknesses. I know what will be hard for them and where they will shine. I'm their teacher with a capital 't.'"

The intense student-teacher connection might help explain why students from elementary to high school are thriving. The school boasts a nearly perfect graduation rate.

Despite being in the heart of Silicon Valley, Waldorf students are not caught up in the gadget frenzy that has consumed so many other school children nationwide. Computers are not used in the elementary school and they are used sparingly at the high school level. Teachers say they're not anti-technology, but, as they put it, they're just in favor of healthy education.

Read the New York Times’ report on the Waldorf school

"I'm concerned that if we say we need technology to engage students we're missing the fact that what engages students is good teachers and good teaching," said Lisa Babinet, a Waldorf math teacher.

I asked a group of high school students if they misssed having computers and iPads as part of their lessons they all emphatically said "No."

"I don't think we're gonna be left behind at all because it's not like we're not a part of technology at all," said sophomore Isabelle Senteno. "We are a part of it, we just don't incorporate it in the lessons."

Jack Pelose, a freshman who transferred to Waldorf from a school that used a lot of technology, said he noticed the benefits of not using computers in class. "My cursive has gotten a lot better since I've been here," he said.

"Everything about technology is so easy to pick up and use nowadays," added senior Zach Wurtz added. "The companies design it so anyone can use it when they choose to."

The students talked about being annoyed sometimes when they hang out with friends who are not Waldorf students, who spend a lot of time on social networking sites and texting.

Video: At another Silicon Valley school, iPads are in vogue

One Waldorf student said he sometimes has to ask his friends to put down the gadgets so they can just talk.

And if you're wondering, like I did, how the Waldorf education translates in the outside world, Laila Waheed, a graduate now in her first year of college, offered some insight.

Waheed, 18, has a laptop but never takes it to lectures. She takes notes by hand -- like she did at Waldorf -- and she later transfers her notes into her computer. It's a form of studying, she said.

"If you stood at the back of the classroom and looked at every screen, at least half of them would be on Facebook," Waheed said of all the other students who are typing away on their laptops during lectures.

"A Waldorf education gives you a foundation to say, 'OK, I can put my phone in my bag. I can have a half-an-hour conversation with a person. I don't need to be totally connected all the time,'" Waheed said. "And that's more valuable for making personal connections that will last longer than the next text you're going to get."

It sounds like something a Waldorf student would say. But it’s also a sentiment echoed by her father, an engineer manager at Cisco.

"I don't think anyone is debating the value of technology and the use of computers," Muneer Waheed said. "There is no going back. This is the future."

But he and his wife have been clear about wanting the mostly technology-free zone that Waldorf provides for their two children.

"They need the environment and the foundation to develop and get their core values -- the love of education and their own passion," he said. "That's what's going to stay with them. The computer is just a tool."

See more of Rehema Ellis' reporting on NBC's Nightly News with Brian Williams Wednesday evening.

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is probing whether lenders may have illegally foreclosed on mortgages of active-duty members of the military, the Financial Times reported Wednesday.

The paper said data released last week by the US Treasury’s Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, could show that 10 major lenders may have seized the homes of of about 5,000 service members. If confirmed, the seizures would violate the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, which protects servicemembers from civil lawsuits or foreclosures while they are on active duty.

The FT attributed its story to people familiar with the matter. It said a spokesman for Schneiderman declined to comment.

In May, Bank of America Corp. and Morgan Stanley agreed to pay more than $22 million combined to settle federal civil charges that they improperly foreclosed on 178 military personnel, some of whom were serving in the Iraq or Afghanistan wars. The settlement was the largest amount recovered in a case of improper military foreclosures.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Three charter schools in Lincoln County, N.C., were evacuated after administrators received a bomb threat via email Wednesday morning, officials said.

Students ranging from kindergarten through 12th grade were bused to nearby churches after a message sent to the Denver Main Campus of the Lincoln County Charter School threatened to bomb schools sometime between Wednesday and Friday, reported the Gaston, N.C. Gazette.

The schools will be shut down for the day while officials search the three campuses, according to NBC's Charlotte affiliate WCNC.com.

Lincoln County is about 35 miles outside of Charlotte. According to its website, the Lincoln County Charter School was founded in 1997 and is divided into a K-8 program in Lincolnton, N.C., and a K-5 and 6-12 program in Denver.

By WNBC

Police on Long Island now believe a single serial killer may be responsible for the 10 bodies found along a deserted oceanside highway, shifting their theory away from multiple killers as they previously believed.

Police also don't believe the disappearance of Shannan Gilbert is connected to the killings.

Suffolk County Police Commissioner Richard Dormer told NBC New York on Tuesday that police now think a single person is behind the deaths of the human remains found on Gilgo Beach, most of them in the last year.

Most were young women, but one body was a child and another was a man.

"The common denominators that we have now indicate that it's possibly one killer," Dormer said in a phone interview. "We've had the same dumping ground, sex workers, young women -- even though there were the Asian male and the toddler -- but we think they were connected to the sex trade in some way. And these common denominators indicate we have the one person committing these crimes."

Newsday also reported that Dormer doesn't think the death of Gilbert, a sex worker who was seen frantically running from a house in Oak Beach early May 2010, is connected. Her body has not been found.

"We believe that it's just a coincidence that she went missing in Oak Beach and the bodies were found on Gilgo Beach, which is right across Ocean Parkway and farther west," he told Newsday. "The M.O. is completely different, the scenario is completely different."

But Dormer acknowledged the fear there will be new victims. "That's why we are moving as fast as we possibly can to apprehend this person," he told the paper.

In the interview with NBC New York, he added that another initial theory that the killer worked in law enforcement has been "debunked."

"It's not unusual for people to be very familiar with how police conduct investigations, and how criminals try to evade capture," Dormer said. "That came up early in the investigation, but it's not credible at this time."

10 bodies found
Between December 2010 and April of this year, the remains of eight women, a male and a female toddler were found dumped along a stretch of Ocean Parkway. Five of the women were identified and found to have been working prostitutes.

Among the remains still unidentified are the toddler and a woman believed to be her mother, and the man, also believed to be a sex worker.

Initially, police said there could be as many as three killers behind the bodies, all using the brush along the parkway as a dumping ground.

But, Dormer told NBC New York Tuesday, police now believe one killer is behind the dumped bodies, though even "that could change" as the investigation moves forward.

Detectives also believe the killer is from Long Island.

"The person has got to be comfortable with the locations," Dormer said, citing the long distances between Manorville and Gilgo Beach, and from Davis Park to Gilgo Beach. "That's the theory, that it's a Long Islander."

"That's a huge distance, so somebody has to be familiar with the Long Island area and comfortable with that area," Dormer said.

Dormer said the case remains "high priority," and that police are "still actively investigating this."

NEW YORK -- Just weeks after being acquitted on federal corruption charges, State Assemblyman William Boyland Jr. was arrested again by the FBI on new bribery and extortion charges -- money he allegedly solicited to help pay legal bills from his earlier case.  

Boyland is accused of soliciting more than $250,000 in payoffs in exchange for helping an amusement park businessman. That businessman was an FBI informant who recorded the meetings.  

Officials said Boyland accepted $7,000 in cash payments as well as campaign contributions in excess of campaign finance limits.

He is also accused of soliciting a $250,000 payoff in exchange for a scheme to help two undercover operatives try to buy and renovate a Brooklyn hospital for $8 million and then resell it for $15 million.

'I have legal fees'
The charges in this latest case allege that while on trial in federal court in Manhattan, Boyland was out soliciting additional bribes.

According to the criminal complaint, Boyland said he needed money because of costs piling up from his federal case.

"I have legal fees for this legal thing that I have .... I have a good attorney, I just can't pay him," he is accused of telling an undercover FBI agent.

• More news from NBC New York

Boyland, who appeared in court in sweats and sneakers and was released on $100,000 bail, left court without comment. When asked if he planned to stay in office, Boyland shook his head yes. When asked if he had anything to say to his constituents, he shook his head no. 

Defense attorney Michael Bachrach said it was unfortunate we "are here again" and said he would respond to the charges at a later date.

"The extent of the charged corruption is staggering,” said U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch, who accused Boyland of auctioning of his seat to the highest bidder. "In this instance, the 'bidders' were working for the FBI.”

On Nov. 10, Boyland was acquitted in a separate case in Manhattan of conspiring to collect $175,000 in bribes to influence health care organizations in Brooklyn and Queens.   

After his acquittal, Boyland said he was looking forward to getting back to work.

FBI NY Director Janice Fedarcyk said Boyland asked for the meetings with the undercovers in person so his phone calls would not be taped. 

"Recording phone calls is not the only method the FBI has available to fight public corruption," she said.

If convicted in this latest case, he could face a maximum 30 years in prison.

Updated at 3 p.m. ET: Police in Los Angeles proclaimed a successful and peaceful removal of the two-month-old Occupy LA encampment at city hall during a press conference on Wednesday morning.

"The world was watching… and what the world saw was an elegant operational plan that was brilliantly executed by America's finest police force," said Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck. 

NBC Los Angeles reports that there were at least 290 arrests in the overnight operation ending around 5 a.m. PT. The final holdouts at the encampment — a dog and three people in a tree house — were removed by officers using a Bomb Assault Tactical Control Assessment Tool — basically a souped-up forklift.

Updated at 9:00 a.m. ET: Los Angeles Police Lieutenant Andy Neiman said before officials raided the Occupy camp, some protesters had been reported to be storing human waste at the site for unknown reasons. He later said police entering the camp encountered "a horrible stench."

City workers put up concrete barriers to wall off the park while it is restored. As of 8:10 a.m. ET, the park was clear of protesters, said LAPD officer Cleon Joseph.  Police used a cherry picker to pluck five men from trees. Two others were in a tree house — one wore a crown and another taunted police with an American flag.

Meanwhile, in Philadelphia, protesters swiftly vacated their camp without a single arrest, officials said.

Updated at 6:32 a.m. ET: At 6:09 a.m. ET, NBC Philadelphia reported that Occupy protesters were marching through the streets toward Rittenhouse Square. "Traffic is blocked" and "some of the city's mass transit has been halted," its website said.

Updated at 6:25 a.m. ET: Two Philadelphia police officers were taken to hospital with minor injuries following a "scuffle" with anti-Wall Street protesters while clearing the city's Occupy encampment, authorities told NBC Philadelphia.

Updated at 5:50 a.m. ET: Police arrested about two dozen roving marchers who left the Occupy Philadelphia encampment early Wednesday after officers evicted protesters, The Associated Press reported. Police began pulling down tents at about 1:20 a.m. ET after telling demonstrators they had to leave.

Updated at 5:45 a.m. ET: Four injuries have been reported during the operation to clear the Occupy LA site, NBC Los Angeles said. Two people were transported to a local hospital but the extent of their injuries was not immediately known.

Updated at 4.45 a.m. ET: Occupy LA protester Opamago Cascini, 29, tells CNS why he's ready to go to jail: "It's easy to talk the talk, but you gotta walk the walk."

Updated at 4:33 a.m. ET: According to NBC Los Angeles, about 1,700 LAPD officers are on the scene as Occupy LA encampment is dismantled.

Updated at 4:20 a.m. ET: A LAPD public information officer tells KNBC's Conan Nolan that some cops are helping Occupy protesters to pack up their belongings. "Everybody is being very cooperative," the PIO added.

Updated at 4:13 a.m. ET: KNBC's Beverly White says a local church has opened its doors "to give sanctuary to the 99 percent."

Updated at 4:10 a.m. ET: In a statement, LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa says: "We have taken a measured approach to enforcing the park closure because we have wanted to give people every opportunity to leave peacefully. I ask that anyone who remains in the park to please leave voluntarily."

He says a "First Amendment area" will remain open on the Spring Street City Hall steps while the park is closed. "Once the park is cleared, it will be repaired and returned to all Angelenos to exercise their First Amendment rights," Villaraigosa added.

Updated at 12:45 a.m. ET: A raid on Occupy LA’s City Hall encampment appeared imminent Tuesday night as several local news sources reported that Los Angeles Police were gathering at Dodger Stadium.

The Los Angeles Times reported that Mayor Villaraigosa said he decided to evict the protesters after learning that children were staying in the camp.

"The chaos out there could produce something awful," he told The Times, because of reports of assaults and other incidents.

Occupy LA’s Facebook page said city buses would be staged near City Hall between 8 p.m. and 4 a.m., NBC station KNBC reported.

"This is a monumental night for Los Angeles. We're going to do what we can to protect the camp," said Gia Trimble, member of the Occupy LA media team on Monday night.

She said she thought a lot of people would stay and risk arrest, adding, "We're really committed to this."

Members of the National Lawyers guild had legal observers on hand for any possible eviction that may occur.

Meanwhile, in Philadelphia, Occupy protesters on Dilworth Plaza appeared to be complying with a final warning from police to leave.

A message posted on the police Twitter account, @Phillypolice, said the department "thanks #occupyphilly for their cooperation.

We're here to protect constitutional rights and ensure public safety."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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