Midday Roundup: Ferguson protests take to the football field

Hands up. Five St. Louis Rams football players protested the shooting of Michael Brown at game time yesterday. Before taking the field for pregame introductions, the players, all African-American, raised their hands in a “don’t shoot” gesture common among protesters. The St. Louis Police Officers’ Association is livid. In a statement, the association pointed out that the Rams repeatedly asked police to protect the area around the stadium from violent protesters so their game could take place Sunday. The statement said the gesture amounted to calling Officer Darren Wilson, whose claim of self-defense found support from a grand jury, a murderer. Rams player Jared Cook, one of those who raised his hands, said after the game, “There has to be a change that starts with the people that are most influential around the world.”

So last year. Call it Black Friday creep: Thanksgiving weekend sales disappointed many retailers, and one possible reason is the deep discounts they offered ahead of the holiday. What used to be a one-day shopping extravaganza has ballooned into about a week of deals surrounding Thanksgiving. The National Retail Federation (NRF) reported the weekend’s sales dropped 11 percent compared to last year’s. The improving economy could also have affected consumers’ shopping habits. The NRF figures shoppers are less reliant on Black Friday discounts this year because they have more money in their pockets.

Congressional crunch time. Members of Congress return to Capitol Hill today to try to hammer out a spending bill that’s needed to keep the government from shutting down Dec. 11. The budget debate could give the Republican-led House a forum for responding to President Barack Obama’s executive orders on immigration. If GOP House members decide to link immigration and the spending bill, a holiday showdown with the Democratic-led Senate and White House could be on the way. Congress also must iron out the details of a group of expired tax breaks and the president’s fundings request for more money to fight ISIS in the Middle East and the Ebola virus in West Africa. Republicans will take over with a majority in both houses of Congress in January.

Movie mayhem. The North Korean government is taking personally a Sony Pictures comedy, The Interview starring Seth Rogen and James Franco, about two journalists hired by the CIA to assassinate dictator Kim Jong Un. Now Sony is investigating whether North Korea orchestrated a hack attack that crippled the media giant last week. Staffers spent the week without email or voicemail, and five Sony movies leaked to the internet in the wake of the attack. North Korea has called the movie “the most undisguised act of terrorism and a war action” and an “evil act of provocation.” Haven’t they ever heard of freedom of speech? Oh, wait, maybe not.

Free agent. An arbitrator Friday gave former Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice a reprieve from the indefinite suspension the National Football League (NFL) gave him for domestic violence. Last summer, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell suspended Rice for two games over accusations he assaulted his then-fianceé in an elevator at an Atlantic City casino. When a disturbing video of the assault surfaced later, Goodell made the suspension indefinite. “Because Rice did not mislead the commissioner and because there were no new facts on which the commissioner could base his increased suspension, I find that the imposition of the indefinite suspension was arbitrary,” former U.S. District Judge Barbara Jones wrote in her decision. The Ravens already cut Rice from the team, but another team could pick him up now that the suspension is removed. Janay Rice, the victim of the assault and now Rice’s wife, has said she hopes another team will hire him.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.