Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. While folks enjoy their Thanksgiving dinner, here is some of the local news from Minneapolis:

Abby Simons, the Star Tribune's Hennepin County courts reporter, did double-duty on Wednesday by going over to U.S. District Court in St. Paul to report on a hearing before Senior Judge Richard Kyle on a law suit filed this week by the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota on behalf of the Occupy protesters who have been camped on the plaza since Oct. 7. The ACLU is trying to block some of the rules the county has imposed to reign in the demonstrators. After taking in the arguments, Simons reports, Kile ruled Wednesday that protesters have the right to affix signs and chalked messages to the Government Center Plaza, but also upheld Hennepin County rules restricting their ability to use tents or sleep overnight on the plaza. Everybody, including the protesters, refers to the demonstrators on the plaza as OccupyMN, but the ACLU lawyers, apparently wanting to distinguish this protest from Occupy actions in St. Paul, Duluth and elsewhere in the state are calling it OccupyMPLS.

Meanwhile, veteran Star Tribune reporter Rochelle Olson, who has covered city halls on both sides of the river, offers some colorful anecdotes and thoughtful insights on the similiarities and differences between the Minneapolis and St. Paul City Councils. Check her article out today and I think you will be intrigued.

Here is a real curiosity, an interesting story about Jenna Bush, the daughter of former president George W. Bush, here in Minneapolis to do a Thanksgiving Day television report for the Today Show about a fundraiser for Sisters Camelot, an activist group that helped out protesters during the 2008 Republican National Convention. At the fundraiser was Rob Czernik, a member of the RNC 8, a group of eight protesters who was arrested for conspiracy during the convention. Czernik found this all "wierd." Check out the article by Sheila Regan in the Twin Cities Daily Planet.

On the crime beat today, Star Tribune staff writer Paul Walsh delivers the details on a 55-year-old Minneapolis man who has been sentenced for participating in a long-running identity theft scheme with his wife, a nursing assistant, to steal more than $120,000 from vulnerable adults under her care. Walsh also reports about another robber, described as white and in his late 20s to early 30s who continued his bank holdups on Wednesday, this time at the Bremer bank at the Uptown Calhoun Square shopping mall. The robber has been called the "Man in Black" because he wears a black hooded sweatshirt, jeans, black shoes and a black ski mask.

Also, Matt McKinney, the Star Tribune police reporter, weighs in on the search for another robber, described as a white male with a lighter-colored goatee, who robbed a Walgreens pharmacy at 2426 Hennepin Av. S. on Wednesday. He is also suspected of robbing a Walgreens at 540 Blake Rd. N in Hopkins last Sunday and a Walgreens at 3240 W. Lake St. in Minneapolis last Friday.

Finally, here's one to chew over as many of us sit down to stuff ourselves. Reporter Matt McKinney tells us how the police ticketed a man for peddling a turkey without a license. Please eat moderately (that's my goal) and enjoy your day.