A New York City police officer was slashed during Thursday’s “Occupy Wall Street” action and a second officer was taken to a local hospital with an eye injury, after clashes with protesters and activists across lower Manhattan, sources told FoxNews.com.

Both officers are said to be in stable condition, although the incident marked an escalation of tension in the uneasy give-and-take between New York officers charged with maintaining order and protesters determined to be heard.

The injuries were reported after a long day of marches and demonstrations across Manhattan’s Financial District by protesters, driven by various grievances but generally opposing an economic system that, they say, benefits the rich while squeezing the majority of Americans. Like-minded protesters have also staged demonstrations in other cities, and clashes with police have intensified since last weekend.

In New York City, law enforcement sources said a single officer, on duty at the time, waded for unknown reasons Thursday into a mass of protesters in Zuccotti Park, the epicenter of the Occupy movement. Once there, the officer called for back-up, and two additional officers responded to the call for help and joined the original one.

Something was thrown at the eyes of the original officer, perhaps an irritant, law enforcement sources at the scene said. Then, moments later, something “sharp” was thrown at one of the officers providing back-up, causing a deep gash on this thumb, one of the sources said.

The officer hit in the eye was taken to Bellevue Hospital, where his injured eye was “flushed out,” a law enforcement source said. The second officer was taken to an unidentified local hospital, where he was due to receive numerous stitches to close the gash on his hand, law enforcement sources told FoxNews.com.

The protesters took to the streets Thursday morning, marking two months since the movement’s beginning, but with far less than the anticipated 10,000 activists marching on the heart of the Financial District. Only about a fifth of that number appeared to amass in lower Manhattan.

The new protest action comes two days after cops rousted the ragtag bunch from their encampment in Zuccotti Park.

Displaced but still determined, the marchers symbolically started at the now-cleared plaza as the sun rose above Manhattan and suited squads of traders and brokers arrived for regular shifts. The protesters headed for another symbolic destination — the New York Stock Exchange. Roughly 100 arrests were reported to FoxNews.com by a law enforcement source.

New York police did their best to keep the protestors on the periphery of the plaza in front of the exchange, cordoning off the area with metal barricades, scooters and parked vans. Only a smattering of the officers wore helmeted riot gear, the rest sporting their blue, workaday attire.

But as soon as one of the many side streets leading to the Exchange in the warren-like Financial District was blocked by police, the protesters resumed their march and headed for another entry point.

Blocked from access to the plaza, the march effectively surrounded the outskirts.

“We just encircled Wall Street. We’ll do it all day,” said David Suker, a protester who was among the crowd, distributing copies of the “Occupy Wall St. Journal.”

“If we don’t have the park, we’ll take the streets. If we can’t take Wall Street, we’ll take the side streets,” he said.

The emboldened horde carried signs and chanted slogans, like “These are our streets!” and “We are the 99 percent,” as it wended its way in a circular pattern around the NYSE’s plaza.

Police set up a checkpoint where NYSE employees could enter the plaza. A few hundred protesters massed there and heckled the arriving workers with chants of “Shame! Shame! Shame!” and “Shut it down!”

Some protesters blocked traffic on street in the Financial District. Police responded by peacefully herding the group back to the sidewalk.

The protesters appeared to number between 1,000 and 2,000, although they had splintered into numerous, smaller groups, making an accurate assessment difficult.

“As the day goes on, you’ll see more and more people, especially when they start to gather at Foley Square,” said Kanene Holder, an Occupy for Wall Street spokesperson. “Once people (get) out of work, that’s when you’ll see more.”

Police herded handcuffed protesters into idling paddy wagons. Holder put the number of arrests at 35, yet a law enforcement source told Fox News the number is closer to 100.

One unfortunate who was headed to work on Long Island got accidentally enmeshed in a group of protesters and was arrested.

“I didn’t do anything,” a handcuffed Shaun Bowlin told FoxNews.com as he awaited entry into a waiting wagon. “I was walking and got caught up in the crowd. They threw me down and dragged me off. I’m not even part of the protest.”

The “Occupiers” retreated with the passing of noon to familiar ground — their old haunt at Zuccotti Park — to regroup and plan their next move on the proverbial 1 percent.

From there, the indefatigable crowd marched uptown to Union Square, congregating in numbers that seemed to the eye to be about 2,000, near the renowned park’s arch. After two or so hours, they double-backed downtown toward Foley Square in preparation for what many protesters said would be the long day’s finale — a provocative march across the iconic Brooklyn Bridge.

The day of action had been planned before the city cracked down on the encampment in Zuccotti Park, but took on added significance after tents, tarps and sleeping bags were cleared out early Tuesday and the granite plaza was cleaned for the first time since the group arrived more than two months ago.

“We will get boots on the ground again,” said Rory Simpson, 29, who described himself as an itinerant activist as he made signs Wednesday evening. “This is not over yet.”

Organizers say the loss of the Zuccotti Park campsite may help broaden the movement. The head of the group’s finances says it will open a dialogue with organizers in other cities and take the protest to the next level.

A judge in New York ruled Tuesday that the protesters could return to Zuccotti but could not set up camp. Meanwhile, one protester was calling Thursday’s action a success.

“I think this has far exceeded our expectations,” Mark Bray said. “We wanted to shut down business as usual. I think we’ve done that. We’ve certainly thrown off the routine, and that is what we wanted to accomplish.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

X17 Online

Justin Theroux and Jennifer Aniston in New York City.

It is hard to imagine Jennifer Aniston having a sit-down with Angelina Jolie, who Aniston’s then-husband Brad Pitt fell for while they filmed “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” together. But while Aniston may have played a similar role in the breakup of Justin Theroux and his girlfriend of 14 years, Aniston specifically requested a meeting to clear the air with her boyfriend’s ex, a report said.

According to Grazia magazine, Aniston had a “tearful” meeting with Theroux’s ex, stylist Heidi Bivens, at New York’s Mercer Hotel last week. The two had a glass of wine as they spoke, sources said. Theroux was nowhere in sight.

“Jen has always been sympathetic to Heidi because she’s heard from Justin just how devastated she is about their breakup,” a source told the magazine. “Jen told Heidi that she understands what a painful time she has been going through and explained that she wanted her to know, hand on heart, that she would never steal another woman’s man.”

HOT SHOTS: Click here for more images of Jennifer Aniston

Aniston and Theroux met while filming “Wanderlust,” a comedy about a couple who moves to a rural commune when they find themselves unemployed, in Georgia last fall. The two became close on set, but Theroux was still with Bivens at the time. Aniston and Theroux were not seen together again until March, when they both attended a dinner at the Chateau Marmont with friends.

The couple was not romantically linked until late May, and when the two were photographed together for the first time in early June, Bivens’ mother denied that her daughter and Theroux had split. But a week later, Bivens’ rep confirmed to the New York Post that the couple had broken up.

According to Grazia, Aniston wanted to make it clear to Bivens that her relationship with Theroux started no earlier than May and that she is not a “homewrecker.”

“Jen has always been adamant that their relationships did not cross over,” a source told the magazine. “Heidi apparently got quite tearful during the meeting, as it was understandably a lot to take in.”

Aniston’s relationship with Theroux has progressed quickly since the summer. But she recently cleared up rumors that she would have big news soon.

“Rumor number one: I am not planning to get married any time soon. I’ve been married once, and I don’t know if I’ll get married again. But I can tell you that as of this very moment, I have no plan to get married. Got that?” she said. “And rumor number two: no, we’re not pregnant.”

AP

Nov. 13, 2011: President Obama speaks during his closing press conference at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit near Honolulu, Hawaii.

It’s hard to mistake that Hawaiian scenery.

But President Obama apparently forgot where he was during his press conference Sunday on the outskirts of Honolulu — despite being born there.

The president mistakenly described his location as “Asia” while answering a question about budget cuts.

“When I meet with world leaders, what’s striking — whether it’s in Europe or here in Asia — the kinds of fundamental reforms and changes, both on the revenue side and the public pension side, that other countries are having to make are so much more significant than what we need to do in order to get our books in order,” Obama said.

Obama understandably had Asia on the mind, as his press conference came in the middle of the U.S. hosting the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, where representatives from many Asian countries were in attendance.

And, hey, Hawaii is a latecomer, having only been a state since 1959.

Technically, Hawaii isn’t in Asia, but neither is it geographically fixed to North America. Because it’s a chain of islands, belonging to Polynesia, it is not part of any continent. Politically, however, Congress made sure the 50th state had its own star on the blue field of the U.S. flag representing the Union.

Hawaii is also Obama’s birthplace, a fact the president has hammered since the campaign in the face of debunked claims that he wasn’t actually born on U.S. soil. The president even referenced Hawaii as his birthplace the day before, reportedly making a crack about those conspiracy theories.

Obama set out Tuesday from Hawaii to Australia. After that, he’ll land in Indonesia, which unlike Hawaii is part of Asia proper.

But Obama said Monday he’ll try to return to Asia — er, Hawaii — for his Christmas and New Year’s holiday, according to the Hawaii Reporter.

Click here to see the president’s remark.

Google

At Google, X really does mark the spot.

Search-engine giant Google has a secret product lab called Google X feverishly developing blue-sky projects such as space elevators, driverless cars and Internet-enabled household devices (coffee pots? clothing?), The New York Times reported Monday.

The labs are reportedly run “as mysteriously as the C.I.A.,” according to unnamed sources familiar with the project, and housed in two facilities — one in California at the company’s headquarters and one in an undisclosed location elsewhere in the country.

“They’re pretty far out in front right now,” Rodney Brooks, a professor emeritus at M.I.T.’s computer science and artificial intelligence lab and founder of Heartland Robotics, told the Times. “But Google’s not an ordinary company, so almost nothing applies.”

The lab is largely filled with robotics engineers, according to The New York Times, in spite of the software engineers more commonly employed by the company. But don’t get your hopes up: The types of projects cited aren’t the sort of thing the company will be releasing any time soon.

Space elevators, for example, are a concept common in science fiction stories and movies. The idea is simple: Ditch the expensive, dangerous, limited rockets mankind has traditionally relied upon to ferry cargo and crew to outer space in favor of an elevator, a giant platform that tows anything and everything up a tremendous cable to a platform orbiting at a fixed location around the planet.

While discussed widely by researchers and developers, a space elevator is no more than an idea, at present. Likewise, robot cars and interconnected home products are probably not destined for our homes and car ports anytime soon — Google did not officially comment on the status of projects or even the existence of the Google X labs.

Reuters

October 2: The family of late singer Michael Jackson, including his children Prince Michael Joseph Jackson Jr. (far L) , Paris-Michael Katherine Jackson (2nd L) and Prince Michael Jackson II (L front), attend the premiere of Michael Jackson THE IMMORTAL World Tour show by Cirque du Soleil in Montreal.

After 866 days of waiting for the trial of Dr. Conrad Murray to come to an end, the family of Michael Jackson finally let out their collective breaths on Monday, when Murray was convicted of involuntary manslaughter. The trial had dominated the family’s collective consciousness since the pop star passed away in June of 2009.

But after almost three years of devoting every ounce of energy to the trial, what do the Jacksons now? Michael’s parents, brothers, sisters, children are all now free to live normal lives, away from the media microscope.

But can they?

“For the family members, I think it is their time for a bit of closure and of coming to terms with it all. They haven’t really had a proper time to grieve, and I think you will see them finally mourn the loss of their brother with some closure now,” Ian Halperin, author of “Unmasked: The Final Years of Michael Jackson” and the director of the Jackson documentary “Gone Too Soon,” tells Fox411.com.

For family patriarch Joe Jackson, the trial wasn’t closure enough. The late singer’s father told ABC News as he walked out of the courthouse that a civil case against Conrad Murray has already been filed.

And experts say that for the Jackson family, hardly “normal” to begin with, enjoying any kind of normal life after is highly unlikely.

Halperin says he expects to see a much more public presence for the children, and to see at least one of them pursuing a career in entertainment. Reports are already confirming that is the direction the children may be taking.

“A source [told In Touch magazine] the children have been mulling over an offer to have their own reality show,” In Touch senior editor Dorothy Cascerceri told Fox411. “After living their lives under the guise of Mardi Gras masks for so long, this could be a risky choice, but it may not even be their decision to make. The decision will most likely come down to their grandmother’s discretion, but there are whispers that the children are intrigued by the idea.”

As their legal guardian, grandmother Katherine Jackson could indeed get a second life managing another generation of Jackson spawn.

And what of Michael’s siblings? Jackson’s sister La Toya, long a spotlight chaser, is unlikely to go quietly into that good night.

“LaToya is doing a good job of keeping herself in the reality show public eye (“Celebrity Apprentice”) and her tell all book, so she will go the way of any reality star who breathes life into their career with appearances and celebrity boxing matches,” “Cult of Celebrity” author Cooper Lawrence told Fox411.

Janet, the only Jackson sibling with fame close her late brother’s, has stayed in the spotlight with her films (“Why Did I Get Married Too?” and “For Colored Girls”) and her current world tour. Janet is also the only sibling whose livelihood didn’t depend one way or another on what happened in the courtroom this week. For Janet at least, life will likely carry on as before the trial. She can focus on her own career and not be bombarded with queries about how her brother died.

Michael’s brothers, on the other hand, will continue to eat from the gloved hand that feeds them. The first estate-authorized Michael Jackson Fan Fest will offer a QA session with Marlon, Jackie and Tito Jackson as part of its its offerings during its early December run in Las Vegas.

Tickets are $35, $75 for VIPs.

ROSCOSMOS

An artist’s impression of Phobos-Grunt in Mars orbit.

Scientists grew excited last week as Russia’s planned its first interplanetary mission in 15 years. By now, the ambitious mission should be powering through space, toward the Martian moon Phobos.

Instead, Russia’s space agency spent Friday discussing uncontrolled reentry scenarios.

Authorities may be looking for someone to blame after a lengthy string of mission failures. According to an Interfax bulletin, an anonymous source indicated that this may force reform in the Russian space agency, Roscosmos, and “a number of positions of responsible persons” could face jail time.

As if that news weren’t bad enough, this could be an uncontrolled toxic reentry scenario.

Phobos-Grunt — correctly written “Fobos-Grunt,” meaning “Phobos-Soil” or “Phobos-Ground” — is fully laden with unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide; that’s ten tons of fuel and oxidizer. The probe itself weighs in at only three tons.

ANALYSIS: Time Running Short for Stranded Mars Probe

The majority of the fuel will likely vaporize during reentry, but everyone will be hoping for a splash-down in an ocean (which covers two-thirds of Earth, fortunately), as the wreckage will still be hazardous. There’s also a small quantity of radioactive cobalt-57 in one of the science missions housed in the probe — a fact that will most likely cause a media frenzy.

It is for these reasons that the Russian media is dubbing Phobos-Grunt “the most toxic falling satellite ever.”

(At time of writing, there is no official word from the Russian space agency about the Phobos-Grunt situation.)

Though Russian mission controllers are frantically trying to regain control of the craft, it’s not looking good. Friday’s efforts are widely regarded as a last-ditch attempt to salvage the mission. Other space agencies such as NASA and ESA have offered to assist, but the probe is quickly becoming unrecoverable.

Since Phobos-Grunt was placed in low-Earth orbit (LEO) on Tuesday, and the probe successfully separated from its booster rocket, its attached cruise stage rocket has yet to light up, providing a critical two burns to blast the probe away from Earth to begin its planned 10-month journey to the Red Planet.

ANALYSIS: Russia’s Mars Mission May Be In Trouble

It is unknown whether there’s a software error or hardware glitch, but attempts to upload new commands to the onboard computers have so far failed to change the situation. Phobos-Grunt’s batteries are draining and its orbit is degrading. It looks as if the probe will reenter later this month/early December. NORAD is reportedly putting a Nov. 26 reentry date on Phobos-Grunt.

And guess what? This will be the third large piece of space junk to reenter in an uncontrolled manner this year. In September, NASA’s 6-ton UARS atmospheric satellite burned-up over the Pacific. In October, the German 2.4-ton ROSAT X-ray space mission reentered over the Bay of Bengal. Could November be the third consecutive reentry month?

Like UARS and ROSAT, the likely Phobos-Grunt reentry will be uncontrolled and at the mercy of a highly dynamic upper atmosphere. Also, the probe’s orbit takes it between the latitudes 51.4 degrees North to 51.4 degrees South — most of the world’s population lives within that zone, and Phobos-Grunt could come down anywhere. Despite the fact that pieces of the probe will hit the ground, it is still extremely unlikely it will cause death and destruction, however.

NEWS: Russia Aims For Mars Moon

The demise of Phobos-Grunt will be a huge loss to the scientific community. Not only was the mission designed to land and scoop up some regolith (dust and rock) from Phobos’ surface, returning it to Earth for analysis, it is also carrying a fascinating Planetary Society experiment called the Living Interplanetary Flight Experiment, or “LIFE.”

LIFE is composed of many different types of bacteria to small organisms that seem to tolerate the space environment pretty well. “Tardigrades” — known as water bears — were also a part of the payload.

Why send microscopic organisms to a Martian moon?

In an effort to understand how life appeared on Earth, the experiment would have put the hypothesis of “panspermia” to the test. Panspermia is a proposed mechanism by which life may “hop” from one planetary body to the next — meteorites slamming into Mars, say, ejecting many tons of debris into space. Should any organisms be “hitching a ride” on the debris, could they (or at least their genetic information) survive the interplanetary journey, and atmospheric entry, to spawn life on another world?

Alas, the LIFE experiment has been cut short. The first Chinese Mars satellite, Yinghuo-1, was also hitching a ride and won’t go any further than LEO either.

Perhaps it’s about time to ask those tardigrades for a favor …

AP

Nov. 10, 2011: Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich addresses audience members while campaigning at the Westin Hotel at Detroit Metro Airport in Romulus, Mich.

Newt Gingrich has moved into the top tier of Republican presidential candidates, according to two national polls released Friday.

The rise of the ex-House speaker comes as other candidates in the race encounter hurdles. Businessman Herman Cain spent the last two weeks fending off sexual harassment allegations. Texas Gov. Rick Perry capped off a string of shaky debate performances with an awkward moment Wednesday when he couldn’t remember the three Cabinet departments he wants to eliminate.

The new polls continue to show Cain and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney at the top. But Gingrich has carved out a space right alongside them.

A McClatchy-Marist poll showed Romney leading with 23 percent, and Gingrich close behind with 19 percent. Cain was trailing slightly with 17 percent.

A CBS News poll also released Friday showed Cain leading with 18 percent — Romney and Gingrich were close behind with 15 percent each.

Analysts for weeks have been suggesting that Gingrich could be primed for a surge. Romney has remained in the top tier in national surveys for months, while other candidates have quickly faded in the polls after enjoying an initial popularity burst.

In debates, Gingrich has tried to stay above the fray, mostly resisting opportunities to attack his fellow Republicans and saving his criticism for President Obama.

Both national polls were conducted after the allegations against Cain broke.

The CBS poll of 382 GOP primary voters was taken Nov. 6-10. It had a margin of error of 5 percentage points. The McClatchy poll of 347 Republicans and GOP-leaning independents was taken Nov. 8-10. The margin of error was 5.5 percentage points.

Would you have accepted that excuse from one of your players? “With the benefit of hindsight, coach, I wish I had run the route we rehearsed a thousand times in practice.” See how stupid that sounds? It doesn’t take “hindsight” to know that when some monster is raping children in your locker room, you call the police.

Coach, you knew back in 2002 that Jerry Sandusky had anally raped a ten-year-old boy in the Lasch Football Building. You handled the matter quietly with your athletic director, Tim Curley. You took away the rapist’s keys and barred him from the facility—but you didn’t call the police. You didn’t lift a finger to help the victim. No hindsight needed, coach. You screwed up.

Yes, we all know about your 61-year career at Penn State. But when you allow children to be victimized right under your nose, you wipe out 61 years of achievement. The Jerry Sandusky scandal is your legacy now.

This scandal has also indelibly stained the reputation of The Second Mile, the charity Jerry Sandusky founded in 1977 as a foster-care program for at-risk kids. Turns out the kids were most at-risk from Sandusky himself.

The Second Mile was one of George Bush Sr.’s Thousand Points of Light and probably did some good work. But the grand jury says Sandusky met his victims through The Second Mile. So even if the program survives this scandal, it will always be remembered as Jerry Sandusky’s private sandbox for recruiting rape victims.

As for the alleged child-rapist himself, you have to stand amazed at his gall. He actually had the brass to title his autobiography “Touched: The Jerry Sandusky Story.” What is that, the punch line of a sick joke?

I don’t want to hear any more “benefit of hindsight” excuses. So let’s be clear about what you should do if you learn that a child is being sexually abused. Print this out, post it on your bulletin board, and make sure everyone in your family, company, or organization knows how to respond to child sexual abuse.

1. If you see an act of child abuse in progress, step in and STOP IT. I have to wonder why the grad assistant who witnessed the rape felt he only had to report it to someone. Why didn’t he jump in, knock Sandusky on his butt, and protect the child? If you see a child being raped by an adult, please have the guts and good sense to intervene.

2. If a child tells you he or she is being abused, don’t panic, don’t act shocked. Make sure the child feels supported and protected. Say, “You did the right thing in telling me.”

3. Believe the child. Even if the offender is “good old Uncle Charlie,” tell the child, “I believe you.” It takes a courage for kids to speak up because they fear they won’t be believed. Kids need to know you’re on their side, and they almost never imagine sex acts unless they’ve experienced them.

4. Tell the child that he or she is not bad. Say, “He knew better; you didn’t know. We’ll make sure he can’t touch you again.”

5. Focus on the child’s needs. Don’t think about the reputation of any individual or organization. The moment you shift your focus off of what’s best for the child, you’re on the wrong side of the issue.

6. Don’t confront the offender in front of the child. Keep adult discussions away from the child. Kids need to feel protected. They don’t need to be upset, disturbed, and frightened.

7. Report the crime to the police. Law enforcement agencies in your area have trained investigators who will talk with you and the child, and who know exactly how best to handle the situation.

And don’t you dare tell me that you don’t have the heart to have “good old Uncle Charlie” arrested. If Uncle Charlie is molesting a child, protect that child!

I’ve heard too many horror stories of people who protected “good old Uncle Charlie” or “good old Coach Sandusky” instead of protecting children. You must have absolute moral clarity: Child molesters belong in jail where they can’t hurt children. If you don’t call the police, then you are an accomplice and no better than a molester yourself.

8. If the molester is a member of the clergy, DO NOT report the abuse to church officials. If the molester is a coach or teacher, DO NOT report the abuse to the school authorities. Some churches and organizations worry more about lawsuits and bad publicity than about kids. Just call the police.

9. Don’t call Child Protective Services—investigating crimes is not the function of CPS. If the police determine that CPS should be involved, they will make that decision.
Don’t let the predator talk you out calling the police. Most predators are amazingly persuasive—that’s how they entice their victims, and that’s how they get people to cover for them instead of reporting them. Don’t be taken in by a charming predator.

10. After you call the police, call the ChildHelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4ACHILD (1-800-422-4453). The ChildHelp counselor will listen to your concerns, answer your questions, and direct you to local support services for the child.

Finally, don’t you ever use the “benefit of hindsight” excuse! I’ve armed you with the foresight to do the right thing to protect a child—and that child is counting on you.

The reason I tell you all this? Because, I was once that boy.

Michael Reagan is the son of President Ronald Reagan. He is a political consultant, the founder and chairman of The Reagan Group, and president of The Reagan Legacy Foundation. Visit his website at www.reagan.com, and visit the Michael Reagan Center at Arrow Child & Family ministries. Portions of this column are adapted from his book “Twice Adopted.”

AP

The White House has decided to sideline a proposed fee on Christmas trees, after the fee was ridiculed by critics as a tax on Christmas.

The 15-cent tax on Christmas trees was announced Tuesday in the Federal Register and was meant to pay for a new board tasked with promoting the Christmas tree industry. It was supported by Christmas tree growers, who wanted a stable source of revenue to fund a new marketing campaign.

But the change quickly drew complaints from Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., and others. Scalise described the fee as a “Grinch” move by the Obama administration and vowed to fight it.

White House spokesman Matt Lehrich told Fox News on Wednesday afternoon that the administration is putting a stop to the proposal.

“I can tell you unequivocally that the Obama administration is not taxing Christmas trees. What’s being talked about here is an industry group deciding to impose fees on itself to fund a promotional campaign, similar to how the dairy producers have created the ‘Got Milk?’ campaign,” he said. “That said, USDA is going to delay implementation and revisit this action.”

The new program was set to go into effect Wednesday. According to the Agriculture Department announcement, the government would have imposed a 15-cent-per-tree charge on “producers and importers” of fresh Christmas trees, provided they sell or import more than 500 trees a year.

The program and fee were supported by some in the Christmas tree industry. The money was not meant to pay down the debt or fund any other program, but designed to go back into the new Christmas Tree Promotion Board.

The board, proposed earlier this year, is the culmination of a years-long effort by the fresh Christmas tree industry to promote itself, according to background information provided in the Federal Register. The industry has faced increasing competition from producers of artificial trees, but efforts to collect voluntary contributions for a fresh-tree marketing campaign have repeatedly run out of funding. So the government stepped in to mandate a fee to support the promotion board.

Heritage Foundation Vice President David Addington, who first reported on the rule on his blog Tuesday evening, said there were two problems with the new fee. First, he said, it’s likely the 15-cent fee would be passed on to consumers. Second, he said it’s inappropriate for the government to be putting its “thumb on the scale,” helping out the fresh-tree sellers and not the artificial-tree sellers.

“If it’s one thing I think the free market could handle, it’s letting people decide what kind of tree they want to buy for Christmas,” Addington told FoxNews.com.

But Agriculture Department spokesman Michael T. Jarvis had defended the program, saying it’s along the lines of over 20 other promotional programs supported by the department, such as the “got milk” campaign.

“It’s worked great for beef, pork, chicken, eggs,” he added.

Jarvis also insisted the fee does not count as a tax, since the industry is effectively “assessing themselves.”

“This one’s not a tax,” he said.

The industry itself further rejected the claim that the fee would be passed onto consumers. The National Christmas Tree Association said in a statement that the program “is not expected to have any impact on the final price consumers pay for their Christmas tree.”

The group said most growers who weighed in on the proposal were in favor of it.

According to the Federal Register, the new board was supposed to launch a “program of promotion, research, evaluation, and information designed to strengthen the Christmas tree industry’s position in the marketplace.”

As part of that job, the board was charged with improving the image of both Christmas trees and the industry itself. After three years, an industry-wide referendum will be held to determine whether to renew the program.

Fox News’ Ed Henry contributed to this report.

MyFoxSpokane.com

Sky Metalwala, 2, was reported missing Sunday morning after his mother discovered him missing from her car in Bellevue, Wash.

BELLEVUE, Wash. –  Police in Washington state said Tuesday they suspect a crime in the disappearance of a 2-year-old boy whose mother claimed he disappeared when she left him alone in a car for an hour last weekend.

“Given the limited amount of information we have, the fact that there’s really no solid leads to follow up on in regard to where he might be — absolutely, we suspect foul play,” Bellevue Police Maj. Mike Johnson told KING-TV.

Johnson did not immediately return a call or email from The Associated Press.

The boy’s mother, Julie Biryukova, reported that her car ran out of gas Sunday morning in Bellevue, a city of 122,000 across Lake Washington from Seattle, police said. She told investigators she left Sky in the unlocked vehicle and walked with her 4-year-old daughter about a mile to a gas station. When she returned to the car, Sky was gone, she said.

Investigators searched a 20-block area and even went door-to-door but found no sign of the toddler. There was no gas can at the car, which started easily, police said.

Bellevue police said Monday that both parents were cooperating, and Biryukova had consented to have her vehicle and home in nearby Redmond searched. The older child has been placed in protective custody.

The toddler’s disappearance came at the height of a custody fight between Biryukova and the boy’s father, Solomon Metalwala. They separated in March 2010 amid back-and-forth protective orders and allegations of abuse and psychiatric problems.

Last week, at a mandatory mediation session, a tentative agreement was hammered out that would allow Metalwala to have some visitation with Sky and his older sister, his lawyer said.

If Sky Metalwala was in fact left in the car, it wouldn’t be the first time, court records showed.

When he was just 3 months old, court records revealed, his parents left him in their sport utility vehicle in a Target parking lot for 55 minutes on a 27-degree day. They came out of the store to get him only after police arrived and asked for the vehicle’s owner to be paged.

Redmond police cited both parents for reckless endangerment in the December 2009 incident.

The case was dismissed early this year after the pair completed a year of probation, 40 hours of community service and a 10-week parenting class.

Biryukova and her lawyer did not immediately return calls seeking comment. Her younger brother, Stanley Biryukova, said Julia was crying frantically when she called him Sunday afternoon and explained what had happened.

“I’m hoping they’ll find the child,” he said.

Metalwala spoke with reporters Monday at the office of his lawyer, Leslie Clay Terry III. They said his estranged wife’s story was bizarre: Why didn’t she call for help, knock on a nearby door, or take the child with her?

“I don’t understand why she would leave a little baby in the car,” Metalwala said. “The whole story is puzzling.”

Several TV stations reported that Metalwala took a polygraph test Monday evening. Terry told KING-TV the results were “inconclusive.” He said his client was too tired to give an accurate result and would take another test later.

Biryukova and Metalwala were together for 14 years. He was 21, and she was a high school sophomore when they began dating, according to one of her court declarations. In another declaration, her mother, Nadia Biryukova, wrote that they married in 2003 in her kitchen just before he was to be deported to Pakistan.

In court documents filed in connection with their divorce, Julia Biryukova said their relationship deteriorated in 2008 after they bought an expensive home in Kirkland and couldn’t keep up with the payments on that property and a condominium they also owned.

The couple separated in March 2010, court records show. In June 2010, the same month Metalwala filed for divorce, Biryukova, 30, filed for a protection order on behalf of herself and their two children.

She said Metalwala, 36, had an anger problem, was verbally abusive and that he had beat her for the first time on Christmas Day, just weeks after the incident at the Target parking lot. The reason was that she had allowed Sky to sleep later than expected, she said.

She alleged the abuse escalated after that, with Solomon telling her to go live on the street and work as a prostitute, she said.

Last December, a social worker determined that there was a “preponderance of evidence” that Metalwala had struck his daughter hard enough to cause bruising, court records show.

The social worker also said Sky had troubling bruises but that it wasn’t clear where he got them. Metalwala’s attorney, Leslie Clay Terry III, said Monday the case worker had only interviewed the mother and that Child Protective Services later conducted an investigation that cleared Metalwala.

“He was exonerated completely,” Terry said.

Metalwala responded that Biryukova had mental health problems and was involuntarily committed to a mental clinic in 2010.

“The accusations against him were totally false,” his lawyer said.

Earlier this year a social worker with state Child Protective Services reported that a doctor found Biryukova to be in good mental health and an appropriate caregiver for the children.

One psychologist who evaluated Biryukova wrote in July 2010 that though she was dealing with “a severe form of obsessive compulsive disorder, I do not believe that interferes with her ability to be a compassionate, effective parent to her children.”