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Anchored by Jake Tapper, The Lead airs at 4 p.m. ET on CNN.
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national lead
Ferguson protesters turn Black Friday into 'Brown Out Friday'
(CNN) – Police blocked protesters at the West County Mall in a suburb of St. Louis today, as the so-called "Brown Out Friday" gets underway.
The motto of demonstrators: No justice no profits.
The demonstrations are a reaction to a grand jury decision not to bring charges against Officer Darren Wilson in the shooting death of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown. The decision, announced Monday, has sparked protests in Ferguson, Missouri, and around the country.
Dozens descended on a Target in St. Louis calling on shoppers not to buy in support of Brown, and several Wal-Marts throughout the city saw protests as well.
The National Guard showed up at one Wal-Mart in Ferguson, blocking the entrance to the parking lot. Doors did not open until 8 a.m.
But when they did, shoppers did show, with some saying the idea of a "Brown Out" may be misguided.
CNN's Jason Carroll reports.
buried lead
NYC mayor may reverse 15-year ferret ban
(CNN) – It's the city that never sleeps. It's also the city that'll eat you alive if you sleep on it.
With the long list of problems affecting New York City right now – education, the growing gap between Wall Street and the hungry, traffic that will make you bite your steering wheel – nothing has divided the city more, and demanded the attention of city hall less, than the decades long fight over the right to own a ferret.
CNN's Jason Carroll reports.
politics lead
Feds: Dem. Calif. pol Leland Yee schemed to trade arms for campaign cash
San Francisco (CNN) - Leland Yee needed cash.
First, the ambitious California state senator had to fund his 2011 race for mayor of San Francisco. When he came in fifth, he was stuck with $70,000 in campaign debt that he had to retire before he could mount his next run, for secretary of state - a costly statewide venture.
And that's how prosecutors say Yee ended up sitting across from an undercover federal agent in a coffee shop in early March, brokering what he was told was a $2 million arms deal that would include the purchase of shoulder-fired missiles from Islamic rebels in the Philippines.
sports lead
New allegations against A-Rod
The headline came firing in like a high-and-tight fastball – Yankees' third baseman Alex Rodriguez is now batting down new allegations that he and his representatives were trying to buy evidence that might be used against him in court.
CNN's Jason Carroll has the latest.
national lead
Judge gives sick girl shot at lung transplant
Her plight has captured the sympathy of people all across the country. Now, 10-year-old Sarah Murnahan may be getting a new shot at life. Sarah has end-stage cystic fibrosis. If she does not get a lung transplant, she will die.
Yet, there is a policy in place in the U.S. that prevents children younger than 12 from getting adult organ transplants. But her parents took on those rules and the government, and won - at least for now.
CNN national correspondent Jason Carroll reports in the video above.
