DE BLASIO TO WHITE HOUSE — WABC’s Dray Clark: “Following up on his pledge after the Ferguson grand jury decision, President Obama is convening a series of high-level dialogues [today] at the White House on the issue of policing in minority communities. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio will join other elected officials and faith leaders to discuss how communities and law enforcement can work together following the decision. Obama will hold three separate meetings on the Ferguson fallout: first with his Cabinet; then, a roundtable of young civil rights leaders; and, a group of elected officials, civil rights and faith leaders and law enforcement officials.” http://7ny.tv/1FHn48L

“FERGUSONISM” — Capital’s Azi Paybarah: At his regularly scheduled rally in Harlem on Saturday, Rev. Al Sharpton said he saw a direct connection between the deaths of Michael Brown in Missouri, and Eric Garner in Staten Island and Akai Gurley in Brooklyn. He told the audience at his rally, “I’m dealing with Ferguson. … I’m, in so many cases, I don’t know—I feel like a flight attendant. Because that’s how bad it is. But we need to connect all of this together.” He added, “This is Fergusonism. Which is why we’re connecting the dots.” http://goo.gl/Imaq9I

WAKE-UP SCOOP: DE BLASIO’S HORSE BILL — Capital’s Sally Goldenberg: Nearly one year after taking office, Mayor Bill de Blasio is hoping to abolish horse-drawn carriages by producing a City Council bill that is expected to be introduced in December, according to two sources who have seen a copy of the draft legislation. … The bill would create a training program for carriage owners and drivers, stable workers and license holders between June of 2014 and May of 2016. And the city would cover the cost of certain green-taxi licensing fees for carriage drivers who are eligible. As a candidate, de Blasio criticized the outer-borough taxi program. He also got significant support from an anti-carriage group that bankrolled attacks on Christine Quinn. http://goo.gl/UQc4U7

WHAT CITY HALL IS READING — “Antipoverty Groups Give Mayor Wide Berth,” by WSJ’s Mara Gay: “Antipoverty groups that once stood as City Hall’s staunchest critics have lowered their voices since New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio took office, giving him the benefit of the doubt even as problems such as homelessness have worsened.Nonprofits like the Coalition for the Homeless, the New York City Coalition Against Hunger and Make The Road New York, among others, were persistent thorns in the side of former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, whom they blamed for failing to confront the growing gap between the wealthy and the poor.Now, these same groups are slow to criticize Mr. de Blasio, who is staking his mayoralty on addressing inequality. Many see the mayor as an ally and say they don’t want to jeopardize his progress by expressing disagreements or frustrations publicly.” http://on.wsj.com/1y82b6d

BIRTHDAY: Natalie Ravitz

STAT OF THE DAY: 612-0: The total from eight votes in the N.Y. and N.J. state legislatures on bills to boost transparency at the Port Authority, via News: http://goo.gl/OynDSN

THE PATAKI THING AGAIN—Daily News’ Ken Lovett: Former Gov. George Pataki is again dipping his toe into the presidential waters — even as political experts give the Republican virtually no shot for the 2016 race. Pataki in recent weeks has traveled twice to New Hampshire. He’s also hitting South Carolina to kick off this week. He has been in contact with national Republican donors and even has an ad — funded by the super PAC Americans for Real Change — on TV titled “It’s Time for a New America” that calls for “less government, more freedom.” …

“It’s just beyond the pale,” Ed Rollins, a veteran GOP consultant and Fox News commentator, said of a Pataki presidential run. “I don’t want to say he’s a dinosaur, but in the world of politics . . . he is. He’d be an also-ran.” Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics, was even more blunt. “I don’t know how people obtain these delusions,” he laughed. “I don’t take those drugs.” http://nydn.us/1tsShXp

SANDRA LEE’S STYLE—Profile looks at how Lee’s low-brow appeal sometimes shuts her out—Ben Widdicombe for the Observer: Ms. Lee is a plainspoken, self-made star. Her “Semi-Homemade Cooking” empire is based on budget-friendly recipes beloved by working America, but disparaged by the culinary establishment. (Anthony Bourdain once called her food a “war crime.”) With her formidable wardrobe and powerful partner (the governor, Andrew Cuomo), Ms. Lee has also been cutting a path in New York high-fashion circles—with mixed results. Her successes (cordial terms with Anna Wintour; a cover line in Vogue) have been offset by a snobbery that still keeps some doors firmly closed. …

As for the future, whenever the circuit of state fairs loses its appeal, Ms. Lee says she does see herself as Mrs. Andrew Cuomo. “We’ll get married some day. It’s been nine years,” she says. “We talk about it. It’s not like we don’t know we’re going to do it.” And what about the prospect of creating semi-homemade state dinners, complete with themed tablescapes and cocktails, for the White House? With her boyfriend in the field of possible Democratic presidential contenders, surely it must have crossed her mind. “Oh God,” she says, her steel-blue eyes suddenly fixing on the middle distance, in a way that makes her look remarkably like she’s running for office herself. “We’re not even thinking about that, honey. I have no aspirations. Absolutely not one.” So … that sounds like a “yes.” http://bit.ly/1y29wFJ

AFTER TOLLS—Capital’s Jimmy Vielkind: Chris Ward, the former executive director of Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, says transportation planners searching for ways to plug multi-billion dollar holes in their capital plans should think about tracking driver miles using phones. http://bit.ly/1tCtBuI

SIGN UP FOR CAPITAL EDUCATION, COMING DEC. 8—your daily guide to the latest news in New York education, from pre-kindergarten to higher ed, and from government to the for-profit sector. Written by Capital staff and filled with scoops, analysis and the most important news of the day on education leaders, institutions and the policies that affect them, Capital Education will be delivered to your inbox before 5:45 each weekday morning. Sign up here: http://capi.tl/1xtAQKd

SPEED READ — “Joan River’s doctors delayed CPR as she lay dying: sources,” by Post’s Phillip Messing and Laura Italiano: “Joan Rivers might still be alive if the two throat specialists who performed her ill-fated August procedure had simply started CPR and called 911 when the 81-year-old comedienne first went into shock … But a shocking new play-by-play — pieced together from interviews, confidential EMT records and a federal report — shows that Yorkville Endoscopy’s now-former medical director, Dr. Lawrence Cohen, and Rivers’ own Ear, Nose and Throat specialist, celebrity ENT Dr. Gwen Korovin, continued to perform scoping procedures on her larynx and trachea for 14 minutes even as her pulse and blood pressure plummeted.” http://pge.sx/1yAzEWO

–“Suspect in Etan Patz’s killing asked: Did I do it?” by AP’s Jennifer Peltz: “As he watched TV reports on a 33-year-old missing-child case, a man who’d never been a suspect started pondering whether he was the killer, he later told a psychologist….Hernandez would soon tell police he did choke 6-year-old Etan Patz in 1979 … But defense psychological experts later found him unsure of whether the brutal scenario he’d described was real or imaginary. …The interplay between belief and reality is shaping up to be a central issue in his murder trial, set for early next year. Since a judge ruled this week that jurors could hear Hernandez’s confession, it will be up to them to decide whether it was true.” http://yhoo.it/1tucufD

–“NY dinner puts wealthy and homeless at same tables,” by AP’s Larry Neumeister: “Some well-off Manhattan residents paid $100 Friday for the honor of eating a candlelit holiday dinner with homeless people at a church, an intersection of two worlds that left one down-on-his luck man thinking the seemingly impossible. …About 500 people, serenaded by a piano and saxophone, ate at large round tables with red tablecloths beneath the church’s tall dome. Chefs from The New York Palace and The Waldorf-Astoria hotels provided roasted turkey, buttered mashed potatoes, red velvet cake, pumpkin cheesecake and other delights.” http://yhoo.it/1yAyM4K

WORLD AIDS DAY — City diagnoses at all time low — Capital’s Dan Goldberg: The number of new H.I.V. diagnoses has fallen to historic lows, according to a new report that the city is releasing today. The city reported 2,832 H.I.V. diagnoses in 2013, about 300 fewer new cases than in 2012, and less than half of what was reported in 2001. The death rate among those diagnosed with H.I.V./AIDS has also fallen 62 percent between 2001 and 2012, the report found. Men who have sex with men are still at greatest risk for contracting the virus, which continues to impact African Americans at a far higher rate. In 2013, the H.I.V. diagnosis rate among black males was 1.5 times higher than the rate among Hispanic males and more than twice as high than the rate among white males, the report found. For black women, H.I.V. diagnosis rate was twice as high for Hispanics and nine times as high when compared to white women. Read the full report here: http://on.nyc.gov/1FIKXP8

TUNE IN — New weekend lineup, via WNYC: “Starting December 1, you’ll hear a new line-up on WNYC-FM, weeknights at 9pm. We’re introducing five different signature public radio programs for each night of the week. If you listen to WNYC-FM on the weekends, you may be familiar with a few of the shows: On Being with Krista Tippett, TED Radio Hour and Selected Shorts. In addition, we’re introducing two new shows, Snap Judgment and The Dinner Party Download to the 93.9FM schedule.” http://goo.gl/jjVQcJ

REAL ESTATE — “Flawed 1 World Trade Center Is a Cautionary Tale,” by Michael Kimmelman, Times’ Sunday page A1: “Many New Yorkers hated the twin towers, but their sculptured corners captured sunlight at dawn and dusk, creating immaterial ribbons of orange and silver that floated up toward the ether. The towers changed, depending on where you stood, at what hour. The space between them shifted, too; it opened or closed as you moved around the city. One World Trade is symmetrical to a fault, stunted at its peak, its heavy corners the opposite of immaterial. There’s no mystery, no unraveling of light, no metamorphosis over time, nothing to hold your gaze.” http://nyti.ms/1v8CIbS

–“Developers bet it all on penthouses,” by Crain’s Daniel Geiger: “Developer Ben Shaoul has a simple way to describe the new penthouse he’s readying downtown at the former Verizon headquarters at 140 West St., a property he is converting to luxury condominiums. ‘Think football field,’ said Mr. Shaoul… Maybe so, but a growing number of his peers swear they have. The fact is that in recent months such boasts have become all too common among a gaggle of men now in the process of delivering a collection of penthouses of unprecedented size, opulence and, of course, cost.

“Among those are five penthouses—and counting—whose owners, like Mr. Shaoul, seek to crack the elusive nine-figure mark, and in the process blow away the current city record of $88 million paid for an apartment. What concerns some observers is that those building-top units and their ionospheric prices are becoming the pivotal factors in the success or failure of more and more ambitious residential projects. It also comes at a time when developers are scrambling to find ways to recoup the record prices many have paid for their sites and the skyrocketing construction costs they must shoulder.” http://bit.ly/1v16KJM

–“New York’s Next Big Thing,” by Dan Doctoroff, Times’ op-ed: “We are an undisputed leader in tourism, yet we lag badly in one important aspect: the huge convention and conference business… The key is to replace the Javits Center. There’s been talk over the years of expanding it, but that won’t solve the affordability problem. Fortunately, the perfect undeveloped location for a new convention center exists at Sunnyside Yards, the more than 160-acre rail yard that carves a nasty scar through the heart of Queens.” http://nyti.ms/1ya2kHE

TAXI MEDALLION MATH — Times’ Josh Barro: “The Greater New York Taxi Association, a trade group for the city’s taxi medallion owners, is calling for an independent investigation of reports published by the city’s Taxi and Limousine Commission that said average prices for taxi medallions were steady when they were actually falling.” http://goo.gl/0mIz6k

THE HOME TEAMS — Capital’s Howard Megdal: Heat 86, Knicks 79: Carmelo Anthony returned from back spasms to score 31 points, but Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh did just enough to hold off the Knicks late.

–Bulls 102, Nets 84: A third quarter run by the Bulls put them ahead by 15, and the Nets didn’t really challenge after that. The Nets have lost seven of nine.

–Jaguars 25, Giants 24: The Jaguars rallied from a 21-0 deficit for their biggest comeback ever, to improve to 2-10 this season. This is what it’s come to.

–The day ahead: The Jets host the Dolphins. The Rangers face the Lightning at MSG. Fordham, absent star recruit Jon Severe (now on a leave of absence), play Siena at Rose Hill Gym.

#UpstateAmerica: Bills fans—including Jim Kelly—are rallying around Darryl Talley. http://on.rocne.ws/1vESSbR

CHOCOLATE BREAK — “Sweet Trip: 4 Chocolate Factories Offering Tours and Classes,” by Grub Street’s Mary Jane Weedman: “Chocolate, unlike sausage, is one of those things that devotees will happily watch being made and even aspire to make themselves. These new plants and workshops are throwing their doors open to the public for tours, classes, and, presumably, robust impulse-purchase sales. Li-Lac Chocolates 68 35th St., nr. Third Ave., Sunset Park … Cacao Market by MarieBelle 67 Guernsey St., nr. Nassau Ave., Greenpoint … Raaka Chocolate 64 Seabring St., nr. Van Brunt St., Red Hook … Voilà Chocolat

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