A weekend topic starting with Denver 7 in Colorado. "Community advocates on Thursday shared mixed feelings about Denver Mayor Mike Johnston's plan for nearly a dozen potential sites across the metro area to house 1,000 homeless by the end of the year. Lisa Calderón, who ran for mayor in 2023 and now serves as a representative for the Latino United Neighborhood Association (LUNA), said we need to carefully consider where these sites are placed. 'I think there is a concern we are moving [people] from broken down tents to glorified boxes. There's this myth that just because you're poor you should all be huddled together. In actuality, when you integrate people into the neighborhoods is when we see better outcomes,' said Calderón."

The Arizona Republic. "Phoenix-area advocacy groups issued a statement opposing the arrest of an advocate for people experiencing homelessness during Wednesday's clearout of a block of 'The Zone,' Phoenix's largest homeless encampment. Sophia Dancel of Unsheltered Phoenix was arrested during the city's clearing operation of Ninth Avenue south of Jackson Street. Police say she was booked under preliminary charges for trespassing and resisting arrest. Dancel was released later in the afternoon that same day."

"In a joint statement, 11 local organizations called for those charges to be dropped. The groups that issued the statement were Mass Liberation AZ, Black Phoenix Organizing Collective, Fund for Empowerment, BLMPhxMetro, Poder in Action, Fuerte Arts Movement, Cihuapactli Collective, Unemployed Workers United, Housing Initiative Project AZ, Chispa and White People Against White Supremacy. Coverage of housing insecurity on azcentral.com and in The Arizona Republic is supported by a grant from the Arizona Community Foundation."

KXAN in Texas. "The Homeless Student Assistance Fund, once known as the Public School Energy Assistance Fund, increased in the number of donations and donors after a vital name change made earlier this year. The money in the fund, which is made up of donations from Austinites through their utility bill, will go to eight school districts in the Austin area to help students who do not have a permanent home and are facing obstacles. In 2013, the City of Austin Utilities started the Public School Energy Assistance Fund. It was added along with the existing Customer Assistance Program and the newly named Parks and Libraries Fund, which used to be called the Tree Planting Program Fund. In February of this year, the fund was changed to the homeless student assistance program and saw immediate success in its first month. The number of donations and donors increased by 50 percent."

Fox 13 in Florida. "The SunRunner, the bus that shuttles riders between downtown St. Pete and St. Pete Beach, has been free since it launched last October, but the days of getting a free ride are coming to en end. Beginning Oct. 1 riders will have to start paying $2.25, one month before there was supposed to be a fare. 'They [shoppers] were being accosted,' Pinellas Sheriff Bob Gualtieri explained. 'They were being hit up. They were being harassed. We started getting complaints about people sleeping on the beach. We're getting complaints from families that this is not OK. As you're walking down the beach access and there are showers there where you can rinse off your feet when you come off the sand, and there are people there naked, urinating and defecating when they're trying to take their kids off the beach. That's not OK. So, it was a huge quality of life and public safety issue.'"

ABC Action News in Florida. "It’s an issue that happens more than some may think—students facing homelessness while trying to balance school. However, a new prevention program aims to help be the solution to the problem. Pathways to Hope is funded by the Children’s Board of Hillsborough County and run by Metropolitan Ministries in partnership with Hillsborough County Schools and the Hispanic Services Council."

The Spokeman Review in Washington. "A legal challenge to an anti-homeless camping initiative set to appear on Spokane's November ballot was thrown out Wednesday by a Spokane County Superior Court judge. Judge Tony Hazel denied a request for injunctive relief from Spokane Low Income Housing Consortium Executive Director Ben Stuckart and Jewels Helping Hands, the service provider led by Julie Garcia that once managed Camp Hope. The plaintiffs had filed suit earlier this month against Brian Hansen, the lawyer leading an effort to ban camping within 1,000 feet of schools, day cares, parks and playgrounds."

"The lawsuit had also argued Hansen's proposal would violate federal court rulings if it became law and likely would be overturned. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in 2018 ruled that cities can't ban camping on all public property unless they can offer campers a bed. The court found that criminalizing people for being homeless was cruel and unusual punishment, and violated the Eighth Amendment. Hazel acknowledged that decision, Martin v. Boise, could create enforcement issues for the initiative if passed. But Hazel added that it would be 'improper for the court' to rule on such matters prior to the election."

"Mayor Nadine Woodward's re-election campaign has for weeks demanded Stuckart and Jewels Helping Hands disclose the source of funding for the legal challenge. 'Ben Stuckart and Julie Garcia must step into the sunshine and tell citizens who is bankrolling their lawsuit to block the citizens from voting on the protection of our children,' Woodward wrote in a Aug. 10 campaign press release. Legal fees for the plaintiffs were paid by the Spokane Community Against Racism PAC, Stuckart wrote in a text shortly before Wednesday's hearing. The political action committee's only fundraising this year has been a $10,000 contribution by the Smith-Barbieri Progressive Fund."

National Public Radio. "Needle exchange workers in Western Washington noticed a surprising trend recently: Far fewer people wanted needles. The Public Health – Seattle & King County syringe exchange saw their distribution drop by about half between 2021 and 2022, according to officials. One of the biggest changes has been in the way drugs are used. While the majority of people with opioid use disorder used to inject drugs like heroin, many are now smoking fentanyl and other powerful drugs, like methamphetamine. That means they don’t need needles; they need pipes. At Sound Pathways, outreach worker Joe Dugan said the addition of clean smoking supplies to that organization’s repertoire was a necessary shift. 'We have to adapt, and then be able to be there to engage in that conversation with them,' Dugan said. 'If needles aren't doing it, and more people are smoking, we need to bridge that gap.'"

KOMO in Washington. "Work began Wednesday morning to dismantle and remove the illegal homeless encampment on Mercer Street in Seattle's South Lake Union neighborhood. The encampment was the scene of a huge fire last week that sent a plume of smoke over downtown Seattle. In March, the body of a 66-year-old woman was found in the encampment. Investigators believe the woman was strangled and her body was left in the encampment for up to four days. 'They are causing havoc, they are endangering people’s lives, they are starting fires. They want to be able to do drugs, they want the freedom to be drunk, they want to do whatever they want,'" said Cameron Scott, a manager at the apartments. 'This state gives out things left and right and a lot of people are eligible for them, you just have to be willing to accept them.'"

Fox News on California. "Change may be in the offing in a city that's infamous for its homeless street camping and poop map. San Francisco Mayor London Breed on Wednesday accused the homeless coalition of holding the city 'hostage for decades.' London made those comments while joining a crowd of more than 200 people who had gathered outside the federal courthouse to urge the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to cancel a federal judge’s order banning the city from clearing tent encampments until there are more shelter beds than homeless individuals. 'The homeless coalition has held San Francisco hostage for decades. It is time for their reign to end,' Breed said, noting that the city has spent billions of dollars to help homeless people."

NBC Bay Area in California. "At 8:30 a.m., Jeffrey Kwong of the Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club kicked off the first rally in support of the injunction against the city. 'Mayor Breed needs to do her job. Mayor Breed is failing our city and failing our homeless,' Kwong said. Representatives from the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area, the San Francisco Public Defender's Office, the ACLU of Northern California and a series of political clubs took part in urging the city to not resort to homeless sweeps."

"'This city is being taken advantage of and we are tired of it,' Breed said. 'We are compassionate, we are supportive, we will continue to help people, but this is not the way,' she added."

Daily Mail on California. "Shocking video has emerged of a woman being pistol-whipped and dragged across gravel by two thugs in Democrat-led Oakland as the city grapples with a surging crime wave. The attack happened on Wednesday August 16, 6.15pm on International Boulevard, and left the unidentified woman with severe injuries, police investigating in the East Bay city said. Footage shows the woman being confronted by two men who try to grab several items from her, including her purse, before she's violently struck with the gun. She is then seen falling to the ground before being pulled along by her purse as both men rifle through her pockets. The attackers are both on the run and the woman's condition as of Tuesday is unknown."

"Bruce Vuong, a Vietnamese national who owns an autoshop blocks from where the woman was brutalized, compared the area to his country during its infamous war. Ironically, the neighborhood is already named Little Saigon. 'Oakland has become a warzone,' Vuong, who has owned and operated Quality Tech Automotive Shop on International for 35 years, told ABC's local affiliate. 'I seen crime that I thought when I left Vietnam I wouldn’t see anymore,' he told the station."

From Cal-Matters. "While California has a long, sad history of poorly thought-out laws often passed for reasons of ideology, there is no way state legislators can pretend after passage that they weren’t warned about the current SB 553, the brainchild of Silicon Valley state Sen. Dave Cortese, a Democrat. His measure, which had a committee hearing just three days after a flash mob of 30 or more men and women pulled a snatch-and-grab robbery of a Nordstrom store in the Westfield Topanga Mall in the Canoga Park section of Los Angeles, passed the Senate on a 29-8 vote as a worker safety measure."

"It aims to prohibit employers from requiring workers, even security personnel, to confront active suspected shoplifters. This, of course, raised the question of why any store would hire security folks if they can’t be expected to confront thieves they’ve caught in the act. Why also have security cameras making videos in stores? Why not just give everything away?"

"Cortese says his bill aims to protect retail employees from violence by relieving them of any responsibility to confront thieves, even if that’s the job they were hired for. 'With growing awareness of workplace violence,' he said, 'California needs smarter guidelines to keep workers safe…' He notes all employers would be required to train every worker on how to react to active shoplifting. 'Let’s take every step to prevent another workplace assault or shooting,' he added."

The New York Post. "Welcome to the new New York. The Big Apple’s spiraling drug crisis has reached a new low, with depravity across the city so commonplace, a glass-eyed junkie can stand in the middle of a Midtown sidewalk on a weekday morning for five long minutes — with a needle jutting out of his scab-covered arm. The horrific example played out Wednesday around 11 a.m. on West 37th Street, where the man stood motionless with a needle jabbed into his vein, as passersby so numb to it all blithely maneuvered around him."

"Even junkies such as Abraham Hwang, 32, can clearly see how grim the drug crisis has become in New York City, which he said is 'at the climax' of the epidemic. 'I thought Long Island was bad,' said Hwang — who recently moved to the Big Apple with the hope of getting clean. 'My addiction definitely got worse here,' he said, plunging a needle into his neck to get his fix in front of a vacant storefront in the middle of West 36th Street. On Wednesday, junkies later were spotted across the street from where the man with the needle in his arm stood, in front of a health center run by the nonprofit Housing Works, which provides clean syringes to addicts as part of its controversial 'harm reduction' services."

From Fox News. "Hundreds of New Yorkers protested NYC's plan to turn a former school into a migrant shelter as the city continues to battle an overflow of asylum seekers with limited resources. Parents took to the streets outside Staten Island's St. John Villa Academy to rally against the move, citing concerns surrounding public safety, since it would ultimately position the site near multiple schools in the area. A large banner over the protest site read 'NO F---ING WAY!'"

The Boston Globe in Massachusetts. "A new plan by the Wu administration to remove homeless people from the streets in the Mass. and Cass area by opening a 'safe sleeping space' nearby is being met with stiff opposition from South End residents who fear such a move would push the chaos of the open air illicit drug market into their neighborhood. Encampments continue to pop up around Mass. and Cass, with ramshackle shelters offering a reprieve from the elements for homeless people while providing a space concealed from law enforcement for opioid and sex trades."

"Multiple people wondered aloud: Why couldn’t the city find another spot to host the 30 individuals? 'This is ridiculous,' said state Representative John Moran, his voice rising. 'I’ve had it. We’re not putting a fourth shelter in the South End.' David Stone added: 'This is going to be a disaster for the South End neighborhood.' 'We are tired of Band-Aids,” said George Stergios, another resident. 'This is another Band-Aid.'"

The Canadian Press. "Crystal Plume sits in the shade of a tree near a busy intersection in downtown Sudbury and carefully injects fentanyl into a vein on the back of her hand before licking the speck of blood left behind. The 36-year-old who regularly panhandles in the northern Ontario city says her substance use disorder has worsened in recent years and she's lost many friends to opioid overdoses. 'Before there used to be the drunks, the winos, but you don't see those anymore,' says Plume. 'Everyone is using drugs now. It's the fastest and easiest way to numb your pain. I was only smoking at first, now I smash it.'"

The Coeur d'Alene Press. "[SARCASM LOCK ON] Reclaim Idaho has a brilliant plan to deal with Idaho’s drug, crime, and homelessness problems while making housing more affordable for everyone. Remember that Reclaim brought us Medicaid Expansion that they promised would cost $350 million but it performed three times better and now costs about a billion dollars a year. Yippee!"

"Reclaim’s plan is elegantly simple: officially create the Uniparty by outlawing political parties, implement a Jungle Primary and use Ranked Choice Voting. Our intellectual betters at Reclaim know that using our current arcane system where political parties nominate candidates to run for office and are elected using one man one vote produces results progressives find unacceptable; they lose. They also know that everywhere this plan has been implemented progressive Democrats are quickly elected, turning cities and states from red to a fabulous shade of blue. After all, progressive Democrats are the best and smartest; seriously, just ask them."

"How will this fix our drug, crime and homelessness problem? These are only problems because troglodyte conservatives think they are. If we just say they don’t exist then that becomes the new reality and poof, problem solved. Sure, the things formerly known as crimes will increase by a tiny fraction, maybe three to eight times, but since they are no longer crimes the crime statistics will drop and the local media will tell you what to believe. Besides what better way to start your day then with the bracing scent of human feces when stepping over a comatose fentanyl addict as you sip your non-fat soy latte through your mask while walking to work because you can’t afford gas. You don’t even have to close your eyes to imagine you are in Seattle or San Francisco."

"Once they have defined crime as no longer a problem, that tiny minority of conservative voters (only 58%) will pack up and go, probably to Florida, and so will the tourists, leaving lots of homes on the market and emptying hotels. Houses will finally be affordable and the hotels can house all the immigrants to our new sanctuary state. We will all be global citizens of a world without borders."

"The big advantage to this system is that it’s absolutely accurate, fair and honest. We know this because the results are the dominion of the big computer and cannot be audited so you can’t prove election fraud. Individual counties cannot be separately tallied because which of your four votes gets counted depends on how everybody else in the state votes so all that can happen is to re-run all the ballots through the big computer again and get exactly the same results…perfection."

"We know from the 2020 election that even though there is corruption at nearly every level of government, elections are the one realm that is perfectly accurate everywhere. You can rest assured that our elections are fair and honest because if anyone protests or even says otherwise they will be charged with election interference or racketeering, arrested and thrown in jail. Nobody is above the law."

"[SARCASM LOCK OFF] Reclaim Idaho is circulating petitions to put an initiative (a new law) on the ballot that removes party primaries and implements a Ranked Choice Voting scheme. If you sign the petition your name and personal information will become part of a progressive Democrat database for future use. Reclaim claims to be a grassroots organization but during the Medicaid expansion effort, out of state Soros funded PACs spent nearly $500,000 hiring paid signature gatherers. You can expect the same this time. Don’t let Boise turn into San Francisco. If approached to sign the petition, decline to sign."