A weekend topic starting with the Daily Record. "As New Jersey marked International Overdose Awareness Day, officials warned of a new, more potent drug that is quickly becoming widespread and dangerous among those battling substance use disorder. Xylazine, an FDA-approved animal sedative and pain reliever not meant for human consumption, is the 'newest co-murderer' contributing to overdose deaths along with fentanyl, Morris County Prosecutor Robert Carroll said. Dealers lace heroin and other recreational drugs with fentanyl and xylazine, creating a mix that is exponentially more powerful than users anticipate, he said. Most significantly, xylazine, unlike fentanyl, is immune from the effects of naloxone, a medication commonly known by the brand name Narcan that revives a person overdosing on opioids. 'What we've effectively done here is changed our enemy, so to speak,' Carroll said. 'Now we have something that even Narcan can't control.'"

WFTV in Florida. "One Orlando City Council member says there is a better use for the millions of dollars that could go towards fixing up a facility used to provide services to the homeless. The city is considering spending $ 5.1 million to renovate the Christian Service Center which says it needs the improvements to continue its work. Sonjae Arthur has been a Parramore business owner for close to a decade. 'One of my customers got spat on because she refused to give money and she doesn’t come here anymore because of that,' said Arthur."

The Marin Independent Journal in California. "A federal judge has extended a temporary restraining order over a San Rafael ordinance that restricts how much space homeless campers can occupy. The plaintiffs are the inhabitants of a 33-tent camp at Mahon Creek path that they call 'Camp Integrity.' The plaintiffs argue that breaking up large camps exposes the most vulnerable among them to higher health and safety risks. Managers and employees of nearby businesses complained that the campers at Mahon Creek have aggressively harassed them. Christine Miller said out of fear, she doesn't go to her family business, Marin County Roofing. 'My staff has had to clean up after them because they don't clean up after themselves and the city is slow to respond,' she said. 'My staff is picking their dirty needles, garbage, and get exposed to their bodily waste.' Jay Ress, the general manager of East Bay Tire Co., told the City Council in July that some campers have thrown feces and metal objects at the cars of his customers and staff."

"In July, police arrested a camper at Mahon Creek Path on suspicion of attacking a man with a machete and lighting a tent on fire, police said. Officers also arrested a suspected methamphetamine dealer at the camp in June. There have been additional reports of harassment and vandalism of nearby businesses. In the past three weeks, police have made several arrests for crimes such as assaults, including a stabbing on Sunday that involved residents of the camp, said San Rafael police Capt. Roy Leon. The victim believed the suspect had taken his wallet and an argument ensued. A separate small camp at the Falkirk Cultural Center property and Menzies parking lot on Mission Avenue near City Hall was cleared Aug. 1 after a shooting and surge in criminal activity. Police made six arrests at the site."

From KOMO News. "The Washington State Department of Transportation closed a 25-acre homeless encampment in south Seattle Tuesday morning. The cleanup of the Myers Way encampment in the Highland Park neighborhood could take weeks as crews remove more than 60 cars and RVs, tons of debris, all while being on guard against potential booby traps in the camp. 25 acres would fit nearly 19 entire football fields inside. WSDOT estimated the encampment had around 50 people living in it and outreach teams were able to connect around 80% of them with housing prior to the camp being closed."

"People who live around the encampment had been pushing the state to close the camp for months after someone was murdered there this Summer and neighbors reported hearing gunfire nightly. 'You can’t even sleep at night because something is going on across the street, bang bang bang, boom! Women screaming - I mean, do you want to live next to that? That goes on every night, 24 hours a day,' neighbor Travis Macklin told KOMO News."

From Michigan Live. "Ypsilanti police and other officials are asking for grace and patience from the community as they work to address a housing crisis some say has led to an unsafe downtown area. Residents and business owners spoke at a nearly two-hour public comment session during a Ypsilanti City Council meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 5, saying aggressive panhandling, ongoing partying and public defecation has made living and working downtown difficult, particularly around South Washington Street."

"Jen Eastridge, owner of Unicorn Feed & Supply and Stone & Spoon, both on Michigan Avenue in Ypsilanti, said during the meeting she has picked up alleys littered with needles, condoms and liquor bottles and that panhandling and public urination has driven away business. 'We pay huge taxes for public services, yet we don’t see the police downtown unless we call about a crisis,' she said. 'We need to see a regular presence to know that it is not all on us.'"

The Daily Mail. "A Democratic party official who pledged to 'dismantle' the Minneapolis Police Department in 2020 is now calling for tougher crime laws after suffering a violent carjacking outside her Minnesota home. Shivanthi Sathanandan, the Second Vice Chairwoman for the Democrat-Farmer-Labor party, took to Facebook on Wednesday to share the graphic outcome of the gunpoint attack on her driveway and to call for justice. Pictured with blood on her face, she said that she had suffered a broken leg, deep cuts on her head and body, and bruising after four young men carrying guns 'beat me violently down to the ground in front of our kids.'"

"Sathanandan demanded swift consequences, calling to 'get illegal guns off our streets, catch these young people… and hold them in custody and prosecute them. Period.' The post went on to thank 'the incredible Minneapolis 4th Precinct Officers, Mayor Frey, Chief O'Hara, Paramedics, neighbors, friends and DFL family, who all came to our aide during this terrifying experience'. The photo quickly went viral as users pointed back to a 2020 post from Sathanandan's account calling to dismantle the Minneapolis Police Department, writing that 'MPD has systematically failed the Black Community, they have failed ALL OF US… If you are still disagreeing with that BASIC FACT, I'm not sure what to say to you'."

The Chicago Tribune in Illinois. "Mayor Brandon Johnson covered everything from soaring office vacancies and crime to the need to develop job-creating industries Thursday in a spirited and far-reaching address. Johnson is considered one of Chicago’s most progressive mayors ever and has been eyed warily by the business community after a campaign in which offered proposals including a tax hike on hotels, reinstituting a city head tax, tripling the tax on high-end real estate transactions, taxing jet fuel and levying tolls on securities trading."

"Like many large cities, Chicago saw a spike in crime during the pandemic, with 804 homicides in 2021, mostly from gun violence. While homicides declined to 695 last year, theft and carjackings continued to rise, according to data from the Chicago Police Department. The Chicago area also saw the departures of some high-profile corporate headquarters in 2022. Making Chicago safe 'is something I think about every day,' said Johnson, who lives in the Austin neighborhood on the West Side. 'Violence is literally outside my front door.'"

CBS Chicago in Illinois. "CBS 2 has learned the city will spend more than $300 million on migrants from now through the end of the year – including a new plan to house them in tent base camps. The city has already spent $116 million on the migrant matter, while the Chicago Public Schools have spent $1.4 million of their own dollars, and the Chicago Park District $250,000, a source said. Meanwhile, as the city continues their efforts to house migrants, community members are doing their part to help them. 'We have 300 tamales,' said Marcos Morales, a member of the Pilsen Hispanic Seventh-Day Adventist Church. 'We also have a lot of rice, a lot of spaghetti.'"

New York Daily News. "Mayor Adams announced Saturday there would be cuts as high as 15% to all city agencies by next spring — including the police and health departments — in response to the costly migrant crisis, which could further impact the delivery of city services. The mayor made a surprise speech over the weekend telling New Yorkers that the lack of substantial support from the federal and state government regarding the crisis — at a time when COVID aid is drying up — has forced the city to impose austerity cuts. 'We are in the middle of a humanitarian crisis involving asylum seekers, a crisis that will cost our city $12 billion over three fiscal years,' Adams said. 'While our compassion is limitless our resources are not. We already had a homeless population, we already had low-income New Yorkers that were struggling to feed themselves and to stay in their homes.'"

The Center Square. "For several decades, a collection of progressive states, counties and cities have conducted an experiment called sanctuary policies. Based on a preponderance of evidence, especially in the last few years, it is time to declare America’s experiment with sanctuary policies to be a complete failure and seek a better way. The idea of defying federal immigration law and shielding those here illegally from consequences no doubt stroked the egos of intellectuals who see themselves as having superior levels of compassion and charity. Those opposed to the idea were dismissed as captive to the darker human instinct towards 'otherism' and xenophobia."

"As is often the case, however, theory and reality are two very different things. Sanctuary policies in practice have been a disaster, resulting in overcrowding, more crime, maxed out city budgets and unbearable tension in the communities where they are practiced. New York City has become the cautionary tale for this failure. City leaders long thought that, by its sheer size, resources and welcoming spirit, Gotham could absorb the additional illegal alien arrivals who would be drawn to the city’s permissive atmosphere. That all changed in the summer of 2022, when the governors of Texas and Florida sent busloads of aliens to New York. Within weeks the city was on its knees."

Global News in Canada. "Homeless encampments have been multiplying across Ontario since the pandemic. With widespread service restrictions, the existing affordable housing crisis and income loss, matters became exacerbated, spurring the city to drop some $1 million into makeshift shelters at hotels and the floor of the arena at First Ontario Centre downtown. Of 70 known deaths over two years, reported by health and social service workers as well as hospitals, the Hamilton Homeless Mortality Data Project says more than half of those unhoused fell between the ages of 30 and 49. The overwhelming cause of death was by overdose, with about half of the 70 passing to the affliction since June 2021."

"The city's general manager of finance, Mike Zegarac, says that with COVID emergency funding now 'drying up,' and even some that being 'clawed back' by Queen's Park, it would require more dips into reserves ultimately 'depleting them' within three years at the current rate. Over the next three years, Ontario is expected to spend close to $700 million through its Homelessness Prevention Program (HPP), which targets homelessness and adds community and housing support. Since 2021, the province says it has provided over $123 million under various programs to support vulnerable people in Hamilton."

CBC News in Canada. "A store manager in Sydney, N.S., says large numbers of international students from Cape Breton University are flooding her with resumes and heartbreaking stories about their desperate searches for housing and jobs. Tasha Myers, who runs the Hallmark card store at the Mayflower Mall near CBU, says it's difficult having to tell students there are no job openings on a daily basis.Myers said she gets up to a dozen resumes a day when it's slow and up to 20 or more on a busier day and it's been that way since the store opened a year ago. 'I had a student yesterday come in telling me that her recruiter just full-out lied to her saying that the opportunities are crazy and that housing is the best and there's so many jobs and then she got here and it was the complete opposite,' said Myers."

"Franchise owner Liam Vance owns other Hallmark franchises in addition to the one in Sydney and said his stores in Truro, Halifax and Saint John, N.B., don't have the same problem. He said CBU has obviously struggled with the rapid increase in its student population and should do better. But he also said the federal government has to step in to help the students. 'Ultimately, it comes down to government action, because they're the ones that are permitting them to come into the country,' said Vance."

Daily Mail Australia. "A flood of temporary visa holders into Australia has placed further strain on the nation's chronic housing shortage. The number of people entering on student, working holiday and Covid work visas has sky-rocketed by an additional 730,000 since Anthony Albanese was voted in as Prime Minister in May 2022. This means the total of such visa holders jumped from round 1.8 million to approximately 2.5 million by the end of last financial year. The figure equates to bringing in the combined population of the Gold Coast and Tweed Heads area of south east Queensland and northern NSW. The bulk of the extra visas went to 418,000 students and graduates."

"Meanwhile Australia's rental vacancy rate recorded its steepest ever drop over the space of a year to be sitting 54 per cent below where it was at the start of the Covid pandemic, REA’s PropTrack Market ­Insight Report revealed. In August AMP chief economist Shane Oliver said immigration-driven population growth was actually making Australians less productive, because it was not properly supported by public and other investment."

"'Very strong population growth with an inadequate infrastructure and housing supply response has led to urban congestion and poor housing affordability which contribute to poor productivity growth,' he said. He also argued that high population growth meant investors were buying homes for capital gain, to take advantage of a housing shortage, instead of ploughing their money into new business ventures or shares. 'Increased speculative activity around housing diverts resources from more productive uses,' he said."