Free Republic

San Jose residents are being asked to keep an eye out for people setting illegal fish traps in local waterways after city workers and South Bay Clean Creeks Coalition volunteers recently broke up several found in the Guadalupe River. The traps were discovered about two weeks ago under the Julian Street bridge and farther south near Virginia and Willow streets. The fish traps are built out of large items like river rock, which block the stream so fish become penned into a shallow pool of water away from their migratory path. That makes it easy for poachers to nab the...

Deception and illusion that Veterans could have started the fire A front-page story in yesterday’s edition is about the recent Bel-Air fire that destroyed multi-million-dollar mansions, and a homeless encampment purportedly nearby that is accused of starting it. (“A Parable of Inequality in Bel-Air”...) Since the purported homeless encampment apparently vanished in the fire, the Times went across the 405 Freeway and took a photo of a homeless Veteran encampment outside the VA’s Eisenhower gate alongside San Vicente Boulevard adjacent to Brentwood. This gives the deception and illusion that Veterans could have started the fire.

A robot patrolling a street in San Francisco to ward off homeless people has been removed after complaints from locals, who also knocked it over and smeared it with feces. The Knightscope K5 security robot was deployed by the San Francisco branch of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) to deter homeless people from sleeping and loitering near its building.

Turns out the Skirball fire that destroyed over 400 acres and damaged dozens of homes in Bel-Air last week was not caused by whiteness as we were told. Quite the reverse: it was caused by people living like Third Worlders in a homeless camp. The encampment was nestled in a canyon several hundred feet from Sepulveda Boulevard and the 405 Freeway, hidden from passing cars. For several years, it had been home to an unknown number of people, officials said. Apparently, a cooking fire got out of control. The camp — one of scores of makeshift communities that have grown...

In San Francisco, autonomous crime-fighting robots that are used to patrol parking lots, sports arenas, and tech company campuses are now being deployed to keep away homeless people. The San Francisco Business Times reported last week that the San Francisco SPCA, an animal advocacy and pet adoption group, put a security robot to work outside its facilities in the gentrifying Mission neighborhood. The robot's presence is meant to deter homeless people from setting up camps along the sidewalks. Last week, the City of San Francisco ordered the SF SPCA to keep its robot off the streets or be fined...

As the House and Senate negotiate tax reform, the conversation focuses on two influential groups: the middle class and corporations. But amid the frenzy over itemization, individual and family deductions, and the corporate tax rate, one group of vulnerable Americans has been left out of the conversation: the homeless. According to newly released HUD data, the U.S. has just witnessed the first rise in homelessness in seven years. As the numbers of homeless Americans reach new highs, over 89,500 in New York and 32,000 in Florida on a given night, Congress could be on the verge of exploding this crisis...

SAN DIEGO (AP) — San Diego on Friday opened the first of three industrial-sized tents to house the homeless as part of the city's efforts to contain a hepatitis A outbreak stemming from the deplorable conditions people were living in on the streets. About 20 people made their way to a bunk bed Friday in the tent that will house 350 single men and women. Two other giant tents will open later this month — one for families and one for veterans. The tents will house a total of 700 people. Related Searches San Diego Hepatitis OutbreakSinkhole San DiegoEater San...

Columbia Sportswear may be the next business to flee downtown Portland after a series of frightening encounters with the city's homeless population, including car break-ins, human waste dumped by the office's front door and threats to its employees. In an op-ed piece published earlier this month by The Oregonian, Columbia Sportswear President and CEO Tim Boyle said he is concerned he made a mistake when he opened a headquarters for the company’s Sorel footwear brand downtown, calling the situation "outrageous and unacceptable." "In fact, I am so concerned about the safety of our employees at the Sorel headquarters that we...

Homeless campers living west of Durango have created a governing council and adopted 19 rules for themselves to give order and security to an otherwise disorderly community. Some of the self-imposed rules include: Hail other campsites before approaching. Keep noise levels to a minimum after dusk. Donate two hours per week to keep the camp clean. And use designated locations for bathroom needs, which includes burying waste. “When it (Camp Council) was first created, I didn’t expect it to work,” said Tom Bates, one of three councilors on Camp Council. “We had chaos up there prior to this. Any community...

Title only: LA Times

The list of things you can’t talk about over Thanksgiving dinner is growing by the day - everything from Donald Trump’s tweets to  Donald Trump’s policies. The idea is to avoid anything that might trigger the social justice warriors in your family. I’ve got a better idea, how about all you social justice warriors out there who want to save the world stay home and think about how you can do that. Better yet, try actually making the world a better place and head down to the soup kitchen to help out.  Oh wait – they don’t want you either....

OAKLAND — For everyone who has ever passed one of this city’s sprawling homeless encampments and wondered how to help, Mayor Libby Schaaf has an answer — open your door to someone in need of shelter. The Oakland mayor is asking residents to offer their spare rooms, Airbnb units and rental properties to the city’s homeless, a radical proposition that has prompted both cautious optimism and scathing criticism from her constituents. In her annual “State of the City” speech, Schaaf challenged Oakland residents to “give up that Airbnb. Fix up that back unit,” and offer the space to people in...

In her powerful new book, “Nomadland,” award-winning journalist Jessica Bruder reveals the dark, depressing and sometimes physically painful life of a tribe of men and women in their 50s and 60s who are — as the subtitle says — “surviving America in the twenty-first century.” Not quite homeless, they are “houseless,” living in secondhand RVs, trailers and vans and driving from one location to another to pick up seasonal low-wage jobs, if they can get them, with little or no benefits. The “workamper” jobs range from helping harvest sugar beets to flipping burgers at baseball spring training games to Amazon’s...

During her annual State of the City address on Thursday, Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf called on her constituents to open their doors and residences to the city’s homeless, as union workers picketed against her for her administration’s handling of the city’s rampant housing problem. “Give up that Airbnb. Fix up that back unit,” Schaff said, encouraging property owners to lease apartments at more affordable rates to recently homeless individuals, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. “In Oakland, we don’t step over the homeless we step toward them,” Schaaf said. The city’s uptick in vagrants is tied to a general gentrification...

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) - Church officials in West Virginia's largest city say violent incidents have led them to temporarily stop offering a weekly meal service to homeless individuals. The Charleston Gazette-Mail reported Sunday that officials of Christ Church United Methodist say there has been more than one incident in October during Breaking Bread, a dinner program the church hosts each Wednesday.

A Los Gatos homeowner is worried people living in a downtown homeless encampment will start a wildfire, killing themselves, his family, tenants and neighbors. John Whitney says he’s been trying for years to get authorities to clean up the encampment, to no avail. The encampment runs alongside Highway 17 behind the post office. Ironically, there’s a blackboard at the encampment’s entrance that reads, “Stay Alive.” “This is a fire hazard right here,” Whitney said, pointing to a discarded pizza box, and sleeping and garbage bags. “The amount of dumping is unbelievable. Last year, Caltrans came out but nothing happened.” Caltrans...

Anaheim has declared a state of emergency over the ballooning homeless community along the Santa Ana River, clearing the way for the removal of hundreds of people living in a landscape dotted with trash and used hypodermic needles and lacking toilet facilities. The move underscores the growing homeless crisis facing Orange County and on ongoing struggles of communities to deal with the problem. Earlier this summer, Anaheim removed bus benches across the street from Disneyland following complaints about the homeless population sleeping on them around the amusement park. A survey last year placed the number of those without shelter in...

A 26-year-old woman has been charged with attempted murder after allegedly shooting a homeless man who asked her to move her Porsche so he could sleep. ... The shooting occurred in the 900 block of 19th Avenue South near Music Row on Aug. 26, the Midtown Hills Police Precinct stated in a news release. Investigators said 54-year-old Gerald Melton was trying to sleep on the sidewalk about 3 a.m. when exhaust fumes and loud music coming from a Porsche SUV began to disturb him. ... After the two yelled at each other, Melton told police he walked back to where...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A woman has been charged with attempted murder in the shooting of a homeless man in Nashville last month.

Miami's estimated 1,100 homeless people a stark choice: Come willingly to a storm shelter, or be held against their will for a mental health evaluation.