Free Republic

An abandoned tower looms 18-stories into the sky. Zombie-like bodies with blank stares shake and stumble about aimlessly as a corpse lies on the cold, blood-stained pavement. Dangerous criminals wielding weapons indiscriminately shoot firearms and swing knives and machetes. Deadly potions are passed around, and sharp needles poke up from the ground. Armed guards patrol the premises as surveillance cameras watch every move. This morbid scene isn’t the backdrop of a Halloween haunted house. It’s a real life scary situation outside of the Speaker Nancy Pelosi Federal Building in San Francisco. The conditions are so frightening, federal employees have been...

Used needles and other drug paraphernalia were found littered on a baby’s changing table at a public park in Sacramento — sparking furor among residents over the city’s growing homeless encampment. Amy Gardner, a local community advocate, says Stanford Park has grown dangerous to the point where residents have to clean the park’s three public bathrooms themselves to keep needles away from children. “To think a little kid who might not know could pick up that needle and stab themselves inadvertently, that’s very frightening,” Gardner told CBS 13 about the latest incident Monday

[Video 7:38] Human Feces, Other Biohazards on San Diego Sidewalks Cost City Nearly $1 Million Every Year NBC 7’s Alexis Rivas takes a look at the issues behind filth on public streets, and the price tag for cleaning it up. NBC Universal, Inc. Taxpayers in San Diego spend nearly $1 million each year sanitizing sidewalks from biohazards, including needles, personal hygiene waste and human feces. It’s a problem that is not only gross, it's also a major public-health threat some say the city isn’t doing enough to fix. “Maybe this is really gross,” said Sherman Heights resident Essence McConnell, “but...

Across France, more than 300 people have reported being pricked out of the blue with needles at nightclubs or concerts in recent months. Doctors and multiple prosecutors are on the case, but no one knows who’s doing it or why, and whether the victims have been injected with drugs — or indeed any substance at all. Club owners and police are trying to raise awareness, and a rapper even interrupted his recent show to warn concert-goers about the risk of surprise needle attacks. It’s not just France: Britain’s government is studying a spate of “needle spiking” there, and police in...

There is a saying among some farmers in the Carolina Sandhills: “A man would have to be a fool to cut down a longleaf pine.” It’s not because the gangly-limbed tree is particularly beautiful. The pine doesn’t have a magnolia’s flowers or an oak’s shade. He could get $4,000 an acre for clear-cutting his mature longleaf pines for timber. Or, he said, he could earn $1,200 an acre collecting pine needles from the same trees — every year.

A guy traveling through Mexico on vacation lost his wallet and all of his identification. Cutting his trip short, he attempted to make his way home but was stopped by the U.S. Customs Agent at the border. "May I see your identification, please?" asked the agent. "I'm sorry, but I lost my wallet," replied the guy. "Sure buddy, I hear that every day. No ID, no entry," said the agent. "But I can prove I'm an American!" he exclaimed. "I have a picture of Ronald Reagan tattooed on one side of my butt and George Bush on the other." "This...

Today I sent a letter to @MayorAdler about the growing crisis arising from the Austin Homeless policy. Feces & used needles are piling up & residents are endangered. If not fixed by Nov.1, I'll use State authority to protect Texans’ health & safety.#txlege

The Old West desert town of Needles, California, is where the beleaguered Joad family crossed the Colorado River into California in John Steinbeck's classic novel "The Grapes of Wrath" and was a boyhood home to "Peanuts" creator Charles Schulz. These days, Needles is gaining notoriety for another reason. Leaders have declared it a "sanctuary city" for people who believe California's strict gun laws have encroached too much on their constitutional right to keep and bear arms. The City Council in the town of 5,000 that borders Arizona and is a few miles from the southern tip of Nevada last month...

San Francisco's streets are so filthy that at least one infectious disease expert has compared the city to some of the dirtiest slums in the world. The NBC Bay Area Investigative Unit surveyed 153 blocks of the city in February, finding giant mounds of trash and food on the majority of streets. At least 100 discarded needles and more than 300 piles of human feces were also found in downtown San Francisco, according to the report. San Francisco's new mayor, London Breed, had proposed adding nearly $13 million to the city's $65 million street cleaning budget over the next two...

What are the resolutions? One of the measures restricts officers from asking the status of immigrants without first permitting them to not answer the question. The other instructs officers to refrain from arresting people for low-level offenses such as smoking marijuana, possessing drug paraphernalia, petty theft, and other misdemeanors.

In something dubbed "investigative" reporting, NBC would have us know that San Francisco's Tenderloin district is a pigpen, filled to the brim with junkie needles and human excrement. The NBC Bay Area Investigative Unit surveyed 153 blocks of downtown San Francisco in search of trash, needles, and feces.  The investigation revealed trash littered across every block.  Survey also found 41 blocks dotted with needles and 96 blocks sullied with piles of feces. File under non-news, unless you like minutia.  You wonder how much time they invested on the story for being able to tell us that.  As if it were something new. Anyone who has lived for...

The NBC Bay Area Investigative Unit surveyed 153 blocks of downtown San Francisco in search of trash, needles, and feces. The investigation revealed trash littered across every block. The survey also found 41 blocks dotted with needles and 96 blocks sullied with piles of feces. How dirty is San Francisco? An NBC Bay Area Investigation reveals a dangerous mix of drug needles, garbage, and feces throughout downtown San Francisco. The Investigative Unit surveyed 153 blocks of the city – the more than 20-mile stretch includes popular tourist spots like Union Square and major hotel chains. The area – bordered by...

Las Vegas health officials are turning to a familiar piece of equipment – the vending machine – into a first-in-the-nation experiment to automate the dispensing of clean needles for intravenous drug users. The program is a joint effort between the Southern Nevada Health District, the Nevada AIDS Research and Education Society and the private Trac-B Exchange company, which developed the machine. The idea is that making clean needles and other gear available will reduce the spread of bloodborne infections among drug users who would otherwise share the injection rigs.

Army Staff Sergeant Alonzo Lunsford was interviewed on today's Laura Ingraham show. From what I gathered, the killer had a real problem getting his shots in preparation for overseas deployment. Alonzo Lunsford had to talk Hasan into it a few days before the killer shot Lunsford several times - once in the eye. Alonzo Lunsford stated that the Muslim terrorist is afraid of needles.

Cops Find Passed-Out Mom, Kids, Heroin Needles In BathroomWoman Cooking Heroin In Hopple St. Restaurant, Police Say UPDATED: 10:54 am EST November 18, 2011 **SNIP** Officers responding to the Wendy's in the 1900 block of Hopple Street on Wednesday said they found Rebecca Seals passed out in a locked bathroom stall. The prosecutor said she overdosed. Police said Seals' three children, ages 7, 3 and 6 weeks, were in the stall with her, along with used heroin needles on the floor. Seals' attorney said she is employed as a nurse. Her residence is in Fairfield.

I'm all for universal suffrage... but do junkies even vote? Needle Park (1971 - Al Pacino) Reports emanating from the stench that is #OccupyPortland are exposing rampant drug use amongst the protesters and -according to one witness- organizers and even security staff (!), creating a lawless atmosphere in which few feel safe, except for those too high to care. And we're not just talking about a little bit here, as heroin needles can be found littering the park while many of the tents smell like a Jamaican dance hall.The Woodstock atmosphere seems to be weighing heavily on the serious political types...

HARTFORD, Conn., Oct. 24 (UPI) -- A Connecticut lawmaker says he wants to change the traditional Oct. 31 date of Halloween to the last Saturday of the month for safety and other reasons. The change would make the holiday easier for working parents, safer for trick-or-treaters and would boost the economy as well, state Rep. Tim Larson said. "Halloween is [a] fun night for the whole family, but not so much when you have to race home from work, get the kids ready for trick or treating, welcome the neighborhood children, and then try to get everyone to bed for...

<p>ALBUQUERQUE, NEW MEXICO (USA) - Children at a city-run preschool program in Albuquerque, N.M., are being examined by doctors after teachers learned they had pricked themselves with hypodermic needles that were mistakenly donated to their classroom.</p> <p>Officials say two syringes were in a box containing a stethoscope, medical gloves and other medical supplies intended to be used by the kids to play doctor. At least four children were pricked by the needles Tuesday.</p>

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) needled his own party's leaders in congratulating Republicans Rand Paul and Marco Rubio's victory in the Kentucky Senate race. "I want to congratulate Rand Paul on winning a race that the leaders in his own party said he could not win," DeMint said in a statement. "Rand overcame difficult odds because he consistently stood up for conservative principles." Paul is one of the crop of GOP candidates this cycle allied with the Tea Party movement to have beaten an establishment-backed choice in the Republican primary. He beat Secretary of State Trey Grayson in an upset victory...

New insights spur effort to boost treatment's impact significantlyScientists have taken another important step toward understanding just how sticking needles into the body can ease pain. In a paper published online May 30 in Nature Neuroscience, a team at the University of Rochester Medical Center identifies the molecule adenosine as a central player in parlaying some of the effects of acupuncture in the body. Building on that knowledge, scientists were able to triple the beneficial effects of acupuncture in mice by adding a medication approved to treat leukemia in people. The research focuses on adenosine, a natural compound known for...