Free Republic

COMPTON, Calif. -- More and more stores across the Southland and the country are taking stricter measures to fight a growing epidemic of shoplifting. At least one Rite Aid store in Compton appears to be taking security to the extreme. The store on Long Beach Boulevard installed locked glass cases on every aisle, meaning a majority of items for sale apparently require the assistance of a store employee. It's a sign of a growing and disturbing trend that's been seen in social media videos and news reports of shoplifters taking items from retailers without significant resistance by employees or security....

Physical attacks on women have surged a shocking 41% over the last four years ... Through Oct. 1 this year, 2,830 women have been the victims of felony assault, excluding domestic violence, compared to 2,006 just four years ago. The attacks, ranging from random subway shoves to vicious beatings, have jumped 5% from the same period last year, when 2,699 women were felony assault victims. “It seemed like a while ago, it was old Asian people, and now it’s young women,” one 27-year-old told The Post, three weeks after a stranger sucker-punched her in the face at the West 4th...

Mayor Eric Adams had no idea how rotten the Big Apple was at its core before taking office — telling The Post he was “shocked” to learn just “how bad this place is.” During an exclusive interview conducted as Adams rode the subways overnight for more than three hours last week, the former NYPD transit cop said he was astounded by the botched “deployment of resources” that has New Yorkers on edge amid a nearly 40 percent surge in major crimes this year. “Let me tell you something: When I started looking into this, I was shocked at how bad...

Power out for 170,000+ in California as extreme heat stokes wildfires. Outages expected to grow. REPORT: “.. PG&E cus­tomers should ex­pect a dou­bling of sus­tained power out­ages in 15 years and a 4-fold in­crease in 30 years, ac­cord­ing to analy­sis by Na­tional Elec­tric Test­ing, Re­search and Ap­plications Cen­ter, Geor­gia Tech Read more...

VACAVILLE, Calif. — How many things can go wrong at once? On Wednesday millions of California residents were smothered by smoke-filled skies as dozens of wildfires raged out of control. They braced for triple-digit temperatures, the sixth day of a punishing heat wave that included a recent reading of 130 degrees in Death Valley. They braced for possible power outages because the state’s grid is overloaded, the latest sign of an energy crisis. And they continued to fight a virus that is killing 130 Californians a day. Even for a state accustomed to disaster, August has been a terrible month....

Forty-nine people were shot over the course of 72 hours in NYC between Thursday and Saturday, compared to eight shooting victims over the same time period last year, according to preliminary NYPD statistics sent to Gothamist Sunday morning. Eight people were murdered—at least six by gun violence—compared to three homicides last year over those three days. Those numbers do not yet reflect shootings on Sunday. But about 2 a.m. Sunday, a 47-year-old was fatally shot in the head near Parkside and Ocean Avenues in Brooklyn at the entrance of Prospect Park. The man was the ninth person in NYC murdered...