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OKLAHOMA CITY - A man arrested on suspicion of panhandling in Oklahoma City told officers there was no point in getting a job, because he made "$60,000" last year. According to the police report, an officer spotted Shane Warren Speegle, 45, panhandling near Interstate 40 and Macarthur Boulevard earlier this month. When the officer approached Speegle and told him it was illegal to panhandle without a permit, Speegle asked if he could get a permit that day and implied the $200 fee was not a bad price.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Police said a woman accused of trespassing after panhandling complaints told police that she wasn't panhandling, she was trick-or-treating. According to arrest records, officers were dispatched to a Dairy Mart in the 1300 block of Dixie Highway on Monday on reports of a woman panhandling. Police said that 44-year-old Michelle McGill had been warned preciously that day to stay away from the business, which has signed a trespassing waiver against her. When officers approached McGill, she became irate and began screaming at the officers and ignoring their commands to stop, police said. When asked why she had...

Rick Perry has started calling Iowa Republicans and a former RNC finance chairman is helping to convene a meeting of national donors later this month in Austin to discuss financing a potential 2012 campaign — signs that the Texas governor and his allies are stepping up their exploratory efforts. The developments come as Perry is being watched by a string of donors, early-state voters and elites who say they're disenchanted, and in search of a stronger candidate. Continue Reading Republican activist Joni Scotter told POLITICO she got a surprise phone call this afternoon from Perry, asking about the political landscape...

A new generation of shakedown artists hampers America’s urban revival.___ Barbara Bradley, an editor with the Memphis Commercial Appeal, moved into the River City’s reviving downtown about a year and a half ago, loving its “energy and enthusiasm.” But a horde of invading panhandlers has cooled her enjoyment of city life. Earlier this year, she recalled in a recent column, as she showed some visitors around the neighborhood, “a big panhandler blocked the entrance to our parking area and demanded his toll.” Now a nervous Bradley avoids certain downtown areas, locks her car when fueling up at local gas stations,...

COOS BAY, Ore. (AP) - A police survey says panhandlers outside a Wal-Mart here can make $300 a day. Inside, it takes a clerk a week to make that much. Police say people who have a problem with that needn't look to the law--asking for money is considered protected free speech. "We are not going to target panhandlers," said Coos Bay Police Capt. Rodger Craddock, who spoke a recent gathering of business owners about panhandling. "We can't do that. But if they aren't getting money from us, they aren't going to stand on that corner." He said most panhandlers are...

Frances Miller's early attempts at starting a conversation Wednesday were a little rough. "Hey, sister, are you a descendent of slaves?" she called out to a woman who looked African American, scoring a glare. Miller sat on Northeast 15th Avenue at Broadway -- a volunteer in the National Day of Panhandling for Reparations. She and others across the country asked white passers-by to pay reparations for enslaving black people, and then they gave money to black passers-by. Each got a receipt. Many people walking by reacted with confusion, amusement, annoyance, offense. But for the people who stopped, the results were...

Two of their favourite targets were drivers parked at stoplights and people withdrawing cash from bank machines. But a decade after New York introduced laws to end "aggressive'' panhandling, the streets are still worked by folks seeking free money. Tougher policing under former mayor Rudy Giuliani and efforts to reduce homelessness under current Mayor Michael Bloomberg have yet to eradicate begging in the city. That panhandling persists is leading an increasing number of municipalities to look to New York to see what has worked and what has not with Toronto heading a list of Canadian cities interested in the Big...

There was a thread on FR the other day about people fleeing MA. Someone posted this comment about pan handlers in Boston demanding money. That had never happened to me until yesterday. Folks, this is what liberalism is all about. I ended up staying a bit later at work to finish up some stuff before I headed home. By the time I left, the usual traffic going home was long gone. I also take the T (the public transport here) to go to and from work. The particular bus i take to get to the subway is the Silver line...

Publicity about a pair of ‘affluent’ Ashland panhandlers has cut handouts for some others who say they’re lucky to get enough for food Jenah Dodge panhandled in downtown Ashland Sunday carrying a cardboard sign that declared she was pregnant. A passerby cried out, "I’ve heard that one before." Dodge, who showed her swollen stomach to prove she was pregnant, just shrugged the comment off, saying, "I never lie when I get money. I believe in karma." While the 20-year-old, who says she gets $20 to $30 a day, hasn’t noticed a drop-off in donations, other panhandlers say the publicity about...

Couple fend off public ire following news article ASHLAND — Sudden notoriety and public condemnation have surprised an Ashland couple who make a living as panhandlers and refer to themselves as "affluent beggars." Jason Pancoast and Elizabeth Johnson, who have three children, think the public has been taken aback by their unconventional image of a well-fed, well-dressed family that lives off the streets. "What has happened is that we’re going along with a lifestyle that you couldn’t imagine we should have," said 34-year-old Pancoast. A story in Sunday’s Mail Tribune about the couple, who sometimes make up to $300 a...

The first time 30-year-old Elizabeth Johnson stopped a stranger on the street to ask for money, she was really nervous. She was six months pregnant and desperate, having just spent seven days in jail for shoplifting books... Now Johnson and her 34-year-old partner, Jason Pancoast, who have been together for 14 years, support themselves and their three children, 6-year-old Seth, 3-year-old Adrianne and 3-month-old Synclair, by panhandling...

In an effort to encourage the evaporation of homeless people, the Denver City Council this week imposed tougher rules on street-corner and downtown panhandling, and it outlawed sitting or lying on a public sidewalk. The council believes that the poor are a nuisance to taxpayers, an eyesore to tourists and an impediment to folks conducting business downtown. But getting rid of them is tricky, because they're not the only people exhibiting these behaviors. If a homeless woman were asking for money outside Coors Field, she would be warned by the cops and then arrested if she continued. But what if...

In what appears just short of outright panhandling, a desperate Air America Radio is now begging listeners for cash donations. From a mass email pitch sent Wednesday afternoon, Air America supporters were taken to a webpage where a direct solicitation is made. Resembling an online PBS or NPR pledge drive, the site offered paltry "benefits" for cash "gifts" to the liberal talk network. Is Air America unintentionally a not-for-profit enterprise?

Hurricane refugee arrested in Atlanta for panhandling 06:04 PM CDT on Wednesday, September 7, 2005 Errin Haines / Associated Press ATLANTA -- A man who fled Louisiana with his family to escape Hurricane Katrina was arrested for asking motorists for money in this city where panhandling has been one of the most contentious issues lately. James Scott says he had slept in a car for days with his brother, sister and her two young children when they decided to ask for help last Thursday. Nearly broke and newly stranded, the family drove to Buckhead -- an affluent north Atlanta neighborhood...

A Brampton real estate agent and a surveillance tape spoke up when Toronto Police thought a homeless man was giving them the gears. Loren Campbell says he used his savings from two months of panhandling to buy himself a new red bicycle from Zellers on May 6. But one week ago, police officers confiscated the bike at Eastern and Carlaw Aves. because, Campbell said, they didn't believe him when he told them it was his. "They pepper-sprayed me," Campbell, 40, said. "I told them I had bought the bike from a Zellers store and showed them the receipt." 'I BELIEVED...

Vollertsen's take on the situation The German activist/doctor Norbert Vollertsen has sent round an email to journalists. I am copying an excerpt below without editing or altering it in any way: "-Out of my own experience in the desaster area I know that the nearby hospitals in Sinuiju and Ryongchon are in a desperate situation : there is no medicine, no bandage material, sometimes even no soap and running water - The North Korean doctors cannot give any sophisticated medical assistance for burnt victims - so what they are usually doing, sometimes even without desinfection, narcotics and with a simply...

Saturday, December 20, 2003 4:16PM EST Chicago panhandlers get $99,000 settlement By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS CHICAGO (AP) - A federal judge has approved a $99,000 settlement for people who have been arrested or ticketed for panhandling in Chicago. The city also must pay $375,000 to cover attorneys' fees and the cost of distributing the money, said plaintiffs' lawyer Mark Weinberg, who filed suit over the matter in 2001. Judge Nan R. Nolan approved the settlement Friday. Under its terms, those arrested for panhandling in the past four years can file a claim of $400, while those ticketed can receive $50....

Nashville could save thousands of dollars by providing more affordable housing and tackling the issue of homelessness in a more efficient manner instead of looking into increasing law enforcement, local homeless service providers say. The Homeless Power Project, a non-profit group consisting of homeless and formerly homeless local people, urged Councilman Ludye Wallace to withdraw two ordinances at tonight’s council meeting, which would make it illegal for people to sleep in a car or enter an abandoned motor vehicle to sleep, rest or inhabit. “Prohibiting and charging individuals and families for staying in the only shelter they have will only...

SAN FRANCISCO — The advertisements that showed up on taxis and buses in San Francisco this week are meant to be as provocative as they are purposeful. "Today we rode a cable car, visited Alcatraz and supported a drug habit," reads one featuring a tourist couple at Fisherman's Wharf. Another ad depicting a girl in pigtails reads: "Today I adopted a cat, gave some change and shut down my corner grocer." The attention-grabbing ads sponsored by the Hotel Council of San Francisco are the latest effort to put the squeeze on panhandling. Hoteliers say San Francisco has such a reputation...

Woman in debt asks for cash on Net - and gets some Desperate to pay off $20,000 in bills she racked up buying Prada shoes, Kate Spade purses and regular manicures, a 20-something New Yorker has created a Web site to do what people have done on the streets of the Big Apple for years.She's panhandling.So far, savekaryn.com has brought in $4,100 and counting from people from Pardeeville, Wis., to Panama City, Fla."I'm really excited . . . it's kind of exploded in the last couple of weeks," said Karyn, who created the site in late June after losing her...