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Blue city DA says repeat drug offenders ‘will not respect the law’ under current system

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Blue city DA says repeat drug offenders ‘will not respect the law’ under current system

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Democratic San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins went against many in her own party and said releasing repeat drug offenders before their trial is a big reason why the city sees “repeat offenders in and out of our stores, on our streets, rotating through our courtrooms.”

Jenkins made the comments during a late September community gathering in San Francisco where residents shared their concerns over crime, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. She said that the outcome of releasing repeat drug offenders – who then go on to commit more crime – is something that deeply frustrates those in the local law enforcement community, which includes prosecutors.

“The community, especially in the Tenderloin, find it abhorrent, right? To have to keep dealing with the same problem each and every day,” Jenkins said. “We simply cannot live in a society where we let people tell us over and over again that they will not respect the law.”

She said that while most of the time repeat drug offenders get multiple “chances,” those same drugs continue to take lives.

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BLUE CITY ERUPTS AS 91-TIME FELON TRIES TO DODGE PRISON, WEASEL INTO REHAB AFTER CRASH

San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins criticized the practice of releasing repeat drug offenders. (Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

“That is part of the problem of why we continue to see repeat offenders in and out of our stores, on our streets, rotating through our courtrooms: Because until we take the responsible position, when somebody’s clearly putting people in danger, clearly demonstrating to us that they will not follow the law so that we can figure out a plan for them, that will help them follow the law, we’re in this cycle,” Jenkins said.

On Oct. 1, Jenkins’ office tried to detain eight of 11 people who were charged with felonies relating to drug trafficking, but wasn’t successful.

The public defender’s office in San Francisco said Jenkins’ comments were “fearmongering.”

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SEATTLE MAYOR REJECTS LOCKING UP REPEAT CRIMINALS DURING TENSE DEBATE: ‘MAYBE THEY’RE HUNGRY’

A homeless couple sleeps on a sidewalk in San Francisco on Sept. 2, 2023.  (Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

“Our legal system is based on the presumption of innocence,” the office said. “This fearmongering is another attempt by the district attorney to attack the independence of the judiciary, further pack our already crowded jails, and put her thumb on the scale of these pending cases.”

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Homeless people consume illegal drugs in an encampment along Willow Street in the Tenderloin district of downtown on Thursday, Feb. 24, 2022, in San Francisco.  (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

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Tom Wolf, a former homeless addict from San Francisco, told Fox News Digital that Jenkins is fighting an “uphill battle” when it comes to detaining accused drug traffickers before their trial.

“We have a problem, especially in San Francisco, but really throughout the state of California…because of a law that was passed in 2018 in California called the Mental Health Diversion Act, so many of these repeat offenders basically go into court and say, ‘hey, I’m struggling with my mental health,’” Wolf said.

“Addiction is considered a mental illness. And so they’re continually referred to diversion, which means that they’re let out of custody. And it’s created an untenable situation in cities like San Francisco, where we have 8,000 people on the street. Most of them are addicted to drugs, and most of them have been arrested multiple times, and yet they continue to remain.”

Fox News Digital reached out to Jenkins for comment.

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Montana

Montana Vista residents confront ‘Pecos West’ developers in tense meeting

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Montana Vista residents confront ‘Pecos West’ developers in tense meeting


EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) —  Following widespread neighborhood concerns first reported by KTSM 9 News on Friday, residents of the Montana Vista area came face-to-face with developers of the proposed “Pecos West” transmission line project on Saturday morning, May 9 during a community meeting held at the Montana Vista Community Center.

The multi-million dollar project, spearheaded by power grid developer Grid United, aims to build a massive transmission line connecting the El Paso area to southeastern New Mexico.

While developers tout the project as a crucial link to prevent grid bottlenecks, families living in the path of the proposed line continue to voice mounting frustration and distrust over how the land acquisition is being handled.

On Friday, Grid United released a statement to KTSM insisting their one-on-one land negotiations were conducted out of respect for private property rights. But at Saturday’s community gathering, residents and advocates made it clear they aren’t buying it.

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“People are afraid. I’m not afraid. I’m angry,” said Armando Rodriguez, president of the Union of Montana Vista Landowners, who previously said that developers had been quietly approaching his neighbors for months with varying buyout offers.

Only about a dozen residents and advocates attended the weekend meeting, but they loudly questioned why the company spent the past year approaching landowners individually rather than addressing the community as a whole. 

During the exchange, project officials admitted they have already acquired about 50 percent of the properties in the impacted area. Grid United later clarified to KTSM that the exact number fluctuates frequently, just like the proposed route.

Community organizers argued that the company’s isolated approach leaves residents vulnerable and misinformed.

“When a company like this turns up and says, ‘We’re going to buy your property.’ We must ensure that community members understand that they have the right to say no, or that they have the right to negotiate a higher value,” said Veronica Carbajal, an organizer with the Sembrando Esperanza Coalition.

Carbajal highlighted that the lack of widespread notification and a standardized compensation formula is creating deep unease.

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“They’ve already bought properties, but they have not established notification to every resident that will be impacted, nor have they set up a formula for compensation,” Carbajal said. “So what we can see online through the title transfers is that there is a very wide distinction between how much people are being paid. We don’t want the community to be divided. We also want people to understand that this is voluntary. They do not have to sell if they don’t want to.”

A major point of contention at Saturday’s meeting was the threat of eminent domain. Grid United explained that, as a private company, they do not possess eminent domain authority, insisting that if a landowner refuses to sell, the company will simply find an alternative route.

“At Pecos West we’re very landowner-first approach,” said Alexis Marquez, Pecos West community relations manager. “So if a landowner does not want (the transmission line) on the property, then we would find alternative routes.”

But Rodriguez remains highly skeptical that the developers would simply walk away from targeted plots.

“A corporation as big as you, a multi-million dollar corporation, I find it hard to believe that you would invest money into something this big and just walk away if the family said, ‘No, I don’t want to sell it,’” Rodriguez told officials during the meeting. “The question is: Are you really serious about what you’re saying here? Or is this just another dog and pony show?”

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Project leaders conceded they need to adjust their efforts in engaging and informing the community, promising more meetings to come. However, residents emphasized that trust is currently broken and will only be rebuilt with concrete action.

El Paso County Commissioner Jackie Butler, who helped organize the meeting, said the County has no power to halt the proposed project, but she said she has been communicating with project officials and is trying to connect them with community advocacy organizations. 

“I learned very quickly that the County does not have any authority or permitting process to stop these kinds of projects. And so that’s when I started connecting Pecos West to community members so that they could get directly involved,” Butler said. “My questions to Pecos West have been, Why do you have to come through our community? And even if you have to build through our region, you should go around it.” 

Moving forward, the residents in attendance made it clear they do not intend to sell their property. They are demanding Grid United bring all impacted neighbors to the table as a collective before any more land is purchased.

If the project continues to move forward, construction is not expected to begin until the mid-2030s.

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Nevada

Billionaire Tax Refugees Flock to Ritzy Nevada Lake Town

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Billionaire Tax Refugees Flock to Ritzy Nevada Lake Town


Naveen Rao, a longtime California resident, ascended to a rarefied tier of wealth last year when his startup, Unconventional AI, was valued at $4.5 billion. The company is based in Palo Alto, but with the specter of anew tax on billionaireslooming over the state, Rao began considering other …



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New Mexico

Phoebe Bridgers Debuts New Music at First Show in Three Years

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Phoebe Bridgers Debuts New Music at First Show in Three Years


Phoebe Bridgers played her first solo show in three years on Friday night at The Liberty in Roswell, New Mexico. And if reports are to be believed, the singer’s next album/creative era could truly be out of this world.

The intimate, 13-song set at the 400-capacity venue served as Bridgers’ first solo performance since May 2023 when she opened for Taylor Swift at New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium. According to posts from several attendees, Bridgers described the evening (which strictly forbid all recording devices) as a “test” for her third album (and follow-up to 2020’s excellent Punisher).

In addition to hits like “Motion Sickness” and “Kyoto,” Bridgers debuted three to four new songs. One attendee described the new music, which included one track tentatively-titled “This is Gonna Kill Me,” as “very sad folk.” Harmonica arrangements were also featured prominently across the new music, provided by Christian Lee Hutson, who served as part of Bridgers’ band.

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Reddit user BSismyname said that the “new songs sounded f**king great and also very sad.” They also mentioned that at least one song might be about Bridgers’ much-publicized relationship with Bo Burnham, and another number detailed the death of her father from just a couple years ago. The Burnham song supposedly also made lyrical references to watching movies on the couch (Bridgers is set to make her acting debut this fall in the A24 crime drama Primetime alongside Robert Pattinson).

Musically speaking, though, one of the biggest takeaways was less to do with the song’s respective subject matter and more to do with Bridgers’ performance. The phoebe daily X/Twitter account reported that during the show, Bridgers “experimented with new vocal techniques.” In further describing those same techniques, BSismyname said that Bridgers was “more ‘on her voice,’” and that she sounded “less breathy and with more power.” However, BSismyname said that the largest difference is the overall “atmosphere” facilitated by this new smattering of music.

The word “atmosphere” also carried some extra weight given everything surrounding the show. The venue was decorated with neon-colored alien imagery, including a large banner/mural on the stage. Several pieces of merch also featured similar alien imagery and iconography, and there was at least one song with even more celestial references (“Now I can’t see any stars in the sky/When a dream comes true, a fantasy dies”). And if aliens/space aren’t a theme, why else would Bridgers return at a venue in Roswell, New Mexico?

While there wasn’t any official word on an album title or a release date for this new music, many attendees did leave with one special gift. Those who chose to store their phones in Yondr pouches at the show were gifted a card that could be “combined to make up the artwork for Bridgers’ next release” ( either a single or the album proper). Similar imagery depicted on the cards were also featured on certain pieces of merch.

Part of the reason for Bridgers’ solo “absence” was her work with boygenius (her indie supergroup with Julien Baker and Lucy Dacus). After debuting in 2018, and then undergoing a hiatus, the trio spent much of 2023 touring and promoting The Record. Boygenius, however, then returned to the shelves with their indefinite hiatus in October 2023.

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Below, check out the full setlist and some accompanying photos of the merch and puzzle pieces. In the meantime, keep watching the heavens and stay tuned for more announcements as they come.

Phoebe Bridgers at The Liberty on May 8th Setlist:
Motion Sickness
Garden Song
Kyoto
Moon Song
Funeral
“Chinese Satellite
**Four New Songs**
Scott Street
Graceland Too
I Know The End





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