Documenting These Strange Times Continued

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(In construction for week of August 15)

VIDEO below: People live in drain pipes, miles of them provide improvised housing for former casino workers, travelers. A CBS Crew goes to the Underground Las Vegas:



Moving L.A. Times Series
Gives Glimpse of Life on Skid Row
A program in L.A. houses a handful of chronic homeless, i.e., mentally ill crack addicts, as the homeless population, already in five-figure numbers in L.A., grows yearly. Our county finally provides a home for 50 people who had been on the street for decades. As reported in the L.A. Times:

Part 1
Whatever it takes
Aug. 1, 2010
Identifying and finding the hard-core homeless, then cajoling them to accept housing, proves a daunting challenge.
More »

Part 2
The Baddest of them all
Aug. 3, 2010
Mental illness, addiction and the ingrained survival habits learned on the street can make it hard to keep the homeless housed.
More »

Part 3
From penthouse to gutter
Aug. 5, 2010
Even for a former high-flying businessman whose sharp decline had led to skid row, the housing project is no panacea.
More »

Part 4
No tidy endings
Aug. 7, 2010
The project succeeds with most, and many clients say it's saved their lives. But for others, old patterns are hard to shake.

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They Paved Paradise to Put up a Parking Lot, Hawaii 2010 Style

Homeless families in Honolulu turned "paradise" into a hostile reminder of the bleak poverty our economy is creating. So in Hawaii, as everywhere on this planet run by greed, the attitude is "Send them back where they came from."

In Honolulu in story below they paved over a homeless camp to create a suddenly much needed parking lot. And of course, no new location ever suggested for the homeless families. In this story townspeople criticize homeless families for raising their children that way:

Officials To Move Kakaako Homeless
KITV Honolulu - ‎Aug 13, 2010‎
On Monday Aug. 16, work crews will begin grading and paving several empty lots where many homeless campsites have sprung up. ...

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The World wakes up and realizes floods have wiped out the lives of thousands in Pakistan:

UN chief: Never seen anything like Pakistan floods
The Associated Press - Chris Brummitt
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Sunday he has never seen anything like the flood disaster in Pakistan after surveying the ...

UN calls world to speed up aid for Pak
Hindustan Times
UN secretary general, Ban ki-Moon, has urged the world to speed up aid efforts to Pakistan as the country braces itself for further flooding with the waters ...

Ban seeks speedy aid for flood-hit Pakistan
IBNLive.com
PTI Rezaul H Laskar Islamabad, Aug 15 (PTI) UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today warned that the humanitarian crisis caused by the devastating floods in ...

The world has been sluggish in helping out with this particular natural disaster
Macleans.ca
A day after Canada pledged an extra $33 million (on top of $2 million last month) for Pakistan flood relief, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon made an urgent ...

UN chief speaks of sorrow over of Pakistan flood crisis
BBC News
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has described as "heart-wrenching" the destruction he witnessed on a visit to flood-devastated Pakistan. ...

MORE NEWS:

Minnesota-Missouri-West Virginia
Travelers seeking work end up in tent city - WILLISTON, N.D. - Kneeling next to a green Coleman grill, Minnesota native Kyle Heikkila was busy preparing food in a frying pan as the sun set in a pink sky over Williston's Davidson Park. The tent where he sleeps stood a few feet away.
Heikkila moved to Williston from Grand Rapids, Minn., to find a construction job. He's trying to save up enough money to bring his wife and two children to Williston. "I've been looking for apartments left and right," he said. But ...