After further testing, I found that this was a server issue and not a minecraft issue. Please close this ticket with my apologies for wasting your time.
Which screenshot are you referring to? In the first one, there is no redstone wire beside the powered block for it to bleed into. This exact system (it is a garbage disposal as seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWJHQmOenNc) was working for me in 1.7.10 and it is since updating to 1.8 that this has become a problem. Was there a change to how the repeater pushes power into the block?
I had this same problem as of 1.7.4 but it was intermittent. I have a number of stone pressure plates attached to double-doors. When I walked on them they would not create a charge to the redstone underneath. I exited the game and reopened it and it was working again. I was playing a closed world in single player.
It is stil an issue I have this same thing happening to me but when people invite me I don’t get those wither