Jerome Tucker
mentioned that it was
Willie Paulk who enticed MAGE SOLAR
to Dublin and Laurens County, Georgia.
She’s
president of the Dublin Laurens County Chamber of Commerce.
Here’s
a writeup in GeorgiaTrend
about what’s going on there.
Hm, instead of taking out $15 million in bonds to be paid back by the taxpayers, the community around Dublin joined together and made available just as much money: Continue reading
Jerome Tucker explained that there are jobs to be developed
in south Georgia for solar power, in
distribution, installation, and related industry.
First Jerome explained how he heard of MAGE SOLAR, and it’s pronounced Mah gay. He toured their facility and saw that they manufacture the panels in Dublin, Georgia, and this was impressive to him, who still has his kerosene lamp. He was especially impressed with MAGE SOLAR’s academy, which can train everybody from mom and pop operations to mega installers.
And with this industry there’s opportunity for engineers, there’s opportunity for electricians, there’s opportunity for plumbers, truck drivers, across the board.
MAGE SOLAR at Lowndes High School, 29 March 2011.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
-jsq
You’ve heard Corey Hull of the Valdosta-Lowndes County Metropolitan Planning Organization (VLMPO) give a brief version of T-SPLOST at VLCIA. Here he talks at greater length at the Lowndes County Democratic Party:
So who are these regional commissions? Continue readingThe Georgia legislature passed what was then known as House bill 277 called Transportation Investment Act of 2010…. It created or proposed a one percent sales tax for transportation purposes throughout the state of Georgia. It creates twelve special transportation taxing districts that are based on the boundaries of the regional commissions. And that is where the connection with the regional commission stops. They are not the same body….
“We are like tenant farmers chopping down the fence around our house for fuel when we should be using Nature’s inexhaustible sources of energy — sun, wind and tide. … I’d put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power! I hope we don’t have to wait until oil and coal run out before we tackle that.”
— Thomas Alva Edison talking to Henry Ford and Harvey Firestone in 1931
-jsq
Presumably that would be the “Project Critical Path time-line is attached” that wasn’t actually attached to documents returned for an open records request of 17 February 2011. Hm, since VLCIA did supply such a document to the VDT, presumably it is now a VLCIA document subject to open records request, even though it was not what VLCIA told VDT it was.The reporter who conducted the interview with Industrial Authority Project Manager Allen Ricketts has been subsequently repeatedly contacted by Ricketts for what he deems “false reporting.” According to Ricketts, the timeline was never official and was only something the Industrial Authority threw together to appease the Times when given an official Open Records Request. Ricketts is apparently unaware that legally he cannot produce a document that does not exist to comply with said request. If he knowingly did so, as he now claims, that is a clear violation of the Open Records Act.
Back to the VDT editorial: Continue reading
Yesterday I heard that the commissioning ceremony for the Wiregrass Solar
plant was cancelled by VLCIA due to impending weather.
Perhaps you didn’t know it was scheduled; I didn’t.
Back at the March VLCIA board meeting,
they said they would discuss that “later”.
So I called Col. Ricketts this morning to see if it was back on for today, considering that the weather had already passed by. He said no, they had cancelled it, not wanting to chance having people in a tent in bad weather. He also said the press release had gone out yesterday.
I asked him to let me know when it was rescheduled, reminding him that LAKE likes to take videos of VLCIA events, and we like the Wiregrass Solar plant, so it would be a bit of free publicity for them. He said he would, and he expected it to be probably within the next couple of weeks. I asked him to send LAKE a copy of the new press release when it was sent out. He said he would.
We’ll be happy to post such a press release.
-jsq
Frank Serpico in his blog, 27 March 2007:
Serpico quoted in the website for the film he recommends:DAMAGE DONE
THE DRUG WAR ODYSSEY
THE FILM
THE COPS
THE FILM MAKERSAfter 30 years of drug war, illegal narcotics are decreasing in price, increasing in purity and demand continues to surge. The heroes of this film are veterans of the drug war and they urge us to consider ending drug prohibition. They have had a complete revolution in their thinking. Now they are working to end the War on Drugs. Find out what happened to change their minds.
“I think Prohibition is causing the public to lose their respect because they’re enforcing laws that basically aren’t hurting anybody. I think we have to stop the hypocrisy.”That website’s summary of the film: Continue reading
I have seen no verification that the private prisons intend to make money from inmate labor & the recent article claiming prison labor would displace more citizen jobs if illegals were jailed as a positive for amnesty was ridiculous. All anti-amnesty directives I have seen call for the illegals being deported back to their country of origin ASAP. How does this equate to available prison labor for private prisons?OK, let’s go look at the anti-immigrant law passed by Arizona.
It’s littered with “federal custody” and
“imprisoned not more than thirty days” and
“imprisoned not more than six months” and
“A person who is sentenced pursuant to this section is not eligible
for suspension or commutation of sentence or release on any basis until
the sentence imposed is served.”
and
“class 1 misdemeanor”
and
“class 3 felony”
and
“class 4 felony”
and
“twenty days in jail” and
“thirty days in jail”.
Arizona Revised Statutes Section 11-1051
D. Notwithstanding any other law, a law enforcement agency may securely transport an alien who the agency has received verification is unlawfully present in the united states and who is in the agency’s custody to a federal facility in this state or to any other point of transfer into federal custody that is outside the jurisdiction of the law enforcement agency. a law enforcement agency shall obtain judicial authorization before securely transporting an alien who is unlawfully present in the United States to a point of transfer that is outside of this state.
13-1509. Trespassing by illegal aliens; assessment; exception; classification Continue reading
Stewart Brand of Whole Earth Catalog fame is a long-time environmentalist
who in recent years decided nuclear was necessary.
(He also decided
no-till was necessary, which was enough
to convince me he’s gone barmy.)
Here
at TED
he debates Mark Z. Jacobson,
whose new study says we can
power the world with wind, water, and sun.
I think Jacobson should reconsider including building more hydroelectric dams,
but his study does demonstrate that we don’t need nuclear or biomass.
But watch it and see what you think:
Here is my critique of Brand’s arguments: Continue reading
Natasha Fast, co-president of
WACE, Wiregrass Activists for Clean Energy,
explains why she is protesting
outside the most recent
Valdosta City Council meeting.
Natasha Fast of WACE, Wiregrass Activists for Clean Energy outside the
Regular meeting of the Valdosta City Council, 24 March 2011,
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
She also says she supports solar as a truly clean green renewable energy source: Continue reading