Chuck Eaton, Georgia Public Service Commissioner,
moderating a panel of Georgia’s Policy Makers at
Southern Solar Summit
said
Solar is great for diversity, independence, research, and business.He said that until recently he had discounted solar, but now he had seen it. Continue reading
We already knew that, but JPI has quantified it: Continue readingYesterday, the Justice Policy Institute (JPI) released a report chronicling the political strategies of private prison companies “working to make money through harsh policies and longer sentences.” The report’s authors note that while the total number of people in prison increased less than 16 percent, the number of people held in private federal and state facilities increased by 120 and 33 percent, correspondingly. Government spending on corrections has soared since 1997 by 72 percent, up to $74 billion in 2007. And the private prison industry has raked in tremendous profits. Last year the two largest private prison companies — Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) and GEO Group — made over $2.9 billion in revenue.
JPI claims the private industry hasn’t merely responded to the nation’s incarceration woes, it has actively sought to create the market conditions (ie. more prisoners) necessary to expand its business.
Patrick Davis wrote, Rural Republicans in Georgia can’t have it both ways on immigration reform
That last link is to Parolees to replace migrants? Gov. Deal says put probationers in fields by David Rodock in the VDT 15 June 2011, which included: Continue readingWith the law passed and ready for implementation, many rural farmers—especially in Central and South Georgia—are taking notice to the exodus of migrant workers and immigrants which has left some farmers without workers to pick crops.
Many of these same farmers that are hurting economically and losing crops in these rural counties had voted Republican for years.
Valdosta’s Ellis Black who represents parts of Lowndes County as a state representative helped to pass Gov. Nathan Deal’s conservative and punitive agenda and consequently it has contributed to drive an increasing number of migrant workers out of the Peach State.
| What: | Quitman 10 Support Rally |
| When: | 2 PM Saturday 18 June 2011 |
| Where: | Walker Street Auditorium, Quitman, Georgia |
George explains:
Once again, no comments or interviews from the Quitman Ten on the alleged voter fraud charges against them. Moreover, nothing has been published about the Quitman Ten receiving support and recognition from Brooks County Community Leaders, Georgia State Senators, Representatives, President of GABEO, Chairman of the Peoples Agenda, and other Civil and Human Rights Leaders and organizations.
I will note that I took the video in that blog entry for LAKE,
and LAKE published it in January,
so it’s not quite nothing has been published, but
George has a point about newspapers and TV.
Here’s
the video:
More from George (I’ve added a few LAKE blog links to his links to his blog): Continue reading
|
So if you live in Lake Park and you want to run, you need to qualify by noon today. Mayor Sandlin predicted there would be multiple qualifiers. We’ll see how it goes.Due to the resignation of Council Member Spradley
Mayor Walter K. Sandlin, Council Member Ronald Carter, Council Member Eric Schindler, City Attorney Rob Plumb, Mayor Pro-Tem Council Member Paul Mulkey
a Special Election will be held
September 20, 2011 to fill the vacancy.
Qualifying period will open on June 1st and end
12 noon on June 3rd.
There is a qualifying fee of $54.00.
We have no wards. All positions are “at large”.
For more information please contact us at
229.559.7470
Incidentally, the entire council is up for election in November, including whoever wins the special election will have to run again in November if they want to stay on the council.
In that and other business, it is quite interesting watching this city council interact rather informally with citizens, yet taking some care Continue reading
Recently, there has been more interest and observation of some
parts of local government by active citizens,
on topics ranging from
the
animal shelter
to
biomass
to
education
to
farmers markets
to
fast food vs. neighborhoods
to
private prisons
to
the Quitman 10
to
solar power
to
T-SPLOST,
all in aid of
transparency.
Engaging elected and
appointed officials in
dialog about the concerns and best interests
of the community
has been challenging.
Yet we can see the sun a little clearer through the smoke.
Ensuring that people who will engage in dialog and seek the benefit of the entire community are appointed to boards lies in the hands of the elected officials. Electing people who engage in dialog and seek the benefit of the Continue reading
Videos of all the redistricting meetings are going up
on legis.ga.gov
shortly after they are taken.
The one from
Savannah
is up now.
Those are the videos taken by the reapportionment committee itself. Any videos LAKE takes will go on YouTube as usual.
-jsq
PS: Location of the videos so far owed to RJ Hadley.
If you have concerns about anything that happened, or anything else related to the county government, there’s a regular meeting Tuesday evening.
Videos are interspersed among the agenda items:
Continue reading
LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, MAY 23, 2011, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, MAY 24, 2011, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor
According to the Moultrie Observer,
Redistricting meeting set for Valdosta:
A joint meeting of the House and Senate Legislative and Congressional Reapportionment committees will be held in Valdosta on Tuesday, May 24, from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. in the Brooks Hall Conference Center of Wiregrass Georgia Technical College. The meeting will a public hearing.That’s at the Brooks Hall Conference Center at 4089 Val Tech Road.For more information or for directions, visit the Wiregrass Technical College Web site at www.wiregrass.edu. Parking is free for the meeting.
Here’s some further information on redistricting from Ballotpedia. This is the only redistricting meeting in the current Georgia First Congressional District (GA-01) and I think the only one in the Second Congressional District (GA-02).
That’s the same evening as the next Lowndes County Commission meeting, so LAKE could use some owls to get video at both locations. We can loan cameras. Interested parties please contact information at l-a-k-e.org (yes, the hyphens are part of the address).
-jsq
Continue readingDate: Friday, May 13, 2011, 8:07 PM
All –
I wanted to share the attached council district map changes with all of you. This map shows in the dark lines the existing city council districts. The color area shows the changes.
As you can see my district, which is purple will change some as a result of the census numbers. District 5 is giving up a little on the south border to District 6 and picking up on the eastern middle borders from District 4. The target average was 9084 citizens per district based off of the city wide count of 54,518. District 5 will end up with a little more than that, but within the margin allowed by the census department.
I have enjoyed representing those that will move to district 6,