Category Archives: Law

Quitman 10+2 third trial set for 19 August 2014

Will three strikes against the prosecution make it give up on trying to convict the Quitman 10+2? Dear prosecutor, we know you read this blog, because you asked potential jurors at Lula Smart’s second trial,

Have you read or talked to or followed a blog called “On the Lake Front?”

So, dear prosecutor, when is enough enough?

Fannie MJ Gibs notes that Quitman Free press posted on facebook yesterday:

The retrial voter fraud case has been set for August 19 at Brooks County Courthouse. See this week’s issue for details.

So far as I know, Quitman Free Press only prints on paper and does not post any articles online, so we have to guess they’re referring to the Quitman 10.

When George Rhynes first posted about the arrests of the Quitman 10 in December 2010, he remarked:

Today’s arrest will surely end up in the courts.

Who would have expected it to be in the courts three times?

In July 2012, the Chair of the Brooks County Board of Elections tried to throw George Boston Rhynes out of her board’s meeting Continue reading →

Children, cancer clusters, citizen water tests @ GA EPD 2014-07-17

Citizens are not convinced EPA, GA-EPD, and GA Dept. of Health are doing enough to find what’s causing widespread sickness and death in Waycross, GA. They asked questions and provided data and anecdotes for more than an hour, demanding more testing and answers, at a meeting about the Seven Out Superfund and other air and water contamination, for example from CSX and AGL.

Georgia Department of Health did offer a new survey, with local help. She also offered to send a local health dept. rep. right out whenever they were alerted a certain site stunk after rains. EPA and GA-EPD admitted there was a problem and said they were trying to fix it, which is a step forward from their preliminary Waycross meeting last November. But not a big enough step or quick enough to satisfy Waycross people who are or who know many who are sick or dying.

They asked very insightful questions, about Continue reading →

Sabal Trail admits no Georgia customers, tree destruction, to VDT

The VDT’s page-long coverage wasn’t just fluff. Spectra’s Andrea Grover admitted they need complete survey data, and Sabal Trail admitted they have no Georgia customers, which means they have no Georgia eminent domain, so every landowner who refuses is indeed putting a crimp into Spectra’s fracked methane pipeline. Plus Grover admitted trees don’t grow back fast, so her promise “It’s restored to what it was before” is pretty hollow. She admitted she knows the Department of Energy’s Office of Fossil Fuels can approve LNG export, but she didn’t admit that it has already done so for three companies right there Spectra’s Sabal Trail pipeline leads on Florida’s Atlantic coast. She still can’t seem to remember Spectra’s long list of safety violations. And she’d already forgotten exactly when her posse of seven rode into Leesburg, GA seeking an eminent domain court order, and rode away without it.

Not a word, though, about Lowndes County Chairman Bill Slaughter’s fourteen points of Continue reading →

EPA hearings in AJC: where’s the second step about natural gas?

AJC on the EPA hearings this week: they didn’t print my proposed second step for natural gas, but they did quote Sierra Club on efficiency.

Kristina Torres wrote for the AJC today, EPA brings ‘clean power’ plan to Atlanta. Will it hurt Georgia? Continue reading →

About 90% of U.S. wiretaps are for drug deals

Yet another reason to end the failed War on Drugs: by far most U.S. wiretaps are for that one reason. Sure, a wiretap helped catch a Mexican drug lord. But without the War on Drugs, there would be no drug lords, just like alcohol bootleggers vanished after Prohibition ended.

Brian Anderson wrote for Motherboard 15 July 2014, Almost 90 Percent of All US Wiretaps Listen for Suspected Drug Deals,

Earlier this year, Continue reading →

Precinct consolidation table and Board of Elections 2014-07-22

Still 9 precincts this year like last year, but one of the polling locations has changed (Pine Grove to Trinity), and the precinct boundaries have changed. Yet again the board of elections plans still more fiddling with precincts this year. There was a Special Called Board of Elections meeting yesterday, and a regular meeting is 9AM Tuesday 22 July 2014.

Let’s update last year’s polling place table. Continue reading →

Lowndes County Sheriff Deputy enforces First Amendment

Lowndes County, an oasis of constitutional rights. Yes, really. Here’s video evidence. This kind of good news could do more to attract businesses here than many things the local powers that be are doing.

Carlos Miller wrote for Photography is Not a Crime 25 June 2014, Georgia Deputy Surprises us all by Respecting Constitution,

It started off with a federal protective service officer pulling up to Jeff Gray in a patrol car for taking pictures from a public sidewalk outside the Moody Air Force Base in Georgia Monday.

Gray told the officer that he was photographing the railroad. But the cop had his doubts and accused him of photographing the entrance to the base — as if it would make any difference within the scopes of the law — and decided to call the local sheriff for backup.

When Gray tried to walk away, the cop informed he was being detained.

When Gray asked for his name and badge number, the cop informed Gray Continue reading →

More precinct consolidation by Board of Elections 2014-07-22

Again like every year, more precinct consolidation. Why?

Public notice via the VDT, The Lowndes County Board of Elections will hold a Special Called Meeting on 8 July 2014,

The Lowndes County Board of Elections will hold a Special Called Meeting on 8 July 2014, at 5:30 p.m., and a regularly scheduled meeting on Tuesday, 22 July 2014 at 9 a.m., to discuss precinct consolidation. The public is invited to attend.

The meeting will be held at the Lowndes County Board of Elections office at 2808 N Oak St., Valdosta, GA 31602.

For more information call Continue reading →

Open meetings needed for county attorney selection?

Could there be any problem with selecting a county attorney without any open process?

CNHI in VDT today, Officials violate Iowa’s open meeting law,

CENTERVILLE, Iowa. — The Appanoose County Board of Supervisors and County Auditor Linda Demry violated the state open meeting law three times in less than three weeks recently when they interviewed candidates for the vacant county attorney’s position, a state agency has determined.

Well, apparently we don’t have that problem here Continue reading →

Videos: DFCS and ZBOA appointments + guns, lawyers, and money @ LCC 2014-06-10

They wouldn’t say what they would do to secure their own building after July 1st when the Georgia guns-everywhere law goes into effect. A split vote for not opposing the Hahira annexation recommended against by the Planning Commission plus unanimous approval of everything else under For Consideration, including declaring some Finance computers surplus. They voted to approve their opaque selection of auditing services and to buy an unnamed firewall replacement among other things for unknown amounts. Maybe somebody should bring that up at the county Budget Hearings.

They reappointed Lonnie Denton to a sixth five-year term on the Lowndes Division of Family and Children Services (he spoke) and Willie Houseal and Gretchen Quarterman each to a third three-year term on the ZBOA (they spoke yesterday morning). Also Public Hearings for well and septic and a special events change to the ULDC. in their Luke Bryan balancing act.

Here’s the agenda, with links to the videos and a few notes. See also the videos of the Work Session of the previous morning and the videos of the 27 May 2014 Planning Commission meeting.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, JUNE 9, 2014, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, JUNE 10, 2014, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street — 2nd Floor
Continue reading →