Apparently VLCIA has few or no tracts of 200 acres or up
out of their 577 acres.
New Executive Director Andrea Schruijer said:
We’re looking at having prospects in,
or existing industries are looking to come here,
we don’t actually look like we have a 577 acre tract that we can market.
It’s actually a lot smaller than that.
So when a company comes in and wants 200 acres
that’s something we have a gap in.
She’s following up on former chairman Jerry Jennett’s request.
Jennett remarked at this meeting
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The most shocking thing I learned from my research on the fate of the
working poor in the recession was the extent to which poverty has indeed
been criminalised in America.
Perhaps the constant suspicions of drug use and theft that I encountered
in low-wage workplaces should have alerted me to the fact that, when
you leave the relative safety of the middle class, you might as well
have given up your citizenship and taken residence in a hostile nation.
Maybe you think you’re safe, because you’re not out on the street. Think again:
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A northeastern Pennsylvania judge was ordered Thursday to spend nearly
three decades in prison for his role in a massive bribery scandal
that prompted the state’s high court to toss thousands of juvenile
convictions and left lasting scars on the children who appeared in his
courtroom and their hapless families.
Former Luzerne County Judge Mark Ciavarella Jr. was sentenced to 28
years in federal prison for taking a $1 million bribe from the builder
of a pair of juvenile detention centers in a case that became known as
“kids for cash.”
Now that’s privatization of justice!
Looks a lot like no justice at all.
Makes you wonder how many other people are in prison who shouldn’t be.
We don’t need a private prison in Lowndes County, Georgia.
Spend that tax money on rehabilitation and education.
-jsq
PS: Had to go to the Guardian for the picture, though.
We’re here to protest the building of the biomass plant.
We think it’s ill-conceived to contaminate our air.
Our children, retirees, all sorts of folks….
Ill-conceived to contaminate our air –Barry Z. Hyatt @ VLCIA 19 April 2011
Biomass protesters,
Regular Meeting, Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA),
Norman Bennett, Tom Call, Roy Copeland, Mary Gooding, Jerry Jennett chairman,
Brad Lofton Executive Director, J. Stephen Gupton attorney, Allan Ricketts Project Manager,
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 19 April 2011.
Videos by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
Video from the NAACP Criminal Justice Summit in Chicago,
thanks to LEAP:
We cannot duck this issue.
I couldn’t duck it any more.
I couldn’t sleep, if I wasn’t out advocating
getting rid of the War on Drugs.
You can’t get to end the War on Drugs
that the whole bureaucratic
institution of the United States of America
has declared, unless you end prohibtion.
They couldn’t do it with alcohol, and you can’t do it with drugs.
—Alice Huffman, President, California NAACP
CHARLESTON, WV – West Virginia’s largest church group has asked
U.S. Sen. Robert Byrd and the rest of the state’s congressional delegation
to oppose funding a private prison for undocumented immigrants in
Pendleton County near the Virginia border.
The Council of Churches is
one of several groups discussing immigration reform ahead of expected
congressional action on the issue. The Council has asked federal
lawmakers’ help in the effort, arguing private prison operations have
been rife with abuse. GSI Professional Corrections is seeking county
commission approval to build the detention center near Sugar Grove to
house 1,000 nonviolent immigrant detainees awaiting possible deportation.
Rev. Dennis Sparks, the Council’s executive director, complains private
prisons operate outside the mainstream legal
“more than 14 million pounds of beef infected with rat feces
processed by inmates were not recalled, in order to avoid drawing
attention to how many products are made by prison labor.”
In case you thought they had gone away,
here’s a video of biomass protesters at the most recent
Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA) meeting.
I suggested they put up some permanent signs.
Protesters @ VLCIA 19 July 2011
Regular Meeting, Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA),
Norman Bennett, Tom Call, Roy Copeland chairman, Mary Gooding, Jerry Jennett,
Andrea Schruijer Executive Director, J. Stephen Gupton attorney, Allan Ricketts Project Manager,
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 19 July 2011.
Videos by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
People keep mentioning the okra gift, and George Rhynes was kind enough
to video it for
his blog, K.V.C.I.,
so here it is.
I suggested to VLCIA as I earlier did
to the Lowndes County Commission
that they hang up a clock so people can see how much more
time they have to speak.
You can see Crawford Powell lurking in the doorway. Joyce Evans was also
in the hallway at this VLCIA meeting.
That’s 2 out of 3 voting Lowndes County
Commissioners.
Maybe VLCIA will get organized enough to find chairs for them next time.
Finally, I gave new executive director Andrew Schruijer a present.
Crawford Powell suggested it was potatoes.
Nope, this time it’s okra!
Picked it myself that morning.
August 16, 2011 Industrial Authority Board Meeting 5:30 pm at the Industrial Authority Conf. Room
