The latest update (20 February 2012) is online for the
community calendar
produced by
Jane F. Osborn
who organizes the
Valdosta Civic Roundtable.
She wrote:
…the calendar is not produced for civic roundtable, it is just a project of mine for the many counties that lost a source of information when 2-1-1 was discontinued.LAKE will attempt to remember to update new ones in this web page as Miss Jane sends them. We hope you, dear readers, will remind us if we don’t.
-jsq
Zaid Jilani wrote for Republic Report 15 February 2012, Minnesota Governor Calls Out Corporate Front Group ALEC, Vetoes Its Bills
It has grown so powerful that it now has nearly one-third of all state legislators under its umbrella.Here’s video: Continue readingALEC has worked with legislators to pass bills ranging from issues as diverse as stripping unionized workers of their rights to making it harder for low-income citizens to vote. It is usually able to do so because it hands its corporate-written template bills to state legislators and gets them passed without any public scrutiny as to the origin of this legislation.
Late last week, Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton (D)
decided that corporate front groups like ALEC should not be able to write his state’s laws. Dayton decided to veto a series of “tort reform” bills that would’ve restricted the rights of citizens to sue to hold big corporations responsible. In a press conference discussing his vetoes, Dayton condemned ALEC for providing the templates for the bills. “I’ve found that Minnesotans do not want their laws written by the lobbyists of big corporations,” said Dayton.
PURPOSE AND DIRECTION OF TODAYS PROGRAM: To keep citizens informed;Here’s video:help eliminate the deaf; dumb; and blind process in our beloved community. For too long local radio has failed to have open disucssion about the real issues that too often are not published and excluded from our history.
This is an honest attempt to keep alive what others may not believe to be of value to us; or coming generations that will look for a real and true history of what took place today. So I hope this will be carried on by others in our beloved community for the good of all human beings.
Welcome back, George!
-jsq
PS: Other people may call him crazy; I call him dedicated.
Did you know?
Federal mandates require that 25% of Air Force facility energy use comes from renewable energy sources by 2025 and Moody will help….It’s a shame we have to go to Binghamton and Ithaca, New York, to get the equipment. You’d think we could build solar thermal hot water heaters right here in sunny south Georgia, and install them, too. The architect, however, was local. Congratulations to Moody AFB and Slone Associates for installing solar hot water!
The installer, Intelligent Green Solutions (IGS) of Ithaca, New York,
has the details:
The installation is a large solar thermal system that includes:The completion target date was end of December.
- 20 TitanPowerPlus 2.0 Flat Plate Solar Collectors
- 512 Gallon Solar Hot Water Storage Tanks
SunMaxx Solar press release of 29 Jan 2012, SunMaxx Solar and Intelligent Green Solutions Install Solar Thermal System at Moody Air Force Base in Valdosta, Georgia, Continue reading
Several times they’ve moved a regular meeting to a different date, and often they’ve held special called meetings, but I don’t recall them outright cancelling a meeting.Notice: The Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority Regular Meeting scheduled Tuesday, February 21, 2012 has been CANCELED due to a scheduling conflict and lack of a quorum. The rescheduled date and time of the meeting to be determined.
And so many of us were going to go see them….
You can still sign the petition against CCA’s private prison.
-jsq
David Royse wrote for the News Service of Florida yesterday, Scott Will Explore Ways to Privatize Prisons without Law Change,
Gov. Rick Scott said Thursday he will explore opportunities to privatize state prisons on his own following the Senate’s defeat of a bill that would have required some prisons be bid out to private companies.
Speaking to reporters Thursday morning after a public event on insurance fraud, Scott acknowledged that initially he didn’t consider privatizing prisons a priority, but was disappointed the Senate voted down a bill that would have done that, and said he’ll explore what many backers of the Senate plan said was a possibility that the governor could order privatization unilaterally.
The irony:
Scott pointed out that there are fewer inmates than anticipated and that it didn’t make sense to spend state dollars on half-full prisons.Maybe nobody told Gov. Scott CCA wants guaranteed 90% occupancy.
More irony: Continue reading
The message of Valdosta-Lowndes County Parks and Recreation AuthorityContinue readingExecutive Director George Page was clear at tonight’s Master Planning Steering Committee workshop when he told the group “I’m not a fan of the status quo.” If you’ve followed the work of Mr. Page and the staff of the VLPRA, especially their work on securing the upcoming baseball tournament which is projected to have an economic impact of about $250,000, then you know that this is no exaggeration.
The meeting tonight was the first of a series of meetings that are geared toward getting public involvement in the upcoming Parks and Recreation Comprehensive Master Plan. The VLPRA has contracted with
the Nashville-based architectural and land planning group Lose and Associates, to conduct the comprehensive plan. Lose is pronounced more like the geologic term defining windborne silt (loess), and less like how we identify the team that scores fewer goals in a soccer match (lose). The meeting tonight, which was led by two Lose planners, was focused on evaluating current VLPRA programs and facilities and offering suggestions for future improvements.
This evening’s group of about 15 participants consisted of
If you attended any of the CUEE meetings the format was exactly theContinue readingsame. We were divided into groups. Each person wrote down their answers to a list of questions they handed out. Then each group was told to combine their answers into a group list which was written on poster size dry erase sheets. Then the sheets were displayed on the wall in front of all the groups & the answers were discussed. I had to leave when they were discussing the answers to the first question which was: List the 5 things you think are most important to improve the parks & recreation program. I am assuming the group lists were combined into a master list for that question. They were doing each question all the way through before going to the next question. I brought the list of questions with me intending to share what they were but I left my notebook in the car trunk of the person I was riding with & forgot to get it when we left the Law Enforcement Appreciation Dinner. I will not retrieve the notebook until Tuesday, but if you want to know the questions I will send them to you then. If you want more info in the meantime Karen Noll was there also. She came late & probably stayed the entire time. We had interesting discussions at our group table & I’m sure a lot of interesting subjects were covered. However,
Received yesterday on Stop Georgia Power from stopping you from affording solar. -jsq
And if GA Power having control over the grid here isn’t bad enough, now the General Assembly is considering letting DNR ask for donations from the corporations they issue permits to, and then enforce.She linked to this post on her blog, HB 887 gives corporate foxes the key to the hen house,-Katherine Helms Cummings
I have a hard time believing that the DNR is going to hold a bake sale to protect the rivers and streams of our state. Some House leaders, including Judy Manning (R-Marietta) and Debbie Buckner (D-Junction City) have said they are uneasy with HB 887. Rightly so.OK, so who thinks it’s a good idea? Continue reading
Georgia law says you can’t do that.Say you own a coffee shop. You’d like to install solar panels on your roof but can’t afford them. A company offers to install and lease you the equipment, provided you sign a long-term contract. The company will sell you energy at a cheaper rate than you already pay Georgia Power. No longer would you be so susceptible to spikes in electricity prices. Nor would your money be helping to support burning coal or nuclear power.
That’s why SB 401 is in the Georgia Senate. It’s
a common-sense measure that would put people to work, create a new sector in Georgia’s economy, and promote clean energy. In addition, the legislation would help shield people from increases in electricity rates, which, according to the U.S. Department of Energy, have risen nearly 50 percent over the last seven years.Why would Georgia Power not like that? Continue reading