Tag Archives: Georgia

Georgia Legislators with ALEC Ties —Thomas Kirkpatrick

Received 25 April 2012 on ALEC covers the spectrum in terms of bad policy for people. -jsq

To answer your closing question, which you most likely asked rhetorically, I offer the following list:

Georgia Legislators with ALEC Ties

House of Representatives

  • Rep. Calvin Hill, Jr. (R-21), State Chairman,[19][21] Telecommunications and Information Technology Task Force and International Relations Task Force member[28] and recipient of ALEC’s 2011 State Chair of the Year Award[1]
  • Rep. Don L. Parsons (R-42); Telecommunications and Information Technology Task Force
  • Rep. David S. Casas (R-103); Education Task Force
  • Rep. Doug Collins (R-27); Civil Justice Task Force
  • Rep. Edward H. Lindsey, Jr. (R-54); Civil Justice Task Force
  • Rep. Ed Setzler (R-35); Tax and Fiscal Policy Task Force
  • Rep. Larry E. O’Neal (R-146); Tax and Fiscal Policy Task Force
  • Rep. Sharon Cooper (R-41)[19]; Health and Human Services Task Force
  • Rep. Ben L. Harbin (R-118); International Relations Task Force
  • Rep. Gerald E. Greene (R-149); International Relations Task Force
  • Rep. Josh S. Clark (R-98); International Relations Task Force
  • Rep. Jack Murphy (R-27); Public Safety and Elections Task Force
  • Rep. Mark D. Hamilton (R-23); Public Safety and Elections Task Force
  • Rep. Tom R. Rice (R-51)[19]; Public Safety and Elections Task Force
  • Rep. Donna Sheldon (R-105)[19]; Health and Human Services Task Force
  • Rep. Judy Manning (R-32); Health and Human Services Task Force
  • Rep. Lynn Smith (R-70); Energy, Environment and Agriculture Task Force
  • Rep. Michael Harden (R-28); Energy, Environment and Agriculture Task Force
  • Rep. Charlice Byrd (R-20)[19]; Health and Human Services Task Force
  • Rep. Howard R. Maxwell (R-17); Education Task Force
  • Rep. Jan Jones (R-46); Education Task Force
  • Rep. Charles E. Martin, Jr. (R-47); Commerce, Insurance and Economic Development Task Force
  • Rep. Kip Smith (R-129); Commerce, Insurance and Economic Development Task Force
  • Rep. James W. Mills (R-25)[19]; Commerce, Insurance and Economic Development Task Force
  • Rep. Mike Dudgeon (R-24); Education Task Force
  • Rep. Carl Rogers (R-26); Energy, Environment and Agriculture Task Force
  • Rep. Terry England (R-108); Energy, Environment and Agriculture Task Force
  • Rep. Paulette Rakestraw-Braddock (R-19); International Relations Task Force
  • Rep. Billy S. Horne (R-71); Public Safety and Elections Task Force
  • Rep. Kevin Cooke (R-18); Public Safety and Elections Task Force
  • Rep. Lynne Riley (R-50); Tax and Fiscal Policy Task Force
  • Rep. Buzz Brockway (R-101); Telecommunications and Information Technology Task Force
  • Rep. Barry D. Loudermilk (R-14); Telecommunications and Information Technology Task Force
  • Rep. Amos Amerson (R-9)[19]
  • Rep. John Meadows (R-5)[19]
  • Rep. James Mills (R-25)[19]

Senate

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History should reward all research —George Boston Rhynes

Received yesterday on Georgia Governor Nathan concerning this alleged suicide. -jsq

Ms Barbara Stratton!

Thanks for the info along the lines of

"getting beyond racial bias and discussing issues honestly as friends, respect each other's opinons and not be afraid of reprisal from racial antogonists?"

History should reward all all research and to better understand or overstand the racial bias in America one only need to study what happened in our world before todays religious belief systems infected hate under the name of religion and the elites.

-George Boston Rhynes

Doing what I do because its all about us; collectively as we travel the righteous path in and among those that does not want for their neighbor; the same things that they want for themselves and their own families. It is what it is…

Valdosta confused about water uses

Is there an outdoor water restriction in Valdosta, or isn’t there? The city and the newspaper seem confused about that. Also remember much of Lowndes County gets its water indirectly from Valdosta through the county’s utility system. And that with groundwater levels at all-time lows, we need to be conserving all the time anyway, and thinking about how much and what kind of growth we want.

The City of Valdosta front page says:

In the Spotlight

The City of Valdosta has issued an outdoor water restriction suspending all outdoor water uses for 72-hours, or until further notice. Click here for more.

Yet if you click there, you get this error page:

Error The page you have requested does not exist. Please click here to go back to the home page.

Similarly, there was a VDT article on that subject, but that link also goes nowhere now.

Stephen Abel wrote for WALB yesterday, Temporary water restrictions in effect for Valdosta,

Folks in Valdosta need to think twice about washing their cars, or doing anything else that uses much water, this weekend.

“The city of Valdosta is urging all citizens to immediately cease outdoor irrigation use and all other nonessential uses of water. Now and throughout the weekend,” said Public Information Officer Sementha Mathews.

Severe vibrations in the water pumps is what put them out of commission. “The city’s water treatment plant experienced some mechanical issues this week with two of its raw water well pumps which caused the low levels in water,” said Mathews.

So, did the city fix its pumps? Or is it just confused about what to do?

WCTV posted this update, and seemed to indicate the water restrictions were still in place:

The City of Valdosta sincerely thanks the citizens who responded quickly to its request today to cease all outdoor irrigation and non-essential use of water. Currently, there are no water quality issues in the system, and the water provided by the city is safe for all purposes.

People should be conserving all the time anyway. These suggestions from the city are pretty good for a start:

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Surely a thorough investigation should be conducted to determine the facts. —Barbara Stratton

Received Thursday on Georgia Governor Nathan concerning this alleged suicide. -jsq

With all due respect to Mr. Rhynes, who I consider a friend, no one knows all the facts in this hanging death of an inmate and yes all prisoners should be protected even against themselves for liability and ethical reasons. However, if I had just committed and confessed a murder I personally might prefer suicide, probably because I would think I did not deserve to live if the shooting was not in self defense. Perhaps Mr. Rizer was of that opinion, and if so he should have the freedom to make his own choices. Yes, I know about the Baker Act, know all the correct answers to pass suicide prevention training, and I have the Wingman card with rules for suicide prevention in my wallet. However, I am still a believer in free will including suicide. If there were any circumstances that contributed to his ending of his life against his will then surely a thorough investigation should be conducted to determine the facts.

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Planning Commission agenda for Monday 2012-04-30

Here is the agenda for Monday’s meeting of the Greater Lowndes Planning Commission (GLPC). It was faxed to Gretchen Quarterman of LAKE by GLPC chair Bill Slaughter, at her request.

Does anyone volunteer to transcribe it or OCR it?

There appear to be four cases for final action by Valdosta Mayor and Council on 10 May 2012, and three cases for final action by the Lowndes County Commission on 8 May 2012. GLPC itself is advisory: it votes on recommendations, but it does not decide.

You may wonder why we don’t just point to the official copy of the agenda on the GLPC website. That’s because that website no longer exists (try the above link; you’ll see). It’s still linked to from the City of Valdosta web page for GLPC. More on all that later.

-jsq

Someplace worse than here

Eric Stirgus wrote for the AJC 25 April 2012, PolitiFact: For the record, it’s OK to record council meetings,

Meetings of the Cumming City Council rarely make the evening news, but that changed last week with video of a woman being tossed out of the public gathering.

The woman, Nydia Tisdale, was attempting to film the council’s meeting April 17, but she was told that was not going to happen.

“We don’t allow filming inside of the City Hall here,” Mayor H. Ford Gravitt said, “unless there is a specific reason.”

Hm, what does state law say?

Title 50, Section 14 of the Georgia Open Meetings Act:

“[v]isual, sound, and visual and sound recording during open meetings shall be permitted”

Stirgus notes some irony:

In a strange bit of timing, Tisdale was tossed from the council meeting on the same day Gov. Nathan Deal signed House Bill 397, a revised state law on open meetings and records aimed at providing greater access to documents and public meetings.

The Georgia Attorney General’s Office is investigating, as well it should. The investigation shouldn’t take long, since the entire incident is on video. Meanwhile, the mayor keeps digging:

Gravitt also explained that he had concerns that allowing one camera and tripod in would embolden multiple people to bring in cameras and tripods into a meeting.

Then people might know what’s going on!

Here’s the video:

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This gang movement —Barbara Stratton

Received yesterday on People, citizens with the same rights as everyone else, being intimidated and bullied –Jeff, another in a series of opinion pieces. -jsq

Please note this comment left on the You Tube video by acon4awhile (I guess this means a conservative for a while. Could this be one of the “Blue Republicans” who have jumped parties to try to get Ron Paul nominated because the Democrats like his promise to legalize drugs and other liberal interests? Good possibility since I first linked to the Blue Republican web site from one of his posts.)

“There’s 2/3rds needed to close the debate over the slate, but just 50% + 1 to pass the slate. So where does this lead? Making people wait so long they have to leave and then vote on the slate that already passed?? I’m assuming there can be a motion to amend the slate passed once some of the original majority have to leave, adhering to a filibuster. I guess we could have been more aggressive, but could have been just as successful. We got 14/28 district and 8/22 state for Ron Paul that day.” acon4awhile in reply to acon4awhile (Show the comment) 1 day ago

This comment speaks for itself. The intent was

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Coal ash at Plant Scherer considered harmful for your health

Penny-wise, pound foolish, that's coal and coal ash, we're all discovering.

S. Heather Duncan wrote for the Macon Telegraph 14 April 2012, Plant Scherer ash pond worries neighbors as Georgia Power buys, levels homes,

The home among the trees was supposed to be Mark Goolsby's inheritance. His 78-year-old mother now lives in the large, white, wood farmhouse that his family built before the Civil War.

But Goolsby says he'll never live there now.

That's because across the street and through those trees is one of the largest coal ash ponds in the country. It belongs to Plant Scherer, a coal-fired plant that came to the neighborhood considerably later than the Goolsby family. In the mid-1970s, Goolsby said, “when (Georgia Power) bought 350 acres from my dad, they told him we'd never know they were there.”

Those acres are now part of an unlined pond where Georgia Power deposits about 1,000 pounds of toxic coal ash a day. Neither federal nor Georgia rules require groundwater monitoring around the pond. The federal Toxic Release Inventory shows that in 2010 alone, the pond received ash containing thousands of pounds of heavy metals and radioactive compounds including arsenic, vanadium, and chromium.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that up to 1 in 50 residents nationally who live near ash ponds could get cancer from the arsenic leaking into wells. The EPA also predicts that unlined ash ponds can increase other health risks, such as damage to the liver, kidneys and central nervous system, from contaminants such as lead.

A massive 2008 spill from a Tennessee coal ash pond led to greater scrutiny of the dams that hold these ponds in place, and the EPA promised new rules for storing coal ash. The process led to broader awareness of a more long-term health threat: groundwater contamination from the ponds.

So what's Georgia Power's solution?

Monroe County property records show Georgia Power has spent about $1.1 million buying property near Plant Scherer between 2008 and the end of 2010. But the true number may be higher.

They're going to have to keep doing that until they buy up a lot more property, I predict.

Wouldn't it be cheaper for the future bottom line of Georgia Power and its parent the Southern Company to invest in solar and wind power?

-jsq

Southern Company CEO got 62% raise in 2011

What did Southern Company (SO) do to justify a 62% raise for its CEO last year? Could it be lots of special financing for the proposed new nukes at Plant Vogtle on the Savannah River?

Bill Murphy wrote for citybizlist Atlanta 16 April 2012, The Southern Company CEO Thomas Fanning Got 62% Raise in 2011 – cbl

The Southern Company (NYSE: SO) Chairman, President and CEO Thomas Fanning got a 62 percent jump to $9.75 million last year, according to an SEC filing. He got $6.02 million in 2010.

Fanning, who has led the Atlanta-based energy company since December 2010, received a base annual salary of $1.06 million, shares worth $2.25 million, stock options worth $1.50 million, $2.46 million in non-equity incentive and $2.42 million representing a change in pension value and nonqualified deferred compensation.

-jsq

Moody detonating tomorrow

Peculiar sounds from Moody are pretty common around here, but expect more tomorrow morning.

WALB at some unspecified time, perhaps today, Lowndes Co. 'booms' may be Moody detonations. This Moody PR is dated Tuesday, CONTROLLED DETONATION AT MOODY AFB,

4/24/2012—MOODY AIR FORCE BASE, Ga.— — The 23d Civil Engineer Squadron Explosives Ordnance Disposal team will clear practice ordnance from target areas at Grand Bay Bombing and Gunnery Range from Monday, April 23 thru Thursday, April 26 for target maintenance and regular range repairs. On Friday, April 27 between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m., the EOD team will safely dispose of any ordnance deemed unsafe during the clearance with 2-3 munitions detonations.

The detonations are expected to be heard throughout Valdosta and surrounding areas. They are part of a controlled reduction of unexploded munitions and will be overseen by Moody explosives ordnance specialists.

Grand Bay Bombing and Gunnery Range is used by military aircrew and ground personnel regularly for tactical and ground maneuvers and weapons training.

Should you have any questions pertaining to this topic, please feel free to contact Moody Air Force Base Public Affairs Office at 229-257-3007. Also, visit Moody's official website www.moody.af.mil for more information on Moody and to view current news releases. Information is updated daily on our Facebook page, simply search Moody Air Force Base Official.

-jsq