Tag Archives: Government

All U.S. east coast electricity could come from offshore wind 3 seasons out of 4

Why build nukes when wind can provide 3/4 of our power? While Southern Company claims to be “a company that is engaged in offering solutions, not just rhetoric”, yet does nothing about wind off the Georgia coast, researchers in far California have demonstrated we can get 3/4 of all needed east coast electricity from offshore wind.

Bjorn Carey wrote for Stanford Report 14 September 2012, Offshore wind energy could power entire U.S. East Coast, Stanford scientists say

A new analysis by Stanford researchers reveals that there is enough offshore wind along the U.S. East Coast to meet the electricity demands of at least one-third of the country.

The scientists paid special attention to the Maine-to-Virginia corridor; the historical lack of strong hurricanes in the region makes it a favorable site for offshore wind turbines. They found that turbines placed there could satisfy the peak-time power needs of these states for three seasons of the year (summer is the exception).

“We knew there was a lot of wind out there, but this is the first actual quantification of the total resource and the time of day that the resource peaks,” said Mark Z. Jacobson, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford who directed the research. “This provides practical information to wind farm developers about the best areas to place turbines.”

Mark Z. Jacobson already worked out a framework for powering the entire world from wind, water, and sun alone. The late John Blackburn, Ph.D., showed us how to power North Carolina with sun, wind, and hydro, plus less natural gas than NC uses now. Now Jacobson is working out the details of implementation.

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PS: Owed to Seth Gunning.

What other states have had charter school referendums?

Thanks to Jim Galloway, we learned that charter school proponents say “No other state has had a positive outcome for a charter-positive ballot initiative.” OK, what other states have had any sort of charter school referendums? Such ballot initiatives have at least been tried in Massachusetts, Michigan, and Washington.

BallotPedia records some state charter school referendums.

Massachusetts

In Massachusetts, charter school proponents couldn’t even get enough signatures to put a pro-charter school referendum on the ballot this year.

The measure would have removed limits on number of charter schools, their funding, and enrollment. Other changes would have been made in laws that governed charter schools, including requiring approval of qualified applications for charter schools to be in districts where there was low student performance.

Michigan

In Michigan, a referendum to ban for-profit charter schools may be on the ballot in November:

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Yes VDT, but —Save Strickland Mill

On facebook, Save Strickland Mill just posted a critique of certain parts of the VDT’s writeup on the Remerton City Council’s Strickland Mill vote. -jsq

Valdosta Daily Times, September 12, 2012
Mill to come down: Buildings to be razed, historic tower to remain
by Quinten Plummer

VALDOSTA — The iconic smoke stack will still tower over the City of Remerton, according to local officials, but the majority of the historic Remerton Mill complex will be demolished and converted into a park after the City Council gave the mill’s owners the go-ahead for demolition during Monday evening’s regular session.

This is not a factual statement: the city council’s motion is as follows: Councilman Bill Wetherington made the following motion which was unanimously voted in by the council members present that night (note that councilman Sam Flemming was not in attendance)

“I move to approve the certificate of appropriateness 2012-04 for 1853 W. Gordon to be issued and effective as of October 25th 2012 for a period of one year from that date with the condition that the cotton mill smokestack remains intact and shall continue to remain intact in accordance with title 18 of the code of City of Remerton.”

The mill’s ownership group simply wants relief from its obligations to the property, and Remerton Mayor Cornelius Holsendolph said the restoration of the mill is just too large of a project for a city of Remerton’s size.

That is the reason why

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Support for charter school referendum falling?

A recent poll shows markedly lower support Georgia Charter School Polls for the November charter school referendum than polls in March and July, which were already down from January. At this rate, the charter school referendum can lose as badly in November as T-SPLOST did in July. Maybe people are catching on that diverting local taxes to control by a state appointed body is a bad idea, especially this time when the money would end up going to private profit.

Georgia Family Council wrote, presumably in January, Poll Shows Support for Charter School Changes,

On January 24, the Georgia Charter School Association and My School, My Choice Georgia held a news conference on Capitol Hill to release the results of a new study regarding public school choice….

The new numbers showed that 52 percent of voters are dissatisfied with the public system as it currently stands. A whopping 72 percent feel that a group other than local school boards should be able to authorize charter schools, the basis for HB 881. Moreover, Georgia voters tend to support a “money follows the child” approach to charter school funding.

So there’s a baseline for January for what proponents of charter schools claimed: 72% support for something very like the charter school referendum that ended up on the November ballot.

Or not. That writeup includes a link to georgiaschoolchoice.com, but that domain is no longer registered. This is probably it over on the snazzy new gacharters.org website. The gacharters.org writeup doesn’t mention 72%, and does say:

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Charter school preamble biased like T-SPLOST?

T-SPLOST proponents are up to their old tricks again, starting with the preamble to the charter school referendum. And Bert “Little Goose” Brantley, formerly of Lowndes County, defends that wording.

Paul Crawley wrote for 11alive.com September 12 2012, Is Charter Schools Amendment wording biased?

Here we go again, apparently another ballot issue with questions about whether it’s worded fairly.

First, it was the July 31st transportation sales tax issue, known as T-SPLOST, which Georgia voters rejected overwhelmingly.

Opponents howled when they found out the ballot preamble wording promised to “create jobs” and “relieve traffic congestion”.

Now, opponents of a November ballot question are also crying foul.

They’re upset over the preamble wording for the Charter School Commission Amendment.

It reads, “Provides for improving student achievement and parental involvement through more public charter school options.”

How can the preamble say that?

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“No other state has had a positive outcome for a charter-positive ballot initiative” —former T-SPLOST proponents now pushing charter schools

The same people who pushed the failed T-SPLOST tax referendum on the July primary ballot are now pushing the charter school referendum on the November general election ballot. Four of their leaders are the same specific individuals, including one from right here in Lowndes County. They’re pushing something they admit has failed in every other state. Let’s not be the first to fall for it.

According to the Georgia Charter Schools Association (GCSA),

No other state has had a positive outcome for a charter-positive ballot initiative

So even one of the major proponents of charter schools admits no other state’s voters have thought they were a good idea. Their slides lay out a pair of statewide major money campaigns to push the referendum anyway.

We know about this because these slides fell into the hands of the AJC, and Jim Galloway published them today, saying:

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KLVB 2012 Executive Director’s Report —Aaron Strickland @ LCC 2012-09-10

Here is the Keep Lowndes-Valdosta Beautiful (KLVB) 2012 Executive Director’s Report, provided to LAKE by KLVB Executive Director Aaron Strickland.

This is the report he discussed at the 10 September 2012 Lowndes County Commission Work Session.

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Resigning from Planning Commission; suggest appoint Jody Hall —John Page @ LCC 2012-09-11

John Page, recent winner of the Republican Primary for Lowndes County Commission District 5, spoke as a citizen wishing to be heard in yesterday’s Commission meeting. He said he was resigning from his appointed post on the Planning Commission effective 31 December 2012 because he sees it as a conflict with his upcoming elected position as a County Commissioner, plus he said he does not have time to do both. (Since there is no Democratic or other candidate for District 5, Page will be the Commissioner.) Page recommended his primary runoff opponent Jody Hall as his replacement on the Planning Commission.

Update 2012-09-20: Fixed video embedding.
Here’s the video:

Resigning from Planning Commission; suggest appoint Jody Hall —John Page
Regular Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE), Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 11 September 2012.

I commend John Page for both of his decisions, and for announcing all this in a public meeting in front of a video camera. Maybe as a County Commissioner he will support transparency. And I commend Jody Hall for being willing to serve on the Planning Commission. Maybe as a Planning Commissioner he will support transparency.

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Video Playlist @ LCC 2012-09-10

Yesterday morning’s County Commission Work Session started on time! In addition to the open records and open meetings items, it included a report from KLVB, two rezonings, typo fixes and date changes in the ULDC, a vanity road name change, an alcohol license and an alcohol ordinance change, a USGS river gauge, surplus vehicles, purchase of a new fire truck, and more! They vote on all this tonight at their Regular Session, 5:30 PM. Here’s the agenda.

5.a. Unsurprisingly, the County Manager suggested the County Clerk be appointed the Open Records Officer now required by state law. 5.b. They also have a resolution before them about review and approval of minutes of executive sessions, but of course they don’t allow we the taxpayers to see that before they vote on it.

They considered adopting subdivision infrastructure for 5.c. Glen Laurel and 5.d. Crestwood.

6. Videos of the KLVB report and of applicant Emily Macheski-Preston are in a separate blog post.

7. Public Hearings:

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Lowndes County continuing funding for USGS HWY 122 Stream Gauge —Ashley Tye @ LCC 2012-09-10

Lowndes County Emergency Management Director Ashley Tye reported to the Lowndes County Commission at their Work Session yesterday morning that after the floods of 2009, Lowndes County negotiated with USGS to put a stream level monitor on the Withlacoochee Little River at the GA 122 bridge, and the county typically renews that funding once a year. We shall see whether they approve that this evening.

Here's the video:

Lowndes County continuing funding for USGS HWY 122 Stream Gauge —Ashley Tye
Work Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE), Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 10 September 2012.

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