Tag Archives: History

Divesting from oil and gas –Prof. Matthew Richard

Dr. Richard posted this letter to the editor of the

The Spectator,
VSU’s student newspaper,

on SAVE’s facebook page today. I added the links and the images. -jsq



To the Editor:

I would like to address the VSU community with this letter.

VSU Students, faculty, and staff, did you know that many of the
clothes that we admire and purchase in the USA are made in places
like Bangladesh? Indeed, some of our most popular brands of

clothing, including GAP, Old Navy, and Banana Republic originate
there. Perhaps you know that many Bangladeshi clothing manufacturers
employ children as young as 12 years old who earn as little as $32
per month despite working up to 14 hours a day? It’s little wonder
that so many of us can look so stylish—and for relatively
little money.

If you didn’t already know this, does it matter to you now? Are you
concerned that the money you spend supports sweatshops in Bangladesh


and elsewhere, perpetuating the misery of millions of our fellow
human beings? Undoubtedly many of us are concerned, and we
understand that we can make a difference in the world by being more
judicious about where we shop. It’s why we choose to buy groceries
at worker-friendly Publix rather than Continue reading →

Display the kind of responsibility that will benefit our university, community, region, and world –S.A.V.E. to VSU Foundation



A copy of what the VSU Foundation called the “
“well-intentioned request” by

Students Against Violating the Environment (S.A.V.E.).
I added the links and images.
-jsq

October 17, 2013

Dear VSU Foundation and Board of Trustees,

Recent years have brought climate change to the forefront of public
discussion.



A newly released report from the United Nations
indicates with 95% certainty that humans are the primary cause of
the issue. It is our concern that the continuation of our current
practices and our dependence on fossil fuels will only result in
continued environmental degradation and human struggle. Knowing the
impact that anthropogenic climate change has upon our environment,
our health, and our economy, we are asking Valdosta State University
to take a stand and join in the effort to address this issue, as
social responsibility is part and parcel to the role of public
institutions.

As a public institution, Valdosta State University has a
responsibility to shape the debate about climate change through its
voice, and fossil fuel divestment is another medium for that voice.
We are asking that VSU immediately Continue reading →

Proactively make mental health a priority –Joyce Weaver Johnson

Blogged with permission from

Joyce’s facebook page. -jsq

Ok, I rarely do this but after reading something on FB earlier, I
just have to because I feel SO strongly about it! I have been a
social worker for 28 years. Of the 28 years, I have spent almost 15
years in the mental health field. When I started with community
mental health services, I was told the patient was the #1 priority
and QUALITY of service was most important.

Through the years MH
services have been significantly cut with treatment facilities for
youth closing, mental health hospitals closing and HMOs refusing to
pay for more and more outpatient services. Now the #1 priority is
BILLING and treating the paperwork not the patient is most
important.


When treatment facilities and hospitals were closed, we
were told Continue reading →

The SPLOST Debate –Tim Carroll

Received 27 October 2013. -jsq



I have had a number of folks contact me about the upcoming SPLOST
VII referendum and inquiring about a MOST. Trying to talk about all
of this in as few a words as I can is not easy. But to give you
some perspective—the city’s general fund budget is $32M.
$5.9M of the revenue for this fund comes from property taxes. Based
on the city tax digest a mill is worth $1.5M. The experts say
50.2% of the sales tax is paid by out of towners. In the opinion of
some folks, it is closer to 30%. Pick the experts or local guesses
….it still is a significant amount. It clearly is very beneficial
to the citizens of Valdosta and Lowndes County.

By now many have heard about a MOST or Municipal Option Sales Tax.

In the first part of this year—the city of Valdosta was faced
with Continue reading →

Open House at Mildred Hunter on Common Community Vision @ VLMPO 2013-10-23

“We have broadband”, said Bill Slaughter, while other people had
different opinions on that and other topics Wednesday night at
the Mildred Hunter Community Center.



Corey Hull introduced the session and a small but vocal group of citizens
discussed all

the main topic headings.
He noted that there are more than twelve plans already in place
in the various cities and counties in the Valdosta Lowndes Metropolitan
Planning Area.
Yet there were many common themes in those plans, and VLMPO was looking
for other common areas in these meetings and online,
and more specifically strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
If you have a community group of any size, VLMPO can come talk to it.
They’ve been to the Chamber, to Rotary, to churches, etc.
They expect to wrap this process up in December,
with common vision and goals for the next ten or twenty years.


Matt Martin
Local officials present included Matt Martin,

Planning and Zoning Administrator for the City of Valdosta,
and Lowndes County Chairman Bill Slaughter.
Martin didn’t say much, but Bill Slaughter was quite vocal.
I thanked him for speaking up, even though I didn’t agree with everything he said.
He helped clarify current county codes for stormwater retention,
and Martin helped clarify the city’s codes.

As a long-time participant in
local development (he’s CEO of Waller Heating and Air)
Slaughter said when people are buying houses all they look at is Continue reading →

Spectra Energy fined $15 million for PCB spills at 89 pipeline sites –EPA



Those

PHMSA fines weren’t the half of Spectra Energy’s leaks and environmental
violations.
Do we want a record-EPA-fined pipeline company running PCBs through our counties?
Don’t we have enough
PCBs in the ADS landfill in Lowndes County
that’s

in a recharge zone for the aquifer we all drink out of?
Haven’t we already

imported enough hazardous wastes from the Seven Out Superfund site in Waycross?
Maybe the Lowndes County Commission should hear about these things tonight.

L.A. Times, 21 October 1989,

Pipeline Firm to Pay Record EPA Fine, Continue reading →

Spectra pipeline property damage and safety record



Sabal Trail Transmission reps promise us

their pipeline will be safe,
but their parent company Spectra Energy has had
twenty one incidents since 2006 for $8,564,246 in property damage,
according to PHMSA, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline & Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.

That Final Order of 21 December 2012
to Spectra CEO Gregory L. Ebel for $134,500


for violating both federal
regulations and Spectra’s own internal company policies was only a
in the flaming bucket.
Another,
marked in red as

MAT’L/WELD/EQUIP FAILURE,
PUMP/COMPRESSOR-RELATED EQUIPMENT
for

$251,170 in property damage on 13 March 2012 in Marietta, York County, Pennsylvania,
could be related to that

compressor incident Spectra first said was nothing.


Most of the others are about
“internal corrosion” such as

a Spectra employee says they never bothered to check for.

Here’s the current list of incidents from PHMSA, no doubt each with its
own sordid story:

Serious Incidents are denoted in red.

Continue reading →

Nukes have always been a government sponsored boondogle as cover for nuclear weapons production –John Pate



From Eisenhower’s Atoms for Peace and Matsutaro Shoriki founding
the Japanese nuclear industry
to Shinzo Abe’s international nuclear salesmanship,
nuclear power has always been a whitewash for nuclear weapons,
with “peaceful” nukes

a boondoggle for big corps subsidized by taxpayers and ratepayers.
Yet the sun is rising around the world, on Japan as well as on the U.S.

U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower kicked it off with his

“Atoms for Peace”
speech at the UN, 8 December 1953,



The Atomic Energy Agency could be made responsible for the
impounding, storage, and protection of the contributed fissionable
and other materials. The ingenuity of our scientists will provide
special safe conditions under which such a bank of fissionable
material can be made essentially immune to surprise seizure.

The more important responsibility of this Atomic Energy Agency would
be to devise methods whereby this fissionable material would be
allocated to serve the peaceful pursuits of mankind. Experts would
be mobilized to apply atomic energy to the needs of agriculture,
medicine, and other peaceful activities. A special purpose would be
to provide abundant electrical energy in the power-starved areas of
the world. Thus the contributing powers would be dedicating some of
their strength to serve the needs rather than the fears of mankind….

Against the dark background of the atomic bomb, the United States
does not wish merely to present strength, but also the desire and
the hope for peace.



And “Atoms for Peace” was part of an organized government PR campaign
(“Operation Candor”)
about Soviet nuclear weapons; see

http://www.eisenhower.archives.gov/research/online_documents/atoms_for_peace.html”>Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library for sources.
Operation Candor was replaced by Operation Soothing Syrup (I am not making this up),
according to Continue reading →

Fracking at VSU

It’s good to see fracking reviewed in the VSU Spectator,

including that it’s

coming to Georgia
unless we stop it, and we should stop it.
It’s unfortunate the story ends with a bad idea when
there’s a much better idea already rapidly being deployed: solar power.



Stephen Cavallaro wrote yesterday for the VSU Spectator,

Fracking hits Georgia,

Fracking, the process of harvesting the environmentally unfriendly
natural gas called shale that is being pushed by the government,
plows its way through Georgia.

More like being pushed by fossil fuel companies who have bought too many
politicians.


In March, I discussed a deal backed by the government between
British-owned Centrica and American-owned Cheniere. The agreement
was that Cheniere would spread toxic chemicals across America in
order to fuel millions of British homes.

Kind of like Continue reading →

Next Deep South Sanitation court date: 25 Nov 2013



According to Deep South Sanitation, their next court date is
Monday 25 November 2013 at 9:30 AM, presumably at the

Lowndes County Judicial Complex, 327 N. Ashley Street, Valdosta, GA 31601.
The longer you drag this out, Lowndes County, the more
good press DSS gets out of it.
DSS reports 25 new customers for the fourth quarter,

providing $125 to Lake Park Elementary School.

Oh yes, the
alleged county attorney spending our tax dollars to sue Deep South Sanitation
was the attorney for
many of the cities that sued about LOST
and just

lost before the Georgia Supreme Court,
resulting in many cities and counties

scurrying around to make rapid agreements,
including

Lowndes County
and
Valdosta.

-jsq