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.
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,
CCA has absolute discretion in issuing or withholding the NTP.What kind of local government body gives a private company “absolute discretion” on whether to proceed with a project?
What happened to those appointed officials’ own discretion as to the
appropriateness of a project for the community?
What if their due diligence turns up something unacceptable?
For example, that CCA told Decatur County that
both Lowndes and Decatur are getting a private prison (one state and one federal),
so the guff CCA told VLCIA about Lowndes being the primary site was disingenuous at best.
How about if
CCA has already breached the contract
by not supplying a required document?
How about if VLCIA receives
convincing arguments from the community
that a private prison is a bad business deal?
Indeed, disaster capitalism or the shock doctrine is nothing like the capitalism Adam Smith recommended. The main point of the petition against CCA’s private prison in Lowndes County is that it’s a bad business deal: it wouldn’t save money; it wouldn’t increase employment; and it would be likely to close, leaving us all owing money.
Did the Valdosta City and Lowndes County elected governments appoint these people to abdicate their authority to a private company? Maybe they did, since those elected officials are in cahoots on this deal. CCA lauded them all for their support after VLCIA signed the contract with that “absolute discretion” language in it. Does that seem right to you?
Florida has just demonstrated that
people of all parties can
join together successfully to oppose prison privatization.
Let’s do that right here in Lowndes County and stop the private prison!
-jsq
As always, LAKE is doing a fantastic job of uncovering the shadows.Barbara,However, please note there is a difference in capatalism & crony capitalism. Liberals have their fair share of the crony variety also AKA Soros & Monsanto, GM,etc. Free enterprise & capitalism is why our borders are being crossed legally & illegally, but crony capitalism will destroy us. If the government chooses to privatize there should be clear total delineation between them & the private business, not fascist public/private partnerships like CCA is courting. We need to resist P3s totally, but they are being welcomed with multi grant incentives & blessings of the Dept of Community Development & its Chamber of Commerce conduits. We are on the same team always for transparency in government & we can be on the same team against CCA if we focus on fighting the 3P concept.
Just a reminder, I used to work for CCA & I still love to see bad men in shackles (emphasis on bad). I don’t share most of what I call simplistic liberal views on prison reform, but I am certainly with you against crony capitalism especially the public/private partnership variety. As I’ve said before they are just the good old boy system, legalized, subsidized, & on steroids.
-Barbara Stratton
Thanks for the compliments, and we’re going to get you carrying a camera yet…. See next post for the rest of my response.
-jsq
The reporter didn’t call it “new”, Troy Davis did when he sent it to all the teachers. Maybe you should talk with some teachers who are deeply against the policy before you start ranting. And to correlate this with consolidation is ridiculous, you’re just stretching for controversy.Dr. Smith enumerated several other things which he alleged that reporter misrepresented; see above link.-Amy
And Dr. Troy Davis
set the record straight yesterday in the VDT.
I’d be happy to talk to teachers, pro or con. Send ’em over!
“Stretching for controversy”? Around here you have to duck to avoid controversy. You know, like the VDT saying it won’t publish any more stories about school consolidation….
I see the VDT is not ducking this one, though, rather helping stir it up. In yesterday’s story, the VDT announced mission accomplished:
The new grading policy for grades third through eighth released by the Lowndes County school system in January has stirred controversy locally and even nationally.It wasn’t the grading policy that stirred controversy, it was Scott James, Fox News, the VDT, the AJC, the SMN, etc. And that “controversy” will make it easier the next time “unification” rears its ugly head.
-jsq
We don’t know, because the county doesn’t post the details of
agenda items, just cryptic shorthand that may mean something
to Commissioners or staff, but that means nothing to the public.
At this morning’s work session and tomorrow evening’s regular session, the Lowndes County Commission has a brief but eventful agenda, including a modification to the alcohol ordinance, an alcohol license, a DHS grant a GDOT grant for a road project on Davidson Road (presumably related to the new Moody AFB gate), two road abandonments, and this interesting item:
6.h. Request from Superior Court to establish salary of the Community Corrections DirectorYour guess is as good as mine.
Here’s the agenda.
-jsq
Continue readingLOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2012, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2012, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor
Brennan Leathers wrote for the Post-Searchlight 3 January 2010, Walls going up at new ag building,
Which means some local workers with carpentry and construction experience were not working on that project.Work on Decatur County’s new agricultural office building is quickly progressing, with interior walls being put up and the installation of a roof soon to follow.
Decatur County Prison inmates with carpentry and construction experience were working hard last Friday, putting up the interior walls inside the 9,724-square-foot building under construction near the Cloud Agricultural Building off Vada Road.
Do we want a private prison in Lowndes County so more prisoners
can compete with local workers here, too?
If you don’t think so, remember
CCA says community opposition
can impede private prison site selection.
Here’s a
petition urging the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority
to stop the CCA private prison.
-jsq
Its goings-on continue to seem eerily applicable to our own county
of 100,000 odd people.
On 9 December 2011, the Attorney General of Arizona, Tom Horne, issued a statement Re: Open Meeting Law Complaint against Town of Quartzsite Common Council (the “Council”), saying that the town Council had violated the state Open Meetings Law (OML) four times:
by not warning Jennifer Jones before removing her on 28 June 2011;
The purpose of the OML is to require public bodies to meet publicly and openly so that al persons so desiring may attend and listen to the deliberations and proceedings.Why, I believe that’s the same in Georgia!
It seems back-room meetings are bad: Continue reading
George Page, Executive Director of the Valdosta-Lowndes County
Parks and Recreation Authority (VLCPRA), said at the 9 January 2012
meeting of the Lowndes County Democratic Party (LCDP),
that amateur baseball tournaments were coming in April 2012,
bringing 1200 room nights to Valdosta.
That caused applause.
He said the Black Softball Association is coming in February,
with 80-100 teams, and more room nights.
Local players won’t have to go to Atlanta for tournaments anymore.
Ed Hooper wrote for the VDT 1 Dec 2011, Baseball tournaments coming to Lowndes County
At its monthly meeting on Wednesday, the Valdosta-Lowndes County Parks and Recreation Authority announced theUnited States Specialty Sports Association (USSSA) is set to bring its highly-respected baseball tournament to Valdosta and Lowndes County in April.
The tournament features 24 teams from the state of Florida and 24 from Georgia, and consists of teams from ages 9-14 years old. The tournament will run from April 22-24, and will be played at Freedom Park, Vallotton Park, South Lowndes Park, Lowndes and Valdosta High Schools and possibly Valdosta State University.
“It will be the absolute best 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14-year-old teams coming out of the state of Georgia to face Florida,” Bubba Smith, Director of Tournament Operations for the USSSA said. “Obviously, it is a real competitive tournament that we put together, but it is real exciting to give the teams opportunities to mingle with each other.”
…
VLPRA director George Page also announced the Black Softball Association Tournament, which features 80-100 teams, will be played in Valdosta this upcoming February. The tournament will bring in around $200,000 to the local community.
At LCDP, he said all those tournaments would bring close to half a million dollars into the economy. More applause.
“I’m not a director to sit behind my desk and wait for them to come to us.”Apparently he’d modest, as well, because even more tournaments are coming, and the expected economic benefit of all those tournaments is actually larger. Continue reading