Category Archives: Education

Voted in Lowndes County Georgia by 25 Oct 2012

There was a dropoff in the first week of early voting,
but it picked back up last Friday and this week.
Daily and Total voting in Lowndes County Georgia by 25 October 2012:


Daily and Total voting in Lowndes County Georgia by 25 October 2012

Date Daily Total
October 15, 2012 1636 1636
October 16, 2012 1225 2861
October 17, 2012 956 3817
October 18, 2012 643 4460
October 19, 2012 1433 5893
October 23, 2012 1449 9173
October 24, 2012 1363 10536
October 25, 2012 1408 11944
Data courtesy of Tiffany Linkswiler, Lowndes County Board of Elections.

Somewhere around 20-25% of registered voters have already voted.
But there are plenty more voters out there.
You can still vote

today, Saturday, during extended voting hours next week,
or on that great election day, November 6th.


Several recent elections here have been decided by less than 100 votes.
Your vote counts!

-jsq

Videos of candidates @ AAUW 2012-10-24


Welcome
After the fourth and final candidates forum,

moderated for AAUW by Dr. Jim Peterson last night at VHS,
the statehouse candidate attendance report card is:

Incumbents:
Ellis Black (R 174) 0 of 4, Amy Carter (R 175) 1 of 4, and Tim Golden (R Sen-8) 1 of 4.

Challengers: Teresa Lawrence (D 174) 4 of 4, JC Cunningham (D 175) 4 of 4, and
Bikram Mohanty (D Sen-8) 4 of 4.

Open seat 177: J. Glenn Gregory (R) 4 of 4, Dexter Sharper (D) 4 of 4.

Local candidates: 4 of 4 for every one of them,

Gretchen Quarterman (D) and Bill Slaughter (R) for Lowndes County Chairman,

Chris Prine (D) and J.D. Yeager (R) for Lowndes County Sheriff,

John Gates (R)
and
Demarcus Marshall (D)
for Lowndes County Commission District 4,

Justin Cabral (R)
and
Jason Cain (D)
for Solicitor General.

Here are

videos of the entire forum.


Candidates Forum at VHS by AAUW, Deb Van Petten President,

Videos by John S. Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE),

Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 24 October 2012.

Videos of the previous 3 forums:

Continue reading →

ALEC’s “our state legislators” behind multi-year GA constitutional amendment referendum


Ronnie Chance
Look who sponsored

Georgia Senate Resolution 1231 which put
the second referendum question on the ballot!
Two of ALEC’s “our state legislators”,
Senators Ronnie Chance of the 16th,
and
Senate Majority Leader Chip Rogers of the 21st,
are among the sponsors (Chance is the first sponsor).

SourceWatch’s ALEC Exposed

found Ronnie Chance on ALEC’s International Relations Task Force.
Rogers himself told CBS News how much he values ALEC,

Who is ALEC?
By Mark Strassmann and Phil Hirschkorn 30 June 2012.
Rogers spelled out the same thing ALEC itself told me:
it considers people like Chance and Rogers
“our state legislators”.
“Our” as in belonging to ALEC, not representing you the voters and taxpayers.


Chip Rogers
Guess who sponsored the bill that put the charter school amendment on the ballot,
HB 1162 in its Senate form?

Chip Rogers.
And who sponsored the companion bill that would suck money out of public
schools and give more per pupil to charter schools, using our local tax dollars,
HB 797 in the Senate?

Chip Rogers.
And House sponsors Jan Jones (R 46th) and Edward Lindsey (R 54th) of both bills

are also ALEC’s “our state legislators”.

I don’t always agree with Adam Smith, but when I do, I quote The Wealth of Nations from 1776:

Continue reading →

Candidates ready @ AAUW 2012-10-24

Here’s a picture of candidates waiting to speak at last night’s
AUUW forum.
None of the incumbent state legislators showed up.
All of the challengers did,
along with all the candidates for local offices.


Front row: John Gates,
J. Glenn Gregory, Gretchen Quarterman, Teresa Lawrence, J.D.
Yeager, Justin Cabral
Second row: Dexter Sharper, Demarcus Marshall, Bill Slaughter,
Chris Prine, Jason Cain
Third row: Bikram Mohanty, J.C. Cunningham, AAUW organizer
Missing: Tim Golden, Amy Carter, Ellis Black
Picture by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge
Exchange
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 24 October 2012

The videos should be up later today. are up now.

-jsq

Quitman 10+2 trial set for December



George Boston Rhynes notes a trial date of 10 December 2012
has finally been set for the Quitman 10+2.
They were arrested back in 2010 for alleged voter fraud.
Their “speedy trial” has taken so long that one of them has died.

The governor did convene a committee that

ejected them from the school board in January.
After
repeatedly going to Atlanta,
after

Georgia Association of Black Elected Officials (GABEO) held its general
meeting in Quitman,
after

Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp came to Quitman to hear complaints
about the handling of the Quitman 10+2 case and

recent irregularities involving the Brooks County Board of Elections,
members of the Quitman 10+2

were finally reinstated on the school board 9 October 2012.
Yet their “speedy trial” has been delayed for two full years,
all the way until after this
year’s election.

Here’s

the video:

Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution:

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a
speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and
district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district
shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of
the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the
witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining
witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for
his defence.

-jsq

Solar college campuses far to the north: why not at VSU?

This spring,
the University at Buffalo did it,
and now
Rutgers is doing it:
installing solar arrays for power and profit.
Rutgers is in New Jersey,

the #2 state in solar power.
We have a lot more sun down here.
How about we catch up and get ahead in solar power,
starting with VSU?

Brita Belli wrote for ecoemagination 25 September 2012,

Renewable U: College Campuses Invest in Renewable Energy



Over the summer, crews at Rutgers University's Livingston Campus
began transforming a 32-acre, 3,500-spot parking lot into one of the
largest solar canopy arrays in the nation. The array will have a
capacity of 8 megawatts, enough to power 1,000 homes.

The canopy is more than just eco window dressing — Antonio
Calcado, Rutgers vice president for facilities and capital planning,
expects that with the financing structure, grants and energy
credits, the investment will return about $28 million to the
university over the next 20 years. A previous solar project had a
similarly rapid payback.

“Combined with the electricity we produce, it's a winner all
around,” says Calcado. “We're an institution of higher
learning—we teach this stuff—so we should also lead by
example. It's a living laboratory in many respects.”

Lead by example: now there's an idea!
An idea that might even attract businesses.

-jsq

First Annual Lowndes County Animal Health Fair 2012-11-03

Animal Health Fair flyer seen on the door of the
Lowndes County Commission Chambers yesterday evening at their 5:30 PM
Regular Session.


Lowndes County Animal Health Fair flyer


Lowndes County Animal Health Fair flyer

Pictures by John S. Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE),

Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 23 October 2012.

This is the event
discussed by County Clerk Paige Dukes the previous morning:

On November 3rd the animal shelter along with the Humane Society
will have the first animal health fair here in Lowndes County. It’s
hoped that this is going to be an annual event, held the first
Saturday of November. And the purpose is to mirror the benefits you
see for people health fairs.

-jsq

Candidates again tonight @ AAUW 2012-10-24

Will any of our incumbent state legislators show up this time?
Their challengers have spoken every time.

AAUW logo
7PM tonight is the last time to see all the local candidates in one place:
Wednesday 24 October 2012,
Performing Arts Center, Valdosta High School, 3101 North Forrest Street, Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia,

AAUW presents a Political Forum.
This one, unlike some previous ones, is advertised on the sponsoring
organization’s website
(although oddly not on its
facebook page)
and
in the VDT calendar.

So far, Ellis Black (R 174) 0 of 3, Amy Carter (R 175), 1 of 3, and Tim Golden (R Sen-8) 1 of 3.
Challengers Teresa Lawrence (D 174), JC Cunningham (D 175), and
Bikram Mohanty (D Sen-8) all spoke at 3 of 3.
Videos of the previous forums:


Candidates at 30 Club forum at Serenity Church

Candidates at Homebuilders Association Forum at Rainwater Conference Center

Meet the Candidates by Chamber of Commerce at VSU


vote
Don’t forget

to vote,
today, tomorrow, Saturday, or on that great election day, November 6th 2012.

-jsq

Videos @ 30Club 2012-10-22



Here's

a video playlist
of the Candidate Forum last night organized by the 30 Club at Serenity Church.
Probably more commentary later; for now, in the interests of speed, just the raw videos.


Candidates Forum, 30 Club,
J.D. Rice, President

Video by John S. Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE),

Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 22 October 2012.

-jsq

We can charge you even if it’s cancelled! —CWIPped Georgia Power


Steve Willis
An excellent article about the problems with Georgia Power’s
new nukes on the Savannah River gets at something you may not know:
they can charge you for them even if they’re cancelled!

Steve Willis wrote for the Georgia Sierran Oct./Nov./Dec. 2012 page 5,

Overruns, Uncertainty Plague Vogtle Expansion,

If Southern Company abandons this
project, the CWIP law not only allows
Southern Company to keep all of the
CWIP payments legally extorted from
customers, but allows them to keep
CWIP fees in place or even increase them
until all their costs and profits have been
fully recovered. Due to the run-away
cost overruns, the CWIP charge on your
monthly bill is already more than three
times what Southern Company confidently
claimed it would be at this time
when they presented their case to “your”
Georgia legislature in 2009.

And that

2009 legislature
rubberstamped CWIP so it appears on your Georgia Power bill as

Nuclear Construction Cost Recovery Rider.
Willis reminds us that the 2 nukes already at Plant Vogtle were projected
to be four nukes for $600 million and ended up being two for $9 billion.

Everyone has heard the saying “Fool me once, shame on you;
fool me twice, shame on me.” If the Vogtle expansion costs
balloon, as many analysts expect, it will cost

Continue reading →