Category Archives: Health Care

100% sun, wind, and water can power each U.S. state and the world –Stanford study

We have all the technology right now that we need to power the U.S. state by state and the world with solar, wind, and water power. No burning coal or oil or fracked natural gas and no nukes. No need for any new destructive and hazardous methane pipelines. No waiting for batteries. All we have to do is get on with it.

100% RENEWABLE ENERGY IS FEASIBLE AND AFFORDABLE, ACCORDING TO STANFORD PROPOSAL,

Stanford University researchers led by civil engineer Mark Jacobson have developed detailed plans for each state in the union that to move to 100 percent wind, water and solar power by 2050 using only technology that’s already available. The plan, presented recently at the AAAS conference in Chicago, also forms the basis for The Solutions Project nonprofit.

“The conclusion is that it’s technically and economically feasible,” Jacobson told Singularity Hub.

The plan doesn’t rely, like many others, on dramatic energy efficiency regimes. Nor does it include biofuels or nuclear power, whose green credentials are the source of much debate.

The proposal is straightforward: eliminate combustion as a source of energy, because it’s dirty and inefficient. All vehicles would be powered by electric batteries or by hydrogen, where the hydrogen is produced through electrolysis rather than natural gas. High-temperature industrial processes would also use electricity or hydrogen combustion.

The rest would simply be a question of allowing existing fossil-fuel plants to age out and using renewable sources to power any new plants that come online….

“The greatest barriers to a conversion are neither technical nor economic. They are social and political,” the AAAS paper concludes.

For Georgia, that’s 40% solar PV plants, 35% offshore wind, 13% rooftop PV (6% residential and 7% commercial), 5% concentrating solar plants, 5% onshore wind, and 1% each wind, tide, and conventional hydro power. Plus 210,200 construction jobs and 101,000 operation jobs. And saving $14.3 billion per year Continue reading →

Florida tired of Valdosta’s WWTP spills

Once again, Valdosta famous into Florida again for wastewater spill, and Florida residents are tired of it.

WCTV 1 March 2014, Georgia Spill Leads To Warning In Florida

[Matt] Meersman and his friends enjoy visiting the Suwannee River to train for canoe races. According to the City of Valdosta, heavy rains have caused about 7.5 million gallons of highly treated waste water to wash into the Withlacoochee River, which connects to the Suwannee. Signs are posted around the Suwannee River State Park to let people know about the possible dangers of swimming in the water.

“When it’s impacted by stuff like this, it makes it hard on us to think about it as the pristine place that we like to think of it as,” said Meersman.

Meersman says there are other rivers around the area they can practice on in the meantime, but he says he’s tired of the spills.

“It’s bad enough Continue reading →

Digital Economy Plan Workshop

Update 3:30 PM 29 January 2014: Thursday 30 January 2014 session cancelled due to weather; come to the 6 February 2014 meeting instead.

Received by email and there’s a facebook event. -jsq

Good Morning and Happy New Year!

We would like to invite you to one or more workshops to help us develop a Digital Economy Plan for our Region.

The Southern Georgia Regional Commission, in partnership with the Georgia Technology Authority, is coordinating and developing a Digital Economy Plan for the 18 counties in the South Georgia Region to identify the unique characteristics of the digital economy in our region, its strengths, weaknesses, its needs and its opportunities.

The focus and intent of the plan is to Continue reading →

Videos: 2 agreements, education, jail, alcohol, and a health care presentation @ LCC 2014-01-13

They vote tonight at 5:30PM. Probably there won’t be a repeat of yesterday morning’s presentation by District Health Director Dr. Grow. The county wants an architect for a new roof and shower in one jail pod; it’s considering two interagency agreements, one for Valdosta Inspections for Lake Park and the other for the county extension, plus setting election qualifying fees and a Special Assessment Rate for 2014. There’s a beer license and acceptance of infrastructure for part of Grove Pointe Subdivision.

Here’s the agenda with links to the videos:

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, JANUARY 13, 2014, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, JANUARY 14, 2014, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street — 2nd Floor

Continue reading →

2 interagency agreements, education, jail, alcohol, and a health care presentation @ LCC 2014-01-13

We can probably guess who “Dr. Grow” is and the general topic of his presentation, but why does the county make us guess? The county wants an architect for a new roof and shower in one jail pod; it’s considering two interagency agreements, one for Valdosta Inspections for Lake Park and the other for the county extension, plus setting election qualifying fees and a Special Assessment Rate for 2014. There’s a beer license and acceptance of infrastructure for part of Grove Pointe Subdivision.

Here’s the agenda: Continue reading →

Deep divisions between U.S. and Asian nations in TPP –Wikileaks

Do you want foreign corporations to be able to sue the U.S. because your county has implemented restrictions of pipelines feeding liquid natural gas exports? Or because your country hasn’t locked up enough people for unintentional infringement of copyright? Or because your state has implemented a GMO-labeling law? Then you oppose the TPP.

After the November release of the Intellectual Property Rights Chapter, in December Wikileaks released two documents from the secret closed Salt Lake City TPP chief negotiators’ meeting of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, showing deep divisions between the negotiating countries that have already caused a U.S.-imposed TPP deadline to be missed. These documents add potential international treaty enforcement of “mandates” against restrictions on trade to protect national products or environment or labor to all the reasons EFF gives for opposing this corporate-power-grab treaty and the LNG export pressures for TPP that would drive up the price of fracked “natural” gas and push pipelines through numerous states for the profit of a few fossil fuel and utility executives and investors.

The deep divisions among the negotiating countries exposed Continue reading →

Secret meeting of Lowndes County Commission and state reps @ LCC 2013-12-20

The VDT report doesn’t say when or where, and doesn’t say whether Dexter Sharper (District 177) wasn’t invited or chose not to attend.

There’s nothing about this meeting in the online agendas or calendar, even though that calendar lists Pictures with Santa at the Historical Courthouse (12/19/2013).

There is this undated public notice with no agenda:

The Lowndes County Board of Commissioners will meet with members of Lowndes County’s Legislative Delegation on Friday, December 20, 2013, at 4:00 p.m. in the Commissioner’s Conference Room located on the 3rd floor of the Judicial-Administrative Complex, 327 North Ashley Street, Valdosta, Georgia.

K. Paige Dukes, County Clerk
pdukes@lowndescounty.com 229-671-2400

Matthew Woody wrote for the VDT 22 December 2013, Commissioners host local delegation, oddly omitting the when and where and much of the why from the traditional who, what, when, where, and why of journalism.

The Lowndes County Commission hosted Continue reading →

Videos: Pipeline, health, insurance, library, and alcohol @ LCC 2013-10-22

The big event was that citizens speaking about the pipeline got four of five Commissioners to come down and listen afterwards. And in a surprise addition to the agenda D.A. J. David Miller asked for and got approval for a victim assistance program. All this and insurance plan, health plan, a road closing, a grant proposal to renovate the Library (did the Commissioners get the whole board packet this time?) and let’s not forget a special performance on fire by Chairman Bill Slaughter, plus apparently the County Commission is in charge of rain like it’s in charge of alcohol.

Here’s the agenda with links to the videos, and a few notes. See also the previous morning’s Work Session.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2013, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2013, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2^nd Floor

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 →

Florida opposition to Spectra pipeline

The Sabal Trail roadshow rolled on to Florida, but hasn’t bowled over at least one landowner.

Dave D’Marko wrote for mynews13.com yesterday, Pipeline bringing gas, concerns to Floridians,

A new gas pipeline is coming to Florida that will pump up to a billion cubic feet a day to Florida Power and Light customers.

But some property owners aren’t happy. The company plans to take the pipeline right through their land. Sabal Trail Transmission met with landowners in Kissimmee Tuesday night. Another meeting is planned at South Lake High School in Groveland Wednesday.

Gertrude Dickinson, 82, got her first letter in June, warning her a company was bidding to bring a gas pipeline to Florida and her property was being considered. She didn’t wait for the project to gain approval, which it did later in the summer, and started fighting it immediately.

“I said I want a map of exactly where you are putting that pipe on my land and how much you are going to use,” Dickinson said.

She said what she got in return was this map showing all three states the 465 mile pipeline would go through, and a dot showing the general area she lived in Sumter County. What it didn’t explain is why they wanted to go through her land, and not the state-owned prairie across the street.

Well, that all sounds familiar. And look who’s down there speaking for Spectra:

Andrea Grover, a spokesperson for Sabal Trail Transmission, is part of the “Right of Way” team meeting with 3,000 landowners along the corridor. She said so far 80 percent have given permission for land surveying.

But Dickinson posted no trespassing signs, refusing to let surveyors on her land. Signs on her property point out she suffers from a condition known as auditory recruitment, which means noise from construction would be greatly amplified in her ears. She says previous episodes have led to heart attacks.

The company said it will reimburse owners fair value for their property, but Dickinson doubts that would be much in this economy.

“I can buy a few bags of groceries with the money and that’s it, and for what? They’ve taken my property, and my entrance, and my life possibly who knows,” she said.

-jsq

On the LAKE front

Citizen dialog for transparent process by the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange