Category Archives: LAKE

Ready, willing, and able for wind –Jill Stuckey for Georgia Southern @ GA PSC 2013-06-18

Jill Stuckey spoke for wind power for economic development on behalf of the College of Engineering and Information Technologies at Georgia Southern University. She said with its experience in solar and wind Georgia Southern is willing, able, and ready to help at the Georgia Public Service Commission meeting Tuesday 18 June 2013.

Here’s the video:

Ready, willing, and able for wind –Jill Stuckey for Georgia Southern
Georgia Power proposed closing of coal plants,
Administrative Session, GA Public Service Commission (GA PSC),
Doug Everrett (1: south Georgia), Tim Echols (2: east Georgia), Chairman Chuck Eaton (3: metro Atlanta), Stan Wise (5 north Georgia), Bubba McDonald (4: west Georgia),
Video by John S. Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE), 244 Washington Street SW, Atlanta, GA, 30334-9052, 18 June 2013.

-jsq

The cloudy day doesn’t last for an entire month –John S. Quarterman @ GA PSC 2013-06-18

The disruptive challenge electric utilities face is like telephone companies faced years ago, as Edison Electric Institute recently pointed out. Circuit switching 20 years ago is like distributed solar power and the smart grid it needs now; this is what I described at the Georgia Public Service Commission meeting Tuesday 18 June 2013.

Hi, I’m John Quarterman, I’m from Lowndes County, down near the Florida line. These videos I’ve been taking are with Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange and you’ll find them on YouTube later.
Now I’d like to commend Georgia Power for helping fund our Industrial Authority down in Lowndes County to do a strategic plan. And in the focus groups they did with that, they discovered there’s at least two things everybody wants: business, education, health care, the people in general: Continue reading →

Exclusive Franchise for Solid Waste Collection Services @ LCC 2012-12-11

Why did the Lowndes County Commission make this exclusive franchise with a Florida or Alabama or New York company and then sue a local Lowndes County company after the VDT reported the previous spring that any contract would be non-exclusive and wouldn’t put anybody out of business?

Here, obtained by LAKE through an open records request, is the contract with ADS of Middle Georgia, LLC. The the agenda item for the 11 December 2012 Commission meeting at which this contract was approved says ADS of Central Alabama, Inc. The contract says ADS is “a Florida corporation”, and we know ADS is owned by Highstar Capital of New York City. Once again, why is granting a cheap monopoly to an out-of-state company more important than either letting local companies compete for the service or having the county continue to provide a public service directly to its taxpayers and citizens?

The termination clause I pointed out to the Commission after an ADS executive made excuses for nonperformance is Paragraph 18 of the contract:

Continue reading →

June LAKE meeting Tuesday @ LAKE 2013-06-11

Same agenda as in January, local governance: Water, trash, and money.

View Larger Map

What:	Monthly LAKE Meeting
When:	about 6:30PM Tuesday (after the Lowndes County Commission meeting) 11 June 2013
Where:	Let's Eat Cafe 2102 W. Hill Ave. (just west of I-75, at the Shell station) Valdosta, GA 31601

Don't let the location fool you: Let's Eat is locally owned, and serves a lot of locally-grown food.

If you're on Facebook, please Like the LAKE facebook page. You can sign up for the meeting event there, Or just come as you are.

-jsq

May LAKE meeting tonight

Same agenda as in January, local governance: Water, trash, and money.

What:	Monthly LAKE Meeting
When:	about 6PM Tuesday (after the County Commission meeting) 14 May 2013
Where:	Let's Eat Cafe 2102 W. Hill Ave. Valdosta, GA 31601 (just west of I-75, at the Shell station)

Don't let the location fool you: Let's Eat is locally owned, and serves a lot of locally-grown food.

If you're on Facebook, please Like the LAKE facebook page. You can sign up for the meeting event there, or just come as you are.

-jsq

On the LAKE front has moved

How do you like the new wordpress site for the LAKE blog? We’re still settling in here, so there will probably be some changes yet. Meanwhile, all the old content is here in the new location.

January 2013 LAKE meeting: Let’s Eat Cafe, Valdosta

Local governance: Water, trash, and money.

What: Monthly LAKE Meeting
When: 7 PM, Tuesday
29 January 2013
Where: Let's Eat Cafe
2102 W. Hill Ave.
(just west of I-75,
at the Shell station)
Valdosta, GA 31601

View Larger Map

Don't let the location fool you: Let's Eat is locally owned, and serves a lot of locally-grown food.

Agenda, not necessarily in this order:

If you're on Facebook, please Like the LAKE facebook page. You can sign up for the meeting event there, Or just come as you are.

-jsq

Citizens can video on duty police —Supreme Court

The Supreme Court has declined to review a Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals decision that struck down an Illinois law prohibiting audio recordings without permission, echoing last year’s First Court decision that you can record police on the job. Let’s remember it’s not just police:

“Gathering information about government officials in a form that can readily be disseminated to others serves a cardinal First Amendment interest in protecting and promoting
‘the free discussion of governmental affairs.’
”

That means all elected or appointed or employed government officials, from County Commissioners and City Councils down through sheriff and police departments to the Animal Shelter. Police are employees, not elected or appointed, so these rulings would appear to apply to other governmental employees.

Radley Balko wrote for Huffpo 27 November 2012, Supreme Court Inaction Boosts Right To Record Police Officers,

The Illinois and Massachusetts laws have been used to arrest people who attempt to record on-duty police officers and other public officials. In one of the more notorious cases, Chicago resident Tiawanda Moore was arrested in 2010 when she attempted to use her cell phone to record officers in a Chicago police station.

Continue reading →

Vote No on Amendment 1 —LAKE WALB Ad

The WCTV news report didn’t mention something else LAKE has done about the Tim Golden use of a LAKE video without the required attribution: LAKE paid for a TV ad on the same WALB market as Golden’s ad. That LAKE ad is still playing today: watch the news and football on WALB in Valdosta and Hahira.

Bikram Mohanty is a man of integrity running for Georgia state Senate.

The incumbent Tim Golden’s attack ad misuses a video I took of Bikram Mohanty, without the credit its YouTube license requires.

Tim Golden voted to put on the ballot an amendment that could siphon off your local tax dollars for charter schools, even if your school board doesn’t want them.

Vote for integrity; vote for Bikram Mohanty for Georgia state Senate, and vote No for Amendment 1.

This WALB ad, like the WCTV news interview, is another rare instance of the LAKE politburo deciding LAKE would go on record as an organization, so I was speaking for LAKE.

TL;DR: If you want to use LAKE materials, cite the source.

-jsq

Tim Golden campaign admits using LAKE video without attribution —WCTV

WCTV got Tim Golden’s campaign on record admitting it used a LAKE video without attribution. Golden’s spokesperson claimed (erroneously) that they didn’t need to cite the source. As you can see below, that’s not what the license says.

Greg Gullberg wrote for WCTV last night, Valdosta Man Takes Legal Action Against GA Senator Over Use Of Video,

A videographer in Valdosta is taking legal action against Georgia District 8 State Senator Tim Golden.

John Quarterman says video he shot was used in an “Attack Ad” against Senate candidate Bikram Mohanty without his permission.

“A video posted on Youtube that clearly says that attribution is required. And there’s no attribution, no sources sighted, and he didn’t ask permission. That’s mis-use of our material,” Quarterman said.

Continue reading →