in
the 22 July 2013 Work Session
Here is the letter discussed (“So at this point, in order to comply with the deadline submitted by EPD, it was necessary to go ahead and work with Lovell on this.”)
and approved (“The water is good, right?”)
at the
23 July Regular Session of the Lowndes County Commission,
obtained through an Open Records Request by April Huntley,
plus a transcription.
You may wonder, as I do, why the county didn’t just put it online
along with the agenda, like so many other county commissions and
city councils do. Continue reading
Category Archives: Law
The water is good now, right? –Demarcus Marshall about Alapaha Water Treatment @ LCC 2013-07-23
A County Commissioner wanted the Utilities Director to confirm that the water was already good before the county fixes the treatment plant at Alapaha Plantation, at the 23 July Regular Session of the Lowndes County Commission.
7.b. Letter to Environmental Protection Division concerning Alapaha Water Treatment Plant Upgrade
Regarding the letter written by Lovell Engineering to GA EPD on behalf of the
county, discussed in the previous morning’s
22 July 2013 Work Session,
Commissioner Demarcus Marshall asked:
I just had a question regarding the timing of the letter. I know it says eight month pilot study. And I just wanted to know for the record, that the water is good now, right? It’s drinkable, and so forth, just for the public to be aware that it’s not some public health risk out there.
Answer from Utilities Director Mike Allen: Continue reading
Down, up, down again: Arkansas Nuclear One
Entergy announced August 8th that its Arkansas nuke was back up after a man died there in March, but it only made it to 87% power on August 12th and then back to zero yesterday. There’s no NRC event for yesterday’s downtime: what’s going on? Meanwhile, the dead man’s family is suing Entergy, and Entergy is suing its contractors. Sounds like the Plant Vogtle circular firing squad.
THV11 wrote 8 August 2013, Nuclear One unit back on after deadly accident and EBR staff wrote more detail for Energy Business Review 9 August 2013, Entergy restarts Unit 1 at Arkansas Nuclear One power plant,
Prior to restart, the unit needed an extensive restoration, including damage evaluation, repairs to non-nuclear plant components and rescheduling its refueling activities.
The restoration was made compulsory following the collapse of a contractor’s crane on 31 March 2013, while shifting a generator stator out of the turbine building.
Hm, “made compulsory” by whom? NRC? OSHA, which also investigated? Arkansas? Other? Continue reading
Georgia’s ALEC local cheap labor law
Did you know in 2005 Georgia passed a cheap labor law even more draconian than its ALEC model Local Minimum Wage Preemption Act?
Here’s the law, 2005-2006 Regular Session – HB 59 Minimum wage mandates by local governments; change certain provisions, sponsored by who else but resigned-in-disgrace for promoting an Agenda 21 talking points film at the statehouse Chip Rogers, who nonetheless also sponsored the successful charter school and multi-year contract constitutional amendments. HB 59 took effect 1 July 2005. Here’s the part that matches the ALEC model Living Wage Mandate Preemption Act:
34-4-3.1(a)(6)(b)
(1) Any and all wage or employment benefit mandates adopted by any local government entity are hereby preempted.
(2) No local government entity may adopt, maintain, or enforce by charter, ordinance, purchase agreement, contract, regulation, rule, or resolution, either directly or indirectly, a wage or employment benefit mandate.
Here’s the part that goes beyond even what ALEC proposed: Continue reading
Nelson Hill waivers by staff @ LCC 2013-08-13
Before
tonight’s vote on Moody Housing on Val Del Road,
maybe somebody should review
these administrative waivers from county staff for Nelson Hill,
one for the minimum lot size, and the other for setbacks for the lots along the “lake”.
I haven’t yet found who waived
the requirement for condominiums,
or for their fronts to be staggered,
or for them to be at least 1800 square feet,
or the traffic calming measures,
or how all this fits the submitted site plans,
nor for that matter what happened to
the gate or guards or the road connecting to Grove Point.
Maybe you can find those things in
the materials about Nelson Hill received in response to
an Open Records Request.
If staff can waive all these things without any of them coming up
again for a vote before the elected Commission in a public hearing,
why do we have the elected Commissioners vote in the first place?
Here’s a waiver for lot setbacks next to the pond
by Joe Pritchard “In my official capacity as County Manager”,
22 September 2009, for AAW-2009-06.
Here’s a waiver for minimum lot sizes by Jason Davenport, County Planner, 18 July 2011, for AAW-2011-16:
Good afternoon. Based on recent questions from multiple parties regarding Nelson Hill we thought it best to respond in writing to all. For us the question is “Will the County require a minimum lot size in Nelson Hill?” and our answer is Continue reading
What happened at Nelson Hill on Val Del Road? @ LCC 2013-08-12
Staff promises evaporated, many of 13 conditions voted by elected Commissioners didn’t get implemented: what happened at Nelson Hill, the subdivision County Planner Jason Davenport referred to as the neighborhood on Val Del Road for REZ-2013-09 Moody Housing? Well, it has a reputation, as someone nearby said in opposing another development:
And we’re certainly not interested in what they built out on Val Del Road.
What happened at Nelson Hill?
As
Gretchen Quarterman mentioned to the Planning Commission,
there were supposed to be condominiums and a gated community there, but:
if you go out to Nelson Hill now you don’t find anything resembling a gated condominium community; you find ticky-tacky houses where they cut down the swamp.
So what was supposed to be there? In the Minutes for the Work Session of 12 February 2007 condominiums are mentioned: Continue reading
Dump CCA and other private prison stocks now –smart analysts
If business is so good,
why did CCA
lose two contracts for new prisons in Georgia last year
when neither the state nor the feds had enough prisoners to fill them?
And why was
the private prison in Ocilla nearly sold at auction?
Why this year was
Gladiator School closed and two other CCA prisons cancelled?
And all that was before
U.S. DoJ announced today it will “avoid charging certain low-level and nonviolent drug offenders with crimes that carry mandatory minimums”.
Ed Arnold wrote for Memphis Business Journal 23 July 2013, Corrections Corp. of America debunks Anonymous report,
As reported on Monday, the computer hacking collective known as Anonymous Analytics published a blog warning investors that a declining prison population and reforms designed to reduce incarceration rates in the U.S. point to shrinking revenue for Corrections Corporation of America (NYSE: CXW) going forward.
CCA flatly denied the Anonymous Analytics conclusions in a statement.
CCA apparently didn’t dare link to the actual report. Anonymous Analytics wrote 9 July 2013, Corrections Corporation of America: The Dismantling of a National Disgrace, Continue reading
Avoid charging low-level and nonviolent drug offenders –U.S. DoJ
It’s about time! The War on Drugs has failed, admits the U.S. Department of Justice, by saying it will “avoid charging certain low-level and nonviolent drug offenders with crimes that carry mandatory minimums”.
Ryan J. Reilly wrote for Huffpo today, Eric Holder Outlining New Justice Department Drug Sentencing Reforms,
The Justice Department will avoid charging certain low-level and nonviolent drug offenders with crimes that carry mandatory minimums, Attorney General Eric Holder will announce Monday. The policy shift will allow certain defendants — those without ties to large-scale organizations, gangs or cartels — to avoid what Holder called “draconian mandatory minimum sentences.”
Holder, in a speech before the American Bar Association in San Francisco on Monday, Continue reading
The Economist answers Paul Bowers about carbon tax
Back in May someone asked Georgia Power CEO Paul Bowers what
he thought about a carbon tax,
and he answered, “Why would anyone
want that?”
The Economist answered his question,
29 June 2013,
Tepid, timid:
The world will one day adopt a carbon tax—but only after exhausting all the alternatives,
Winston Churchill famously said America would always do the right thing after exhausting the alternatives. The right thing in climate
policy for all the big countries is a carbon tax, which is simpler and less vulnerable to fluctuations in emissions than cap-and-trade schemes. For years, such a tax has been a non-starter politically. But as the alternatives are tested to destruction, it deserves to be looked at again. Current environmental policies will not keep the rise in global temperatures to below 2°C—the maximum that most climate scientists think safe. A carbon tax, if stiff enough, could. Big polluters should assume that such a tax will one day arrive, and start planning for it now.
Dear Paul Bowers,
Stop being tepid and timid.
Go beyond Continue reading
Nuke supervisor arrested for falsifying safety records at Indian Point
A single person risked 50 million lives at Indian Point, 24 miles north of New York City. And it’s Entergy again, the company that couldn’t keep the power on during the Super Bowl, that can’t keep Pilgrim 1 running in a Massachusetts snowstorm, or summer heat, or the spring, either, that still has Arkansas Nuclear 1 down since a fatal accident in March. Meanwhile, how many fatal solar accidents have you heard of?
Lucas W Hixson wrote for Enformable Nuclear News, Indian Point supervisor arrested for deliberately falsifying critical safety records,
Entergy announced on Tuesday that a former supervisor, who worked at the Indian Point nuclear power plant north of New York City for twenty-nine years, had been arrested for deliberately falsifying critical safety records and lying to federal regulators last year. The utility said that Daniel Wilson, age 57, who was in charge of ensuring compliance in critical safety areas, falsified tests and records related to the quality of fuel in back-up tanks for the emergency diesel generators installed at the nuclear power plant which are necessary to prevent core damage in the event of a loss of power. Federal charges have been brought against the former employee by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, who was released on bail and could be sentenced up to 7 years in prison.
The story says co-workers caught him (good for them): Continue reading