Category Archives: Media

Atlanta TV station exposes ALEC lobbyists in Savannah

Caught on-camera: ALEC’s off-duty sheriff’s deputies getting TV reporters thrown out of their own hotel for “taking pictures in the hotel”, after ALEC’s marketing droid denied any lobbying going on, nevermind the lobbyist and legislator in a bar spelling out how it works: ALEC gives “scholarships” to legislators who then meet in closed rooms with corporate reps (including all the companies involved in the Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline) who have equal votes on draft bills for legislators to get passed as law in many states. Bills promoting fracking, pipelines, LNG export, and against solar power, renewable portfolio standards, not to mention for private prisons and privatized education and against municipal broadband and country-of-origin labelling, plus many other corporate give-aways subsidized by the taxpayers and the environment. It’s time for the IRS to revoke ALEC’s 501(c)(3) status. And for the Georgia legislature to apply the state’s sunshine laws to itself.

Brendan Keefe and Michael King, WXIA-TV, 22 May 2015, Legislators and corporate lobbyists meet in secret at Georgia resort, Continue reading →

Sabal Trail uses VDT to threaten eminent domain

Andrea Grover’s response to being caught by the VDT actually knowing about Sabal Trail threats of eminent domain after she said were “hard to believe” is… to use the VDT to threaten eminent domain!

The example the VDT quoted Wednesday of an eminent domain threatening letter from Sabal Trail’s Atlanta law firm was dated 26 November 2013. Yet a year later, today, 28 November 2014, Joe Adgie in Sabal Trail to install taps in Georgia quotes Ms. Grover in the VDT: Continue reading →

Could contradict a recent statement by Sabal Trail’s Andrea Grover –VDT

Who exactly is “hard to believe”?

Joe Adgie, VDT, today, 26 November 2014, Residents share eminent domain letters,

Letters submitted to the Valdosta Daily Times and to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission could contradict a recent statement by Sabal Trail’s Andrea Grover.

Continue reading →

Videos of Open Government Symposium in Macon @ OGS 2014-10-17

Here are videos of last month’s event organized by VDT editor Jim Zachary, director of the Transparency Project of Georgia, and Holly Manheimer, director of the Georgia First Amendment Foundation, adding to the still picture we already posted.

VDT Open Government Symposium: in Macon?

Yay open government symposium! But why in Macon, why not in Valdosta, if it’s organized by the new VDT editor? Sure, Macon is the geographic center of the state, but it’s only about an hour from Atlanta, and one thing most people in Atlanta don’t understand is how big Georgia is, so asking them to drive four hours to Valdosta would be educational for them. And if the VDT is so interested in government transparency, why doesn’t it investigate the county’s lawsuit against local business Deep South Sanitation at the expense of the local taxpayers that benefits nobody but “exclusive franchise” ADS and its investors in New York City? Why is the VDT’s front page story that gave a platform for Spectra’s Andrea Grover no longer online, especially now that the Sabal Trail deadline she announced has been busted? Let’s see the VDT lead the way. Here’s a first test: Gretchen is going to Macon with the LAKE video camera. Will the VDT let her video?

Unsigned article, VDT, 11 October 2014, VDT leading way in open government, Continue reading →

Quitman 10+2 third trial

“Thank you for not plea bargaining” said George Boston Rhynes starting his series of videos on the ongoing third trial of Lula Smart of the Quitman 10+2. No newspapers, radio, or TV reporters at this trial about voters’ rights. But George is there.

Here’s George’s first report: Continue reading →

Why open government matters –VDT

Maybe the Lowndes County Commission should have read these quotes before it approved that unbudgeted no-bid not-discussed-in-the-retreat second water treatment system purchase.

Update 17 October 2014: Fix date of editorial. -jsq

VDT editorial 12 April August 2014, Why open government matters,

“The same prudence, which, in private life, would forbid our paying our money for unexplained projects, forbids it in the disposition of public moneys.” — Thomas Jefferson.

Continue reading →

The Making Of Gretchen on WALB at Okra Paradise Farms 2014-04-02

Ever wonder what goes into the few seconds of video you see on TV news? As I promised reporter Colter Anstaetts when he interviewed Gretchen for WALB TV Friday May 2nd about Valdosta Farm Days (coming up again this Saturday 9AM to 1PM at the historic Lowndes County Courthouse in Valdosta), here’s The Making Of…, including birds singing, dogs rolling in the grass, Brown Dog frolicking and bouncing across, Yellow Dog prancing, red potatoes, and red, white, and blue corn at Okra Paradise Farms.

300x225 WALB report and camera, Gretchen and LAKE camera, in Valdosta Farm Days â??Gretchen on WALB, by John S. Quarterman, for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE), 2 May 2014 You can see both the WALB TV camera and the LAKE video camera in this picture.

After some initial discussion Continue reading →

Chip Rogers out at GPB

What’s really not sustainable? Promoting the “Agenda 21” talking points as an elected official, even in the most corrupt state in the union (Georgia).

Chip Rogers was top of the heap as the Senate Majority Leader, voting for all sorts of stuff to hold Georgia back, from eorgia Power’s nuke rate hike (CWIP) SB 31 in 2009 to sponsoring putting two constitutional amendments on the state ballot in 2012, including one for charter schools that would siphon off public school money).

Then he was caught promoting showing an “Agenda 21” talking point movie to legislators in the state capitol. He decided Continue reading →

A newspaper opposes the pipeline: the Spectator

A major big city daily? A local newspaper of record along the proposed pipeline path? Nope: the Valdosta State University student newspaper, The Spectator, has done what its bigger newspaper colleagues have not dared: oppose the Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline and demand renewable energy instead. Where students lead, maybe their elders will follow.

Editorial in The Spectator 1 May 2014 (I added the links and images), Pipeline a risk to Valdosta, Continue reading →