Category Archives: Media

FBI investigating CCA about Gladiator School again

Indefatigable reporter gets FBI to investigate profiteering private prison company: again. CCA already lost the contract for Idaho State Prison and two other CCA prisons have closed. Maybe this time the FBI will shut CCA down.

Rebecca Boone wrote for AP yesterday, APNewsBreak: FBI investigates prison company,

The FBI has launched an investigation of the Corrections Corporation of America over the company’s running of an Idaho prison with a reputation so violent that inmates dubbed it “Gladiator School.”

The Nashville, Tenn.-based CCA has operated Idaho’s largest prison for more than a decade, but last year, CCA officials acknowledged it had understaffed the Idaho Correctional Center by thousands of hours in violation of the state contract. CCA also said employees falsified reports to cover up the vacancies. The announcement came after an Associated Press investigation showed CCA sometimes listed guards as working 48 hours straight to meet minimum staffing requirements.

The Idaho State Police was asked to investigate the company last year but didn’t, until Continue reading →

Taxes and outreach @ LCC 2014-02-28

Got a TV camera in there this morning.

Here’s the agenda.

See also yesterday’s session.

Continue reading →

Susan Waller refusing to answer a question @ Sabal 2013-12-17

Here’s Susan Waller of Spectra refusing to even listen to a question that she had just asked for:


FERC-required Open House about the Sabal Trail natural gas pipeline
by Sabal Trail Transmission and Spectra Energy,
Video by Blake Clark, Madison, Madison County, Florida, 17 December 2013.

Blake Clark remarked on this video he took:

This short clip speaks for it’s self. Notice Susan Waller’s condescending tone through out the clips entirety. It is assumed, and I have witnessed her speaking to most landowners inquiring more information in the same tone here. Are the people at Sabal (Spectra) or “what ever they may be calling themselves this week” really concerned for you, your questions, or your property? You decide!

Visit Spectrabusters.org for more information on the Sabal Trail Pipeline, Thank you!

Earlier she complained that someone who presented her with evidence was “disruptive”.

What I wanted to ask her about was Continue reading →

Video of Spectra answering a question about Sabal Trail in Madison, FL @ Sabal 2013-12-17

When someone took Susan Waller up on her offer to answer questions about the Sabal Trail pipeline, she seemed to find the truth as reported by her own company to a federal pipeline oversight agency to be “disruptive”.

Disable Sabal – Sabal Trail (Spectra Energy) Open House Madison, FL,

We are a very genuine, safe, law-abiding company.
So said Spectra VP or Shareholder Outreach Susan Waller. She then complained that “your group” was “disruptive” and “you don’t want to hear the truth”.

So Ben Vieth showed Waller lists of incidents of corrosion reported by Spectra to PHMSA. To which another Sabal Trail rep. said, “We have a safe operation”.

Here’s the video:


Video of Spectra answering a question about Sabal Trail in Madison, FL
Sabal Trail natural gas pipeline,
FERC-required Open House, Sabal Trail Transmission and Spectra Energy (Sabal),
Video by Blake Clark, Madison, Madison County, Florida, 17 December 2013.

It’s interesting that even after Continue reading →

You gonna take him, too? –police illegally arresting journalist

It all started with someone handing out DVDs in a Federal Reserve museum, continued with people being arrested on a public sidewalk for doing nothing, and ended with a judge reaffirming that yes, you can video police.

John [?] wrote for Next News Network a 19 October 2013, Federal Reserve Bank Settles Counterclaim with Journalist,

In May of 2011 in Missouri, Bruce Baumann was peacefully passing out DVDs with his local media chapter, WeAreChange Colorado, outside the Federal Reserve Bank in Kansas City. However, when Baumann and fellow activist Ronald Lewis attempted to enter the Federal Reserve’s money museum, they faced resistance from the private bank’s security, which led to both of their arrest. Although this resulted in ongoing litigation for nearly 30 months following the incident, Baumann was confident that he would not only be successful in defeating the charges, but he would also be victorious in trampling the Federal Reserve Bank with a counterclaim.

Unbeknownst to Lewis, his name was previously recorded on a list Continue reading →

Press freedom is not opposed to freedom –AP

Press freedom is an essential part of liberty, and without liberty there is no security. It’s good to see the CEO of AP speaking up about this, after Julian Assange, Bruce Schneier, and Benjamin Franklin.

Colleen Slevin wrote for AP yesterday, AP CEO: Press freedom v. security a ‘false choice’,

Governments that try to force citizens to decide between a free press and national security create a “false choice” that weakens democracy, and journalists must fight increasing government overreach that has had a chilling effect on efforts to hold leaders accountable, the president and CEO of The Associated Press said Saturday.

Gary Pruitt told the 69th General Assembly of the Inter American Press Association that the U.S. Justice Department’s secret seizure of records of thousands of telephone calls to and from AP reporters in 2012 is one of the most blatant violations of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution the 167-year-old news cooperative has ever encountered.

The Justice Department action involving the AP resonated far beyond the U.S., including Continue reading →

Fracking at VSU

It’s good to see fracking reviewed in the VSU Spectator, including that it’s coming to Georgia unless we stop it, and we should stop it. It’s unfortunate the story ends with a bad idea when there’s a much better idea already rapidly being deployed: solar power.

Stephen Cavallaro wrote yesterday for the VSU Spectator, Fracking hits Georgia,

Fracking, the process of harvesting the environmentally unfriendly natural gas called shale that is being pushed by the government, plows its way through Georgia.

More like being pushed by fossil fuel companies who have bought too many politicians.

In March, I discussed a deal backed by the government between British-owned Centrica and American-owned Cheniere. The agreement was that Cheniere would spread toxic chemicals across America in order to fuel millions of British homes.

Kind of like Continue reading →

Pull out your phone, MacGyver, and take a picture of cars powered by rooftop solar

MacGyver needs to show an imprint on a floorboard to someone. Pull out your phone and take a picture! No, in 1986 he MacGyvers a chisel and hammer and pries the floorboard up.

Even in 1996 the telcos and most of the public thought dedicated copper and fiber connections were needed for reliable communications. (“Allison, can you explain what the Internet is?”)

But now you can pull out your phone and take a picture and post it over the packet-switched Internet to facebook for all the world to see.

In 2023 baseload nukes and coal plants and oil pipelines will be like phone booths connected by dedicated copper, while rooftop solar charging cars will be as common as phones in your pockets. Solar power will win like the Internet did, beating all other sources of power within a decade.

Meanwhile, Continue reading →

VDT wins awards, two for people who don’t work there anymore

VDT fourth in class in newspaper AP Georgia awards, half for people who don’t work there anymore.

VDT today, Times wins AP awards; I’ve added some links and notes in [square brackets]:

The Valdosta Daily Times won several awards at the recent Georgia Associated Press Managing Editors Newspaper Awards luncheon in Atlanta.

Former Times’ reporter Jason Schaefer received a First Place in Deadline Reporting award for his story on homeless individuals in 2012. [“Life on Hard Ground”, which apparently is not online, but apparently was published on paper 3 December 2012.]

Former news photographer Paul Leavy won a Third Place Award in Photography for his photo of a meth lab arrest at a local motel. [For Tip leads to meth lab raid 27 January 2012, by another former reporter, David Rodock.]

This is the first admission I’ve seen that Jason Schaefer doesn’t work there anymore, even though his byline hasn’t appeared since his last story on homeless people, 3 July 2013.

Kay Harris also won two awards, for Continue reading →

LAKE has a google+ page

LAKE now has a google+ page. Please add the LAKE google+ page to your circles on g+.

Yes, I previously announced lake was on g+, but google complained we were posting too much on that individual account, so we made a business media page, and now google is complaining don’t post enough! So, send us stuff to post, eh?

-jsq