Yet another reason to end the failed War on Drugs: by far most U.S. wiretaps are for that one reason. Sure, a wiretap helped catch a Mexican drug lord. But without the War on Drugs, there would be no drug lords, just like alcohol bootleggers vanished after Prohibition ended.
Brian Anderson wrote for Motherboard 15 July 2014, Almost 90 Percent of All US Wiretaps Listen for Suspected Drug Deals,
Earlier this year, Continue reading
One precinct off the list for closing, but what about others? And what’s this about an unannounced change to the date of a publicly-announced meeting of the Board of Elections?
After several people went to the 8 July 2014 Special Called Board of Elections
Meeting that I found in the VDT Public Notice listings,
and some of them talked to that board and to Lowndes County Commissioners,
apparently somebody listened.
According to Lowndes County Elections Supervisor Deb Cox to
Lowndes County Democratic Party Elections Chair Dennis Marks 13 July 2014:
Mildred Hunter is not being considered for consolidation. Deb
However, she did not say what other precincts might still be slated for consolidation.
Rumor has it that Continue reading
Some like pithy posts, and others like long historical
summaries: see
the Solar Hot Topic for the latter.
I’ve just added links about solar parking lots, Oakland, CA, Dublin, GA and Lowndes High Schools, and super-lobbying group ALEC’s efforts in every state
legislature to oppose solar power.
Solar will win, simply because it’s already cheaper than anything else and the prices keep going down. The fossil industry will delay as long as possible to suck up more profit, but even Wall Street has turned against fossilized utilities that aren’t doing renewables yet. We the people will win. We just need to stop the fossil junkies from doing more damage before they lose. The sun is already rising.
-jsq
9AM to 1PM today! Valdosta Main Street is even advertising Valdosta Farm Days in Jacksonville.com:
Downtown Valdosta Farm Days, 9 a.m.-1 p.m., Lowndes County Courthouse Square, 100 E. Central Ave., Valdosta. Features a farmers’ market, arts and crafts and educational information on eating local, nutrition and food choices. Event is the first and third Saturdays May through September. (229) 259-3577 or ehill@valdostacity.com.
That’s the same historic Lowndes County Courthouse of the Preservation Committee meetings: Continue reading
At different times of day so people with different work schedules can attend, and actually asking for suggestions: you can tell these meetings were organized by Judge McClane, not by the Lowndes County Commission.
Update 2015-03-21: Videos of Hearing 1, 9 June 2014, videos of Hearing 2, 10 June 2014, videos of Hearing 3, 12 June 2014, and Committee Report 12 January 2015.
On the county’s front page:
The Lowndes County Historical Courthouse Preservation Committee will host a series of public input meetings, beginning next week. The meetings are being held in an effort to gather any ideas citizens may have regarding possible future uses for the historic Lowndes County Courthouse. Once the information is gathered, the committee will present their recommendations to the Board of Commissioners. Next week’s meeting schedule is as follows: Monday, June 9, 6:00 p.m.; Tuesday, June 10, 3:00 p.m.; Thursday, June 12, 1:00 p.m. All meetings will be held in Commission Chambers, Lowndes County Administrative Building, 327 North Ashley Street, Valdosta. For more information, please contact Amanda Smith, at 229-671-2400 or asmith@lowndescounty.com.
These meetings are also listed in the county’s calendar, but if you click on any of them you get a blank page.
The VDT has more details today, Continue reading
The same Energy Policy Act of 2005 that
subsidized dirty oil and fracked methane including LNG exports
also funded
that oxymoron “clean” coal such as Southern Company’s Plant Ratcliffe
in Mississippi,
ethanol production lining the pockets of Monsanto, and
the $8.3 billion loan guarantee
to Georgia Power for the new nukes at Plant Vogtle.
2005 was a very long time ago in solar PV years:
prices are halved, and installed solar power production is up more
than ten times and growing exponentially like compound interest.
We need to stop throwing money at dirty, water-sucking,
centralized baseload 20th century non-solutions and get on with
clean 21st century distributed solar and wind power
for jobs, for energy independence, and for clean air and water,
not to mention less climate change.
-jsq
This month’s eia report confirms that solar did exactly what former FERC Chair Jon Wellinghoff predicted: “That’s what is happening in solar. It could double every two years.” Wellinghoff’s further prediction remains on the money: “…at its present growth rate, solar will overtake wind in about ten years. It is going to be the dominant player.” Because of exponential growth like compound interest caused by ever-falling solar PV costs, solar will win like the Internet did.
U.S. Energy Information Administration (eia) wrote 22 April 2014, Solar-electric Generating Capacity Increases Drastically in the Last Four Years,
U.S. solar capacity increased significantly in the last 4 years. In 2010, the total solar capacity was 2,326 MW which accounted for a comparatively small fraction (0.22%) of the total U.S. electric generating. capacity. By February 2014, this capacity increased 418% to 12,057 MW, a 9,731 MW gain, and now accounts for almost 1.13% of total U.S. capacity. Reported planned solar capacity additions indicate continued growth
12,057 / 2,326 = 5.18 times, which is more than 2 * 2 = 4, ergo Wellinghoff was right. Continue reading
Candidates for Lowndes County Commission went on the record ( Mark Wisenbaker and Tom Hochschild both running for District 3, and Norman Bennett and Gretchen Quarterman both running for District 5), plus a statement by County Chairman Bill Slaughter, in addition to essential background information from directly affected landowners in the audience and from the panelists on why the proposed Sabal Trail methane pipeline is bad for property values, is hazardous here and elsewhere, and will be obsolete in a few decades, all at a SpectraBusters panel on the Sabal Trail pipeline at VSU, Saturday 29 March 2014.
The panelists were Continue reading
A question asked about big oil and Mobile is just as relevant to every local and state government along the proposed Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline, and Transco and Florida Southeast Connection, too. A couple of local elected officials and several candidates did make public statements Saturday (stay tuned), so maybe we’re starting to get some answers to this question in Lowndes County, Georgia. Some other locations have already been getting answers.
Brad Nolen wrote for New American Journal 28 March 2014, How Big Oil Controls Local Governments: Whom Do You Serve? Thoughts on Local Government and Dirty Industries,
Now, it should go without saying that the purpose of councils, commissions and public office in general is to represent the varied interests of the citizens, and hopefully through consensus- seeking achieve some semblance of collective wisdom; and then, if we’re really lucky to apply said wisdom in charting our course toward a Mobile our great grandchildren will be proud to inherit.
Yet, when it came to finding a voice to protect our drinking water from Big Oil, we heard nothing substantive from our local leaders, even though we marched on their doorsteps in boots that are still wet with BP oil.
And now, Continue reading
Maybe we should stop inviting toxic industries to Lowndes County.
We’ve been doing that with coal ash, PCBs, superfund wastewater,
used diapers in recycling, and suing local businesses while not terminating
an exclusive franchise with a company that is involved in all of that.
Not to mention Sterling Chemical.
Here in Lowndes County we have
TVA coal ash and Florida coal ash
in our landfill,
and the landfill operator spreads the coal ash on roads on the site,
which is just uphill from the Withlacoochee River.
GA EPD
fined that landfill operator $27,500 in January 2013
for accepting PCBs into that same Pecan Row Landfill.
The same landfill that accepted
196,500 gallons of wastewater from the
Seven Out Superfund site in Waycross, GA.
A landfill that is in an aquifer recharge zone. Continue reading