Tag Archives: Law

Vote No on the charter school amendment —Teresa Lawrence for GA House District 174 @ AAUW 2012-10-24


Teresa Lawrence for Georgia House district 174 @ AAUW 2012-10-24
Teresa Lawrence, running for statehouse district 174,
says vote No on the charter school amendment.
She was asked about it
at the AAUW Political Forum at Valdosta High School Wednesday, and

answered:


Vote No on the charter school amendment —Teresa Lawrence for GA House District 174

Political Forum, Deborah Van Petten, President (AAUW), Dr. Jim Peterson, Moderator

Video by John S. Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE),

Valdosta High School, Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 24 October 2012.

I believe we should vote no for the charter school amendment.
We have a means of passing it at the local level
to approve charter schools now, and I don’t believe
we need to give that decision over to the state level.


Ellis Black
Teresa Lawrence’s opponent, the incumbent Ellis Black,

did not show up at any of the four local candidate forums
in Lowndes County.
However, he voted both for

HR 1162 that put the referendum on the ballog
and for

HB 797 that will suck up more money per pupil for charter schools than
for public schools, taking the extra out of our local tax dollars.

We know where Teresa Lawrence for district 174 stands: against the charter school amendment.

-jsq

Videos of candidates @ AAUW 2012-10-24


Welcome
After the fourth and final candidates forum,

moderated for AAUW by Dr. Jim Peterson last night at VHS,
the statehouse candidate attendance report card is:

Incumbents:
Ellis Black (R 174) 0 of 4, Amy Carter (R 175) 1 of 4, and Tim Golden (R Sen-8) 1 of 4.

Challengers: Teresa Lawrence (D 174) 4 of 4, JC Cunningham (D 175) 4 of 4, and
Bikram Mohanty (D Sen-8) 4 of 4.

Open seat 177: J. Glenn Gregory (R) 4 of 4, Dexter Sharper (D) 4 of 4.

Local candidates: 4 of 4 for every one of them,

Gretchen Quarterman (D) and Bill Slaughter (R) for Lowndes County Chairman,

Chris Prine (D) and J.D. Yeager (R) for Lowndes County Sheriff,

John Gates (R)
and
Demarcus Marshall (D)
for Lowndes County Commission District 4,

Justin Cabral (R)
and
Jason Cain (D)
for Solicitor General.

Here are

videos of the entire forum.


Candidates Forum at VHS by AAUW, Deb Van Petten President,

Videos by John S. Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE),

Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 24 October 2012.

Videos of the previous 3 forums:

Continue reading →

ALEC’s “our state legislators” behind multi-year GA constitutional amendment referendum


Ronnie Chance
Look who sponsored

Georgia Senate Resolution 1231 which put
the second referendum question on the ballot!
Two of ALEC’s “our state legislators”,
Senators Ronnie Chance of the 16th,
and
Senate Majority Leader Chip Rogers of the 21st,
are among the sponsors (Chance is the first sponsor).

SourceWatch’s ALEC Exposed

found Ronnie Chance on ALEC’s International Relations Task Force.
Rogers himself told CBS News how much he values ALEC,

Who is ALEC?
By Mark Strassmann and Phil Hirschkorn 30 June 2012.
Rogers spelled out the same thing ALEC itself told me:
it considers people like Chance and Rogers
“our state legislators”.
“Our” as in belonging to ALEC, not representing you the voters and taxpayers.


Chip Rogers
Guess who sponsored the bill that put the charter school amendment on the ballot,
HB 1162 in its Senate form?

Chip Rogers.
And who sponsored the companion bill that would suck money out of public
schools and give more per pupil to charter schools, using our local tax dollars,
HB 797 in the Senate?

Chip Rogers.
And House sponsors Jan Jones (R 46th) and Edward Lindsey (R 54th) of both bills

are also ALEC’s “our state legislators”.

I don’t always agree with Adam Smith, but when I do, I quote The Wealth of Nations from 1776:

Continue reading →

Softbank’s Son to install solar in Japan: watch out, Georgia Power!

The same Masayoshi Son who shook up Japan’s Internet market

and is about to do the same in the U.S.
is moving to modify Japan’s power market from nuclear to solar.
Watch out, Georgia Power and Southern Company!
If you don’t get a move on, Son-san will eat your lunch, too.

Mariko Yasu wrote for Bloomberg Businessweek 23 June 2011,

Softbank’s CEO Wants a Solar-Powered Japan,


Masayoshi Son
Billionaire Masayoshi Son made a fortune taking on Japan’s phone
monopoly. Now he aims to shake up its power utilities after the
worst nuclear crisis in 25 years. The 53-year-old chief executive
officer of Softbank says he will build solar farms to generate
electricity, with support from at least 33 of Japan’s 47
prefectures. He’s asking for access to transmission networks owned
by the 10 regional utilities and an agreement that they buy his
electricity. No other company has secured unlimited access to the
those transmission networks. The utilities would not comment.
Japan’s main business organization, the Keidanren, called for
“careful analysis” before any drastic change in the power system
took place.

If Japan ever felt ready to back Son’s ambitious plan, this is the
moment. Radiation has spread across at least 600 square kilometers
(230 square miles) in the northeast since the Mar. 11 earthquake and
tsunami led to meltdowns at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant.
Outgoing Prime Minister Naoto Kan said in May he will rethink a plan
to increase atomic power to 50 percent of the nation’s energy output
from 30 percent. Renewable energy already accounts for 10 percent,
according to Japan’s Agency for Natural Resources and Energy. Son
wants to see that tripled by 2020. “The question is how this nation
is going to survive after cutting nuclear power,” he said at a
government panel meeting on June 12.


Complacent Georgia Power and SO, you maybe don’t think he can do it?
NTT probably thought that, too:

Continue reading →

Quitman 10+2 trial set for December



George Boston Rhynes notes a trial date of 10 December 2012
has finally been set for the Quitman 10+2.
They were arrested back in 2010 for alleged voter fraud.
Their “speedy trial” has taken so long that one of them has died.

The governor did convene a committee that

ejected them from the school board in January.
After
repeatedly going to Atlanta,
after

Georgia Association of Black Elected Officials (GABEO) held its general
meeting in Quitman,
after

Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp came to Quitman to hear complaints
about the handling of the Quitman 10+2 case and

recent irregularities involving the Brooks County Board of Elections,
members of the Quitman 10+2

were finally reinstated on the school board 9 October 2012.
Yet their “speedy trial” has been delayed for two full years,
all the way until after this
year’s election.

Here’s

the video:

Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution:

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a
speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and
district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district
shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of
the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the
witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining
witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for
his defence.

-jsq

Candidates again tonight @ AAUW 2012-10-24

Will any of our incumbent state legislators show up this time?
Their challengers have spoken every time.

AAUW logo
7PM tonight is the last time to see all the local candidates in one place:
Wednesday 24 October 2012,
Performing Arts Center, Valdosta High School, 3101 North Forrest Street, Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia,

AAUW presents a Political Forum.
This one, unlike some previous ones, is advertised on the sponsoring
organization’s website
(although oddly not on its
facebook page)
and
in the VDT calendar.

So far, Ellis Black (R 174) 0 of 3, Amy Carter (R 175), 1 of 3, and Tim Golden (R Sen-8) 1 of 3.
Challengers Teresa Lawrence (D 174), JC Cunningham (D 175), and
Bikram Mohanty (D Sen-8) all spoke at 3 of 3.
Videos of the previous forums:


Candidates at 30 Club forum at Serenity Church

Candidates at Homebuilders Association Forum at Rainwater Conference Center

Meet the Candidates by Chamber of Commerce at VSU


vote
Don’t forget

to vote,
today, tomorrow, Saturday, or on that great election day, November 6th 2012.

-jsq

Videos @ 30Club 2012-10-22



Here's

a video playlist
of the Candidate Forum last night organized by the 30 Club at Serenity Church.
Probably more commentary later; for now, in the interests of speed, just the raw videos.


Candidates Forum, 30 Club,
J.D. Rice, President

Video by John S. Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE),

Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 22 October 2012.

-jsq

Animal shelter violations in Chatham County

Some of an animal shelter
story coming out in Chatham County sounds familiar.

Mary Landers wrote for SavannahNow 20 October 2012,

Savannah Chatham Animal Control Shelter cited for violating state rules:
Local professionals call shelter’s care “inhumane”



The county-funded Savannah Chatham Animal Control Shelter was found
to have repeatedly violated animal protection requirements in two
state inspections last month, and its practices are being criticized
as inhumane by four local animal professionals.

One professional criticized the shelter not only in writing,
but also by revoking the shelter’s permission to use her
veterinary license.
The Chatham County Commission says it’s dealt with the problem. We’ll see.

-jsq

We can charge you even if it’s cancelled! —CWIPped Georgia Power


Steve Willis
An excellent article about the problems with Georgia Power’s
new nukes on the Savannah River gets at something you may not know:
they can charge you for them even if they’re cancelled!

Steve Willis wrote for the Georgia Sierran Oct./Nov./Dec. 2012 page 5,

Overruns, Uncertainty Plague Vogtle Expansion,

If Southern Company abandons this
project, the CWIP law not only allows
Southern Company to keep all of the
CWIP payments legally extorted from
customers, but allows them to keep
CWIP fees in place or even increase them
until all their costs and profits have been
fully recovered. Due to the run-away
cost overruns, the CWIP charge on your
monthly bill is already more than three
times what Southern Company confidently
claimed it would be at this time
when they presented their case to “your”
Georgia legislature in 2009.

And that

2009 legislature
rubberstamped CWIP so it appears on your Georgia Power bill as

Nuclear Construction Cost Recovery Rider.
Willis reminds us that the 2 nukes already at Plant Vogtle were projected
to be four nukes for $600 million and ended up being two for $9 billion.

Everyone has heard the saying “Fool me once, shame on you;
fool me twice, shame on me.” If the Vogtle expansion costs
balloon, as many analysts expect, it will cost

Continue reading →

Georgia Power hikes prices for gas and nuclear, then complains about solar

Back in February,

Georgia Power's natural gas Plant McDonough
Georgia Power argued that a free market in solar power would cause
price increases.
Yet they already increased prices for natural gas and
for nuclear plants that won’t produce electricity for years, if ever,
and are already massively overbudget and behind schedule.
Why should we believe them about solar when it’s their archaic projects
they already
are deploying that already have increased customer prices?

In February,

Greg Roberts of Georgia Power argued,

Another reason is that the customers of Georgia Power, Georgia’s

Georgia Power is the snail in the way of solar power in Georgia
EMC’s and Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia are paying for the
poles and wires to transmit power, and the back-up generation to
cover the electricity needs when the sun isn’t shining. These costs
will have to be recovered from other customers not getting the
privileged deal from the developer, raising everyone else’s rates.

While there are already numerous federal and state tax and other
incentives for solar development in Georgia, it is still much more
costly than the service provided by utilities. But what if
third-party solar developers could get other electric customers in
Georgia to foot the bill? That would be the result of this
legislation.

It’s like asking Sally’s Café to pay the electric bill of Joe’s
Cafe across the street, thus allowing Joe to undercut Sally’s
prices.

Georgia Power well knows they could take a percentage of any power
transmitted through their lines, so that wires and poles and
backup generation argument is ludicrous.
And as far as subsidies, how about this one,

Georgia Power, Get the Facts, Investing in Georgia’s Energy Future:

Continue reading →