Georgia has gained enough population in the past ten years to add a congressional seat. This means redrawing the CongressionalContinue readingdistrict lines not only to balance population, but to also add another representative in Congress. Lowndes County has been split between the first and second districts, and all spring rumors of where we might end up were circulating. Eventually we saw a draft map that had Lowndes completely in the 8th District,
along with other counties along Interstate 75. That map made some sense south of Macon. Some communities of interest were preserved (most of the Lowndes-Valdosta MPO was in the same district) and the hospitality corridor of I-75 was in one district, along with the rural farms that surround it. Valdosta to Macon is easier to traverse than Valdosta to Savannah, or Valdosta to Columbus.
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BeforeBut then Congressman Jack Kingston stuck out his green tongue.
Tag Archives: Military
Locals speaks to Senators
J.D. Sumner wrote for the Albany Herald 9 August 2011, U.S. senators meet with public about concerns:
Then he grossly underestimated the military budget and said Congress wouldn’t tell the Pentagon what to do.Gretchen Quarterman, a Lowndes County Democrat who drove from Valdosta to participate in the meeting, asked both senators if they were committed to bringing U.S. armed forces abroad home, thereby saving money; money, she said, that could be spent on much-needed domestic programs like infrastructure improvements here.
“Everything has got to be on the table, and yes, defense has got to be on the table as well,” Isakson said. “But we have to make sure that we don’t slight the veterans who are coming home and will need proper care.”
George Boston Rhynes spoke: Continue reading
Transparency is key —Steve Kalland of NCSC
![](http://www.ncsc.ncsu.edu/admin/include/_upload/media/staff_pics/StevePic.jpg)
Other speakers had said you could have too much transparency, but Kalland pointed out that it was only through a hearing that North Carolina found out a major power company was going to use up its solar energy credits years ahead of schedule, and without transparency there couldn’t be real competition because the customers wouldn’t know who had which prices.
What else does it take to make a state competitive in solar? Kalland discussed this table (reformatted here from the copy of his presentation he gave me):
He said a lot more, but that’s a very interesting table to consider not only for a state, but for a region, like south Georgia, or a small metro area, like Valdosta MSA.Foundational Steps to Focus on Solar
Installed Capacity Manufacturing Interconnection Standards
Base Resources (economic or voices)
Early Adopters
Military or Large Federal
High Tech Firms
Corporate GreensUniversity Partnership Opportunities
Existing presence of businesses in multiple fields (diversification)
I know some people will react with: “but VSU is not a research university!” Nope, but this could be a way to add some research capacity to VSU.
-jsq