Tag Archives: Nathan Deal

Nydia Tisdale should be emulated, not punished: LAKE to Judge 2017-12-17

You can also write a letter of support. Please send it today before the sentencing hearing 9AM December 18, 2017.

Nydia Tisdale

Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange
3338 Country Club Road #L336, Valdosta, GA 31605
www.l-a-k-e.org
lakesubmissions@gmail.com
229-242-0102

December 17, 2017

Hon. Senior Judge Martha Christian
Dawson County Judges Office
25 Justice Way, Suite 4202
Dawsonville, GA 30534
C/o Catherine Bernard
catherine@bernardlawoffices.com

Your Honor,

Nydia Tisdale is an inspiration for everyone who is in favor of the First Amendment, especially citizen journalists such as ourselves. Her years of educating local governments about Georgia’s open meetings laws by handing out materials, and of shining a light on local government activities by videoing their meetings, are exemplary and should be emulated, not punished.

With attorney Bruce Harvey inside AJC
Photo: John S. Quarterman for LAKE, 14 October 2016.

The misdemeanor conviction of Nydia Tisdale makes no sense, since Continue reading →

Video: Nydia Tisdale thanks her supporters

We asked Nydia Tisdale to say a few words about her recent legal situation, and here’s what she said.

See previous post for context of what she’s talking about, and of course Nydia’s website About Forsyth and her YouTube channel.

Continue reading →

Visiting Nydia Tisdale

Update 2016-10-19: And we asked Nydia to speak directly through YouTube.

Here’s Nydia Tisdale with her picture on the front page of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Front page of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution Gretchen and I dropped in on Nydia Sunday afternoon in Roswell, GA. Needless to say, we support Nydia. She usually doesn’t even provide commentary with her video reports, yet when videoing public meetings she’s repeatedly faced obstruction from people who don’t seem to know the First Amendment, nor even the Four Amendment, much less Georgia’s Open Meetings Law.

Chris Joyner, AJC, 6 October 2016, Ga. citizen journalist faces possible jail time, Continue reading →

Natural gas leak so bad VDT notices it

Sempra Energy’s California leak stinks so bad the VDT smelled it from 3,000 miles away. But GA Gov. Nathan Deal still can’t smell Sabal Trail over campaign contributions from Sempra and from Spectra Energy.

Brian Melley, AP, 25 November 2015, Utility plans to mask awful odor from uncontrolled gas leak,

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A utility trying to stop a monthlong leak at a massive natural gas storage facility near a Los Angeles neighborhood said it planned to use a mist to mask the sickening stench as work continues — possibly for three more months — to plug the well.

Even the 9-inch pipeline to Berrien County Continue reading →

GA Gov. Nathan Deal signs solar financing law

The sun is finally rising on Georgia, and if that is possible, Florida can follow, and the southeast, the U.S., and the world.

Today is a historic day, when even a governor who took campaign finance funds from a long list of fossil fuel pipeline companies, the governor of the most corrupt state (least stringent ethics laws), when that governor finally signed a law that even the most corruption-prone legislature, after squelching similar bills for a dozen years, finally passed as HB 57 unanimously in both houses.

Dave Williams, Atlanta Business Chronicle, 12 may 2015, Gov. Deal signs bill letting solar installers offer customers third-party financing,

Georgia property owners will get more affordable options for installing solar panels at their homes and businesses under a bill Gov. Nathan Deal signed into law Tuesday.

The legislation, which sailed through the General Assembly unanimously, will let solar installers offer customers third-party financing of installations. That’s a major change from the old law, which required customers to pay up front.

Already two years ago the Georgia Public Service Commissioners, even though overwhelmingly campaign-funded by the industries they regulate, required Georgia Power to buy twice as much solar energy as it wanted. This year Georgia Power’s parent Southern Company’s annual report says its main source of new revenue for both 2013 and 2014 was solar power. And Georgia has already leaped from far behind to become the fastest growing solar market in the nation, with numerous Georgia Power solar utility-scale installations and smaller ones like for Alton Burns in Thomas County and today for George Bennett in Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia. This new law Gov. Deal just signed will accelerate that growth even more.

Luis Martinez, NRDC, 12 May 2015, The Sun Also Rises in the Southeast, Continue reading →

Idaho citizen files $1.5 million wrongful arrest suit against local appointed body

Speaking up in a public meeting should result in violations of someone’s rights under the First (“peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances”), Fifth (“nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law”), or Eighth (“Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.”) Amendments. Anti-fracking activist Alma Hasse is seeking legal redress. This could be a nationwide trend, with one local bully apologizing to Nydia Tisdale to avoid jail in Forsyth County, Georgia, after settling for $200,000 for being ejected from the Cummings, Georgia City Council for videoing. Nydia hasn’t filed charges yet for the case of the six missing screams, in which she was forcibly ejected from a public campaign event headlined by Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal for videoing. Maybe if you advertise a public meeting, you can’t throw someone out for videoing, and you can’t arrest somebody for speaking up in public government meeting.

Alma Hasse was arrested for Continue reading →

Videos: Peggy Green apologizes to Nydia Tisdale to avoid jail time

Tuesday morning assailant Peggy Green apologized a year after Nydia Tisdale asked. The judge remarked he was happy at the outcome so nobody had to face jail time. So, if you want your meeting to be private, don’t advertise it as “open to the public”. And when someone shows up with a camera, don’t try to throw them out, especially not physically.

From Nydia’s blog post here’s the video: Continue reading →

Nydia Tisdale settles city council video case for $200,000

Perhaps elected and appointed officials will take note: you are public servants, and the public can record what you do. Which, if you treat the public as your allies and not your enemies, can be greatly to your advantage.

Nydia Tisdale wrote for AboutForsyth.com 17 March 2015, Nydia Tisdale settles lawsuit against Cumming Mayor Gravitt,

On the eve of trial, Citizen journalist Nydia Tisdale settled her longstanding federal lawsuit asserting the right to film public meetings for $200,000 along with a new policy that ensures future filming of Cumming City Council meetings.

And that ain’t all. Steve Visser, AJC, 17 March 2015, Steve Visser Cumming must pay blogger $200,000 for blocking filming of council, Continue reading →

The Case of the Six Missing Screams: Nydia Tisdale’s video edited by sheriff’s office?

It looks like the “public” Pumpkin Farm Republican campaign rally headlined by Gov. Nathan Deal not only caused a citizen journalist to be roughed up and evicted, and her camera taken, apparently the local law edited her video recording to remove the sound of her screams.

Jim Galloway wrote 22 September 2014, The Case of the Six Missing Screams,

You’ll remember Tisdale as the citizen-journalist from Roswell who was arrested in August at a GOP rally at a pumpkin farm in Dawsonville for pointing a video recorder at candidates. Which is what she does.

In front of the top of the GOP ticket, including Gov. Nathan Deal, Tisdale was grabbed — then roughed up. Her camera was Continue reading →

SolarCity in Buffalo: 1,000 megawatts capacity, 3,000 jobs

Three times as many millios of dollars invested as expected, 3,000 jobs, and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo says “they could have gone anywhere on the planet”. They could have come here. They went to snowy Buffalo.

David Robinson wrote for Buffalo News 23 September 2014, ‘Historic day for Buffalo,’ Zemsky says of SolarCity RiverBend plans,

SolarCity’s planned factory in South Buffalo — and the 3,000 jobs that come with it — packs a powerful economic punch.

To be built on the former Republic Steel plant site in South Buffalo, the factory is expected to bring more new jobs to the region than the steel maker ever had in its heyday.

With the ability to make enough solar panels to generate more than 1,000 megawatts of electricity, the factory would be Continue reading →