Click on the link to see the entire table, including the “Disburse Total” column on the right. Continue reading
Dean Poling and Kay Harris wrote a long article about weapons in prisons for the VDT 28 August 2011, An eye for an eye: Life behind bars, concluding:
The VDT has been trying to find out more since at least 2009, when Malynda Fulton wrote 9 November 2009, Department of Corrections says records are ‘state secrets’ or destroyed, Continue readingInmates are intelligent. All they have is time. Why? Because there is no rehabilitation anymore. They are merely being housed. The prison programs don’t work, especially for lifers with nothing else to lose. So they have plenty of time to figure out ways to beat the system.
Research quality of education, property taxes, and property values
after school consolidation, and you’ll find down, up, and down,
said this speaker.
Didn’t get his name; sorry.
I don’t have kids, but I have plenty of friends that do. that are in Valdosta city school system, and they like the direction that the school system is going. They like the quality of education that their children are getting at this time.You know, the research CUEE either did and rejected, according to Sam Allen about the questions VDT claims CUEE can’t answer. There are answers; just not ones CUEE likes.My grandfather used to say, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. It ain’t broke, so why are we going to let them try to fix it?
Do the research; I’ve done the research. Do the research on other communities that have consolidated two systems. When you get a big huge system, the quality of education goes down. Check it out. Research it.
Property taxes go up. Property values go down. Do the research.
Here’s the video:
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it @ VBOE 29 August 2011
education, referendum, consolidation, statement,
Work Session, Valdosta Board of Education (VBOE),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 29 August 2011.
Videos by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
-jsq
In addition to the Draft Constrained List for T-SPLOST
draft constrained list of T-SPLOST projects, which doesn’t even include dollar estimates,
this
longer report
contains details for each project.
And the cost to widen Old US 41 North from North Valdosta Road to
Union Road has gone up from
the previous estimate in June of
$8 million to $12 million in August, for a 50% increase!
I wonder if the County Commissioners know about this rapid cost inflation.
| Previous | Current | Difference | Increase% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PE | $650,000 | $800,000 | $150,000 | 23% |
| ROW | $850,000 | $1,200,000 | $350,000 | 41% |
| CST | $6,500,000 | $10,000,000 | $3,500,000 | 54% |
| Total | $8,000,000 | $12,000,000 | $4,000,000 | 50% |
Curious how when the components went up by odd amounts,
the total went up by exactly 50%.
It’s almost like the total was increased and then the components
were arranged to add up to that.
Also curious how the biggest increase, percentage (54%) and total ($3,500,000) is for construction. I could see how Rights of Way (ROW) acquisition costs might go up because people might not want this boondoggle in their front yards, but why was it so hard to estimate construction costs the first time?
And curious how that construction increase is a bit more than Continue reading
Here’s the video: Continue readingWe cannot duck this issue. I couldn’t duck it any more. I couldn’t sleep, if I wasn’t out advocating getting rid of the War on Drugs. You can’t get to end the War on Drugs that the whole bureaucratic institution of the United States of America has declared, unless you end prohibtion. They couldn’t do it with alcohol, and you can’t do it with drugs.
—Alice Huffman, President, California NAACP
Alot of times, the local county residents are too afraid of retaliation TO bring forth allegations of cruelty, or corrupted officials. So I’m all for outsiders tossing in their two cents. I don’t live in Lowndes Co – far from it – but I do know how corruption can fester in these rural counties when the residents choose not to speak out.Many other comments have appeared on that and other recent posts, some of which will probably get reposted here, but meanwhile you can go to the blog and see for yourself. In general, saying who you are will greatly increase the chances your comment will get reposted, as will sticking to issues and avoiding personal attacks.Kudos to ALL of the Lowndes Co taxpaying residents who speak out – not only for the animal’s rights, but for their own human rights, as well.
Corruption corrupts. Period. And if you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything.
-An Outsider Looking In
-jsq
Judy Green, a prison policy analyst says:
“The very first contract for the first private prison in America went to CCA, from INS.”Hear her in this video Private Prisons-Commerce in Souls by Grassroots Leadership that explains the private prison trade of public safety for private profit:
A local leader once called private prisons “good clean industry”. Does locking up people for private profit sound like “good clean industry” to you? Remember, not only is the U.S. the worst in the world for locking people up (more prisoners per capita and total than any other country in the world), but Georgia is the worst in the country, with 1 in 13 adults in the prison system. And private prisons don’t save money and they don’t improve local employment. As someone says in the video, who wants to live in a prison colony?
We don’t need a private prison in Lowndes County, Georgia. Spend that tax money on rehabilitation and education.
-jsq
PS: Owed to Jeana Brown.
Kristi E. Swartz wrote in the AJC today, Georgia Power trashes regulatory staff’s financial proposal for Vogtle cost overruns:
The PSC deal sounds fair to me, or actually rather generous.Georgia Power officials told state regulators they never would have started to build a new multi-billion-dollar nuclear power plant if they knew the company might be on the hook for certain potential cost overruns.
The company, they said, would be building a natural gas plant instead.
Georgia Power, which is the largest stakeholder in a partnership building two new reactors at Plant Vogtle, is responsible for $6.1 billion of the $14 billion project. The Georgia Public Service Commission’s staff wants to cut into the utility’s allowed profit margin if the project runs more than $300 million over budget. Profits would similarly get a boost if the reactors come in under budget by the same amount.
But not to the big-company socialists at Georgia Power:
At a PSC hearing Wednesday, company executives said the proposal could drive up financing costs of the project, potentially damage the ability to raise capital and eventually increase customer bills.Privatize the profits; socialize the risks! That’s the ticket!“As a member of the management team of the company, if this mechanism had been part of the original certification, we very likely would have not proceeded [with the project],” said Ann Daiss, Georgia Power’s comptroller.
They could spend less money building distributed solar farms and wind generators and get them built a lot faster with very little risk of cost overruns. Why isn’t Georgia Power interested in that?
“Even under the most adverse outcomes, the units remain highly profitable with very limited risk for investors,” [PSC staff member Tom] Newsome said. “We’ve been talking a lot about investors in this hearing and I think we need to be talking about [customers].”Profits paid for by customer rate hikes and taxes from you, the taxpayer. You’d have a better deal if Georgia Power built solar and wind plants.
-jsq
PS: Owed to Mandy Hancock.
AP wrote 4 July 2011, GA parolees & road maintenance
Georgia is expanding a pilot program that sanctions some parolees by putting them to work rather than returning them to prison.
The program began in Milledgeville, Gainesville, Columbus and Dalton. This summer it will be expanding to communities across Georgia.
Parolees are eligible if they have committed low-level violations of their supervision requirements, such as the onetime failure of a drug test or curfew violations.
How long will it take before these prisoners are sent to work in fields?
Wouldn’t it make more sense to stop wasting taxpayer dollars on locking up people for minor drug offenses?
Or maybe prison slave labor is a good way to celebrate July 4th.
-jsq
PS: Gretchen got this item from Dwight Rewis of Echols County.
It’s not just workers participating: Continue readingColquitt County’s Latino community is gearing up to make its presence known by, well, disappearing, at least as much as possible for the largest minority group.
On Friday, the day a strict new immigration law takes effect, many will stay home from work and refrain from shopping to help make others aware of the impact of their contributions in the county.