On the LAKE Front

Boston catches up with Atlanta: you can video police

Poilce are public employees, and the public has a right to video them doing their duty; so says a federal appeals court.

Pace Lattin wrote for Technorati, Federal Courts Rule it is Not Illegal to Film Police John S. Quarterman

The First Court of Appeals has reached a decision that would allow the general public to video-tape police officers while they are working. This decision comes right after several well-known public cases have come to light involving citizens being arrested for video-taping police.

This specific case in question was Simon Glik vs.The City of Boston (and several police officers), in which a teenage Simon Gilk was arrested after videotaping Boston Police abusing a homeless man. While Mr. Gilk was not interfering with the police, he was arrested on wiretapping charges.

The ACLU had sued on his behalf, even when the charges were dropped, noting that there was a growing epidemic of citizens in the United States being arrested by police for videotaping, even when documenting police brutality and abuse.

The First Court Agreed with the ACLU that this should be legal, and wrote that: "The filming of government officials engaged in their duties in a public place, including police officers performing their responsibilities, fits comfortably within these principles [of protected First Amendment activity].

The Atlanta Police Department already avoided this problem by settling a previous case and making a policy that citizens can video police. This appeals court ruling now says anybody can, nationwide, because of the First Amendment.

Why has this become an issue lately?

"I have seen cameras here at this building when it concerns football" — George Boston Rhynes @ VBOE 29 August 2011

If TV cameras show up for football, why don't they show up "when the people come together on issues such as this, not just black folk, not just white folk, but all Americans are here tonight because of our concern"?

George Boston Rhynes made three points:

He didn't like it —Roger Budd III @ VCC 21 April 2011

Roger Budd III read a speech about socialism and communism and government oppression. He didn't like not being able to build a restaurant because he hadn't yet been able to get a building permit. Hm, I guess he wouldn't like the city paying for making videos of its meetings available to the public, like me and my socialist buddy Dan Davis suggested.

Here's the video:

He didn't like it —Roger Budd III @ VCC 21 April 2011
Regular monthly meeting of the Valdosta City Council (VCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 21 April 2011,
Videos by George Boston Rhynes for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

-jsq

The Internet backwoods: that's south Georgia

Saturday I heard somebody bragging about how fast the Internet is in Atlanta. That would be maybe a tenth of the speed it is in Tokyo. But still blazing fast compared to the broke-down wagon in a muddy ditch speeds we get in south Georgia:

I wrote that article more than a year ago, and Internet speeds in rural Georgia have not improved much if at all. This isn't just about playing Farmville. It's about communicating with your relatives, about competing in business,

Ecological value of Georgia Forests --Georgia Farm Monitor

Georgia Farm Monitor posts its TV episodes on YouTube, including this one, Forestry Adds Huge Amount To Georgia's Economy, starring Wesley Langdale of The Langdale Company and Chuck Leavell of the Rolling Stones (both tree farmers) announcing $37 billion economic value of Georgia forest ecology:

Protesters, police, and press at Wiregrass Solar LLC groundbreaking

All these protesters were in favor of the groundbreaking today for the Wiregrass Solar LLC plant, but they wanted to object to the related biomass plant proposed for next door. Here you can see Valdosta police saying they're going have to issue a summons to some protesters because they didn't have a permit, Valdosta Mayor Fretti saying the permit process is simple, and Dr. Michael Noll president of Wiregrass Activists for Clean Energy (WACE) explaining that they only heard of the event recently, and besides he'd be happy to pick up a shovel and help with the groundbreaking for the solar plant:

Wiregrass Solar LLC groundbreaking, 21 Feb 2011,
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia.
Video by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange. Enter the police chief.

Biomass Town Hall, 8 July 2010

On July 8th there was a town Hall meeting about the biomass plant proposed for Valdosta.

Pastor Angela Manning of New Life Ministries sums up why she called this Town Hall meeting:

Speakers included:

J.R. Ewing (OK, Larry Hagman) Goes Solar

Larry Hagman, most famous for playing Texas oilman JR Ewing, has gone solar. He says the east coast blackout of 2003 made him think of the fragility of the grid, so he installed enough solar panels and inverters to power his rather large estate:

He spent about $750,000 and got about $300,000 back in rebates. With the current Georgia 35% rebate and the federal 30% rebate on renewable energy installation, an investment of that amount could get back around $487,500 in rebates. Of course, the average home solar installation isn't nearly that big, more like $15,000, with something like $9,750 rebate, or around $5,250 net.

-jsq

PCA's building the greenest mill in the country --CEO

Malynda Fulton writes in the VDT that, according to its CEO Paul Stecko, Packaging Corporation of America (PCA) is building

...the greenest mill in the U.S. and possibly the least costly to operate. This mill will become the mill of the future instead of the mill from the past.

This is at the PCA plant in Clyattville.

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Why green?

Through the new boilers, PCA was able to eliminate the use of fossil fuel and run the boilers on renewable energy, Stecko explained.

In other words, it's a biomass plant. The article doesn't say whether the biomass is entirely materials that would otherwise have been discarded, nor how efficient it is.

The article does say: