Organize the South

Taken from the Miami Herald. The Miami Workers Center has their own site, the story should be up soon.

Deal calls for 850 homes
Miami-Dade County has agreed to double the number of homes it plans to build where the old Scott-Carver Homes were demolished.

BY CHARLES RABIN
crabin@MiamiHerald.com

A newly brokered deal between Miami-Dade County leaders and a community organization that fights for the poor could mean hundreds of more affordable places to live in Liberty City.

The county has agreed to scrap its plans on the much-scrutinized HOPE VI project and greatly expand the number of homes that will be built in one of the county's poorest areas.

Both sides are hoping the plan will ease the problems caused by the failed HOPE VI project, which forced 1,178 families from their Scott-Carver Homes in 2000 with the belief that they could return to purchase their first homes in the rebuilt community.

But six years later, only a small percentage of the planned 411 affordable homes have been built, leaving hundreds of families scattered -- and many still waiting for the homes they were promised.

''In the last 48 hours we have struck an unprecedented deal with Miami-Dade County. We're now bringing back the same number of units'' that were demolished, said Sushma Sheth, communications director for the Miami Workers Center.

Monday's agreement calls for the construction of 850 units in an expanded area around Scott-Carver, and additional affordable homes on the old Scott-Carver site along Northwest 22nd Avenue.

The 850 homes would consist of public housing and Section 8 units, and others that will be available for purchase. The old plan called for 160 rental units and 411 affordable houses for purchase.

The idea is to get the poorest of the poor -- families of four with an annual income of $16,750 or less -- into the properties, say county officials.

Though Miami-Dade County Housing Director Kris Warren was unable to come up with a price tag, she said construction money would come from a combination of local, state and federal funding. The director said she hopes to begin searching for developers by the end of March.

Warren, brought in to help clean up problems at the housing agency, said she met with Workers Center Director Gihan Perera over the weekend to discuss the area's problems.

''We both agreed on what the needs are,'' said Warren.

Also to be built: A social services center and some form of monument to recognize the Scott-Carver Homes residents forced from their homes.

County leaders have planned a news conference this afternoon at Miami International Airport to announce the plans.

HOPE VI was demolished with great fanfare in 2000, but instead of building homes the Miami-Dade Housing Agency spent millions on architects, project managers and consultants who in several instances double-billed the county.

The new plans are the latest in a series of efforts by the county to come to grips with housing problems originally reported in The Miami Herald's House of Lies series last year, which showed widespread waste and corruption in federally and locally funded housing initiatives.

Since then the agency's entire management team has been replaced, rules have been changed and more than $18 million in contracts have been canceled with deadbeat developers.

Today's planned announcement comes after an investigation by federal regulators from Housing and Urban Development that was prompted by an audit that found widespread deficit spending, chaotic bookkeeping and shady deals going back almost a decade.

On Monday, a team of seven investigators was set to begin inspecting public-housing buildings across the county, checking whether residents were properly screened and review managers' plans for meeting budget and occupancy targets.

Remember how the state legislature was falling over themselves to pass legislation about eminent domain? This was after the Supreme Court expanded government's ability to take your stuff. This was also the year after the same legislature tried to expand it's ability to take your stuff. Seems the issue isn't dead. This story is from the Macon Telegraph.


Senate panel approves measure to give pipeline builders more power to take land
GREG BLUESTEIN
Associated Press

ATLANTA - A Senate panel cleared the way Wednesday to give petroleum pipeline companies more power to seize land along existing pipelines.

If the bill is approved, pipeline companies would no longer have to meet a series of hurdles imposed in 1995 if the construction is within 75 feet of current lines.

Supporters of the measure say the extra hurdles are time-consuming and unnecessary, as all projects would still have to be cleared by state environmental officials and must abide by stricter eminent domain standards approved last year.

Critics say the pipeline companies are fostering a false energy crisis as a pretext to grab more power to take land, and warn that the measure could eventually be expanded to give other utilities similar powers.

The measure, sponsored by Sen. Ross Tolleson, is designed for Colonial Pipeline, which hopes to beef up a 500-mile line from Baton Rouge, La. to Powder Springs, Ga. The $1 billion project includes a 46-mile stretch through west Georgia and can't go forward unless the additional hurdles are removed, said Sam Whitehead, a lobbyist with the company.

"You can't expect investors to invest this much money in infrastructure if they can't be confident in the process," he said.

The additional steps were required by a 1995 law passed at the urging of south Georgia landowners who feared a pipeline would be built to the Florida border. The hurdles include requirements that utilities get an environmental certificate from state transit officials and hold a hearing to prove a public need for the project.

Since then, utility companies say no new petroleum pipeline has been built in Georgia. That's also provided fuel for opponents of the bill, who question why lawmakers are considering changing a process that's never been tested.

"Why would you change the law when they never tried to use it?" asked Ed Hallman, an attorney for Tall Timbers, a nonprofit representing south Georgia residents.

He argued that the measure would roll back property rights and could be manipulated by other utilities, such as Atlanta Gas Light, which backed a failed bid in 2006 for a measure that would have passed the costs of a new $300 million pipeline to ratepayers.

The proposal's backers said it would help Georgia meet its growing energy needs. Some 3 million more people will move to the state by 2020, said Sen. John Bulloch, R-Ochlocknee.

"And I promise you, they aren't coming with bicycles," he said.

"If we don't have the capacity to meet the needs, we're going to have to ship it by trucks. Do we want that many more trucks in Atlanta?"

The Senate Regulated Industries and Utilities Committee easily approved the bill, which could be considered by the full Senate as early as next week. The lone dissenter was Sen. Regina Thomas, D-Savannah, who said she's not convinced of the need for the measure.

"I don't think I've seen a pipeline bill I like yet," she said.

ON THE NET
Senate Bill 173: http://www.legis.state.ga.us

There's stupid, and then there's speechless stupid. Speechless stupid is when one is confronted with something so absolutely inane, so mindlessly idiotic that one is rendered incapable of vocalizations. Get ready to rest your vocal cords, kiddies. Below is a story from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution about a memo detailing how evolution is a Jewish conspiracy. Wait, there's more. The Earth does NOT revolve around the sun. Also a conspiracy. Check it out.

Anti-evolution memo stirs controversy
By Jeremy Redmon Thursday, February 15, 2007, 01:37 PM
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The Anti-Defamation League is calling on state Rep. Ben Bridges to apologize for a memo distributed under his name that says the teaching of evolution should be banned in public schools because it is a religious deception stemming from an ancient Jewish sect.

Bridges (R-Cleveland) denies having anything to do with the memo. But one of his constituents said he wrote the memo with Bridges’ approval before it was recently distributed to lawmakers in several states, including Texas, California, New York, Illinois, Pennsylvania and Ohio.

“Indisputable evidence — long hidden but now available to everyone — demonstrates conclusively that so-called ‘secular evolution science’ is the Big-Bang 15-billion-year alternate ‘creation scenario’ of the Pharisee Religion,” the memo says. “This scenario is derived concept-for-concept from Rabbinic writings in the mystic ‘holy book’ Kabbala dating back at least two millennia.”

The memo calls on lawmakers to introduce legislation that would end the teaching of evolution in public schools because it is “a deception that is causing incalculable harm to every student and every truth-loving citizen.”

It also directs readers to a Web site www.fixedearth.com, which includes model legislation that calls the Kabbala “a mystic, anti-Christ ‘holy book’ of the Pharisee Sect of Judaism.” The Web site also declares “the earth is not rotating … nor is it going around the sun.”

The Anti-Defamation League says the assertions in the memo border on anti-Semitism.

“Your memo conjures up repugnant images of Judaism used for thousands of years to smear the Jewish people as cult-like and manipulative,” Bill Nigut, the ADL’s Southeast regional director, wrote in an e-mail to Bridges Thursday. “I am shocked and appalled that you would send this anti-Semitic material to colleagues and friends, and call upon you to repudiate and apologize for distributing this highly offensive memo.”

Bridges denied writing or authorizing the memo.

“I did not put it out nor did I know it was going out,” Bridges said. “I’m not defending it or taking up for it.”

The memo directs supporters to call Marshall Hall, president of the Fair Education Foundation Inc., a Cornelia, Ga.-based organization that seeks to show evolution is a myth. Hall said he showed Bridges the text of the memo and got his permission to distribute it.

“I gave him a copy of it months ago,” said Hall, a retired high school teacher. “I had already written this up as an idea to present to him so he could see what it was and what we were thinking.”

Hall said his wife Bonnie has served as Bridges’ campaign manager since 1996.

Bridges acknowledged that he talked to Hall about filing legislation this year that would end the teaching of evolution in Georgia’s public schools. Bridges said the views in the memo belong to Hall, though Bridges said he doesn’t necessarily disagree with them.

“I agree with it more than I would the Big Bang Theory or the Darwin Theory,” Bridges said. “I am convinced that rather than risk teaching a lie why teach anything?”

Bridges sponsored unsuccessful legislation in 2005 that would have required Georgia’s teachers to introduce scientific evidence challenging evolution.

Asked about the ADL’s call for an apology, Bridges said: “I regret that these people have been offended, but I didn’t offend them because I didn’t put the memo out.”

A Texas lawmaker says he is now “willing to apologize” for giving fellow legislators the memo Tuesday, The Dallas Morning News reported today.

“The stuff that causes conflicts between religious beliefs, you know, I’d never be a party to that,” Texas House Appropriations Chairman Warren Chisum told the Morning News Wednesday. “I’m willing to apologize if I’ve offended anyone.”

The newspaper reported Chisum made his comments after he learned the Anti-Defamation League was demanding an apology in a letter to his office.

The National Center for Science Education, an Oakland, Calif.-based organization that defends the teaching of evolution in public schools, said the assertion that evolution is linked to an ancient Jewish sect is “bizarre.”

“Evolution is recognized as a central unifying principle of the biological sciences by the scientific community and the education community,” said Glenn Branch, the center’s deputy director.

I've been meaning to post something on ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council) for a bit. Fortunately, the Progressive States Network beat me to it. Even better, they wrote about the tie between Rep. Earl Ehrhart and ALEC. ALEC is the vehicle for corporations to better control their toadies in state legislatures. If you don't have cheap wireless in your city or can't find a living wage job, you can thank ALEC. ALECWatch, a coalition headed by Defenders of Wildlife and the National Resources Defense Council, has a great report on them. The Progressive States Network also has a list of articles on ALEC here.

GA: Rep. Earl Ehrhart Goes to Bat for Corporate Interests. Again.

If you've read PLAN's report on how the right-wing operates in the states, Rep. Earl Ehrhart's name probably rings a bell. The Georgia legislator is a past chairman of ALEC and takes the cake for his unsurpassed willingness to loudly and proudly announce his desire to work for the corporate interests who line his pockets.

So it shouldn't be too surprising to read today in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that Rep. Ehrhart is really working hard on behalf of title loan companies, who provided over $15,000 in campaign contributions to Ehrhart last year alone.

The bill that Ehrhart is carrying is, like most legislation, straight from ALEC. And why is it so bad?

Well, under current Georgia law, 300% is the maximum allowable interest on a title loan. Under Ehrhart's ALEC-backed proposal, even that standard is gone.

Think about that for an instance. 300% APR isn't high enough. These creditors aren't even willing to settle for usury. They're plainly aiming for extortion.

Meanwhile, Rep. Ehrhart is laughing at his fellow Georgians, declaring his own bill to be "comprehensive" and "consumer-friendly." Luckily, consumer groups aren't buying it and are fighting back.

Rep. Ehrhart's Greatest Hits

• Smashing local control for the noble purpose of cutting workers' wages.
• Speaking on behalf of state governments and expressly advocating the undermining of state governments.
• Carrying ALEC legislation virtually word-for-word.

By Matthew Cardinale, News Editor, Atlanta Progressive News (February 18, 2007)

27th Annual Poor People's Day Held at Georgia Capitol (UPDATE 1)

(APN) ATLANTA – “The rich are gettin’ richer on the backs of the poor, and we won’t take it anymore,” homeless advocate and folk singer, Lynn Griever, sang, at the Trinity United Methodist Church, as about 250 working class people and advocates met for the 27th Annual Poor People’s Day.

Participants met for two days of workshops and presentations, Wednesday, February 14, and Thursday, February 15, 2007, which culminated in a press conference and lobbying day at the Georgia Capitol.

“Raise the wage... Now!”, “$5.15 is not for me!”, and “What would [Governor] Sonny [Perdue] do on $5.15?... Nothing!” were some of the cheers shouted on the freezing cold morning on the steps of the Capitol. Earlier that morning had been a light snow.

Advocates demanded raising the minimum wage in Georgia to $7.25--the wage level which is also being advocated at the federal level--through the passage of SB 13, a bill currently in the State Senate. Raising the minimum wage in Georgia is necessary even though it is somewhat likely the federal minimum wage will be raised in the near future, advocates say, because not all workers are covered by the federal minimum wage but can, and should, be included by the state.

“Some of us have been co-conspirators of our oppression by accepting minimum wage,” Rev. Kenneth Glasgow, brother to former [and possible current] US Presidential candidate Rev. Al Sharpton, said in remarks to participants prior to the press conference.

“That’s our problem,” Glasgow said, “It’s not just our oppressors. They didn’t just come out of the clear blue sky. Some of us can be so philosophical talking with each other, but we’re scared of talking to the folks who are oppressing us.”

Griever offered a different, perhaps not inconsistent, analysis. “It’s hard to love those who have caused war, or who make it hard for us to live. But I think that’s what it’s gonna take for us to get through this.”

Many Georgia legislators were not available for the press conference or lobbying day because many were attending the funeral for US Rep. Charlie Norwood (R-GA), who was one of the most politically regressive Members of the US House.

As a result, a group of teenagers from working class backgrounds who went to State Sen. Hudgens’s Office–the Chairman of the Insurance and Labor Committee–ended up disappointed because all they could do was leave a petition with his Administrative Assistant, Leah Tatum-Dick.

Incidentally, Mr. Hudgens, among others, has announced his candidacy for late US Rep. Norwood’s seat according to press reports.

For many of the young advocates hoping to speak about minimum wage, it was their first time visiting the Capitol. “It could make me feel excited, but the way they just pushed us aside. We ain’t get no time to speak... [but] I’m gonna keep coming back,” Steyania Johnson, 18, said.

“It’s all about the money and how the money is divided,” Bobbie Paul, Executive Director of Atlanta Women’s Action for New Directions (WAND), said. Paul showed her noted pop-up pie cart of the federal budget, which she uses several times a year in various demonstrations.

“We’re spending 11 million dollars a day in Iraq!” Paul said. “We’re being pitted against each other when there’s enough money to go around.”

“We’re here to ask the Georgia Senate to pass out of the Insurance and Labor Committee the minimum wage bill from $5.15 to $7.25,” Sandra Robertson, Executive Director of the Georgia Citizens’ Coalition on Hunger, said.

“The Georgia Budget and Policy Institute reports raising the minimum wage to $7.25 per hour would help an estimated 672,000 workers. Of these... 84% are 20 years or older,” Robertson said.

Written materials provided to Atlanta Progressive News by the Coalition on Hunger cite a report by the University of Georgia Survey Research Center in September 2006, indicating 90% of Georgia citizens support increasing the minimum wage.

There was last week, Wednesday afternoon, supposed to have been a 4pm Committee hearing on the state minimum wage bill in the State Senate. However, State Sen. Hudgens rescheduled the item to an 8am that day in order to have a quorum, or enough members present to take a vote, Tatum-Dick said. The bill’s sponsor, State. Sen. Robert Brown, then asked the item be heard on a different day altogether so all those testifying could be present, she said.

Two low wage workers did testify at the press conference, though.

“I’m a low wage worker. I put myself through school to be a certified nursing assistant. I’m not even making $7 per hour. I’m threatened with eviction and utilities being cut off and I’ve been working a long time,” April Johnson said.

“I work for a labor company, for between $5.15 and $6.15 an hour,” Irene Cole said.

Two State Representatives were present for the press conference, State Reps. Tyrone Brooks and Bob Holmes. Holmes has been an advocate of health care access in the State House for years.

“Don’t let them tell you what you’re doing is not effective. It does make a difference. You’re educating us legislators about what’s important. Go to the office, leave your agenda with a secretary, go to the meetings,” Rep. Brooks said.

“Georgia leaders need to recognize we need to [raise the minimum wage] on a timely basis. We need to bring this state into the 21st Century. Instead of thinking of tax cuts for the wealthy, we need to think of working people,” Rep. Holmes said.

“$5.15 is abhorrent, ridiculous, and unbelievable,” Robertson said.

CORRECTION: The original online article stated this was the 37th Annual Poor People's Day; it is, in fact, the 27th.

About the author:

Matthew Cardinale is News Editor of Atlanta Progressive News and may be reached at matthew@atlantaprogressivenews.com.

Same story as before, but this is from the Altanta-Journal Constitution.

By CARLOS CAMPOS
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 02/15/07

A report released Wednesday on the nation's growing prison population estimates Georgia will add more than 5,700 inmates in the next five years at a cost of $98 million. But those estimates might be too conservative.

The forecast of America's prison population was done for The Public Safety Performance Project of the Pew Charitable Trusts.

The report estimates that the nation's state and federal prison population will rise by more than 192,000 inmates over the next five years to a total of 1.7 million people, or one of every 178 Americans.

The national cost of incarcerating those new inmates is estimated at as much as $27.5 billion, according to the report.

No state is projected to see a decrease in inmate population, though three — Connecticut, Delaware and New York — expect no growth.

"Every additional dollar spent on prisons, of course, is one dollar less that can go to preparing for the next Hurricane Katrina, educating young people, providing health care to the elderly or repairing roads and bridges," according to the report's executive summary.

There are 53,122 inmates in Georgia's prisons today, according to the Department of Corrections. The department's budget tops $1 billion per year.

The Pew report estimates Georgia's prison population will grow by 11 percent by 2011, to 59,449.

The report uses an annual operating cost per inmate of $17,017.

But Georgia Corrections Commissioner James Donald routinely says the state prison system takes in about 20,000 new inmates per year and releases about 18,000.

Using those rough numbers, that would be a net increase of about 2,000 inmates per year.
By Donald's projections, the prison system in Georgia would grow by 10,000 inmates over the next five years at an operating cost of more than $170.1 million.

Tracy Smith, a spokeswoman for the Department of Corrections, said the agency is adding new beds to keep pace with the growth.

"We are well prepared for what's coming at us and handling it rather well, to say the least," Smith said.

Smith provided an internal document Wednesday that projects the state prison population will reach anywhere between 63,000 to 66,000 in 2011, far more than the number projected by Pew.

The Pew report also notes a rise in the number of women and inmates convicted of meth-related crimes.

From Ledger-Enquirer.com (Associated Press)
ATLANTA - Georgia's prison population is projected to grow by more than 5,700 inmates over the next five years, an increase that would cost the state nearly $100 million, according to a study released Wednesday.

The report by the Pew Charitable Trusts projects that the U.S. will have more than 1.7 million men and women in prison by 2011 - costing taxpayers an additional $27.5 billion - if states don't make changes to their incarceration policies.

Georgia's projected prison population gain would amount to an 11 percent increase over the current population. At the current annual cost of about $17,000 per inmate, that would amount to a cost increase of more than $98 million, according to the report.

The report says rising overall populations and state policy decisions like mandatory minimum sentences and reduced parole grants are contributing to the spiraling prison populations.
In states like Georgia, the growth in methamphetamine cases also was cited as key factor.

Meth-related admissions more than tripled in Georgia between 1999 and 2005, the study says.

http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/mld/ledgerenquirer/news/politics/16696520.htm

For the Love of Georgia: End Poverty, Hunger and Homelessness
Wednesday & ThursdayFebruary 14 & 15, 2007
8:30am
Trinity United Methodist Church
265 Washington StreetAtlanta, GA 30303and the Georgia State Capitol

February 14th - Education Day at Trinity Methodist
Workshops on minimum wage, health care, stopping violence against women, and more. Youth caucus meeting in the afternoon.

February 15th - Action Day!
Meet at Trinity Methodist and march to the Capitol for 11:15am press conference on raising Georgia's minimum wage.
We'll be issuing a challenge to Gov. Perdue "What would Sonny do on $5.15 an hour?"
Spend the day meeting with legislators on issues and attending a public hearing on minimum wage.


For more information and registration, contact Georgia Citizen's Coalition on Hunger at 404-622-7778.

It’s starting to be pretty common in Georgia. Imprisoning young Black men for sex, I mean. There was the Marcus Dixon case. Just recently there’s Willie Williams, but his case is really more than 20 years old. Now I’ve learned about Genarlow Wilson.

Wilson was 17 years old when he attended a party that would make Hugh Heffner blush. I’m talking the 1970’s Heffner too. Wilson was videotaped having sex with a 17-year old girl as well as receiving oral sex from a 15-year old girl. The 17 year old was apparently drunk and may have been high as well during the act. Media sites consistently point out she never says stop during the video, but they don’t mention she may have not been in a state of mind to consent. We can absolutely say that Wilson is not guilty of raping her because there was a trial and Wilson was found not guilty. Personally, I think the standards of what constitutes rape in the US is far too lax. Even so, Wilson is not in prison for rape. He’s in prison for child molestation.

Yeah, you read that right. The jury that acquitted him of rape came back with a guilty verdict for child molestation because Wilson is clearly seen receiving oral sex from a 15 year old. They didn’t want to do it, but felt they had no choice. He was found guilty and sentenced to 10 years with no parole. He’ll be classified as a sex offender for the rest of his life.

Wilson wasn’t the only one charged that night, but he was the only one to go to trial. The others took plea agreements, and if Wilson had he wouldn’t be facing as much time. Last year the Georgia legislature passed HB 1059, a bill it called the Child Sexual Predator legislation. I call it the “Rep. Jerry Keen wants to be on Fox news” legislation. The bill was just stupid, you can see for yourself at the Fairness for Prisoners’ Families site on it. One part of the bill, however, did reclassify what Wilson was convicted of from a felony to a misdemeanor. It’s not retroactive though.

Crazy, isn’t it?

Wilson and others are stuck with Georgia’s horrific legislation and a 300-year history of white supremacy. The result is that a 17-year old is now considered a child molester. Of course, 85% of child molestation is done by someone close to the child (i.e. not a stranger). Something all of the laws mentioned seem to try real hard to not consider. One would think that laws allegedly aimed at ending child molestation would consider these facts.

Crazy, isn’t it?

For more info about the Wilson case check out these sites:

Wilson Appeal
ESPN feature
Recent ABC news article
Atlanta Magazine article
New York Times article
Wikipedia entry