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TexasTowelie's JournalGeorgia Power responds to rate hike objections from PSC staff, customers
Gloria Hayes said at a hearing Monday if regulators allow Georgia Power to increase its rates, seniors like her who live on a fixed-income might be forced to make some tough financial choices.
Hayes is among the dozen or so seniors who have attended ongoing Georgia Public Service Commission hearings since September to ask regulators to reject Georgia Power’s pending request to increase the minimum base charge from $10 to $17.95 by 2022.
The company’s $2.2 billion rate case resumed this week as Georgia Power executives and consultants took exception with the Public Service Commission staff’s recommendation this month that the utility get only half of what it requested.
Hayes told the commissioners she already struggles to pay her $100 monthly electric bill.
Read more: https://georgiarecorder.com/2019/11/26/georgia-power-responds-to-rate-hike-objections-from-psc-staff-customers/
State consultants say Plant Vogtle expansion timeline 'challenged'
Delays and costs are likely to keep growing for an expansion of Georgia Power’s nuclear plant south of Augusta, according to reports the Georgia Public Service Commission staff filed last Friday.
Underway since 2013, the project to build two additional nuclear reactors at Plant Vogtle is billions over budget and already three years behind schedule. Georgia Power executives assure both reactors remain on track to launch by late 2022, but the consultants who prepared the commission’s reports in the Friday filing call that deadline “significantly challenged.”
Georgia Power will be hard-pressed to meet deadlines for Vogtle Unit 3 to go online by November 2021 and Vogtle Unit 4 by November 2022, said Don Grace, an engineer the commission hired to monitor construction. Grace, other engineering consultants and PSC staff agreed in four individual reports that it’s impossible to say when the two reactors might actually be finished.
If the troubled project falls further behind and costs continue to surge, Georgia Power’s 2.5 million customers across the state could wind up paying as much of the tab as state regulators allow. The company’s aggressive construction timeline creates uncertainty, engineering consultants say.
Read more: https://georgiarecorder.com/brief/state-consultants-say-plant-vogtle-expansion-timeline-challenged/
Wizard Oil Cures Your Political Pain
Credit—Library of Congress: Calvert Lithographing Co., circa 1890
The impeachment hearings showed again President Trump’s uncanny ability to obfuscate and divert. After all that testimony by all those righteous, dedicated, no-nonsense public servants, how can Trump not be trapped? After the fumbling, futile defense by Nunes and Jordan and the other Republicans, how could anybody not see what’s going on?
But wait: What’s a hyperlocal pundit doing wasting paper on matters covered by every national news outlet? Well, for a lot of us, these hearings are local. We were spellbound and consumed by the drama, enthralled by the professionals who dared speak truth to power. It’s all we could think about, talk about, proving that all politics is local.
Even if you didn’t watch, didn’t care, you know the plot: The president held up congressionally authorized military aid to Ukraine and a meeting coveted by that country’s new president until that official would announce a corruption investigation aimed at one of our president’s political opponents.
Read the transcript. If you’re a Democrat, you’ll clearly hear the extortion. If you’re a Republican, the call is perfect. Recall the hearings. Democrats heard heroes. Republicans saw traitors in military uniform and business attire.
Read more: https://flagpole.com/news/pub-notes/2019/11/27/wizard-oil-cures-your-political-pain
Anti-Semitic Vandalism Reported at UGA Dorms
At least three times this semester, Jewish University of Georgia students have found anti-Semitic vandalism in their dorms.
Ariana Dinberg, a freshman, said the first incident happened in August. Dinberg said a poster with the letters of Sigma Delta Tau, the Jewish sorority on campus, was torn off her door. She said she reported the incident to her resident assistant.
“It already made me feel almost ashamed,” Dinberg told Flagpole. “But when this happened, I hated that people knew someone Jewish lived there based on my poster, and the reaction from whoever did this was immediate anti-Semitism.”
She said she chose to take down the poster instead of taping it back up so that another incident wouldn’t happen. However, Dinberg said the words “All Heil” with a swastika underneath were written on the white board outside her dorm in October. “I was shocked, but more hurt,” she said. “I know anti-Semitism has always existed around the world, but I also think it’s become more prevalent lately.”
Read more: https://flagpole.com/news/news-features/2019/11/27/anti-semitic-vandalism-reported-at-uga-dorms
4 Ga Residents Charged With Participating in a Scheme to Defraud Retirees, Federal Benefit Programs
On November 21, 2019, four Georgia residents had their initial appearances in South Florida on charges related to their alleged involvement in an international scheme to defraud retirees of their veterans and social security benefits.
U.S. Attorney Ariana Fajardo Orshan for the Southern District of Florida, Special Agent in Charge David Spilker of the Veteran Affairs Office of Inspector General (VA OIG), Inspector in Charge David M. McGinnis of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service’s (USPIS) Charlotte Division, Special Agent in Charge Anthony Salisbury of Homeland Security Investigations’ (HSI) Miami Field Office, and Special Agent in Charge Rodregas W. Owens of the Social Security Administration Office of the Inspector General (SSA OIG), Atlanta Field Division made the announcement.
Jamare Mason, 25, of Lithonia, Ronaldo Garfield Green, 27, of Snellville, Mario Andre Ricketts, 24, of Carrollton, and Omar Shaquille Bailey, 24, of Snellville, all of Georgia, and three other individuals were charged with conspiracy to commit bank fraud and wire fraud (Case No. 19-CR-60313). The four Georgia residents had their initial appearances before U.S. Magistrate Judge Patrick M. Hunt in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
According to allegations in the indictment, between May 2012 and July 2017, the defendants and three other individuals participated in a scheme to defraud the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and the Social Security Administration by fraudulently redirecting retirees’ benefits to accounts controlled by them. The scheme, which was international in scope, involved conspirators in Jamaica, Georgia, and Florida. The conspirators obtained the personal identifying information of veterans and social security beneficiaries and used that information unlawful access and gain control of beneficiaries’ accounts at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and/or Social Security Administration. After doing so, the conspirators redirected the benefits to bank accounts, as well as prepaid debit cards and accounts, which they controlled. The subjects then withdraw the funds from ATM machines or transferred funds to other accounts, for their own personal use.
Read more: https://allongeorgia.com/georgia-public-safety/4-ga-residents-charged-with-participating-in-a-scheme-to-defraud-retirees-federal-benefit-programs/
Book Penned by Stacey Abrams to be CBS Television Drama
Former gubernatorial candidate turned voting rights activist Stacey Abrams has expanded her work into the entertainment industry.
An adaptation of a novel penned by Abrams is being outfitted for a television show and, according to The Hollywood Reporter, Abrams will be an executive producer.
The novel “Never Tell,” which was published in 2004, will reportedly premiere on CBS under the same name, but with the help of “NCIS: New Orleans” executive Talicia Raggs.
“It centers on a star linguistics professor with a complicated past who joins forces with a charismatic investigative journalist following the discovery of a cryptic message that’s the only clue in a missing persons case,” THR’s Rick Porter wrote this week.
Read more: https://allongeorgia.com/georgia-state-politics/book-penned-by-stacey-abrams-to-be-cbs-television-drama/
More than 1,000 patients may have been exposed to HIV and other viruses after error in sanitizing
More than 1,000 patients may have been exposed to HIV and other viruses after error in sanitizing procedureMore than a thousand surgical patients at Goshen Hospital in Indiana may have been exposed to HIV, hepatitis C and hepatitis B after an error in the sanitizing procedure for surgical equipment, according to a press release from Goshen Health.
One step in a multistep cleaning process was missed by a technician, possibly contaminating the surgical equipment, said Liz Fisher, marketing specialist for Goshen Health.
The hospital identified 1,182 surgical patients between April and September of 2019 who may have been impacted, Fisher said.
Those who may have been exposed were sent notification letters and are being offered free testing for the viruses, according to Fisher.
Read more: https://www.albanyherald.com/features/health/more-than-patients-may-have-been-exposed-to-hiv-and/article_0c83110b-23f8-5509-8d6e-e87b8877f5be.html
Myrtle Beach says it used reasonable restrictions in Bike Week preacher speech case
Myrtle Beach says it acted reasonably when it forced a street preacher to move during Memorial Day bike week.
The preacher — Brian Cranford — filed a civil lawsuit in October against the city and several police officers. Cranford said that he was targeted by police and forced to move from a public park during Memorial Day bike week. He also said a friend was arrested during the event.
Cranford said he was sharing his message on city sidewalks on May 25, which was during the Atlantic Beach bike week festivities in Myrtle Beach along Ocean Boulevard.
While Cranford was in Plyler Park, an officer told him the city manager signed an executive order to shut down the park, the suit claims. To avoid arrest, Cranford left and walked the sidewalks. He was then told to turn off his amplifier. About an hour after Cranford left the park, the suit claims, it was filled with people socializing, walking and running in the park.
Read more: https://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/news/local/article237879694.html
Fiat Chrysler, auto union reach tentative deal on contract
DETROIT -- The United Auto Workers and Fiat Chrysler reached a tentative agreement Saturday on a new four-year contract, which includes a total of $9 billion in investments but still needs final approval from workers.
Both sides declined to offer details on the deal, but it includes a $9,000 bonus for workers when the agreement is ratified, a promise not to close any factories where vehicles are assembled for the next four years, and a commitment to keep making vehicles at a plant in Belvidere, Illinois, according to a person briefed on the matter. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the talks are confidential.
The UAW-FCA national council will meet Dec. 4 to go over the details of the tentative deal. If adopted, it would go to Fiat Chrysler Automobiles’ 47,000 union workers, and a vote by hourly and salary workers could begin on Dec. 6.
Fiat Chrysler is the last company to settle on a new contract with the union. GM settled Oct. 31 after a bitter 40-day strike that paralyzed the company’s U.S. factories, but Ford reached a deal quickly and settled in mid-November.
Read more: https://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/news/business/national-business/article237915969.html
Season of Advent
Greetings to all. As we have just finished celebrating Thanksgiving, we now look forward to the Advent Season.
This is a liturgical season that leads up to Christmas, and it consists of four weeks, starting this year on Sunday, Dec. 1, in preparation for the coming of Christ at Christmas. Advent is a season of the expectancy of the Messiah and in anticipation of the Second Coming of Jesus at the end of time.
In other words, Advent is a season that directs our heart and mind to anticipate the two comings of Jesus.
The usual colors for this liturgical season are violet/purple and rose. Purple is worn on the first, second and fourth Sundays of Advent, and rose is normally worn on the third Sunday of Advent (although purple is allowed), also recognized as Gaudete Sunday (the Sunday of rejoicing).
Read more: https://www.scnow.com/lifestyles/columns/bob-cox-season-of-advent/article_2bb708b4-7c0d-534c-96e6-3098332bd902.html
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Gender: MaleHometown: South Texas. most of my life I lived in Austin and Dallas
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