Tag Archives: injustice
COURT OF APPEALS OVERTURNS ELLERBE, RECORDS ACT CIVIL PENALTIES AVAILABLE
MATTHEW CHARLES CARDINALE
(APN) ATLANTA – Today, Tuesday, February 15, 2022, the Court of Appeals of Georgia ruled in favor of APN’s News Editor and overturned Fulton County Superior Court Judge Kelly Lee Ellerbe, finding that all Georgians–not just the Attorney General–have the right to seek civil penalties under the Georgia Open Records Act against government officials who violate the terms of the Act.
The Case Numbers are A21A1718 and A21A1719.
“We therefore conclude that Cardinale, a private citizen, has a cause of action to seek a civil penalty under OCGA § 50-18-74 (a) and that the trial court erred in ruling otherwise,” the Court of Appeals of Georgia wrote.
To date, since June 2020, City of Atlanta taxpayers have spent over 431,000 dollars fighting against transparency and the public interest, in litigation with Atlanta Progressive News and with APN’s News Editor. The City recently revealed the latest spending numbers on Feb. 11, 2022, in response to a records request.
The majority of the taxpayer dollars have accrued to the Bondurant, Mixson, & Elmore firm, where Robert Ashe, Michael Brandon Jones, and Matthew Sellers have represented the City of Atlanta and various Atlanta officials. (Jones has since left for another firm.)
In 2012, the Georgia General Assembly passed HB 397, amending both the Georgia Open Meetings Act and the Georgia Open Records Act, to, among other things, include civil penalties.
In 2020, the Supreme Court of Georgia ruled, in Williams v. DeKalb,*** that the civil penalty provision of the Georgia Open Meetings Act allowed any person to seek a civil penalty against any government agency official, up to one thousand dollars, for negligently violating the Act.
https://casetext.com/case/williams-v-dekalb-cnty-1
Nearly similar civil penalty language appears in the Georgia Open Records Act.
In Matthew Charles Cardinale v. Michael Brandon Jones (in his personal capacity) and Antonio Brown (in his personal capacity), filed on Dec. 01, 2020, APN’s News Editor complained about the failure of then-Councilman Brown to respond to a Feb. 08, 2020 records request; and about the partial non-responsiveness, deceptiveness, and evasiveness of Jones’s response to several Nov. 20, 2020 records requests.
On March 12, 2021, Judge Ellerbe ruled that APN’s News Editor was not entitled to seek a civil penalty under the Georgia Open Records Act because such penalties could only be sought by the Attorney General.
Judge Ellerbe ruled that there was a slight difference between the text of the two Acts. However, the Court of Appeals disagreed.
“[J]ust as in Williams regarding the Open Meetings Act, we see nothing in OCGA § 50-18-73 (a)’s grant of authority that would mean that only the Attorney General has standing to bring an action to obtain a civil penalty,” the Court of Appeals of Georgia ruled.
“[N]or do we see anything else in the statute that would potentially foreclose private plaintiffs from seeking a civil penalty for a violation of the Act,” the Court of Appeals of Georgia ruled.
“Considering that both the Open Records Act and the Open Meetings Act have the broad purpose to encourage public disclosure of governmental activity, we are compelled to conclude that this minor textual difference between the statutes is a distinction without any meaningful difference,” the Court of Appeals of Georgia ruled.
As a result of the ruling, it is now clear that any person, not only the Attorney General, may seek a civil penalty under either the Georgia Open Meetings Act or the Georgia Open Records Act.
This is the second major victory for transparency and open government at the appellate level secured for the people of Georgia by Atlanta Progressive News.
Previously, in 2012, APN’s News Editor obtained a ruling from the Supreme Court of Georgia banning secret votes in Georgia.
https://casetext.com/case/cardinale-v-city-of-atlanta-2
In today’s ruling, the Court of Appeals of Georgia remanded the case against Antonio Brown and Michael Brandon Jones back to Fulton County Superior Court Judge Ellerbe.
The open records claims against now-former Councilman Brown are reinstated.
The ruling directs Judge Ellerbe to consider whether the complaint against Michael Brandon Jones alleges a violation of the Georgia Open Records Act. Ellerbe has already ruled that the complaint contains “colorable” arguments of fact and law regarding Mr. Jones’s compliance with the Act.
In a second, related appeal, Cardinale v. Tim Keane (in his personal capacity), the Court of Appeals agreed that APN’s News Editor had the right to seek a civil penalty against now-former Department of Planning Commissioner Tim Keane for failing to respond to several records requests.
However, the Court of Appeals found that Ellerbe did not err in using her discretion to, without explanation, decline to issue a civil penalty against Mr. Keane. The Court of Appeals of Georgia ruled that no explanation is required.
ELLERBE REFUSES TO RECUSE
In two related cases currently pending before Judge Ellerbe, APN’s News Editor and APN have both filed motions seeking for Ellerbe to recuse herself.
In a Motion to Recuse filed on January 10, 2022, APN’s News Editor attested to conducting a review of APN’s Constant Contact database and learning that Judge Ellerbe has been reading APN’s e-newsletters regarding the court cases before her, collecting the e-newsletters to her personal email account, and routinely going back to research and review them several times.
APN added Judge Ellerbe, then-Kelly Amanda Lee, to the APN’s email list back in 2010 before she became a judge.
Because the APN e-newsletters often contain facts and information about the open meetings and open records litigation not on the official record, the Motion to Recuse argues that Judge Ellerbe’s collection of e-newsletters have become a parallel, second, unofficial record in the case.
Georgia Code of Judicial Conduct Rule 2.9(C) provides that: “Judges shall not investigate facts in a pending proceeding or impending matter independently, and in making adjudicative decisions shall consider only the evidence presented and any facts that may properly be judicially noticed. The facts a judge shall not investigate include those derived from personal observations or media, including printed publications, computer retrievable electronic data, or internet and social network communications.”
Georgia Code of Judicial Conduct Rule 2.11 provides that: “(A) Judges shall disqualify themselves in any proceeding in which their impartiality might reasonably be questioned, or in which: (1) The judge has a personal bias or prejudice concerning a party or a party’s lawyer, or personal knowledge of disputed evidentiary facts concerning an impending matter or a pending proceeding.”
In a Feb. 08, 2022 ruling, Ellerbe refused to recuse herself from one of the pending cases, going so far as to call APN’s News Editor a “gamesman” in the ruling.
Judge Ellerbe ruled that if APN and APN’s News Editor did not know that Judge Ellerbe has been reading APN’s e-newsletters regarding the court cases before her, collecting the e-newsletters to her personal email account, and routinely going back to research and review them several times, then APN and APN’s News Editor should have known it.
The motion to recuse in the second pending case is still pending.
Judge Ellerbe has chosen to continue reading APN’s e-newsletters, even after denying the Motion for Recusal, which means that she might be reading about herself reading after herself right now.
Once the pending cases reach the Court of Appeals of Georgia, APN and APN’s News Editor will ask the Court of Appeals to review whether Judge Ellerbe erred by not recusing herself from the pending cases, in which the Motions for Recusal have argued that Ellerbe has manifested a clear bias.
Another forthcoming appeal to the Court of Appeals of Georgia will challenge Judge Ellerbe’s recent ruling that the official minutes of agency meetings may falsely imply that agency members participated in unanimous votes even when they were away from their seats.
*** Ed Williams is a DeKalb County resident who truly cares about what happens to this County. He has won a few cases against the County, and his cases are being cited in this and numerous other cases. We are very proud of him, and he is a credit to this County. Fortunately, we communicate from time to time. If anyone knows what is going on in the County, it will be him. If he cannot answer a question that I ask him, he knows the right people to ask, and he gets the answer. A true credit to our County and the community!
Home Loans for Poor Leave Some Feeling Misled By Michael Kanell The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Home Loans for Poor Leave Some Feeling Misled
By Michael Kanell
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
August 2, 2016
Al Butts and his wife thought they were becoming homeowners when, in 2011, they moved into their Decatur, Ga., residence.
“It sounded too good to be true, because it was such an achievement for me,” Butts said. “They said, ‘This is your house.’ ”
The too-good-to-be-true part could be right.
The Butts didn’t have a mortgage loan on the home but rather something called a “land contract,” a little-known form of lending marketed to people who can’t get regular financing.
People with a land contract put money down, make regular payments plus interest, and pay taxes and insurance. If they make payments all the way to the end of the contract, they will own the home. If they don’t they can be evicted and lose everything they put into it.
That’s what could happen to Butts and his wife, who this summer got an eviction threat after some late payments.
“It’s a 30-year contract. You could make payments every month and lose it in year 29,” said Kristin Tullos of Decatur Legal Aid, which is representing the couple as they try to stay in the home.
Georgia, like most states, does not regulate land contracts, which are also known as “contract for deed.” Critics generally do not argue that they are illegal. But they say companies offering them target credit-starved, minority neighborhoods and deceive consumers. The deals typically carry interest rates well above those for mortgages.
Fueled by housing crisis
The practice was fueled by the housing crisis, which put millions of homes on the market at huge discounts while also savaging consumers’ credit ratings.
No one has recent numbers, but 3.5 million people bought a home through a land contract in 2009, according to the U.S. Census. “Evidence suggests that land contracts are making a resurgence in the wake of the foreclosure crisis,” a recent report from the National Consumer Law Center said.
Equity firms and real estate companies bought thousands of depressed properties as investments, renting them until the market made a resale lucrative.
A small group of companies have added “contract for deed” deals as a profitable variation aimed at minorities, according to the group’s report.
Dallas-based Harbour Portfolio Advisors — the name on the Butts’ deed — is one of the largest with an estimated 6,700 properties in five states.
Calls from the AJC to Harbour over the past several weeks were not returned, but earlier this year, a lawyer for Harbour told the New York Times that the company’s business model is “to purchase unproductive residential properties and sell them to other people who will make them productive again.”
Local attorneys say there’s no indication Harbour set out to exploit minorities. But in choosing low-income, foreclosure-afflicted areas and appealing to people who cannot get traditional mortgages, Harbour ends up with a clientele that is largely black.
In metro Atlanta, Harbour had 94 properties, in Fulton, DeKalb, Cobb, Gwinnett, Clayton and Rockdale counties, the report said. “The common theme is that land contracts were being sold predominantly to borrowers of color.”
Shut out of mortgages
From the 1930s to 1950s, when blacks were shut out of many mortgage programs, land contracts were often the most common form of home-buying. But the contracts did not fulfill their promise then — and still don’t, the Law Center report concluded.
“Then, as now, homeownership through these deals was often a mirage, and buyers lost their homes, their down payments, their sweat equity, and the money they paid for repairs, maintenance, insurance, and interest,” the report said.
For depressed areas, the impact is not all bad — it puts people into houses that might otherwise be vacant, said Deirdre Oakley, sociology professor and housing expert at Georgia State University.
But for people who aspire to own a home, it isn’t a good deal due to the risk and interest charged, she said.
A big motive for buying a home is to build equity — to gain wealth as the property value rises. With a contract for deed, the consumer only gains if he or she completes the full payment schedule and becomes the owner.
“They are basically like renters but also paying interest and insurance and taxes and paying for repairs,” Oakley said. “You are giving them a chance to own a home, but you are not giving them much of a chance.”
For the deal to be at all fair, customers need to know exactly what they are getting into, said Svenja Gudell, chief economist at Zillow, a national real estate research firm.
“They target people who are less informed. They are often taken advantage of,” she said.
Al Butts doesn’t claim to be blameless, but he feels misled.
‘Flim-flam from the git-go’
“I told them right up front I was on a fixed income, and I have made up every payment I’ve been late on,” he said. “The way I think of it, it was a flim-flam from the git-go. It was like we were their cash-cow.”
Irene Cole and her husband thought they were buying an East Point home from Harbour in 2013 for $49,000. They put $1,500 down, agreed to a 9.9 interest rate on the rest and started paying $605.92 a month.
“We were told that the house was ours,” Cole said.
Their land contract was sold, however, and they dealt with a series of other companies. They had a disagreement with one about which bank account the company was taking money from — when it came from the wrong account, there wasn’t enough money.
Later, they missed some payments but say they weren’t sure who to send a check to.
Now, they’ve received notice that their house is scheduled for a foreclosure hearing. They are working with attorneys at Legal Aid to fight the foreclosure.
They first sought to refinance through Home Safe Georgia, a state program aimed at helping people avoid foreclosure.
“But when we went to Home Safe Georgia,” Cole said, “they said we can’t help you because you don’t own the property.”
© 2016 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency
Supreme Court refuses to hear challenge to Connecticut, New York weapons ban
The Supreme Court is allowing the different States to pass and uphold gun ban laws.
Supreme Court refuses to hear challenge to Connecticut, New York weapons ban
Washington Post Report
The Supreme Court declined to take up the case to elaborate on individual gun ownership, but across the street from the building, the question embroils Congress. (Carlos Barria/Reuters)
The Supreme Court declined Monday to review bans on a lengthy list of firearms that New York and Connecticut have classified as “assault weapons,” the latest example of the justices turning down an opportunity to elaborate on an individual’s right to gun ownership.
With an emotional debate about gun control reigniting across the street at the Capitol, the justices without comment said they would not review lower-court decisions upholding the laws.
Connecticut’s ban was expanded shortly after a gunman used one of the military-style semiautomatic weapons on the list to kill 20 students and six educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown in 2012.
The decision Monday was not a surprise, as the justices have previously declined to review other lower-court decisions that uphold bans passed by cities and states. Maryland, California, Hawaii, Massachusetts and New, Jersey as well as many cities and towns, have similar laws. None of the legal challenges to them have been successful in lower courts.
These prohibitions were enacted after a federal ban expired in 2004. Attempts to revive the federal ban have failed, although advocates are trying in the wake of the massacre at an Orlando nightclub that left 49 victims dead.
The Republican presidential contender identifies 11 state and federal judges, but no litigators. Marcia Coyle, The National Law Journal
Photo: andykatz/iStockphoto.com
Trump Names 11 SCOTUS Picks, Bypassing Big Law
http://www.nationallawjournal.com/id=1202757984757/Trump-Names-11-SCOTUS-Picks-Bypassing-Big-Law?mcode=0&curindex=0&curpage=ALL
The Republican presidential contender identifies 11 state and federal judges, but no litigators.
Marcia Coyle, The National Law Journal
May 18, 2016
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump gestures while speaking to the press in New York City, after his five-state super Tuesday win. April 27 2016.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump gestures while speaking to the press in New York City, after his five-state super Tuesday win. April 27 2016.
Presumptive Republican Party presidential nominee Donald Trump’s list for potential U.S. Supreme Court nominees is heavy on federal appellate judges and former clerks for conservative justices and light on big names in politics and private practice.
Trump’s list of 11 potential nominees doesn’t include several conservative judges who have been on Supreme Court watch lists in the past, including U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit Judges Brett Kavanaugh and Janice Rogers Brown, Sixth Circuit Judge Jeffrey Sutton and Fifth Circuit Judge Priscilla Owen.
Trump’s list, released Wednesday, doesn’t include any nonjudges. Other names floated in the past as possible nominees for a future Republican president included former U.S. Solicitor General Paul Clement, now a partner at Bancroft, and Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah.
Also not on the list: Trump’s sister, Third Circuit Judge Maryanne Trump Barry, although that was no surprise. Trump has praised his sister as “brilliant,” but said he wouldn’t consider nominating her to the Supreme Court because of the conflict of interest. He’s also said that the two share “different views.”
Related: Texas’ Most Prolific Judicial Tweeter Makes Trump’s Shortlist
Trump’s list drew praise and criticism depending on where the commentator sits on the political spectrum.
“The [Supreme] Court needs more justices who will base their decisions on the law, not politics, even under pressure, especially since the next president is likely to determine the direction of the court for a generation,” Carrie Severino, chief counsel and policy director of the conservative Judicial Crisis Network, said.
“It is also heartening to see so many Midwesterners and state court judges on the list—they would bring a valuable perspective to the bench, particularly since they have already served on a court of last resort in their own states,” she added.
Miranda Blue of People for the American Way noted: “It looks like Trump has, true to his promise, picked potential justices who would advance the conservative efforts to skew the federal courts far to the right.”
Senate Judiciary chairman Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, said in statement, “Mr. Trump has laid out an impressive list of highly qualified jurists, including Judge Colloton from Iowa, who understand and respect the fundamental principle that the role of the courts is limited and subject to the Constitution and the rule of law.”
So who made the list?
Steve Colloton
Judge Steven Colloton, 53, joined the Eighth Circuit in 2003. Colloton is a former clerk to the late Chief Justice William Rehnquist. He was appointed by President George W. Bush. He previously served with independent counsel Kenneth Starr.
Before joining the appellate court, Colloton was the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Iowa.
Allison Eid
Colorado Supreme Court justice Allison Eid is a former Clarence Thomas clerk. She took her seat on the state high court in 2006, leaving her position on the faculty of the University of Colorado Law School, where she taught constitutional law, legislation, the law of politics, first-year torts and advanced torts.
Before teaching, she also practiced commercial and appellate litigation in the Denver office of Arnold & Porter.
Thomas Hardiman
Judge Thomas Hardiman, 50, who joined the Third Circuit in 2007 just 3 1/2 years after taking his seat as a district court judge for the Western District of Pennsylvania.
Hardiman’s ruling that a jail policy of strip searching all arrestees does not violate the Fourth Amendment was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2012. In 2013, he dissented from his court’s decision upholding under the Second Amendment New Jersey’s law requiring applicants for licenses to carry handguns in public to show “justifiable need.”
“Those who drafted and ratified the Second Amendment were undoubtedly aware that the right they were establishing carried a risk of misuse, and States have considerable latitude to regulate the exercise of the right in ways that will minimize that risk,” he wrote in Drake v. Filko. “But States may not seek to reduce the danger by curtailing the right itself.”
Related: Third Circuit Judge Among Trump’s Supreme Court Picks
And he also dissented in a 2013 decision holding that a public school violated the First Amendment by banning students from wearing bracelets inscribed with “I [love] boobies” sold by a breast cancer awareness group.
Raymond Gruender
Judge Raymond Gruender, 52, became U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri in 2001 and served in that position until his confirmation to the Eighth Circuit in 2004.
Gruender has written opinions holding that the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978 did not give female employees the right to insurance coverage for contraceptives used solely to prevent pregnancy.
He dissented from a panel ruling that upheld an injunction striking down a South Dakota law requiring abortion providers to inform patients that an “abortion will terminate the life of a whole, separate, unique, living human being.” When the case was heard en banc, Gruender, writing for the full court, upheld the law as constitutional on its face.
Raymond Kethledge
Judge Raymond Kethledge, 49, sits on the Sixth Circuit and is a former clerk to Justice Anthony Kennedy. He joined the appellate court in 2008 after practicing law as a corporate attorney and former counsel to Ford Motor Co.
Joan Larsen
Trump’s list also names a number of state supreme court judges.
Joan Larsen was named to the Michigan Supreme Court by Gov. Rick Snyder in September 2015. Larsen is a former clerk to the late Justice Antonin Scalia. She worked in the George W. Bush Department of Justice in 2002-2003 and then joined the University of Michigan School of Law as an adjunct professor and special counsel to the dean.
When appointed to the state court, Larsen said she would be a “strict constructionist,” explaining, “I believe in enforcing the laws as written by the Legislature and signed by the governor. I don’t think judges are a policy-making branch of the government.”
In March, at a memorial for Scalia, Larsen recalled Scalia as a “fundamentally happy man” who would sing in his chambers and whistle in the corridors of the court. Larsen remembered one time when she made a mistake citing Webster’s Third New International Dictionary in a draft opinion.
Scalia, a critic of that tome, called her out. Larsen said she had used that edition because it was in the justice’s front office. Scalia said the dictionary had been put there as a “trap laid for the unwary.”
Thomas Lee
Trump also named a judge with a well-known pedigree in Washington legal circles. Thomas Rex Lee, son of former Solicitor General Rex Lee, joined the Utah Supreme Court in July 2010.
Lee is a former Clarence Thomas clerk who specialized in trademark litigation when in private practice. He served as deputy assistant attorney general in the Civil Division of the U.S. Justice Department from 2004 to 2005.
Lee has been called a pioneer in “corpus linguistics” to determine ordinary meaning and has applied that in an opinion. He also has argued in the U.S. Supreme Court, representing Utah in Utah v. Evans, a 2002 challenge by the state to the Census Bureau’s use of “hot-deck” imputation, a statistical method.
William Pryor
Judge William Pryor of Alabama joined the Eleventh Circuit in 2004 despite considerable controversy over his nomination. He was criticized by Senate Democrats in the 108th Congress who called him an extremist for such statements as referring to the Supreme Court as “nine octogenarian lawyers” and saying that Roe v. Wade was the “worst abomination in the history of constitutional law.”
President George W. Bush installed Pryor using a recess appointment to bypass the regular Senate confirmation process. He received Senate confirmation on May 23, 2005, after Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, announced an agreement between seven Republican and seven Democratic U.S. senators, the so-called Gang of 14, to ensure an up-or-down vote on Pryor and other nominees.
On the bench, Pryor specially concurred in an unanimous panel decision enjoining the secretary of Health and Human Services from enforcing the contraception insurance mandate under the Affordable Care Act against Catholic television network EWTN. That case was one of the petitions pending in the high court until the justices ruling Monday in Zubik v. Burwell.
In 2009, Pryor led a unanimous panel upholding Georgia’s photo ID law as a voting requirement.
David Stras
Another former Clarence Thomas clerk on the list is Minnesota Supreme Court associate justice David Stras, 41. Stras joined that court in 2010. He taught at the University of Minnesota Law School for six years prior to his appointment.
Diane Sykes
Seventh Circuit Judge Diane Sykes, 58, of Wisconsin, is well-known in conservative circles and has been called by some liberal groups as the most conservative judge on Trump’s list. She is a former justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
Her more recent opinions include supporting a voter ID law and expanding the ability of religious objectors to limit their employees’ access to contraceptive insurance coverage under the Affordable Care Act. She also wrote an opinion in 2011 holding that the Second Amendment prohibited Chicago’s ban on firing ranges
Sykes spoke about her clerk-hiring practices at a conference in Milwaukee in 2014. “I don’t want to be fighting with someone all year,” Sykes said about hiring a clerk whose views are different than hers. “I don’t only hire Federalist Society members” as clerks, she said, but there has to be “some general philosophical fit.”
Don Willett
Another state supreme court justice is well-known to the Twitter community and someone who has actually criticized Donald Trump. Texas Supreme Court Justice Don Willett, 49, worked on the Bush-Cheney presidential campaign and transition team. In the White House, Willett served as special assistant to the president and director of law and policy for the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives.
In 2003, Willett returned to Texas to become state deputy attorney general for legal counsel in the office of newly elected Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, where he served until he was appointed to the state high civil court in 2005.
Circuit judges’ financial disclosure forms
We’ve compiled below some of the recent financial disclosure forms of judges on Trump’s shortlist:
Steven Colloton of Iowa: 2014 and 2015
Raymond Gruender of Missouri: 2014 and 2015
Thomas Hardiman of Pennsylvania: 2014 and 2015
Raymond Kethledge of Michigan: 2014 and 2015
William Pryor of Alabama: 2014 and 2015
Diane Sykes of Wisconsin: 2014 and 2015
Zoe Tillman contributed to this report.
From Scientific American: Nuclear Reactor Approved in U.S. for First Time Since 1978
(Photo Courtesy of Southern Co.)
Sustainability
Nuclear Reactor Approved in U.S. for First Time Since 1978
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/first-new-nuclear-reactor-in-us-since-1978-approved/
But no nuclear renaissance appears to be imminent, despite the go-ahead to build and operate two new reactors in Georgia
By David Biello on February 9, 2012 73
Years of shifting and smoothing Georgia red clay paid off today, as the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) voted to allow construction of two new nuclear reactors (pdf) at the Plant Vogtle nuclear power station near Augusta. Atlanta–based utility giant Southern Co. will soon have permission to complete construction and operate two AP1000 type nuclear reactors designed by Westinghouse.
But what were initially lauded as the first reactors of a nuclear renaissance when proposed are more likely to be the exceptions that prove the rule of no new nuclear construction in the U.S. Only this twin set of reactors in Georgia, another pair in South Carolina and the completion of an old reactor in Tennessee are likely to be built in the U.S. for at least the next decade. “We won’t build large numbers of new nuclear plants in the U.S. in the near term,” says Marvin Fertel, president of the Nuclear Energy Institute, a lobbying group for the nuclear industry.
The problem is twofold: electricity demand in the U.S. is not growing and natural gas, which can be burned to generate electricity, is cheap. As a result, utilities are building more natural gas–burning turbines rather than more expensive nuclear power plants.
“Today, you ought to build gas,” Fertel admits. But “you don’t want to build only gas.”
That may become even truer as old coal-fired power plants are forced to retire by new pollution rules and/or natural gas prices rebound. Given the long lead times required to gain permits and actually build a nuclear power plant, however, five new reactors may be as many as the U.S. will see erected during this decade. “If they are built, I suspect all of them are post-2020,” says Fertel of other reactor applications awaiting NRC review.
In fact, the only reason utilities in Georgia and South Carolina are building the new reactors is because the governments in those states have allowed them to pre-charge customers for their cost. Southern Co. is already charging customers $3.73 per month for the reactors’ construction, expected to cost roughly $14 billion, and may receive a more than $8-billion loan guarantee from the federal government. In the absence of a national government policy that puts a premium on electricity generation that results in fewer emissions of greenhouse gases, there is little incentive to build nuclear power plants in the U.S. “If we get back to the carbon discussion, that will have an effect on new plants that are built,” argues Bill Johnson, CEO of Progress Energy, one of the utilities filing for a construction license but with no plans to actually build a nuclear power plant in the near future. “Nuclear can’t compete today.
Other than the Watts Bar unit No. 2 in Tennessee, which will simply be the completion of a reactor that started construction in the 1970s, the four new plants will all employ a novel design—the AP1000. They will be the first to employ so-called passive safety features, or technology that kicks in with or without human intervention. In the case of the AP1000 that means cooling water sits above the reactor core and, in the event of a meltdown like the ones at Fukushima Daiichi, will flow via gravity into the core to cool it with the automatic opening of a heat-sensitive valve.
Furthermore, although the thick steel vessel containing the nuclear reactor is encased in a shell of 1.2-meter-thick concrete, that shell is itself surrounded by a building that is open to the sky. Should the concrete containment vessel begin to heat up during a meltdown, natural convection would pull cooling air inside.
The NRC initially rejected that open-air building for a lack of structural strength. The U.S. regulator argued that it would not withstand a severe shock such as an earthquake or airplane impact because it was initially planned to be built from prefabricated concrete and steel modules to save money.
The NRC approved a modified design (pdf) in December that employs more steel reinforcement, among other changes. Nevertheless, NRC Chairman Gregory Jaczko voted against approving the license for the two reactors at Vogtle today unless they incorporated a “binding obligation that these plants will have implemented the lessons learned from the Fukushima accident before they operate.” The commission also required more inspection and testing of the explosive-opened valves that would allow venting in case of an accident.
Already, the Shaw Group facility in Lake Charles, La., a nuclear equipment supplier, has begun churning out gear for the new nuclear power plants. A “mini skyscraper,” in the words of Westinghouse CEO Aris Candris, has been built at Vogtle to allow for final assembly of the modules that will reach the site by truck or rail. “Both sites are as ready as you can be,” he adds. “Rebar is sitting outside the hole ready to go.”
A global revival of interest in nuclear power technology remains underway, despite the April 2011 meltdowns at Fukushima Daiichi in Japan. China is already building four AP1000s and more than 20 other reactors currently—and many other countries are considering new plant construction, from the Czech Republic to India.
But in the U.S., even just to maintain the current fleet of 104 reactors, which provide 20 percent of the nation’s electricity supply, would require building as many replacement reactors by 2030. In fact, nuclear power production may shrink in the U.S. before it grows. Aging reactors, even with life extensions of another two decades, will begin to drop off the grid in coming years. “Twenty years is the blink of an eye for 100 gigawatts. The time is now to begin to deploy new nuclear,” says David Christian, CEO of Virginia-based utility Dominion Generation, although his company has no plans to do so before the end of the decade. “We’re in danger of missing that window.”
The epitomy of stupidity and embaressment for Georgians who know better. Plus, we have to help pay for it. They call it investment! I don’t invest in my own death. How fucking stupid are these people? Every nuke plant in this country is failing, or will soon be. The life has expired, and all ours’ with it. Mankind will be extinct.
California Coming to Its Senses. If You Don’t Own The Debt, You Cannot Collect On the Debt
WordPress.com
Georgia Supreme Court Says The Servicer, And Anyone Else Can Collect on the Debt. Georgia Is Just Stupid
Living Lies Weblog:
|
|
THEY DID NOT WARN US AHEAD OF TIME, WE MIGHT WOULD HAVE PANICED! So, They Plan to Do No More Than Officials At Fukushima Did, Let Us Die An Excruciating Death!
Fukushima forecast used by gov’t shows nuclear waste crossing ocean in single massive cluster — “Maximum concentration propagates eastward in Pacific toward U.S.” — Highest levels worldwide remain along coast of N. America through 2026 (VIDEO)
Published: September 2nd, 2014 at 12:18 pm ET
|
Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Center (Norway), 2013 (emphasis added): The massive nuclear leakage into 
ocean from Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant was observed on March 25th,2011. The transport of leaked radioactive pollutant from the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant was simulated… assuming constant and continuous leakage for 20 days (scenario 1) and for one year(scenario 2) starting from March 25th, 2011 and was integrated for 20 years… There is no remarkable difference of transport pathways… for the nuclear waste… The results of the ensembles indicate that the nuclear pollutant for both scenarios transports eastward to eastern Pacific… It takes about 10 to 15 years to reach the coast of East Asia… a realistic source
function is required and atmospheric fallout and role of ocean ecology should also be taken into account, in order to get a more reliable assessment of possible impact of the radioactive leakage on the ocean environment.
Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Center, Prof. Ola Johannessen, University of Bergen Geophysical Institute: Ocean spreading of radioactivity from the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan […] The results show that the maximum concentration propagates eastward in the Pacific toward the United States during a 7-year period while the total concentration drops to 1-2% of the source concentration (100%) after 5 years.
Nansen-Zhu International Research Centre, China: Extraordinary earthquake hit Japan and led the nuclear leakage of Japanese Fukushima reactor to the ocean. Dr. Yongqi Gao with colleagues at NERSC and NZC used the numerical model to simulate the propagation of radioactive elements in the ocean. Model system has been used for EU RADARC (Simulation scenarios for potential radioactive spreading in the 21st century from rivers and external sources in the Russian Arctic coastal zone, 2001-2003) and Norwegian Research Council supported project ARC (Arctic Radioactive Contamination, 2004-2006)… results were also cited by the State Council of China.
Published: September 2nd, 2014 at 12:18 pm ET
|
Related Posts
- Gov’t model shows West Coast of N. America to get highest level of Fukushima contamination until 2030s (VIDEO) November 26, 2013
- Senior Scientist: Fukushima radiation already on West Coast of N. America — We don’t know how much is coming or how fast it’s moving, situation ‘evolving’ — Levels will continue to rise for years — Unprecedented event for Pacific, largest ever radioactive release into ocean (VIDEO) January 15, 2014
- Canada TV: New concerns about radiation levels in fish from Pacific — “These numbers are just staggering” — Contamination up considerably — “It’s a major event worldwide” (VIDEO) October 7, 2013
- Study: High concentrations of Fukushima radioactive material will reach west coast of North America — “Entire coast” to be affected from Alaska to Mexico — “Can negatively affect human life for decades… should raise concern” (MODEL) September 23, 2013
- CBC: Radioactive particles arrive ‘far earlier than predicted’ for N. America — Mag: ‘Plumes stretch 4,800 miles across ocean!’ — Experts: There’s great alarm… Legitimate concern… Expected to dilute, but don’t really know — US Govt: ‘Monitoring beaches for debris from Fukushima nuclear disaster’ (VIDEO) February 28, 2014
CCTV Report Last Month, Revealed Unapproved GMO Rice Discovered in Two Southern China Provinces.
Shock: Genetically Modified Rice Trial Reports 3 Times Higher Leukemia Risk
by Christina Sarich
August 22nd, 2014
http://naturalsociety.com/alleged-illegal-gm-rice-trial-chinese-university-students-leads-3-times-higher-rate-leukemia/
Updated 08/23/2014 at 12:24 am
Updated 08/23/2014 at 12:24 am
It appears that an alleged illegal GM rice trial on University students in China has led to an incidence rate of acute leukemia of up to 3 times the normal rate in the country. Following the alleged GM rice trial, it was discovered from the Huazhong Agricultural University that ‘over 10 students now have leukemia within a 4-year period.’
The students claim that:
“When we entered the University, the school required all students to promote genetic modification (GM), upon entering the University, our teacher told us that the rice used by our canteen is GM rice from the university’s experimental base.”
Normally, leukemia among young adults in China is about 2 to 3 cases per 100,000 people. In the case of the students claiming to be fed GMO rice at the University’s base, the rate is at least three times higher. Seven students are on record now as having developed the disease.
These accusations are corroborated by a study conducted by Brazilian researchers, one which showed that Bt toxins found in GM rice are toxic to the blood of mice and cause red blood cells to rupture.
“Hematotoxicity of Bacillus thuringiensis as spore-crystal strains Cry1Aa, Cry1Ab, Cry1Ac, or Cry2Aa in Swiss albino mice” suggests there could be a link between Bt toxins and leukemia.
Chen I-wan, an Advisor to the Committee of Disaster History to the China Disaster Prevention Association, suggested Thursday that:
“The Supreme People’s Procuratorate, the Ministry of Public Security, the National People’s Congress and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) should jointly organize a working team to enter the Huazhong Agricultural University and investigate if Zhang Qi-fa, the chief developer of Chinese GM Bt rice, influenced the University to feed GM Bt rice to the students on a regular basis, and if the fact that the leukemia incidence rate of the students at the Huazhong Agricultural University is about three times the normal incidence rate. And, if this is basically verified, then they should sue those responsible with public prosecution based on “endangering public security by dangerous means!””
The University Students’ accusations come on the heels of a CCTV report last month, which revealed that unapproved GMO Rice was discovered in two southern China provinces.
Meredith Hobbs Brings Us the Next Crooked Lawyer Story
Morris Hardwick Schneider Accuses Founder of Embezzling $30 Million
Meredith Hobbs, Daily Report
August 27, 2014 | 2 Comments
Related Article: Hardwick Denies Embezzling from Firm
Residential real estate firm Morris Hardwick Schneider alleges that founder Nathan Hardwick IV embezzled more than $30 million from the firm and its affiliated title company, LandCastle Title.
In a suit filed Monday in Fulton County Superior Court, the firm claims Hardwick used the money to pay for casino expenses, private jet rides, a luxury Buckhead condo and real estate investments.
The two firms allege in the complaint that Hardwick raided the trust and escrow accounts that the firms maintain for residential mortgage closings and then created false bank statements and altered accounting records to hide the deficits.
Hardwick was listed as MHS’s managing partner and as the board chairman and CEO for LandCastle Title in a biography that has been deleted from MHS’s website.
A nanny who answered the phone at Hardwick’s residence at the St. Regis in Buckhead said he was not at home.
LandCastle’s lawyer, W. Reese Willis III of Fidelity National Law Group, declined to comment on active litigation. “The complaint speaks for itself,” he said.
Art Morris, another founding partner of MHS, did not respond to requests for comment, nor did MHS’s lawyer, Jeffrey Schneider of Weissman, Nowack, Curry & Wilco.
Fidelity National Title Group bought a 70 percent interest in LandCastle Title, one of its agents, after the escrow account losses were discovered, according to a letter Fidelity National posted Monday to MHS and LandCastles’ joint website.
A “significant shortage” in the accounts of MHS and LandCastle prompted the acquisition and Fidelity National is funding the shortages in return for the ownership interest in LandCastle, according to the letter. Fidelity National Title Group is owned by Fidelity National Financial.
Hardwick has resigned from MHS and Mark Wittstadt is now the managing partner, according to the letter, which was signed by Wittstadt and David Baum, the Southeast regional manager for Fidelity National Title Group who is now the president of LandCastle Title.
According to the suit, Hardwick spent $4 million from MHS’s trust accounts in wire transfers to casinos, $1 million to pay private jet companies, and $645,000 to cover losses from failed property investments.
He diverted $6.3 million from MHS’s trust accounts to a personal holding company called Divot, according to the suit, which names Divot as a co-defendant. According to Hardwick’s firm bio, he is an “avid golfer.”
Hardwick partially financed the February 2013 purchase of a $3 million unit at the St. Regis in Buckhead with funds from MHS and LandCastle, according to the suit, and siphoned off another $390,000 in regular payments to himself from MHS’s trust accounts, after draining the operating accounts.
The suit alleges that Hardwick has been embezzling money for at least 18 months, saying the $390,000 in personal payouts from the MHS trust accounts occurred between January 2012 and July 2014.
‘The far-reaching impact on lenders, realtors, law firms and consumers would have been a catastrophe had our parent company, Fidelity National Financial Inc. not stepped in with the capital and resources available to us and a plan to allow them to move forward,” said Fidelity National Title’s state manager Jim Petropoulos in an email to members of the Mortgage Bankers Association of Georgia.
MHS and LandCastle Title are headquartered in Atlanta. They have more than 50 offices in Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, Delaware, Maryland and Ohio.
The Next Article on This Attorney:
Hardwick Denies Embezzling from Firm
Nathan Hardwick denies allegations of embezzlement from his real estate law firm
Meredith Hobbs, Daily Report
August 28, 2014 | 0 Comments
Related Article: Morris Hardwick Schneider Accuses Founder of Embezzling $30 Million
Nathan Hardwick IV denied Wednesday that he embezzled $30 million from his residential real estate law firm, Morris Hardwick Schneider, and its affiliated title company, Landcastle Title.
In a suit filed Monday in Fulton County Superior Court, MHS and Landcastle Title claim Hardwick used the money to pay for casino expenses, private jet rides, a luxury Buckhead condo and failed real estate investments.
The firms allege in the complaint that Hardwick raided the trust and escrow accounts that they maintain for residential mortgage closings and then created false bank statements and altered accounting records to hide the deficits.
Hardwick was MHS’s managing partner and the board chairman and CEO for Landcastle Title, according to a biography that has been deleted from MHS’s website.
Hardwick denied the fraud allegations in a statement supplied by his lawyer, Ed Garland.
“Nat is not guilty of any improper, illegal or unethical conduct,” the statement said. “Nat became aware of a problem with the accounting earlier this summer and immediately alerted his partners and initiated a review by outside auditors.”
“The law firm was profitable and Nat believed that all of the money he received was properly distributed to him as his share of the profits of the firm,” the statement said.
Hardwick has resigned from the firm, according to a letter from Fidelity National Title Group that was posted Monday to MHS and Landcastle’s joint website.
Fidelity National Title Group bought a 70 percent interest in Landcastle Title, one of its agents, after the escrow account losses were discovered, the letter said. A “significant shortage” in the accounts of MHS and Landcastle prompted the acquisition and Fidelity National is funding the shortages in return for the ownership interest in Landcastle, it said. Fidelity National Title Group is owned by Fidelity National Financial.
Mark Wittstadt is now MHS’s managing partner, according to the letter, which was signed by Wittstadt and David Baum, the Southeast regional manager for Fidelity National Title Group, who is now the president of Landcastle Title.
“To allow Landcastle to fail would have been a calamity for the company’s employees, consumers, and the real estate industry, as a whole. We are grateful that FNTG made the decision to put the financial resources of the company behind Landcastle Title. Together, we are working to restore confidence in our industry,” said Wittstadt in a statement.
According to the suit, Hardwick spent $4 million from MHS’s trust accounts in wire transfers to casinos, $1 million to pay private jet companies and $645,000 to cover losses from failed property investments.
He diverted $6.3 million from MHS’s trust accounts to a personal holding company called Divot, according to the suit, which names Divot as a codefendant. According to Hardwick’s firm bio, he is an “avid golfer.”
Hardwick partially financed the February 2013 purchase of a $3 million condo at the St. Regis Residences in Buckhead with funds from MHS and Landcastle, according to the suit, and siphoned off another $390,000 in regular payments to himself from MHS’s trust accounts, after draining the operating accounts.
Landcastle’s lawyer is W. Reese Willis III of Fidelity National Law Group. MHS’s lawyer is Jeffrey Schneider of Weissman, Nowack, Curry & Wilco.
The suit alleges that Hardwick has been embezzling money for at least 18 months, saying the $390,000 in personal payouts from the MHS trust accounts occurred between January 2012 and July 2014.
“The far-reaching impact on lenders, realtors, law firms and consumers would have been a catastrophe had our parent company, Fidelity National Financial Inc. not stepped in with the capital and resources available to us and a plan to allow them to move forward,” said Jim Petropoulos, Fidelity National Title’s state manager, in an email to members of the Mortgage Bankers Association of Georgia.
MHS and Landcastle Title are headquartered in Atlanta. In Georgia, 57 lawyers work for MHS, according to the State Bar of Georgia’s directory.
It has 52 offices in 13 states, including Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, Delaware, Maryland and Ohio.
Hardwick, 48, started his own real estate closing firm, Jackson & Hardwick, in 1994. With visions of expanding into a regional or even national firm, he merged his firm in 2005 with the older and more established Atlanta closing firm Morris & Schneider.
Hardwick told the Daily Report at the time that he wanted MHS to be the nation’s biggest real estate firm within a decade. As comanaging partner with Randolph Schneider, he was responsible for marketing and business development.
MHS added foreclosure services in 2008 through a merger with Baltimore-based Wittstadt & Wittstadt. That firm was founded by Mark Wittstadt, now MHS’s managing partner, and his father, Gerard Wittstadt Sr.
Hardwick told the Daily Report in 2008 that MHS’s goal was to become a national one-stop shop for residential real estate. “We can take [property] from closing to refinancing to foreclosure to REO and back to retail again,” he said.
Mary Anne Walser, a real estate agent for Keller Williams Realty, expressed shock at the fraud allegations against Hardwick. “It’s the talk of every real estate and mortgage office in town,” Walser said. “No one had any inkling that there would ever be a problem.”
She said MHS is one of the major closing firms in the city, with a reputation as a “competent firm that does a good job.”
“All of us had at least one if not multiple closings there,” she said.
Walser spoke highly of Hardwick. “He is a smart guy and he built a great, wonderful firm. I hope there is some other side to the story,” she said.
Even though Fidelity National Title stepped in and covered the shortfall to the escrow accounts, real estate agents and mortgage lenders don’t know whether it is safe to use the firm, Walser said, adding that some mortgage companies have announced they’ve stopped using MHS for closings.
One mortgage lender, Ari Berman, said his company, Silverton Mortgage Specialists, has pulled all its real estate closings from MHS.
“The last thing we want to do is get involved in any kind of fraud or anything that smacks of fraud,” said Berman, who manages Silverton’s Dunwoody office. Silverton has nine Georgia offices and one in South Carolina.
Silverton can’t take the risk of entrusting mortgage money to MHS to hold in escrow during a real estate closing for fear that it could disappear, Berman said. “What if we end up losing those funds?”
“Even though it’s just an allegation, we can’t be associated with it,” he said. “That is a sacrosanct account. It’s other people’s money.”
Even though Hardwick has resigned from MHS and Fidelity National Title has covered the escrow shortfalls, Berman said there is no guarantee that he was the sole actor. “There is too much that is unknown. I’m not willing to take that risk,” he said.
“Fraud is a real hot-button issue in this industry. People lose their life savings because of it,” he said.
Georgia's Corrupt Judicial System 