Tag Archive: City council


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Homeless Veteran on the streets of Boston, MA

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You know when you read something, but then it’s so ridiculous you have to do more research to find out whether it’s actually true?

Case in point, a story this week about a South Carolina city which has taken steps to “exile its homeless.”

The story suggested the city council in Columbia, S.C., had unanimously approved an “emergency homeless response” plan which will ban homeless people from the central business district and authorize police to arrest any homeless person found within the no-homeless zone.

A hotline will be established for residents and merchants to report the presence of a homeless person to police, who will be obliged to move them along.

Surely that can’t be true, I thought.

Sadly, it is.

The council of Columbia will partner with a local charity to operate a 24-hour emergency shelter on the outskirts of town, however it’s unlikely the 240-bed shelter will be sufficient for the city’s estimated 1,500 homeless people. And once someone enters the shelter, they are not allowed to leave the premises unless they set up an appointment to be driven out by a van.

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Amid Economic Collapse, South Carolina Approves Another $1M for Police State

Anthony Freda Art

Brandon Turbeville
Activist Post

A little over a week ago, on May 7, 2013 and in the midst of a worldwide economic depression, Columbia, South Carolina City Council members met to discuss the funding of a million dollar project even as the State government continued its regularly scheduled hysteria over budgets, spending, and deficits.

So what was the project so vital to the people of Columbia to be pushed through by a 4-2 vote of the council during the midst of such trying economic times? Was it regarding the road systems? Was it the dismal state of Columbia schools? Was it tax relief for residents? Was it economic development? Water? Power? Sewage? Waste disposal?
Actually, it was the purchase and installation of 800 new surveillance cameras all across the city of Columbia that prompted the Council to spend $1.22 million, much of which is scheduled to come from an “emergency reserve fund” that is actually part of next year’s budget. As The State reports, “That previous $1 million fund will be reduced to $250,000. A capital projects fund that was to be $1.7 million next year will be down by $200,000.”
Once again, Columbia City Council members have come to the decision that maintaining and expanding the police state should always be paramount to any concerns facing elected officials at any time. In other words – Surveillance at all costs! Survival is secondary.
Even as the city’s meal taxes will be used to fund the camera installation to the tune of $100,000, budget cuts will also take place regarding the amount of money spent to house inmates in the Richland County Jail. This simply means that, if you are arrested (which will likely happen in the New United Police States of America) for one of the innumerable mundane and victimless activities that can result in temporary (or indefinite) imprisonment, the conditions in which you are held are likely to be even more abominable than they currently are.
Another $100,000 infusion of cash will come from “eliminating the city’s planned reserves in the event that fuel or utility bills jump.”
Who cares if the city can’t pay its utility bills? After all, it’s only ordinary citizens that would suffer as a result. Besides, you can always raise their taxes yet again to meet the payment requirements.
Oh, and police will be receiving raises in January. All other City workers, however, will be forced to continue to do their jobs as normal, receive the same amount of pay, and constantly be told how “government workers” make six figure salaries and do nothing as a justification for new cuts in the budget.
Another interesting aspect is that the Columbia City Council has decided to contract out to Statewide Security Systems (SSS), the company that already provides most of the cameras being used by the City. It is no surprise, then, that SSS received the City contract despite being the more expensive of the two options.
March 27, 2013 12:00 am  •  Darren DaRonco Arizona Daily Star

Tucson residents living in crime-ridden areas could soon receive free shotguns.

Operating on the premise an armed neighborhood is a safer neighborhood, a group led by former mayoral candidate Shaun McClusky is raising money to purchase shotguns and provide training for anyone who lives in a mid- to high-crime neighborhood and can pass a background check.

The project is part of a developing nationwide movement to see if more guns really do translate into less crime.

McClusky said he’s bringing the program to Tucson because the City Council has failed to properly fund the Police Department, leaving many residents easy targets for criminals.

“We need to take back our city, and it needs to come back to the citizens and not the criminals,” McClusky said. “Right now, the criminal element is winning.”

Over the next couple of weeks, McClusky and others will begin spreading leaflets and posting fliers in Midvale Park, Pueblo Gardens and a yet-to-be-determined midtown neighborhood to induce residents to sign up for the program.

McClusky said the shotguns will be single-break-action guns that can hold only one shell. Pump-action shotguns have been considered, but that will depend on cost. For now, each gun will cost $205, which includes a box of ammunition. With the training and background checks included, McClusky estimates it will cost about $350 to $400 per person.

McClusky said his group won’t be making the same tactical error as Mark Kelly did recently – buying weapons not for their own use. Instead, they will donate the money for individuals to fill out the background checks and purchase the weapons for themselves.

He’s also not afraid of litigation.

“Saying guns are responsible for killing people is like saying spoons are responsible for making people fat,” McClusky said. “If someone wants to bring me the publicity for free and sue me, bring it on.”

So far, contributors have committed about $12,000 even though McClusky just started soliciting donations. He said he’s not prepared to say how many shotguns will be provided.

“We’ve hit the ground running,” McClusky said.

If everything goes as planned, McClusky expects to start handing them out within 60 days.

The news didn’t sit well with some.

“When we have a problems we try to get the neighbors together and work on solutions. This is something far outside what we would normally do,” said Midvale Neighborhood Association President Joe Miller. “This is pretty intense.”

 

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Health And Wellness Report

 

 

Health Ranger interviews Laura Pressley about water fluoridation

by: NaturalNews

(NaturalNews) Health Ranger: Welcome, this is Mike Adams, the Health Ranger. This is the Health Ranger report at NaturalNews.com. As you can see, I’m wearing a shirt today, ‘Water is Life.’ This is a truism about human biology, isn’t it? In fact, life on the whole planet. And here today is a special guest, well, joining us by phone actually, who has a special interest in keeping our water safe and clean. She’s running for city council in Austin, Texas, where I’m located. Her name is Laura Pressley, and she’s been one of the most outspoken opponents against the chemical fluoridation of the water supply. She’s hosting a money bomb right now to raise campaign funds to help her win the election and get a seat on the city council in Austin, where she can then help lead the fight against water fluoridation and contamination of the Austin water supply with synthetic, dangerous chemicals. Laura, thanks for joining me today.

Laura Pressley: Hey Mike, thank you for having us. I love being on your show. We’ve been on it a couple times and thank you for having us again.

Health Ranger: It’s great to have you on. I hear you’re making a lot of waves in Austin right now with your run for city council. People are, I heard they’re accusing you of being a Ron Paul supporter. That sounds like a compliment to me. What’s the deal?

Laura Pressley: I know, it is hilarious. My opponent, whom I’m running against, I’m running for Austin city council place two, and our opponent, he cannot stand on his own policies or his own voting record or his own experience, so the only thing he can do to attack us is say that you know what, in Austin it’s mostly a Democrat-type community, and I’ll tell you what, the left-right paradigm is alive and well here in Austin. And , totally, if you’re not a Democrat, people don’t think you can be elected to a city council place. Well we’re, we’re, I’m basically an Independent, and all he can say is ‘she’s got a Ron Paul sticker on the back of her car and we can’t have one of those in the city council.’ And that is a direct quote from him.

Health Ranger: Well that’s extraordinary because first of all, the progressive, let’s say Democrat, liberal community, they believe in the legalization of medical marijuana, or the decriminalization-

Laura Pressley: Yes, yes.

Health Ranger: -they believe in clean water.

Laura Pressley: They’re strong environmentalists-

Health Ranger: They don’t believe in any wars.

Laura Pressley: Yes, they’re strong environmentalists, they’re anti-war, and they don’t like giving, you know, their money, taxpayer money to a bunch of rich people.

Health Ranger: Yeah but my point is that Ron Paul supports all of these positions that the liberals support, so why are they, why are they against Ron Paul? I don’t get that.

Laura Pressley: Exactly. Well, of course we know that the mainstream media demonizes Ron Paul for his policies and puts out a lot of disinformation and misinformation because you know, he’s a threat to the establishment.

Health Ranger: True.

Laura Pressley: So the good parts of him that are consistent with the Democratic party, which are the no wars, no bail-outs, no NDAA, they don’t really look at that. They just look at the part, oh, he’s anti-woman, ok, he’s anti-abortion, he’s anti, you know, environment, anti-regulations. So they skew all these components of his candidacy, and I have had to answer for a lot of this during our run for city council and explaining his positions, and it falls on deaf ears because they’ve been told so much by the mainstream media. And my opponent, yeah, go ahead.

Health Ranger: Well, I didn’t mean to make this conversation about Ron Paul, I want to make this conversation about you, Laura Pressley-

Laura Pressley: I know.

Health Ranger: Now, clearly you are pro-woman because you are a woman. And you want clean drinking water for all the women and mothers out there, too.

Laura Pressley: That’s right, we want to protect our babies and our children and our women who are so sensitive to hyperthyroidism. And fluoridation, you know, affects women disproportionately, and it affects minorities disproportionately. Hispanics and African-Americans with fluorosis two to three x higher than it does Anglos. So yes, all of our, all of the things that we’re standing for in the city council are consistent with Democratic party values, and of course we cannot focus on that because his voting record for subsidies and against the environment and against our families with fluoridation, he can’t stand on that. So he has to pick something that’s inflammatory, and it seems to be working to some extent. The other part is, like you said, he is doing a lot of advertising for me here in Austin because there are a lot of Ron Paul supporters here in Austin.

Health Ranger: Well, but let me explain to our viewers why this is really a national issue. It’s, Austin has become the battleground for the fluoride debate. Dr. Paul Connett, for example, came here and testified I believe, was that in front of the city council, or-

Laura Pressley: Yes, many times, he’s been multiple times.

Health Ranger: Yeah, and you’ve been on the issue, InfoWars team, Alex Jones and the whole crew there, they’ve been investigating. In fact, they ran a video that exposed the chemicals that are fluoride is being dumped into the Austin water supply.

Laura Pressley: Yes.

Health Ranger: And, so, if we can get fluoride chemicals, the poison, removed from the water supply in Austin, that really helps set a national precedent. And that’s why electing you, getting you into a city council seat is crucial for having that domino effect across the country. How can people support your campaign, Laura?

Laura Pressley: Well we are, and thank you Mike, we are having a money bomb this week to raise funds for our campaign. And we don’t have the what they call bundlers here in Austin, where these people go out and get money for the candidates and bundle money as it comes in. And typically those bundlers are real estate developers, or you know industry that’s getting subsidies from our city council currently. So we are doing grassroots. We need everybody’s support as much as possible. There’s a $350 limit for individuals and $700 limit, contribution limit for couples. So we have at PressleyForAustin.com, we have a contribute page, and we’re doing the money bomb this week and we need support, we really do. There’s a big push, we have about a month before the election and we’ve got a whole strategy of getting our message out and getting how we’re different from this candidate and how we will not be giving a bunch of our tax dollars to these rich corporations like Apple. Austin city council just gave Apple corporation, the $110 billion cash rich company, the richest company in the world outside of the banking and financial institutions, we just gave them $8.6 million to come and bring 3,600 jobs over the next ten years. And it’s an outrage. Apple was going to come here anyway, and there’s a lot of ways we can generate 300 jobs per year over the next ten years by investing in small businesses and keeping that money in Austin and keeping that money locally. So that’s, we need people’s help with donations if they can do that.

Health Ranger: I want to ask you about Apple in a separate segment with you here, but-

Laura Pressley: Ok.

Health Ranger: First, to wrap this up, I want to also inform people of a little bit about your background and ask you to comment on that, too. You have a PhD in chemistry, you’re from the high-tech industry. You’re also in the natural products industry. You have a rainwater company that sells bottled rainwater. What else do people need to know about you and sort of your background?

Laura Pressley: Well, I’m also a survivor of domestic violence. You know, one of the things that I can provide on the city council is a perspective of how really our city funds can support and help people out of poverty. I have been in a shelter myself with my daughter when she was two years old. She’s now 27. But I have seen the benefit of investing in our community, investing in people. And so not only do I have the tech side background, I was in the semi-conductor industry here in Austin for 17 years and I was an engineer and I was a business manager. I managed a $1 billion business, networking business and I was a cost-reduction manager, so I really have a lot of the expertise to get in the city council and start cutting waste, cutting expenses, but also having the side of seeing how if we could really fund critical and effective programs to get people out of poverty. I’m an example of that.

Health Ranger: But that’s, see, you talk about cutting waste, this is part of the reason why they don’t want you there because a lot of that so-called waste is actually graft and corrupt money going into somebody’s pocket, from what I hear about the city council. It’s very, very corrupt and they want to keep it that way. So you would shake that up, it sounds like.

Laura Pressley: Absolutely, and that’s why they’re pressing so hard on this Ron Paul issue, you know, trying to demonize us. We’re just trying to get in there and do what’s right for the citizens. There is a ton of waste, Mike. I met with one of the, well the CEO of Austin Energy. It’s a $1 billion entity here in our community, and they provide our electricity but there’s some profit they make and that goes into funding these major programs. And I asked him and I said, why are we not doing cost reduction and efficiency and waste reduction programs before you start raising rates to citizens? And he told me, the CEO said, of Austin Energy, he said, we don’t have the bandwidth to go cut costs. I’m like, well you have the bandwidth to go raise rates for all of us. Why can’t you look in your own backyard? So, I pretty much told him what-for and exposed that there’s nothing they’re doing, that the city council setting expectation for them to be less wasteful. And you’re right, it’s going into the pocket of somebody, and that somebody’s not going to be happy. But we are there to shake it up, use our voice, expose what’s going on and make a difference.

Health Ranger: And the people of Austin are never going to benefit from this corruption. I always find it interesting that these people who worship big government, they never benefit from it. The government keeps them in poverty, and somehow they think the government is their savior when they’re getting screwed. It’s like, come on.

Laura Pressley: Well, I think what happens, I agree with you, I think what happens is the middle class and then the upper classes, the upper-middle class in all communities, they have disposable income, so you’re really not affecting their pocket book yet when you’re raising electric rates and raising water rates and what happens is those lower income classes and those people that are already in poverty absolutely are destroyed financially when these things happen. And what happens is they develop these people out and they go in and buy their property and they put mixed-use large commercial developments on that cheap land, and I’ll tell you what, that’s what’s going on in Austin. That’s the cycle.

Health Ranger: Some under the table property deals and the city seizing property from people, using imminent domain and then later selling it a few years later to their friends and connected insiders, things like that.

Laura Pressley: Yes, and then giving these subsidies. You know, the council member that I’m going up against, he actually made the statement two nights ago in a candidate forum that the city needs to balance the risk for these companies coming in and spending millions of dollars in investment and the city needs to help them with that risk and mitigate that risk and I was in shock.

Health Ranger: That sounds just like the banker bail-out justification.

Laura Pressley: It is no different. It’s exactly that. And I say, you know what, I will not give our tax dollars to a bunch of rich corporations, and that’s what I stand for. And the people in Austin are very frustrated by this. And I know they’re frustrated with it across the country because this is a model that’s being translated across all cities: Dallas, Arlington, Houston, all across the country, this is a model that’s happening now where councils are being approached, we’ll come and bring these jobs if you give us this money. And they feel kind of, there’s a fear factor. And that’s one thing that I do not operate off of. I don’t have the fear chip in my head. I missed it somehow when I was born and I just don’t have it, so I don’t operate off of that. So they can’t make those arguments with me and I’ll just give them back the business cases of why we don’t need as citizens to be subsidizing them.

Health Ranger: Yeah, well alright I want to talk to you about that in another segment, but for wrapping this one up, the website folks is PressleyForAustin.com. That’s where you can help contribute to her money bomb, her fundraising effort to actually get a seat on the Austin city council and when that happens, that’ll be a real game changer for the fluoride debate across the country.

Laura Pressley: It will be.

Health Ranger: Laura, I hope that once you’re there in that seat, you’ll still find time to talk with us.

Laura Pressley: I would love to keep doing that, that’s wonderful. And again, what I can provide on the council because I have a chemistry background is I can provide education. And that’s kind of the first step in this whole fluoridation thing. The council’s being educated by the city staff that doesn’t have the most recent data, and really doesn’t have the expertise to analyze and present that data in a way that is cohesive and understandable, and that’s the piece I can bring.

Health Ranger: Sure. Yeah, well, they should be in favor of education, but it’s funny how it’s very selective, where issues like fluoride, they don’t want to know. Don’t tell us, you know. Or economics, basically, it sounds like.

Laura Pressley: Yes.

Health Ranger: With the company subsidies. Anyway, we’ll talk about that in another segment. Thanks for watching, folks, and thank you Laura for joining me today here on the Health Ranger Report.

Watch the full video interview at:

http://tv.naturalnews.com/v.asp?v=F2C011AF301080465CA5F078F51E333A