A week or so ago.. the EPA announced it would terminate 3,100 employees because of the fund cuts ordered by Trump.. I figured that had to be huge percent of the department's personnel/budget.. Apparently not.. seems that the EPA has about 15,000+ employees.. that's about 300 employees PER STATE. What in the world does a regulatory department need with that many taxpayer funded jobs?  With the 3,100 "cuts", the EPA still has MORE employees than locally founded/based TSYS which conducts business world wide.. and pays taxes rather than siphons out of taxpayers wallets.

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Online story: "A U.S. State Department employee with access to sensitive information was accused of failing to report contacts with Chinese foreign intelligence agents who provided her with gifts in exchange for diplomatic and economic information, federal prosecutors said on Wednesday. * Candace Claiborne, 60, was charged in a Washington federal court with obstruction of justice and making false statements to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. * A complaint says Claiborne was given tens of thousands of dollars in gifts and wire transfers by Chinese agents beginning in 2011 in exchange for information about U.S. economic policy in relation to China and other diplomatic matters." -- Well, well, well...One of Obama's.. and HELLARY's employees was caught with her hand in the cookie jar.. betcha mainscream media will exonerate Hellary based on her past statements that she doesn't "know how to bake cookies".

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Online story: "The NCAA has imposed a 48-hour deadline on North Carolina to repeal its controversial "bathroom law," a local sports event planner said on Tuesday. * If lawmakers don't repeal the law, known as HB2, the NCAA will reject the state's more than 100 bids to host championship college sports events over the next five years." -- Good grief.. if the NCAA is so insistent, then it needs to align itself with its demand.. eliminate all gender divides among the sports it sanctions.. no more mens/womens designated sports..

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L-E headline: "Council sticks with first Liberty District appraisal after big discrepancy * Columbus Council received a second appraisal on land in the Liberty District Tuesday that put the appraised value at $133,500.
*  The amount was $75,300 more than an appraisal that the council received two weeks ago when city officials said the property had been appraised at $58,200." -- Hmmm... why is it that Council PAYS more than assessment value ($365,000 for property tax assessed at $211, 000) yet sells city owned property at below FMV? One other question needs to be explored.. another commenter made the observation that usually 3 appraisals are analyzed.. not just one or two.

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Anybody seen any Council action on what it will do with the parking lot property next to the Pezold Mariott downtown? Last year, Council voted to sell such property to another hotel company for $50,000.00,, Pezold's company fought the valuation believing that the property should be sold between $500,000 and $750,000 per acre.. They got a judge to soundoff with an injunction and the sale was stopped.. recently, that judge's injunction was overturned by an Appeal Court. Unfortunately, in this time frame, a year had passed, and two more hotels (with one another Pezold venture) had been announced in the downtown area making it pretty much a futile effort for the company stopped from purchasing the other property to plan a third hotel in the area.  Now.. what is Council going to do with the property the Pezold Company uses for parking. I do believe that the the Pezold Company buying the acreage for the high end they assessed it would be the best thing for the City under the circumstances..  if the Pezold Company "reneges", then Council should blockade the downtown Marriott from using it as parking. . Oh.. and since the Pezolds value that parking lot at $750,000. per acre for unimproved property, Council should reassess the Pezold's hotel property.. obviously, with 2.33 acres of property, the land alone should be valued at $1,747,500.00 but the acreage itself is only assessed at $661,020. Using the Pezold Company's own evaluation (2.64 times higher), then the whole property/building value should be raised from $3,450,548,00 to $9,110,000.00 and property taxed accordingly.

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Online story: "Gov. Nathan Deal now has a legal mandate to intervene in Georgia’s lowest-performing schools. * The House of Representatives’ approval Tuesday of House Bill 338 is lawmakers’ response to the failure in November of Deal’s referendum to create a statewide Opportunity School District for “chronically failing” schools. * The vote of 133-36 was a slight drop from the 138-37 by which the bill first passed the House at the beginning of March. The Senate amended and passed the bill last week, and the House had to ratify the changes." - It's a start.. unfortunately, Columbus political interests thwarted an opportunity to get the MCSB to be able to do the same thing before anymore deterioration occurs which will be what Gov Deal has to wait for before stepping in..

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Everyone see Judge Napolitano back on Fox yesterday? Guess it's Fox's way of apologizing for censoring him for supporting Trump's claim of being spied on. Wonder when ..if.. mainscream media will accept the facts.... eventually...

 

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Online headline/story: "Mexican state attorney general arrested in San Diego on drug charges *  The Wall Street Journal reported Veytia, who has the nickname “Diablo,” was charged with drug trafficking. * “[It’s] the latest in a string of arrests, indictments and murders that underscore the corruption and rising violence afflicting Mexico,” the WSJ reported." -- Good grief.. I understood the nickname of a drug lord,,i.e. "El Chapo", but when the State Attorney General is nicknamed "Diablo".. why wasn't that wall ben finished before Obama left office?

 

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L-E headline: "Public invited to tour Feeding the Valley’s brand-new facility" --  Isn't it "odd" that a private sector business can build a metal/slab construction building for $112.00 a square ft, while the MCSD  says it takes $312.00 a square ft to build the same kind of building for wrestling/weight rooms? No-bid contracts should be abandoned!

 

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L-E editorial headline: "Is state tax cut a ‘greater good’ bill? * by Dusty Nix" -- It's "progressive thinking" (an obvious oxymoron)  like Dusty Nix's that holds back people from succeeding on their own initiative. To boot, doesn't Dusty live in Alabama (please correct me if I'm wrong), so why's he stepping into something he's avoided so long to be part of?