Page County - A $34 Million Dump for the President's Brother

I get a google news alert each day on the "Shenandoah Valley".

Today, this interesting article appeared in my inbox and I thought I would share it with fellow bloggers.

It appears as though President Bush's brother, Marvin Bush, is partner and co-founder of the venture capital firm, Winston Partners, out of McLean, Virginia.

Marvin's company purchased Tellurian, Page County’s waste management and landfill operator for the Battle Creek landfill. FYI - the Page County landfill accepts garbage from out of state, like many other landfills in the state.

The article states, "The permit for the Battle Creek landfill allows for 250 tons of garbage per day. The expected carry capacity for an 18-wheeler is about 20 tons, so 250 tons a day would bring a dozen big trucks every day into the Battle Creek facility. "

Apparently, "an under-the-counter deal was made between some Page County supervisors and Tellurian to illegally accept delivery of 1,500 tons/day at the Battle Creek landfill. The DEQ in Richmond, the Governor’s office (at the time this was Governor Mark Warner, now a 2008 Democratic presidential aspirant, and his Republican Attorney General Jerry Kilgore) and others were aware of the deal."

The article goes onto say that, " An illegal "amendment" to the Page County contract with Tellurian – increasing the garbage deliveries to 1,500 tons a day – was physically signed by the local County supervisors on 14 December 2001. Within hours of this illegal amendment, Tellurian was purchased by Winston Partners. Several months later, Tellurian was renamed National Waste Services of Virginia. Over-dumping continued, with help from the Virginia DEQ and the governor’s office for nearly two years.

And…"Upon the closure of the landfill, Marvin Bush’s NWS sued Page County supervisors. The lawsuit alleged that the closure violated the contract and had pushed NWS into bankruptcy. Even though Page County had the right to end the contract without penalty at any time, Page County supervisors agreed not only to have the County’s taxpayers clean up the environmental mess made at the Battle Creek Landfill, but for them to pay NWS’s landfill related debts.

Marvin Bush owed another company, Capitol Source, $34 million as a result of the alleged bankruptcy of NWS. Even though the court imposed no criminal or civil penalties, the settlement agreement deemed that Marvin Bush would receive $34 million, and that he would receive Battle Creek landfill profits until the debt is totally paid.

The general saga has been reported here and here. It is also well known to federal investigators.”

Here's the best part, "In sum, Page County is handing over the first $34 million of profits from the recently re-opened Battle Creek landfill to Marvin Bush. Presumably, the bribes paid by NWS and Winston Partners to the various government officials – both Democrat and Republican – are covered by the $34 million.

One would think that this is enough criminality for local and state government. But there’s more! It is a Class IV felony – a crime – to falsify County financial records. Yet, according to the Page County Treasurer, the County financial records do not show the huge debt to Winston Partners. This debt, and the destination of years of future profits from the Page County landfill, remains hidden from taxpayers. "

I am not familiar with the situation, so if anyone has any extra information, please chime in and enlighten us all.

The Shenandoah River One of the Most Polluted in the Nation

The environmental group American Rivers has named The Shenandoah River one of the most polluted in the nation - the fifth most polluted to be exact.

This is not good news.

I own a cabin on The Shenandoah below Front Royal and felt things were getting better. I remember how bad things were when the Avtex Fibers plant was still open and dumping their toxic waste into the river. Fishing was terrible (you still shouldn't eat the fish from the Shenandoah), and wildlife was disappearing. In recent years, I felt that things were on a comeback - fishing had picked back up and you were seeing different types of wildlife reappear. I believe there have even been a few bald eagle spotting.

For those that don't know the history of the Avtex Fibers plant, click here. To make a long story short, the Avtex plant was designated a "Superfund" site by the EPA. The EPA reserves the term "Superfund" for the most urgent environmental clean-up spots. I believe the entire clean-up process at the Avtex site took about 15 years from start to finish.

American Rivers had this to say about the state of The Shenandoah;

"One of America's most storied rivers, the peaceful Shenandoah is facing an onslaught of development that threatens the tranquility and clean water that have attracted people to the river for centuries. County governments along the Shenandoah have a rapidly-closing window to get a handle on runaway development before it changes the character of the river and valley forever. "

Let's hope our County governments take note of this sooner rather than later.

Who Has the Best Polling Data?

This is a follow-up post to Wild Turkey's, "Approval Ratings for Gov. Kaine" on April 15th.

After looking at the poll I began wondering what each side in the Transportation debate is getting in regards to polling data. We all know the House and Senate, or some group on their behalf, is taking polls to see where the public stands on the issue of a tax increase for transportation. And I am not referring to some poll on a website, I am talking about a serious scientific poll with deep cross-tabs.

Since they are so far apart on a compromise, they must be getting mixed polling data, right? The question then becomes, how much different is Sen. Chichester’s polling data from Speaker Howell’s and why? Or, are the numbers so close that each side is willing to bet the farm on their position?

So, who has the best polling data?

I have no idea what the answer is, so I figured I would throw it out there for fellow bloggers to think about and respond.

Faith In America

If you missed Sunday's edition of Meet the Press, click here to watch it. It's excellent.

It addresses many issues concerning the state of faith in our country today, particularly the hypocrisy that exists with many ideas put forward by religious extremists in our society, among other things.

My take was that religious extremists have a tendency to use very shortsighted and narrow minded views of religion, weather it be Christians, Muslims, Jews, etc, to further their cause, while leaving out the things that don’t fit their views.

In other words, religious extremists tend to focus on a very small part of religion and faith in order to further their cause, as opposed to focusing on religion and faith as a whole.

Potts: 'No End In Sight'

Quotes made by Sen. Russ Potts from The Leesburg Today, Saturday, April 15, 2006 regarding the HOD proposed budget.

“There’s no end in sight,” he said. “The Senate is united and solid that we are not going to sign off on some Band-Aid proposal, and that’s what it is. You have to have long-term sustainable consistent funding. So what are we going to do? Go out there and sign on the House’s proposal that would provide funding out of the General Fund at the expense of higher ed, health care and public safety and worse yet then have funding in place for two years. So what are we going to do, build the road to nowhere?”

“This pitiful amount of money they are talking about won’t even pay for the transportation challenges of the 27th District I represent. Not one Senate district. It won’t pay for the Springfield Bypass which is in its sixth year.”

....Potts said today that the House's new proposal is just a tactic to get the budget adopted and that when September comes, House Republicans will "say 'what transportation problem?'"

"It’s unanimous. I don’t know anybody in the entire Senate who will give it the time or day," he said about the House's proposal.

2006 General Assembly Summary

I came across this handy little document produced by the Division of Legislative Services that highlights different bills that passed and failed in this year's GA Session.

It's a .pdf file so it may take some time to open. The document organizes legislation into various categories such as Adoption, Agriculture, Business, Education, etc.

It's easy to bash the GA so I am going to take some time giving them credit where credit is due.

Here are a few areas where I think the GA made significant progress in 2006:

A bill was passed regarding Small Business health insurance.

The bill "authorizes the establishment of cooperatives for the purpose of offering, providing, or facilitating the provision of coverage for health care services to participating small employers. Membership in health group cooperatives is limited to employers with not more than 50 eligible employees. A small employer health group cooperative is deemed to be a single entity for purposes negotiating the terms, including premium rates of coverage. Cooperatives shall elect to either be the policyholder of a group policy covering employer-members or a sponsoring entity that facilitates the provision of separate policies for each of its employer members."

This is great news for small business owners.

Cable competition

A bill was passed that "establishes a new procedure by which cable operators may obtain authorization to operate cable systems in localities, which may grant ordinance cable franchises as an alternative to negotiated cable franchises. Ordinance cable franchises may be requested by certificated providers of telecommunications services with previous consent to use a locality’s rights-of way, after requesting to negotiate a cable franchise agreement. Upon receipt of an application for an ordinance cable franchise, the locality shall adopt necessary ordinances within 120 days."

I am not sure if my cable bill will go down but at least it's a start.

No Child Left Behind

A bill was passed that "Directs the Board of Education to develop a plan to eliminate initiatives or conditions that are currently being funded by No Child Left Behind, unless such initiatives or conditions are an integral and necessary component the Standards of Quality, Standards of Accreditation, or Standards of Learning."

Hopefully this is the beginning of the end for NCLB.

The Cost of College Textbooks

A bill was passed that will address the cost of college textbooks. "The governing boards of public institutions of higher education must implement policies for minimizing the cost of textbooks for students. The guidelines must require (i) that faculty members submit lists of their required textbooks to the university bookstore in a timely manner, (ii) that any on-campus university bookstore selling textbooks to students as part of a package with other study products also sell such textbooks separate of such study products, that faculty members affirmatively acknowledge the price of textbooks they require before the order is complete, (iv) that be encouraged to limit their use of edition textbooks, and (v) that sample of textbooks be made available for in the university library."

For those that have been out of college for a while let me fill you in. Almost ALL college textbooks come with a CD that contains lessons, mini-movies, and a lot of other cool stuff. This bill will allow students to purchase only the CD and not the CD and book.

Well, those are just a few. It's a great summary of the 2006 GA session and it's worth a read.

Win-Fred MPO

Anyone with any interest in what's going to happen regarding transportation in our area over the next 25 years should take a look at the Win-Fred MPO 2030 Transportation Plan. There is an entire website devoted to it that can be found here.

The plan has been public sine October of 2005. Those looking for a quick read should take a look at Chapter 6 - it's a .pdf file so it may take some time to download. Scroll down to the bottom of the file and take a look at the map. All of the orange lines are new roads. Most are badly needed and long overdue.

Also, I was chatting with some folks who said they were considering making the proposed extension of Va 37 - the 37 bypass, a toll road. Has anyone else heard this?

Potts vs. Hamilton

I picked this up over at Bearing Drift - Bearing Drift -- Conservative Blog for Hampton Roads, Virginia

Del. Phil Hamiltion (R-Newport News) is going head-on with Sen. Russ Potts (R-Winchester) this Wednesday from 8:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. on Newsradio 790AM WNIS during "Macrini's Morning News Team."

Another Fish Kill?

Anyone that likes to fish the waters of Virginia likely recalls the big fish kill that affected the Shenandoah River last spring.

Hopefully, we will not see a repeat of that this year. As a matter of fact, several friends that are avid fisherman told me that the fishing had been excellent so far this spring.

However, I came across this article that said several fish have been found with, “lesions and spots.…..in the North Fork near Woodstock -- and in the South River below Waynesboro.
” The article did not mention which species of fish were affected.

The Shenandoah River is a great natural resource. It also supplies drinking water to several cities in the Shenandoah Valley. So, keeping it clean is something that is important to everyone in The Valley.

If you’re a big outdoors person or interested in learning more about the river take a look at the website for The Friends of the Shenandoah River, http://www.fosr.org .