willavery

This happened three doors down from a friend of mine's house in Douglas. He was leaving to get breakfast as it was happening as they were loading the lady into the ambulance. Animal control has been patrolling the neighborhood since the other dog broke loose. One thing that disturbed me is that news crews have been staking the ladies house out for the last couple of days. I say leave her alone.

Thanks for asking me these questions. That is why I come on this message board. So that people can ask me questions and I can honestly respond to them.

As a matter for fact, yes to all of the above. And I will be 30 in the next few months by the way. I was not just a land surveyor. For the last two years, before I started graduate school, I was a project manager. I was responsible for creating budgets for projects, making proposals and directing crews to make sure the jobs turned a profit. I have had to help make decisions as to laying off employees when this recession really took hold. I have been involved in the process of letting senior employees go when newer employees were preforming better. I have done all of this and never had a

Frankly, I believe what needs to be done is a combination of new ideas and continual funding. If you look at other states, like Maryland, school vouchers are all but non-existent, but the quality of education is unmatched. Not to say that we can just up and be like any other state (I do not believe we can, nor should Georgia try to emulate others), but we need to look at the fact that well-funded schools are the only way to keep public schools at a high quality HOWEVER this must be done in conjunction with smart practices. I hope that made some lick of sense. It's been a long day. Personal

A good start would be, as I suggested before, to reduce the impact of high stakes testing in the classroom. All tests like the CRCT do is test how well a teacher can instruct a student to pass a test. We need to allow teachers to teach creatively and teach critical thinking rather than testing taking skills. Some schools actually waste class time before high stakes testing to instruct students on how to take tests. As a future employer, I want an employee that has been taught how to solve problems, not how to take a test. It is easy to say that spending more money on education doesn't

I believe that simply listing every platform plank is far too time consuming, and I do not believe that you would like to sit down and read it. Both the Democratic and Republican platforms are lengthy, and discuss many issues that are not germane to the race in which I am currently entered. I am running as a Democrat because I am a Democrat. I may be more moderate or conservative than others, however that is my political leaning. I believe that since the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that the Democratic Party and the associated party flipping that occurred during that time, that the Democratic Pa

I for one am more than willing to sit and speak with anyone that has any questions for me about where I stand on issues.

I certainly hope that people from Pcom can make it out on Saturday. It should be a fun afternoon!

I enjoyed meeting these young men and women today. They truly are a good group of kids!!! Keep up the good work guys and gals

On the contrary. If you look back through this thread, I have discussed several options that would increase revenue and help protect the jobs of educators. Such solutions are looking at rolling back the tax exemptions that airlines such as Delta receives on their fuel. Airlines are about to get even more tax exemptions from the TSPLOST referendum that is going to be on the ballot statewide in 2012. Or how about a point of sale bill that was proposed by Rep. Dubose Porter but was not allowed to come out of committee. A similar bill enacted in Alabama a few years ago found over 5 billion in

I am the most pro-education candidate out there right now. I would love the chance to speak with you about my plans to keep education funded without raising taxes on businesses or individuals. Give me a call if you would like 770-508-8823. Education, in my opinion is one of the most important issues our state faces right now, and I am committed to finding solutions to address the problems we face.

As it stands now absolutely not.

The cigarette bill upon last informal count was 5 votes from being able to pass. I would hardly call that not having a chance. When Georgia's cigarette tax is over a dollar less than the national average, and we are having serious budget issues why not look at solutions such as this that is a totally voluntary tax? I think you underestimate you knowledge of what I have done by assuming that I attended only a couple of budget meetings. Appropriations meetings are open to anyone that wishes to attend in most cases. No invite needed.

Ron Stephens is the Representative that proposed the increased cigarette tax (a republican by the way) to help alleviate budget shortfalls. Butch Parish is the representative from the town that I grew up in and is one of the longest serving reps in Georgia. He is very influential within the General Assembly. As for many of the others, they requested meetings with me to discuss some of these issues. I tried to meet with both Seth Harp and Ehrhart but was never contacted back.

I have attended countless education appropriations subcommittee meetings for both higher ed and k-12 beginning at the start of the session when budget cuts were first being discussed. I have met with several representatives about these matters as well. Some of these include representatives from both parties: Rick Crawford, Ron Stephens, Butch Parish, Gail Buckner, Dubose Porter, Stephanie Stuckey-Benfield, and Nan Orrock among others. In addition I visited Speaker the offices of Speaker Raulston and Casey Cagle and requested meetings on these issues.

Whenever teachers across the state have to sign contracts with no guaranteed salary there is a problem. Some school districts handed out contracts with the salary line left blank. That in my opinion is a major problem. I do think that teachers should make more money, regardless of my wife being a teacher. Show me a teacher that works 40 hours per week, or who doesn't stay up until midnight on weekends grading essays. I will make no apologies in saying that teachers should be compensated more for what they do. Education is one of the things that has made our country great!! From the k-12

There are some aspects of race to the top that are great, such as encouraging states to allow alternative teacher preparation programs. For example, right now in Georgia, if you have a Masters degree in math with no degree in education it is extremely difficult to obtain a teaching job. I believe that we should open up paths for alternative certification that will allow some of the most educated people to have classroom opportunities. Other aspects of RTT, such as encouraging merit pay I do not like. Merit pay systems discourage collaboration among teachers. It also takes schools that

No I have never been a lobbyist. I have never received one cent for any of the work that I have done. I come from a long lineage of educators and feel that education is an extremely important issue. Everything I have done has been on my own time, doing my own research and talking with folks about issues. Trying to say that I am a lobbyist is a long stretch IMO.

For the past year I have been heavily involved in efforts to support ways to keep education funded without raising taxes on Georgians. I have spent numerous hours at the Capitol throughout the last legislative session speaking with Representatives about measures that could be pursued to keep programs in Georgia operating.

I do not expect to be receiving much, if any money from the Democratic Party. It will be on my disclosures though. And as far as experience goes, I have a great deal of experience dealing with the inner-workings of the state legislature. Just because I am 29 and working on my masters degree does not equate to inexperience.

What about Airtran and other corporations that have been hurt by this economy? Why does Delta get to be the chosen one? Could it be the interests of those making the decisions tied in with it? My point is is that if you are going to talk about being fiscally conservative and letting the free market determine prices and who survives and who doesn't in the business world then let it happen, don't defend what you preach against.

a 500 million (yes I said million) fuel tax exemption is giving money to Delta. That is not their money, that is your money, my money, and everyone else in the state of Georgia's money. I am not going after corporations. I am saying that if you are going to talk about free market and capitalism, you can't defend giving Delta that much money.

Not supporting corporate welfare is far from anti-free trade. By giving money hand-over-fist to Delta and other mega-corporations we are neglecting to take care of people and small businesses. Real free trade would say let companies like Delta live or die based on what they provide, not base their survival upon tax exemptions. You might be confused as to what free-trade means though.

To me, it is not about the percentage of a budget that a program gets this year. It is more so about the current leadership failing to find SOLUTIONS that address problems. There were bills that could have been passes this session that may not have alleviated the entire burden of budget shortfalls, but certainly would have helped. Not to mention that most of these bills would not raise income taxes on a single individual or small business. Instead the leadership goes off an votes to raise hospital taxes. Now where is the logic in that?

Yes it is open now, Laurien and I walked it about a week ago.