Posts Tagged ‘National Park Service’

Jeffrey Scott Shapiro

Martin Luther King’s Family Halts Occupy Event at Atlanta Memorial Center

by Jeffrey Scott Shapiro

Martin Luther King’s family asked US Park Police to eject a group of 32 Occupy Wall Street protestors from an Atlanta based memorial center that was named after the civil rights leader on Sunday.

The OWS protestors, who left New York City November 9 to march roughly 880 miles to Atlanta through Washington, and through the south, planned on holding a press conference at the Atlanta based Martin Luther King Center for Nonviolent Social Change “to honor Dr. King.” The press conference was scheduled for 2 p.m., but within minutes, private security for the center asked the demonstrators to leave the outside area that was part of the MLK center.

According to the center’s online page, it was established in 1968 by Coretta Scott King, and is the “official, living memorial dedicated to advancing the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Our programs and partnerships educate the world about his life and his philosophy of nonviolence, inspiring new generations to further his work.”

“The police want us to leave?” an OWS protestor asked.

“The King family is asking you to leave,” the security officer said.

“Why?” the protestor asked.

“They don’t want the center to be used for any kind of outside event or press conference for your group,” the security officer explained.

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Bob McCarty

Missourians Fight ‘Ozarks National Heritage Area’ Plan

by Bob McCarty

Commissioners in Dent County, Mo., made it clear they’re not interested in having the federal government sticking it’s “nose” into the business of area land owners.

In a Feb. 24 letter to Matt Meacham at West Plains (Mo.) Council for the Arts — the local front group for the National Park Service effort to designate private land in the Ozarks of Southern Missouri as the “Ozarks Highlands National Heritage Area” — they offered the following:

The Dent County Commission, by unanimous vote strongly opposes the National Heritage Area proposal for the Ozark region, encompassing Dent and twelve additional counties, and therefore respectfully asks that Dent County be removed from any further discussions, studies, etc. involving the establishment of a National Heritage Area.

In a post Jan. 27, I shared news about farmers, ranchers and other land owners in 13 Missouri counties being up in arms, fearful that the federal government will designate their land in the Ozarks of Southern Missouri as the “Ozarks Highlands National Heritage Area.” In addition, I shared a copy of a feasibility study related to the plan.

In a post two weeks later, I shared disturbing details from a never-before-published draft of that same feasibility study.

Dent County Commissioners Darrell Skiles, Dennis Purcell and Gary Larson are not alone in holding their opinion, according to Bob Parker, a cattle rancher and real estate pro from Raymondville, Mo., who’s deeply involved in the fight as a member of the Ozarks Property Rights Congress. County commissioners in Wright, Texas and Douglas counties have sent similar letters and officials in several other counties are expected to follow suit soon.

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The Pork Report

Pork Report October 30, 2009: A Caboose To Nowhere Edition

by The Pork Report

California sculpture competition paid for with a Federal Transportation Enhancement Activity grant

A top FEMA official admitted there is no way to assess the effectiveness of homeland security improvements made from the $29 billion spent since 2002

Homeland Security funds spent on a equipment that was never used and probably will be never needed

$1.5 million federal grant will pay to renovate a train station which hasn’t been used in three decades and may never be used again

A $78,280 federal Transportation Enhancement Grant paying to relocate and renovate a caboose not used in decades

Department of Commerce pays to send Ohio Chamber of Commerce members on a two week junket to China

$500,000 in federal funds expected to pay for a party to celebrate St. Augustine’s 450th birthday

The National Park Service will spend more than $300,000 to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Blue Ridge Parkway

The Pork Report

Pork Report October 22, 2009: Vegas Neon Museum

by The Pork Report

Las Vegas Boulevard, littered with strip bars and casinos, named a National Scenic Byway, making it eligible for federal funds to promote the strip

Las Vegas’ Neon Museum receives $300,000 federal grant to restore two signs

National park superintendent who viewed thousands of sexually explicit images on a government computer during work hours will not be fired and has been reassigned to another job within the National Park Service

Washington Wine Commission receives federal funds to promote wine in Mexico and India

Federal funds to teach wine-makers about popular varieties of grapes

The $3.7 million Department of Education grant will pay to teach the Tlingit language, currently spoken by less than 200 people

$446,000 federal grant paid for a 10-day Tlingit language immersion retreat at Glacier Bay Lodge for a few more than 30 people

The Center for Wooden Boats receives federal stimulus funds to hire an assistant boatwright

Michigan Department of Human Services may have improperly spent $163.8 million of federal dollars intended to assist vulnerable children

The Pork Report

The Pork Report: October 19, 2009

by The Pork Report

Free golf carts available from federal stimulus program

Annual U.S. federal budget deficit reaches an all time high of $1.42 trillion in 2009; Government spending jumped to more than $3.5 trillion, increasing over 18% in one year

The Pentagon pays an average of $400 to put a gallon of fuel into a combat vehicle or aircraft in Afghanistan

As AIDS patients die in the streets of our nation’s capital, millions of dollars in federal AIDS funds misspent by the city on nepotism, ghost employees, and executive travel and pay

No punishment for National Park Service employee, paid $145,000-a-year, who used his government computer to view thousands of sexually explicit images?

National Science Foundation pays to develop a reverse karaoke application for iPhone

As Florida’s jobless rate reaches 11 percent…

… More than $2.3 million in federal economic stimulus grants go to Florida cosmetology and massage schools to pay tuition for the hairdressers, masseuses and nail technicians of tomorrow