Governor McAuliffe Announces Virginia Oyster Harvests Continue to Climb

Chargrilled oysters (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

~Last year’s harvest increased to the highest level since 1987~

Newport News, VA. –Governor Terry McAuliffe announced that Virginia’s oyster harvest jumped another 25 percent last year, surging past 500,000 bushels, the most in nearly a generation.

“Over the past few years, Virginia has become the oyster capital of the East Coast, and that is great news for our Commonwealth’s economy,’’ said Governor McAuliffe. “The growth we’ve seen in the oyster harvest is extraordinary, but hardly a surprise. Virginia produces the best tasting oysters in the world, and every sustainably-harvested oyster helps clean the Chesapeake Bay and create good jobs in a tough economy. There is no question that Virginia is for oyster lovers.”

Over the past 12 years, the oyster harvest in Virginia has increased from 23,000 bushels in 2001 to an estimated 504,000 bushels last year. This is the highest level seen since 1987 and is 25 percent more than the 409,000 bushels harvested in 2012.

Preliminary harvest estimates show gains in both wild-caught oysters from public oyster rocks as well as from privately leased water bottoms.

Harvest from public oyster grounds grew from 150,534 bushels in 2012 to 213,152 bushels last year, and the harvest from privately leased growing areas continued six years of sustained growth, rising from 258,496 bushels in 2012 to 408,912 bushels last year.

“State investments in our oyster replenishment program are showing positive results,” said Molly Joseph Ward, Secretary of Natural Resources. “Keeping this momentum is vital to the growth of the oyster industry. Our comprehensive fisheries management programs, combined with private sector investments, are having a very positive impact for the Bay, consumers and the economy. We need to keep moving forward.”

The dockside value of the oyster harvest increased to $22.2 million last year, up from $16.2 million in 2012.

The ripple effects through the economy from last year’s harvest resulted in an estimated $58.4 million in economic value, using a multiplier of 2.63 on a dockside value of $22.2 million, a formula established by the late Dr. James Kirkley, a well-respected Virginia Institute of Marine Science seafood industry economist.

The Virginia Marine Resources Commission’s management of  the oyster stocks includes rotational oyster harvest areas and deployment of fossil oyster shells mined annually from the beneath James River on to public oyster grounds. These fossil shells become home for naturally occurring oyster larvae that attach to them during spawning and grow to form new adult oysters that will reach market size in roughly three years.

This oyster replenishment program provides substantial ecological as well as economic benefits, as the oysters filter the water during growth to a market size of three inches. Oyster reefs provide important forage and refuge habitat for invertebrates as well as juvenile crabs and finfish species.

“Oysters are doing well right now. We are making tremendous progress,’’ said VMRC Commissioner John M.R. Bull. “But oysters are still susceptible to disease and other environmental factors outside of our control. A lot of people have put a lot of work into getting Virginia into this position and it is paying dividends. It is worth celebrating, but we need to keep in mind that oysters live in a dynamic, ever-changing ecosystem.”

Virginia’s history of oyster harvests can be found here

http://mrc.virginia.gov/SMAC/VA-Oyster-Harvests.pdf

Governor McAuliffe Announces 800 New Jobs for Arlington County

 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

~CEB to invest $149.7 million in new global headquarters ~ 

RICHMOND - Governor Terry McAuliffe announced that CEB, the leading member-based advisory company, will invest $149.7 million in a new headquarters operation to support the company’s next-generation workplace plans and accommodate its growing global requirements. The company has signed an Agreement to lease approximately 350,000 square feet of space in The JBG Companies’ new Central Place development in Rosslyn, Virginia. CEB will be the marquee tenant in the building to be named “CEB Tower.” CEB plans to move to its new global headquarters in 2018. The project will create 800 new jobs.

Speaking about today’s announcement, Governor McAuliffe said, “Virginia has proudly served as home to CEB since its move from the District in 2008. A new global headquarters and investment of this magnitude are tremendous testaments to the confidence the company has in Arlington County and the Commonwealth as it grows its presence internationally, and creates the workspace and technology for jobs of the 21^st century. As Governor, I am committed to bringing projects like these to Virginia—those that create high-paying jobs and will help to diversify and protect the Virginia economy from federal budget cuts. We celebrate this impressive global headquarters operation and 800 new jobs, and look forward to CEB’s continued success in Virginia for years to come.”

            “CEB’s cutting-edge new headquarters in CEB Tower will accommodate the company’s expanding global requirements and provide room to continue its positive growth trajectory into the future,” said Maurice Jones, Virginia Secretary of Commerce and Trade. “This tremendous project ensures the company’s long-term commitment to the Commonwealth, and Virginia is proud to boast CEB on its roster of corporate headquarters.”

CEB equips more than 10,000 organizations around the globe with insights, tools, and actionable solutions to transform enterprise performance. By combining advanced research and analytics with best practices from member companies, CEB helps leaders realize outsized returns by more effectively managing talent, information, customers, and risk. Member companies include nearly 90% of the Fortune 500, more than 75% of the Dow Jones Asian Titans, and 85% of the FTSE 100.

“Virginia has a vision for economic development and they are committed to working with companies to bring it to fruition,” said Tom Monahan, CEB Chairman & CEO. “This Agreement simply would not have been possible without the exceptional partnership of the Commonwealth and Arlington County. The Governor’s office and our local government representatives clearly demonstrated why Virginia is a great state for business. Under their leadership, we are confident in Arlington’s future as a business hub and thrilled to be a landmark business in—and significant economic contributor to—the Rosslyn community.” 

The Virginia Economic Development Partnership worked with Arlington County to help secure the project for Virginia. Governor McAuliffe approved a $4.5 million grant from the Governor’s Opportunity Fund to assist Arlington County with the project. The Governor also approved $5 million in funds from the Virginia Economic Development Incentive Grant (VEDIG). VEDIG was established as a self-funded program of performance-based incentives that the Commonwealth awards to exceptional economic development projects with large numbers of employees and very high wages relative to average wages for that particular area. Funding and services to support the company’s employee training activities will be provided through the Virginia Jobs Investment Program.

“CEB is exactly the type of business Arlington needs as we move forward as a leader in the innovation economy,” said Arlington County Board Chair Jay Fisette. “Today’s announcement is a shining example of how the new initiatives we’ve implemented this year are increasing Arlington’s economic competitiveness and ensuring our place as a leading community for technology businesses of the future.”

How Sugar Harms Your Brain Health and Drives Alzheimer’s Epidemic

English: PET scan of a human brain with Alzheimer's disease (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

By Dr. Mercola

Alzheimer's disease, a severe form of dementia, affects an estimated 5.2 million Americans, according to 2013 statistics.1

One in nine seniors over the age of 65 has Alzheimer's, and the disease is now thought to be the third leading cause of death in the US, right behind heart disease and cancer.

A growing body of research suggests there's a powerful connection between your diet and your risk of developing Alzheimer's disease, via similar pathways that cause type 2 diabetes.

Contrary to popular belief, your brain does not require glucose, and actually functions better burning alternative fuels, especially ketones, which your body makes in response to digesting healthy fats.

According to some experts, such as Dr. Ron Rosedale, Alzheimer's and other brain disorders may in large part be caused by the constant burning of glucose for fuel by your brain.

Alzheimer's disease was tentatively dubbed "type 3 diabetes" in early 2005 when researchers discovered that in addition to your pancreas, your brain alsoproduces insulin, and this brain insulin is necessary for the survival of brain cells.

Sugar Damages Brain Structure and Function

In your brain, insulin helps with neuron glucose-uptake and the regulation of neurotransmitters, such as acetylcholine, which are crucial for memory and learning. This is why reducing the level of insulin in your brain impairs your cognition.

Research2 has also shown that type 2 diabetics lose more brain volume with age than expected—particularly gray matter. This kind of brain atrophy is yet another contributing factor for dementia.

Studies have found that people with lower levels of insulin and insulin receptors in their brain often have Alzheimer's disease. But according to recent research published in the journal Neurology,3 sugar and other carbohydrates can disrupt your brain function even if you're not diabetic or have any signs of dementia.

To test their theory, they evaluated short- and long-term glucose markers in 141 healthy, non-diabetic, non-demented seniors. Memory tests and brain imaging were administered to assess their brain function and the actual structure of their hippocampus. As reported by Scientific American:4

"Higher levels on both glucose measures were associated with worse memory, as well as a smaller hippocampus and compromised hippocampal structure.

The researchers also found that the structural changes partially accounted for the statistical link between glucose and memory. According to study co-author Agnes Flöel, a neurologist at Charité, the results 'provide further evidence that glucose might directly contribute to hippocampal atrophy.'"

The findings suggest that even if you're not diabetic or insulin resistant (and about 80 percent of Americans fall into the latter category), sugar consumption can still disrupt your memory.

Long-term, it can contribute to the shrinking of your hippocampus, which is a hallmark symptom of Alzheimer's disease. (Your hippocampus is involved with the formation, organization, and storage of memories.)

The authors of the study suggest that "strategies aimed at lowering glucose levels even in the normal range may beneficially influence cognition in the older population."

'Normal' Blood Sugar Levels May Still Be High Enough to Cause Problems

Normally, a fasting blood sugar level between 100-125 mg/dl is diagnosed as a pre-diabetic state. A fasting blood sugar level of 90-100 is considered "normal." But in addition to the featured research, other studies have also found that brain atrophy occurs even in this "normal" blood sugar range.

Neurologist Dr. David Perlmutter, MD insists that being very strict in limiting your consumption of sugar and non-vegetable carbs is one of THE most important steps you can take to prevent Alzheimer's disease for this very reason.

He cites research from the Mayo Clinic, which found that diets rich in carbohydrates are associated with an 89 percent increased risk for dementia. Meanwhile, high-fat diets are associated with a 44 percent reduced risk.

Download Interview Transcript

Sugar Lobby Threatens Organizations and Buries Science on Health Effects

Compelling research shows that your brain has great plasticity, which you controlthrough your diet and lifestyle choices. Unfortunately, the American public has been grossly brainwashed by the sugar and processed food industries into believing that sugar is a perfectly reasonable "nutrient" that belongs in a healthy diet.  

Without accurate information, it's certainly more difficult to make health-affirming choices. Newsweek5 recently ran an article revealing just how far the sugar industry will go to defend its market share:

"According to a new report6 from the Center for Science and Democracy... industry groups representing companies that sell sweeteners, like the Sugar Association and the Corn Refiners Association... have poured millions of dollars into countering science that indicates negative health consequences of eating their products.

For example, when a University of Southern California study from 2013 found that the actual high fructose corn syrup content in sodas 'varied significantly' from the sugar content disclosed on soda labels, the Corn Refiners Association considered paying for its own counter research.

A consultant suggested that the counter research should only be published if the results aligned with their goal of disputing the USC study: 'If for any reason the results confirm [the University of Southern California study], we can just bury the data,' the consultant wrote, according to the report."

According to the Center for Science report, the Sugar Association even threatened the director general of the World Health Organization (WHO). WHO had published a paper on sugar, recommending a 10 percent limit on added sugars, stating that added sugars "threaten the nutritional quality of diets."

The Sugar Association shot off a letter to the director general, warning him that, unless WHO withdrew the study, the Sugar Association would persuade the US Congress to withdraw the WHO's federal funding. The following year, when WHO published its global health strategy on diet and health, there was no mention of the offending sugar study.

The Sugar Lobby Deserves Blame for Fueling Chronic Disease Epidemics

Indeed, despite overwhelming evidence showing that sugar, and processed fructose in particular, is at the heart of our burgeoning obesity and chronic disease epidemics, the sugar lobby has been so successful in its efforts to thwart the impact of such evidence that there's still no consensus among our regulatory agencies as to the "factual" dangers of sugar...

According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data,7 13 percent of the average American's diet is sugar. In the UK, a recently published report8 by the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN) recommends limiting your added sugar intake to five percent, in order to avoid obesity and type 2 diabetes. They calculate this to be the equivalent of 25 grams of sugar (5-6 teaspoons) per day for women, and 35 grams (7-8 teaspoons) for men.

This matches my own recommendations for healthy, non-insulin resistant individuals—with one key difference. I recommend restricting sugar/fructose consumption to 25 grams from ALL sources, not just added sugar. This includes limiting your non-vegetable carbohydrates as well. Crazy enough, the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition still recommends you get 50 percent of your daily energy intake in the form of starchy carbohydrates, which will undoubtedly and significantly raise your risk of insulin resistance. If you're insulin/leptin resistant, diabetic, overweight, or have high blood pressure, heart disease, or cancer, I recommend restricting your sugar/fructose consumption to a maximum of 15 grams per day from all sources, until your insulin/leptin resistance has been resolved.

Dietary Guidelines for Maintaining Healthy Brain Function and Avoiding Alzheimer's Disease

It's becoming increasingly clear that the same pathological process that leads to insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes may also hold true for your brain. As you over-indulge on sugar and grains, your brain becomes overwhelmed by the consistently high levels of glucose and insulin that blunts its insulin signaling, leading to impairments in your thinking and memory abilities, eventually causing permanent brain damage.

Additionally, when your liver is busy processing fructose (which your liver turns into fat), it severely hampers its ability to makecholesterol, an essential building block of your brain that is crucial for optimal brain function. Indeed, mounting evidence supports the notion that significantly reducing fructose consumption is a very important step for preventing Alzheimer's disease. 

Because of the very limited treatments, and no available cure as of yet, you're really left with just one solid solution, and that is to prevent Alzheimer's from happening to you in the first place. As explained by neurologist Dr. David Perlmutter, Alzheimer's is a disease predicated primarily on lifestyle choices; the two main culprits being excessive sugar and gluten consumption.

Another major factor is the development and increased consumption of genetically engineered (GE) grains, which are now pervasive in most processed foods sold in the US. The beauty of following my optimized nutrition plan is that it helps prevent and treat virtually ALL chronic degenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's. Dr. Perlmutter's book, Grain Brain, also provides powerful arguments for eliminating grains from your diet, particularly if you want to protect the health of your brain. In terms of your diet, the following suggestions may be among the most important for Alzheimer's prevention:

• Avoid sugar and refined fructose. Ideally, you'll want to keep your total sugar and fructose below 25 grams per day, or as low as 15 grams per day if you have insulin resistance or any related disorders. In one recent animal study, a junk food diet high in sugar resulted in impaired memory after just one week!9 Place recognition, specifically, was adversely affected.
As a general rule, you'll want to keep your fasting insulin levels below 3, and this is indirectly related to fructose, as it will clearly lead to insulin resistance. However, other sugars (sucrose is 50 percent fructose by weight), grains, and lack of exercise are also important factors. Lowering insulin will also help lower leptin levels which is another factor for Alzheimer's.
• Avoid gluten and casein (primarily wheat and pasteurized dairy, but not dairy fat, such as butter). Research shows that your blood-brain barrier, the barrier that keeps things out of your brain where they don't belong, is negatively affected by gluten. Gluten also makes your gut more permeable, which allows proteins to get into your bloodstream, where they don't belong. That then sensitizes your immune system and promotes inflammation and autoimmunity, both of which play a role in the development of Alzheimer's.
• Eat a nutritious diet, rich in folate, such as the one described in my nutrition plan. Vegetables, without question, are your best form of folate, and we should all eat plenty of fresh raw veggies every day. Avoid supplements like folic acid, which is the inferior synthetic version of folate.
• Increase consumption of all healthful fats, including animal-based omega-3. Beneficial health-promoting fats that your brain needs for optimal function include organic butter from raw milk, clarified butter called ghee, organic grass fed raw butter, olives, organic virgin olive oil and coconut oil, nuts like pecans and macadamia, free-range eggs, wild Alaskan salmon, and avocado.
Contrary to popular belief, the ideal fuel for your brain is not glucose but ketones. Ketones are what your body produces when it converts fat (as opposed to glucose) into energy. The medium-chain triglycerides (MCTs) found in coconut oil are a great source of ketone bodies, because coconut oil is about 66 percent MCTs. In 2010, I published Dr. Mary Newport's theory that coconut oil might offer profound benefits in the fight against Alzheimer's disease. She has since launched one of the first clinical trials of its kind to test this theory.
Also make sure you're getting enough animal-based omega-3 fats, such as krill oil. (I recommend avoiding most fish because, although fish is naturally high in omega-3, most fish are now severely contaminated with mercury.) High intake of the omega-3 fats EPA and DHA help by preventing cell damage caused by Alzheimer's disease, thereby slowing down its progression, and lowering your risk of developing the disorder.
• Optimize your gut flora by regularly eating fermented foods or taking a high-potency and high-quality probiotic supplement
• Eat blueberries. Wild blueberries, which have high anthocyanin and antioxidant content, are known to guard against Alzheimer's and other neurological diseases. 

Other Helpful Dietary Tips and Valuable Supplements

Another helpful tip is to reduce your overall calorie consumption, and/or intermittently fast. As mentioned above, ketones are mobilized when you replace carbs with coconut oil and other sources of healthy fats. A one-day fast can help your body to "reset" itself, and start to burn fat instead of sugar. As part of a healthy lifestyle, I prefer an intermittent fasting schedule that simply calls for limiting your eating to a narrower window of time each day. By restricting your eating to a 6-8 hour window, you effectively fast 16-18 hours each day. To learn more about intermittent fasting, please see this previous article.

Also be aware that when it comes to cholesterol levels and Alzheimer's, lower is NOT better. Quite the contrary. According to Dr. Perlmutter, research shows that elderly individuals with the lowest cholesterol levels have the highest risk for Alzheimer's. They also have the highest risk for dying. As he says, the war on cholesterol is fundamentally inappropriate and harmful.

Finally, there's a short list of supplement recommendations worth noting for their specific benefits in preventing and treating dementia. So, although your fundamental strategy for preventing dementia should involve a comprehensive lifestyle approach, you may want to take special note of the following natural dietary agents. These four natural foods/supplements have good science behind them, in terms of preventing age-related cognitive changes:

1. Gingko biloba: Many scientific studies have found that Ginkgo biloba has positive effects for dementia. A 1997 study fromJAMA showed clear evidence that Ginkgo improves cognitive performance and social functioning for those suffering from dementia. Another 2006 study found Ginkgo as effective as the dementia drug Aricept (donepezil) for treating mild to moderate Alzheimer's type dementia. A 2010 meta-analysis also found Ginkgo biloba to be effective for a variety of types of dementia.
2. Alpha lipoic acid (ALA): ALA has been shown to help stabilize cognitive functions among Alzheimer's patients and may slow the progression of the disease.
3. Vitamin B12: A small Finnish study published in the journal Neurology10 found thatpeople who consume foods rich in B12 may reduce their risk of Alzheimer's in their later years. For each unit increase in the marker of vitamin B12 the risk of developing Alzheimer's was reduced by two percent. Remember sublingual methylcobalamin may be your best bet here.

Lifestyle Strategies That Can Help Ward off Alzheimer's Disease

Lifestyle choices such as getting regular sun exposure and exercise, along with avoiding toxins, are also important factors when it comes to maintaining optimal brain health. Here are several of my lifestyle suggestions:

• Optimize your vitamin D levels with safe sun exposure. Strong links between low levels of vitamin D in Alzheimer's patients and poor outcomes on cognitive tests have been revealed. Researchers believe that optimal vitamin D levels may enhance the amount of important chemicals in your brain and protect brain cells by increasing the effectiveness of the glial cells in nursing damaged neurons back to health.
Vitamin D may also exert some of its beneficial effects on Alzheimer's through its anti-inflammatory and immune-boosting properties. Sufficient vitamin D is imperative for proper functioning of your immune system to combat inflammation that is also associated with Alzheimer's.
• Exercise regularly. It's been suggested that exercise can trigger a change in the way the amyloid precursor protein is metabolized,11 thus, slowing down the onset and progression of Alzheimer's. Exercise also increases levels of the protein PGC-1alpha. Research has also shown that people with Alzheimer's have less PGC-1alpha in their brains12 and cells that contain more of the protein produce less of the toxic amyloid protein associated with Alzheimer's. I would strongly recommend reviewing the Peak Fitness Technique for my specific recommendations.
• Avoid and eliminate mercury from your body. Dental amalgam fillings, which are 50 percent mercury by weight, are one of the major sources of heavy metal toxicity. However, you should be healthy prior to having them removed. Once you have adjusted to following the diet described in my optimized nutrition plan, you can follow the mercury detox protocol and then find a biological dentist to have your amalgams removed.
• Avoid aluminum, such as antiperspirants, non-stick cookware, vaccine adjuvants, etc.
• Avoid flu vaccinations as most contain both mercury and aluminum, well-known neurotoxic and immunotoxic agents.
• Avoid anticholinergics and statin drugs. Drugs that block acetylcholine, a nervous system neurotransmitter, have been shown to increase your risk of dementia. These drugs include certain nighttime pain relievers, antihistamines, sleep aids, certain antidepressants, medications to control incontinence, and certain narcotic pain relievers.
Statin drugs are particularly problematic because they suppress the synthesis of cholesterol, deplete your brain of coenzyme Q10 and neurotransmitter precursors, and prevent adequate delivery of essential fatty acids and fat-soluble antioxidants to your brain by inhibiting the production of the indispensable carrier biomolecule known as low-density lipoprotein.
• Challenge your mind daily. Mental stimulation, especially learning something new, such as learning to play an instrument or a new language, is associated with a decreased risk of Alzheimer's. Researchers suspect that mental challenge helps to build up your brain, making it less susceptible to the lesions associated with Alzheimer's disease.

 http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2014/07/24/sugar-brain-function.aspx

Gloucester, VA Woodville Park, What You Don't Know

We are once again bringing up the Board of Supervisors meeting to point out that the majority of the first hour was an amazing puppet show of people trying every way they could to convince the Board of Supervisors that the new Wooodville park needs sewer run down to the park in order for the community to have some place to go and play or something to that effect.  These people want the taxpayers to fork over money for a park that was accepted by a past Board of Supervisors under the condition that the park would NOT cost the taxpayers any money.

  Well when you have a few select individuals that may just benefit from sewer going to the park at taxpayer expense, it might be worth putting up the fight to argue the park needs taxpayer money so that the few do not have to pay the expense of getting sewer which would raise the  value of property in the area that is up for sale.

Woodville Park Area, Gloucester, VA, Overlay Map from Chuck Thompson

The map above shows property around the Woodville park that would benefit from sewer being run to the park.  They would then be able to hook up to the sewer line for much less than having to pay to run the line down themselves.  A question comes up and has been asked if the park may have been donated in order to get taxpayers to pay for county services instead of paying to run lines themselves.  It would possibly be a much cheaper option to pull off if it would have worked.

  The local paper seems to support the idea that the Board of Supervisors did not act in the best interest of the people because they did not fund the sewer line.  The arguments at the meeting were that this park is exactly what the children of this county need.  Claims that Gloucester County lacks proper parks was stated over and over.  Never mind that Abingdon Community park is capable of fulfilling the needs of a sports complex park.  But we are told that the community park at Abingdon is owned by the school board.  Never mind that it already has water, sewer and or septic and electricity.  It also has lighting too.

  But let's buy the argument that the Abingdon park is owned by the school board, thus not available as a sports complex park for county residents and others outside of Gloucester County.  What everyone failed to look at is Ark Park.  A full sports complex with soccer fields galore, basketball court, baseball diamond, bathrooms, water, sewer or septic and electricity as well.  It has 3 dedicated soccer fields, two make shift fields and room for two more fields or a football field, baseball diamond, amphitheater or camping area.

But wait!  How many soccer fields does the county need?  We found yet another area with multiple soccer fields and it's right in the courthouse area.

This is right across the street from McDonald's which is located on route 17.  This soccer field is on the small dirt road that goes to the Gloucester County Golf Course.  Now these fields do not have lights, bathrooms, running water or other desired amenities but it offers yet more fields that were being complained that the children of this county must simply have in order to enjoy a decent quality of life here in Gloucester.  Is anyone's BS meter going into overdrive yet?

How many parks does Gloucester County need?  The moment you get into the county, you already have 2 parks.  Gloucester Point Beach and Tyndall's Point Park.  Then we have Abingdon Community park.  Now Woodville Park,  Beaver Dam's 2 parks, a proposed state park up by the Rosewell Ruins, Ark Park, and still another park in Ark in commemoration of Powhatan and Pocahontas.  That is a total of 8 parks for a county with less than 40 thousand people.  Most of the parks are not even used in the county most of the time.  Yeah, we need more parks and should spend every penny we can and a lot more to support everything that everyone wants so that maybe one day, someone will actually use something.

Don't get us wrong.  We appreciate Woodville park and all the work that the community has put into it.  We just do not buy the arguments to spend a bunch of taxpayer money, especially in this economy, on parks or other areas that look like the money spent would only benefit the few instead of the majority.

What The Gloucester Mathews Gazette Journal Didn't Tell You, July 10th, 2014

New Superintendent Lays Out "Plan of Entry" is the title of the one article in the paper pictured above.  We are not going to reprint the article by any means.  If you have already read the article, then there is no sense is rehashing it.  If you have not read the article, then you can always go to the newspaper's website.

  What we have a problem with here and everywhere else we have looked including the Gloucester School Board website is who the stakeholders are claimed to be and mainly, who is left out.  And what is the most disturbing is exactly who has been left out.  No reason to delay who has been left out, it's the taxpayers.  The taxpayers, those of us who pay for the entire system are not even considered stakeholders in education.  But don't take our word for it, look at the plan for yourself.  Exactly how do the folks at the local newspaper manage to miss the obvious right in front of them and not ask the questions as to why the taxpayers are not considered stakeholders?

Gloucester, VA School Board Sup Plan of Entry July 2014 from Chuck Thompson

Now one has to ask, does the local school board think that little of the taxpayers?  It would appear to be since they are wasting your tax dollars as fast as they possibly can.  We continue to see the waste each week.

 Vehicle number 273, Driver, D Miller, School Board, Department, Facilities Services, Reports to Dave Miller, July 21st, 2014 time, 7:21 AM.  Location spotted, Hardees Restaurant.  This is a very clear pattern of behavior for this driver.

The above vehicle we still can not get the number on but again, the vehicle belongs to the Public School system.  July 21st, at 8:33AM.

Vehicle number 284, Public Schools, July 21st, 2014.  Time, 9:17 AM.  Went inside McDonald's to have breakfast.  This was not even a drive through quick order.  This is Dave Miller the person in charge of Facilities Services.  No wonder his employees are all over the place.  They are only doing what their boss is doing but not as bad as he does.

  Maybe the Board of Supervisors should take away one hundred thousand dollars of funding per school board vehicle seen in local stores, restaurants and banks where the employees are using government vehicles for personal use, per incident.  We highly recommend the county seriously consider installing GPS tracking in all county vehicles.  This way, if a county employee is seen being someplace they do not belong, the county can actually shut down the vehicle on the employee.  This way the county also always knows where all the employees are and what they should be doing.

Now another area where this gets even worse in our view is with the new contract between the superintendent and the school board.  If you have not read that contract, maybe you should.  See section V on page 3.  The school board is allowing the new superintendent to use a government vehicle for personal use.  Never mind that this appears to be prohibited at the local level, state level and federal level as well.

Walter R. Clemons 3 Year Contract (7-1-2014-6-30-2017) Gloucester, VA from Chuck Thompson

We have filed a complaint with the IRS over the above contract as it appears to be very much in violation with IRS codes as well as Federal, State and local laws, codes and or ordinances.  Maybe we can stop this madness and send a message to the school board that we will not tolerate their complete disregard for the taxpayers and their continuous waste of our money.  We have also included the personal use of government vehicles in the complaint as this needs to end.

The New Atlantis or The Founding of Early America, Sir Francis Bacon

The New Atlantis, Sir Francis Bacon, Free eBook from Chuck Thompson

To understand the history of this nation and the history of the Constitution, one must look back in history to see what the real influences were.  Having read a number of history books, it has been stated in numerous books that the ideas, ideals and concepts for the Constitution were created in early America.  Well, this is only partially true.  One has to go back even further to see where the roots for the Constitution really came from.  Thomas Jefferson, one of the most influential founding fathers of this nation was highly influenced by the works of Sir Francis Bacon.

  A study of Sir Francis Bacon shows that the concepts for the governance of the new world were in fact formulated in the late 16th to early 17th century.  The above eBook will show how these concepts took shape in the development of the Constitution of the United States.  Even still, the ideas, ideals and concepts were not unique to Sir Francis Bacon as even he was taught many of the ideas he later wrote about and published.

  The above eBook can be downloaded for free from our Slideshare site.  You may have to become a member to access the free download, but signing up is free and the site is free to use.  We have well over 600 selections on offer and that number keeps growing, so you might find it worth your while.  Otherwise you can always read it right here on this site.  You can expand the eBook to full screen for better viewing.  What you may learn is that history is truly fascinating and not the least bit dull.  School was dull, history is fun.