Drought conditions expand into west, south Georgia

Mild to moderate drought conditions have expanded over the past month to include much of west and south Georgia. With temperatures remaining above normal and rainfall below normal, soils continue to dry across the entire state.

Daytime high temperatures through the middle of September have generally been in the 90s across the piedmont and coastal plain. Rainfall for the past month has been between 50 percent and 70 percent of normal for most of the state. The exceptions are northeast Georgia and the lower Savannah River valley, where rainfall has been slightly above normal. Over the past two weeks, rainfall has been less than half of normal across the entire state.

Mild to moderate drought conditions exist in counties south and west of Haralson, Paulding, Douglas, Carroll, Harris, Troup, Muscogee, Chattahoochee, Marion, Schley, Sumter, Crisp, Wilcox, Telfair, Jeff Davis, Appling, Wayne and McIntosh counties, inclusive.

Mild drought conditions also exist in Lincoln, Wilkes and Elbert counties. The remainder of the state is classified as abnormally dry.

Currently, lack of soil moisture is the major drought impact. Across the southern half of the coastal plain, soil moisture is running at the fifth percentile. That means that 95 out of 100 years we would expect the soils to be wetter than they currently are in this region.

Dry soil, mixed blessing

The soil dryness has been a mixed blessing for farmers. For crops that are mature, this has made harvesting easier. The exception is peanuts. Producers are irrigating fields so that peanuts can be dug, or harvested from the ground. Many crops have not reached maturity and still need some moisture.

Streams are dropping across the state. In southwest Georgia, stream flows are near the 10th percentile. At that percentile we expect more water in the streams 90 out of 100 years. In south-central Georgia, the Little River near Adel and the Withlacoochee River near Quitman are at record low flows for the middle of September.

Across northwest Georgia, stream flows are also near the 10th percentile. Conditions across northeast Georgia are marginally better with stream flows generally around the 20th percentile, which means the streams would have more water flow 80 out of 100 years.

Wildfire risk

As the dryness worsens over the next few weeks, wildfire danger will increase. Currently, wildfire danger across the state is rated from high to extreme. Anyone involved in outside activities needs to be very cautious. Because of the dryness, any fire, regardless of how small, can quickly get out of control. Contact the Georgia Forestry Commission for specific details concerning wildfire risk and outdoor burn permits and requirements.

Dryness across the state is expected to increase over the next several weeks unless Georgia receives beneficial rains from one or more tropical disturbances, such as a tropical storm or hurricane.

Through the winter, the dryness may increase. The ocean-atmosphere system has switched to a La Niña pattern. The La Niña pattern is associated with dry, warm winters across much of the Southeast. This means that we may have minimal recharge of the hydrologic system this winter. This increases the probability of widespread and significant drought for next year. It is too early to tell exactly how the La Niña pattern will impact Georgia, but we need to be aware of the possible short-term tropical impacts and the long-term drought impacts.

Up-to-date information on dry conditions across Georgia can be found at www.georgiadrought.org. Updated weather conditions can be found at www.georgiaweather.net.

By David E. Stooksbury
University of Georgia

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Fort Benning, Georgia: Thousands Speak Out Against the School of the Americas and for Human Rights in the Americas

/PRNewswire/ -- Thousands of solidarity activists gathered at the gates of Fort Benning, Georgia in a funeral procession commemorating the hundreds of thousands killed and tortured by graduates of the School of the Americas, now known as the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (SOA/WHINSEC).

Four demonstrators carried their witness across military lines and were arrested on Ft. Benning: Nancy Gwin of Syracuse, NY; Ken Hayes of Austin, TX; Fr. Louis Vitale of Oakland, CA; and Michael Walli of Washington, DC. Walli remains in custody and the other three are currently being released on bail, to face trial in January 2010. None of those responsible for SOA/WHINSEC crimes have ever been held accountable, while 286 peace and justice activists have served up to 2 years in prison for their acts of nonviolent civil disobedience.

On Sunday morning, the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), announced that SOA Watch and founder Fr. Roy Bourgeois have been nominated by the Quaker organization for the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize. "We are deeply honored, and deeply humbled, to be nominated for this prize for peace," commented Bourgeois, a Vietnam veteran, Purple Heart recipient. "This nomination is a recognition of the work of the thousands struggling against militarism across the Americas."

Following the procession, several hundred activists marched together, risking arrest, into the street beyond the confines of the protest to carry their message of resistance and people power further.

The weekend has been a tremendous success for all those struggling against militarism across the Americas.

Bertha Oliva from the Committee of the Family Members of the Disappeared from Honduras was one of the featured speakers this weekend. Several SOA Watch activists, including Lisa Sullivan, SOA Watch's Latin America Coordinator, will accompany her when she returns to Honduras in order to stay in solidarity with the people who are resisting the SOA graduate-led military coup in that country.

Texas Leads Nation in Public School Bible Literacy Courses‏

Georgia, Alabama, Indiana, and South Carolina are runners-up

As the 2009-2010 school year begins, more than 350 schools in 43 states nationwide will be teaching courses on the Bible, according to new data from Bible Literacy Project. The organization publishes "The Bible and Its Influence," the only student textbook designed for public school courses on the Bible. Texas schools have adopted the course in large numbers this year -- more than 50 schools there are teaching the course this fall, in accordance with 2007 legislation mandating that school districts teach about the Bible in the 2009-2010 school year.

Texas is not the only state with widespread use of the groundbreaking textbook. "More than 10% of Georgia public high schools and more than 5% of public high schools in Alabama, Indiana, and South Carolina are using 'The Bible and Its Influence,'" said Chuck Stetson, Bible Literacy Project's Chairman of the Board.

The importance of academic study of the Bible was recently underscored by a "USA Today"
column, "Teach the Bible? Of Course," which argued that "Students who want to do serious study of Western civilization need to know the Bible. They need to know the Bible, even if they do not believe the Bible." In February, the United Kingdom's (atheist) Poet Laureate Andrew Motion called for public school education about the Bible, saying he had struggled to teach Milton's "Paradise Lost" to undergraduates because they had no concept of the fall of man.

John Keeling, a teacher in Whitehouse, Texas, agrees. "Biblical imagery, allusions, references and influences permeate the culture in which we live," Keeling said. "Not to know the basic stories and characters of the Bible is to be at a distant disadvantage when it comes tounderstanding the world around you." Keeling says using "The Bible and Its Influence" helped him respect the First Amendment and the religious viewpoints of his students when teaching about biblical texts in his classroom last year.

During this school year, Bible Literacy Project will be attending 18 conventions nationwide to reach school board members, English teachers and curriculum developers with information about the textbook.

Because only seven states remain in the organization's quest to be utilized in all 50 states,
Bible Literacy Project is offering a free class set of textbooks for the first public school in Delaware, Iowa, Montana, Nevada, Rhode Island, Utah, and Wyoming ready to teach the course. "When one school implements the course, we quickly make contact with neighboring schools who want to try it too," said Stetson. "We welcome the opportunity to show these remaining states the strength of our program."

To further demonstrate the importance of Biblical literacy, Bible Literacy Project has unveiled a quiz at quiz.bibleliteracy.org/quiz (http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1102731359056&s=13633&e=001JwLroPRA4gqU_nDiYcUvn31dmrkXlz11kDWezAz2U96gX0T4QpBpf4wYWtHRcJHZ
7tceee4H3pARNZDi3Wy1yUllj2orfR7Fg1g32QIiYagQaCRMiYRhet5POWcOKsgQ) revealing the impact of Biblical characters and narratives on everyday life.

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