Mercedes-Benz USA has received approval from the U.S. departments of labor and veterans affairs to offer a registered apprenticeship program. Graduates are all but guaranteed a job at virtually any Mercedes Benz dealership in the country.
Georgia’s utility regulating agency voted Tuesday for an action intended as a show of support for the struggling Plant Vogtle. Meanwhile, in bankruptcy court, filings show lawyer fees are mounting and creditors are claiming they aren’t scheduled to paid for labor and supplies.
This hardly seems a good time for Georgia to update its transportation spending plan, given the drama in Washington. For starters, President Trump is attacking Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, the husband of Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao – who is rumored to be considering resigning her post.
Gov. Nathan Deal has appointed Gwinnett County schools CEO/Superintendent Alvin Wilbanks to chair of a statewide committee to evaluate a proposed leadership academy for top educators. The committee is part of Deal’s ongoing efforts to have the state intervene in chronically failing schools.
For the second consecutive week, Georgia is free of drought conditions. The weather story of this summer has been so much rain that it hindered the crop harvest in north and south Georgia, according to state and federal reports.
The Atlanta Community Food Bank has received a grant of $250,000 from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to help low-income folks buy more fruits and vegetables. The funding is likely to help offset the impact of a food desert that stretches across a swath of Atlanta – an area where fresh produce can be hard to find.
Georgia State University is maintaining the momentum in the days approaching the Aug. 31 home opener in its new football stadium with the announcement the field is named for noted alumnus Parker H. “Pete” Petit. Petit Field will be the centerpiece in a stadium still open for naming rights.
Atlanta’s first transportation corridor of the future is to be established in Southwest Atlanta along Campbellton Road by the city and MARTA. Naturally, a computer and the internet of things are at the heart of the effort.
The headline on a new analysis of President Trump’s infrastructure agenda, issued by Moody’s Investors Service, seems to summarize the current state of affairs: “Trump’s executive order sheds little light on course of stimulus plan.”
MARTA expects to save a total of $41.6 million in future interest costs by refinancing $250 million in bonds that were sold in 2009. Part of the money was to have helped pay for a long-envisioned bus that would travel in a dedicated lane
The federal climate agency on Wednesday reported the annual dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico is the largest on record – about the size of New Jersey. The report comes as Georgia awaits a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court over the amount of water that flows from Georgia into Florida. Florida says the flow is insufficient to support the oyster habitat in the Apalachicola Bay.
The Fox Theatre Institute has extended the application deadline for a grant program that is offering up to $500,000 in grants to restore historic theaters across Georgia.
Though the Piedmont Park Conservancy reports investments of more than $66 million to restore and nurture Piedmont Park, the city of Atlanta still tends the park. Atlanta’s attention to detail is evident in the pending deal to maintain the lawn and flower beds.
Moving a household is hard enough. Moving the contents of the Central Library, in Downtown Atlanta, to storage facilities during the library’s renovation takes the concept of a move to a whole other level. The process is just getting started.
In one of those, “who’d have thought” political efforts, Amtrak’s recent decision to allow archery equipment is being partly attributed to U.S. Rep. Rob Woodall, a Republican who serves a district that stretches from Cumming to Loganville.
Either MARTA intends to expand transit service in Southwest Atlanta, or MARTA and Atlanta are collaborating to bury Southwest Atlanta in favor of building a rail line to Emory University and its gridlocked Clifton Road corridor. At Atlanta City Hall on Wednesday, MARTA talked about its commitment to Southwest, and mayoral candidate Vincent Fort raised the Clifton corridor issue.
The idea sounds simple enough – provide Atlanta’s surplus property for use as construction sites for housing that’s affordable for a schoolteacher. Pending legislation to do just that uncorked a wide-reaching debate Tuesday among members of the Atlanta City Council over the city’s past and present efforts to promote a range of housing prices in the city.
Atlanta proposes to lease 88 retail locations at the city’s airport across a total of about 70,000 square feet. The plan is for current members of the Atlanta City Council to approve recommendations of an evaluation committee, and for Mayor Kasim Reed to execute the contracts.
Historic Oakland Cemetery is expanding its efforts to share information about the restoration of the African American Grounds section of the city’s cemetery. Two guided tours are scheduled this week, on Wednesday and Saturday. Admission is free and registration is required.
Newspaper co-owner and president Dink NeSmith and The Press-Sentinel, of Jesup, will receive Greenlaw’s Special Media Recognition for Environmental Championship Award for their efforts to expose plans for a coal ash dump in Wayne County. The dump’s operator withdrew its 2015 application in April.
