Author Archives: Maria Saporta

Cousins Properties named Erskine Bowles as its new lead director today, succeeding Billy Payne, who had served a six-year term.

Bowles, president of the University of North Carolina for more than three years, has served on Cousins’ board since 2003. Bowles also served as White House Chief of Staff from 1996 to 1998 in the Clinton administration.

Cousins CEO Tom Bell made the announcement at Cousins Properties Inc. annual meeting today at the One Ninety One Peachtree building.

Bell said that in today’s environment it’s good to “churn it up.,” and that Payne had served two terms as lead director.

When it comes to the economy, it might take five years before the United States finds “the new normal,” U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson told the Atlanta Press Club Monday.

Isakson said he believes we currently are experiencing the economic “trough” right now, and that will continue until Americans start purchasing homes again.

But Isakson said that when the U.S. economy finds the “new normal,” it’s a “good normal,” one that will be healthier for society. It will hark back to the times when people would save their money, pay off their debts and “always have some skin in the game,” he said.

Journalism will survive changes in technology, even during these troubled economic times.

That was the message that Ed Bean, editor of the Fulton County Daily Report, shared at the Atlanta Press Club’s Newsmakers luncheon with U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson Monday upon becoming the new president of the organization.

“Although we are going through some awful downsizing and stresses, this is also a time of reinvention,” Bean said. “This business will survive. Nobody knows what this business

Dear Readers,

I’ve had technological issues for the past several days. Something about my laptop and a cup of coffee while I was on the LINK trip in Minneapolis.

My tech guy says all my data is safe, but my laptop is going to have to go through reconditioning. So it’s taking me a little time to get my act together.

Please bear with me as I sort through all this. I should have several new items up today and tomorrow.

Compared to metro Atlanta, the region of Minneapolis-St. Paul virtually works as a metro government.

Back in 1967, the Metropolitan Council was established of seven counties, primarily as a planning organization.

But in 1994, the Council took on the responsibility of planning and operation of the region’s transit agency (Metro Transit), the wastewater treatment system, aviation and parks.

In short, the council brought a regional mindset to what the Minneapolis-St. Paul area believed were metro issues rather than purely local issues.

Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak is running for re-election for a third term as mayor. But he’s setting his sights on another office — that of the governor of Minnesota.

At a LINK reception and dinner Wednesday evening, Rybak acknowledged that he is seriously considering running for governor as a way to better serve the metro region of Minneapolis-St. Paul.

“Regional economies drive states, Georgia and Minnesota included,” Rybak said. “Our governor clearly does not get the value of the cities of Minneapolis-St. Paul, which is ironic because they pay a disproportionate amount of the budget that he’s trying to balance.”

Minneapolis and St. Paul, two interdependent cities in Minnesota, have a long history of sibling rivalry. Yet the “Twin Cities” have matured and now are finding more opportunities to collaborate.

That was the message that Sharon Sayles Belton, a former mayor of Minneapolis; and George Latimer, a former mayor of St. Paul; shared with the LINK delegation from Atlanta.

“The rivalry between the two cities is older than I am,” Belton said. “In some circles, the rivalry is alive and well. Over the years we have learned how to work together.”

The two cities collaborated in getting the Republican National Convention in 2008. “We had a unified front,” Belton said.

The Minneapolis-St. Paul region faces a lack of support from the top leadership of the Minnesota state government.

“Our governor doesn’t like St. Paul,” Kathy Lantry, president of the St. Paul City Council, told the LINK delegation from Atlanta. She said the governor vetoed every bill that would have helped St. Paul. “The governor is Republican, and we are all Democratic.”

Lantry spoke to the group in place of St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman, who was unable to speak to the group today.

A delegation of 100-plus Atlantans just landed today in Minneapolis-St. Paul for the annual LINK where local leaders will explore how other cities address a variety issues facing the region.

Ben DeCosta, general manager of Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, immediately started working by taking pictures of the Minneapolis airport.

“This is why our airport is so clean,” DeCosta said holding up his little digital camera. And he complimented the Minneapolis airport for its cleanliness, unable to find trash on its floors.

Journalism is undergoing a “revolution,” said one of my heroes, Jim Lehrer, executive director and anchor of the PBS Newshour.

Lehrer was in Atlanta today at the Commerce Club as part of the Atlanta Press Club’s Newsmaker series.

“Newspaprs are folding, failing and shrinking,” Lehrer said. “I noticed it today arriving in Atlanta.”

The internet and web-based forms of communication have “hurt” the livelihood of the traditional journalist.

Georgia could get a black eye this week when 500 high school students from around the country come to Atlanta to compete in the National High School Mock Trial Championship.

The competition, being held between May 7 and May 9, is being hosted by the Georgia Bar Association’s Young Lawyers Division. But controversy is brewing because of an unwillingness to accommodate the request from an Orthodox Jewish school from Brookline, Ma. to not compete on the Sabbath.

So far, the Mock Trial organization has

The first Friday morning of every month, the Sustainable Atlanta Roundtable convenes — one of the best grassroots, community-building events in town.

The topic this month was transportation in Georgia, and I was fortunate enough to serve as moderator of a great panel.

The panel: Cheryl King, MARTA’s assistant general manager of planning and transit system development; Tad Liethead, a senior vice president of Cousins Properties who chairs the Transportation and Air Quality

It was a special night in Cobb County.

A confluence of all segments of Atlanta came to witness the preview of the documentary: People vs. Leo Frank.

The movie hit home. It recounted the dramatic story of the lynching of Leo Frank, a Jew who worked at the National Pencil Factory. He was convicted of sexually abusing and killing a 13-year-old girl who worked in the factory.

But the film reveals all the questions surrounding the case, the trial and the

Sad news to report.

Community activist Phillip Rush died suddenly two days ago from a pulmonary embolism.

A mutual friend, Jim Durrett of the Livable Communities Coalition, told me the news this morning.

The last time I saw Phillip was when I ran into him during the Atlanta Dogwood Festival. He was sitting down watching the crowds of people walk by. We spoke for a few minutes, and I never would have guessed that it would be the last time we would see each other.

After today’s AGL Resources annual meeting, retired CEO David Jones gave one of the best compliments a former top executive can give.

“This company is in great shape,” Jones said. “And the dividend growth is solid.”

During this down economy, it’s highly unusual for a company to be reporting good news.

But current AGL Resources CEO John Somerhalder provided a relatively upbeat report to shareholders.

For starters, AGL is in the natural gas

SunTrust’s shareholders were surprisingly respectful at the bank’s annual meeting this morning despite hearing negative financial news and receiving lower stock dividends.

“What a year it has been,” James M Wells III, SunTrust’s CEO, said in his introductory remarks to shareholders.

In looking to the future, Wells said “we know economic recovery is out there,” but he added that the bank did not know when this cycle would end. So he is fully expecting that “2009 will be another difficult year.”

Former Atlantan Julius Coles sees great potential in the continent of Africa. But poverty and disease threaten to destroy that potential.

Coles, president of Washington D.C.-based Africare, was the International Day speaker at the Atlanta Rotary Club on Monday. Africare is largest non-governmental organization focused exclusively on Africa.

Hundreds of millions Africans live on less than $2 a day, Coles said. Since 1981, 25 million people have died

It was a “Rotary moment,” fundraiser Ann Curry observed after Monday’s weekly meeting.

On Monday morning, Rotary President Alec Fraser asked John Fox, president and CEO of Emory Healthcare, to give members an update on a possible pandemic of swine flu.

Fox described Mexico as being “ground zero” for the flu epidemic, but he hesitated calling it a pandemic. He also let Rotarians know that there have been no reported cases in Georgia so far.