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New “I-420” columns highlight marijuana reform efforts

by Lyle Harris

And so it begins.

After quitting my good government job four months ago, I’ve been on a journey without a road map or any guarantee that I’ll reach the final destination in one piece. I confess this adventure seems a little bit nuts. Scary too.

But, throwing caution (and what’s left of my 401K) to the wind, I’m planning a regular feature on SaportaReport called “I-420 Georgia.” The goal is simple: to create a rolling travelogue highlighting the people, places and businesses being impacted by Georgia’s existing marijuana laws.

Posted inLyle Harris

CEO-Elect Michael Thurmond offers “new vision” for DeKalb County

by Lyle Harris

For local voters suffering from PESD – Post-Election Stress Disorder – DeKalb County CEO-elect Michael Thurmond provided just what the doctor ordered.

Flush from an election night victory, Thurmond delivered a thoughtful and inspiring speech last Thursday that hinted at his “new vision” for repairing the county long beset by racial divisiveness, bureaucratic mismanagement and political scandal.

Posted inLyle Harris

Major Journo Fail: Why the “60 Minutes” story on Marijuana was Half-Baked

by Lyle Harris

Diehards still watching broadcast TV may remember CBS as the “Tiffany Network,”  and the venerable “60 Minutes” newsmag as its crown jewel. Sadly, the show’s pre-election curtain-raiser about historic votes to legalize marijuana felt more like shopping for cubic zirconia knockoffs at the strip mall. The “Pot Vote” story started out O.K. with an intro from Dr. Jon […]

Posted inLyle Harris

With MARTA, ownership has its privileges and responsibilities

by Lyle Harris

Quick question: When’s the last time you washed a rental car? If the answer is “never,” you’re hardly alone. The timeworn adage that most people take better care of physical assets that they own outright has been confirmed by scientific research and just plain common sense.

However, the innate human impulse to be a good custodian of one’s possessions is attenuated (or disappears) when it comes to public goods such as our transit infrastructure, including MARTA.

Posted inLyle Harris

Head of the class? What Georgia can learn about using marijuana to improve education

by Lyle Harris

The reception I’ve received from well-wishers welcoming me back to TSR (Uh-huh, that’s what I’m calling the SaportaReport from now on) has been flattering, as well as humbling. My sincere thanks to everyone who has posted a message on this website, texted, tweeted, emailed or called me with their congratulations on my admittedly wayward return to journalism. I truly appreciate your support and I’ll do my best not to screw this up.

While all that goodwill is still fresh on my mind, I wanted to highlight the comments of Shirley Franklin who is not only the former Mayor of Atlanta, but also a whip-smart policy wonk and all-around good egg.

Posted inColumns

Lyle Harris is coming back home to SaportaReport

by Lyle Harris

Who says you can’t go home again?

Nearly eight years ago, I briefly joined the ranks of SaportaReport shortly after its debut. Following some career diversions that took me in a very different direction (namely, flakking for MARTA) I’m returning as a regular columnist and sometime-editor for SaportaReport, which has become one of the best, most influential newsblogs covering our region.

Posted inColumns

Southern Poverty Law Center founder Morris Dees receives The King Center’s highest award and says “Race still matters.”

by Maynard Eaton

As a young lawyer, Dr. Morris Dees was once known as the second most hated man in Alabama. Now 48 years after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the 80 year old Dees, the co-founder of The Southern Poverty Law Center, is the latest recipient of the Martin Luther King Jr. Nonviolent Peace Prize. It is the highest award given by The King Center.

Posted inColumns

The memory of Madam C.J. Walker lives on in an Atlanta museum and new hair product line

by Maynard Eaton

Ricci de Forest is a Madam C.J. Walker devotee and curator of a small Atlanta museum that honors her legacy. That’s why he so pleased that the name and history of the woman who “is credited with being the grand dame of the Black beauty industry” is being revived with the launch of a new line of hair products in her honor.

Posted inLatest News

Ralph Abernathy III’s Exit Interview: The curse of cancer and civil rights celebrity

by Maynard Eaton

Ralph David Abernathy III had been suffering severely for more than year, battling Stage 4 colon cancer while also valiantly fighting to honor and refresh his late father’s legacy. Yesterday, the son of civil rights icon and Martin King Jr’s best friend, Ralph Abernathy Jr., was eulogized and buried. Abernathy III died two days short of his 57th birthday.

Posted inColumns

Hillary Clinton stumps for campaign cash in Atlanta; blasts Donald Trump as a “political arsonist.”

by Maynard Eaton

For Rita Williams this was the American dream come true. The Decatur attorney, who grew up on the West Side of Atlanta and was the first in her family to attend college, was rubbing shoulders with some 250 doctors, lawyers, business executives and politicians who had shelled out up to $2,700 each to meet, hear and be photographed with Hillary Rodham Clinton at a private fundraiser recently.

Posted inColumns

Morehouse College alumni to choose their president at critical moment in time

by Maynard Eaton

Joseph Arrington has never been a politician, although his brother Marvin Arrington is a former Atlanta City Council president and mayoral candidate, and his nephew, Marvin Jr., is a current Fulton County commissioner. Now, however, at age 78, Joe Arrington is in a hotly contested campaign to be elected president of the Morehouse College National Alumni Association.

Posted inColumns, Latest News, Main Slider, Maynard Eaton

The “Furious Five”: A sizzling Atlanta urban Republican dialogue. Where is Black Atlanta in the “All of It”?

by Maynard Eaton

I now call them the “Furious Five” – an eclectic crew of friends and political knowers – who were invited to participate in the first of a month long series of “unbridled” conversations about the political issues of the day. And, they put on a dazzling, dynamic show; their debate was robust, riveting and revealing.

Posted inColumns, Main Slider, Maynard Eaton

Okeeba Jubalo: Artist and Art Entrepreneur

by Maynard Eaton

Okeeba Jubalo had no interest in being your typical “starving artist” before finding financial success, so he flipped the script. For the past 19 years Jubalo, whose paintings are considered “real edgy and real raw” has been perfecting a new and somewhat controversial business model for artists. Now the 40 year old art entrepreneur is considered an industry game changer.

Posted inColumns, Main Slider, Saba Long

No more delays – let’s fund MARTA expansion this year

by Saba Long

“Delay, delay, delay.” That was presidential candidate Donald J. Trump’s response to President Barack Obama’s forthcoming nomination of a Supreme Court Justice to replace conservative Antonin Scalia.

Transit skeptics in Fulton County and at the state legislature are using the same tactic to shortchange a long overdue MARTA expansion.

Posted inColumns, Main Slider, Maynard Eaton

Hank Thomas: ‘I’m a Freedom Rider and Buffalo Soldier’

by Maynard Eaton

Hank Thomas is a legendary civil rights activist and a pioneer Black fast food franchisee multi-millionaire, but few people know he is also among Black America’s foremost African American art collectors. The 74 year-old Thomas is the only surviving Freedom Rider aboard the infamous Greyhound bus that was set on fire on Mother’s Day in 1961, and he may be the only Atlanta art aficionado who owns so many Black art paintings he can’t count them all.

Posted inColumns, Main Slider, Maynard Eaton

Steve R. Allen: Is he arguably Atlanta’s best African American artist?

by Maynard Eaton

On September 24th President Barack Obama will cut the ribbon to open the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of African American History and Culture. Joining him that historic day will be Atlanta artist Steve R. Allen because four of his paintings have been acquired as part of the museum’s Founding and Permanent Collection.

Posted inColumns, Main Slider, Maynard Eaton

Double Consciousness: A black history month exhibit titled “Unhealed Wounds” at the ZuCot Gallery

by Maynard Eaton

For Aaron Henderson, along with his sons Omari and Onaje, African American fine art is the family business. He has been painting and “just trying to tell our story” since he was an 11-year-old Birmingham boy, while his sons support him and the Black aesthetic by owning and operating Atlanta’s ZuCot Gallery in the Castleberry Hill community neighboring the new Mercedes Benz Stadium.

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