The federal government has suspended its count of honey bee colonies, but the University of Georgia continues to collect information on honey bees – the state insect – and other pollinators. Citizen scientists can join Friday and Saturday in counting these pollinators.
Category: David Pendered
Articles by David Pendered
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YMCA opens learning center in Vine City: Teach toddlers to read, job skills for adults
The YMCA of Metro Atlanta opened an early learning center in Vine City Tuesday, where advocates of children hope to break the pernicious problem of illiteracy. The YMCA’s reading program aims to teach reading and vocabulary to infants through prekindergarten in the type of low-income neighborhood where national data shows 89 percent of black children score below “proficient” in fourth-grade reading skills.
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Swamp of Dreams: Okefenokee has been plied for riches for over 100 years
The latest plan to extract profits out of sand near the Okefenokee Swamp fits a pattern that started in the late 1800s and has ties to historic names in Atlanta’s growth – including Inman Park developer Joel Hurt, and an owner of the ‘Atlanta Journal’ who parleyed presidential endorsement editorials into a post as U.S. Secretary of Interior.
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Metro Atlanta’s ongoing growth to get assist from expanded sewage plant in Roswell
Metro Atlanta’s relentless growth results in part from the ability to process sewage. Fulton County is poised to foster growth in Roswell, Alpharetta and other areas north of Sandy Springs with construction set to start this fall on the expansion of the Big Creek Water Reclamation Facility.
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Commuters’ trip times reduced by GDOT’s construction approach that won awards
Metro Atlanta commuters who travel on roads may take some consolation in the notion that construction delays aren’t as bad as they could be. Georgia Department of Transportation has been commended for a program that reduces construction timelines – and cut a decade off one major project.
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GSU advances research into fighting Zika virus; Dengue epidemic re-emerges
Researchers at Georgia State University appear to have made a breakthrough in the potential to harness the body’s innate defenses to fight the mosquito-borne Zika virus – a disease with no known treatment or vaccine.
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Affordable housing may get fast-tracked in Atlanta’s building permit office
Atlanta’s focus on affordable housing has turned to the issuance of building permits, specifically, speeding up the permitting process for affordable homes. The issue was approved Tuesday, in the same meeting at which the interim head of the city’s housing authority said it has budgeted $106 million in development projects.
Posted inColumns
Okefenokee Swamp: Proposed sand mine may have national security implications
The proposal to mine sand near the Okefenokee Swamp could involve matters of national security. Products created with components in the sand are used in military aircraft, satellites, missiles and munitions, and naval vessels. The U.S. now imports almost 100 percent of the material and the top two sources are Japan and Russia; the Commerce Department is conducting a security analysis.
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Atlanta to negotiate with global scooter companies valued at estimated $5 billion
Now with an estimated total value of $5 billion, the two big companies that rent scooters in Atlanta have become their own global force of nature. Yet to be determined is how Bird and Lime will respond to regulatory efforts such as the one imposed by Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms.
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Hackers could gridlock Atlanta, any other city by stranding connected vehicles: Georgia Tech
The allure of self-driving cars and other connected vehicles just suffered another ding, this one in a report of Georgia Tech research into the traffic gridlock that could be created if hackers immobilized vehicles. Metro Atlanta is especially vulnerable because of the layout of the region’s road network researchers said.
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Climate experts say rescue food can reduce warming; it now feeds those in need
Climate-change scientists meeting in Geneva released a report Thursday that locks on to one of metro Atlanta’s popular social action programs as a way to stem global warming – rescuing food that’s destined for the landfill and getting it on someone’s table.
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Late Fulton Commissioner Joan Garner honored by naming of Ponce de Leon library
The public library on Ponce de Leon Avenue is to be named for the late Joan Garner, Fulton County’s first openly gay commissioner and a strong advocate of public health. Fulton County’s board of commissioners voted unanimously for the measure Wednesday.
Posted inColumns
ARC goes high tech to reach public to devise plan for 2050
By David Pendered
Think of ARC’s long-range, regional planning blueprint done with 3-D animation. It would feel more alive, more real-time representational of the region it aims to serve. And the conversation has already started about the future the blueprint aims to inform.
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Aerospace sector stands out among Georgia’s economic success stories
Of all the “gee whiz, Georgia’s great” economic stories, the aerospace and defense sector stands out – The United States ranks No. 1 in the world and Georgia ranks No. 2 in the nation, and Georgia’s education system has the capacity to help workers into transition the jobs of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, two recent reports show.
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Just as mayor sings of ‘birds in the air,’ little Pine Lake named Wildlife Sanctuary
Pine Lake folks talk big about theirs being the smallest city in DeKalb County. On Thursday, this self-described “micropolitan” was recognized as the latest Atlanta Audubon Certified Wildlife Sanctuary. There was no word if the mayor will be singing about the award.
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Summer rite of ‘Shark Week’ highlights bipartisan support for shark conservation
Bobby Kennedy’s grandson might not have much in common with a Texan who taught high school English before she was elected to Congress. But both congressmembers have signed legislation intended to protect sharks – an effort gaining attention during ‘Shark Week.’
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Housing costs barely a blip for Atlanta’s well-paid, 20-something IT pros: CBRE report
Housing prices are little concern for metro Atlanta’s burgeoning population of young IT professionals who, according to a new report by the real estate firm CBRE, pay an average rent-to-wage ratio of 15 percent. This ratio is less than half the standard measure for an FHA loan.
Posted inColumns
South River Watershed Alliance to DeKalb County: Stop dumping raw sewage into river
A polluted river isn’t like a pothole – it doesn’t shriek for attention every time you drive over it. The polluted South River is quiet like that, though now its advocates are calling on DeKalb County to stop dumping raw sewage into the river.
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Atlanta’s economic development agency to face tighter control by Atlanta City Council
The Atlanta City Council is set to impose greater control over Invest Atlanta, the city’s economic development arm that acts as Atlanta’s agent to promote housing, economic development and redevelopment – all of it under control of a board chaired by the mayor, whose top advisor argued against the council’s exercise of authority.
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HIV/AIDS atop agenda for Atlanta’s new chief health officer, Fulton’s expanded services
Two significant changes in public health and HIV/AIDS programs are underway in Atlanta and Fulton County. The measures include: Atlanta’s newly created position of chief health officer; and Fulton’s expansion and renaming of its HIV services program to manage President Trump’s goal of ending the HIV epidemic in the United States.
