Metro Atlanta’s position as a financial services center is well established. New federal convictions show that one drug cartel in the area laundered more than $40 million over three years through wire transfers from small local businesses to destinations in Mexico.
Category: David Pendered
Articles by David Pendered
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A glance back: Civil rights leader Hosea Williams and stolen Thanksgiving turkeys
There was almost no sign of the hardscrabble beginnings of the annual Hosea Helps holiday dinner on Thanksgiving in Downtown Atlanta. Little to remind of an era when turkeys were reported stolen days before the event and the founder would plead for donations.
Posted inColumns
Trump’s water policy jeopardizes Georgia’s clean water, says Georgia Water Coalition
Environmental attorney Bill Sapp doesn’t mince words when he describes President Trump’s plan to roll back the clean water rule established during the Obama administration: “What the current administration is doing is jeopardizing clean water in this state.”
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Summer rains helped duck hunters as drought conditions return to Georgia
Georgia’s rainfall continues to swing sharply. Just as Georgia wildlife officials said rainfall this year created good hunting conditions for the duck season that opened Saturday, federal weather forecasters said drought conditions are looming.
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Atlanta may be among world’s first cities to use new financing tool for green infrastructure
Atlanta hopes to be included in the second round of cities in the world to pilot an innovative financial tool underwritten by the Rockefeller Foundation. The money would help pay to install green infrastructure to improve the Westside’s polluted Proctor Creek watershed.
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Tributes to John Lewis begin, starting with proposed renaming of part of Freedom Parkway
The first of three planned tributes to civil and human rights leader John Lewis got the green light Tuesday from a committee of the Atlanta City Council. In addition to naming East Freedom Parkway for Lewis, other planned memorials include a display at Atlanta’s airport and some sort of artwork in Freedom Park.
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Atlanta’s proposed rate hike for solid waste, recycling rejected by council committee
Atlanta residents won’t see a hike in their solid waste bills for the billing cycle that starts Jan. 1, 2018, following a vote Tuesday by committee of the Atlanta City Council. But a rate hike seems inevitable given the dire financial situation of the city’s trash collection and recycling programs.
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Confederate icons to come down in Atlanta, pending support from city council, mayor
In the most personal of moments, Brenda Muhammad on Monday asked her fellow panelists permission to read aloud a motion calling for the removal of the names Confederate Avenue and East Confederate Avenue from the city’s streets. The two Confederate icons are among several that are to come down, according to recommendations that are headed to the Atlanta City Council and Mayor Kasim Reed.
Posted inColumns
New criticism of transit voiced as MARTA eyes proposed line to Emory area
Randall O’Toole is at it again. Just as MARTA, Atlanta and possibly DeKalb County seem poised to help fund a transit line to the Emory University area, O’Toole – one of the nation’s outspoken critics of transit and smart growth policies – is out with new reports saying the transit era is over.
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Atlanta’s Confederate icons panel to issue final recommendations Monday
The one Confederate icon in Atlanta that appears slated for the dustbin is a street name, Confederate Avenue. In addition, Atlanta may install a sign to mark the site of a slave auction house that once stood near the present Five Points MARTA Station.
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Emory University says House tax plan could harm research, student learning
Emory University is ramping up its efforts to inform Georgia’s congressional members of the harm it says the current version of the House tax plan could cause to colleges and universities, which includes undermining funding for research, academic programs and student finances.
Posted inColumns
Atlanta Audubon promotes habitats for birds, people in its updated mission
The Atlanta Audubon’s plan to restore a bird-friendly habitat at the Blue Heron Nature Preserve, in North Buckhead, is just the latest program by an organization that has ramped up its outreach significantly in recent years.
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Credit woes face Fulton County, Atlanta schools, after ruling on tax collections
Fulton County and the Atlanta school district face fiscal woes even though a judge has approved a temporary collection of property taxes. Their cost of borrowing could increase now that a bond rating house has cut the credit rating on one county debt and has placed a total of more than $500 million of county and Atlanta school debt under review for a possible credit downgrade in the future.
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Tour of mayors’ graves in Oakland Cemetery a solemn reminder before election day
The Greek leader Pericles said something about legacy that is worth recollecting in the final weekend of the campaign in Atlanta’s general election. Oakland Cemetery is putting in its 2 cents, as well.
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Racial make-up of Atlanta’s Confederate icon review among thorny issues raised
The racial composition of the Atlanta committee that’s reviewing Confederate icons in the city was called into question Wednesday by Aaron Turpeau, a former cabinet member of Maynard Jackson and Andrew Young’s mayoral administrations. It wasn’t the only concern expressed.
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U.S. Housing secretary visits Bedford Pine to commend senior housing project
When U.S. Housing Secretary Ben Carson arrived Tuesday in Atlanta’s Bedford Pine neighborhood to tour a new apartment community for low-income seniors, there was little to remind of the long road traveled to complete the project. All eyes were looking forward, not back.
Posted inColumns
Savannah dredging kills more fish, turtles than expected, triggering higher limits
The Savannah Harbor deepening project is killing a few more protected fish and turtles than expected. A new federal report says the higher death rates are acceptable, in part because this may mean more of these sea creatures are in the area than were expected.
The number of Atlantic sturgeon and green sea turtles killed, or captured alive, since dredging started in 2015 may appear to be statistically insignificant – numbering the single digits.
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Atlanta plans rate hikes at Chastain Arts Center, new fee structure to rent Gallery 72
The Atlanta City Council is poised to wait until after the city election on Nov. 7 to consider rate hikes for art programs at Chastain Arts Center and Gallery and a new fee structure to rent the city’s gallery, Gallery 72. The proposals have been pending since they were introduced in April.
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Autumn foliage beginning to reach zenith, along with risk of car-deer strikes
As the fall foliage season begins in earnest in North Georgia and thousands of visitors travel there from metro Atlanta, state officials are urging motorists to be extra careful to avoid collisions with deer.
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MARTA’s proposed rail line in East DeKalb County: Public input sought on TODs
Planning for MARTA to build a heavy rail line from the Indian Creek Station to the Mall at Stonecrest continues and, in early November, the public will have a chance to learn about – and give their input on – the shape of potential development around possible rail stations.
