Category: Latest News

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.

This last week’s Urban Land Institute’s meeting in Atlanta was a shining moment for Ron Terwilliger, chairman of the Trammell Crow Residential.

Terwilliger, who calls Atlanta home, chaired the ULI Spring Council Forum — a national gathering of planners, developers and real estate professionals.

Terwilliger was instrumental in securing the keynote speakers: former Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee; and Shaun Donovan, secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The economic prognosis continues to be challenging, according to two of Atlanta’s top CEOs.

Frank Blake, CEO of the Home Depot, and Phil Kent, CEO of Turner Broadcasting System, were interviewed this morning by public broadcasting talk show host Charlie Rose.

They were part of the closing session of the 2009 Urban Land Institute’s 2009 Spring meeting, which brought thousands of real estate, planning and development professionals to Atlanta at the Georgia World Congress Center over the past three days.

What a welcome change.

The new secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development is in Atlanta, participating in the 2009 Urban Land Institute Spring Council Forum.
What a welcome change.

The new secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development is in Atlanta, participating in the 2009 Urban Land Institute Spring Council Forum.

Shaun Donovan, President Barack Obama’s pick for HUD secretary, spoke to the congregation of planners, developers, builders and others interested in the future of cities.

Bringing the annual Coca-Cola Co. shareholders meeting back to Atlanta (after more than a decade) is symbiotic of the company’s vision for growth.

Let me explain. Most years, Coca-Cola holds its annual meeting in Wilmington, Delaware where about 250 to 300 people usually attend.

The meeting held Wednesday in Atlanta (actually Gwinnett Center) attracted 550, partly because this is Coca-Cola’s hometown with the largest concentration of employees and shareowners.

But metro Atlanta also is a much larger

Note to readers: It’s been a busy day, and several posts will follow. This item had to be cut from my next Atlanta Business Chronicle column, but I thought y’all might enjoy reading it.

Atlanta was the site of M&A International’s spring conference, bringing dozens of merger and acquisition specialists from around the world to the Ritz-Carlton Buckhead on April 16.

The event — Growing Opportunities in a Shrinking World — was co-sponsored by the Atlanta Chapter of the Association for Corporate Growth.

Southern Co. CEO David Ratcliffe is on his way to Washington D.C. to represent the power company’s point of view on the proposed Waxman-Markey bill on energy and climate change.

Starting today, there will be four days of hearings on the draft 648-page bill. The bill is far-reaching and would begin to frame a program on a mandatory cap on greenhouse gas emissions.

In the past, Ratcliffe has voiced his opposition to the establishment of carbon fees as a way to reduce emissions.

It seemed as though Gwen Ifill was in a room full of friends.

Speaking at an Atlanta Press Club luncheon today, the moderator and managing editor of “Washington Week” and a senior correspondent for “the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer,” actually was among colleagues and friends.

A couple of interesting comments from her luncheon talk at the Commerce Club downtown….

Whe was asked why President Barack Obama, whose father was African-American and whose mother was white, was considered black rather