Category: Sections

By Maria Saporta

An international leader in socially-responsible capitalism — Muhammad Yunus — would love to forge a closer partnership with Atlanta.

Yunus, the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner who has become a global leader in microcredit lending, was in Atlanta Friday to receive the Phoenix Award from Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed — the highest honor given by the city to individuals for their outstanding contributions.

“This is really a special occasion for me and Atlanta,” Reed said during a briefing in his office. “I’m going to be watching how other cities are following your lead. We are looking for opportunities to provide microcredit (in Atlanta).”

By Maria Saporta

Former U.S. Sen. Sam Nunn is disappointed that U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Indiana) overwhelmingly lost re-election on Tuesday.

“I feel like I’ve lost my last name,” Nunn said jokingly, referring the important piece of legislation they had co-written in 1992 — the Nunn-Lugar Comprehensive Threat Reduction program.

“He’s a great guy,” Nunn said of Lugar. “He did a wonderful job for his state and for the country. He will be dearly missed. The Senate will be diminished, but the outside world will benefit with him being a part of it.”

By Maria Saporta

The saga to save the Crum & Forster building continues.

The Georgia Tech Foundation made a presentation Wednesday afternoon before the Atlanta Urban Design Commission saying it was not economically feasible to restore the entire building.

Instead, Georgia Tech is proposing keeping only the front third of the historic building so it can build a major development on the balance of the block bordered by Spring Street, Armstead Place, West Peachtree Street and Fourth Street.

By Maria Saporta

This just in.

The Captain Planet Foundation has named Leesa Carter as its new executive director.

Carter has been executive director of the Georgia Chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council, will take over the organization “dedicated to high quality programs that empower youth to become global environmental change-makers,” according to a news release.

By Maria Saporta

The official ribbon-cutting for the new Maynard H. Jackson Jr. International Terminal on Thursday evening spanned the generations of Atlanta leadership — with the city’s first African-American mayor as the central figure.

Jackson was literally a larger-than-life human being. As the youngest person to have ever been elected mayor of Atlanta in 1973, Jackson also represented a pivotal shift in power and influence in the city.

By Maria Saporta

Bus or rail? I-75 or U.S. 41?

Those are just two of the questions that are being asked on how to connect Cobb County with the Arts Center MARTA Station.

A program was held Monday evening at the Woodruff Arts Center where representatives from Cobb County and the City of Atlanta talked about the proposed alternatives that exist to serve people traveling along the northwest corridor.

By Maria Saporta

One of the groups pushing for passage of the one-percent regional transportation sales tax — Citizens for Transportation Mobility — has “registered disappointment and dismay” with the Sierra Club’s Georgia Chapter decision to oppose the tax.

“We find it highly unusual that an organization charged with preserving and protecting our environment would oppose a transportation investment that has the potential to do exactly that,” Che Watkins, campaign manager for CTM, said in a statement. “The regional transportation referendum holds more promise of relieving congestion and reducing air pollution than any plan in decades.”

By Maria Saporta

The Georgia Chapter of the Sierra Club, after being on the fence for months, is announcing its opposition to the July 31 vote for a regional transportation sales tax (also called the T-SPLOST).

Colleen Kiernan, director of the Sierra Club’s Georgia Chapter, said in a release that the $6.14 billion list of projects would primarily generate more sprawl rather than encourage more sustainable development patterns in metro Atlanta.

By Maria Saporta

It was another big day for Dr. William Foege — one of Atlanta’s best kept secrets.

On Thursday, Foege was named by President Barack Obama as one of the 13 recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.

On the same day, Foege participated in the dedication of the building expansion of the Decatur-based Task Force for Global Health, an organization he co-founded in 1984 and served as its CEO.

By Maria Saporta

Could the Gang of Six become the Gang of Sixty?

Georgia’s two U.S. senators hope so.

One of the original members of the Gang of Six, U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss, spoke to the Atlanta Press Club Monday when he restated his commitment to work on reducing the nation’s growing debt and its fiscal problems.

By Maria Saporta

A regional effort to build a regional arts and cultural mindset is losing its leader.

Flora Maria Garcia, CEO of the Metro Atlanta Arts & Culture Coalition, will become the new president and CEO of the United Arts of Central Florida starting May 29.

Garcia has been CEO of MAACC since 2007, when she succeeded Bill Nigut, who is now the Southeast Regional director of the Anti-Defamation League.

By Maria Saporta

Washington, D.C. — Education reform is alive and well in the nation’s capital.

Members of metro Atlanta’s LINK delegation were enamored with Kaya Henderson, the chancellor of Washington, D.C. public school system, after she addressed regional leaders about the change underway in one of the highest-profile systems in the nation.

Henderson joined the staff of the Washington, D.C. public schools in 2007 as part of the Michelle Rhee administration.

By Maria Saporta

Washington, D.C. — Cobb Chamber of Commerce President David Connell humbly stood before members of the metro Atlanta LINK delegation Thursday morning after to apologize.

The day before, as Connell was going through security at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, he was detained for having a handgun in his bag. He subsequently was arrested and taken to the Clayton County jail.

Connell finally rejoined the LINK delegation Thursday morning, and he went to the podium to address what had been the buzz of the trip on Wednesday.