Category: Sections

By Maria Saporta

Mayoral candidate Mary Norwood has received a significant endorsement from State Rep. Margaret Kaiser, a Democrat who represents House District 59.

In a telephone interview late Wednesday afternoon, Kaiser said that her first inclination had been to remain neutral in the mayor’s race.

But as the race has entered its closing stretch, Kaiser felt it was important for Norwood to be recognized for her leadership style.

“It was time for more pro-active

By Maria Saporta

It was a first for me.

For three hours this afternoon, I interviewed the eight candidates currently in run-offs in key City of Atlanta races in a novel format that included video streaming to the web world through the use of social media.

The forum was organized by the Committee for a Better Atlanta, a coalition of several business and civic organizations interested in electing the most qualified people to elected offices.

The interviews, which took place at the

By Maria Saporta

When students return to Morehouse College in January after the holidays, their ranks will be down by between 60 and 80 fellow classmates.

Morehouse College President Robert Franklin told the Atlanta Kiwanis Club today that the economy is taking its toll on some of the historically-black college’s most financially vulnerable students.

“Many of our students can’t afford to come back,” Franklin said.

Morehouse College is only one of three

By Maria Saporta

The Atlanta Community Food Bank has received a $100,000 grant to help it serve more than 400,000 residents in Atlanta and North Georgia.

Humana Inc. and its Humana Foundation provided the $100,000 grant as part of its fifth annual Atlanta Benefits program. Humana is a leading provider of health benefits in Atlanta.

Bill Bolling, executive director of the Atlanta Community Food Bank, said those funds will go towards creating a new Food Co-op that will go towards helping hundreds of thousands Georgians

By Maria Saporta

The board of the Metro Atlanta Chamber this morning adopted its 2010 legislative agenda calling for renewed initiatives related to water, transportation, education and economic development.

In the past several years, the Chamber’s legislative agenda has fared poorly in the General Assembly. And the fact that 2010 is an election year for virtually all of the state’s elected officials adds yet another complexity to the Chamber’s agenda this coming year.

John Yates, a partner of the Morris, Manning & Martin law firm who chairs the

By Maria Saporta

The wooing between the Atlanta business community and the two mayoral candidates is in full swing.

Although the business community can’t produce the number of votes to get a candidate elected (partly because many executives live outside the city), their financial contributions are critical in financing campaigns in a close election.

A week ago, both mayoral candidates had back-to-back meetings with the executive committee of the Metro Atlanta Chamber and the executive committee of Central Atlanta Progress.

By Maria Saporta

The Georgia Public Policy Foundation has a new president.

Rogers Wade, who has been president of the conservative think-tank for 16 years, announced today that he is becoming chairman of the policy foundation’s board of trustees.

The new president of the foundation is Kelly McCutchen, who has been serving as its executive vice president. McCutchen has been with the foundation since 1993. The organization was founded in 1991.

By Maria Saporta

Atlanta’s shining lights have been gracing our city streets since 1963, and today, we added a new shining light to our city — Bill Bolling.

Bill Bolling, founder and executive director of the Atlanta Commuity Food Bank, was honored this morning at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church — site of where Bolling started his career feeding the hungry and empowering those in need.

The Atlanta Gas Light Co. and WSB-Radio News/Talk 750 co-sponsor the Shining Light Award nearly every year. An actual gas light with an eternal flame is erected

By Maria Saporta

What a day for women.

At lunch Thursday, the Atlanta Women’s Foundation held its 13th annual Numbers Too Big to Ignore event at the Georgia World Congress Center with Nicholas Kristof, a New York Times columnist and author, as the keynote speaker.

Kristof was the first man to serve as keynote speak for the event.

And then, Thursday evening, state Rep. Kathy Ashe hosted a cocktail conversation with Lilly Ledbetter, a heroine for women across the country and beyond. She was the inspiration for

By Maria Saporta

Five Republican candidates for governor have signed off on Georgia Right to Life’s core principles, a pledge that would put a freeze on embryonic stem cell research in the state.

Those five gubernatorial candidates are: Rep. Austin Scott of Tifton, Jeff Chapman of Brunswick, Sen. Eric Johnson of Savannah, Ray McBerry of Henry County and Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine of Gwinnett County.

“Maybe these gubernatorial candidates did not know what they were signing,”

By Maria Saporta

Give Atlanta a year or two and James Weldon Johnson will become part of the city’s vocabulary of legends.

Johnson, who lived from 1871 to 1939, was one of the pivotal black leaders in American history. He was an author, song writer, a poet, a Civil Rights leader, a journalist, an teacher and a diplomat.

Although he was born in Jacksonville, Fla., Johnson attended Atlanta University. He later became executive director of the NAACP and then became a professor of creative writing at New York University, becoming its first African American

By Maria Saporta

It’s time to move on.

That message is directed to state Rep. Jill Chambers (R-Dunwoody), who chairs the legislature’s MARTA Oversight Committee (MARTOC).

Chambers has turned beating up on MARTA an intramural sport, calling on a host of investigations of the agency and accusing MARTA of mismanagement and fiscal irresponsibility.

Chambers had asked the state auditors to do a thorough investigation into MARTA’s finances, hoping to find evidence to back her accusations.