By Maria Saporta
Atlanta Business Chronicle
Friday, August 7, 2009
At 9 a.m. on July 23, the phone rang in Mike Garrett’s office.
It was Gov. Sonny Perdue. Would Garrett, president and CEO of Georgia Power Co., be willing to serve as the “quarterback” of the state’s efforts to get congressional authorization to use Lake Lanier for drinking water and help resolve the dispute between Georgia, Alabama and Florida over water allocation?
By Maria Saporta
Alternative, renewal energy sources appear to be gaining steam in Georgia.
At Friday morning’s Sustainable Atlanta Roundtable, a panel focused on the environmental issues facing the Georgia coast.
In his presentation, Tybee Island City Councilman Paul Wolff talked about a wind energy study that was done by Georgia Tech and Georgia Power.
“We could generate half of our energy
A set of Atlanta’s best known twins is being honored by the Georgia Association for Women Lawyers, which has almost 1,100 members throught the state.
It is renaming its GAWL Foundation Endowment as the Ruth and Ruby Crawford Endowment.
The colorful twin sisters, who were always dressed in matchng attire, both served as president of GAWL and were “widely recognized as trailblazers for professional women in Georgia,”
By Maria Saporta
The Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI), founded by Atlantan Ted Turner and managed by former U.S. Sen. Sam Nunn (D-Georgia) has developed unique ties with the Obama administration.
Three of the top officials within NTI have moed into senior-level positions in the Obama administration. They include:
Laura Holgate, NTI’s vice president for Russia and New Independent States for the past eight years, is serving as senior
By Maria Saporta
The Goizueta Foundation is donating $12 million, three-year grant to the Woodruff Arts Center to expand arts education programming for children and students up to the 12th grade.
The gift is the single largest grant that the center has rceived for its campus-wide education initiatives.
The grant also will help the arts center develop a cohesive and collaborative education platform that works with each
By Maria Saporta
Friday, July 31, 2009
Central Atlanta Progress is working with city officials to secure $3.1 million to help revitalize the Auburn Avenue corridor.
Those funds are part of $42 million of unspent Atlanta Empowerment funds allocated to the city about 15 years ago to help distressed communities.
By Maria Saporta
Inclusion was the prevailing message at a mayoral forum Thursday evening sponsored by the Georgia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.
The forum, held at the Georgia Terrace, included the five top candidates running to become Atlanta’s next mayor.
All five candidates said their administrations would work with the Hispanic community to participate in City Hall’s policies and contracts.
By Maria Saporta
The founding president of the Atlanta Education Fund, Hosanna Mahaley Johnson, has accepted a new position in New York.
Johnson has been named executive director of social justice and district innovation for Wireless Generation, which helps develop innovative technology for classrooms from kindergarten to 12th grade.
The Atlanta Education Fund was started
By Maria Saporta
The only executive director the Georgia World Congress Center has ever known — Dan Graveline — announced today he is retiring at the end of the year.
He will cap off his 33-year career by working until midnight, Dec. 31 at the Georgia Dome’s Chick-fil-A Bowl game.
It will culminate an amazing career by one of Georgia’s unsung public servants.
Graveline, 68 as of July 1, was named
By Maria Saporta
Friday, July 24, 2009
The final numbers are in for Atlanta’s United Way 2008 campaign.
Several amazing developments occurred among local companies despite one of the worst economic climates in metro Atlanta’s history.
By Maria Saporta and J. Scott Trubey
Friday, July 24, 2009
Delta Air Lines Inc., recently criticized by African-American leaders for its diversity record, has taken a key step.
By Maria Saporta
Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich is not against health reform.
In fact, he told the Rotary Club of Atlanta today that health reform is necessary.
“What I’m opposed to in any health reform in this economy that will mean a tax increase,” Gingrich said. He then added that the bill that is in the House of Representatives today “will kill jobs.”
Gingrich has been working on healthcare
By Maria Saporta
Friday, July 24, 2009
The defining moment in Ralph de la Vega’s life happened when he was 10 years old.
By Maria Saporta
After a pow wow on water at the Governor’s Mansion earlier today, Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin gave a luncheon speech to the Buckhead Business Association, where she praised Gov. Sonny Perdue for taking a lead on this issue.
The water summit followed last week’s ruling by U.S. District Judge Paul Magnuson that most of metro Atlanta does not have the legal right to access water from Lake Lanier. The judge gave
By Maria Saporta
Although Gwinnett County is planning to remove its signature water towers along I-85 proclaiming that “Gwinnett is Great,” the county continues to anticipate strong growth for the next 20 years.
Economist Roger Tutterow of Mercer University participated in Gwinnett’s first annual “Transportation Summit” on Wednesday at the Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce’s headquarters.
By 2030, Tutterow said that Gwinnett will
By Maria Saporta
Tom Bell, who retired earlier this summer as CEO of Cousins Properties, is carrying the flag for free enterprise.
Bell is vice chairman of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which is in line to lead the organization from July, 2010 through June, 2011.
But starting in September, Bell will chair the U.S. Chamber’s Campaign for Free Enterprise, a national campaign that is expected to last through the 2010 mid-term elections.
By Maria Saporta
Metro Atlanta has been one of the fastest-growing regions in the country, but its income and job growth has not kept up with population.
By Maria Saporta – Friday, July 17, 2009
Back in the day, metro Atlantans were well-represented on the boards of the major banks doing business in the city.
Readers,
After five months online, SaportaReport is delighted to let you know of some improvements to our site.
Most significantly is the addition of Lyle Harris, a longtime colleague of mine at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Lyle was a reporter and later an editorial writer focusing on the environment, housing, land-use and transportation issues.
Now he will be contributing his expertise
By Maria Saporta
Spreading the word.
James Shepherd, the inspiration and co-founder of the Shepherd Center, used Facebook to send his friends the message, along with this link, that the Atlanta hospital is among the top 10 rehabilitation centers in the United States.
U.S. News & World Report has just put out a ranking of the “Best Rehabilitaton Hospitals.” Atlanta’s Shepherd Center ranked 9th among a list of more than 150 hospitals in the country.
The rank was based on Shepherd’s reputation by specialists in the medical
