Category: Latest News

The Los Angeles-based CIM Group will develop at $1 billion mixed-use project around a renovated Philips Arena, Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed said in an exclusive interview Friday.

One of the key principals of the CIM Group is Richard Ressler, the brother of Tony Ressler, the majority owner of the Atlanta Hawks.

Reed confirmed the “transformative project” during an interview after the quarterly meeting of the Atlanta Committee for Progress, held at the Ponce City Market offices of Cox Enterprises on Friday morning. It also was Tony Ressler’s first ACP meeting.

Following the cue of several of his colleagues, Milton Little, president and CEO of the United Way of Greater Atlanta, will be taking a three-month sabbatical starting June 21.

Little said he will use the time to do some traveling, perhaps overseas; help his 18-year-old son prepare to enter his freshman year at Howard University; and spend “a lot of time reflecting and planning for the United Way of the next 10 years.”

Friends, colleagues and family gathered at the Mason Art Gallery Sunday afternoon to remember one of Atlanta’s unapologetic liberals – Tom Teepen.

Teepen, editorial page editor of the Dayton Daily News, became an Atlantan when he joined the Atlanta Constitution’s editorial page in 1982, soon becoming its editor. He later served as a syndicated political columnist for Cox Enterprises until he retired in 2002.

UPDATED.

Stunned by the sudden loss of interim President Bill Taggart, leaders of Morehouse College pledged to do everything they can to keep the institution strong.

A service for Taggart, who died suddenly on June 7 of an apparent brain aneurism, was held on Friday at the Martin Luther King Jr. Chapel on the Morehouse campus.

“Things happen for a reason,” said Willie Woods, who was elected chairman of the Morehouse Board of Trustee at the same tumultuous time Taggart was named interim president. “The sad part is that we are going to miss Bill’s leadership.”

By Maria Saporta The Piedmont Park Conservancy, through the generosity of the Vasser Woolley Foundation, has replaced the park’s popular “Climbing Magnolia” tree. The original Magnolia tree was one of most popular attractions in Piedmont Park – a perfect size with outstretched limbs that embraced children, and even adults, inviting them to climb. It also […]

General Electric Co. has named Russell Stokes, its highest-ranking executive in Georgia, as the new CEO of GE Power, the company’s New York-based unit responsible for power generation and water technologies. But Stokes — who will lead the Metro Atlanta Chamber in 2018 — will continue to be based in Atlanta.

Stokes, currently president and CEO of GE Energy Connections, will take over GE Power on July 3.

Memorial services for William “Bill” Taggart, an Atlanta business and civic leader who died suddenly on June 7, will be held on Friday, June 16 at the Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel at Morehouse College at 830 Westview Drive S.W.

Since April, Taggart was serving as the interim president of Morehouse College. He also held several important roles in the community, such as chairman of the Atlanta Business League and on the board of the Westside Future Fund.

In his first public appearance since becoming CEO of the Coca-Cola Co., James Quincey reaffirmed the company’s commitment to Atlanta, water conservation, women empowerment and community well-being at the 2017 Rotary International convention.

“We take great satisfaction that Atlanta is also a special place for Rotary, and that you’ve chosen to celebrate your Foundation’s Centennial here,” Quincey told the more than 23,000 people assembled in Hall B of the Georgia World Congress Center.

Rotary International raised the spotlight on human trafficking Monday at its 108th convention underway in Atlanta.

After a morning devoted to the initiative to eradicate polio, the nearly 37,000 Rotarians attending the conference from all over the world listened to ways it can help fight modern day slavery.
“Atlanta Georgia is one of the hot beds for sex trafficking in the entire country,” said actor Ashton Kutcher, who has become an active voice to protect women and children from becoming modern day slaves. Kutcher said one can actually “buy somebody” – a fact he said is hard to believe.

“End Polio Now” was the rallying cry at the !08th convention of Rotary International – bringing nearly 37,500 Rotarians to Atlanta from Sunday through Wednesday.

Led by Rotary International and Bill Gates of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the global health partners meeting in Atlanta reaffirmed their commitment to ending the disease by pledging an additional $1.2 billion to the cause.

Rotary announced alone pledge to raise $50 million a year for three years. And Bill Gates announced he would match that contribution two-to-one – meaning that partnership would provide another $450 million to fight the last vestiges of the debilitating disease.