Category: Latest News

In a post to Facebook friends over the weekend, George Chidi wrote: “Well I’ve been here a week, and they haven’t fired me, so I suppose I should say something about it. I have a new job.”

Chidi, a social activist and journalist with an MBA from Georgia Tech, is the new “social impact director” for Central Atlanta Progress and the Atlanta Downtown Improvement District.

City leaders hope that the successful negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal that was reached in Atlanta over the weekend will bode well for future international gatherings.

The United States and 11 other Pacific Rim nations announced on Monday that they had agreed to the largest regional economic pact in history – an agreement that could set the stage for global trade for others.

Agnes Scott College will be the site of a major announcement Monday morning on an expanded commitment by U.S. colleges and universities to combat climate change.

Elizabeth Kiss, president of Agnes Scott College, said that in the past decade, nearly 700 institutions of higher learning have signed on to the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment (ACUPCC).

A united team welcomed Julian Castro, secretary of the U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Monday morning when he announced that Atlanta had been awarded a competitive $30 million Choice grant.

Castro said he is pleased with all the economic development that has been drawn to Atlanta, but HUD wants to make sure that “progress happens and every neighborhood benefits, that every section of Atlanta can share in that prosperity.”

The theme of the sixth annual Neighborhood Summit – the largest to date – was “Embracing the Power of Education.”

The keynote address on the “Power of Education” was delivered Michael Thurmond, who recently stepped down as the interim superintendent of DeKalb County Schools.

Thurmond said he’s a living example of the transformational power of education – as the descendant of three generations of illiterate cotton sharecroppers.

The City of Atlanta likely has been awarded a $30 million Choice grant to help revitalize communities in west Atlanta from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed had a twinkle in his eye Friday morning when he said HUD Secretary Juliån Castro would be coming to Atlanta Monday morning to make an announcement.

Reed revealed Castro’s upcoming visit during a sit down interview with three reporters after the quarterly meeting of the Atlanta Committee for Progress at Invesco.

Green Law honored four legacy environmentalists Thursday evening at the Nelson Mullins law firm while introducing its new executive director – Melissa Allen Heath – to attendees.

Heath is joining the GreenLaw firm after working for the Environmental Protection Agency Region 4 since 1987 – most recently as associate regional counsel.

For city dwellers, there is no freer feeling than when people on foot or bicycles take over a street that’s been closed off to cars.

That feeling is so infectious that it is spreading throughout the country and the world – getting a foothold in a multitude of cities including right here through Atlanta Streets Alive – the next one will be held on Sunday, Sept. 27.

Plans to locate the soccer training facility for the Atlanta United FC in DeKalb County might not be a done deal after all.

An official with the AMB Group – Arthur M. Blank’s group of companies – confirmed that the soccer club is reconsidering a site in Marietta in case the DeKalb deal falls apart.

Over the years, Jimmy Sibley and I would joke about the “When I’m dead” column.

He would tell me certain things in confidence, and then tell me in his Southern gentleman’s way that it could go in the “When I’m dead” column.

Well this was a column I never wanted to write.