Georgia’s population boom of the past 35 years is just the latest contributor to environmental challenges facing metro Atlanta and much of the state’s Piedmont region. Past activities to cultivate trees, crops and animals set the stage for today’s conditions, according to a state report.
Category: Latest News
Posted inLatest News
Dr. Wood Smethurst (1933 – 2015): an education pioneer in Atlanta
A giant oak in Atlanta’s education forest has fallen.
Dr. Wood Smethurst, co-founder of the Ben Franklin Academy – and its headmaster until July 1, passed away Tuesday morning of pneumonia.
Smethurst was a quiet yet powerful force in Atlanta’s education circles – pushing the envelope in ways to teach students who may have faced a myriad of challenges in their lives.
Posted inDavid Pendered, Latest News, Main Slider
Plans to promote walking, cycling, transit help Chattanooga win federal transportation award
A plan to double spending on bicycle and pedestrian amenities by 2040, and add transit capacity, has earned a federal award for the transportation planning organization for Chattanooga, and its suburbs in Georgia.
Posted inDavid Pendered, Latest News, Main Slider
Atlanta slated to begin $125,000 study on improving area near Falcons stadium
Atlanta is poised to embark on a study costing up to $125,000 on how to involve residents of the Westside communities, near the Falcons stadium, in code enforcement and flooding issues.
Posted inLatest News, Maria Saporta
Dentons law firm boosts its public policy practice
Less than two weeks after Dentons placed its signature in Atlanta, the world’s largest law firm announced the hiring of a couple of new members to its government affairs practice.
Jeff Hamling, who has been serving as vice president of state and federal affairs for the Georgia Chamber of Commerce, will join Dentons on July 27 as senior managing direct.
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South Carolina joins Georgia in ruling against use of condemnation to build Palmetto Pipeline
A legal opinion issued by the office of South Carolina’s attorney general presents a new obstacle for a proposed pipeline for petroleum and ethanol to be built along the Savannah River and down the Georgia coast, to Jacksonville, Fla.
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Taking another crack at Atlanta’s food desert, this time targeting chronic disease
Georgia State University and Morehouse School of Medicine have received a $400,000 federal grant to promote healthier food and physical activity in black neighborhoods in southwest Atlanta, where rates of diabetes and cardiovascular disease are especially high.
In addition, Atlanta is poised to address the city’s food deserts through a $50,000 grant to a program that’s not related to the GSU/Morehouse partnership, a spokesperson for Invest Atlanta said Thursday.
Posted inDavid Pendered, Latest News, Main Slider
Memorial Drive may get self-taxing CID to help pay for bike lanes, sidewalks, round-abouts, etc.
Sidewalks, bicycle lanes and round-abouts could be installed along Memorial Drive sooner rather than later if commercial property owners support a possible tax hike. A newly formed group of volunteers is to devise a plan and gauge interest.
Posted inLatest News, Main Slider, Maria Saporta
MLS Commissioner Don Garber: ‘New America is right here in Atlanta’
Before the official unveiling of the Atlanta United name and the logo of the Major League Soccer team, Arthur Blank marveled at the thousands of fans who had shown up Tuesday night at the SOHO Lounge in west Midtown.
The name given to MLS-Atlanta’s team was so fitting – Atlanta United.
And how appropriate Blank said that a new stadium for football and soccer was being built in the heart of downtown rather than in the suburbs.
Posted inLatest News, Maria Saporta
Greenberg Traurig attracts three public policy pros from MLA/Denton’s
Greenberg Traurig law firm has just become a more important player in the public policy space in Atlanta and Georgia.
The firm has expanded its government law and policy practice with the addition of Chuck McMullen, Tharon Johnson and Blake Ashbee – three political insiders who have just left the McKenna Long & Aldridge law firm, which has become part of the world’s largest firm – Denton’s.
Posted inDavid Pendered, Latest News, Main Slider
Turner Field neighbors to Mayor Reed: Defer any deal until after ARC-funded study is complete
A coalition of organizations around Turner Field intend to ask Mayor Kasim Reed on Tuesday to defer any deal to redevelop the ballpark and its parking lots until after a $275,000 visioning plan is complete.
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Same-sex couples in Georgia able to marry in all 159 counties
Glen Paul Freedman believes in giving credit where credit is due.
Freedman, chairman of Georgia Equality, said Gov. Nathan Deal and Attorney General Sam Olens deserve credit for the state not having had one negative incident since the U.S. Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage on June 26.
Georgia was one of 15 states in the nation that had banned same-sex marriages or had put the issue on hold.
Posted inDavid Pendered, Latest News, Main Slider
Georgia was a magnet for lower income folks over the past 20 years
A new study from Georgia State University reveals that Georgia generally attracted lower income taxpayers during the boom of the 1990s and through the Great Recession, to 2011.
Posted inDavid Pendered, Latest News, Main Slider
Florida stops funding film incentives, Georgia poised to benefit
Florida is bracing for a slowdown in the film industry because the state Legislature voted in June to stop funding tax incentives. Georgia is winning some of the business, and the shift underscores Gov. Nathan Deal’s trade mission to Hollywood in May, and to England in January.
Posted inDavid Pendered, Latest News, Main Slider
Ga. Supreme Court ruling casts pall over Cobb County funding of Braves stadium
In a ruling Monday that validated the sale of bonds for the Braves stadium, the Georgia Supreme Court said the deal “may push the law as far as it can go.” The order also raised the question of political ramifications of the transaction.
Posted inLatest News, Main Slider, Maria Saporta
Recalling 20 years at PBA/WABE at Milton Clipper’s retirement party
Friends and associates from near and far joined in a retirement celebration for Milton C. Clipper Jr., who served as president and CEO of the public broadcasting entity PBA/Channel 30 and WABE-FM (90.1) for 20 years. Clipper was presented with several gifts – a set of golf clubs, a small metal sculpture and a speedily-done painting of him.
Posted inDavid Pendered, Latest News, Main Slider
I-285/Ga. 400 reconstruction to improve mobility, is part of GRTA’s expansion plans
Priced at about $1 billion, the reconstruction of the interchange of I-285 and Ga. 400 is to cost almost a third of some estimates for building the $3.6 billion transit system envisioned for the Atlanta Streetcar and Atlanta BeltLine.
Posted inLatest News, Main Slider, Maria Saporta
As Fort Mac-Tyler Perry deal is set to close, State Sen. Vincent Fort declares the sale illegal
The controversial deal to sell Tyler Perry 330 acres of land of Fort McPherson for only $30 million could close as early as Friday morning.
But on the eve of the transaction, State Sen. Vincent Fort cautioned that the deal is likely unconstitutional and illegal.
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Atlanta Hawks owner Tony Ressler adapting to new role and new city
A jubilant mood filled the room as the new owners of the Atlanta Hawks met with the local media for the first time on Thursday.
“That was my first press conference ever,” Tony Ressler, the principal owner of the team, admitted after it was over.
It also was the first time that Atlantans were able to get an up close and personal look of the man who will own perhaps the city’s most beloved sports team in 2015.
Posted inDavid Pendered, Latest News, Main Slider
Children, families at center of new Casey Foundation report on Atlanta’s future
A new report, this one by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, puts children and families at the center of findings that reaffirm I-20 as the dividing line of household wealth in Atlanta.
