By Maria Saporta
Lloyd and Mary Ann Whitaker were reading the Sunday paper on Jan. 27, 2013 before going to church when they read a story about the deteriorating condition of the panoramic painting depicting the Battle of Atlanta housed at the Cyclorama.
By that night, they had decided they wanted to help spark an effort to restore the Cyclorama painting.
By Maria Saporta
It may not seem like much, but Georgia advocates for children were celebrating the state moving up a notch in the 2014 KIDS COUNT Data Book, published by the Annie E. Casey Foundation.
In the 25th anniversary edition of KIDS COUNT, which was released today, Georgia’s national rank went from 43rd in 2013 to 42nd in measuring the well-being of the state’s children.
By Maria Saporta
It’s always helpful to see Atlanta from the eyes of outsiders.
Gary Brooker, the anchor musician, pianist and songwriter behind the symphonic British rock group Procol Harum, provided his perspective on Sunday night during a concert at Atlanta Symphony Hall.
Atlanta has developed into a beautiful city, a 21st Century city, Brooker told the not-sold-out, yet enthusiastic audience in the concert hall. Brooker went on to say that he remembered coming to Atlanta when it was a dump, and how impressed he was with the way it had evolved.
By Maria Saporta
One thing that was keeping Mike Geisler up at night was the word “interim” in front of his title.
Geisler had been serving as interim chief operating officer for the City of Atlanta since early February, succeeding Duriya Farooqui who had left to join the Bain Consulting firm. So a couple of weeks ago, Geisler went in to see his boss, Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed.
By Maria Saporta, Dave Williams and Doug Sams
An Atlanta entertainment company planning a movie studio and entertainment area at Fort McPherson filed a federal lawsuit Thursday challenging Tyler Perry’s proposal for a similar project.
Lawyers for Ubiquitous Entertainment Studios LLC (UES) claim the firm wasn’t given a fair chance to redevelop the site halfway between Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and downtown Atlanta.
By Maria Saporta
Atlanta’s “Mr. Region” has passed away.
Harry West, who probably did more than any other person in metro Atlanta to create a regional mindset, passed away Monday morning at Emory University Hospital from a serious lung infection. West, 72, had had a lung transplant last fall.
West was executive director of the Atlanta Regional Commission from 1973 to 2000 – a position that he used as a launching pad to create a host of regional programs to promote closer ties among leaders and citizens in the Greater Atlanta area.
By Maria Saporta
Global trade is becoming more essential to the economic viability to the United States and its companies, which is why UPS is strongly supporting two pending free trade agreements, the incoming CEO of UPS, Dave Abney, told the Rotary Club of Atlanta Monday.
“One of our growing concerns is the protectionism that is surfacing throughout the world,” Abney said. “More and more of the economic activity is going to be occurring somewhere else (outside the United States). We should really be spreading that message. We understand that trade is a vital economic engine.”
By Maria Saporta
A rare glimpse into MARTA’s evolution was visible Sunday night when the five living former and current general managers of the transit agency gathered to reflect on the past and strategize about the future.
The occasion was the 43rd National Meeting & Training Conference of Minority Transportation Officials (COMTO) meeting in Atlanta this week.
By Maria Saporta
Fifty years after President Lyndon Baines Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act on July 2, 1964, Atlanta leaders of today and yesterday spoke of the journey that lies ahead.
The leaders spoke at a half-day symposium on Friday that was held at the King Center titled: “The Civil Rights Act @ 50: Looking Back; Moving Forward 1964 – 2014.”
By David Luse
The new “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes” movie, which debuts in theaters on July 11th, starts the same way it ends; with a close-up shot of an ape so close it can be mistaken for human.
This is the real question that tugs throughout this movie, one that vegetarians probably struggle with constantly: if given intelligence, would animals be the same as us? Well our hairy brethren who share most of our DNA are CGI (computer-generated images), and for the first 10 or 15 minutes, I was disappointed and fearful that this movie would become wrought with the lure of showing off clever computer animation, and less about story.
By Maria Saporta
As the new president and CEO of Atlanta-based MAP International, Steve Sterling views his latest mission with clarity.
He doesn’t want children living in developing countries to suffer the same fate he did when he contracted polio at the age of two in South Korea, becoming a “throwaway kid.”
When he was only 5-years-old, his father abandoned him and his sister at an orphanage where he lived for six years until the two siblings were adopted by an American family living in Anchorage.
By Maria Saporta
For Clayton County Commissioner Sonna Singleton, it came down to letting the citizens decide.
And so Singleton cast the deciding third vote in favor of a one-penny MARTA sales tax to be on the ballot in a referendum before voters during the November general election.
The vote Saturday morning ended up being 3-to-1 in favor of the full penny sales tax for MARTA. Voting in favor of putting the referendum before voters were: Commission Chairman Jeff Turner, Vice Chair Shana Rooks and Singleton.
By Maria Saporta
The most popular person in Clayton County has suddenly become Commissioner Gail Hambrick.
Hambrick is seen by pro-transit advocates as the most likely swing vote who might now change her stance and favor a full-penny MARTA sales tax being put on the November ballot in Clayton County.
The Clayton County Commission is holding a specially-called board meeting at 10 a.m. on Saturday, July 5 at 112 Smith St. in Jonesboro to revisit the MARTA question.
By Maria Saporta
At a specially-called meeting Wednesday morning, the MARTA board held firm: Clayton County must contribute a full-cent sales tax to become part of the regional transit system.
The resolution intensifies the high stakes, holiday weekend drama about whether MARTA is in Clayton County’s future. The only way for a MARTA question to be on the November ballot would be for the Clayton Commission to convene a special meeting by Sunday, July 6 and agree to the full-penny MARTA sales tax proposal.
At the Clayton County Commission meeting Tuesday night, that board voted 3-to-2 for a half-penny MARTA sales tax to be levied over the next 50 years. The members in the minority — Chairman Jeff Turner and Vice Chair Shana Rooks — favored the full-penny option.
By Maria Saporta
The City of Atlanta, one of six cities selected as a finalist to receive a $30 million federal grant for neighborhood revitalization, was not selected as one of the four winning cities.
Shaun Donovan, secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, announced on Monday that the four $30 million “Choice Neighborhood Initiative” grants were awarded to Columbus, Ohio; Norwalk, Connecticut; Philadelphia, Pa.; and Pittsburgh, Pa.
By Maria Saporta
The Clayton County Commission and MARTA entered a staring down contest Tuesday night.
The question that will unfold in the next five days is who will blink first.
For Clayton County residents, the answer could either be voting on a full-penny sales tax to become a full MARTA partner, investing in both buses and rail transit, or to continue being a county without any local transit service.
By Maria Saporta
The Metro Atlanta Chamber has selected its new chief economic development officer.
“This should not come as a surprise,” said Hala Moddelmog, president of the Metro Atlanta Chamber. “He was right under our nose.”
The new chief development officer will be Brian McGowan, who joined the Atlanta Chamber as its chief operating officer and executive vice president after serving as president of the City of Atlanta’s economic development arm — Invest Atlanta.
By Maria Saporta
A passionate 11th hour effort is being launched to urge the Clayton County Commission to support putting a full penny MARTA sales tax on the November ballot.
The five Clayton Commissioners are scheduled to vote on Tuesday night.
The choice is being presented in relatively simple terms. If Clayton County approves a full penny, it would become a full voting member of MARTA, and it would be able to have a combination of rail and bus transit in its future.
By Maria Saporta
The City of Atlanta and top business leaders are working on a concerted effort to steer the redevelopment of the westside of city.
Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed disclosed Friday morning that a new nonprofit entity will be established – similar to the Atlanta BeltLine Partnership – to help raise foundation and corporate dollars for the rebirth of the Vine City, English Avenue, Atlanta University Campus, Ashview Heights and part of Castleberry Hill.
The mayor announced that news in a briefing with two journalists following a quarterly meeting of the Atlanta Committee for Progress, the group of top-level business leaders who serve as a kitchen cabinet of advisors for Reed and the city.
By Maria Saporta
When it comes to reducing greenhouse gases to meet future federal standards, Georgia is ahead of the game.
That was the message that Carol Browner, a distinguished senior fellow at American Progress who most recently served as assistant to President Barack Obama and director of the White House Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy, gave Monday to the Rotary Club of Atlanta.
“In Georgia, you are well on your way with your investment in nuclear energy, and your investment in renewables,” Browner said.
