Category: Latest News

By Maria Saporta

The founder of StoryCorps came to Atlanta Wednesday evening to celebrate the opening of the “flagship” home for the ambitious oral storytelling initiative.

“We are here to launch StoryCorps Atlanta 2.0,” said Dave Isay, founder and president of StoryCorps.

StoryCorps, which has been taping stories of Atlantans out of StoryBooth at Public Broadcasting Atlanta’s WABE since October, 2009, has relocated to the Atlanta History Center. The StoryBooth studio is now based in the Franklin Miller Garrett library, named after the infamous Atlanta historian.

By Maria Saporta

The Woodruff Arts Center has named Janine Musholt, the chief development officer for the U.S. Olympic Committee, as its new vice president of advancement.

Musholt, who will begin her new role on June 1, will succeed Beachamp Carr, who retired last year after leading the Woodruff Arts Center’s advancement efforts for 35 years.

Musholt will be responsible for the Center’s fundraising efforts, including its annual corporate campaign. She also will work closely with the fundraising efforts of the Center’s four divisions — the Alliance Theatre, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, the High Museum of Art and Young Audiences.

By Maria Saporta

It is the case that will never end.

On Friday, the Georgia Court of Appeals handed the Task Force for the Homeless a legal victory in its battle against the owners of the Peachtree-Pine building in downtown Atlanta.

The Court of Appeals has sent the case back to Fulton County Superior Court Judge Craig Schwall saying that he erred by not allowing the Task Force the opportunity to present evidence.

The Task Force has been occupying the Peachtree-Pine building although it has not owned the building for nearly two years. It was foreclosed upon in May 2010 by a company that purchased the building’s mortgages.

By Maria Saporta

Former Atlantan John Knapp has been named president of Hope College, a four-year liberal arts Christian college in Holland, Mi.

When he was in Atlanta, Knapp was founder of the Southern Institute for Business and Professional Ethics in 1993. Later that evolved into the Center for Ethics and Corporate Responsibility at Georgia State University’s J. Mack Robinson College of Business.

Knapp left Atlanta in 2008 to be the founding director of Samford Universities Frances Marlin Mann Center for Ethics and Leadership in Birmingham. He also served as a professor of ethics and leadership.

By Maria Saporta

A sense of history filled the annual meeting of Central Atlanta Progress Thursday morning as speaker after speaker paid homage to the city’s past by looking to its future.

A surprise element of the program came when Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed appeared — primarily to highlight the recent approval by the Atlanta City Council for a new retractable roof stadium for the Atlanta Falcons.

“I don’t think there’s a better team owner in the United States than Arthur Blank,” said Reed, who also thanked Falcons President Rich McKay and Frank Poe, executive director of the Georgia World Congress Center Authority, for their perseverance during the negotiations.

By Maria Saporta

Politics was in the air at Wednesday evening’s ninth annual ”Meet & Greet” event by the Council for Quality Growth held at the Georgian Club in Cobb County.

The event honors mayors and county commission chairs from throughout the metro Atlanta region as a way of building relationships between the public and private sectors. Sixty-six elected leaders reportedly were in attendance.

U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson had been scheduled to be the keynote speaker, but he was forced to cancel at the last minute because of matters that had come up in Washington, D.C.

By Maria Saporta

Environmental veteran Mandy Mahoney has been named president of the Southeast Energy Efficiency Alliance.

Mahoney joined SEEA two years ago as the organization’s vice president of policy and operations. She was elected to her new role by a unanimous vote of the Southeast Energy Efficiency Alliance board in early March.

Before joining the Alliance, Mahoney served as the City of Atlanta’s director of sustainability for both Mayor Kasim Reed and Mayor Shirley Franklin.

By Maria Saporta

As evidence of Atlanta’s role as a convening place to work on global health issues, a major “World Water Day” conference is being held on April 9.

The event is being held to commemorate World Water Day — aimed at shining attention on how neglected diseases can be prevented with improvements in water, sanitation and hygiene.

The participants in the April 9 conference are a “who’s who” of Atlanta-based organizations, initiatives and professionals dedicated to improving the quality of water and sanitation around the world.

By Maria Saporta

The search for a new president and CEO for the Atlanta BeltLine Inc. is heating up.

Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed said Friday morning that a group of nine finalists were interviewed this week for the job of overseeing the redevelopment of the 22-mile mostly-abandoned rail corridor that surrounds downtown Atlanta into a vibrant area of area of parks, trails, residences, retail, work spaces and eventually transit.

The BeltLine has been without a permanent leader since August when Brian Leary resigned amid controversy over some expenditures that had been charged to taxpayers.

By Maria Saporta

Georgia needs to do all it can to deepen the Savannah port if it wants to remain a competitive.

That is the message that Roberto Roy, Panama’s Minister for Canal Affairs who is chairman of the Panama Canal Authority, delivered to Gov. Nathan Deal and Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed on Thursday afternoon.

“It is a critical issue for Georgia and for Savannah,” Roy said in an interview outside the Governor’s office. “The reason is that the shipping fleet is totally changing. It is not only a matter of the ships being bigger The key is that the most important variable is the fuel costs.”

By Maria Saporta

After the Atlanta City Council’s speedy 11-4 vote on Monday in support of the new Falcons stadium, the impacted neighborhoods had their turn on Wednesday evening.

The Northwest Community Alliance had a long-scheduled quarterly meeting to hear from Penny McPhee, president of the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation about its plans to work with the communities located around the stadium.

But the two-and-a-half hour meeting ended up being more about McPhee listening to the concerns, questions and ideas that community leaders had. And that had been McPhee’s intention all along.

By Maria Saporta

Metro Atlanta leaders will seek to grow the region’s global business opportunities through a new initiative that was kicked off Wednesday by JP Morgan Chase and the Brookings Institution.

The Global Cities Initiative, which is part of a five-year, $10 million, multi-city effort ultimately will forge new city-to-city partnerships to create trade and economic relationships to prosper from the growing urbanization of the world’s population.

Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed said the initiative takes advantage of growing businesses through exporting and by recognizing that the “Made in USA” brand is becoming increasingly valuable in the world.

By Maria Saporta

From nukes to nuggets.

Carrie Kurlander, vice president of communications for the Southern Co. since September 2009, is joining Chick-fil-A as its vice president of public relations.

She will start her new job in mid April.

Kurlander joined the Southern Co. system in February 2003 as director of corporate communications for the Alabama Power Co. Five years later, she was named assistant to the president and CEO of the Alabama Power Co. before moving to Atlanta to work at Southern Co.’s headquarters.

By Maria Saporta

For tree lovers, the crisis has been averted.

House Bill 501, which would have allowed the cutting of trees along interstates and the state’s limited access highways, failed to make it out of the House Rules Committee.

It therefore has died a timely death, at least for this year.

“Whew,” was the reaction of Marcia Bansley, founder of Trees Atlanta.

By Maria Saporta

Atlanta officials and the Atlanta Falcons reached a deal to build a new $1 billion stadium that addresses most of the concerns raised by the Atlanta City Council and the surrounding communities.

The tentative agreement was announced at a press conference Thursday afternoon at Atlanta City Hall with Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed flanked by Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur M. Blank, Gov. Nathan Deal and 10 members of the Atlanta City Council.

The agreement would include $50 million investments in infrastructure improvements around the new stadium as part of the actual costs of constructing the project.

By Maria Saporta

An imminent agreement for a new Atlanta Falcons football stadium will include several assurances for the surrounding communities, according to Penelope McPhee, president of the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation.

Arthur Blank, a co-founder of the Home Depot, is the owner of the Atlanta Falcons.

McPhee was one of the panelists at the Atlanta Regional Housing Forum program Wednesday morning on how to leverage large projects to bring equitable development to communities.