Category: Latest News

By Maria Saporta

The board of the Metro Atlanta Chamber this morning adopted its 2010 legislative agenda calling for renewed initiatives related to water, transportation, education and economic development.

In the past several years, the Chamber’s legislative agenda has fared poorly in the General Assembly. And the fact that 2010 is an election year for virtually all of the state’s elected officials adds yet another complexity to the Chamber’s agenda this coming year.

John Yates, a partner of the Morris, Manning & Martin law firm who chairs the

By Maria Saporta

The wooing between the Atlanta business community and the two mayoral candidates is in full swing.

Although the business community can’t produce the number of votes to get a candidate elected (partly because many executives live outside the city), their financial contributions are critical in financing campaigns in a close election.

A week ago, both mayoral candidates had back-to-back meetings with the executive committee of the Metro Atlanta Chamber and the executive committee of Central Atlanta Progress.

By Maria Saporta

The Georgia Public Policy Foundation has a new president.

Rogers Wade, who has been president of the conservative think-tank for 16 years, announced today that he is becoming chairman of the policy foundation’s board of trustees.

The new president of the foundation is Kelly McCutchen, who has been serving as its executive vice president. McCutchen has been with the foundation since 1993. The organization was founded in 1991.

By Maria Saporta

Atlanta’s shining lights have been gracing our city streets since 1963, and today, we added a new shining light to our city — Bill Bolling.

Bill Bolling, founder and executive director of the Atlanta Commuity Food Bank, was honored this morning at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church — site of where Bolling started his career feeding the hungry and empowering those in need.

The Atlanta Gas Light Co. and WSB-Radio News/Talk 750 co-sponsor the Shining Light Award nearly every year. An actual gas light with an eternal flame is erected

By Maria Saporta

What a day for women.

At lunch Thursday, the Atlanta Women’s Foundation held its 13th annual Numbers Too Big to Ignore event at the Georgia World Congress Center with Nicholas Kristof, a New York Times columnist and author, as the keynote speaker.

Kristof was the first man to serve as keynote speak for the event.

And then, Thursday evening, state Rep. Kathy Ashe hosted a cocktail conversation with Lilly Ledbetter, a heroine for women across the country and beyond. She was the inspiration for

By Maria Saporta

Five Republican candidates for governor have signed off on Georgia Right to Life’s core principles, a pledge that would put a freeze on embryonic stem cell research in the state.

Those five gubernatorial candidates are: Rep. Austin Scott of Tifton, Jeff Chapman of Brunswick, Sen. Eric Johnson of Savannah, Ray McBerry of Henry County and Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine of Gwinnett County.

“Maybe these gubernatorial candidates did not know what they were signing,”

By Maria Saporta

Give Atlanta a year or two and James Weldon Johnson will become part of the city’s vocabulary of legends.

Johnson, who lived from 1871 to 1939, was one of the pivotal black leaders in American history. He was an author, song writer, a poet, a Civil Rights leader, a journalist, an teacher and a diplomat.

Although he was born in Jacksonville, Fla., Johnson attended Atlanta University. He later became executive director of the NAACP and then became a professor of creative writing at New York University, becoming its first African American

By Maria Saporta

It’s time to move on.

That message is directed to state Rep. Jill Chambers (R-Dunwoody), who chairs the legislature’s MARTA Oversight Committee (MARTOC).

Chambers has turned beating up on MARTA an intramural sport, calling on a host of investigations of the agency and accusing MARTA of mismanagement and fiscal irresponsibility.

Chambers had asked the state auditors to do a thorough investigation into MARTA’s finances, hoping to find evidence to back her accusations.

By Maria Saporta

As we enter the closing stretch of Atlanta’s mayoral campaign, it’s as good a time as any to reflect on how unique this election has been.

Its uniqueness goes way beyond the fact that there’s a white woman who is the odds-on favorite to win the election — either on Tuesday without a run-off, or on Dec. 1.

It goes way beyond the demographic changes underway in our city. And it goes way beyond whether the candidates pass the test of being Democrats, Republicans or Independents. (In fact, pollster Matt Towery said this has been

By Maria Saporta

For those of you who don’t mind watching movies on TV, two films that shouldn’t be missed will air early this week.

The first is: “The People v. Leo Frank,” which will air at 9 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 2 on PBS — Georgia Public Broadcasting — which is also Channel 8.

And the second movie is: “By the People, the Election of Barack Obama.” Fittingly, it will air on Election night — Tuesday, Nov. 3 — from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. on HBO. It’s hard to believe that it’s been a year since the historic election.

I’ve had the good fortune to see both

By Maria Saporta

Three men made their case this week to be the next chairman of the Atlanta Regional Commission — which brings together leaders in the 10-county region — to work on regional issues, such as transportation, water, land-use and the needs of our aging population.

The three declared candidates are Charles Bannister, chairman of the Gwinnett County Commission; Tad Leithead, a citizen member who was an executive at Cousins Properties who now has his own public affairs consulting firm; and Jack Smith, chairman of the Fayette County Commission.

By Jeff Cochran

Note to readers: Jeff Cochran, a regular contributor to Like the Dew’s website, also sells ads for SaportaReport. Here is a tribute he has written for a dear friend.

The Hot Stove League will be much colder this winter. Bob Woodland, a devoted Braves fan and great friend, passed away Sunday, October 25.

Bob earned a living as an attorney but lived for the joys in his life: his family and friends, his church and the Atlanta Braves. Over 32 years, the Braves were usually the first topic in our thousands of conversations. E-mail allowed even more such banter. Last winter we chatted

By Maria Saporta

Confusion reigned at a hastily-called work session Monday afternoon to discuss the proposed master lease agreement between the city of Atlanta and Delta Air Lines.

Members of the Atlanta City Council’s Transportation Committee seemed overwhelmed with the complexity of the issues, and they were frustrated that officials from Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport had not prepared a clear presentation of the thorny issues in the agreement.

Instead of clearly describing the differences of opinion that exist on

By Maria Saporta

For decades, Delta Air Lines and the city of Atlanta have played a delicate dance.

Both have proclaimed their eternal love for each other — crediting each other for their own growth.

That partnership has led to Delta becoming the world’s largest airline and Hartsfield-Jackson becoming the largest and busiest airport in the world.

And yet both have had to balance that love with their own self-interests.

For Delta, that self-interest is to limit the amount of airline competition that comes

By Maria Saporta

There’s a new look on Peachtree Street downtown.

The Hard Rock Café Atlanta has just put up a 30-foot neon guitar on the side of its restaurant at the corner of Peachtree and Andrew Young International Boulevard.

It replaces what had been the Cadillac icons that had hung precariously off the side of the building since November, 1992.

A bit of Atlanta history — which was reported earlier this year by my friend

By Maria Saporta

When Leonard Cohen came out on stage at the Fox Theatre Tuesday night, he told the audience: “I don’t know when we’ll pass this way again, but I promise you that tonight, we will give you everything we’ve got.”

And Cohen, accompanied by an incredible collection of musicians and singers, did just that.

For nearly three-and-a-half hours Cohen, defied his age of 75, singing songs from all phases of his musical career — one spans more than four decades. Few

By Maria Saporta

One of my very favorite bands is Travis, a secret treasure of our time.

I was introduced to the Scottish band through 99X during its prime, and I have caught the band just about every time they’ve come to town. The last time was at the Tabernacle a couple of years ago.

Because I’m a true fan, when I heard that lead singer, songwriter Fran Healy was coming to town to do an acoustic set with guitarist Andy Dunlop, I knew I had to be there.

They did not disappoint. On Saturday

By Maria Saporta

Leave it to Georgia to put the train in reverse while the rest of the country is moving forward.

Vance Smith, commissioner of the Georgia Department of Transportation, distributed a memo on Thursday, Oct. 15 announcing proposed “organizational changes” in his department.

“Over the last few months, we have worked diligently to strategically reorganize the Department to achieve greater efficiency in both functional alignment and program delivery,” Smith

By Maria Saporta

At the 12th annual Atlanta Interfaith Business Prayer Breakfast Thursday morning, keynote speaker Bernie Marcus had a mission — to teach two words of Yiddish to the crowd of about 1,000 people.

Marcus, co-founder of Home Depot who has become one of Atlanta’s leading philanthropists, was the first Jew to deliver the keynote prayer at the annual event held at the Hyatt Regency.

“I’m going to turn them all into Jews,” joked Marcus, who was pleased

By Maria Saporta

A beaming John Portman greeted his friends and admirers Wednesday evening at a VIP reception that included a private preview of the exhibit of his art and architecture that will open Saturday at the High Museum of Art.

Portman is Atlanta’s own architect, developer, painter, scupltor, designer of furniture and lighting fixtures who sprinkles his philosophy in all his work.

While most of the people at the reception were familiar with parts of his work, few really knew the breadth of his many creative outlets.