By Maria Saporta
He may be the only guy in Georgia who feels this way.
“I can’t wait till January,” said Vance Smith, the new commissioner for the Georgia Department of Transportation. “I’m looking forward to interacting with the General Assembly.”
Smith was speaking to the board of the Georgia Department of Economic Development at the Newell Rubbermaid headquarters. Before becoming GDOT commissioner nearly two months ago,
By Maria Saporta
One of Atlanta’s top public relations professional — Claudia Patton — is on her way up.
The Edelman firm has promoted Patton as president of Edelman’s Southeast region. She will oversee the Edelman office in Atlanta and Orlando as well as the eight-state Southeast region.
Before her promotion, Patton has been president and general manager of Edelman Atlanta. She has been in the public relations industry since 1982 when
By Maria Saporta
Alternative, renewal energy sources appear to be gaining steam in Georgia.
At Friday morning’s Sustainable Atlanta Roundtable, a panel focused on the environmental issues facing the Georgia coast.
In his presentation, Tybee Island City Councilman Paul Wolff talked about a wind energy study that was done by Georgia Tech and Georgia Power.
“We could generate half of our energy
A set of Atlanta’s best known twins is being honored by the Georgia Association for Women Lawyers, which has almost 1,100 members throught the state.
It is renaming its GAWL Foundation Endowment as the Ruth and Ruby Crawford Endowment.
The colorful twin sisters, who were always dressed in matchng attire, both served as president of GAWL and were “widely recognized as trailblazers for professional women in Georgia,”
By Maria Saporta
The Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI), founded by Atlantan Ted Turner and managed by former U.S. Sen. Sam Nunn (D-Georgia) has developed unique ties with the Obama administration.
Three of the top officials within NTI have moed into senior-level positions in the Obama administration. They include:
Laura Holgate, NTI’s vice president for Russia and New Independent States for the past eight years, is serving as senior
By Maria Saporta
The Goizueta Foundation is donating $12 million, three-year grant to the Woodruff Arts Center to expand arts education programming for children and students up to the 12th grade.
The gift is the single largest grant that the center has rceived for its campus-wide education initiatives.
The grant also will help the arts center develop a cohesive and collaborative education platform that works with each
By Maria Saporta
Inclusion was the prevailing message at a mayoral forum Thursday evening sponsored by the Georgia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.
The forum, held at the Georgia Terrace, included the five top candidates running to become Atlanta’s next mayor.
All five candidates said their administrations would work with the Hispanic community to participate in City Hall’s policies and contracts.
By Maria Saporta
The founding president of the Atlanta Education Fund, Hosanna Mahaley Johnson, has accepted a new position in New York.
Johnson has been named executive director of social justice and district innovation for Wireless Generation, which helps develop innovative technology for classrooms from kindergarten to 12th grade.
The Atlanta Education Fund was started
By Maria Saporta
The only executive director the Georgia World Congress Center has ever known — Dan Graveline — announced today he is retiring at the end of the year.
He will cap off his 33-year career by working until midnight, Dec. 31 at the Georgia Dome’s Chick-fil-A Bowl game.
It will culminate an amazing career by one of Georgia’s unsung public servants.
Graveline, 68 as of July 1, was named
By Maria Saporta
Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich is not against health reform.
In fact, he told the Rotary Club of Atlanta today that health reform is necessary.
“What I’m opposed to in any health reform in this economy that will mean a tax increase,” Gingrich said. He then added that the bill that is in the House of Representatives today “will kill jobs.”
Gingrich has been working on healthcare
By Maria Saporta
After a pow wow on water at the Governor’s Mansion earlier today, Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin gave a luncheon speech to the Buckhead Business Association, where she praised Gov. Sonny Perdue for taking a lead on this issue.
The water summit followed last week’s ruling by U.S. District Judge Paul Magnuson that most of metro Atlanta does not have the legal right to access water from Lake Lanier. The judge gave
By Maria Saporta
Although Gwinnett County is planning to remove its signature water towers along I-85 proclaiming that “Gwinnett is Great,” the county continues to anticipate strong growth for the next 20 years.
Economist Roger Tutterow of Mercer University participated in Gwinnett’s first annual “Transportation Summit” on Wednesday at the Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce’s headquarters.
By 2030, Tutterow said that Gwinnett will
By Maria Saporta
Tom Bell, who retired earlier this summer as CEO of Cousins Properties, is carrying the flag for free enterprise.
Bell is vice chairman of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which is in line to lead the organization from July, 2010 through June, 2011.
But starting in September, Bell will chair the U.S. Chamber’s Campaign for Free Enterprise, a national campaign that is expected to last through the 2010 mid-term elections.
Readers,
After five months online, SaportaReport is delighted to let you know of some improvements to our site.
Most significantly is the addition of Lyle Harris, a longtime colleague of mine at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Lyle was a reporter and later an editorial writer focusing on the environment, housing, land-use and transportation issues.
Now he will be contributing his expertise
By Maria Saporta
Spreading the word.
James Shepherd, the inspiration and co-founder of the Shepherd Center, used Facebook to send his friends the message, along with this link, that the Atlanta hospital is among the top 10 rehabilitation centers in the United States.
U.S. News & World Report has just put out a ranking of the “Best Rehabilitaton Hospitals.” Atlanta’s Shepherd Center ranked 9th among a list of more than 150 hospitals in the country.
The rank was based on Shepherd’s reputation by specialists in the medical
By Maria Saporta
City of Atlanta bonds already allocated to the proposed Center for Civil and Human Rights will pay off the balance of a $32 million loan used to buy a premier collection of Martin Luther King Jr.’s papers.
The finance/executive committee of the Atlanta City Council just approved the plan this afternoon in a 4-0 vote. The plan still needs to be approved by the full council and the Atlanta Development Authority.
Three years ago, Atlanta leaders came together to buy the King papers on the eve before they were to be sold at a Sotheby’s auction. Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin
Two metro Atlanta leaders are working with the Obama administration to establish its urban policy agenda.
Catherine Ross, director of the Center for Quality Growth at Georgia Tech; and DeKalb County CEO Burrell Ellis, were in Washington D.C. Monday as part of a round-table discussion advising the new White House Office of Urban Affairs.
President Barack Obama addressed the urban and political leaders in the afternoon explaining how the federal government can develop policies to improve housing, education and transportation systems in urban areas.
“The president is going to put his
By Maria Saporta
U.S. Sen. SaxbyChambliss (R-Georgia) gave Atlanta Rotarians today the minority party’s perspective of the changes being proposed by the Obama administration.
In short, Chambliss’ message was that the administration was shifting the nation to having a government-owned and managed automobile industry, the insurance and banking sectors and health care.
And the administration’s policies will mean higher taxes for the richest Americans and record deficits that are unsustainable.
By Maria Saporta
The W.K. Kellogg Foundation is providing a grant of $1.28 million to help expand “Smart Start” — the early learning initiative of United Way of Metropolitan Atlanta.
The two-year grant will be used to replicate a program called “SPARK,” a national school readiness model thw creates broad community partnerships among early learning centers, faith-based organizations and family and social service nonprofits.
The Early Learning Community Based Partnerships help make sure that children are prepared for school by
By Maria Saporta
It’s not unusual for campaigns to change over their staff, said Stacey Abrams, the new campaign manager for Lisa Borders’ mayoral bid.
Abrams spoke to me on Friday explaining all the changes that have occurred. That includes Abrams coming on board July 1 as the new campaign manager, replacing Verna Cleveland; and the replacement of five other key campaign officials.
“With the exception of one, every one resigned,” Abrams said, adding that the former staff members have worked closely with the campaign during the
