By David Martin, President and CEO of VeinInnovations In November 2012, Governor Nathan Deal wrote a letter to the secretary of the United States’ Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius. Deal notified the secretary of Georgia’s decision not to create a state-run insurance exchange. In his letter, Deal noted that while he remains committed to […]
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Posted inPublic Relations, Thought Leader
Private Blunders and Public Apologies
We all make mistakes, and I’d like to think we all apologize when we’re in the wrong. Fortunately, not many people notice when I make a mistake – but when newsmakers such as Lance Armstrong, Manti Te’o, Anthony Weiner or a CEO of a major corporation make a blunder, the whole world pays attention. The reputation […]
Posted inHome Mortgages, Thought Leader
MLOs Will Become More Professional in 2013
If you want someone to renovate your house, you don’t just hire a neighborhood kid with a decent set of tools. You get references from your neighbors and hire a professional who is experienced at home renovation. So why should applying for a mortgage be any different? As we’ve written in a past Thought Leadership […]
Posted inMoments, Moments Season 2
New Season of Moments – sparked by a Friday morning conversation – returns next week
I seem to remember Moments. I can’t tell you the name of the movie I saw last week, but my friends look to me to remind them of scenes from our childhood and high school years. I also remember the day I came up with the idea for this Moments column that we’ve been publishing since last January.
It was on September 7, 2011 – just a few weeks after Maria Saporta asked me to join in the fun and contribute a weekly column to this increasingly popular journey in journalism that we call SaportaReport – that the idea first struck me. I was sitting quietly at a table at On the Border restaurant in Buckhead as my Friday Morning Men’s Fellowship group. My weekly table-mates were discussing the Bible passage in which Saul was struck by lightning – and blinded – while on the road to Damascus.
Posted inMichelle Hiskey
Amid change in Oak Grove, chicken nachos never dip as a Saturday ritual
South Philly owns the cheesesteak.
The deep-dish pizza rose from the north side of the Chicago River.
The best chicken nachos ever can be found at a butcher shop and delicatessen in north suburban Atlanta.
That’s no brag, just fact, according to the regulars who swarm into Oak Grove Market every Saturday for a plate of the eatery’s number one seller.
More than a taste, the nachos are a tradition that helps keep this small business going in the recession, and gives people a one-of-a-kind experience that they won’t get at a chain restaurant. It’s the same recipe, the same day of the week, at the same place – chicken nachos transformed into a social anchor.
Posted inMaria's Metro
Atlanta’s destiny — gateway of ‘global development from the bottom up’
Atlanta’s destiny is coming into focus.
The latest evidence of that was Saturday night at the Salute to Greatness dinner — the annual fundraiser for the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Non-Violent Social Change.
It was at that dinner when Laura Turner Seydel introduced honoree Muhammad Yunus, the father of micro-credit who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006.
“Professor Yunus is a close friend to my family. He’s like a brother to my father,” said Seydel of her father Ted Turner.
In fact, Yunus is a longtime board member of the United Nations Foundation, which was started by Turner to help improve the lives of people around the world.
Posted inDavid Pendered
Governor reduces bond package; Metro Atlanta avoids slowdown
The depth of the recession in Georgia is evident in the dwindling amount of money the state plans to borrow to improve its infrastructure.
The bond sum proposed in 2007 was $914 million. The current bond proposal is almost 22 percent lower, at just over $713 million, in the budget recommendation for 2014 presented by Gov. Nathan Deal. Metro Atlanta’s slice of the pie increased by 16 percent in snapshots of the years 2007 and 2014.
The comparison of two budget years hardly represents a comprehensive analysis of state investment. It does provide a glimpse of the state’s investment dashboard and outlook during the lingering downturn that officially started in late 2007.
Posted inTom Baxter
‘No mob, no coup, no insurrection,’ but not quite ‘We, the people’ either
We, the people have had a grand wallow of binding ourselves together over the past few days, from the tribal frenzy of the NFL playoffs to the lofty visions of togetherness celebrated on the King Holiday, to the second inauguration of Barack H. Obama, president of the United States.
The difficulty some still have in swallowing the last clause of the preceding sentence gave U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, by now the South’s longest-serving and most seasoned political leader, a tricky assignment Monday. As co-chair of the inauguration committee, he was the only Republican to speak at the swearing-in ceremony.
Alexander seemed to be speaking directly to his party’s most disaffected when he recalled the words of his fellow Tennessean Alex Haley: “Find the good, and praise it,” repeating the admonishment twice more for emphasis in a two-minute speech.
Posted inLatest News
Atlanta Falcons have helped revive community spirit — win or lose
By Maria Saporta
The energy — and the tension — in the Georgia Dome on Sunday captures a feeling that has been lost in recent years — a feeling of being in the game.
The last five years have been tough for Atlanta, a city used to being an economic star in the country. The Great Recession hit Atlanta harder than most other cities because it targeted the real estate and banking — two industries that had helped build Atlanta.
And yet, during Sunday’s game between the Atlanta Falcons and the San Francisco 49ers, the city’s troubles are put aside as people rallied behind a team that is only one win away from the Super Bowl.
Posted inGuest Column
Educational gains in Georgia must not leave minorities and the poor behind
By Guest Columnist DANA RICKMAN, director of the policy and research for the Georgia Partnership for Excellence in Education
When it comes to education, is Georgia a national leader or is our state bringing up the rear? Over the past decade, Georgia has worked hard to implement education reforms that will strengthen the birth to work educational pipeline and improve outcomes for all students and make us a national leader.
In some areas, these policies have translated into increased outcomes for students. In 2012, Georgia was the only state in the nation to show gains across all national tests: the SAT, the ACT, Advanced Placement (AP) examinations, and the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in Math, Reading and Science. Georgia is a national leader.
Posted inDavid Pendered
Atlanta audit: Lax records of $128,000 gift card program likely means no sanctions likely
Atlanta city departments have spent at least $128,000 on gift cards for city employees to boost their morale, and record keeping was so lax that there’s no way to tell if there were any wrongdoing, according to a new audit by the city auditor.
The audit – to be presented formally on Tuesday to the Atlanta City Council – makes two recommendations to get a handle on the situation. The responsible parties agree with the recommendations: The COO and commissioner of human resources in one instance; and the COO and chief procurement officer in the other.
The gift card program was intended to raise morale among city employees during an era when they had gone for years without raises, according to comments by city COO Duriya Farooqui that were posted on myfoxatlanta.com in October.
Posted inEleanor Ringel Cater
‘Zero Dark Thirty’ – Kathryn Bigelow goes straight for the jugular
Kathryn Bigelow doesn’t fool around.
She never has. Think of the tense and ultimately explosive opening of “The Hurt Locker.” Or the fatal pick-up outside a bar in her vampire-cum-biker flick, “Near Dark.”
In her Oscar-nominated movie, “Zero Dark Thirty,” she goes straight for the jugular. The screen is black and on the soundtrack we hear a building babble of voices, which — it’s almost immediately clear — are real-life phone calls made from those trapped in the World Trade Center on 9/11.
Posted inATL Business Chronicle, Maria's Metro
Atlanta-based Hardin Construction being sold to DPR Construction
By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on Friday, January 18, 2013
Longtime Atlanta builder Hardin Construction Co. is being acquired by DPR Construction, a national technical builder based in California.
The two companies will focus on expanding their operations in the Southeast and Texas, where both firms already have a local presence. The two companies have signed a letter of intent, and the acquisition is expected to close in March.
Posted inLatest News
Muhammad Yunus wants closer ties with Atlanta — a bank and more
By Maria Saporta
Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Muhammad Yunus would like to set up a Grameen Bank (which means village bank) in Atlanta.
All he needs is for someone to champion the effort to provide $6 million over four years to help create a self-sustaining bank that will offer micro-loans to the poor and give them an opportunity to go into business for themselves.
Yunus was in Atlanta Friday morning speaking to an influential group of business and civic leaders as part of the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation speaker series.
Posted inDavid Pendered
Xpress bus service funded in Gov. Deal’s proposed FY 2014 budget
The Xpress bus service operated by GRTA will continue to operate through at least June 2014 if the Legislature leaves intact the operating funds recommended by Gov. Nathan Deal in his budget proposal for FY 2014.
Deal also made history by including Xpress funding in the state’s annual budget, rather than its supplemental budget. That’s significant because eliminating money from programs that are included in the annual budget has, historically, been much more difficult than eliminating funding that was provided in the amended budget, or supplemental budget, the Legislature adopts in the middle of a fiscal year.
Deal provided $8.1 million for Xpress operations in the budget he unveiled Thursday. The money would offset the loss of local and federal funds, according to the line item in the governor’s budget.
Posted inDavid Pendered
State of Gwinnett : Chairman Charlotte Nash addresses past woes, bright future; promotes citizenship
Gwinnett County commission Chairman Charlotte Nash laid her cards on the table Wednesday in her “State of the County” address.
The speech presented some challenges – the economy is harsh, the county budget is lean and getting leaner. Fresh allegations of public corruption in DeKalb County are reminders of Gwinnett’s recent and continuing problems.
Nash met it all head-on in her opening remarks: “Gwinnett’s story has been filled with ups and downs and plots twists along the way. The last few chapters were painful at times, and a few characters have been removed. But overall, Gwinnett’s story is a tale of success and a testament to those who made it happen.”
Posted inATL Business Chronicle, Maria's Metro
Column: Arby’s giving $3M to help feed hungry kids in Georgia
By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on Friday, January 11, 2013
The Arby’s Foundation is driving a stake in the ground to end childhood hunger in Georgia.
The company announced at a Jan. 10 press conference at the state Capitol it is making its largest grant ever — $3 million over three years — to the Georgia Food Bank Association to work with other state partners on the “Feeding for a Promising Future — No Kid Hungry” campaign.
The Arby’s Foundation hopes Georgia will develop a model to combat childhood hunger that can be replicated across the country.
Posted inLatest News
Shirley Franklin joining LBJ School of Public Affairs in Austin, Texas
By Maria Saporta
Former Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin will be splitting her loyalties between Atlanta and Austin.
The University of Texas in Austin announced that Franklin has joined the LBJ School of Public Affairs as the Barbara Jordan Visiting Professor in Ethics and Political Values.
In a Facebook posting Tuesday, Franklin wrote: “I am proud to be joining the University of Texas-Austin LBJ School of Public Affairs as the Barbara Jordan Visiting Professor……..Atlanta will be my home most of the time but it is an honor I simply could not pass up.”
Posted inDavid Pendered
Rodney Mims Cook, 1924-2013: Recalled as a friend by Atlanta Councilmember Michael Julian Bond
Another significant figure in the history of Atlanta’s civil rights movement, and the state GOP, has passed away – former city alderman and state Rep. Rodney Mims Cook, Sr.
Cook, who died Sunday, is remembered for his work to help struggling communities when he served on the old Board of Aldermen. Cook’s efforts on behalf of civil rights in the state Legislature were noted Tuesday by Atlanta Councilperson Michael Julian
Bond, whose father was supported by Cook when state lawmakers barred the elder Bond from taking the seat he had won in Georgia’s House of Representatives.
“My family is forever grateful for Mr. Cook’s bravery and righteous fervor in defense of my father during a very frightening and difficult time,” Bond said in a statement.
Posted inLatest News
11th Circuit Court upholds earlier ruling against Homeless Task Force
By Maria Saporta
The Eleventh Circuit U.S. District Court has upheld a lower court ruling giving the City of Atlanta a major victory in the federal case involving the Metropolitan Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless.
The ruling was released today — Jan. 15 — nearly 16 months after U.S. District Judge Thomas Thrash had ruled in favor of the city in every element of the lawsuit. Click here for earlier SaportaReport story on Judge Thrash’s ruling on Sept. 22, 2011.
It is yet one more legal decision that has been handed down against the Task Force, which continues to occupy the Peachtree-Pine building in downtown Atlanta.
