Georgia remains a divided state — with wide disparities in income, health and education depending on location and demography.
Although much has been said over the years about the two Georgias or the multitude of Georgias, an innovative website now exists that illustrates the differences that exist all over the state.
By Guest Columnist BOB MUNGER, president of the Augusta Greenway Alliance, Inc.
Georgia is a global leader in production of low-speed electric vehicles — such as golf cars and other personal transit vehicles (PTVs).
Since the production of those vehicles are such an important part of our economy, shouldn’t the State of Georgia also be a leader in the use of these vehicles?
By Maria Saporta
Updated version
If a judge’s ruling stands, it will be the end of era for homeless advocates — Jim and Anita Beaty.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Craig Schwall ruled late Friday afternoon that the Beatys have to vacate the Peachtree-Pine homeless shelter downtown by noon on Wednesday, Feb. 15.
Schwall also ordered that the shelter, which has housed between 300 and 1,000 homeless men each night since 1997, be closed by Aug. 31, 2012.
Jack London cozies up to Frederick Nietzsche in “The Grey,” a sweaty-palmed action film about survival of the fittest.
On every imaginable level.
En route to an oil rig in Alaska, Liam Neeson and a snack tray of assorted humans crash-land somewhere in the Great White North. There they must survive wolves, weather and each other.
By Maria Saporta
Friday, January 27, 2012
KIPP Metro Atlanta — a charter school nonprofit organization that has been focused on middle school and high school students — will launch its first elementary school in July.
By Maria Saporta
For once, good news.
When it came to riding bicycles to work, City of Atlanta enjoyed the highest rate of increase in the nation between 2000 and 2009, according to a report released by the Alliance for Biking & Walking.
The report showed that bicycle commuting in the City of Atlanta increased by 386 percent in that decade.
But one of the reasons Atlanta’s numbers were so strong was because its base was so low.
By Maria Saporta
Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed said Wednesday that he has problems with the recommendations of the Regional Transit Governance Task Force. Reed was one of the members of that task force.
The recommendations that have been put in a draft bill include several issues that could be detrimental to the Atlanta region, and especially its largest transit system — MARTA.
“I’m going to be calm and thoughtful, but at this point I don’t have a very favorable view of the bill,” Reed said. “I have real unreadiness about it.”
Communications 21 supports 2012 NCAA South Regional tourney as dress rehearsal for 2013 Men’s Final Four The city of Atlanta and the NCAA are joining forces to bring two major events in Division I men’s basketball to the city. Not only is the Georgia Dome hosting the 2013 NCAA Men’s Final Four tournament and its […]
An Atlanta-based airport concessionaire that was awarded a major contract at Atlanta’s airport is the subject of litigation in Orlando that dates to an airport contract it won there in 2007.
The case illustrates the fierceness of battle that can be waged over government contracts to sell products to airline passengers. The Atlanta contracts are valued at about $3 billion over a lifespan of seven to 10 years. The Orlando case involves a 15-year, $300 million contract.
The situation now before U.S. District Court in Orlando has some interesting twists. The losing vendor, which is seeking to oust the Atlanta company, was founded by a man whom federal authorities charged in 2002 in relation to allegations that he had ties to Middle East terrorist organizations.
Ben Dempsey says of his lifelong battle against overeating,
“I had done all kinds of strange diets, like eating tofu straight for six weeks, but when I lost 30 pounds, I would gain 40. At the rate I was going, I would have weighed 420 pounds today.”
From his work in physical therapy, he knew change was possible if he could just slip that elusive mental switch.
By Maria Saporta
Robert Dale Morgan, who helped put Atlanta on the map for major sporting events, passed away Sunday from complications related to a brain tumor. Morgan was only 50 years old.
Morgan was key in the creation of the Atlanta Sports Council, and he headed the efforts to bring and host the 1994 and 2000 Super Bowl games to the Georgia Dome.
Morgan left Atlanta and moved to Houston where he took on several roles as president and CEO of the 2004 Houston Super Bowl XXXVIII Host Committee as well as president and executive director of the 2011 Houston Final Four.
The economic downturn has been tough on millions of Americans and 24-year-old Atlantan Josh Starks was just one of the recession’s many casualties. By the afternoon of October 13, 2010, Josh said he had “pretty much lost everything that I worked hard for in life. You name it I lost it, or had to get rid of it to pay a bill or because I couldn’t find any work.”
When he woke up that Wednesday morning, Josh didn’t plan on that being his last day on the planet and he certainly didn’t plan to be on that night’s TV news, attracting headlines around the world.
To view Josh Starks’ Moments HD video, click here.
The little secret a lot of legislators don’t want you to know isn’t how lavish some of the meals lobbyists feed them are. It’s about how hungry they are by the time they line up at the trough.
You already know about those big-tab dinners lawmakers are fed, and if you don’t, a story by Chris Joyner in Sunday’s AJC about one thrown by a convoy of lobbyists for the House Natural Resources Committee will give you a good idea.
Lobbyists have been wining and dining legislators since time immemorial. But what is seldom remarked is that over time, the net worth of those being fed, compared to that of those who are feeding them, has seriously declined.
The same financial disclosure forms which make it impossible to tell exactly how rich the legislators are, also make it impossible to tell how many of them have gone broke. But the Great Recession has had a deep and sometimes tragic impact on the General Assembly.
By Maria Saporta
Chris Leinberger was genuinely surprised.
Leinberger, the urban land use strategist and developer who also is a visiting fellow of the Brookings Institution, was the keynote speaker at Partnership Gwinnett’s Redevelopment Forum — put on by the Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce.
The half-day economic development conference at the Gwinnett Place Marriott in Duluth on Friday, Jan. 27, focused on redevelopment opportunities in the suburban county.
Two recent media advisories from the Atlanta Regional Commission are of note, arriving as they do at a critical moment in the campaign for a 1 percent sales tax for transportation.
Taken cumulatively, the advisories sent last week fill the void of two purported campaigns being waged by advocates: One campaign is for public awareness of the July 31 sales tax referendum and the projects it would fund; and one is to encourage voters to support the sales tax. To date, both campaigns have been mostly silent in public.
The first ARC advisory, which pertains to air quality in metro Atlanta, also underscores the import of two recent political appointees – one by President Barrack Obama, one by Gov. Nathan Deal.
How disappointing.
After months and months of study, the Transit Governance Task Force has come up with recommendations that are unacceptable — especially for residents in Fulton and DeKalb counties who have been investing in MARTA for the past four decades.
By Maria Saporta
Friday, January 27, 2012
Two-thirds of metro Atlantans donated money to causes that were important to them in the past year, 50 percent of local residents donated their time and 36 percent participated in political activities.
Those are just some of the findings of a new study done for the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta on the level of philanthropic investment and engagement in the Atlanta region.
By Guest Columnist DARAKA SATCHER, partner and chief operating officer at Pendleton Consulting Group
I arrived in Washington, D.C. after graduating from Emory Law School in 1999 full of excitement and energy. I began working on Capitol Hill almost immediately and had a front row seat to history-in-the-making working for members of Congress like John Spratt, Harold Ford Jr, and Hank Johnson.
By Maria Saporta
Friday, January 20, 2012
The tide has turned for the Georgia Research Alliance.
A year ago, the public-private research and innovation organization was fighting for survival. Gov. Nathan Deal had proposed in his first budget, which had been put together by the administration of former Gov. Sonny Perdue, to slash GRA’s funding from nearly $17 million to $4.5 million.
Oscar nominations are out and probably the only thing Oscar addicts enjoy as much as second-guessing the eventual winners is second-guessing who got nominated and who got snubbed.
Here are some random thoughts on last Tuesday’s naming names:
Best Picture
“The Artist” “The Descendants” “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close” “The Help” “Hugo” “Midnight in Paris” “Moneyball” “The Tree of Life” “War Horse”
With the Best Picture category expanded to anywhere between 5 and 10, you’d think there wouldn’t be any snubs. And there weren’t…well, yeah there were.
