Could the #MeToo Movement, the daily White House shenanigans over spousal abuse and all the other gender-related stories that preoccupy us be part of something much, much, much bigger? Steve Bannon thinks so.
Tag: politics
Posted inTom Baxter
In news rooms, the most is being expected from the fewest
You don’t often hear of politicians worrying there may not be enough reporters to cover them, but Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam did so last week in a speech. Could the nation’s richest governor be thinking about some kind of media startup when he leaves office?
Posted inLatest News
Emerging details on transit proposals spark questions among Atlanta lawmakers
A new, 10-member transit governance board is expected to be one among several proposals in the state Legislature that will be the first words in a long-awaited debate about how to deepen regional cooperation over transit, and possibly initiate substantive spending by the state for buses and rail.
Posted inLatest News
Atlanta Jazz Festival to get $250,000 from city before first performer, event made public
The Atlanta Jazz Festival has not announced performers or a schedule for the event planned for Saturday and Sunday over Memorial Day weekend. But it is on track to receive $250,000 from the city to help offset budget shortfalls that the city no longer is going to blame on the Great Recession.
Posted inColumns
Courts take another look at the cold science of gerrymandering
Gerrymandering was once a kind of artisanal branch of politics. The late U.S. Rep. Phil Burton was said to have single-handedly redrawn the 1970 congressional map of California armed with nothing more than a stack of telephone books and his encyclopedic knowledge of the political landscape of his state. But computerization has turned it into a cold science. This year, the U.S. Supreme Court will try again to decide when gerrymandering goes too far.
Posted inLatest News
Georgia joins states, religious groups in opposing abortion-notification law pending before U.S. Supreme Court
Georgia has joined 21 other states in filing a brief in the U.S. Supreme Court to oppose a California law that requires pro-life pregnancy centers to display information about the availability of state-funded abortions. Other entities taking similar positions are the Southern Baptist Convention, Conference of Catholic Bishops and Jews for Religious Freedom.
Posted inLatest News
Atlanta’s state agenda not approved by city council, including planned sales tax extension for water, sewer
Atlanta doesn’t have a state legislative agenda that’s been approved by the Atlanta City Council. That’s because then Mayor Kasim Reed didn’t present a proposed agenda to the council last autumn amid the buzz over the general and run-off elections, according to two members of the administration who spoke at Wednesday’s meeting of the city council’s Finance/Executive Committee.
Posted inLatest News
Lawmakers finishing details on possible 13-county metro transit proposal
By early next month, Georgia lawmakers will publish a plan to deepen cooperation among and increase spending on metro Atlanta’s public transit agencies. They’ve got a big job, looking for a way to unify a region and minimize difficulties in an always-expensive, now fragmented, and sometimes contentious area of public policy.
Posted inLatest News
Atlanta Mayor Bottoms’ bail reform plan faces tough fight in President Moore’s chamber
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms’ support of a reform effort to eliminate bail for certain non-violent offenses – she cited it in her inaugural address this month – barely got through a council committee after council President Felicia Moore and others voiced grave concerns on Tuesday.
Posted inTom Baxter
Shutdown: The fine art of not getting along
This federal shutdown had a ratings problem, which is probably the reason it didn’t last long. We should be talking about this week’s government impasse as if it were a TV show, because at the most fundamental level that’s what it was.
Posted inUncategorized
Nero Fiddled While Rome Burns: 2018 Edition
By John Berry, Chief Executive Officer, Society of St. Vincent de Paul Georgia I think most, if not all of us have heard the expression ‘Nero fiddled while Rome burned’. It is ‘urban legend’ from 64AD (or maybe ‘fake news’?) because in reality it didn’t happen. Yes there was a big fire in Rome, but Nero […]
Posted inLatest News
Metro Atlanta leaders react to Amazon choosing region for HQ2 shortlist
Metro Atlanta’s civic, business and elected leadership were among those who on Thursday expressed some strong reactions after learning Thursday morning that Amazon had included the region in its short list of 20 regions where the company’s second headquarters would be located. Here is a collection of the responses:
Posted inColumns
Trump’s Haiti comments don’t resonate with Georgia’s history, modern aid programs
Whatever President Trump actually said about Haiti, the spirit of the comments doesn’t square in Georgia. Haitian soldiers sailed to defend Savannah during the Revolutionary War. On Monday, an Atlanta human rights leader who’s active in Haiti observed that Haiti’s modern woes stem from lingering resentment, and resulting poverty, over the outcome of Haiti’s revolution that overthrew the French in 1804.
Posted inColumns
The new year dawns with the first salvos of Culture War Two
For a few crystalline moments in Atlanta Monday night, opposite poles of our tightly stretched American culture, the tweeter Donald Trump and the rapper Kendrick Lamar, came into rare convergence, for a game that under other circumstances you figure neither would have understood or cared about. The verbal stabs of rapping and tweeting, Trump style, have a lot in common, but they speak to opposite sides of the divide which has absorbed so much political energy over the past few decades.
Posted inLatest News
Georgia expanding cyber facility near Augusta as part of build-up by military, industry
Georgia’s role in enhancing the nation’s cyber security was underscored by the groundbreaking last week for the state’s second cyber range in Augusta. The expansion of the state’s footprint is underway as the U.S. Army is developing the Cyber Center of Excellence at nearby Fort Gordon and at least one industrial partner has built a cyber facility.
Posted inLatest News
Former House leader takes reins of environmental affairs firm he’s served since 2012
Another page of Georgia’s environmental history is turning at the state Capitol. Joe Tanner, a former commissioner of the Department of Natural Resources, is turning the keys to his lobbying and consulting firm over to former House Majority Leader Jerry Keen – who has lobbied for the firm’s clients since 2012.
Posted inLatest News
Federal judge rules in case of fired Atlanta fire chief; both sides claim victory
Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed’s administration claimed a victory Wednesday in the legal battle over his decision to terminate the employment of then Fire Chief Kelvin Cochran. As did Cochran’s attorney. But the case won’t conclude until after Reed has left office
Posted inTom Baxter
It’s simple: Younger Americans get short straw in GOP tax bill
Underneath the numbers in the Republican tax bill there has always been a fundamental political calculation that simple is good: that no matter whether they get much of a tax cut, Americans will like taxes that are easier to do. That proposition is about to be tested.
Posted inColumns
In metro Atlanta, futures hang in balance as Congress debates immigration, deportation
His story would make any parent proud: The child prodigy earns a degree in fine arts while on a scholarship to Georgia State University, and goes on to open his own studio along Buford Highway. The problem is, he’s in the country illegally and is subject to deportation.
Posted inColumns
A DACA Dreamer shares his story, support for path to citizenship
By Guest Columnist JAIME RANGEL, a DACA recipient from Dalton who works with lawmakers from across the state, serving as a liaison between their offices and the Hispanic community
My name is Jaime Rangel, and I’m a beneficiary of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA. This federal program allowed me, and hundreds of thousands of other young people, the opportunity to work and study in the United States.
