Month: April 2011

Will metro Atlanta spend more on transit than road-building in the next decade??

Atlanta has long been synonymous with cars, with traffic, with sprawl. But local governments in the metro area appear to be embracing a vision for transit unlike ever before. This isn’t just some pie in the sky vision on my…

Latest data shows employment still weak in Georgia, Savannah

Just-released data from the Georgia Department of Labor is being spun positively because the state’s official unemployment rate has slipped to 10.0% for March; it was 10.2% last month after peaking at 10.4% late in 2010. Don’t be fooled by…

Solid opening weekend for “The Conspirator”

A few previous posts about The Conspirator: my review, one roundup of reviews, and another slightly more positive roundup of reviews. In its opening weekend, the Robert Redford directed film finished 9th at the box office and is estimated to…

Another roundup of “The Conspirator” reviews

I’ve already posted some links and short excerpts from some of the key reviews of The Conspirator. I wrote about it here. One of the film’s crew sent me some other suggested reviews that she thought put the film in…

Two more Georgia banks shut down by the FDIC

Two more banks in Georgia have been shut down this evening by the FDIC, Bartow Bank in Cartersville and New Horizons Bank in East Ellijay. From the press release regarding Bartow Bank: As of December 31, 2010, Bartow County Bank…

A roundup of reviews for “The Conspirator”

I already posted my own review of The Conspirator here. I thought it would be interesting to look at few other reviews. In The New Yorker, Anthony Lane complains a bit about the overly obvious parallels to today: “one wishes…

“Arizona-style” immigration bill heads to Nathan Deal’s desk

Well, I’ve been worried about this, but for a while this week it looked like legislative dysfunction would prevent the Georgia house and senate from agreeing on a tough new bill to go after illegal immigrants — undocumented workers —…

Sunday package sales bill goes to the governor!

Sorry to sound so excited about something so relatively minor, but it’s easy to grasp at anything positive that comes out of the Georgia legislature these days. Like many others, I had assumed that the bill to allow local governments…

Cathy Solomons chosen interim director at Telfair Museums

Ever since Steven High rather suddenly announced that he was resigning from his post as director of the Telfair Museums (the Telfair Academy, Jepson Center for the Arts, and Owens-Thomas House) to take over the Ringling Museum of Art in…

With tax reform dead, Georgia legislature backpedaling on Arizona-style illegal immigration crackdown

I’m already on record opposing legislative efforts in Georgia to enact “Arizona-style” laws targeting illegal immigrants. Last night, the Georgia state senate overwhelmingly (39 to 17) passed a bill addressing illegal immigration, but they removed entirely the one component that…

A review: Robert Redford’s “The Conspirator”

One of the most interesting — and perhaps most perilous — artistic choices is obvious in the opening moments of The Conspirator, which will be released nationwide on April 15th. There’s a great action story that could be told here…

Tax reform bill appears dead for 2011 in Georgia legislature

So should I take the time to write a post about something that most of my friends have paid no attention to all and that — as it turns out — isn’t going to happen? What the heck, why not?…

Georgia state revenue continues its upward trend

A few days ago, the state of Georgia released the revenue figures for April March. You can go straight to the PDF: “March revenue growth tops 10%”. I’m a little tired of the overly hyped headlines (and this is only…

Update on Savannah Harbor Expansion Project

A few weeks ago, when the news was coming fast and furious, I made a number of posts about the proposed dredging of the Savannah River. But now the Savannah Harbor Expansion Project seems destined for many months of continued…