http://www.atlantamagazine.com/fivepoints/home.aspxFormerly media blog of ATL Intelen-usCopyright 2013, AtlantaMagazine-NAWed, 22 May 2013 02:12:26 GMTSun, 20 Jan 2013 19:11:26 GMT1http://emmisinteractive.comThis August will mark the fiftieth anniversary of the March on Washington and Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Dream” speech, the landmark oratory for which he is most remembered. Since then, a couple generations of school kids have learned about King and his dream—and for many, the two ideas—King and dreaming of equality—are so conflated we forget King crusaded against what he called the “triple evils” of poverty, militarism, and racism. So while last night’s “Salute to Greatness” King Center dinner opened with a tribute to the Dream speech, it was nice to see an award granted to a person who advocates very practical tactics for tackling one of those evils. Dr. Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel Peace Prize winning founder of Grameen Bank and pioneer of micro lending, was presented with a Salute to Greatness award for his efforts to help the poor in his native Bangladesh and beyond. “Poverty is ...http://www.atlantamagazine.com/fivepoints/blogentry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10492564rburns@atlantamag.emmis.com (Rebecca Burns)http://www.atlantamagazine.com/fivepoints/blogentry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10492564Sun, 20 Jan 2013 19:11:26 GMTOn Friday afternoon, MARTA unveiled a draft of a five-year plan for how the transit authority can cope with a $30 million operating deficit. Authored by auditing firm KPMG, the "transformation road map" provides guidelines for implementing measures recommended in an audit last year. These include restructuring employee benefits and outsourcing certain business functions—savings that could amount to more than $100 million over five years. In walking members of the media through the spiral-bound report, Robin Howard, MARTA's assistant general manager of internal audit, repeatedly emphasized the approach was "not about outsourcing" but was instead a "governance and business transformational opportunity." While the plan calls for exploring revenue-generating measures such as branded breeze cards and alcohol advertisements, the budget scale is largely tipped by privatizing such functions as payroll and HR, paratransit services, cleaning services, and IT. It also calls for increasing workers' base pay while decreasing retirement and healthcare ...http://www.atlantamagazine.com/fivepoints/blogentry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10492254http://www.atlantamagazine.com/fivepoints/blogentry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10492254Sat, 19 Jan 2013 15:31:10 GMTAt halftime of yesterday’s Falcons-Seahawks playoff game, I ran into Thomas Lake, former Atlanta magazine writer and now Sports Illustrated senior editor. The latest issue of SI has a great story by Tom about his unrequited love for the Falcons over the past twenty years, how the unflagging devotion he’s had for the team has ended, without exception, in disappointment. Would this year be different? When I saw him in the entryway of section 322, the Falcons were up 20-0, and had played as close to perfect football for thirty minutes as any fan could reasonably hope for. We both grinned. Within ninety minutes, of course, I had keeled over into the stinking vat of self-pity that is never far from any fan of Atlanta professional sports. Tweets from my row high up near the roof, over the span of just a few minutes, include the following: It’ll be a ...http://www.atlantamagazine.com/fivepoints/blogentry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10489698sfennessy@atlantamag.emmis.com (Steve Fennessy)http://www.atlantamagazine.com/fivepoints/blogentry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10489698Mon, 14 Jan 2013 18:50:14 GMTHillary Clinton will be the Democratic nominee for president in 2016, and she and her husband will make a play for Georgia. So predicted Mayor Kasim Reed, who spoke to the Atlanta Press Club today. Since taking office three years ago, Reed has steadily been raising his national profile, largely through his strident support of President Obama. It's led many to speculate about his own political ambitions beyond a second term (he faces re-election this fall, which will be little more than a formality), but when Maria Saporta asked him directly if he had designs on statewide political office beyond his current role, he said simply, "No." "This is my dream job," he said. "This is the job that when I was a kid I wanted to have." It may be because he’s addressing a bunch of jaded journalists, but when he gives his annual talk to the Atlanta Press ...http://www.atlantamagazine.com/fivepoints/blogentry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10488206sfennessy@atlantamag.emmis.com (Steve Fennessy)http://www.atlantamagazine.com/fivepoints/blogentry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10488206Thu, 10 Jan 2013 19:32:32 GMTOur mayor came out in favor of gay marriage last month. This morning, the folks on the newspaper's PolitiFact team gave Reed a "full flip" rating on their Flip-O-Meter. Twitter responds. [View the story "Tweets of the Day: Kasim Reed, the AJC, and Gay Marriage Edition" on Storify]http://www.atlantamagazine.com/fivepoints/blogentry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10487688jreeves@atlantamag.emmis.com (Jackson Reeves)http://www.atlantamagazine.com/fivepoints/blogentry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10487688Wed, 09 Jan 2013 23:46:16 GMTThe Atlanta BeltLine punctuated another year of progress by acquiring the missing link between its popular Eastside Trail and its most visible landmark, Historic Fourth Ward Park. On the last day of 2012, Atlanta BeltLine, Inc. purchased a 0.76-acre parcel adjacent to the Masquerade from the Trust for Public Land for a cool $1.3 million. (The Trust buys up strategic pieces of land along the BeltLine and holds them until ABI can come up with the funds. Unfortunately, they bought this one in 2005 at the top of the market.) Let’s take a fresh look at our Eastside Trail wish list. Purchase land to connect to O4W Park  Build connecting path to O4W Park: BeltLine buffs call it the Gateway connection, and design and construction will take us into 2014. Install lights: BeltLine officials are working with Georgia Power, the city, and trailside property owners to repair existing lights and ...http://www.atlantamagazine.com/fivepoints/blogentry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10487600http://www.atlantamagazine.com/fivepoints/blogentry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10487600Wed, 09 Jan 2013 21:18:40 GMTTouchdown for the Peach State! 'Bama may have won last night's BCS National Championship Game, but the highpoint of the evening was ESPN announcer Brent Musburger's strange fixation on the girlfriend of the winning team's QB. When she gained 150,000 Twitter followers overnight thanks to said fixation, Gawker dubbed her the new queen of America. Notable to us, Katherine Webb—aka Miss Alabama, aka Miss Photogenic Georgia, aka the girlfriend in question—lives in Columbus, Georgia, and works at Chick-fil-A. (At least according to her bio on Miss USA's website.) Ergo, the new queen of America is a Georgia gal working for a Georgia company, who also spent most of her childhood in Georgia. Screw the Olympics; this is clearly our state's greatest accomplishment ever. UPDATE: According to THR, Webb lives in LA. Well, we're still giving her bonafide Georgia status. Growing up in Columbus and working for Chick-fil-A merits some reward.http://www.atlantamagazine.com/fivepoints/blogentry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10487064jreeves@atlantamag.emmis.com (Jackson Reeves)http://www.atlantamagazine.com/fivepoints/blogentry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10487064Tue, 08 Jan 2013 22:36:21 GMTWhat Atlantans have to say about the Mayan dramarama: [View the story "Tweets of the Day: December 21, 2012—End of the World Edition" on Storify]http://www.atlantamagazine.com/fivepoints/blogentry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10482832jreeves@atlantamag.emmis.com (Jackson Reeves)http://www.atlantamagazine.com/fivepoints/blogentry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10482832Fri, 21 Dec 2012 19:25:26 GMTMayor Hartsfield would be so proud. Atlanta-based "upstart" IntercontinentalExchange will purchase the New York Stock Exchange for $8.2 billion if everything passes muster. If it does, ICE will run the new company with one office still on Wall Street and another near the Hooch. NYSE CEO Duncan Niederauer didn't pull any punches in a release to the staff of the (current) Manhattan headquarters, conceding that this "is an acquisition, not a merger of equals." While this is a sad day for the venerable institution—so identified with New York history as it is—it's a wonderful day for Atlanta's financial market! (Presumably especially for those seeking jobs.) It's still unclear how all of this will work out, but as I recall from various Arrested Development viewings, you can't have a party without ICE. First we had an airport, then we got the Olympics, now we're snagging the symbol of American capitalism. Go, ...http://www.atlantamagazine.com/fivepoints/blogentry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10482391jreeves@atlantamag.emmis.com (Jackson Reeves)http://www.atlantamagazine.com/fivepoints/blogentry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10482391Thu, 20 Dec 2012 21:29:34 GMTCreative Loafing reports state Sen. Vincent Fort will propose a ban on assault* weapons when lawmakers return to the Gold Dome in January. Fort says his proposal is a response to last Friday's mass murder at a Connecticut elementary school. I'm neither Nostradamus nor Mayan calendar salesman, but I feel comfortable predicting Fort's gun proposal will go nowhere in Georgia's legislature. State lawmakers have been enthusiastic participants in the "more legal guns in more places" legislative trend that has swept the nation over the past decade. Our current batch of lawmakers seems more likely to increase the number of places it's okay for Georgians to carry guns this year than to restrict them. Georgia lawmakers have loosened state gun laws in part, they say, because of their belief that guns make people safer. But do they really believe that? The evidence says no. What evidence? While state lawmakers have recently removed restrictions banning ...http://www.atlantamagazine.com/fivepoints/blogentry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10482173http://www.atlantamagazine.com/fivepoints/blogentry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10482173Thu, 20 Dec 2012 15:39:58 GMT