http://www.atlantamagazine.com/atlintel/news/home.aspxThe news blog of ATL Intelen-usCopyright 2011, AtlantaMagazine-NASun, 26 May 2013 03:22:17 GMTThu, 01 Sep 2011 11:52:48 GMT1http://emmisinteractive.comThe tattered, weathered sign flapping limply on the corner speaks volumes about what's currently going on inside Outwrite Books. Last spring, owner Philip Rafshoon issued an "open letter to our community." The missive was meant as a rallying cry to inform supporters that the city's most visible LGBT business on the corner of 10th Street and Piedmont Avenue was in trouble in the age of eBooks. This month, the 18-year-old business announced its first-ever fundraiser set for tonight at chef Riccardo Ullio's new Escorpion Tequila Bar and Cantina from 7 p.m. until close. Ullio will be donating 20 percent of the evening's sales to Outwrite for planned renovations and improvements.   While some longtime Outwrite shoppers immediately circled the date on the calendar, others wondered aloud on Facebook and Twitter why a for-profit business needs a fundraiser. Rafshoon himself has largely stayed publicly mum on the details of Outwrite's current ...http://www.atlantamagazine.com/atlintel/news/blogentry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10279474http://www.atlantamagazine.com/atlintel/news/blogentry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10279474Thu, 01 Sep 2011 11:52:48 GMTOne of the most important questions parents ask in deciding what schools their children should attend is: Will my child be safe? My daughter attended a public middle school in Atlanta and had a wonderful experience—except for the fact that she was hurt twice by boys. One hit her in the ear with a snowball so hard that the snow impacted inside her ear. Another choked her until a teacher pulled him off of her. I went to the school and met with the principal, but as far as I know the boys were never punished. For high school, I decided to send her to a private school. Not just for safety, although that was at the top of the list, but for the best education possible. I wasn’t the only one. Among the parents at the school I chose were then-mayor Bill Campbell and then-congresswoman Cynthia McKinney. President Obama ...http://www.atlantamagazine.com/atlintel/news/blogentry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10272729http://www.atlantamagazine.com/atlintel/news/blogentry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10272729Fri, 12 Aug 2011 14:34:46 GMTOne of the city's busiest watering holes is looking to expand to the world's busiest airport. In a press release this week, Manuel's Tavern owner Brian Maloof announced that the 55-year-old Poncey-Highland institution is participating in a pair of bids seeking to add a Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport location to the family-run business.   According to the release, Manuel's Tavern is party to a proposal by Take-Off Concession, LLC for space in Concourse A, a proposal that also includes a Figo, a Jujubee's Italian Yogurt and a Domino's Pizza. It is also a party to a proposal by Creative Food Group, LLC for a space on Concourse D in a deal that includes Herschel Walker Sports Pub, Crosby & Hatch (a concept by Atlanta chef Ford Fry), Vino Volo and a Subway.   In the release, Maloof states: "Our plan is to bring to Hartsfield-Jackson the charm and character of Atlanta ...http://www.atlantamagazine.com/atlintel/news/blogentry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10268826http://www.atlantamagazine.com/atlintel/news/blogentry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10268826Thu, 04 Aug 2011 15:50:32 GMTI started teaching in a Brooklyn middle school near Coney Island in September 2007, after six weeks of training. On my first day as a real teacher, a paraprofessional with a Panamanian accent stood in the door of my classroom, crossed himself, and called out, "The power of Christ compels you!"  I recognized the line from The Exorcist. He stepped aside to let a class of wild seventh-grade boys boil into the room and I wondered what I had gotten myself into. I still wonder.   It's fair to say that six weeks did not prepare me to teach in an inner-city school. But it was the deal I signed up for when I became a New York City Teaching Fellow. Over the next two years I earned a master's degree in special education, attending class at night while teaching all day. Going back to college at age sixty was ...http://www.atlantamagazine.com/atlintel/news/blogentry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10263569http://www.atlantamagazine.com/atlintel/news/blogentry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10263569Tue, 26 Jul 2011 13:30:28 GMTBY CRISSINDA PONDERA report released Wednesday by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) stamped Georgia with a number nine on its “Toxic Twenty” states list.The report states that in 2009, Georgia power plants emitted more than 18.2 million pounds of harmful chemicals into the air, accounting for 44 percent of state pollution and 5 percent of toxic pollution from all U.S. power plants.The NRDC and PSR were able to compile the roll call of top polluters—Ohio the worst of them, followed by Pennsylvania and Florida, respectively—by using data from the Environmental Protection Agency’s Toxics Release Inventory. This database contains information, self-reported by industrial sources, regarding the disposal and release of more than 600 toxic chemicals.For an interactive look at Georgia’s contribution to worldwide carbon emissions, check out Carbon Monitoring for Action, a user-friendly database that reveals the footprint of power ...http://www.atlantamagazine.com/atlintel/news/blogentry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10262655eflorio@atlantamag.emmis.com (Elizabeth Florio)http://www.atlantamagazine.com/atlintel/news/blogentry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10262655Fri, 22 Jul 2011 19:09:27 GMTBY CRISSINDA PONDERA chubby child may be cute, but a state-wide childhood obesity problem is anything but. According to last week's report from Trust for America's Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Georgia is ranked second in the nation for childhood obesity, with more than 20 percent of our kids considered obese. Georgia’s adult obesity ranking—seventeenth—is not as bad but nothing to celebrate. The CDC defines adult obesity as having a body mass index of more than thirty. The definition differs for growing children.Here’s another difference between adults and children: Adults may be able to independently work on cutting the fat, but children rely on adults to feed them, set their schedules, and set the example. In commentary published in Wednesday’s Journal of the American Medical Association, co-authors David S. Ludwig, a pediatric endocrinologist at Harvard’s children’s hospital, and Lindsey Murtagh, a lawyer and a researcher ...http://www.atlantamagazine.com/atlintel/news/blogentry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10260594eflorio@atlantamag.emmis.com (Elizabeth Florio)http://www.atlantamagazine.com/atlintel/news/blogentry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10260594Fri, 22 Jul 2011 13:43:10 GMTOne of the most disturbing aspects of the Atlanta Public Schools cheating scandal is the culture of fear created under former Superintendent Beverly Hall in her quest to produce higher test scores from poor children. According to the Huffington Post: Administrators—pressured to maintain high scores under the federal No Child Left Behind law—punished or fired those who reported anything amiss and created a culture of "fear, intimidation and retaliation," according to the [state] report released earlier this month, two years after officials noticed a suspicious spike in some scores.  . . .  One teacher told investigators the district was "run like the mob."  "Everybody was in fear," another teacher said in the report. "It is not that the teachers are bad people and want to do it. It is that they are scared." Equally disturbing is the treatment educators received from the state investigators looking into the scandal. Some teachers ...http://www.atlantamagazine.com/atlintel/news/blogentry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10261915http://www.atlantamagazine.com/atlintel/news/blogentry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10261915Wed, 20 Jul 2011 18:43:14 GMTIt's been said that politics makes strange bedfellows. On Tuesday, during an impromptu visit to Candler Park eatery Radial Cafe, Georgia Governor Nathan Deal proved that politics also makes for some downright dotty luncheon companions as well.   Intel has learned that Deal and eight staffers breezed into Radial Cafe at lunchtime where the governor enjoyed the Tuesday Special: Cuban pulled pork on ciabatta with black beans and plantain relish. Other staffers enjoyed the breakfast special of buttermilk waffles with roasted plum sauce and organic maple syrup.   Apparently, Deal is in need of a new GPS unit. Or some Gaydar. In addition to their innovative green initiatives, Radial Cafe also prides itself on being a gay-owned business. On Friday night, owner Frank Bragg was awarded a "Best Brunch" certificate at gay and lesbian newspaper The Georgia Voice's annual "Best of Atlanta" awards. Politicos will recall that one of Deal's ...http://www.atlantamagazine.com/atlintel/news/blogentry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10261758http://www.atlantamagazine.com/atlintel/news/blogentry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10261758Wed, 20 Jul 2011 14:41:39 GMTMy introduction to the effects of poverty in an inner city school in Brooklyn came on the day I gave lunch detention to a misbehaving boy in my eighth grade special education class. He had to sit in the special education supervisor’s office and eat a peanut butter sandwich and an apple instead of going to the cafeteria with his classmates.The supervisor pulled me aside and said, “If you give him lunch detention, he won’t get a hot meal. If he doesn’t get a hot meal at school, he doesn’t get one.” The boy came from a large family. His father had left them. The previous year, his mother died of cancer. He moved in with his sisters, who had several children of their own. He was classified as having a learning disability but had physical disabilities as well.  He had undergone surgery to reconstruct tear ducts so he ...http://www.atlantamagazine.com/atlintel/news/blogentry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10260219http://www.atlantamagazine.com/atlintel/news/blogentry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10260219Fri, 15 Jul 2011 13:44:38 GMTA jet-lagged but fired up Monica Pearson called Intel Wednesday afternoon to respond to an In Box full of criticism from viewers in the wake of her four-day trip to Maui to try and get some answers on camera from former Atlanta Public Schools superintendent Dr. Beverly Hall.   "Some of it's been down right ugly," Pearson told us exclusively in a call to our cell phone. "I've received emails accusing me of trying to tear her down. Apparently, since I'm a black woman, I shouldn't do anything to make another black woman look bad. That's not my job. My job is to ask questions. And that's what I did."   Last Friday, Pearson was standing in the Action News newsroom when Action News producer Erica Jorgensen hit pay dirt working the phones, calling hotels in Hawaii. "We immediately knew we had to go," Pearson says of the decision to ...http://www.atlantamagazine.com/atlintel/news/blogentry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10259822http://www.atlantamagazine.com/atlintel/news/blogentry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10259822Thu, 14 Jul 2011 11:00:16 GMT