Politics

One would think that having former Georgia Attorney General Mike Bowers literally waiting in the wings to tell the DeKalb County Commission how riddled with corruption its county is—“rotten to the core” is how he put it in a letter this week to the county—might engender a sense of fiscal restraint in the board.

With just eight weeks until Atlantans head to the polls on November 7 to vote for their next mayor, a race that has for months been amorphous and without form finally looks to have come into focus—giving us a good idea of who could face off in the inevitable December 5 runoff.

For former Atlanta City Council president and onetime mayoral candidate Lisa Borders, just days into replacing the iconic Ingrid Saunders Jones as Vice-President of Global Community Connections and Coca-Cola Foundation chair, Monday night’s screening of Girl Rising should have been an easy assignment. But the documentary, focusing on the stories of nine girls from across the globe who are beaten, raped, and sold into slavery as they bravely battle to get educations, is anything but easy. The film, produced by the Intel Corporation and distributed by CNN Films, features narration by Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Alicia Keys, and Selena Gomez. It is equally empowering, educational, and at points, harrowing to watch.

In all of yesterday’s excitement over soccer and waffles, it might have slipped your mind that July 1 also marked the start of Georgia’s new gun law. The so-called “Guns Everywhere” law increases the public places where firearms can be carried—including bars, nightclubs, and some government facilities.

Atlanta author Lisa Baron had many responsibilities as spokesperson for Christian Coalition director Ralph Reed and GOP political operative. However, it is the job she performed for future George W. Bush press secretary Ari Fleischer on her knees in a Greenville hotel room during the 2000 Republican presidential primary that is liable to cause some exploding heads at Fox News this week.

Streetcar boosters believe the referendums, if approved, could shift the conversation away from its early troubles. When the first trolley rolled out in December 2014, the project was already more than a year and a half behind schedule, and construction costs had ballooned from an estimated $69 million to more than $98 million, with federal grants covering less than half the price tag.