With additional reporting by Matthew Charles Cardinale (APN) ATLANTA — Facing pressure from Mayor of Atlanta Kasim Reed, Central Atlanta Progress, and other organizations, the City Council of Atlanta has stalled on legislation that Councilman Kwanza Hall (District 2), a Mayoral candidate, introduced nearly three months ago, to lower the municipal penalties to a fine and eliminate the possibility […]
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(APN) ATLANTA — Concerned citizens living near Peachtree Hills Park, an eight acre park near Atlanta’s Lindbergh MARTA Station, are up in arms about a developer’s plans to use the public park land for private gain. Neighborhood advocates are saying this plan–already approved by the City Council of Atlanta– sets a dangerous precedent. Ashton Woods, a private developer, […]
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(APN) ATLANTA — Two Georgia voters and a national advocacy organization filed a new lawsuit challenging Georgia’s electronic voting regime on Friday, May 26, 2017. The Complaint for Declaratory and Injunctive Relief and Writ of Mandamus was filed in Fulton County Superior Court. The plaintiffs have also filed for an emergency injunction, for which an emergency hearing has […]
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(APN) ATLANTA — On Tuesday, May 15, 2017, eight activists including pastors, students, teachers, artists, and retired workers were arrested after disrupting a Georgia Board of Regents public hearing, where they demanded an end to banning undocumented students from enrolling in public universities in Georgia. The eight community members arrested are: Rev. Jonathan Rogers, Pastor at UUCA; Laura Emiko […]
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(APN) CLARKSTON — The City Council of Clarkston, Georgia, has passed a non-detainer policy on May 02, 2017 that prohibits the federal agency Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from arresting people in Clarkston with a “detainer request” or an “administrative immigration warrant.” ICE must obtain a legal judicial warrant and show probable cause that authorizes an individual’s arrest and […]
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(APN) ATLANTA — As it is now nearly midway through 2017, Atlanta Progressive News is releasing an updated cumulative scorecard for the Atlanta City Council. The APN Atlanta City Council Scorecard is the most comprehensive, voting record-based scorecard available for the current Atlanta City Council, and is available as a public Google Spreadsheet: http://bit.ly/2ixKV6s The Scorecard is […]
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(APN) ATLANTA — People have organized and held numerous protests throughout Metro Atlanta since the U.S. House passed the American Health Care Act (AHCA or “TrumpCare”), an Orwellian-named bill that would gut numerous protections of the Affordable Care Act (“ObamaCare”). On April 27, 2017, the U.S. House narrowly passed the AHCA, after President Donald Trump campaigned on a promise […]
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(APN) ATLANTA — On Thursday, May 11, 2017, ratepayers packed the sixteenth Vogtle Construction Monitoring (VCM) hearing, demanding that the Georgia Public Service Commission and Southern Company cancel their plans to complete two new nuclear reactors at Plant Vogtle. This VCM report covers the period between July 01, 2016 and December 31, 2016. Atlanta Progressive News has covered […]
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(APN) ATLANTA — On April 18, 2017, the voters of the City of South Fulton, the newly created city in south Fulton County, elected a self-proclaimed Democratic Socialist, khalid kamau, to the District 6 South Fulton City Council seat. His name is lower-cased in the Yoruba African tradition to show that community is emphasized over the individual. While […]
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(APN) ATLANTA — On Monday, May 02, 2017, the City Council of Atlanta unanimously adopted a resolution that creates two clean energy goals for the City of Atlanta – one to power all electricity in City-owned buildings with clean energy by 2025, and another to power all electricity in the City with clean energy by 2035. The vote was […]
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With additional reporting by Matthew Charles Cardinale (APN) ATLANTA — On March 14, 2017, some twenty computer experts from across the U.S. sent a letter to Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp, urging Kemp to immediately move to verifiable elections, after approximately sixteen years of faith based E-voting with no paper record in the State of Georgia. https://www.verifiedvoting.org/verified-voting-letter-to-georgia-secretary-of-state-brian-kemp/ […]
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With additional reporting by Gloria Tatum (APN) ATLANTA — On Wednesday, April 26, 2017, activists with the Turner Field Community Benefits Coalition decried a press release from Georgia State University (GSU) announcing a so-called Community Benefits Plan – an announcement that they described as “premature and in bad faith.” On Monday, April 24, GSU published a press release […]
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(APN) ATLANTA — On Tuesday, April 18, 2017, Glenn Carroll, Director of Nuclear Watch South (NWS), filed a request for an emergency public hearing with the Georgia Public Service Commission (PSC) to seek relief for ratepayers from the Construction Work in Progress (CWIP) tax on customers’ electric bills. Georgia Power ratepayers have been paying in advance for the construction […]
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(APN) ATLANTA — On Monday, April 17, 2017, the City Council of Atlanta approved in a vote of nine to three, an ordinance by Councilman Michael Julian Bond (Post 1-at-large) to create a Trust Fund to benefit the communities surrounding the former Turner Field, including Summerhill, Mechanicsville, Peoplestown, Pittsburgh, and part of Grant Park. http://atlantacityga.iqm2.com/Citizens/Detail_LegiFile.aspx?MeetingID=1933&ID=11620 Voting in favor […]
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(APN) ATLANTA — Two candidates for Mayor of Atlanta in this November 2017 Municipal Election–State Sen. Vincent Fort (D-Atlanta) and Councilman Kwanza Hall (District 2)–pledged that as Mayor, they would take steps to implement the decriminalization of cannabis (or “marijuana”) possession, if the Atlanta City Council were to pass the ordinance it is currently considering. An ordinance by Councilman […]
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