Atlanta Progressive News

President Obama announced his support for a $250 economic recovery payment to seniors, veterans, and disabled Americans who are struggling to make ends meet in the first year of the recession. Here’s how it would work: 57 million people would benefit. These include 49 million Social Security beneficiaries, 5 million Supplemental Security Income beneficiaries, 2 million veterans benefit recipients, 500,000 […]

Representatives from Mayor Shirley Franklin’s office, along with the city’s finance department, presented its Five Year Financial Plan for the City of Atlanta to the council’s Finance/Executive Committee on Wednesday. The report estimates General Fund revenues will rise 1.4 percent annually from Fiscal Year 2010 to Fiscal Year 2014 while expenses are expected to grow 2.5 percent annually over the […]

A federal judge in Miami on Tuesday handed down a new sentence for one of the so-called Cuban Five, a group of Cuban intelligence agents accused of spying in the United States. U.S. Federal District Court Judge Joan Lenard imposed a 21 year, 10 month sentence on Antonio Guerrero, who had been serving a life sentence. According to the National […]

A local council of MoveOn.org is staging an event tomorrow, weather permitting, designed to call attention to the hundreds of thousands of dollars from the health insurance and HMO lobbies that have gone to Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-GA). MoveOnGwinnett.org will release the exact figures and stage a live mini-drama depicting Isakson as a life-size puppet at noon tomorrow at Indian […]

The Norwegian Nobel Committee announced Friday that President Obama has been awaded the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize “for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.” President Obama watches Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (left) and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (right) shake hands in New York last month. (Photo by Pete Souza) See a video of the […]

The City of Atlanta announced Wednesday that it is receiving $1.1 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funds to address foreclosures in the hardest hit areas. The Atlanta Development Authority (ADA) will administer the downpayment assistance program for the city as part of the Neighborhood Stabilization Program, which will launch later this month. Using the program, homebuyers will […]

Atlanta mayoral candidate Kasim Reed announced Wednesday that his campaign brought in $446,087.09 in cash donations for the three month period ending Sept. 30, better than Atlanta City Council President Lisa Borders’ $402,502.50. See the full reports for Reed, Norwood, Borders, and Spikes. The Reed campaign reports it has now raised more overall campaign cash, $1,411,613.59, than any of his competitors. Borders reports […]

Secretary of Energy Steven Chu announced Wednesday Georgia has received all of the State Energy Program funding allocated under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). Georgia received an additional $41 million from the Department of Energy for a total of $82 million through the State Energy Program to support energy efficiency and renewable energy projects while reducing pollution and […]

Two members of the Kasim Reed for Mayor campaign were carjacked at gunpoint Monday night outside the Reed campaign headquarters on Ralph David Abernathy Boulevard in the West End. According to a campaign press release, Deputy Field Director Tyler Pryor and Monique Hennagan, a canvasser and Olympic Gold Medalist, were walking to her black Infiniti G35 around 8:15 p.m. when […]

A group of 23 peace activists calling for an end to the war in Afghanistan allege they were violently pushed and dragged away from a White House gate on Monday by Secret Service agents. The activists, part of a larger group of 300 organized by the National Campaign for Non-Violent Resistance, sent a letter to President Obama last month requesting […]

The Leadership Conference on Civil Rights Education Fund (LCCREF) launched a series of public service announcements on Atlanta buses Monday to raise awareness of the upcoming 2010 census. “The census shapes our lives in ways most people never think about,” Jerry Gonzalez, executive director of the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials (GALEO), a local LCCREF census partner, said in […]

The national planning committee will meet from Oct. 21 to Oct. 29 in Atlanta to continue making arrangements for next year’s U.S. Social Forum (USSF), to be held June 22-26 in Detroit. The national planning committee is comprised of over 40 social movement organizations in the United States and is responsible for the fiscal and political responsibilities of the USSF. […]

The Georgia STAND UP Alliance will host a forum tonight for Atlanta mayoral, city council president, and District 11 candidates at the IBEW Auditorium (501 Pulliam Street SW). This forum is a followup to a Sept. 1 event that brought together 23 candidates vying for eight different city council seats. Like that event, candidates who appear at tonight’s forum will […]