(APN) ATLANTA — The Georgia Attorney General’s office has opined that the officers of Atlanta Neighborhood Planning Unit R violated a city ordinance when they banned two outspoken members from participating in public meetings. In May 2015, Ben Howard, 82, a well-known senior advocate, and Ron Shakir, an activist who has run for City Council, were expelled from the […]
Read moreWith additional reporting by Matthew Charles Cardinale (APN) ATLANTA — After finally claiming victory in an open meetings dispute with the City of Cumming, Georgia, that had been going on since April 17, 2012–where Forsyth Superior Court Judge Robert Adamson ruled that the City violated her right to videotape its meetings–activist and videographer Nydia Tisdale found herself in a new […]
Read more(APN) ATLANTA — The City of Atlanta and the News Editor of Atlanta Progressive News have reached a settlement in two lawsuits, bringing an end to three years of open government litigation. The first lawsuit, filed in 2010, sought for the Atlanta City Council to disclose their secret vote regarding limiting public comment taken at the February 2010 Council Retreat. […]
Read more(APN) ATLANTA — After nearly three years of litigation, including all the way up to the Supreme Court of Georgia, all the way back down, and through six months of discovery, a dispositive motion has been filed in the secret vote case. A copy of the Motion is available online HERE. In May 2010, APN’s News Editor–the present writer–filed the […]
Read more(APN) ATLANTA — The ongoing saga regarding the City Council of Atlanta’s closed-door Committee Briefings has taken a new turn, as the City of Atlanta and four Council Members clearly violated the Georgia Open Meetings Act yesterday, October 29, 2012, by holding a closed Transportation Committee Briefing with a quorum of Cmte Members. APN’s News Editor currently has a lawsuit […]
Read more(APN) ATLANTA — The Committee Briefings of the City Utilities Cmte of the City Council of Atlanta are now open to the public, Atlanta Progressive News has confirmed. As previously reported by APN, for the past several years, all seven Council Committee Briefings have been closed to the public, until in June of this year, when Chairwoman Felicia Moore (District […]
Read moreSeptember 13, 2012 JOINT STATEMENT BY JOHN SHERMAN, PRESIDENT OF FULTON COUNTY TAXPAYERS FOUNDATION (FCTF); AND MATTHEW CHARLES CARDINALE, PRESIDENT OF ATLANTA PROGRESSIVE NEWS (APN) Out of our mutual concerns for transparency, accountability, and public input on behalf of the citizens and taxpayers of Fulton and DeKalb Counties, the Fulton County Taxpayers Foundation and Atlanta Progressive News have issued the […]
Read more(APN) ATLANTA — Councilwoman Felicia Moore (District 9), a strong progressive leader and champion of oversight on the City Council of Atlanta, has opened up her Finance/Executive Committee Briefings for members of the public to attend, Atlanta Progressive News confirmed today. The move is yet another victory for transparency for the citizens and taxpayers of Atlanta. Earlier today, Monday August […]
Read more(APN) ATLANTA — Following a landmark ruling by the Supreme Court of Georgia on February 06, 2012, the secret vote lawsuit filed by the News Editor of Atlanta Progressive News–the present writer–against the City of Atlanta has returned to Fulton County Superior Court. APN’s Editor filed the lawsuit against the City in May of 2010. The lawsuit alleged that the […]
Read more(APN) ATLANTA — On Monday, March 05, 2012, the City Council of Atlanta unanimously approved a resolution to amend the minutes of the February 2010 Council Retreat, to reflect the names of those Council Members voting for or against a proposal related to limiting public comment. Atlanta Progressive News has fought for two years and one month for the Council […]
Read moreOpen Letter to Council: Disclose Your Secret Vote, The Time Has Come Dear Council Members, It has been nearly one month since the Supreme Court of Georgia ruled in my favor in the case of Cardinale v. City of Atlanta (2010CV185775 in Fulton County Superior Court; S11G1047 in Supreme Court). The case is currently on remittur back to the […]
Read more(APN) ATLANTA — Four companies that bid for food and beverage concessions contracts at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport are moving forward with their protests after the City of Atlanta denied their initial appeals, Atlanta Progressive News has learned. SSP, represented by Ken Hodges of Ashe, Rafuse, & Hill; Midfield Concession Enterprises (MCE), represented by Matt Maguire of Balch & Bingham; […]
Read more(APN) ATLANTA — The City of Atlanta’s secret vote of February 2010 is having repurcussions across the State of State, just as the News Editor of Atlanta Progressive News, the present writer, warned would happen in oral arguments before the Supreme Court of Georgia in October 2011. “First of all, the ruling–if agencies across the state were to understand […]
Read more(APN) ATLANTA — The Fulton County Taxpayers Foundation is preparing to challenge the City of Atlanta’s bid selection process and the final bid selections–approved on Tuesday, January 03, 2011, by the City Council–in court, Atlanta Progressive News has learned. The Foundation seeks to overturn the bid selections on the basis that the City did not observe its own bidding […]
Read more(APN) ATLANTA — At the Wednesday, December 14, 2011, meeting of the Transportation Committee of the City Council of Atlanta, Councilwoman Felicia Moore (District 9) took issue with yet even more secretive information related to the new concessions contracts for the Atlanta Hartsfield- Jackson International Airport: this time related to the scores assigned to each bidder by the City […]
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