Public Service Commissioner Chuck Eaton, an Atlanta Republican elected in 2006, is serving a yearlong term as chairman of the body that regulates public utilities in Georgia. He will preside over hearings later this year after Georgia Power Company, which…
Perhaps you’ve noticed that way too many things don’t work, no matter how many elaborate systems and procedures are in place to assure that they do and no matter how many people are employed to troubleshoot them. I’m talking about…
Leaders throughout the state have had their eyes trained carefully on economic indicators for the last several months, aware that trouble is brewing in other parts of the country and that some key industries are ailing. But by and large,…
It always takes me by surprise to realize that there are people who go out of their way to avoid talking politics. Among my friends and colleagues, political talk is one of life’s great pleasures, on a par with homegrown…
On my way to an afternoon meeting one hot and hazy day last summer, I was feeling pretty good – virtuous even. Traffic had been light on I-85 and the downtown connector, and I had just a few blocks left…
On a family vacation to Florida when I was a kid, I struck up a conversation with a girl about my age from south Georgia. We got along pretty well until she called me a Yankee, which took me completely…
Georgia Power Company, a subsidiary of the Southern Company, provides electrical power to some 2.25 million customers in 155 counties in the state. The firm, which earned $787 million in 2006, formally requested a $406 million rate increase from the…
The woman walking through Atlanta’s Poncey-Highland neighborhood was carrying a flat of bright purple pansies in her outstretched arms, and I was envious. I was in my car, on the way to spend a sedentary evening indoors. She was, presumably,…
Lawyers' Lawyers For the fifth year, we present Georgia Trend’s roster of the state’s Legal Elite – attorneys selected by their peers as the most effective in 10 different practice areas. To compile the list, Georgia Trend mailed ballots to…
A recent family illness has taught me, among other things, to cut to the chase when the insurance statements come in the mail. I go directly to the space marked, “est. member responsibility.” If that line is filled with zeroes…
Sonny Perdue, Georgia’s first Republican governor in more than a century, is now one year into his second term. He grew up in middle Georgia and was a veterinarian and then a businessman who served 11 years in the State…
The first food offering that showed up was a plate of New Orleans-style red beans and rice, sent spontaneously one Sunday afternoon by my friend Janet, who has nailed the seasoning combination in a way I never have in more…
Speaker of the House Glenn Richardson was the key figure in a colorful and contentious 2007 legislative session that included some public feuding with Gov. Sonny Perdue over a property tax rebate, among other things. Richardson, from Paulding County, is…
So, the demand for older workers is going up, and gray is the new green? Experience and maturity are the new watchwords? We’ll see about that.
Wachovia’s Bill Liginfelter says his bank’s size and structure is a plus, when it comes to customer service and community involvement. As chairman-elect of the Metro Atlanta chamber, he’ll be tackling some tough transportation problems.
Homebuyers are buying bigger and bigger houses for smaller and smaller families – except, of course, for the ones who are downsizing.
Georgia’s lieutenant governor says despite a testy legislative session, education came out a winner. He’s looking ahead to the challenges of transportation and healthcare.
I had a New York grandmother who was nothing like any of the Georgia grandmothers my friends and schoolmates had. She worked in Wall Street until she was in her 70s, shopped the sales at Lord & Taylor, wore jangly…
Georgia’s Secretary of State says providing a paper trail for electronic voting is a matter of when, not if. But the transition needs to be a practical one, and getting it right could cost the state as much as $100 million.
Feeling like a self-styled Ancient Mariner, reciting a tale to people who are paid to listen and trained to be polite and occasionally helpful.
Ken Stewart, the new economic development commissioner, says the state is a player in the new global economy. He’s bullish on tourism, bioscience and international trade.
More than any other occupational group, teachers are often judged by the few bad apples rather than the bushels of good ones.
Georgia’s Sen. Johnny Isakson consulted an eminent UGA scientist to come up with what may be an answer to the embryonic stem cell research debate.
Longtime Republican Johnny Isakson was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2003, after three terms in the U.S. House of Representatives, 17 years in the Georgia General Assembly and three years as chairman of the state board of education. His reputation is that of a consensus builder, skilled at working with colleagues from both parties.
Atlanta is leading the country in attracting hordes of well-educated 25- to 34-year-olds, a much-coveted group.
Saxby Chambliss, Georgia's senior senator, is one of the most visible lawmakers in Washington. Although he became in Washington. Although he became chair of the Senate's agriculture committee early in his first term, he says following in the footsteps of Richard Russell and Sam Nunn is humbling.
For the fourth year, Georgia Trend presents a roster of the state's Legal Elite - attorneys selected by their peers in 11 different practice areas.
Some of us are lucky enough to have colleagues who can provide a sounding board or offer counsel ranging from a simple, "Why?' to a more direct, "Are you out of your mind?"
In the process of becoming a destination and a desirable place to live, Decatur has chosen to embrace diversity, maintain a good school system, do some serious civic planning and keep its downtown looking spiffy.
One Museum Place in Midtown, across Peachtree from the Wodruff Arts Center, will be more than just another project for builder and museum benefactor John Wieland. It will be his new home.
Fall is going by in its usual blur. One day you’re taking a wool sweater out of a plastic bag and the next thing you know, someone is reminding you how many shopping days are left before Christmas.
It was the 9-to-5er's equivalent of a dark and stormy night - a gray and chilly morning - technically spring, but feeling a whole lot like winter. The office was icy and dank. Our heating system was in rebellion. Not working.
It's not surprising that a Gwinnett mother was trying to force the school system to remove the Harry Potter books from school library shelves because she believes the books run counter to her Christian beliefs. It's not even especially surprising that she admits she has not read the books. Troubling, but not surprising.
Q&A with Aaron Rents founder Charles Loudermilk, who parlayed a modest loan and a few folding chairs into a furntiure rental empire and helped write the book on corporate citizenship in Atlanta.
The best office I ever had was a small architectural jewel with a real fireplace; but it was physically removed from the people I needed easy access to and often eerily quiet. It should have been a great place to get work done, but it wasn't. It was just too isolated.
When I worked for a magazine that was owned by a big corporation headquartered in New York, the HR office would send someone down once a year to explain changes in benefits and give us a chance to ask questions.
Performing more like a marathoner than a sprinter, Georgia's economy moved ahead this past year at a steady pace, drawing on strengths, forming productive partnerships and taking advantage of opportunities.
Last September, in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, I was happy to find an out-of-the-way station selling gas for $3.05 per gallon. Barely three months later, I paid $1.90 a gallon at my regular station and felt foolishly grateful for the lower price.
Seven counties joined forces in a precedent-setting effort to create the Middle Flint Regional E911 Authority. Schley, Dooly, Macon, Marion, Sumter, Taylor and Webster counties formed the authority in late 2001 to provide 911 service for all their residents.
It's hard to figure why some relatively tame topics become flashpoints (anybody remember the fluoridation flap?) and some things you'd expect to provoke an outcry (skyrocketing heating oil prices, for instance) don't stir much interest.
Atlanta Life CEO Ronald D. Brown leads a company with a rich history, a social commitment and a special place in the Atlanta business community.
On a good day, I can drive downtown from my office in Norcross in about 25 minutes; but this was not a good day. I was running late, on my way to a luncheon gathering at the World Congress Center with several hundred other people.
A particularly memorable experience with the Marlon Perkins Theory of Effective Management Delegation (so named by a copy editor I worked with) occurred when a former boss signed me up to accompany him on a speaking engagement to a prison journalism class at the San Francisco City Jail.
Waffle House's Joe Rogers, Jr. explains how the Norcross-based 24-hour restaurant chain's hurricane response effort worked - and why.
It happened pretty fast, but this is the sequence of events as I recall them: I walked out the kitchen door headed for the office one morning, realized almost immediately that I'd forgotten something and walked back inside.
A friend observes that every Southerner has a connection of some kind to New Orleans, and I think he is right. Whether you grew up there, lived there, visited there or just loved knowing that New Orleans existed, it was hard to watch the coverage of Hurricane Katrina and its painful, disastrous aftermath.
I'm not sure I can name another profession outside of journalism whose practitioners are such accomplished and vocal complainers; nor do I know of another profession whose practitioners so love what they do.
Some of the names and faces that have appeared in our pages over the past two decades have left the limelight, but others still exert an influence in the business and political arenas.
One of the best high school classroom memories I have is senior English and the wonderful woman who was our teacher.
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