Archive for the ‘Leadership’ Category

Moderated by Rick Badie

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Homeowners who owe more than their homes are worth yet make timely payments can refinance at low-interest rates, thanks to the Helping Responsible Homeowners Act of 2011. Sen. Johnny Isakson, 
R-Ga., touts the bipartisan housing policy. But he takes to task the Obama administration for not adopting a provision for more access to affordable home loans. Regional HUD director Ed Jennings Jr. writes about the Obama administration’s commitment to homeowners in hard-hit states such as Georgia.

Continue reading 5/16: Bipartisan housing policy »

Moderated by Rick Badie

Gov. Nathan Deal wants to make Georgia the No. 1 place in the nation to conduct business. Today, he writes that the tax reform plan he recently signed into law helps reach that goal. Meanwhile, the co-chairman of a statewide watchdog coalition applauds some measures but wants more than a cuts-only strategy.

What do you think?

Continue reading 5/3: Tax reform plan »

Moderated by Rick Badie

The United States is one of the few industrialized nations that uses capital punishment to deter crime. Georgia, one of 34 death-penalty states, uses lethal injection to execute.

Today, former President Jimmy Carter writes it’s time to end the practice for reasons that include a change in public opinion, prosecutorial costs, and socioeconomic and racial bias. A death penalty proponent argues that an executed murderer never murders again.

What do you think?

And here is more information on the death penalty

In 1972, the U.S. Supreme Court voided 40 death penalty statutes and suspended the death penalty.

Four years later, capital punishment was reinstated and a 10-year moratorium on executions ended with the execution of Gary Gilmore by a firing squad in Utah.

Since reinstatement, nearly 1,300 executions have been carried out.

Georgia’s current death row population sits at 99 and includes one woman. Its method of execution is lethal …

Continue reading 4/26: End the death penalty? »

Moderated by Rick Badie

The National Institute for Early Education gave Georgia’s pre-kindergarten program a top rating for meeting 10 quality standards.

But there’s bad news, too: Our rating, the report warns, likely will drop next year.

Today, the director of the nonpartisan institute explains why, and I observe an energetic pre-k class at Akers Academy in Alpharetta.

Continue reading 4/19: Funds for stellar pre-k »

By the AJC Editorial Board

The Legislature in 2011 stubbornly refused to act on model legislation to create 21st-century governance for the Atlanta region’s multiple transit agencies. They nixed a model that’s proved its worth elsewhere.
What bubbled up instead this year was more of the tired same — a proposal to move transit oversight to a state-controlled board. That might make sense in a state that contributes meaningfully to urban transit. Georgia doesn’t.

This idea, too, went nowhere. Lawmakers also stonewalled a measure to extend MARTA’s relief from an important funding restriction, which is to end next year. Read the rest of what the AJC Editorial Board had to say.

Then check out what Mike Klein, editor at The Georgia Public Policy Foundation, has to say, along with commentary by Alan Essig, executive director of the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, and tell us what you think.

Continue reading 4/15: Georgia Legislature: An empty feeling »

Moderated by Rick Badie

Shoot. Don’t retreat.

“Stand your ground” laws in Georgia and other states allow people to use deadly force if they believe their lives are in danger.

Supporters say such self-defense statutes empower potential victims to protect themselves.

Opponents deem them bad policies that grant people a license to kill. Today’s guest columnists weigh in.

What do you think?

Continue reading 4/12: ‘Stand your ground’ laws »

Moderated by Rick Badie

The fate of the Affordable Care Act, the nation’s landmark health care law now before the Supreme Court, won’t be known until late June.

For now, we present two viewpoints on how the legislation could impact the state. A health care policy analyst says Georgians already have benefited from the law and will continue to do so.

An activist calls the measure an affront to free-market ideals that will cost Georgians more than money.

What’s your opinion?

Continue reading 4/5: Health law vital to system? »

Moderated by Rick Badie

If a teen earned this grade, he’d probably lose cellphone and iPod privileges. Might get grounded, too.

Georgia received an F because it’s a high-risk state for government corruption, according to an investigation by the Center for Public Integrity.

Today, a former ethics enforcer questions the study’s methodology while an ethics-reform proponent says Georgia deserved the grade.

Continue reading 3/29: Ethics-report debate »

Moderated by Rick Badie

Love our neighbors, we’re told. For some metro Atlanta churches, that means opening their sanctuaries to ethnic groups so they can worship in their own language.

First Baptist Church of Lilburn lets 12 congregations use its campus free. Today, that church’s officials explain why they embrace diversity, and I chat with pastors whose congregations meet there.

Continue reading 3/21: A church of many voices »

Moderated by Rick Badie

Sweet Auburn Avenue, once dubbed the “richest Negro street in the world,” is home to landmark structures such as the original home of the Atlanta Daily World at 145 Auburn Ave.

Reports that the tornado-damaged old newspaper building might be partially demolished raised concerns about the economics of redevelopment versus historic preservation, our theme for today. Read one commentary coauthored by Valerie Edwards, executive vice president of Integral Group, and Alexis Scott, president and CEO of the Atlanta Daily World; and another by Mtamanika Youngblood, executive with the Historic Development District Corp. Then tell us what you think.

Continue reading 3/15: Redevelopment vs. preservation »