Dan Cathy's nightmare: A new stadium, a blimp, and a wasteland
Over at the Atlanta Business Chronicle, columnist Maria Saporta writes that Chick-fil-A CEO Dan Cathy has a recurring nightmare involving income inequality, a new $1.4 billion Falcons stadium and a dirigible:
"The horror that I think of is when the Goodyear blimp is flying over the new stadium with Atlanta's beautiful skyline in the background," Cathy said. "And then the blimp shows the area on the other side of the stadium and it looks like a scene out of Baghdad."
Cathy is sounding a community alarm: Atlanta has a moral responsibility to address the inequities that exist in the city and the state, he believes. The best place to target those inequities is in the communities west of the new Atlanta Falcons stadium — one the poorest areas with the highest levels of crime and lowest high-school graduation rates in the city. Your daily jolt on politics from the AJC's Political insider blog
"The great divide in the state of Georgia is Northside Drive," Cathy said. "I have a very deep conviction about what it says about our society; about what it says about our own backyard. This is happening on our watch. We have got to fix it."
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We won't know until this afternoon whether metro Atlanta will be socked by icy weather, but already state offices around the Capitol have called it quits – this according to the state Department of Labor.
Likewise, Atlanta City Hall has shuttered itself until Tuesday.
However, we’re told that a 5 p.m. Rand Paul event, detailed in the invite at right, is still on.
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So you think the American political machine has no equal when it comes to negative advertising. We're pikers, mere pikers, if this 40-second spot by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is any measure:
According to Real Clear Politics, which first posted the YouTube clip, the ad features ISIS terrorists seeking directions to Jerusalem. "Go to the left," responds an Israeli. The terrorists' pick-up truck bears the bumper sticker of Netanyahu's left-leaning opposition.
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Speaking of security: In case you missed it, on "Fox News Sunday," House Speaker John Boehner said he was "certainly" ready to allow the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to run dry of cash at the end of this month. From the New York Times:
It would contradict a pledge from Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, who said the day after his party won decisively at the polls in November, "There will be no government shutdowns." And it would exacerbate a rift that has been growing between Republicans in the House and the Senate.
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On the homefront, a new poll sponsored by the Dustin Inman Society, which advocates for stricter enforcement of current immigration laws and for more powerful ones on the books, finds that 64 percent of Georgians support a proposed bill to ban immigrants here illegally from obtaining state IDs, while 21 percent do not.
The full poll -- including Georgians' views on on legalization and the job market -- can be found here. It was conducted by Rosetta Stone Communications.
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U.S. Rep. John Lewis, D-Atlanta, was in Selma, Ala., over the weekend for a barrage of media interviews ahead of the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday. We will have much more on that in the coming weeks, but here's what CBS' Face the Nation put together -- with some great use of archival footage.
The key quote everyone is picking up: "If it hadn't been for that march across Edmund Pettus Bridge on Bloody Sunday, there would be no Barack Obama as president of the United States of America."
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Chatham County officials are debating whether they can offer insurance benefits to same-sex partners. The Savannah Morning News reports county commissioners voted 4-3 on Friday to allow same- or opposite-sex partners of employees to enroll in the county's health insurance plan.
However, the measure did not get the five votes needed to change a county ordinance. Two commissioners were absent. County attorney Jon Hart said his staff will research what to do next.
About the Author
Greg Bluestein is the Atlanta Journal Constitution's chief political reporter. He is also an author, TV analyst and co-host of the Politically Georgia podcast.
