So where should we send the bill, Sonny? The reference, of course, is to teetotaling former Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue, who kept legislation that would have allowed Georgians to decide whether they wanted to buy alcohol in stores on Sunday bottled up during his time in office. After the term-limited Perdue was replaced by another Republican, former Congressman Nathan Deal, in balloting last November, the Georgia legislature made quick work of passing a law allowing each of the state’s 694 local governments — 159 counties and hundreds of cities — to put referendums on Sunday store sales of alcohol on ballots. Athens Banner-Herald
Submitted 1 years 196 days ago

Social services and even government in the United States will be radically transformed in the next several years, former Georgia Labor Commissioner Michael Thurmond told social work students and professors on the University of Georgia campus Tuesday. “The budget crisis is going to have a great impact on you and the people you serve,” Thurmond said at the UGA School of Social Work’s annual Policy Day. Students should think about the impacts on their own lives first, Thurmond said. Athens Banner-Herald
Submitted 1 years 196 days ago

UPDATE: Amazon has come out in support of the new Internet sales-tax bill. See quote below. The Marketplace Fairness Act, introduced today by a bipartisan trio of senators, would require all but the smallest online vendors to collect sales taxes from their customers. Currently, under federal law, states cannot force sales-tax collection on online retailers that do not have a physical presence in their state. Of course, brick-and-mortar businesses have long been required to collect sales taxes. The bill would mean a more equal footing for online and offline businesses. Consumer Reports
Submitted 1 years 196 days ago

FORTUNE -- "Sleepy" hasn't been the right word for the electric utility industry in many years, but the business has felt particularly strong zaps lately. The Japanese earthquake and tsunami rewrote the future of nuclear power, which had been in the midst of a renaissance. The Environmental Protection Agency wants to impose the most stringent emissions rules the industry has ever faced. And the rapid development of shale gas in the U.S. could revolutionize electrical generation. These are tense times for any utility -- especially one like Southern Co. (SO, Fortune 500), which is building a major new nuclear power plant near Augusta, Ga., and generates most of its electricity by burning coal. Running the enterprise since last December has been Tom Fanning, 54, who joined the company right out of Georgia Tech.
Submitted 1 years 196 days ago

This year’s Equity Summit 11 is organized around the notion that racial and economic equity is the best growth model for the increasingly diverse, and increasingly unequal, U.S. I joined a panel on the topic today with HUD Secretary Shawn Donovan, the Harlem Children Zone’s Geoffrey Canada, Antonio Gonzalez of the William C. Velasquez Institute and Manuel Pastor of the University of Southern California. Pastor shared research showing that both countries as well as American metropolitan areas with the least inequality and gaps between rich and poor are growing faster than those with the starkest gaps. Salon
Submitted 1 years 196 days ago

This past Monday Google launched its Google+ Pages for Businesses after launching four months ago. From the official Google Blog: “For businesses and brands, Google+ pages help you connect with the customers and fans who love you. Not only can they recommend you with a +1, or add you to a circle to listen long-term. They can actually spend time with your team, face-to-face-to-face. All you need to do is start sharing, and you’ll soon find the super fans and loyal customers that want to say hello.” ICSC
Submitted 1 years 196 days ago

Picture that classic childhood sandwich, all grown up now and made using gourmet ingredients like artisanal cheese and bread. That is the idea behind the upscale version of the traditional grilled-cheese sandwich — and behind two San Francisco startups: The Melt, a four-month-old operation that applies high-tech techniques to the cooking and the meal orders, and The American Grilled Cheese Kitchen, a year-old eatery and catering establishment that relies on creating a sense of community and the use of local ingredients. Shopping Centers Today
Submitted 1 years 196 days ago

As the holiday shopping season draws near, the weaker retail chains will be facing their hour of reckoning, with their sales growth during the November/December period determining their ability to survive. And while most retailers have already closed their worst performing stores and made their operations as lean as possible over the past few years, the uncertain economic climate might lead to a substantial number of store closures in the first quarter of 2012. Retail Traffic
Submitted 1 years 196 days ago

Rising attendance and more money spent by moviegoers on soft drinks, popcorn and other concessions helped push Carmike Cinemas’ profits higher in the third quarter of this year. The movie exhibitor, headquartered in Columbus, posted a $3.1 million in net income on total operating revenue of $133.9 million in the July-September period, the company reported Monday. In the same quarter a year ago, it earned $530,000 on operating revenue of $123.4 million. Columbus Ledger-Enquirer
Submitted 1 years 196 days ago

If conservatives want an easily framed example of an activist government gone wild, the Obama administration handed them an early Christmas gift this week. Using a 1996 law that has created government promotion boards for a series of agricultural products, the White House announced that it would launch the Christmas Tree Promotion Board (CTPB), a new arm of the Agriculture Department. Its mission? To convince Americans to buy so-called “live” Christmas trees. The Fiscal Times
Submitted 1 years 196 days ago