First Slice 3-29-15: Mayor Kasim Reed wants no part of Nobel Peace Prize Summit
Plus, the solar industry could finally get a spike in Georgia
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??A Nobel Peace Prize Summit of former laureates, scheduled to take place in Atlanta this November, will not share any official affiliation with the city if Mayor Kasim Reed has anything to say about it. He sent a detailed letter to the organizer of the summit, Mohammad Bhuiyan, to express his concern over the planning and fundraising efforts. ”Please discontinue the use of the City of Atlanta logo and website link, as well as my name and those of my staff members, in any Atlanta Nobel Summit materials,” Reed wrote.?? ?
? Georgia lawmakers have unanimously passed a bill that’s expected spur the state’s solar industry. Once the bill becomes law, home and business owners can secure third-party loans for the installation of solar panels. Solar panel buyers currently must pay the costs up front. The bill’s next stop is Gov. Nathan Deal’s desk.?
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? T.I. held a ribbon cutting celebration for his new restaurant, Scales 925, on Friday. Reed and Councilman Kwanza Hall were some of the officials in attendance for the upscale Southern restaurant’s opening.?
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? An Atlanta man who has fathered 34 children with 17 different women is getting his own reality show. No, not the rapper Shawty Lo, whose planned show was canceled following public outrage and a petition in 2013. Neither will this show be appearing on VH1 or any affiliated Viacom network. Jay Williams, whose story was first featured on an episodes of “Iyanla: Fix My Life,” will bring his full story to a spin-off on Oprah’s network. The big difference between Williams and Lo being that Williams will continue to have life coach Iyanla Vanzant to help him work through his issues.?
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? Somehow, despite having the fifth-highest number of new HIV cases among U.S. cities, metro Atlanta has five of the healthiest counties within the state of Georgia, according to rankings by the University of Wisconsin’s Population Health Institute. Forsyth, Gwinnett, Fayette, Cobb are all near the top, and Fulton made the biggest leap from 2014 to make it into the top 15 percent.
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? An Atlanta meth-lab bust netted one of the largest seizures in the city’s history, police announced last Thursday. Federal DEA agents and local police recovered drugs totaling $10.8 million in street value after raiding two southwest Atlanta homes. Walter White Armando Ayala was charged with trafficking. “This is a major win for our city,” Atlanta police chief George Turner said. Dope on the damn table. ?
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